Weekly attack on Diwaniyah VIII/07

April 20 Rocket attack on Echo base (Iraqslogger), thats Friday so think post sermon hate.
April 21 Reports of Polish convoy 30 km from Diwaniyah hit by IED, one Polish solider killed and three wounded.

That second news is grievous, but the indirect fire attacks inDiwaniyah proper have finally tailed off. MNF(I) reveals two reasons why indirect fire attacks on Echo are down post Black Eagle - the US 1-14 Cav Regiment. First, they patrol likely firing sites (a basic tactic MND(CS) has not carried out in many months since they apparently lost control of Diwaniyah city last summer). Second, a US mortar subunit has set up shop at Camp Echo to deliver counter battery fire, illum and HE missions. Counter battery is critical, because any Muj delivering fire to Echo is likely to be in a hurry before the return fire drops in his lap . Furthermore, since patrols are looking for him the in the likely times and places, he will be nervious setting up, unlike in the recent past when he had time to take coffee and a smoke between shots. Why on earth it took nearly a year and US forces to conduct such fairly basic self defence measures is a question that should be put closely to MND(CS) past and current Polish leadership, but the chances of General Lamla and predecessors being put to the question are probably sadly remote.

How big has the indirect fire threat been before the US took charge? Compare these two photo series from MND(CS) PIO :

Salvadorean change of contingent 16 February - soft hats and bdus for all.


Lithuanian and Ukrainian soldiers recieve medals 20 April, helmets and full armor for the Polish , Ukrainians and Salvadoreans. Only the Lithuanians make light of danger and forgoe the armor.

Daily Weekly attack on Diwaniyah VII/07

Happy news at last, after last weeks daily hate there have been a mere two attacks in the last week (the Lv MoD homepage is not responding so no details). Of course two attacks in one week would have been big news last year.

Furthermore, according to this article, after being al-Sadr's bitch and personal static mortar range for about six months, MND(CS) will finally change policy and be more proactive. Disturbingly, Iraqslogger reports that Black Eagle only occurred after local tribes demanded action. Of course, the current relative calm is helped greatly by the fact that there are regular US troops (stryker/cavalry) still in the streets of Diwaniyah (pictured below by Reuters dodgy stringer Imad al-Khozai). With any luck they will remain there a while, or at least until summer when we are due to withdraw.



Update : details available

April 12 when several rockets were fired towards the base in the evening with no serious damage (Latvian MoD)
April 17 Camp Echo (aka Echo base, aka FOB Echo) came under mortar attack (Iraqslogger)

Wire services and news in Diwaniyah

Now Reuters is clueless, we knew that, but I begin to wonder if the MSM isn't deliberately excising coverage of the Coalition of the Willing (among other sins). Case in point : Operation Black Eagle in Diwaniyah. The first photo has had plenty of exposure on internet news stories, the second is pretty much unseen. Perhaps the composition is worse. Maybe the intended US audiences aren't too interested in foreigners anyway. But maybe left leaning media outlets want to minimise the Coalition of the Willing? Try to find examples of coalition soldiers doing much of anything in Iraq in the MSM, there is very very little except for fatalities which the MSM reports with alacrity. Now compare these two photos [1] [2] :

A U.S. military convoy drives through Diwaniyah, 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, April 6, 2007. Iraqi forces backed by American soldiers swept into a troubled, predominantly Shiite city south of Baghdad before dawn Friday, and the U.S. military said as many as six militia fighters had been killed. (AP Photo/Jalal Mudhar)

AP via Yahoo! News - Apr 06 11:09 AM

A soldier from the multi-national forces stands guard while U.S. armoured vehicles patrol a street in Diwaniya, 180 km (112 miles) south of Baghdad, April 6, 2007. Iraqi and U.S. troops on Friday moved into the southern city of Diwaniya, a stronghold of Shi'ite militia loyal to anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, in an operation to curb the militia's increasing influence. REUTERS/Imad al-Khozai (IRAQ)

Reuters via Yahoo! News - Apr 06 10:50 AM

That slippery Diwaniyah shifts 50km depending on which wire service you believe. I guess it depends how you measure it, maybe one is road miles and the other crow miles.

