We can only hope that the world governments will begin to crack down on kidnappers and pirates. Somalia should not be a haven for outlaws.

From Belfast Telegraph:

US ‘Osama bin Laden’ team rescue aid workers in daring Somalia raid

By Daniel Howden
Thursday, 26 January 2012

As Barack Obama walked out to deliver his State of the Union address on Tuesday night he stopped to congratulate his Defence Secretary on a “good job tonight”.

Unknown to his audience, just hours earlier the commando unit that killed Osama bin Laden last year had carried out another daring raid, this time in Somalia.

When the address got under way in Washington, US Navy Seals were flying through the darkness of the early hours in the Horn of Africa, along with two aid workers rescued from a gang of Somali kidnappers, nine of whom were killed in the operation.

Even though Mr Obama didn’t mention the mission, which was still under way, he did pay warm tribute to the team that killed al-Qa’ida’s leader. By yesterday morning, the choreography was striking. In his speech to Congress, Mr Obama said one of his “proudest possessions” was the flag the US commando team, Seal Team 6, had taken with them on the Bin Laden mission.

Hours later, a statement on the Somalia raid said: “As Commander-in-Chief, I could not be prouder of the troops who carried out this mission.”

An American aid worker, Jessica Buchanan, 32, and her Danish colleague Poul Hagen Thisted, 60, who were captured while working on a demining project in central Somalia three months ago, were yesterday “on their way to be reunited with their families”, according to their employers, the Danish Refugee Council (DRC).

The rescue marked an increased willingness by the US to send troops into Somalia, a lawless and dangerous country that, after 21 years without a central government, is beset by pirate gangs, rival clan militias and a powerful Islamist insurgency. US engagement with Somalia is haunted by the deaths of 19 troops in a botched mission in Mogadishu in 1993, immortalised in the film Black Hawk Down. But more recently the Pentagon has been willing to use Special Forces for assassination missions and drone strikes against suspected terrorists in the country.

Witnesses in Galkayo, a town near where the kidnappers were believed to be, reported seeing helicopters after 2am yesterday and gunfire was heard a bit later.

US officials said that Seal Team 6 – the same unit used in the Bin Laden raid in Pakistan last May but not necessarily the same commandos – parachuted to a site about a mile from where the aid workers were being held and approached on foot.

The raiders found the gang asleep after an evening of chewing the narcotic khat, a Somali man named Bile Hussein, who knew the gang but was not there at the time, told the Associated Press. He said three Somalis had been taken by the US rescue team. By dawn, the bodies of another nine gang members had been brought to Galkayo and some reports suggested as many as six gang members had been captured.

There have been kidnappings in Somalia and neighbouring Kenya after hijackings at sea were made more difficult by the presence of foreign navies off the coast. The DRC pair – among the very few Western aid workers prepared to work inside Somalia – were seized by two trucks of gunmen in October. The Copenhagen-based group had tried without success to negotiate their release with the help of Somali elders in the area.

Al-Shabaab, the Islamist militia that controls parts of Somalia, has been blamed for some of the kidnappings, but the group has denied involvement.

The waiting game: Somalia’s remaining hostages

Judith Tebbutt

Somali pirates are believed to have kidnapped 56-year-old British tourist Judith Tebbutt from a remote beach resort near Lamu in Kenya in September last year. Her husband was shot dead in the attack. Her whereabouts remain unknown.

Michael Scott Moore

Freelance writer and dual US-German citizen Michael Scott Moore was kidnapped on 21 January this year by armed militia in central Somalia.

Blanca Thiebaut and Montserrat Serra

The Médecins Sans Frontières aid workers were abducted from Dadaab refugee camp near the Kenya-Somalia border in October 2011. They remain in central Somalia.

Denis Allex and Marc Aubrière

The French security advisers were kidnapped in Mogadishu in July 2009. Mr Aubrière escaped but al-Shabaab released a video of Mr Allex in June 2010, and made political demands in exchange for his release.

Filipino crews

It is estimated that more than 470 Filipino commercial sailors were kidnapped by Somali pirates between 2006 and 2011. As of January 2011, at least 74 Filipinos were being held aboard six ships.

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From http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/world/asia/kim-jong-il-is-dead.html?_r=1&hp

Kim Jong-il, North Korean Leader, Dies

By CHOE SANG-HUN
Published: December 18, 2011

SEOUL, South Korea — Kim Jong-il, the reclusive North Korean leader who has been battling ill health following a reported stroke in 2008, has died, the North’s official news media reported on Monday.

“Our great leader Comrade Kim Jong-il passed away at 8:30 a.m. on Dec. 17,” Korean Central TV reported.

Mr. Kim was 69 years old. Since he reportedly suffered a stroke in 2008, he has been grooming his third son, Kim Jong-un, believed to be in his late 20s, to be his successor, as his country struggled to fight widespread food shortages and international sanctions imposed for its nuclear weapons development.

The US Navy is celebrating the 50th anniversary of nuclear power and of Aircraft Carrier U.S.S. Enterprise.

Feel free to join the celebration and share this wallpaper:

U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier U.S.S. Enteprise

Interesting article a friend sent me, from the Civil War Women Blog:

Female Civil War Soldier

Jennie Hodgers was born in Clogherhead,  Ireland, on Christmas Day, 1844. She sailed to America as a stowaway and settled in Belvidere, Illinois. Little is known about her early life  because her true identity was not discovered until a few years before her death. According to later investigation by the administrator of her estate, she was the child of Sallie and Patrick Hodgers.

