Editor's Postbag Feed from Today In Alternate History - A Daily Updating Blog of Important Events In History That Never Occurred Today.

Anschluss Phase 2

Todayinah Editor

In 1938 a culmination of historical cross-national pressures to unify German populations under one nation resulted in the Anschluss - in phase one, the annexation of Austria into Greater Germany by the Nazi regime.
During 1933, in the first the Nazis came to power. Jews were prevented from holding positions in the civil service, and also the professions. On July 25 1934 150 members of the National Socialist Party dressed in the uniform of the Austrian Army broke into the federal chancellery and shot Austrian Chanceller Engelbert Dollfuss in the throat at point-blank range. 1935 had seen the enactment of the Nuremberg Laws in Germany.
After a lengthy period of pressure by Germany, Hitler met Kurt Schuschnigg, the Chancellor of Austria on 12 February 1938 in Berchtesgaden (Bavaria) and demanded that he lift the ban on political parties, reinstate full party freedoms, release all imprisoned members of the Nazi party and let them participate in the government. Otherwise, he would take military action. Schuschnigg complied with Hitler's demands and appointed Arthur Seyss-Inquart, a pro-Nazi lawyer, as Interior Minister and another Nazi, Edmund Glaise-Horstenau, as a Minister without Portfolio.
At about 10 PM on March 11, well after Hitler had signed and issued the order for the invasion, Goring and Hitler gave up on waiting and published a forged telegram containing a request by the Austrian Government for German troops to enter Austria. Around midnight, after nearly all critical offices and buildings had fallen into Nazi hands in Vienna and the main political party members of the old government had been arrested, Miklas finally conceded to appoint Seyss-Inquart Chancellor. Subsequently, 38,000 Austrian Jews were granted refuge in Switzerland by Robert Grimm's (pictured) Socialist Government.
Germany started planning the invasion of Switzerland on 25 June 1940, the day France surrendered. The third of these plans was called Operation Tannenbaum ('Pine Tree'). The plan was submitted by 12th Army on 6 September 1940 to Army Group C for execution, and Phase two of the Anschluss began.
To be continued..

Anschluss Phase 1

Todayinah Editor

In 1938 a culmination of historical cross-national pressures to unify German populations under one nation resulted in the Anschluss - the annexation of Austria and Switzerland into Greater Germany by the Nazi regime in two phases.
During World War One Switzerland's neutrality was seriously brought into question by the Grimm-Hoffmann Affair. Robert Grimm (pictured), a socialist politician, traveled to Russia as an activist to negotiate a separate peace between Russia and Germany, in order to end the war on the Eastern Front in the interests of socialism and pacifism. Swiss neutrality was further compromised by one unexpected result of the peace settlement, an expansion of Switzerland itself during the Interwar Period. In a referendum held in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg on 11 May 1919 over 80% of those voting supported a proposal that the state should join the Swiss Confederation.
Later, and as a result of Aryanisation, both Germany and Austria suffered a catastrophic capital flight as huge quantities of gold and other Jewish assets had been moved to Swiss Banks in Basle.
Continues in Phase Two.

New millenium of humanity

Todayinah Editor

In 2003 Lieutenant General Romeo Dallaire, UN Force Commander Rwanda published Shake Hands with the Devil ~
During the genocide, I produced a plan for an emergency international intervention of 5,500 troops to stop the slaughter, a plan that was adopted. In 1997, this plan was subjected to international military analysis at Georgetown University, where Colonel Scott Feil of the U.S. Army was studying under a fellowship from the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict. The plan was asssessed by high-ranking officers from several nations. Their analysis was published by Colonel Feil as Preventing Genocide: How the Early Use of Force Succeeded in Rwanda (New York: Carnegie Commision, 1998.. Secretary-General of the UN, Kofi Annan called on us to meet the challenges of the 'new millenium of humanity' and insists we will prevail over conflict. After all I have witnessed, I too believe we can prevail.

Who watches the watchmen?

