Is it true that a few years into the 'War on Terror', President George W. Bush turned to his senior staff and declared : "Get me Lt Frank Drebin!"

For the 3rd time since 2004, live fish fell from the sky over a town in the Northern Territory of Australia. The town sits hundreds of kilometres from lakes, and the coast. No tornadoes or any other weather incidents of note that might have been responsible were on weather charts.

A local was quoted as saying : "Thank God it didn't rain crocodiles."

More Here

A Tsunami, a wedding, the French woman's weightlifting team and a Christian Jazz festival.

Ablai learning how to make a NZ BBQ.

Arrived in New Zealand last Tuesday from Jakarta for Ruia and Gavin's wedding at Hamner Springs on Friday.

It's ll a.m. on Sunday morning and the big wave generated by the Chilean Tsunami is beginning to hit the East Coast of the North Island and eastern parts of the South Island of New Zealand. Not far from where I am living in Christchurch, waves of up to 3 metres are expected to hit Bank's Peninsula in a few minutes. Large tsunamis affected this part of the NZ coastline twice in the last part of the 19th century, and again in early 20th century.

It's ironical that after working for five years on the Indian Ocean Tsunami, I come home for a break from Tsunami, and a Tsunami lashes New Zealand.

I just spoke to Peter Cameron , who is the regional Manager for Civil defence New Zealand's, South Island. Peter worked with me in 2006 and 2007 in Indonesia on the Tsunami operation so is no stranger to these disasters. He said the tsunami warning system has worked well and he hopes people " will not be tempted to go back to the coastline to have a look."

As I write, the main wave has hit the North Island and it seems from initial reports, it hasn't done much damage.

Ablai and I arrived in Christchurch last Tuesday and travelled to Hamner Springs on Thursday. I have great memories of Hamner where Harry Ayres and Mick Bowie, two of NZ's great mountain guides, retired to. Bob and Ablai, ready for the wedding

Ruia and Gav's wedding went really well and was a great family reunion. We also had a the French women's weightlifting team here, and a Christian Jazz festival in Hamner springs which added further sparkle.

What I have enjoyed very much during the wedding process, is meeting Gavin and Ruia's friends. They are strong and determined farming stock mainly from Southland and Otago. Typical is Gavin's best man, Richard, a giant of a fellow, who farms 35,000 stock units, which includes 30,000 sheep. I also found out that his wife, is the sister of the Southland Ranfurly shield captain, and All Black Jamie MacIntosh.

Richard and his mates put on a massive BBQ yesterday after the wedding, and we had the best lamb, beef and venison available in NZ. And as we drank Speight's Beer and ate delicious food, a Christian Jazz group played superb music next door. Unfortunately the French Women's weightlifting team never turned up, and I am sure they knew they would have been out lifted by these strong, frisky NZ farming lads, or spiritually uplifted by the Christian Jazz groups.

I have gotta run. Heading for Christchurch where we are going to watch the T 20 match between NZ and Oz, hen to Otipua (near Timaru) where Jonts and Anita have a farmlet. Hopefully from there to Mt Cook to take Ablai up the Tasman Glacier and introduce him to the Southern Alps. When we flew over the Alps last Tuesday near Arthur's Pass, Ablai exclaimed " Can we see more of those mountains Dad?" I have a promise to keep !

Tsunami Alert Issued For Entire Pacific

The 7th largest earthquake in recorded history has struck off Chile today, magnitude 8.8.

The entire Pacific is now under tsunami alert.

The official warnings being issued tonight (Sydney time) across dozens of countries demand everyone to stay away from coastlines and beaches. No sight-seeing, no surfing.

The tsunami alerts are extremely dramatic, and they may prove to have been too dramatic, but right now they're downright fucking terrifying.

The waves have not struck anywhere yet, but Easter Island is believed to be the first, in about half an hour from now (11.15pm Sydney time)

In Australia, thousands watching The Day After Tomorrow on TV have been jolted by real world tsunami warnings flashing and scrolling onto their screens during the movie.

And there's this stunning map, issued about 9pm Sydney time :



I'm updating on the massive flow of news and eyewitness reports about the Pacific Tsunami over at :

The Orstrahyun

Below is an excerpt from a weather bureau warning explaining how we can tell that the tsunami threat has passed :

"FOR ALL AREAS – WHEN NO MAJOR WAVES ARE OBSERVED FOR TWO HOURS AFTER THE ESTIMATED TIME OF ARRIVAL OR DAMAGING WAVES HAVE NOT OCCURRED FOR AT LEAST TWO HOURS THEN LOCAL AUTHORITIES CAN ASSUME THE THREAT IS PASSED. DANGER TO BOATS AND COASTAL STRUCTURES CAN CONTINUE FOR SEVERAL HOURS DUE TO RAPID CURRENTS. "

Most countries and islands of the Pacific will likely get small to slightly damaging waves.

But right now, this feels very, very bad.

From The Desk Of Tesla

The beautiful letterheads of the Nikola Tesla Company at the start of the 20 century :




Letterheady Has More On The Inventions Featured

White House official photographer Pete Souza continues turning out magnificent work :




And a screen grab from a recent White House Photo Of The Day page :



There's an excellent collection of DeSouza photos chronicling the Obama family's first year in the White House here.

