pushy exposition: Real-life War Horse story emerging in Canada

Real-life War Horse story emerging in Canada

Thursday, December 29, 2011, 10:09 PM - News Stories Retired officer unearths story of Canada's own warhorse. On a farm in Paradise, N.S., lies the grave of a horse named Fritz ? a warhorse, it turns out, that survived the horrors of the First World War and lived out his final days in peace in Canada. As the fictional tale of the Steven Spielberg film War Horse appears on movie screens across North America, and as a stage version of the novel by the same name opens in Toronto, the real-life saga of a true Canadian warhorse is now emerging out of the past...
(Montreal Gazette)

Military Wives in bid to score number one in US with Piers Morgan campaign. The TV star has been busy spreading the word about Gareth Malone's choir to his celeb friends by posting the official video for their hit single Wherever You Are on Twitter. He tweeted: 'Just heard the Military Wives single gets released in the US today. Watch this my American friends, then go buy it.' Piers added: 'Good luck ladies, hope you get a No1 in America.'
(Metro)

'We would love to do an album': The Military Wives set to record again after the success of their number one Christmas single. They've already hit the top spot in the UK singles chart but it seems the Military Wives have now set their sights on the album chart.The singing ladies are reportedly gearing themselves up to record an album following the success of Wherever You Are. According to Mtv.co.uk, soloist of the group Sam Stephenson recently revealed that she is keen for the group to record one...
(MailOnline)

Solidarity march demanding release of blogger Maikel Nabil to be held today. To mark the one year anniversary of the detainment of blogger Maikel Nabil, activists are calling for a solidarity march demanding his release. Nabil has been detained for nine months since March, which in the Egyptian prison system is equivalent to one year of any sentence...
(Ahram Online)

Ten Noteworthy Shows From 2011 You Won't See on Other Ten-Best Lists. Bomb Patrol: Afghanistan (G4) -- Except for the occasional documentary (such as National Geographic Channel's Restrepo) or scripted effort (like Kathryn Bigelow's Academy Award winning The Hurt Locker or FX's short-lived Steven Bochco series Over There), anyone who has not served (or had a loved one serve) in either of our two long-running wars would be hard-pressed to understand in even a small way what it's like to be there...
(Huffington Post)

Military Rape Fact goes viral on Twitter

Wednesday, December 28, 2011, 10:07 PM - Twitter

OMG Facts, a site that says it features "interesting facts" as voted by its audience, posted a military-related statistic yesterday that was tweeted to its 3,000,000+ followers on Twitter.

As you can see by the picture above, the fact had to do with rape in the military.

"A woman in the US military is more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than be killed in action!"

The message was retweeted by more than 100 Twitter users and sparked a lively discussion on the OMG Facts website with comments ranging from:

"This is horrible, but it should also be mentioned that since women serve in non-combat roles, they are very unlikely to see combat much less be killed in it."

"I'd just brush up on your self-defense and ball-kicking skills and hopefully you'll be fine ;P"

I'm not sure how rape in the military statistically compares to the rest of the US, but the fact is, rape is a despicable crime.

To see what others are saying about this statistic on OMG Facts, go here.