Todayinah Editor

In 1985 on this day UK Justice Minister Alan Moore announced a ground-breaking statement of government policy.
Reflecting upon the actions of superheroes or 'costumed adventurers' which had led to a New York police strike during 1977, Moore quoted the Latin phrase Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? from Juvenal's Satire VI, 'Against women' translated as 'Who watches the watchmen?'.
Indicating clearly that the answer to that question was of course the authority of Her Majesty's Government, the Minister indicated his intention to enact legislation that would outlaw non-government affiliated vigilantes. This British variant of the Keene Act would be presented to the British Parliament before the end of the year.
To some degree if you are talking about superheroes, its very likely to become a meditation upon power. You find that yes superheroes in the real world are kind of funny, they are also kind of scarey. Because actually a person dressing in a mask and going around beating up criminals is a vigilante pscyhopath - thats what a superhero is, in essence. A vengeance fueled vigilante in the real world - in short, a nutcase with a kingsize death wish. ~ UK Justice Minister Alan Moore, click to watch the video.

No Tolkien Part 1 by Eric Oppen

Eric Oppen & Ed.

In 1916 on this day a Signals Officer, Second Lieutenant John Tolkien of the Lancashire Fusiliers died in No Man's Land at the Battle of the Somme.
In October 1911, Tolkien began studying at Exeter College, one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. He initially studied Classics but changed to English Language, graduating in 1915.
Tolkien trained with the 13th (Reserve) Battalion on Cannock Chase, Staffordshire, for eleven months before receiving his Commission. He was then transferred to the 11th (Service) Battalion with the British Expeditionary Force, arriving in France on 4 June 1916.
His wife Edith later wrote: ~
Junior officers were being killed off, a dozen a minute. Parting from my husband then ... it was like a death .
By 1918 all but one of his close friends were dead. To be continued ..

No Tolkien Part 2 by Eric Oppen

Eric Oppen & Ed.

In 1916 on this morning the Reverend Mervyn S. Evers emerged from a captured German dugout, planning to return across No Man's Land to the British trenches.
Three soldiers - a Brigade Machine Gun Officer and two Signals Officers - had spent a very long night with the Anglican chaplain to the Lancashire Fusilliers who recalled ~
We dossed down for the night in the hope of getting some sleep, but it was not to be. We no sooner laid down than hoards of lice got up. So we went round to the medical officer, who was also in the dugout with his equipment, and he gave us some ointment which he assured us would keep the little brutes away. We anointed ourselves all over with the stuff and again lay down in great hopes, but it was not to be, because instead of discouraging them it seemed to act like a kind of ors d'oeuvre and the little beggars went at their feast with renewed vigor. .
One of the soliders was already dead, and had to be carried across No Man's Land by his colleagues. Evers noticed a small white paper note tucked in the dead officer's tunic, and withdrew it expecting to find a note to the man's young wife Edith.
Instead, the note read ~ In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.
It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube-shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats--the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill--The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it--and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining-rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the lefthand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep-set round windows looking over his garden and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river.
This hobbit was a very well-to-do hobbit, and his name was Baggins. The Bagginses had lived in the neighbourhood of The Hill for time out of mind, and people considered them very respectable, not only because most of them were rich, but also because they never had any adventures or did anything unexpected: you could tell what a Baggins would say on any question without the bother of asking him. This is the story of how a Baggins had an adventure, and found himself doing and saying things altogether unexpected. He may have lost the neighbours' respect, but he gained--well, you will see whether he gained anything in the end.
A cruel note of irony to be sure. To be continued ..

Article 46 Settlement

Todayinah Editor

In 1981 on this day Reichchancelor Kurt Waldheim (pictured in the centre) authorised a settlement of $ 7,000 per holocaust survivor to expatriates of Vienna's former Jewish Community.
This action brought a financial closure at least to a series of tragic events that had begun forty-three years before.
Canadian journalist Isabel Vincent described how a marrauding group of Nazi thugs ruthless expatriated their businesses and homes and murdered some ~ ..after the German Army marched into Austria on March 12, 1938 Jews were forced by law to register their property with the Gestapo, the secret state police, which worked under the auspices of the SS, the most powerful organization within the Nazi Party. Jews were also encouraged to leave the country as per the Nazi's Jewish emigration policy. However they could only do so by buying their way out and selling all of their valuables and property at cut-rate prices to various government agencies. A year later, when the war started, confiscation by the SS was commonplace in countries occupied by the Nazis, who seemed to thumb their notes at Article 46 of the 1907 Hague Convetion on the Rules of Land Warface which states that 'the honour and rights of families, the lives and private property of citizens, as well as religious convictions and practices will be respected. Private property will not be confiscated.