An impressively creative collection of billboard art here.

Dude, I'm Seeing Islamic Crescent Moons Everywhere!

And some more fine work by Matt Drudge, whoever he is now, as highlighted by Raw Story.

This is the logo of the US Missile Defence Agency :



Matt Drudge claims this is similar to an "Islamic flag".

No, it's not.

Drudge also claimed : "New Missile Defense Agency Logo Causes Online Commotion..."

But at the time of posting that claim, the only "commotion" the logo had caused was in Matt Drudge's mind. He put the idea out there, first, so he could later report on a controversy that didn't exist until he created it.

Bloggers ask, "Is Drudge high?"

Notorious pro-war NeoCon moron Frank Gaffney appears to be sharing Drudge's Bong of Rampant Paranoia :

The Obama administration’s determined effort to reduce America’s missile defense capabilities initially seemed to be just standard Leftist fare," Gaffney writes, but the new agency logo "suggests, however, that something even more nefarious is afoot."

Does the Dreamworks logo also cause NeoCons and their media hackey-lackeys to shit themselves with fear? Look! A Crescent Moon!



UPDATE : Fox News desperately tries to beat up this nontroversy, by quoting comments posted under fake names online.

But Fox News then allows the admission, from a Missile Defence Agency spokesman, that the logo was in use before Barack Obama became president.

Censorship By Matt Drudge

It's hard to believe that Matt Drudge was once regarded as some sort of take-no-prisoners mainstream media troublemaker.

An example follows of Matt Drudge's reaction, and censorship, when confronted with one of the most explosive media scandal stories in years.

A headline on the Drudge Report website, and the @Drudge_Report Twitter feed :



The actual headline of the Reuters story :



Hmm, a certain name seems to have gone missing...

All The Airline Pilots Are In On It, Too

How many t-shirts, coffee cups and other merchandise could you sell if you officially re-started The Flat Earth Society and started getting big write-ups in the British, and, soon, American media?

Daniel Shenton is about to find out.

Besides believing that the entire planet exists as a flat disc floating in space, in this UK Guardian story we learn that Shenton also believes in evolution, thinks the evidence for man-made global warming is strong, doesn't believe the US government had foreknowledge or were involved in the 9/11 attacks and that the International Space Station is stinky with fakery.

The article is worthwhile, however, for this wonderful illustration from 1922 :

British PM's Violence As Seen By Hundreds Of Millions Of Chinese

Chinese TV has almost eliminated the need for actual video camera footage of a big news story. In this case, they provide dramatic video where none exists of the alleged violent behaviour of British prime minister Gordon Brown (wait for the action at 0:36) :

Poor old Kipling, they're bashing him again!

I leave for New Zealand tomorrow. I was so relaxed and looking forward to the visit until I came across an article on the BBC website about Rudyard Kipling, saying that plans for a museum in Rudyard Kipling's Mumbai home commemorating the writer have been shelved following concerns that a memorial to the renowned imperialist and chronicler of the British Raj would be politically unpalatable. But is it time for Indians to reappraise him? It certainly is!

I love India and have enjoyed immensely the one and a half decades I have lived there, but I get infuriated when Indian's keep dishing out this Imperialist crap.

Like Ranjit Singh, who butchered millions of innocent people in the name of something, or those who engineered partition and millions were killed yet again, is it not time to accept they were a product of their time and should be accepted as a part of history ? Apart from Tagore, I would like someone to name an Indian historian, poet and writer better than Kipling.


Nearly 75 years after his death, the poet and author Rudyard Kipling remains as celebrated and controversial as ever.
The man who created the popular image - or myth - of the British Raj, has gone through somewhat of a renaissance in modern Britain.
His poem If - for so long virtually ignored by poetry experts and anthologies alike - topped a BBC poll as the greatest poem of all in 1995.
And in 2002, when his works came out of copyright, a flurry of cheap editions of Kipling's poetry and novels proved a popular attraction.
But, for Indians, the man praised by George Orwell as "a good bad poet" remains a divisive figure.

Aravind Adiga: 'Deep ambivalence to Kipling's work in India'
The Indian-born novelist Aravind Adiga, whose debut work The White Tiger garnered a Man Booker prize, is a long-time Kipling devotee. Indeed, he researched him while studying at Oxford. Photo: Bob Mckerrow, Siliguri Zoo, India, 1972

And now, plans to turn the house in Mumbai where he was born in 1865 into a museum have been abandoned in the face of a huge political row. Kipling's birthplace is instead set to showcase paintings by local artists.
Mukund Gorashkar, who is leading the renovation project for the JSW Foundation, says "if we tried to convert it into a Kipling museum simply because Kipling was born there, that would ruffle quite a few feathers.
"In the political storm, you may find that the conservation effort would be set aside."