The multinational soldier is Latvian, again the unique Latvian digital desert cam, and see the flag on the sleeve pocket. A closer view would reveal "LATVIA" written above the flag. Photographer "Imad" obviously has trouble with reading and/or geography since he was the one who photographed the "Bolivian" soldier in Diwaniyah the following day.

Those two photographs were either taken seconds apart by one camera, or more or less simultaneously from two places. They are from two different wire services, with supposedly two different photographers, and both spell "Diwaniya-/-h" differently. So two local stringers were standing shoulder to shoulder like good friends shooting away? Unless .... nah, couldn't possibly be that the wire services are being taken for a ride?

Are there any more examples? How about these photos [1] [2]?

An Iraqi soldier patrols the deserted streets in Diwaniyah, 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, April 9, 2007. American troops continued operations in Diwaniyah on Monday, detaining four guards at the office of a Shiite political party and scouring two neighborhoods in the city's northern and eastern sections, police said. At least 24 suspects were detained and one civilian was killed, police said. U.S. officials had no immediate comment. (AP Photo/Jalal Mudhar)

AP via Yahoo! News - Apr 09 8:57 AM

An Iraqi soldier searches for snipers in a street in Diwaniya, 180 km (112 miles) south of Baghdad, April 7, 2007. U.S. forces launched an air strike in the volatile Iraqi city of Diwaniya on Saturday amid sporadic gunbattles between Shi'ite militiamen and U.S. and Iraqi forces seeking to return the city to government control. (Imad al-Khozai/Reuters)

Reuters via Yahoo! News - Apr 07 3:33 PM

But that appears to be the same guy, in an similar pose, in stories filed two days apart. Look at the face, arms bands, silver watch, webbing, the position and pattern of the cam on the vest relative to the webbing is identical. That is the same guy. He is "patrolling" in the first and "searching for snipers" in the second, doing neither very convincingly. Weird huh? Either its a remarkable coincidence or it is staged and/or mislabelled and mis-dated.

Maybe Imad and Jalal are buddies, they travel together and photograph stuff. Or do they just stage together, and inaccurately mislabel the photos as required to fit the moment and the wire services bite? Or does Jalal, who seems to travel (he has photos from many different cities in Iraq) borrow unattributed (staged) shots from his buddy Imad in Diwaniyah?

Hard to say. I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation, but IMHO its just more symptoms of the disease that infects AP and Reuters (and the MSM in general). Pathetic fact checking, reliance on unaccountable crooked stringers, embedded political bias. News that's skewed even if nothing is faked.

Daily attack on Diwaniyah VI/07 and Operation Black Eagle

An operation to finally clean up Diwaniyah began on April 6th - Operation Black Eagle. Notably it appears MND(CS) is not leading, but the main work is being done by US forces - though it is claimed to be lead by the Iraqi 8th division with US and multinational support*.

Iraqslogger has a number of articles, Diwaniyah is under curfew since April 6th, the US has used air strikes, and the enemy claims to have smoked 3 HMWVVs, at least one American has been killed, and about 60 or so from the Mahdi army, IED factories have been uncovered, including for EFPs.

And how does this affect our beloved Camp Echo?

31 March During the evening Camp Echo takes unspecified incoming fire (Lv MoD)
02 April Camp Echo is mortared at 0430 in the morning (Lv MoD)
06 April Camp Echo is rocketed at about 2200.
07 April Camp Echo is mortared around 1700 (daylight!).
08 April Camp Echo is rocketed around 1300 (daylight!).
09 April Camp Echo is quiet (Easter roundup summary at Lv MoD).

The 6th was Friday, so figure the usual post-sermon evening hate, but daylight indirect attacks are rather unusual. At a guess, unable to effectively target the moving operation, the Sadrists vented at the big static target just outside town.

Will Black Eagle help to ease the attacks on Camp Echo?

Short term while the operation rolls and heavy outside security remains probably so.

Long term (>month) I have doubts. There were similar operations just six months ago (October). The locals have to take charge again sooner or later, and up to now they've been good Sadrists. The local police were useless and unable to maintain control, and will continue to be so. The Iraqis would need to import a crack police brigade or so from elsewhere to significantly change that (and Diwaniyah is not that important in the big picture). Killing off some 100 Sadrist militia in a city of 500 000, where 10% or more may be potential militia fighters changes little. The supply of weapons likewise is unchanged (though with any luck key IED makers/cells have been nailed, and that would make the whole operation worthwhile). I fear the net effect, with bodies and city center airstrikes, may just be buckets of bad will from the remaining locals.