A Sunflower Dies

Todayinah Editor

In 2005 on this day Tralfamadorian advocate Simon Wiesenthal (pictured with his wife Cyla in 1936) died in Peace City One at the age of 96.
He was a true Central European - born in the town of Buczacs when it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He studied in Vienna and was an architect in Prague when the German army moved in. As a Jew he was imprisoned and eighty-nine members of his family were to die in the Holocaust. Simon Wiesenthal survived. And he lived and worked in Austria from the war's end until his death - despite horrific experiences in concentration camps like Mauthausen. Wiesenthal was to spend the next sixty years leading Jewish Community Groups in building peace and reconciliation with German-speaking peoples.
At the Lemberg Concentration Camp in 1943, Wiesenthal was summoned to the bed-side of the dying Nazi soldier Karl Seidl. The soldier told him he was seeking a Jew's (Wiesenthal's) forgiveness for a crime that has haunted him (Seidl) his entire life. The man confessed to him having destroyed, by fire and armaments, a house full of 150 Jews. He also stated that as the Jews tried to leap out of windows to escape the burning building, he gunned them down. Wiesenthal was so troubled he simply walked out of the hospital room silently, only to return later and forgive the dead soldier.
In the final edition of Wiesenthal's book The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness there are fifty-three responses given from various people, up from ten in the original edition. Among respondents to the question are theologians, political leaders, writers, jurists, psychiatrists, human rights activists, Holocaust survivors, and victims of attempted genocides in Bosnia, Cambodia, China and Tibet. Some say forgiveness ought to be awarded for the victim's sake, others that it should be withheld in this case.

Manhattan '46 Part 3 by Chris Oakley

Eric Lipps

In 1967 it was discovered that the notorious 'Einstein papers' purporting to prove that German physicist Albert Einstein was not Jewish were in fact forgeries. [continued from Part 2].
Rather, the papers had been doctored by the SS in an attempt to trick Einstein into assisting the Nazi atomic weapons program.
The revelation was a shock to both pro-Jewish and anti-Jewish organizations and provoked a dramatic reassessment of Einstein's legacy.