Kipling's works were celebrated by the Royal Mail in 2002
Kipling was born in the Dean's bungalow which nestles in the grounds of the JJ School of Art, one of the many jewels of what was then Victorian Bombay.
And his childhood experiences in the city inspired one of Kipling's best-known and loved characters, the boy spy Kim.
Mr Gorashkar said that municipal government officials with whom he had spoken had strongly discouraged him from referring to the building as "Kipling's House", insisting that it should be called by its original name, "Dean's House".
Some of Kipling's work, including lines like "And a woman is only a woman; but a good cigar is a Smoke'', jar with critics today. But the debate surrounding their actual meaning remains active and vigorous.
For instance, one of his most famous poems, which begins: "Take up the White Man's Burden/ Send forth the best ye breed" does not refer to British Imperialism at all but celebrates the US occupation of Cuba and the Philippines after the 1898 Spanish-American War.
'Wellspring'
It may well be that, as the columnist Geoffrey Wheatcroft once put it: "to his detractors, Kipling's real sin isn't that he is politically incorrect so much as that he is so readable".
Even so, it is hard to put any sort of revisionist spin on aphorisms like "a man should, whatever happens, keep to his own caste, race, and breed."
Andrew Lycett, Kipling's biographer and whose latest work, Kipling Abroad, has just hit the bookshops, believes that India has a love-hate relationship with the writer.
"It was the wellspring of his imagination. But I can well understand why Indians look askance at him in this day and age. He was an imperialist. He was not a supporter of Indian nationalism.


Kipling's works were celebrated by the Royal Mail in 2002

"On the other hand, he was the first great Indian writer writer in the English language. He was of English stock.
"The British are still trying to make up their mind about Kipling."

Aravind Adiga: 'Deep ambivalence to Kipling's work in India'
The Indian-born novelist Aravind Adiga, whose debut work The White Tiger garnered a Man Booker prize, is a long-time Kipling devotee. Indeed, he researched him while studying at Oxford.
He believes that "it's odd how little of his work is known in India.
"There has been such an explosion of Indian writing in English that Kipling is not read very much any more," he says, adding that Indian readers today prefer writers like Jeffrey Archer.
"People who study Indian literature at universities whether in India or abroad are very political," he added. "But the people who actually buy books and read them in India don't really care.
"There has always been a deep ambivalence to Kipling because of his dislike of Indians who read and speak in English. His deep antipathy towards people in Calcutta who are university-educated means that he's in trouble because it's those people who now read in English in India."
But Mr Adiga said that Kipling had a "deep love" of India's forests and that his jungle tales presented a picture of "a part of India that is now quickly vanishing".
As Orwell pointed out in an oft-quoted essay, Kipling was not just a writer but someone who added phrases to the English language.
But could it be that, for the man who wrote "what do they know of England who only England know?"; "the female of the species is more deadly than the male" and "you'll be a man, my son", a more lasting theme may be "East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet"?

Thanks to the BBC for permission to run parts of their article.

1993's Falling Down has suddenly begun to catch fire on torrent sharing sites, and rental copies will fly out of video stores across the United States.

Any reason for the resurgence of interest in this old movie?

Good Luck With That Whole Anti-Cannabis Christian Movement

Raw Story publishes the results of a "Well, Duh!" study into inhaled cannabis and the conclusions reached that it is likely as good as or better than most of the pharmaceuticals prescribed for a variety of ailments.

But there it is in the comments. Again. A jarring screed with plenty of CAPITALISED words. Comments very similiar to the one below - in subject matter, thrust and word choice - are dumping into comment streams across the independent and so-called 'conspiracy' American digital media.

It's not an opinion, and it's not from a deeply religious person. It's like an auto-comment, designed to annoy just about every reader who comes across it, making them reluctant to bother with making or reading comments, at all, anywhere :

"Here we go with the liberal hippy proaganda! This is a drug! A harmful drug! A drug that has harmed countless American lives and continues to destroy the very fabric of God's America. As a Christian woman, I will not stand idly by as another MENACE is bestowed upon my America in the guise of medicine. ALCOHOL IS BAD ENOUGH! This is an instrument of the devil, and the ragged degenerate god hating Americans who support this crap are going to be a) incarcerated in the coming years, b) shunned from his HOLY word. Have no doubt that this crap was put on our earth to weed out the truthsayers from the sinners. THIS IS AN INSTRUMENT OPF THE DEVIL....AND THOSE USING IT WILL REEP WHAT HE HAS SOWN!!!!!!!!!!!! THE COMING GOD REVOLUTION IS NOT GOING TO ALLOW THE USE OF THIS INSTRUMENT OF SATAN. Allhe who washes their hands in the blood of the LAMB before the SABBATH of HIS WORD will BE SENT INTO THE FIRE! YOU SICK BASTARDS MAKE ME glad knowing that the revolution is UPON US. AND THAT HIS HOLY WORD WILL SHINE AGAIN ON THIS, OUR GREAT NATION."

God is anti-medicinal cannabis, apparently.

Now you know.

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New York Times Publishes Column By War Machine Employee Demanding US Stop Thinking About All The Innocent Afghans Killed And Ramp The Fuck Up The Bombing

Glenn Greenwald of Salon uncovers a brutal mindfuck of gruesome pro-civilian bombing positive influence in the pages of the New York Times. A defence corporation employee demands the US blow more money terror bombing the civilian populace of Afghanistan.

New York Times column excerpt :

So in a modern refashioning of the obvious -- that war is harmful to civilian populations -- the United States military has begun basing doctrine on the premise that dead civilians are harmful to the conduct of war. The trouble is, no past war has ever supplied compelling proof of that claim. . . .