None of this changes Camp Echo's inability to act as more than a static mortar range target, or MND(CS) inability to conduct meaningful operations.

* If there exist any photographs showing any MND(CS) soldiers outside the wire excepting the Latvians, well, I cannot find them on the english language internet. If any visitors do see any please leave a comment and a link.

Micro-ReutersGate in Diwaniyah

The trouble in Diwaniyah has finally come to a head, with forces being diverted from elsewhere to clean the militias out. But more about that elsewhere.

Reuters has bungled a photo caption, in itself a quite trivial event, but IMHO illustrative of Reuters poor quality. Reuters stringers are apparently covering the operation, and Reuters shows this picture and captions it "A soldier from Bolivia patrols a street in Diwaniya".

A soldier from Bolivia patrols a street in Diwaniya, 180 km (112 miles) south of Baghdad, April 7, 2007. U.S. forces launched an air strike in Diwaniya on Saturday as U.S. and Iraqi troops seeking to return the volatile Iraqi city to government control fought sporadic gun battles with Shi'ite militiamen.
REUTERS/IMAD AL-KHOZAI

Reuters problems with suspect stringers and negligent basic fact checking has been noted previously ("Reutergate"). Here is another example, though this may be news to Reuters :

- there are no Bolivian soldiers in Diwaniyah, mainly because
- there are no Bolivian soldiers in Iraq, mainly because
- Bolivia is not currently taking part in Operation Iraqi Freedom, mainly because
- Bolivia has never taken part in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

There are soldiers from El Salvador in Diwaniyah, part of MND(CS). Bolivia, Costa Rica whatever, I mean what's the difference, right? Course, some of us instincitively realize that the pseudo-narcostate pseudo-marxist Morales lead Bolivia is entirely unlikely to deploy to Iraq, but Reuters highly paid editors obviously needed to do some googling. Unless they think that a Bolivian born soldier serving in (for example) the US army, justifies a tagline like that. But the soldier is 100% most assuredly not from Bolivia in any way.

The soldier is Latvian, although Latvian participation in the Coalition of the Willing may also be news to Reuters. That a pale north european looking guy is patrolling in Diwaniyah may have been a clue, but the key diagnostic features are the unique Latvian large pixelled digitial desert camoflague and the custom H&K G36 (Compare the Reuters foto with these at Lv MoD).

Good morning Reuters. Try buying a clue.

Weekly Daily attack on Diwaniyah V/07

March madness continues unabated in Diwaniyah. First up, late news on the usual post Friday sermon Islamic rage attacks

March 23 Camp Echo is hit during the evening by several mortar bombs (Lv MoD)

March 24 Shots directed towards Camp Echo during the evening (Lv MoD)

DIWANIYA - The bullet-riddled body of a military intelligence officer was found in the centre of Diwaniya, 180 km (110 miles) south of Baghdad, police said. (Reuters),

but elsewhere in the former MND(CS) area :

Hilla- At least eleven civilians were killed and 45 were wounded on Saturday afternoon when a car bomb detonated near a Shiite mosque in north of Hilla, 100 km south of Baghdad, a police source said.(Iraqslogger)

March 25 Nothing reported from Diwaniyah but :

Hilla- Fierce clashes erupted on Sunday morning between armed groups and citizens mourning the victims of a suicide bombing at a (Shiite) mosque that killed 11 and wounded 45 on Saturday north of Hilla. (Iraqslogger)

March 26

DIWANIYA - The body of a man was found with gunshot wounds, bound and bearing signs of torture on Sunday in the southern city of Diwaniya, 180 km (110 miles) south of Baghdad, police said. (Reuters)

And its only Monday.

Update:

March 27  Several rockets are fired towards Camp Echo during th evening at about 20:20.
 (Lv MoD)

DIWANIYA - Six bodies were found in different parts of Diwaniya, 180 km (110 miles) south of Baghdad, police said. The victims had been tortured, bound and shot. (Reuters)

March 28 Several rockets are fited towards Camp Echo in the evening.
 (Lv MoD)

The Latvian MoD provides few details on events in their posts other than noting that the Latvian contingent is unharmed. 