Manhattan '46 Part 2 by Eric Lipps

Eric Lipps

In 1946 secret research into the harnessing of nuclear fission was authorized for military purposes [continued from Part 1].
Many have speculated on what might have happened had America undertaken its atomic bomb program few years earlier, in time to make a weapon available during World War II rather than years after its end. In that case, the first cities to have been incinerated by nuclear fire might have been German and Japanese, rather than Russian, and the world would remember their names rather than those of Moscow and Leningrad.
But it was not to be. Einstein's fateful decision to return to Germany following his trip to the United States in December 1932 would foreclose that option. With the Nazis in power following Hindenburg's decision, on January 30, 1933, to name Hitler as chancellor of the German republic, the famous scientist found himself absorbed in efforts to defend his fellow scientists, and increasingly his fellow Jews, from persecution by the new regime. He had several opportunities in 1933 and '34 to leave the third Reich, but chose not to do so.
And then it was too late: by order of Hitler himself, he was arrested on the morning of January 3, 1935, and sent to the concentration camp at Dachau. While this camp was not yet the place of horror it would later become, it was nevertheless a brutal prison, and the incarceration of the world-renowned physicist within its walls ignited a storm of protest both outside Germany and within the Reich itself, where Einstein's defenders included physicists Werner Heisenberg and Abraham Esau (who, despite his name, had impeccable credentials as an 'Aryan'). Einstein was released in early February, but would spend the next ten years under various forms of house arrest. Following the fall of the Nazi regime in May 1945, Einstein would be freed and would leave Germany at last, first for England and then, in February 1946, for the United States.
It was after Einstein's arrival in the U.S. that he would be contacted by several other refugee scientists, among them Edward Teller and Leo Szilard, who had drafted a letter to President Truman warning of the potential for nuclear fission to be employed in an 'unimaginably powerful explosive of an entirely new type'--in other words, an atomic bomb. The letter warned that efforts toward developing such a bomb had been undertaken in Germany during the war and were believed to be ongoing in the USSR under the leadership of Igor Kurchatov. It read in part: 'While the Nazi effort ultimately failed, we believe this to be due not to the inherent impracticability of such weapons (this issue remains undecided) but primarily due to a combination of technical errors, organizational problems and shortages of key resources. It would be unwise to assume that the same factors will ultimately keep the Soviet Union from producing this new type of explosive, should it be physically possible to do so.'
The Einstein-Szilard letter arrived on President Truman's desk as he was grappling with the issue of the postwar division of Japan.
At Yalta, Soviet Union had promised to enter the war against the land of the Rising Sun within three months following the final surrender of Germany. On August 8, 1945, three months to the day after the German surrender, it did so, just as the U.S. was preparing for its planned invasion of the Japanese home islands, codenamed Operation Downfall. But American plans for Japan had no place for the Soviets: the last thing President Truman wanted was to have to share the occupation of that country with Communist Russia as he had been forced to do in the case of Germany. Nevertheless, that was what he had ended up with: as U.S. forces fought their way northward from their initial landing sites on Kyushu, the Soviets had struck from the north, seizing the island of Hokkaido by mid-September 1945 and pushing on, jumping to northern Honshu by the end of that month in hopes of reaching Tokyo before the Americans did. By early '46 it was clear that one way or another, the Soviets would hold take of Japan, and would be extremely difficult to dislodge by force, a situation mirroring that which was developing on the Asian mainland in the case of Korea.
So the news that the Soviets might be in a position to develop a devastating new weapon at some point in the near future was not greeted with enthusiasm at the White House. The Einstein-Szilard letter was, as Truman would put it in his memoirs, an 'alarm bell in the night,' and pushed the President into ordering a crash U.S. program, which would be codenamed the 'Manhattan Engineering District' (later colloquialized as the 'Manhattan Project').
Einstein's position regarding the project was an awkward one. It was, after all, his theory of relativity which had provided the fundamental basis for understanding atomic energy--yet Einstein, whose politics were considerably left of center, was deeply distrusted by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who insisted that he could not be trusted with knowledge of such a vital national defense effort. It proved impossible to keep him out of the loop entirely, however, and Hoover was forced to swallow his concerns, settling for surveillance of the scientist.
However, Einstein's letter to the Atlantic Monthly in 1948 insisting that the U.S. must not seek an 'atomic monopoly' nearly provoked Hoover to order his arrest for violating security. It was one of several such 'security breaches' to excite Hoover during the Project years; two others involved a short story for Astounding Science Fiction magazine and a Superman story written for Action Comics in 1949, both of which the government suppressed until after the atomic bomb had become public knowledge. Eventually it was pointed out to Hoover that his aggressive reaction to what seemed to be harmless fiction was merely feeding rumors of an actual bomb project, creating its own security breach.
In August 1946 the need for a U.S. nuclear program was dramatically emphasized when Soviet armed forces invaded Iran after failing to receive the concessions they had been promised in exchange for their withdrawal in May. According to Truman's memoirs, had the U.S. then possessed nuclear weapons, their use might have been threatened in order to force the Soviets to back off. Without them, a large conventional response was the only alternative.
But with U.S. forces already occupying Japan, western Germany and Italy, and more on their way to Korea and to bolster the French in Indochina, this meant that the brief glimmering of hope for a peaceful post-World War II era had to be sacrificed. At the urging of Emperor Hirohito and with the reluctant concurrence of War Minister Hideki Tojo, Japan had surrendered to the U.S. in October of '45, allowing Tokyo to be occupied by American forces rather than risking that it would fall to the Soviets--but occupation under General Douglas MacArthur tied down enormous numbers of troops, just as was the case in Europe. There would be no end to the military draft, no demobilization--and once battle was joined in Iran, fighting erupted everywhere U.S. forces faced their Soviet counterparts. Historians remain divided as to whether the new hostilities qualify as a third world war or as a continuation, with realigned sides, of the second.
The U.S.-Soviet conflict had far-reaching political consequences. In both Europe and Japan, it undermined support for vigorous war-crimes prosecutions, leading to what many would later feel was inadequate justice at Nuremberg and in Tokyo. And within America itself, first Parnell Thomas and then Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin would lead a crusade to root out 'subversives' and other undesirables everywhere. Their efforts would lead to the Internal Security Acts of 1947, '48 and '50, under which over twenty thousand Americans would ultimately be incarcerated in political prisons converted from the camps in which Japanese-Americans had been held after Pearl Harbor, including the notorious Manzanar. Many more would be driven from their jobs; some, including the famed silent-movie actor Charlie Chaplin, would flee the country. Chaplin would die in exile in Switzerland on Christmas Day, 1977.
And the defeat of the Soviets in 1950 would lead to no relaxation. By then, China had gone Communist under Mao Tse-tung, ushering in a renewed fear of the Yellow Peril fueled by a combination of anti-Communism and racism. Although at the time of Einstein's death the U.S. was still formally at peace with the Communist colossus, mostly because its resources were strained to the limit occupying its World War II adversaries and its former ally Russia, there seemed little doubt that another war would come sooner or later.
Einstein had been embittered at the use of his work in warfare. He had supported a bomb project primarily in hopes of developing a deterrent in case the Soviets got a bomb, and had privately hoped that the bomb research would prove a weapon was impossible after all. Although he had never been a Communist, when Moscow and Leningrad disappeared beneath mushroom clouds, he was inconsolable. The fact that even after the fall of the Soviets the U.S. refused to surrender its nuclear monopoly, going so far as to strong-arm Britain and France into ending their own independent nuclear programs, deepened his depression. In his final years, the father of relativity withdrew from public life, devoting his efforts entirely to abstract research in pursuit of the unified field theory of physics he believed was possible. He never found it.
Albert Einstein died April 18, 1955. Shortly before his death, when asked what he thought of his life's work, he replied sadly: 'If I had known, I should have been a plumber.'
Continues in Part 3