[A]n overemphasis on civilian protection is now putting American troops on the defensive in what is intended to be a major offensive. . . .

Of course, all this is not to say that the United States and NATO should be oblivious to civilian deaths, or wage "total" war in Afghanistan. Clearly, however, the pendulum has swung too far in favor of avoiding the death of innocents at all cost.

General McChrystal’s directive was well intentioned, but the lofty ideal at its heart is a lie, and an immoral one at that, because it pretends that war can be fair or humane. . . .

Wars are always ugly, and always monstrous, and best avoided.

Once begun, however, the goal of even a "long war" should be victory in as short a time as possible, using every advantage you have.

She means unleash the Flying Killer Robot drones, the ones with very expensive bomb payloads.

Greenwald :

Does anyone need it explained to them why causing large civilian deaths through air attacks in Afghanistan is not only morally grotesque but also completely counter-productive to our stated goals?

No.

But those bombs and missiles have to be dumped somewhere, so the warehouses and new orders can be filled and re-filled, over and over again.

Stephen Walt At Foreign Policy Responds


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The most bizarre collection of old photos you will see this year.



I promise.

Dispatch Palmer Eldritch, He'll Know What To Do

Author William Gibson reads this story about Philip K Dick and then rips into him, on Twitter :



I think Philip K Dick would be highly amused to see so many taking so much of what he said so damn seriously.

I had to reply :

I Want You To Punch Me As Hard As You Can

The latest in "Hey! Look At Me! I'm A Fucking Arsehole With A Real Short Memory" t-shirts :


The Bush "Miss Me Yet?" image and tag line is quickly becoming iconic, and congratz to whoever came up with it and is now selling a shitload of merchandise at CafePress.

You can't blame people for wanting to make a buck, however they can, in what's left of Bush's America.

A beautiful collection of 20th century Russian theatrical posters, by Nikolay Palvovich Akimov :



See The Rest Of The Collection Here

How Can Demanding Truth Be More Dangerous Than Demanding War?



By Darryl Mason

A good question, not asked often enough :

I have one simple question though for anyone free-thinking enough not to immediately follow whatever the voice on the radio tells them. What “conspiracy theorists” are more dangerous and deserve to be shunned by public opinion?

The ones trumpeted by people like Alex Jones whose goal is to have the 9/11 attack investigations to be reopened?

Or the ones feverishly hawked by the likes of Sarah Palin, Bill O’Reilly, Newt Gingrich, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh that call for the American military to begin attacking Iran?

I don't believe, or subscribe, to everything I read or hear on alleged 'conspiracy sites' like the ones run by Alex Jones or Mike Rivero's WhatReallyHappened.com, nor does anyone there demand I do so.

I don't see columnists or commenters, anyone in fact, at those sites demanding my country go to war against people on the other side of the planet who have never done me or my family harm, based on the flimsiest of evidence, or flat-out fearmongery.

But when I go to The Washington Post, or the New York Times, I see columnists demanding Iran be bombed, now. Again and again. It's no coincidence of course that is it usually the exact same people who in 2002 filled column after column in those newspapers demanding Iraq be bombed, then invaded.

I often think of the extremely brave men I met and spent time talking to in bars and coffee shops around Ground Zero, back in December 2001. While I went back to my hotel room, or to do more sight-seeing, they went back into the ruins of the World Trade Centre to keep digging for the bits and pieces of their missing friends and former colleagues in the police and fire departments they hoped were still there, so they could give them a proper burial and help their families move on.

Those rescue workers I met, who were near the Twin Towers on 9/11, and were still working at Ground Zero months later, didn't talk about grand plots or conspiracy theories. They didn't blame Bush or Cheney or Israelis or Haliburton or the Project For The New American Century.
They just wanted to know why they saw those buildings exploding before, and as, they fell down.

They just wanted to know the truth about what they saw that day, and why their friends died, and why the only pieces of flesh and bone they usually found could fit into a coffee cup. Or a matchbox.

Soon it will be a decade on from 9/11, and those rescue workers (the ones who haven't died from the effects of 9/11 dust) still don't know the answers to the questions they asked all those years ago.

The truth. That's all.

They just want to know the truth.

And that, according to Fox News, makes them "dangerous people"?

The truth, then, must be a whole lot more spectacular and shocking than the Bush administration official story would have us believe.

What other explanation can be there for such hatred and venom directed at those who seek answers to their questions?




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67 Year Old "Epic Beard Man" Promises To Kick Ass, And Does

By Darryl Mason

Now everyone has a camera, the one-on-one confrontations of everyday life on public transport that once went unreported now become world news.

How can fake TV drama compete with this?

The Ass-Kicking :



The Aftermath :



If these videos become explosively popular, here's how the news media narrative will likely unfold.

You will see this footage over and over again until you want to snap.

Reporters will track down the EBM and the man he fought, interview them separately and then attempt a meeting and reconciliation.

The Epic Beard Man will become famous as expressing the fears and anxieties of Baby Boomers who now feel they are vulnerable members of society, and much discussion and soul-searching will unfold as 24 hour news channels sacrifice small animals in thanks for this story landing free in their laps, providing days of panel discussion race-related fodder.