While on the subject of details, I understand the reports of bodies with "signs of torture" mean real horror like the liberal use of power drills on the victim.  Dreadfull stuff.

Last to Know

MND(CS) has posted the foto on their own website .

Now, given the flurry of police on gunman madness during the last week in Diwaniyah, MND(CS) commander Lamla has seen fit to comment on the hopeless state of the local police

The Age :

Polish general rates Iraqi police poorly

The commander of Polish forces in Iraq says Iraqi police are performing poorly in his sector and were collaborating with Shi'ite militiamen.

Like, no s**t Sherlock.

Major General Pawel Lamla, the commander of multinational forces based in Diwaniyah, 130 kilometres south of Baghdad, also accused the police of not taking firm action against Sunni insurgents in his area.

"Iraqi police do not do their duties as they should do because of some of their elements have connections with the militias with whom they collaborate," Lamla told Iraqi reporters.

He said the recent security deterioration was due "to police incompetence as well as the presence of the political parties who do not intervene to stop violence."

Lamla also confirmed that insurgents attack the multinational base in Diwaniyah on a daily basis but said his forces cannot return fire because the attacks come from residential areas. "We do not want to hurt residents," he said.

Doh! This problem is old, they seem to have lost control of central Diwaniyah last year. I would like to hear General Llama explain why is a military base is maintained a easy mortar/rocket attack from a insurgent save haven? Or if the base is immovable, why is the no-go area permitted? And what exactly does MND(CS) actually do in Diwaniyah anyway, since they have handed over responsiblity for the district to local forces last year?

Underscoring the threat, police said gunmen attacked an American patrol in Diwaniyah and two civilians were wounded in clashes.

Police, which police? The militia supporting ones? Who were the gunmen, maybe they were police?

In spite of his criticism to Iraqi police, Lamla praised the Iraqi army's 8th Division which is in charge of Kut and Diwaniyah.

"This division is the best formation in the Iraqi army, it is well-equipped and has the best commander and officers and are doing excellent job in a very wide and sprawling area ," he said.

"Excellent job" ... excellent? The excellent job does not include preventing nightly attacks on Camp Echo or constant IED attacks in the district. Nor is it so excellent that MND(CS) can claim "mission accomplished" and leave.

Shia militias battle openly corrupted cops in broad daylight

I am not impressed.

Weekly flurry of attacks on Diwaniyah IV/07

March 16 March Camp Echo took incoming fire on the evening (Lv MoD)

March 18 Reuters reports that

The body of a man, shot dead and tortured, was found on Saturday in the southern city of Diwaniya, 180 km (110 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

March 19 Fighting in Diwaniyah, reportedly between US forces and elements of the Mahdi Army, no word of casualties (IHT), while the body of a police captain is found in the city, and "gunmen" kill the head of the local passport office. (Reuters)

March 20 MND (CS) commander General Pawel Lamla criticises the local police (1)

March 20-21 During the night Camp Echo is fired apon, again (Lv MoD).

March 21 All manner of (preumably) Badrist/Sadrist trouble in Diwaniyah again, and the day ain't over yet (Reuters).

DIWANIYA - The bodies of two police commandos were found with gunshot wounds in the southern city of Diwaniya, 180 km (110 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

DIWANIYA - A policeman was killed and eight wounded, including four civilians, when clashes erupted between police and gunmen on Tuesday in several districts of Diwaniya, 180 km (110 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

DIWANIYA - Police said they found the body of a man, shot in the head and bound, on Tuesday in Diwaniya.

Updated

March 21 Camp Echo again under fire during the 21st, time and type of attack unknown, nothing of import hit (Lv MoD)

Weekly attack on Diwaniyah III/07

At 1740 on March 12 a Latvian patrol from Diwaniyah was involved in some manner of action. Details are murky. The wording at the MoD website implies an ambush/ contact, though it may be an IED. No place is mentioned either. One of ours lightly wounded (shrapnel in the arm).

Update 1

At about 1825 on March 13th several rockets were fired at Camp Echo (Latvian MoD).

Weekly attack on Diwaniyah II/07

The weekly attack on Camp Echo in Diwaniyah. I have lost count.