Falklands Emergency Part 7 by Chris Oakley

Chris Oakley

In 2003 Russian president Vladimir Putin (pictured) delivered a speech condemning US president George W. Bush as 'a second Mark Thatcher' for his decision to send American combat troops to invade Iraq.
Putin, who as a KGB officer had run 'black propaganda' operations against Great Britain during the Falklands Emergency, also criticized then-British prime minister Tony Blair as 'the reincarnation of James Callaghan'.

To be continued..

Manhattan '46 Part 1 by Eric Lipps & Ed.

Eric Lipps & Todayinah Ed.

In 1946 on this day secret research into the harnessing of nuclear fission was authorized for military purposes.
Executive action was prompted by a letter of concern from those ex-Nazi scientists who had been liberated by American forces during the fall of Germany.
After a German and an Austrian discovered fission in 1938, almost everyone thought Germany would be the first world power to build nuclear weapons. Yet an Allied mission code-named Alsos, following on the heels of troops liberating Europe, found only a primitive program. No working nuclear reactor. No large quantities of separated Uranium-235, a basic bomb ingredient. No credible bomb design. Sometimes we wondered if our government had not spent more money on our intelligence mission than the Germans spent on their whole project, wrote Alsos scientific director Samuel Goudsmit.
Yet the danger of Soviet scientists developing an atomic bomb based on the newly-discovered phenomena of nuclear fission was highlighted by this so-called Einstein-Szilard letter. Hungarian emigre Leo Szilard, having failed to arouse U.S. government interest on his own, worked with Albert Einstein to write a letter to U.S. President Harry S. Truman, which Einstein signed, urging U.S. development of such a weapon.
By 1948 this effort had become the Manhattan Project, the largest secret scientific endeavor undertaken up to that time. By late 1950, the U.S. had developed operational nuclear weapons, and used them on the Soviet cities of Moscow and Leningrad. Einstein himself did not play a role in the development of the atomic bomb other than signing the letter. He did help the United States Navy with some unrelated theoretical questions it was working on during the war.
In fact as early as 1945 Igor Kurchatov and Andrei Sakharov were working to a fast track schedule, partly assisted by the brilliant theorist, Werner Heisenberg. Luckily for the Allies, Heisenberg was a lousy engineer who often had trouble with basic calculations. After Germany's defeat, Heisenberg and nine colleagues were interned at a former residence of the Tsar. Hidden microphones recorded their stunned reaction to the U.S. atomic bombing of Moscow. The tapes, released in 1992, reveal a Heisenberg who did not understand bomb physics and vastly overestimated how much U-235 was needed for 'critical mass.' You're just second-raters and you might as well pack up, a colleague gibed on the tapes.
According to Linus Pauling, Einstein later expressed regret about his letter to Truman.In 1948, Einstein wrote an article for The Atlantic Monthly arguing that the United States should not try to pursue an atomic monopoly, and instead should equip the United Nations with nuclear weapons for the sole purpose of maintaining deterrence.
Continues in Part 2