The man whose ass was thoroughly kicked, and should have known better than to wind up a pretty fit looking old guy wearing a "I Am A Motherfucker" t-shirt, regardless of his bushranger beard, will slink away from his infamy, but will be mocked by friends, relatives and strangers on the street for years to come.

Epic Beard Man, meanwhile, may become something of a national hero if Fox News goes heavy with it, he will probably meet Sarah Palin, be hailed for standing up to arseholes on public transport and end up scoring a few hundred grand doing ads for some downright American product, and could probably one day demand a suitcase of cash from a razor blade company to get rid of the beard for a TV ad.

Meanwhile, plenty of real news will go unreported.


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Newsweek Forgot The Conspiracy They Were An Active Part Of : To Lie America Into The Iraq War

In a fairly weak piece of clickbait (and the mainstream media knows 'conspiracy theories' are click magnets), Newsweek lists the following as "hip, trendy, least likely fringe beliefs" :

* Obama Is A Secret Muslim, With No American Birth Certificate

* FEMA Is Establishing Detention Camps For American Gitizens

* BushCo. Knew The 9/11 Attacks Were Coming

* Media Corporations Want Internet Licenses For All Users, IndieMedia & Bloggers

* AGW Is A Hoax

* Goldman Sachs Purposely Created Fragile Investment Bubbles And Then Bet On Them Failing

Incredibly, Newsweek uses this story to claim that business links tying the Bush and Bin Laden families together are just more "fringe" conspiracy theories.

And they wonder why their media is dying.


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American Soldiers In Iraq Use Slayer To Engage A "Predator Mindset"

The UK Guardian on the soundtrack of war for Generation Y soldiers in Iraq :

A musicologist, Pieslak discusses why these songs triggered a "mental transformation". He analyses Slayer's guitar-drum barrage, and the pre­fabricated nihilism of gangster rap lyrics. His interviews raise an old ­question: how does violent music ­affect the ­listener's behaviour?

It's a debate that was long ago drowned out by indignation, finally disappearing under a heap of "parental advisory" stickers. But the conclusion of Sound ^­Targets is that, in some contexts, violent songs can ­encourage violent behaviour.

Two of the most popular MP3s for American soldiers pumping themselves up to go out and - Eminem's Go To Sleep :



And Slayer's song about Auschwitz, Angel Of Death :

100 Years Of Visual Effects In Five Minutes. Cinemafastique!




(Via The Drum)

Al Lavelle, John Vann and Lamar McFadden "Mac" Prosser, - South Vietnam icons/iconoclasts

Al Lavelle leaning on one of the two aircraft he owned and piloted regularly. Al mastered aerial acrobatics and stunts in his specially designed planes, but some of the best stunts he pulled, was working for USAID in South Vietnam.Al taught me a stunt or two, but above all he taught me to put people first, and deal with the bean counters in HQs later.

I was 22 years old, going 23, when I first met Al Lavelle, in Qui Nhon, South Vietnam in 1971.

Two months earlier I had returned to New Zealand after spending 13 months in Antarctica with three other men, and I was looking for work overseas with a humanitarian organisation. Luckily I was interviewed and accepted to join the 4th New Zealand Red Cross Refugee Welfare Team, working with displaced people in South Vietnam.

Al Lavelle and our New Zealand Red Cross team worked with Montagnard (hill tribes) internally displaced people photographed below.

The photo of our team is above L to R. Simon Evans, Bob Mckerrow, Andrianne Lattimore, John Gordon and Peter Barnes.

I had only been in Qui Nhon a few days when I met Al, a sturdy barrel-chested second generation Irish-American. He wore an Hawaiin shirt, partially buttoned up with a mass of greying hair growing over the top button, and a black hat with a coloured hat-band woven by Montagnard women. Al would have been 51 then and in fine physical shape. Over the next year Al became a sort of guru to me, and introduced me to reality of working in war zones, and what humanitarian aid was, and how the line between aid, politics and war was blurred.


Al was an advisor to USAID on refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs). More than anyone else in my life, it was Al who made me realise that the Red Cross with its seven principles which includes neutrality, impartiality and independence, needed to keep a certain distance from gun-slinging USAID workers, and the many US soldiers that surrounded us. He was a generous man with a heart of gold, and found his true calling working with IDPs and refugees.

Saigon i (below)n the 1971, the Paris of the East. Photo: Bob McKerrow


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Many children in South Vietnam lost legs and arms by stepping on landmines. Frequently we would find injured children in villages and bring them back to Qui Nhon to have limbs fitted. Here is a young boy I brought back and after two months, was playing football. Photo: Bob McKerrow

I slowly got to know Al Lavelle during 1971, sitting in his trailer hut, sometimes drinking Budweiser or Jack Daniels, or just sitting on the beach and hearing his stories. We did a number of field trips together, to Van Canh and Bong Song where I was supervising the construction of two schools.

The first trip I did with Al was to An Khe, in the central highlands. We were about 5 km from An Khe pass when the US forces launched an all out aerial attack on Vietcong position near the pass. As an array of helicopters swooped in for the attack, Al would excitedly tell me, "That's a Cobra," or " That's a Huey or Chinook." Al would stop his olive green Jeep by the road side and explain to me the intracacies of laying landmines and show me claymores and other booby trap mines..