Civil War trading cards generate interest

Wednesday, December 28, 2011, 06:22 PM - News Stories Civil War trading cards coming. National parks with ties to the Civil War are using trading cards to generate interest and help people learn more about their significance. Within a couple of months, the Corinth Civil War Interpretive Center and Shiloh National Military Park will have their own cards for visitors to collect. ?In most instances people who want to collect the cards won?t be able to simply go to the visitor center and ask for one,? said Ranger Ashley Berry, manager of the Corinth facility. ?Each park develops its own guidelines for what a person must do to receive one.?
(SunHerald.com)Randy Thomasson Calls Gay Navy Kiss 'Perverse Social Engineering'. Randy Thomasson has condemned a historic homecoming kiss by a lesbian military couple as the USS Oak Hill docked in Virginia Beach after 80 days at sea. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta won the right to be the first to exit the vessel and be greeted by her partner, Petty Officer 3rd Class Citlalic Shell. The women shared a kiss on the pier as a crowd waved flags around them...
(On Top Mag)
Wounded Marine inspires AP photographer's search. In my 20 years as a photographer, covering conflicts from Bosnia to Gaza to Iraq to Afghanistan, injured civilians and soldiers have passed through my life many times. None has left a greater impression on me than Britt. I knew him only for a few minutes in that helicopter, but I believed we would meet again one day, and I hoped to give him that small, special piece of wheat. As Britt underwent surgeries and painful rehabilitation, I returned to my job with The Associated Press, yet Britt was never far from my mind...
(GoUpstate.com)
Nevada Guard unit helps Army stay connected. Lt. Col. Jeffrey Hansen of Dayton, the battalion's commander, calls his unit the AT&T of the battlefield. It provides a wide spectrum of communication tools to many units in southern Afghanistan, including Internet, video, data, teleconferencing, and secure and nonsecure communications. The unit also supports organizations in several regional commands and provides tactical satellite dishes and switching...
(Las Vegas Review-Journal)
The Manning-Assange Chat Logs. Military prosecutors presented 15 pages of chat logs allegedly documenting correspondence between Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange last week as the Army closed its case against Manning, Wired reported. The logs show the two discussing uploading classified documents about Guantanamo Bay detainees to Wikileaks and Manning asking for assistance in cracking a computer password. Manning faces more than 30 charges related to his alleged release of information to Wikileaks and up to 150 years in prison, a prospect his attorney says shows the government?s overreaction to the case...
(Free Times)
The Army goes Android. The U.S. military stands to be stuck in its way when it comes to technologies. For ages the only smartphone you could use in Department of Defense (DOD) operations was a Blackberry. Now, as first reported by Stars and Stripes, you can use your Android phone and tablet on DOD business and with DOD networks.Don?t get in too much in a hurry to try to connect your new Amazon Kindle Fire or Samsung Galaxy Nexus to your military Wi-Fi network when you get back to base...
(ZDNet)
Army Reserve Sgt Wins Operation Rising Star. Army Reserve Sgt. Melissa Neal, a former active-duty Soldier and current military wife and mother, added "Operation Rising Star" winner to her repertoire, Dec. 17, at Fort Sam Houston Theatre. "I can't believe this -- from singing in the kitchen, to now I'm going to Hollywood," Neal said, after winning the military singing contest, which is similar to FOX television's "American Idol." Kristine May Hills, 26, an Army wife from Camp Humphreys, South Korea, took second place in the competition...
(Military.com)
Alaa Abd El Fattah, Egyptian Blogger and Critic of Military Regime, Speaks Out After Months in Jail. Alaa Abd El Fattah, a prominent Egyptian revolutionary activist and blogger, has been released from prison after nearly two months behind bars. Fattah was ordered jailed by a military court on October 30 and summoned to face charges that included inciting violence?a charge he firmly denies. He refused to cooperate, rejecting the legitimacy of the military court who wanted to try him as a civilian...
(Democracy Now)
Reserve officer brings personal 'thank you' from a world away. U.S. Army Capt. Bill Williams of Utah drove his 2003 Chevy Blazer into Beaufort County twice this month to personally say "thank you" to people who sent goodies to his troops sweeping roadsides for explosives in Afghanistan. It's part of a 13,000-mile "Grati-Tour" that puts the 53-year-old reservist face-to-face with America. He's thanking 75 people or organizations that sent boxes to his troops on duty in the Kunar Province. They sent 400 boxes in eight months, a reversal of the nation's angst and distrust he witnessed as a child during the Vietnam War...
(Island Packet)

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Third Arab Social Media Report released

Tuesday, December 27, 2011, 05:03 PM
The Dubai School of Government has released the third edition of the Arab Social Media Report.?
Here's what you can expect in the latest report.
The Arab region has recently experienced exponential growth in the use of social media.? Previous issues of the Arab Social Media Report have explored this growth, which has been fueled in part by the use of networks such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter in the movements of the so-called ?Arab spring.? The third edition of the report builds on these timely themes, which specifically explored the exponential growth of social media use in the Arab world, and the role of social networking tools in the civil movements in the Arab region.
Given the heightened participation of Arab women in these movements over the past months, despite their diminished use of social media as compared to the world average, this issue of the report will address three main questions:
1. Explaining the ?Virtual? Gender Gap: What are the factors contributing to the low level of social media use among Arab women, as compared to men?s usage and to the global female average??
2. Trends in Social Media Usage: Do Arab women perceive social media as useful to their needs? What are the usage trends?
3. Social Media as a Tool for Women?s Empowerment: Can social media potentially increase women?s civic participation in the Arab world and contribute to their political and economic empowerment?
Visit the Dubai School of Government online here.
Download the report in PDF format here.
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Military wife vows to beat online bullies
Tuesday, December 27, 2011, 04:04 PM - News Stories I'll beat online bullies, vows Military Wife: Singer is taunted over her tattoos. Her angelic voice made her the ideal choice to help lead the Military Wives to the Christmas number one spot. But while her singing has touched the nation?s heart, it seems not everyone is a fan of soloist Samantha Stevenson?s tattoos. The singer has revealed that she has been abused on websites including Facebook and Twitter because of her extensive body art...
(Mail Online)
Two World War II gunners with a lot in common enter hospice care with pride, dignity and sharp memories. Two old World War II gunners, Guadalupe Garza and Pascual Robles, live only seven miles apart and can recall the war in startling and rare detail. Yet they've never met and probably never will. Facing their final campaigns, the terminally ill veterans are receiving end-of-life care at home. "I sometimes can't remember what I had for breakfast," Robles, 88, said in his East San Jose living room recently, "but I can remember about the war."
(San Jose Mercury News)
Ethiopian court jails Swedish journalists. Two Swedish journalists are considering a legal appeal after an Ethiopian court on Tuesday sentenced them to 11 years in prison for supporting terrorism and entering the country illegally.The court had found reporter Martin Schibbye and photographer Johan Persson guilty of the charges last week. They were arrested in July after entering Ethiopia's Ogaden Province from Somalia with members of the outlawed Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF)...
(Deutsche Welle)
US Civil War?s 150th stirs a trove of memories. A diary with a lifesaving bullet hole from the Gettysburg battlefield. An intricate valentine crafted by a Southern soldier for the wife he would never see again. A slave?s desperate escape to freedom. Across the United States, state archivists are using the sesquicentennial of the Civil War to collect a trove of wartime letters, diaries, documents and mementoes that have gathered dust in attics and basements. This still-unfolding call will help states expand existing collections on the Civil War and provide new insights into an era that violently wrenched a nation apart, leaving 600,000 dead...
(Inquirer News)
Twitter-less North Korea crafts new cult of Kim. The Internet is virtually banned, there's no free press and listening to foreign radio is illegal -- if any country can build a Stalinist-style personality cult in the digital era, it's North Korea. Following the death of its longtime "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-Il on December 17, the repressive communist regime's propaganda machine has swung into action to burnish the image of his youngest son and successor, Jong-Un...
(AFP)
Was the end of the Iraq war the top story of 2011? Yes. It is perhaps the most recent piece of "big" news of the year. And its importance overshadows all other events of 2011 ? at least for Americans. When the U.S. military quietly pulled out of Iraq on Dec. 15 officials ended nearly nine years of conflict. And Iraq is a much different place than it was when the war began on March 20, 2003. During the last decade Saddam Hussein, Iraq's dictator, was apprehended and killed. A U.S.-supported government was installed with a working democracy...
(Daily American)
Meet NASA's Smartphone-Driven Robots. NASA has successfully tested smartphone-powered satellites to help astronauts with their tasks aboard the International Space Station (ISS). ?Through its Human Exploration Telerobotics project, the space agency outfitted free-flying satellites--called Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient Experimental Satellites (SPHERES)--with modified Android-based Nexus S headsets from Samsung and successfully flew the first of the robots last month on the ISS. NASA has posted a video of the test flight on its website...
(Informationweek)
Egyptian blogger Alaa Abd El-Fattah released from prison. Shortly after being released from prison on Sunday, Alaa Abd El-Fattah joined fellow activists in Tahrir Square to protest against the ruling military. The prominent Egyptian blogger was sent to prison around two months ago for refusing to undergo questioning by the military prosecution for his alleged involvement in the violent clashes that erupted during a protest on the 9th October...
(FRANCE 24)
Egypt: Female blogger asks women to unveil themselves. The young Egyptian blogger who set off a firestorm because of the nude photographs of herself that circulated on the Internet is now demanding that Muslim men should cover themselves with the hijab: the veil traditionally worn by devout Muslim women. Even while Egypt?s military has been accused of ruling the streets by stripping and sexually assaulting Egyptian female protesters on the streets of Cairo, Aliaa Magda al Mahdy appears to rule Arab social media in her largely Muslim country...
(Energy Publisher)