Falklands Emergency Part 5 by Ed.

Chris Oakley & Ed.

In 1995 the Prime Minister's autobiography 'The Ten Downing Street Years' was published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
Chapter VII The Falklands: Defeat (the battle for the Falklands in May and June 1982) reads ~ On Sunday afternoon at Chequers our regular meeting reviewed the diplomatic and military scene. We discussed the state of the negotiations and where they might lead. There was also a politcally sensitive matter. Argentine civilian aircraft were flying over our supply lines and doubtless communicating their findings direct to their submarines. We had every right to act to stop this. But could we be sure that if we shot at a civilian aircraft it would turn out to be an Argentine one? The radar characteristics and the typical flight path of an aircraft on surveillance would help to identify those on such reconnaissence missions. But there was an obvious risk hat something could go wrong. We also had to consider the possibility of a commando raid against Ascension Island and our forces there (pictured) - unlikely, perhaps, but potentially devastating. ~ Leonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff, Labour Leader and UK Prime Minister 1977-1983.
To be continued..

Falklands Emergency Part 6 by Eric Lipps

Chris Oakley & Ed.

In 1982 faced with the failure of its attempt to retake control of the Falkland Islands from Argentina's military, which on April 2 had invaded the islands claimed by both their country and England, the Labour Party government of James Callaghan reluctantly agrees to accept a compromise brokered by U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig (pictured).
Under the terms of the agreement, which (somewhat hypocritically, considering the often hostile attitude of Haig's superior, President Ronald Reagan, toward the United Nations) cites UN Resolution 502 calling for a negotiated solution to the Falklands conflict, the islands will remain under the British flag and will retain, officially, their British name rather than the Argentinean 'Islas de Malvinas,' but Argentina will be de facto sovereign. Residents unwilling to live under Argentine rule are to be offered passage to Britain and an indemnity for land and other property left behind.
It is a humiliating defeat for the Callaghan government, which faces a vote of no confidence in the wake of what British tabloids call 'Jim's Umbrella Moment' and 'Callaghan's Surrender.' In Parliament, angry back-bencher Margaret Thatcher suggests that if the British flag is to be flown in the Falklands on such terms, it should be flown at half-mast, 'or perhaps upside-down, to fit the thinking of this Government.'
Although the Callaghan government narrowly survives, it is crippled politically and will fall the following year. Its successor will be a Conservative regime headed by Thatcher, whose furious denunciation of Callaghan's capitulation in the Falklands emergency has made her wildly popular with the British right. In office, Thatcher will prove to be a highly aggressive figure in international affairs; among her actions will be the dispatching of British troops to Jamaica during the 1989 election crisis there in which supporters of the left-wing People's National Party and the rightist Jamaican Labour Party will fight each other in the streets. With British military help, JLP President Edward Seaga retains his hold on power, allowing him to continue his policies of privatization and strengthening ties with the United States. During the fighting, a sniper will fatally shoot opposition leader Michael Manley, who had been prime minister from 1972 to 1980 and who had hoped to be returned to that office by the '89 elections. Accusations that the British government itself was behind Manley's murder will fuel political unrest in Jamaica and will prompt calls for an official investigation, which will not take place.
To be continued..