The Civil War

By 1862, Jennie was living in Belvidere, Illinois. As the Civil War escalated in July of 1862, President Abraham Lincoln sent out a call for
an additional 300,000 men to serve in the Union Army. Nineteen-year-old Jennie Hodgers wanted to help her country.

On August 6, 1862, Jennie Hodgers enlisted in the Union Army as an infantryman in the 95th Illinois Infantry Regiment, using the name Albert D. J. Cashier.  Jennie couldn’t read or write, so she marked an “X” on the enlistment papers and passed a physical examination – just a quick look at the eyes and ears, no undressing involved.

At that moment Jennie Hodgers became Albert Cashier, Private First Class. She was five feet, three inches tall – the shortest person
in her regiment – and weighed 110 pounds. How she came up with the name no one knows.

The 95th Regiment was mustered into Federal service at Camp Fuller, Illinois, on September 4, 1862, and a month later was on its way to
Grand Junction, Tennessee, where it became part of General Ulysses S. Grant’s Army of the Tennessee, originally assigned to the 1st Brigade, 6th Division, XIII Corps.

Other soldiers thought that Hodgers was just a small man who preferred being alone, which was not that uncommon. She endured long marches, lived in the open air, and performed all other duties required of a Union soldier. Her comrades later recalled her as a skilled rifleman.

The 95th Regiment fought in the Siege of Vicksburg, the Red River Campaign and the combat  at Guntown, Mississippi, where they suffered heavy casualties. When Hodgers was captured by the Confederates during the Vicksburg Campaign, she managed to escape by grabbing a guard’s rifle and knocking him senseless with it.

During 1864, the 95th pursued Confederate General Sterling Price during his Missouri raid. In December 1864, they fought at the Battle of Nashville, the last major battle in the Western Theater. Sent to the Gulf of Mexico, the regiment ended its military service by taking part in the siege and capture of Spanish Fort and Fort Blakely in March 1865.

After the War

Hodgers was mustered out of the Union Army with the remainder of the regiment on August 17, 1865, after serving for three years and 11 days in the ranks. She had marched thousands of miles, fought in more than 40 battles, and earned a reputation for bravery and tenacity under fire.

She and her fellow soldiers returned to Illinois where they were honored with a huge public rally before returning to civilian life. She
had escaped the war without serious injury, allowing her to keep her identity a secret.

Hodgers returned to Belvidere, but soon moved on to several other Illinois towns, working at odd jobs. She finally settled in Saunemin,
Illinois, in 1869. There she lived in a small house she bought, still posing as Albert Cashier.

She performed many different jobs over the next 40 years: janitor of a church, farm worker, town lamplighter and handyman. She also voted in elections, long before Illinois gave women the right to vote. In later years, Hodgers gained a reputation of being a bit eccentric.

It took a long time for Hodgers’ secret to unravel. She applied for a veteran’s pension in 1899, but didn’t complete the process until 1907, since it required a medical exam. Somehow she convinced the examining board not to divulge her secret and the pension was granted.

In November 1910, Hodgers was at work picking up sticks at the home of Illinois State Senator Ira M. Lish. Unable to see her small form behind him, the senator backed his car down the driveway and struck her, breaking her leg. A doctor discovered her sex while examining her leg.  She pleaded with the men to keep his secret, and they decided that no good would be served by making her true gender public knowledge.

Hodgers never recovered fully from the accident, and within months, the Senator and doctor agreed that she needed institutional care, because she was totally disabled. On May 5, 1911, Hodgers was moved from Saunemin to the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home in Quincy, Illinois, where she was admitted as a man.

In March 1914, the Home decided that the continuing decline in her mental health warranted her being placed in the State Hospital for the Insane at East Moline, Illinois. This required a court hearing, and although her gender was not referred to at the hearing, word got out and the press broke the story. At the hospital, she was forced to wear dresses for the first time in more than 50 years. She fought back for a long time before finally giving in.

Jennie Hodgers died at the Watertown State Hospital on October 10, 1915. Wearing her Union uniform, of which she was so proud and with her casket draped with an American flag, she was given a military funeral in East Moline on October 12.

Her body was moved to Saunemin, where she was buried as Albert Cashier in Sunny Slope Cemetery. Upon the headstone over her grave was inscribed the masculine name she carried into battle and bore throughout her life. In the 1980s, measures were taken to correctly identify the gravesite. Visitors will now find two headstones in place – the original veteran marker and a larger memorial stone.

It took W.J. Singleton, executor of her estate, nine years to track Cashier’s identity back to Jennie Hodgers. The people of Saunemin have
not forgotten their little soldier of the Civil War. On Memorial Day, 1977, they erected a larger monument that bears the name Jennie Hodgers.  Her name is also inscribed on the Illinois monument at Vicksburg.

Jennie Hodgers’ life must have been a difficult and lonely journey driven by circumstances mostly beyond her control. She earned the
respect of her peers in war and peace and a special place in the history of the United States. She was a true patriot, an exemplary citizen and a source of pride for those who share her heritage.

What separates Jennie from the other females who dressed as men to fight  in the Civil War is that she was the only one to serve for the full time that her unit served, and the only one to survive the war without anyone discovering her gender. Sooner or later, all the other women were  found out and told to go home, or served as nurses in field hospitals.  Why she continued to live as a man long after her military service ended is anybody’s guess.

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