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Last known U.S. combat casualty in Iraq
Monday, December 26, 2011, 04:04 PM - News Stories A soldier remembered: Last known U.S. combat casualty in Iraq is now recorded. Army Spc. David Emanuel Hickman, a North Carolinian, enlisted in the military in 2009. It seemed natural: he loved physical challenges, and his father was an Air Force veteran. Soon, Hickman found himself in Iraq, wearing the U.S. uniform and patrolling foreign streets in the twilight of an eight-year war. That part of Hickman?s story isn?t unique. But this part is: Hickman, 23, died Nov. 14 in Baghdad when a roadside bomb exploded alongside his armored truck...
(Anniston Star)
Life after the Arab spring. This time last year, I was in Khartoum, scouring Arabic TV channels trying to find any reports of events in Tunisia. Twitter and a few blogposts in Arabic and French were reporting that a man had allegedly burned himself alive and protests were erupting throughout the country. There was nothing. Today, the Arab spring dominates the Arab airwaves. Egypt in particular, where the awakening flowered with the removal of Hosni Mubarak, occupies the Arab psyche as a bellwether, a litmus test of how this new political phase is progressing...
(Guardian)
Magid: Big tech stories of the year were about people, not gadgets. There were plenty of gadgets shipped in 2011, but the big stories of the year were about the people who made them and used them to change the world. The biggest and saddest story was the passing of Steve Jobs. His impact on tech, as well as on movies and music, is likely to be remembered for centuries. He's already an icon, right up there with Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell and Henry Ford.Jobs' legacy is not just the Apple (AAPL) II, the Mac, the iPod, iPhone and iPad but his passion for perfection...
?(San Jose Mercury News)
TWITTER CELEBRATES THE RELEASE OF POPULAR EGYPTIAN BLOGGER. A popular blogger has been released in Egypt. A long-time opposer of the Mubarak regime, he was one of the leaders of the protest movement against the Army after the attack against the Coptic Orthodox community on the 9th of October that caused 27 victims. People are celebrating the event on Twitter, the micro-blogging site on which Alaa Abd El-Fattah founded 'Tweet Nadwa', a discussion forum in which participants tackle political issues in no more than 140 characters...
(AGI.it)
Meet the Real-Life War Machines. Like the prologue of any robopocalypse movie where the machines rise up to destroy us, most of the robots we hear about do things we could do, but don't want to. They mop our floors. They put together cars. They die for us. When you hear "iRobot," you probably think of squat, circular roboslaves doomed to a life of sucking up the detritus at our feet, endlessly whirring and crashing into walls and yelping pets. Or maybe Asimov stories that became bad Will Smith movies. But iRobot makes robots that save peoples' lives every day...
(Gizmodo)
War Horse: 3 Reasons to See the Film. Director Steven Spielberg released War Horse on Christmas Day, the second entry from Spielberg at the holiday box office alongside The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn. One of the most heartwarming stories of the year, War Horse, adapted from the children?s book by Michael Morpugo, tells the story of a young man named Albert and a horse named Joey that?s sold to the British Army to help soldiers fight the Great War of World War I. The film follows the amazing journey of the horse as he maneuvers his way through the First World War, changing and inspiring the lives of all he encounters, before a search begins to find Joey years later...
(The Deadbolt)
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Military Wives soloist suffers internet abuse
Monday, December 26, 2011, 01:01 PM - News Stories
Military Wives soloist Samantha Stevenson, whose husband is a Lance Corporal of the 24 Commando Regiment, Royal Engineers, has been the victim of cruel internet taunts over her tattoos, reports Mail Online.?
I'm not sure what the point is of the abuse, other than stupidity on the part of internet trolls who have nothing better to do with their time.
Here?s what Alanah Eriksen of Mail Online has to say:
"A mother who led the Military Wives choir to the top Christmas spot says she has been abused online because of her tattoos.
Yesterday's victory was bittersweet for Soloist Samantha Stevenson, 28, who was the victim of a cruel campaign on Facebook and Twitter.
She was branded a 'skank' on internet forums and her tattoos were described as looking like 'temp garish things' that made one Twitter user 'balk'.
But she has vowed to celebrate her chart success by adding a remembrance poppy tattoo to her collection of bright inkings."
Read the entire story about the internet abuse here.
If you're not familiar with the Military Wives, they are a British choir formed by Gareth Malone at two British Army bases. Learn more about Gareth Malone and the Military Wives choir here.
Photo Source: Facebook