The Latvian MoD reports more fire directed against Camp Echo on 03 March. Type unreported, damage nil.

MND(CS) reports only on their successfull EOD unit from Bosnia-Hercegovina, which is kind of trippy following the decade of peacekeeping there (which has not yet wrappd up).

Latvian soldiers may leave Iraq this summer

Latvian portal DELFI reports that the Latvian National Security Council has decided to effectively withdraw the Latvian infantry company from Iraq this July, as the company that rotates out will not be replaced. Latvia will not leave Iraq entirely, there will still be a staff contingent of some 15 officers.

The drawdown in Iraw will allow increasing the contingent to Afghanistan to some 100 men.

Apparently General Petraeus was in Camp Echo yesterday :

At the end of the patrol, General Petraeus praised General Othoman's leadership and the Soldiers of the 8th Iraqi Army, stating that they are, "shining examples of the new professional Iraqi Army whose combat readiness and disciple are to be noted as another example of an ever-growing professional Army and example for the future."

Aha.

Weekly mortar attack on Diwaniyah, redux 2007

Camp Echo has been subject to a mortar attack on February 13 and direct fire on February 16. No serious harm done, though one hopes the miscreants in the second incident ate some lead from return fire.

Update : There appears to have been another direct fire attack on the camp on the night of February 22-23.(timing uncertain, the Lv MoD post is rather ambiguous). No damage done.

Hmmm, two consecutive attacks on Thursday/Friday night, prior the Muslim holiday.

Heads up next Thursday evening, on the night March 1-2. Normal people would have a couple drinks down the pub before their day off. Bloody Muslims.

Update: March 1- 2 passed without incident. I love being wrong sometimes.

MND (CS) Commemorative Medal

Consul-At-Arms asked for details of the MND-CS 90 day award. This is the "Multinational Division Central-South Commemorative Medal" (Medal pamiatkowy Wielonarodowej Dywizji Centrum-Poludnie), and is a non-official commemorative decoration.

Instituted in the fall of 2003, by the Commander of the Multinational Division Central-South in Iraq. It is awarded to all servicemen and women, as well as to civilians serving with the Division, irrespective of nationality, who have completed 90 days of service in the operational zone. First medals were awarded in January 2004.[link]

Latvian infantry KIA in Iraq

Our famous luck has run out. Latvian soldiers have successfully dodged a long, long series of IED attacks.

At 1255 on 27 December 2006 an armoured HMWVV of the Latvian infantry company in Iraq has been struck by an IED while returning from a patrol at Al Husa (?) near Diwaniyah. 2 soldiers - Lcpl Vitālijs Vasiļjevs un Lcpl Gints Bleija have been killed, and three more soldiers wounded. Two are lightly wounded, the third more seriously and now in hospital in Baghdad awaiting evac home. The guys were "short" - the patrol was a hand over tour for the new rotatio

The mission to Iraq is to continue through 2007. Some lesser politicians have began to talk about fleeing, but the leadership has already stated it will not affect the mission.

(compiled from the MoD homepage, LNT news, DELFI portal)

Hot downrange III : attacks around Diwaniyah continue

29 July Al Reuters -

DIWANIYA - Seven police were wounded in a joint U.S. and Iraqi raid against members of the Mehdi Army, a powerful militia loyal to Shi'ite firebrand Moqtada al-Sadr. The incident took place in the town of Diwaniya, 180 km (112 miles) south of Baghdad, police and hospital sources said.

02 August Al Reuters -

A roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi army patrol, wounding two soldiers in Diwaniya, 180 km (112 miles) south of Baghdad.

Gunmen killed an employee of a human rights group outside his home in Diwaniya, police said.

No indirect fire reported for the last few days, one hopes this indicates the new rotation is taking some action against the Sadrists around Diwaniyah.

Update : Last night there was the sudden surge of hits from Slovakian web adresses searching for "camp echo mortar" indicating something had happened, and lo!.

03 August Camp Echo was under fire in the early morning and late evening. Latvian contingent unharmed (MoD Latvia)

No more details given, MND(CS) website silent, the enemy reports do not mention the action.

Is there any additional information in Slovakian sources? If so feedback is kindly invited.

Hot downrange II : attacks around Diwaniyah continue

Trouble around Diwaniyah continues, fortunately the Latvian contingent remains undamaged but the Salvadoreans are taking a beating .....