Another trip I did with Al was from Qui Nhon to Pleiku, where I met the man he admired most, John Vann (photo right), a fellow pilot and an inconoclast like Al.
Vann was an impressive man, a man in a hurry with a mission to right the wrongs of the US Government in South Vietnam.
Lavelle served on staff of the famous John Paul Vann in Southeast Asia working in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. That is when I met Al. He was staunchly loyal to his country but was disenchanted by the direction his Government was taking in Vietnam, and that is why he had a huge amount of respect for, and hope, for John to fix it. I recall the day John Vann became Al's boss when he was appointed commander of II Corp in about April 1971. He excitedly told me " John Vann has just been appointed to get this war back on track, he'll show them."



Montagnard refugees in Pleiku where I first met John Vann in 1971 and where I worked in 1973-74 for one year. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Vann's wit and iconoclasm did not endear him to many military and civilian careerists, but to Al Lavelle and many young civilian and military officers he became a hero as he understood the limits of conventional warfare in the irregular environment of Vietnam, and dare to chellenge his superiors.Vann was assigned to South Vietnam in 1962 as an advisor to Col. Huynh Van Cao, commander of the ARVN 7th Division. In the thick of the anti-guerrilla war against the Viet Cong Vann became aware of the ineptitude with which the war was being prosecuted, in particular the disastrous Battle of Ap Bac, January 2, 1963. Vann, directing the battle from a spotter plane overhead, earned the Distinguished Flying Cross for his bravery in taking enemy fire. He attempted to draw public attention to the problems, through press contacts such as New York Times reporter David Halberstam, focusing much of his ire on the US commander in the country, MACV chief Gen. Paul D. Harkins.

1971 saw a scaling down of US troops, but the roads of South Vietnam were dotted with US military equipment. Photo: Bob McKerrow





Vann was forced from his advisor position in March 1963 and left the Army within a few months. He returned to Vietnam in March 1965 as an official of the Agency for International Development (AID). When I arrived in Vietnam in 1971 Vann was assigned as the senior American advisor in II Corps Military Region when the war was winding down and troops were being withdrawn. For that reason, his new job put him in charge of all United States personnel in his region, where he advised the ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) Commander to the region and became the first American civilian to command U.S. regular troops in combat. His position was the job of a Major General.



The meeting of man and moment: John Paul Vann (white shirt) and his staff at their Pleiku headquarters

Al Lavelle was thrilled to be working for John Vann again and served him loyally he advising him on internally displaced people and refugees that were noving back and forth between Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand. Al Lavelle knew so much about IDPs, refugees and used to regail me with stories of his work with refugees and quote UN refugee conventions. His hero John Vann was killed after the Battle of Kontum , when his helicopter crashed in 1972. Al Lavelle lost one of his most respected friends and colleague.

Journalist Neil Sheehan wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning Vietnam history and biography of Vann, A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam.in his book, Sheehan describes Vann as an ardent critic of how the war was fought, both on the part of the Saigon regime, which he viewed as corrupt and incompetent, and, as time went by, increasingly, on the part of the U.S. military. In particular, he was critical of the U.S. military command, especially under William Westmoreland, and their inability to adapt to the fact that they were facing a popular guerrilla movement while backing a corrupt regime. He argued that many of the tactics employed (for example the strategic hamlet relocation) further alienated the population and thus were counterproductive to U.S. objectives. In the late 90's a movie was made about John Vann's time in Vietnam. Al Lavelle used to quote Vann and one of his favourites was

"If it were not for the fact that Vietnam is but a pawn in the larger East-West confrontation, and that our presence here is essential to deny the resources of this area to Communist China, then it would be damned hard to justify our support of the existing government." Like Vann, Al Lavelle was unhappy with the way his Government closed a blind eye to the high levels of corruption and gross inefficiencies of the Government of South Vietnam.

This is a typical village that Al Lavelle and I worked in on the road between Pleiku and An Khe. Photo: Bob McKerrow

Returning from Vietnam, Lavelle became an educator teaching languages and world history for 23 years at Roosevelt High School and at the Junior College level.

He was one of only three U.S. teachers selected to teach in the then Soviet Union during the first year of Détente. The exchange was meant to ease tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States.


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Last night when looking at my Vietnam photos to post with this story, I began to realise most of the montagnard women were topless At the time, I never noticed it. I do now !

He taught at the University of Foreign Languages in Kiev Ukraine in 1975. Lavelle was often called upon to lecture at various colleges and universities because his knowledge of the Soviet Union was quite extensive and at that time few Americans had really been inside the so-called Iron Curtain.

Al Lavelle, my good friend Mac Lama Prossers, myself any many others who worked with the Montagnard people in South Vietnam, were grief stricken to learn that after taking over South Vietnam in 1975,  the communist government had many religious and political Montagnard leaders executed or imprisoned in harsh re-education camps while simultaneously instituting a policy of cultural destruction and forced assimilation on our population. Examples include the Montagnard Senator Ksor Rot who was publicly executed in 1975 and Minister Nay Luett (who was subjected to torture) and died in a re-education (forced labor/concentration) camp in the 1980s.

The origins of the Montagnard persecution stems from several historical factors namely, the alliance many Montagnards had with the United States military during the Vietnam War and the intent by the current communist regime to exploit the ancestral homelands of the Montagnards in the manner that indigenous peoples around the globe have all suffered by modern encroachment. History will show that it was people like Vann who were part of the US military effort that supported the Montagnards. also influenced the North Vietnamese distrust and dislike for the Montagnards.