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Army wife uses Facebook for injured husband
Sunday, December 25, 2011, 01:38 PM - News Stories Fort Drum wife uses Facebook to provide updates on injured husband. The wife of an injured soldier has gone online to pass along updates about her husband?s condition. Kimberly A. Flores, wife of Staff Sgt. Roberto Flores, created a group on Facebook, ?Prayers for SSG Roberto Flores,? after her husband was badly wounded Wednesday while fighting insurgents near Kandahar, Afghanistan. Sgt. Flores is part of the 10th Mountain Division?s 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team. He has served in the Army for 19 years and turns 38 today...
(Watertown Daily Times)
What an Army Withdrawal Looks Like?PICTURES. The war in Iraq has officially ended for the United States, but the logistical component of the withdrawal will go on until at least March. Here are scenes from the drawdown...
(National Journal)
Army man finds job at Google to be a hit. Last year, Army Maj. Vince Porter spent Christmas reconnecting with his wife and children after returning from his second yearlong deployment to Iraq in three years. This holiday is a little different: The Norfolk native and Maury High School alum is in the midst of a one-year fellowship at Google Inc.'s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif...
(HamptonRoads.com)
The Bracelet: A wartime gift holds the story of a man?s life. Fort Myers resident, Dolores Mistretta,90, displays a bracelet that was given to her to hold in 1942 by a serviceman, William Sexton in Mississippi. During that time the bracelet became stored with her mother's belongings until she died. Mistretta then found it and then forgot about it until recently. She is reuniting it with the owners daughter in Illinois...
(Chicago Sun-Times)
Gay Navy Kiss Condemned By Tea Party Nation. A historic homecoming kiss by a lesbian military couple as the USS Oak Hill docked in Virginia Beach after 80 days at sea has been condemned by The Tea Party Nation, media watchdog RightWingWatch.org reported. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta won the right to be the first to exit the vessel and be greeted by her partner, Petty Officer 3rd Class Citlalic Shell...
(On Top Magazine)
Media Feeding Frenzy on Phony General Story Erupts as Fermijon Marrero Cracks, Admits Lies But Adds More. Fermijon Marrero's pile of lies has come crashing down around him as media outlets from around the New York area have picked up the story after Talk of the Sound reported that the man honored as Grand Marshall of the 2011 Memorial Day Parade was not a Brigadier General in the U.S. Army or Vietnam POW. In fact, Marrero is an outright fraud, discharged from the Army in 1976 as a private after 9 months of service...
(Talk of the sound)
Reporter?s Notebook: Bob Woodruff Returns to Kuwait. The sands and weather in Kuwait have not changed much since the last time I was here.? It was almost nine years ago, in 2003, as the U.S. was preparing to invade Iraq, just over Kuwait?s northern border. But this time, in December 2011, I watched the troops moving in the opposite direction, leaving Iraq instead of going in. The soldiers we met were pouring into Camp Virginia, which is one of the U.S. bases in this country that resembles a wasteland...
(ABC News)
Revolutionary blogger freed in Egypt. A prominent Egyptian blogger freed by an Egyptian judge on Sunday lambasted the military government and said "nothing has changed" since President Hosni Mubarak was ousted from power in February. "It's not the end of the case, that I am out. The real criminals, the generals of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, are still at large and they must be tried," said Alaa Abd El-Fattah, whose case is pending further investigation. "I have been released, but there are thousands that remain in prison."
(CNN)