25 July 3 Iraqis killed and five wounded in a shootout between US forces and Sadrists in Diwaniyah, after the arrest of a Sadrist. (Monsters and Critics from Deutsche Presse-Agentur)
26 July Unknown firefight near Diwaniyah, US close air support from F-16s used (CENTAF airpower summary)
26-27 July Nightly rocket attack on Camp Echo, misses the base (MoD Latvia)
27 July IED attack 4km from Diwaniyah on a KBR convoy returning from Al Kut, about 630pm. The vehicle hit was a marked ambulance, two Salvadoreans wounded (1 fatally).(MND CS, Bloomberg)

Thats the second Salvadorean escorted convoy hit on the run to Al Kut, the previous - also with a fatality - on 19 July.

What the hell is going on down there? I had the impression that the Polish division was losing control of Diwaniyah back in June, but judging by the news its way worse now.....

Hot downrange : surge of attacks on Diwaniyah

After a apparent pause at the start of July, the weekly insurgent indirect fire attacks on Camp Echo have restarted. And also ambushes, IEDs and shootouts - daily.

17 July Several shots were fired towards the base in the evening but fell short. (MoD Latvia)
19 July IED attack on Salvadoreans en route to Al Kut, 2 heavily wounded (1 of hose fatally) (MND CS)
20 July 4 rockets fired towards the base at 0130 local time, all fell short (MND CS). The enemy propaganda claims :

In a dispatch posted at 2:45pm Makkah time Friday afternoon, Mafkarat al-Islam reported that Iraqi Resistance forces fired four Katyusha rockets into "Camp Eko" of the Polish occupation troops located 5km south of ad-Diwaniyah – which is 120km southeast of Baghdad late on Thursday night.

The ad-Diwaniyah correspondent for Mafkarat al-Islam reported a source in the as-Salam neighborhood puppet police as saying that the attack set a massive fire burning in the northern part of the Polish base, compelling the occupation troops, who had tried on their own for an hour to extinguish the blaze, to seek the help of Iraqi firefighters to put out the flames.

The puppet police source said that the Resistance barrage had inflicted casualties among the Poles and their Asian mercenary workers.

The number of rockets and the target coincides as usual, but the muj wildly exaggerates the results, also as usual. "Asian mercenary workers" meaning KBR contractors presumably, and will the savages ever learn to learn to spell "Echo"?
21 July Ambush on MND(CS) near An Numaniyah in Wasit province convoy wounds 6 soldiers and translator, 10 insurgents captured (MND CS)
23-24 July Latvian contingent was on QRF and was involved in some shootout near Diwaniyah on night from the 23-24th July, no-one hurt and no details available (MoD Latvia)
24-25 July two Katjusha type rockets were fired at the base on the night of July 24-25th but exploded short of the base. (MoD Latvia)

Why the upsurge of unpleasantness? At a guess it looks to be a complex of several factors

• It just happens that the MND(CS) Polish contingent, including divisional command, changed on July 18th, and Contingent change is a favorite time for local provocations in any mission.
  
• The situation was none too secure before that.
  
• Iraqi forces near Diwaniyah on July 16th arrested a local sheikh "suspected of directing local terrorist-run death squads". A local sheikh bust is usually a guarantee of tribal trouble (vengeance for loss of face etc etc).
  
• Its mid-summer, mid 40s centigrade and too damn hot to sleep until past midnight.
  
• IDF action against Hezbollah / Lebanon is probably stirring the Arab's pot, and Iran is a supporter of the terrs in both Lebanon and Iraq.
  

Latvia vs PC / liberalists / gays

The event has passed, and the deviants amusingly received a drubbing at the hands of a bunch of louts, but there are several disturbing aspects :

1. The Latvian main daily newspaper Diena has become a full on marxist mouthpiece on this topic. Failure to grant group rights to sexual deviants is front page headlines like "Failure of Democracy", and the paper has devoted full pages daily to reeducating the ignorant Latvian populace. The satirist produced a imbecilic cartoon with hordes of primitives (presumably) armed with spears leaping out of the trees to ambush a march labelled "pride". Diena has also taken onto itself the burden of reeducating Latvians about racism. Shame, Diena, shame.