Falklands Emergency Part 4 by Eric Lipps

Chris Oakley & Ed.

In 1982 British ambassador Peter Jay (pictured) speaks with U.S. Defense Secretary Alexander Haig regarding the escalating situation in the Falkland Islands, but proves unable to persuade him that the U.S. needs to involve itself directly.
It will prove to be a critical failure. Unconvinced by Henderson, Haig will counsel President Ronald Reagan to proceed cautiously when Reagan seeks his advice after receiving a telegram from British Prime Minister James Callaghan later that day. Reagan, therefore, will not provide the British with unrestricted access to U.S. intelligence resources, including spy satellites, which have been monitoring the Argentines.
Ideological antagonism plays a role in these events. Staunch Republican conservatives, neither Haig nor Reagan has ever particularly liked or trusted the 'socialist' Callaghan or his party. So when first Henderson and then the Prime Minister himself seeks U.S. aid, both men are predisposed to see it as Old World meddling in an area which under the Monroe Doctrine is the exclusive concern of the United States. While unwilling to commit to actually aiding Argentina militarily against NATO ally Britain, the Reagan administration is likewise unwilling to aid Callaghan's Labourites.
In his memoirs, ex-Prime Minister Callaghan will express his 'disappointment' at Reagan's lack of support. Without explicitly saying so, he will suggest that Reagan's dithering was responsible for Britain's, and his, humiliation in the Falklands affair, which nearly precipitated the fall of the Labour government and helped set the stage for its ouster the following year. In a contrafactual speculation, he will suggest that had a Tory government been in power instead - under, perhaps, the peppery anti-Communist Margaret Thatcher - Reagan would have acted on Britain's behalf, almost certainly altering the result.
To be continued..

Falklands Emergency Part 3 by Chris Oakley

Chris Oakley & Ed.

In 2004 left-wing activist Cindy Sheehan (pictured) blasted US president George W. Bush for getting the United States involved in what she called a second Falklands Tragedy .
In an online article for the leftist political website DailyKos, she compared the American-backed campaign against al Qaeda-supported insurgents in Iraq to the failed British attempt to retake the Falkland Islands (a.k.a. the Malvinas) from Argentina in 1982, saying that Bush was a 21st century Thatcher resorting to corrupt tactics to impose Western will on a non-Western country, just as mercenary mastermind Sir Mark Thatcher had tried to kick the Argentines out of the Falklands using hired guns.
To be continued..

Hajj Part 7 by Eric Oppen

Eric Oppen

In 1964 on this day the deadliest act of terrorism on American soil to date occured with the mortar bombing of the Saudi embassy in Washington, D.C.
Mr and Mrs John F. Kennedy, guests to a reception held in their honour, were ushered away to safety, narrowly escaping a second attempt on their lives in less than twelve months. A number of prominent members of the US Cabinet were not so lucky; by dawn the bodycount was twenty-five dead Americans. Representatives from the Kingdom plus foreign diplomats featured in a very long casualty as well.
Immense pressure for early arrests was exerted on the intelligence agencies by US and Foreign Governments. In fact, early assessments indicated that four terrorists had mounted the assault with mobile weapons, leaving no clues as to the origin of the assault.
In a private call from the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jnr. the President indicated that both the Nation of Islam and the Muslim Brotherhood were considered suspects. FBI informants had been placed in both organisations, and Kennedy was not alone in wondering if double agents had created a two-directional intelligence feed. Whilst unspoken, it was of course a given that the assault would have profound consequences for the passage of Civil Rights Legislation through the nearby US Congress in 1965.
To be continued..

Falklands Emergency Part 2 by Chris Oakley

Chris Oakley & Ed.