Al Lavelle and I were close to Nay Luett the then Minister of Ethnic Minorities and I was very proud that on my departure from Vietnam in 1974, Nay Luett presented me the Ethnic minorities medal first class for the work the New Zealand Red Cross team had done in the for the Montagnard people of Central Highlands of Vietnam for many years. Somewhere I have the medal with the head of an elephant on the ribbon.

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During his long and active life, Lavelle pursued his hobbies excelling in competitive acrobatic flying, wood working, painting, music, writing his memoires, and contributing his interviews on Vietnam to Texas Tech University – The Vietnam Archives, Special Collections Library, Rm. 108, Lubbock, TX.

Somewhere round 1999 Al had heart surgery, sold his planes, and ended his flying.
It was Al's last wish that there be no flowers, cards, funeral service or memorial service.

He requested that donations be made to a charity of one's choice. His last Hurrah was: God Bless America, Erin Go Braugh (Free Ireland), Help Russia and the Ukraine become Democratic, followed by God Help Us All.


Allen Silberman  a freind of Al's wrote this tribute: Your comments about Al Lavelle accurately portrayed the man and his ability to see through the facade of politics and war. He was a true humanitarian, a dedicated teacher, a true aviation enthusiast, and most of all the best friend I ever had. During our 40 year friendship we flew many hours together, watched night air strikes, walked into Viet Cong villages together, and spent many hours before the war sitting on his front lawn talking politics and sharing flying stories. Thanks for writing the blog. Al had been a special part of our family since the mid 1960's.


He is survived by his wife of 12 years, Margarita T. Belous-Lavelle; daughters: Jean Antoinette Villarreal and husband, Rogelio of San Antonio, TX; Sheila Marie Lavelle and husband, Steven Tysver of Gloucester, MA; Dawn Lee Miyasaki and husband, Mitsuyuki of New York, NY; grandchildren: Laura A. Cross of Knoxville, TN; Ruth Villarreal of Austin, TX and Roger Villarreal of San Antonio, TX.

Allan J. Lavelle
Born in Denver, Colorado on 15 July. 1920
Died Jun. 15, 2008 and resided in San Antonio, Texas.


I met Il Lavelle and John Vann during my first mission to Vietnam in 1971. I was ar an age when I needed mentors and could I have asked for better ?  I came back again in 1973 and stayed fior another year, leaving in September 1974.  By 1973, the American troops had departed. However the CIA and USAID still had large num,bers of staff.

Lamar McFadden "Mac" Prosser

Then I met Lamar McFadden "Mac" Prosser,  another one of these intriguing characters who was on the South Vietnam and Indo China landscape for many years. Born in 1922, Mac as we knew him, was a polished, suave diplomat, whio I first met in Pleiku in 1973.  Mac impressed me with his work for the International Red Cross in the Congo, and a spell pushing papers in Geneva at Red Cross HQ.  He began his military service in 1940 when the South Carolina National Guard was activated. He served in the 760th Tank Battalion in North Africa, Italy and Germany during World War II.

The New Zealand Red Cross IDP team worked in Pleiku for more than two years, and Mac was always there to support, give advice and encourage. He had loved his time working for Red Cross for a few years during a long military and humanitarian career, and was impressed with the community development work we were doing.

I spent many a long evening with Mac, enjoying his never-endingd hospitality and unlimited duty free grog, discussibng thr world's problems. His knowledge on community development was extensive and we learned from him..

Mac served in Italy and we talked about the various battles including Monte Cassino where my Dad fought. Mac was wounded in Italy but returned to duty four months later. After the war, he served in Indochina and then retired from military service in 1961. He immediately joined AID and had assignments in Chad, Geneva, Bangkok and Saigon, and after his stint in Pleiku 1973-74. moved to Saigon as an advisor to the US Ambassador. Mac was happy in Saigon, because his wife was working for the US Embassy. He retired from AID in 1982.

Mac died at the age of 77 of pulmonary disease on July 21, 1998 at Georgetown University Hospital, Washington, D.C. His wife Katherine, died in 1996.

To John Vann, Al Lavelle and Max Prosser. I thank you. From you guys I learned about war, humanity, peace, and above all, putting people first.

This Story About The Flying Killer Robots Vs Terrorists War Has Been Endorsed By The White House

By Darryl Mason

The White House on Twitter has about 1.7 million followers. White House postings on Twitter are often 'retweeted' by hundreds, sometimes thousands, of followers. If the White House wants to get information out to Americans, unfiltered or tainted by the mainstream news media, Twitter is better than sending a few million people out to knock on doors.

So it's of reasonable internet historical importance to note that the White House on Twitter is now linking to stories the White House clearly approves of.

War On Terror success stories.

Today :


So what does the story say? Excerpts :

It was not the first (unmanned armed drone) airstrike on Obama's watch, but it marked the first major victory in his war on terrorism, a campaign the administration believes can be waged even more aggressively than its predecessor's. Long before he went on the defensive in Washington for his handling of the failed Christmas Day airline bombing, Obama had widened the list of U.S. targets abroad and stepped up the pace of airstrikes.