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Pic of female sailor kissing girlfriend goes viral
Friday, December 23, 2011, 04:16 AM - News Stories
A photo of a female sailor kissing her girlfriend was reposted on President Obama?s Tumblr page yesterday.
The photo has gone viral.?
According to Mashable, "The blog has attracted more than 800 Tumblr ?likes? and reposts in just two hours. The sentiment for the photo has been largely positive with Tumblr users reposting it with messages such as ?It?s about time. Beautiful,? ?Makes me want to cry? and ?Thank you Mr. President.?
Read the entire story here.?
Visit Obama?s Tumblr page here.
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Veterans Affairs launches 152 Facebook pages
Friday, December 23, 2011, 01:01 AM - News Stories U.S. Agency Expands Facebook Presence For Veterans. U.S. armed service members returning from active duty can stay connected to local government health services on Facebook, thanks to a new social media strategy deployed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The federal agency launched 152 individual Facebook pages for each hospital in the VA system...
(AllFacebook)
Where?s Santa? Military trackers stand by to give updates. The military base has been telling anxious children about Santa?s whereabouts every year since 1955. That was the year a Colorado Springs newspaper ad invited kids to call Santa on a hotline, but the number had a mistake, and dozens of kids wound up talking to the Continental Aerospace Defence Command, Norad?s predecessor...
(The Star)
ElBaradei says Twitter account hacked. Presidential hopeful Mohamed ElBaradei said Thursday that his Twitter account was hacked and his posts about the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) were deleted. ElBaradei tweeted Thursday at 10:19 am about the incident, saying, "The truth never dies." He did not specify when his account was allegedly hacked...
(Al-Masry Al-Youm)
US and Taliban in Twitter war. The US military and the Taliban are fighting a war 140 characters at a time on Twitter. US military officials and two Taliban spokesmen are battling for social media supremacy, The Washington Post reports. The International Security Assistance Force began in September, when @isafmedia tweeted "How much longer will terrorists put innocent Afghans in harms way?'' as Taliban forces rained rockets and gunfire on the US embassy in Kabul...
(News.com.au)
U.S. Considers Shutting Down Somalia Terrorist Twitter. The U.S. government is "looking closely" at possible measures to counter a Somalian militant group's Twitter use, sparking debate over fighting terrorism and free speech. According to the New York Times, U.S. officials aren't disclosing possible actions, but is possibly exploring legal options to shut down the Twitter account "HSMPress," which claims to be the press office of Harakat al-Shabab al-Mujahedeen, the Shabab's full name...
(Mobiledia)
Danville historian pens part of Civil War series. A local Civil War historian has had the honor of contributing to a five-volume series on the Civil War. Lawrence McFall wrote an essay entitled ?To Danville: A Government on Wheels,? one of eight essays featured in the book ?Virginia at War 1865.? The book is the final of the series, each volume of which deals with an individual year of the Civil War (1861-1865)...
(GoDanRiver.com)
Bahrain frees blogger on bail, to reinstate workers. Bahrain, under pressure to improve its right record to secure a purchase of U.S. arms, said on Tuesday it freed on bail a Shi'ite female blogger arrested last week and would reinstate state employees suspended following pro-democracy protests...
(Reuters)
Witness Ties Bradley Manning to Wikileaks. Adrian Lamo, 30, told the court Tuesday that Manning confessed to leaking hundreds of thousands of top-secret documents in an encrypted chat under the handle Bradass87.Though defense counsel called them "alleged chats," Lamo said the handle Bradass87 appeared on his Facebook page with his photographs and biographical information...
(Courthouse News Service)
Sarajevans moved by Angelina Jolie war film. Sarajevans among the first filmgoers to see Angelina Jolie's directorial debut, a Bosnian wartime love story, came away deeply moved from a special screening in their city. "The movie is very realistic, moving and hard to watch for someone who was here during the war. I am very emotional," Sabira Sokolovic said...
(NDTV)
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Terrorist Twitter pages should be taken down
Wednesday, December 21, 2011, 04:27 AM - Twitter, News Stories This week, a lot of news sites and blogs are talking about the Twitter accounts of terrorist organizations like that of Somalia's al-Shabab, which I wrote about earlier in the month.? Al-Shabab joined after Kenyan military spokesman Major Emmanuel Chirchir?made headlines on Twitter for warning Somali civilians of imminent attacks.
Instead of the news sites and blogs talking about the account as if it?s some neat online novelty, the focus is finally on whether the account is a threat.
Uri Friedman over at Foreign Policy?s Passport blog has a good roundup of the online discussion that has been taking place.
In fact, it's recruitment -- not rebranding -- that has the Obama administration worried about al-Shabab's new Twitter presence. When the group first launched the account, Wired noted that "journalists, terrorism researchers, and aid workers make up the lion's share of its early followers, not eager Muslim youth." But the New York Times reports today that officials across the U.S. government are concerned that al-Shabab's account, which now boasts over 5,000 followers, could reach potential recruits in the West with its scathing and sophisticated English-language tweeting. "American officials say they may have the legal authority to demand that Twitter close the Shabab's account," the paper explains (Twitter declined to comment).?