2. The gay pride event started with defrocked (for unrepentant sodomy) Lutheran priest Maris Sants together with the usual suspects placing wreaths - at the Salaspils memorial assemblage. For those not in the know - Salaspils is a holocaust memorial on the site of the infamous nazi Salaspils concentration camp. Of course the news media was there, but they failed to comment on the pretentious incongruity of it.

3. The "main event" as per above was a service at Rigas only Anglican church. The slide of the various Anglican churches into amoral liberalism is well documented by Auster's VFR site.

4. The US embassy almost came out in support, the European Parliament did.

5. All manner of western liberal types crawled into the country to lend their support to "democracy" and decried our backwardness. At last count 75% of the electorate were opposed to group rights for sexual deviates, and 25% in favor of outlawing it. You give Palestinians the vote you get Hamas, give Latvians the vote and you get traditions, restraint and morality.

Democracy is government of the people, for the people, by the people. Democracy won in Latvia this week. The politicians and police heeded the opinions of the populace, instead of scurrying to curry favor with foreigners and the media. Sadly, some of our most prominent media, and some of our elite, seems to think democracy is imposing their will and social program on the "unenlightened" populace.

Why is a republican appointed US ambassador pushing gay rights / political correctness?

From the Baltic Times :

Interior minister meets with Christian leaders, US ambassador about gay pride parade

Jul 18, 2006
By TBT staff
Latvian Interior Minister Dzintars Jaundzeikars met separately with US ambassador Catherine Todd Bailey and Russian Orthodox priest Nikolajs Tihonirovs on July 17 to discuss the gay pride parade planned for Riga on July 22.

“[The parade] would be a mockery of feelings of all Orthodox believers,” Tihonirovs said after the meeting. “The event should not be allowed to take place at all as it offends morals of Latvia's population and every Christian. It is a challenge and provocation against our religions.”

Jaundzeikars himself voiced concern for parade marchers as many have threatened to block the march. "The police do not have so many men. What are we supposed to do -- use the weapons perhaps?"

"The police do its best but everything has its limits,” the minister said. "If I was the organizer and had to make the decision, I would definitely not hold the event. If the intention was to speak about tolerance, the result is just the opposite now.”

Bailey voiced concern for security at the parade and said that the US supported democracy, human rights and tolerance in Latvia. She said the embassy planned to participate in several events related to the gay festival, Riga Pride 2006, she said.

Polymorphous perversity is one of the cultural marxist planks intended to destroy traditional society. The hard left has consistently pushed for the rights of "sexual minorities" (ie. deviates and perverts of every stamp) in every country of the west. Sadly, the number of western countries which enshrine family rights over the rights of "sexual minorities" can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Hapily, for the moment anyway, Latvia is one of them.

Interior Minister Jaundžeikars has done the right thing by advising the Riga city council not to issue a parade permit.

So why the US ambassador? One would expect this kind of bullshit from the EU, or a Democratic Clinonista appointee, but this one is Republican (Catherine Todd Bailey is a Republican senate approved Bush appointment). Why is a Republican appointed US ambassador openly participating in the cultural marxist/politiclly correct agenda issue of gay rights? Is it official US government policy to push cultural marxism on the entire planet under the catchphrase of "human rights"? Is "tolerance" US foreign policy? How does democracy depend on celebrating sexual deviancy?

To any traditionalist/conservative US readers : please consider to take 5 minutes to e-mail your congressmen/senators/GOP organizers, and express your sincere dismay: Why the US ambassador to Latvia supporting anti-Christian latent marxism, in the name of the US of A?

Latvia rotates infantry company in Iraq II

Another mission completed. Latvian OIF contingent Team 7 - the now very experienced 2nd Infantry Company/2nd Infantry Battalion - has finished their tour and is en route home from Iraq.

They were busy. The Latvian portal TVNET reports that the company carried out 754 tasks in 6 months - patrols, escorts and other operational tasks outside the wire. While the Polish division was lavish with their praise, the soldiers rotating out were not as complimentary. One officer described working with the Polish a worse problem than the 50 degree heat or regular rocket attacks.

The Latvian Minister of Defence was in Iraq for the awards ceremony at Diwaniyah. He met with the Iraqi Defence Minister, and he reportedly stated repeatedly that "We will be here, as long as it takes".