Obama's national security team believed that the president's campaign promise to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq would have a side benefit: freeing up manpower and resources to hunt terrorists in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Intelligence officials, lawmakers and analysts say that approach is showing signs of success.

Intelligence officials and analysts say the drawdown of troops in an increasingly stable Iraq is part of the reason for the increase in drone strikes. The military once relied on drones for around-the-clock surveillance to flush out insurgents, support troops in battle and help avoid roadside bombs.

With fewer of those missions required, the U.S. has moved many of those planes to Afghanistan, roughly doubling the size of the military and CIA fleet that can patrol the lawless border with Pakistan, officials said.

Talk about getting the message out. The AP story also includes this photo released by the US Air Force of a fully armed unmanned MQ-9 Reaper drone.

Or as they're known around here : A Flying Killer Robot (FKR).



Since that photo was taken in August, 2007, FKRs have killed primary Taliban leaders and Al Qaidaists in what should more accurately now be called The Flying Killer Robot Vs Terrorists War.

Look at it again.

They've also killed at least 1000 innocent men, women and children in wrong target horror airstrikes in Afghanistan, Waziristan and Pakistan.

But it doesn't matter. They do not feel sorrow, or pity, or empathy.

Yet.

They do not cry. They cannot be prosecuted for killing civilians.

The FKRs.

Now the White House, through Twitter and the Associated Press, wants you know the 'Robot Vs Terrorists War' is ramping up.

What is tested and hailed a success in the warzones, always returns to the homelands.

And you were worried about black helicopters.

The Future, it's always so much fucking weirder than you ever expected.

What is that strange buzzing sound outside?


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Blood and floods - Indonesia

Sadly, we have floods again in Jakarta and late yesterday I visited thousands of homeless people sleeping in makeshift Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) camps, under bridges and on roadsides. The Indonesian Red Cross is out there helping with rescue, accommodation, food and clothing. It was a pleasure to accompany the recently elected Chairman of the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) Jusuf Kalla, and to see his commitment to strengthening the PMI nation-wide.



Families evacuated from flooded areas sheltering in an old warehouse in east Jakarta: Photo: Bob McKerrow

PMI volunteers from flood-affected areas of East Jakarta preparing food packages for distribution. Photo: Bob McKerrow

A mother and child who were rescued from the roof of a flooded house by young PMI volunteers (right) in an inflatable boat. Photo: Bob McKerrow



During the last 8 days I have travelled with Jusuf Kalla, new Chairman PMI, Pak Budi secretary general, and a number of board members and staff, to 8 provinces of Indonesia's 33 provinces, on four different islands. We visited Surabaya and Jakarta provinces on Java, Makassar, Mamuju and Kendari on Sulawesi, and Jambi and Riau on Sumatra and the Bangka and Belitung islands, off Sumatra.

Jusuf Kalla has a clear vision as Chairman PMI and that is one of expanding the quantity and quality of the PMI national blood programme and strengthening readiness for disaster response. Jusuf Kalla sees blood as a vital component of risk reduction.



Jusuf Kalla inspecting PMI blood bank in Pangkal Pinang. Photo: Bob McKerrow



He has set a target of 4 x 4 ? No it's not a Land cruiser, but it stands for reaching a target of having 4 million units of blood for four days at any one time, all the time, in Indonesia. Apart from servicing the growing day to day demand for blood, it will provide a huge buffer stock in times of emergencies, which asre frequent in this country which is a Supermarket of disasters.



Blood must be screened and tested with utmost accurancy. The Blood bank in Pangkal Pinang.



In this enormous island nation comprising 17,500 islands , and where it takes seven hours to fly from the eastern extremity to the remotest north western corner, the task ahead of the Chairman is daunting. During the past eight days in travelling with him, I have witnessed a strong compassionate man with a vision, a mission and an iron will to complete things quickly. Like Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Sonia Gandhi, Jusuf Kalla has the walk about charisma. He loves people, he loves his country while keeping a global overview, and with his passion, contacts, networks and business acumen, he has the team to assist him to reshape the humanitarian landscape of Indonesia. Below I have posted a few photographs to illustrate some of the lighter moments of our trip in the past eight days.

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Young women greeted us in Bangka Belitung province by throwing flower petals over us and displaying traditional dance. Photo: Bob McKerrow

In Jambi we were welcomed by young dancers in traditional dress. Photo: Wayne Ulrich



On the trip to Sumatra, Jusuf Kalla travelled with his wife. To her surprise, someone produced a birthday cake and we celebrated her birthday. Photo: Bob McKerrow

One of Jusuf Kalla's great strengths is his ability to undertake arduous field trips to motivate Indonesian Red Cross volunteers and to share his vision. Photo: Bob McKerrow





The Mosque in Makassar.





The countryside in Sulawesi is green and fertile.



A small party on the plane for Ebu Jusuf Kalla's birthday. Photo: Bob McKerrow



With Jusuf Kalla, in the centre wearing a white shirt. The Ambulance behind, was donated by a local businessman in Pangkal Pinang.









I travelled with Pak Budi SG of the PMI (right) and Peder Damm from the Danish Red Cross (left) and on other trips, colleagues from the French and Canadian Red Cross joined us too.