If the government does indeed pursue legal action, the Times notes, it could open up a "debate about over the line between free speech and support for terrorism." And, indeed, the debate is already underway. In what appears to be a response to the Times piece today, al-Shabab tweeted, "With millions of websites & newspapers disseminating their propaganda, the #US couldn't endure to hear the real truth. What a travesty!" (The group also called an earlier Times article on its Twitter account an "elaborate, sentimental piece of writing accentuating the oft-repeated canard that passes for #Journalism these days.")
Me, personally, I?m all for shutting down Al-Shabab?s account.
Like I?ve posted about before, Twitter has been allowing other terrorist organizations like the Taliban to freely post hateful messages in violation of Twitter?s own TOS.?
It is disturbing. See here, here, here and here.
Of course, Twitter?s approach to this whole matter is to do nothing, fully knowing that terrorists are among its users.
The company is swift to take down user accounts for posting duplicate messages or other minor rule violations, but accounts that promote violence are allowed to remain.
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Civil War Diary reveals a poet and other news
Wednesday, December 21, 2011, 01:25 AM - News Stories Diary reveals a poet in Civil War soldier?s uniform. South Harwich, Mass. resident Ebenezer Smalley was 25 when he left his Cape Cod home to serve the Union in 1864. It was the signing bonus that prompted him to join, part of the funds needed to build a home for his wife and child. He didn?t survive. Smalley was sent home to die from wounds the doctors could not heal, seven months after he left. His diary was recently donated to the Harwich Historical Society...
(The Washington Post)
Video of Egyptian Women?s March in Cairo. As my colleague David Kirkpatrick reports, ?Thousands of women marched through downtown Cairo on Tuesday evening to call for the end of military rule in an extraordinary expression of anger over images of soldiers beating, stripping and kicking a female demonstrator on the pavement of Tahrir Square.? Omar Kamel, an activist and blogger, posted this video of the march on YouTube...
(New York Times)
Military Wives have the Xmas Factor. And today the Military Wives choir celebrated their single becoming the fastest-selling song for six years with a live performance in Oxford Street. Crowds gathered outside HMV as 25 members of the 100-strong choir performed carols including Away in a Manger and O Little Town of Bethlehem. They are virtually guaranteed to top the charts for Christmas after selling 242,000 of their track, Wherever You Are, in two days...
(London Evening Standard)
Twitter Denies Yet Another Censorship Accusation. Yesterday, Business Insider contributor David Seaman posted an item titled, "Welcome to the United Police States of America, Sponsored By Twitter." Any headline that can combine Twitter with an appeal to the paranoia of Internet libertarians everywhere is a sure-fire hit, and this one was, too: Business Insider's hit counter suggests that Seaman's post has already garnered over 70,000 views. The thing is that Seaman's post appears to be flat-out wrong. Seaman argues on Business Insider that his stentorian writing and tweeting about the National Defense Authorization Act, a bill that has civil libertarians concerned about several expansions of military authority, led Twitter to suspend his account...
(TechPresident)
Ex-hacker testifies about reporting U.S. Army leaks suspect. The 24-year-old Manning is charged with downloading thousands of classified or confidential files from the military's Secret Internet Protocol Router Network, or SIPRNet. Those files are thought to have later appeared on WikiLeaks, a whistleblower website. Former hacker Adrian Lamo said Manning initially contacted him by email in May 2010 and the two began an online conversation about diplomatic cables and military video the Army private allegedly downloaded from the classified network he used as a member of the 10th Mountain Division in Iraq...
(Reuters)
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Facebook releases military social media guide
Tuesday, December 20, 2011, 04:27 AM - Milblogging/Op Sec Guidelines
Facebook has released its own social media guide for military families. ?The organization Blue Star Families helped to develop the guide in hopes of showing people how best to use Facebook, while navigating operational and personal security issues. ?
A Q&A was posted on the Facebook post announcing the guide's release. Don Paul, a former Marine who is also Facebook's Vice President of Online Operations, answered why he thought it was a good time to release the guide.
"We thought the holiday season was the best time to release the guide since it can be a challenging time for many military families, who may have a family member deployed or are stationed far from home. We hope that the guide gives military families tips and best practices for using Facebook and will help them share the holidays with friends and family no matter where they are located."
The guide is only about?9-pages of information and is divided into six sections called: 6 ways military families can use social media and maintain security.
But it really should be called: 6 ways military families can use Facebook.?
1. Stay in touch with family and friends.
2. Stay informed of DoD, branch and unit policies and relevant information.
3. Learn to maintain Operational Security by knowing what to and what not to communicate.
4. Learn to maintain Personal Security on Facebook through privacy and account settings.
5. Thank your military family and friends and stay up-to-date on Facebook resources.
6. Use Facebook as a professional development resource.

