News: January 2006 Archives
An Army sniper has set a new record for the longest confrimed kill in Iraq at over three-quarters of a mile.
RAMADI, Iraq -- Gazing through the telescopic sight of his M-24 rifle, Army Staff Sgt. Jim Gilliland, leader of Shadow sniper team, fixed his eye on the Iraqi insurgent who had just killed an American soldier.His quarry stood nonchalantly in the fourth-floor bay window of a hospital in battle-torn Ramadi, still clasping a long-barreled Kalashnikov. Instinctively allowing for wind speed and bullet drop, Shadow's commander aimed 12 feet high.
A single shot hit the Iraqi in the chest and killed him instantly. It had been fired from a range of more than three-quarters of a mile, well beyond the capacity of the powerful Leupold sight, accurate to 3,300 feet.
"I believe it is the longest confirmed kill in Iraq with a 7.62mm rifle," said Sgt. Gilliland, 28, who hunted squirrels in Double Springs, Ala., from the age of 5 before progressing to deer -- and then to insurgents and terrorists.
"He was visible only from the waist up. It was a one-in-a-million shot. I could probably shoot a whole box of ammunition and never hit him again."
(HT: RCaston.)
Almost too weird to be true, it seems that prank callers pretending to be police officers have actually convinced fast-food restaurant managers to strip-search their employees... and worse.
The caller managed to convince a 16-year-old female manager to strip-search a 21-year-old male cook in the women's restroom at the Sonic and to perform an oral sex act on the cook under the threat of arrest if she did not cooperate. The caller then persuaded the cook to conduct a strip search of the manager. ...Stewart was arrested in July on a warrant related to a similar hoax perpetrated on employees of a McDonald's restaurant in Mount Washington, Ky. ...
In the Kentucky case, Stewart is accused of getting a female manager and her boyfriend to strip-search a female employee, and then soliciting the boyfriend to perform sexual acts on her. The boyfriend, Walter Nix, 43, has been charged with sodomy and assault, and is awaiting trial set for March 10.
The victim in the Mount Washington case filed a lawsuit against McDonald's in August, alleging that the corporation failed to notify employees in advance of a telephone scam that was widely known to be plaguing the fast-food industry.
Apparently it isn't uncommon for police to phone-in strip search requests to businesses.
PANAMA CITY, Fla. - A supervisor at a supermarket was arrested after an employee said her boss strip-searched her, claiming to be following orders from a police officer on the phone. ...James Marvin Pate, 36, an assistant manager at a Winn-Dixie store, was arrested Saturday on charges of false imprisonment and lewd and lascivious behavior. He was released on $10,000 bail.
The woman told investigators Pate called her into his office Friday and told her she would go to jail for theft if she didn't remove her clothing and submit to a search ordered by the caller.
Police said he handed the phone over to the woman, who then undressed. Pate took her clothing, forced her to pose in different positions and refused to give her clothing back for an extended time, according to an arrest report.
At at another restaurant:
Two employees at a Bismarck restaurant took off their clothes in May when a prank caller, who claimed he was the district manager, ordered them to comply with a strip search. In 2000, three Bismarck fast-food restaurants received similar calls and two employees stripped down to their underwear as a result.
Deputy Police Chief Dennis Bullinger denies the policy:
According to Bullinger, the police department doesn't conduct strip searches over the phone under any circumstance.
According to him, if you believe it.
And yet again, strip searches at Wendy's.
BOSTON -- Investigators say someone posing as the police called several local fast food restaurants telling managers they must strip search their employees -- and they did.NewsCenter 5's Jim Boyd reported that four Wendy's fast food restaurant supervisors were told Saturday that their employees were stealing from customers, and to conduct immediate strip searches.
"The person on the other end identified themselves as a detective from Whitman and said one of the employees was a wanted suspect and asked them to do a strip search," said Whitman Deputy Police Chief Raymond Nelson. "Evidently, they were strip searched."
The incidents happened in Whitman and West Bridgewater.
It's tempting to just throw up your hands and let people reap the consequences for their own stupidity. Paul -V- at Brainshrub thinks these people are even stupider than I do, but says they wouldn't take off their clothes so readily if they had free health care.
Box-store corporations have created an underclass within our culture. An underclass might be good for corporate profits, but it breeds long-term social instability. Ask the French if you disagree. Ogborn is currently suing McDonalds, but how many smaller indignities to working-class people have to deal with every day that don't get as much media attention?Americans must support policies that empower workers to stand up for their rights. Policies such as universal health-care and living-wage laws prevent workers from being so dependent upon their employers, that they are willing to surrender their dignity.
These programs might make the cost of a cheeseburger go up by a nickel, but in exchange you will have the security of knowing that when your employer asks you to do something you find objectionable, you will not have to make a choice between doing the right thing or giving up your child's healthcare.
The strippers didn't have to make such a choice, however, because existing law protects them from these kinds of bizarre requests. In Paul -V-'s ideal world, would these employees have quit their jobs in response to the prank calls? That doesn't seem much smarter.
(HT: Vegan Porn.)
A Predator UAV may have recently killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama Bin Laden's right-hand man.
Today, according to Pakistani military sources, U.S. aircraft attacked a compound known to be frequented by high-level al Qaeda operatives. Pakistani officials tell ABC News that al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant, may have been among them.U.S. intelligence for the last few days indicated that Zawahiri might have been in the location or about to arrive, although there is still no confirmation from U.S. officials that he was among the victims.
If it's confirmed it's good news, not least because Pakistan is cooperating so well with us.
Update:
Oh well, it looks like Zawahiri wasn't there.
Ayman al-Zawahiri -- Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in the al Qaeda terrorist network -- was not killed in a CIA airstrike on a remote Pakistani village, according to a Pakistani intelligence official.U.S. sources said al-Zawahiri was the target of Friday's strike and initially reported that he may have been among the 18 people killed. ...
Friday morning's strike killed eight men, five women and five children, Pakistani intelligence sources told CNN. Three homes were targeted. ...
Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, Pakistan's information minister, said that the U.S. ambassador, Ryan Crocker, is to be summoned and a strong protest will be made.
"While this act is highly condemnable, we have been for a long time been striving to rid all our tribal areas of foreign intruders who have been responsible for all the violence and misery in the region. This situation has to be brought to an end."
He added that it "is also the responsibility of the people in the areas to fully co-operate.'"
It is very unfortunate if we killed a bunch of innocents, but I doubt we did. Even if we didn't get Zawahiri, we probably got some other terrorists. The deaths of the women and children are on their hands. If the terrorists consider themselves to be soldiers, they shouldn't hide among civilians.