The guide isn?t anything new in terms of understanding op sec guidelines, but it?s useful for Facebook users, especially considering the social networking site has had its own share of privacy issues.
The DoD has been publishing its own guides for years, which can be found at the DoD Social Media Hub.
To download Facebook?s social media guide, go here.
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Twitter war heating up for U.S. military
Tuesday, December 20, 2011, 03:58 AM - Twitter, News Stories
U.S. military, Taliban use Twitter to wage war. U.S. officials have grown increasingly concerned about extremists? stepped-up activity on social media sites, citing cases in which Americans have been recruited online by terrorists overseas. The House Homeland Security subcommittee on counterterrorism and intelligence convened a hearing this month on how jihadists were using social media. ?Terrorist networks are spreading their message, recruiting sympathizers and are connecting operationally online,? subcommittee chairman Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.) said in opening remarks, according to a transcript. Although the Taliban is not the only extremist group on Twitter, it appears to be the only one exchanging regular tweets with the U.S. military...
(The Washington Post)
Palm Bay soldier in top 'Time' photos. The photo represents only a split second of soldier Michael Miller?s deployment to Afghanistan, but it?s one that his family hopes will be a lasting symbol of war?s reality. Miller, a 23-year-old Army specialist from Palm Bay, was patrolling with his infantry brigade near the Pakistan border when bullets pierced the leaves around them. In the ambush?s first minute, a sergeant was shot...
(Floriday Today)
Iranian blogger slams 'spy' confessions. An Iranian blogger on Monday slammed the Iranian intelligence agency for using outdated scare tactics by coercing alleged spies to confess on national TV, without providing any evidence that ties them to the act. The criticism comes a day after Iranian national TV aired a "confession" of an Iranian-American citizen, who admitted to being recruited by the CIA, and worked with the British and Israeli secret service to gather intelligence about Iran...
(Ynetnews)
Social Media and Syria?s Revolution. As thousands of Syrian protesters have poured into the streets to call for the end to autocratic rule, some Syrians have been tasked with a more specific work: to topple the government of President Bashar al-Assad. Using mobile phones and small cameras everyday, a group of Syrians have risked their lives to film crackdowns on protesters by the government?s armed and security forces. The images have been uploaded on websites such as Facebook and YouTube to keep the world informed of events during this difficult time in many parts of the country...
(Rudaw)
Law Enforcement Warns of Rise in "Relative in Distress" Scams. Los Angeles County residents are being warned of an increase in the number of reports by victims of telephone scams where a caller impersonates a family member in distress. According to law enforcement, the scam goes like this: the victim is contacted by an individual claiming to be a relative in some sort of distress...
(WalnutPatch)
Twitter Wins $300 Million Alwaleed Investment. Twitter Inc., the microblogging service with more than 100 million users, received a $300 million investment from Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal as it pushes through a redesign of its site to attract advertisers. ?Alwaleed, who leads the 2011 Arab Rich List, and his investment company agreed to buy a ?strategic stake? in Twitter, Kingdom Holding said today. A strategic holding means more than 3 percent, Ahmed Halawani, a Kingdom Holding director, said in an interview. That would give the San Francisco-based company a valuation exceeding $10 billion...
(Bloomberg)
Popular Kim Jong Il photo blog may continue. Most of us don't know much about Kim Jong Il, the reclusive North Korean leader who died Saturday. But thanks to a cult-favorite blog, we do know this: That country's "Dear Leader" spent countless hours visiting stores, factories and plantations and gazing stoically from behind his trademark sunglasses upon various things -- soldiers, machinery, livestock and lots and lots of food...
(ClickOn Detroit)
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The Facebook Revolutions and other news
Monday, December 19, 2011, 04:04 AM - News Stories In case you missed it, here?s a look at some of the top military and social media stories?over the past few days from around the web.
The Facebook Revolutions: One Year On. Saturday marked the one year anniversary of when a 26-year-old Tunisian fruit and vegetable street vendor named Mohamed Bouazizi fatally lit himself on fire in protest of government oppression, sparking a year of regime-ending revolutions many believe were sustained and nurtured by social media...
(The Daily Caller)
For a soldier's family, Skype and Facebook help during holidays. It should have been a scene ready-made for one of those sappy Hallmark commercials: a military mom based in Afghanistan using Skype to help her kids decorate the Christmas tree in their Ben Avon home. And for a few minutes, the laptop reunion on video chat was pretty picture-perfect, with Lt. Col. Chris Cieslak playfully directing her children where to hang certain ornaments on the tree in the dining room while her husband of 14 years, Jeff, looked on. Then, as family events so often do during the holidays, they quickly unraveled...
(post-gazette)
Military Academies Look to Fill Nation?s Cybersecurity Gaps. The rise of all things cybersecurity has been accompanied by a collective groaning that there is a shortage of personnel skilled enough to protect critical government and military networks. The Defense Department is under constant attack from hackers, and officials said they need to do a better job of recruiting Internet security experts to stop them...
(National Defense Magazine)
Welcome To The United Police States of America, Sponsored By Twitter. Imagine my surprise this morning when, without warning, my shiny new Twitter account (@d_seaman) was suspended and taken offline. No more tweets for you. You now have 0 followers. My crime? Talking too much about Occupy Wall Street...
(Business Insider)
Army Arrested Manning Based on Unconfirmed Chat Logs. The military arrested alleged WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning last year in Iraq based in large part on unconfirmed information that former hacker Adrian Lamo had gleaned from his chats with Manning, according to the government?s first witness in Manning?s hearing...
(Wired)
Defense cites Bradley Manning?s emotional, gender issues at Wikileaks hearing.? A struggle with emotional problems and even his gender may affect the culpability of an Army private accused of leaking thousands of classified military reports and diplomatic cables to Wikileaks, the defense argued at a preliminary hearing here Saturday...
(Politico)
Private Bradley Manning wanted to call himself 'Breanna' on Twitter, US military court is told. In a confrontational second day to the hearing that precedes the 24-year-old's full trial, the court heard for the first time about "Breanna Manning" - the female identity that the young soldier sometimes used while posted as an intelligence officer at an American base in Iraq...
(Telegraph)
Welcome Your Soldier Home on Patch. After nearly a decade, the Iraq war is officially over as of Saturday night. Top U.S. officials have said all military personnel in Iraq will be home by the end of the year. Most will be out by Christmas. Collingswood Patch wants to know about your loved ones who served in Iraq...
(Collingswood Patch)
Video Shows Egyptian Soldiers Beating and Shooting at Protesters. As our colleague David Kirkpatrick reports from Cairo, Egyptian soldiers chased down and beat unarmed civilians on Saturday, even while the prime minister appointed by the military ?was denying in a televised news conference that security forces were using any force.?
(New York Times)

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Army Cpt. builds iPhone app for artillery
Monday, December 19, 2011, 01:57 AM - News Stories This is a neat to story to follow that appeared on Bloomberg earlier this week.
At Camp Blessing in Afghanistan?s Pech Valley, some American soldiers played ?Angry Birds? on their iPhones when off-duty. Jonathan Springer decided to put his device to a different use: building an app to help fight the Taliban.
?I wanted to give something back to soldiers that might help save their lives,? Springer, 32, said in an interview from his base at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
The result is Tactical Nav, an iPhone application the U.S. Army captain built with $30,000 of his savings and a maxed-out credit card a year ago. The $5.99 app uses GPS technology and the iPhone?s camera to chart coordinates and guide artillery fire. It has been downloaded about 8,000 times by U.S., Canadian and Australian soldiers, as well as hunters and hikers, Springer said.
Read the entire story here.
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How do journalists cope with war?
Saturday, December 17, 2011, 06:32 AM - News Stories GUEST COMMENTARY: When war journalists come home. With U.S. military involvement in Iraq ending and troops coming home, news coverage rightfully focuses on the lives of these men and women and their adjustment to noncombat roles. Notable stories document the challenges facing veterans who cope with physical and mental health injuries, including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. However, what is typically missing in the analysis of postwar issues are accounts of the print and broadcast journalists who have spent extended time embedded with troops and borne witness to death and destruction while working in harm's way...
(nwitimes)
Sign of the Times. As politicians in Washington declare the war in Iraq officially over, the vast majority of Americans, regardless of their political stance on the eight and a half year conflict, feel a deep sense of gratitude for the hundreds of thousands of men and women who fought there. We live in a noble, patriotic nation that knows how to thank those who volunteer to defend America. The New York Times, on the other hand, is treating this historic day as an occasion to smear our military. From the current front page of its website, which has a sub-headline of "An Unpopular Conflict Comes to an Uncertain End," to the print version's incendiary, inaccurate Dec. 15 front page story, the Times has made clear that it will continue to attack our troops in the name of "journalism."
(The Unknown Soldiers)
Rangers Give New Army Radio, Smartphone First Combat Test. Army Rangers in Afghanistan are now carrying new radios and tactical smartphones that allow them to track each other's position when their teammates are out of sight. Units from the Army's elite 75th Ranger Regiment have deployed to Afghanistan with the AN/PRC-154 Rifleman Radio -- a device developed under the Joint Tactical Radio System program, or JTRS -- that will connect them to the Army's tactical network, according to officials from Joint Program Executive Office JTRS...
(Military.com)
Al Jazeera producer detained, beaten during Egypt clashes. The military advanced, then retreated, but all the while attacking protesters and foreign journalists alike. Evan Hill, an online producer for Al Jazeera, was caught in the chaos, detained and beaten, activists reported on Friday early afternoon. According to fellow Al Jazeera produce Adam Makary, writing on Twitter, said he was ?beaten by military police. His phone, camera and passport confiscated...?
(Bikya Masr)
With Obama Prepared to Sign, Pennsylvania Senators Get ?TwitterBombed? over Defense Bill. President Barack Obama said yesterday he was backpeddling on his months-long threat to veto the National Defense Authorization Act, which, many contend, gives the U.S. military the right to indefinitely detain U.S. citizens as part of the war on terror. As we?ve noted, both Pennsylvania senators Bob Casey and Pat Toomey not only voted in favor of the $662 billion NDAA, but against two amendments which would have removed or edited Sections 1031 and 1032, which include vague language on the detention of terrorism suspects...
(Philadelphia Weekly)
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Soldier's death spreads quickly via Facebook
Friday, December 16, 2011, 03:45 AM - News Stories According to the Orlando Sentinel, Jalfred D. Vaquerano, 20, died December 13th from injuries he suffered during a firefight in Afghanistan.
The story of Vaquerano?s final days was chronicled by his fianc? on Facebook.
The Sentinel writes:
"I'll never be Mrs. Vaquerano," Madden wrote on her Facebook wall, after sitting at his bedside at the Landsthul Regional Medical Center in Germany. "I'll never have a chance to walk down the aisle towards him...I'll never be able to have beautiful green-eyed babies with the love of my life. I'll never be able to grow old with the one person on earth who made me so happy? I've lost everything."
Madden, 20, also of Apopka, chronicled the final days of Vaq
Source: http://milblogging.com/index.php?entry=entry111229-220921
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