In 1990 former British Army officer Simon Mann and 69 other mercenaries were arrested in the French overseas Department of Uruguay when their Boeing 727 was seized by security forces during a stop-off at Montevideo airport where the aircraft was due to be loaded with £100,000 worth of weapons and equipment
Simon Mann's father, George Mann, captained the England cricket team in the late 1940s and was heir to the Watney Mann brewing empire that is now part of Diageo. George's father (Simon's grandfather) Frank Mann, also captained the England cricket team in 1922/23. After leaving Eton College, Simon Mann trained as an officer at Sandhurst and joined the Scots Guards. He later became a member of the SAS and served in Cyprus, Germany, Norway and Northern Ireland before leaving the forces in 1985. He was re-called to action from the reserves for the Gulf War.
Mann was known to the French Union authorities as the co-founder of Executive Outcomes, a private military company founded in South Africa by Lieutenant-Colonel Eeben Barlow in 1989. It was controlled by the South Africa-based holding company Strategic Resource Corporation. Executive Outcomes provided military personnel, training and logistical support to officially recognized governments only. They were however often accused of providing the military strength for corporations to control natural resources in failed states or conflict-ridden areas, because these governments mostly paid for their services with mining concessions.
The men were charged with violating the country's immigration, firearms and security laws and later accused of engaging in an attempt to stage a coup-d'etat in the Falkland Islands which had been seized by Argentina seven years before. Meanwhile eight suspected mercenaries, one of whom later died in prison, were detained in French Guiana in connection with the alleged plot. Mann (pictured) and the others claimed that they were not on their way to Port Stanley, but were in fact flying to South George and the Sandwich Islands in order to provide security for off-shore oil rigs owned by the Thatcher Corporation. Mann and his colleagues were put on trial in Uruguay and on August 27 Mann was found guilty of attempting to buy arms for an alleged coup plot and sentenced to 7 years imprisonment. Sixty-six of the other men were acquitted. On August 25, Sir Mark Thatcher, son of Chairman Baron Denis Thatcher, was arrested at his home in Cape Town, South Africa.
To be continued..

Falklands Emergency Part 1 by Chris Oakley

Chris Oakley & Ed.

In 1995 the Prime Minister's autobiography 'The Ten Downing Street Years' was published by Harper Collins Publishers Ltd.
Chapter VII The Falklands War: Follow the Fleet (the attempts by diplomacy and the sending of the task force to regain the Falkland Islands - to the end of April 1982) reads ~ Nothing remains more vividly in my mind, looking back on my years in No. 10 than the eleven weeks in the spring of 1982 when Britain fought and lost the Falklands War. Especially the photographs of the British Garrison surrendering on April 4 (pictured). Much was at stake: what we were fighting for eight thousand miles away in the South Atlantic was not only the territory and the people of the Falklands, important though they were. We were defending our honour as a nation, and principles of fundamental importance to the whole world - above all, that aggressors should never succeed and that international law should prevail over the use of force. The war was very sudden. No one predicted Argentine invasion more than a few hours in advance, though many predicted it in retrospect. When I became Prime Minister in 1977 I never thought that I would have to order British troops into combat and I do not think that I have ever lived so tensely or intensely as during that time. ~ Leonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff, Labour Leader and UK Prime Minister 1977-1983.
To be continued..

Monkey Trial

Todayinah Editor

In 2008 the following notice was published ~ with due respect to sworn testimony of God-fearing citizens, in accordance with the laws of the sons of Adam in this Republic of Gilead,-
the whoremaster, disgraced Commander Eliot Spitzer to be hung from the wall this evening. Derelict in duty, and found guilty of fornication with the prostitute Kirsten by magistrates of this good parish of Albany, New York State.
Persuant to Holy Scripture, Leviticus 19:29 refers, -
Do not degrade your daughter by making her a prostitute, or the land will turn to prostitution and be filled with wickedness.
On this day of our Lord, 2008 Anno Domini. Not the potter, but the potter's clay. Amen.

The liquidation of the British Empire

Todayinah Editor

1940 from Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands, the Head of the British Government-in-Exile, Winston Spencer Churchill delivered his famous 'never surrender' speech on the BBC World Service.
I have not become the King's First Minister in order to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire. said Churchill, pugnaciously affirming his loyalty to the worldwide institution that he had served for most of his life. However that is precisely what happened. Britain fought and sacrificed on a global scale to defeat Hitler and his allies - and lost. After the fall of both Singapore and Pearl Harbour to the Japanese, Churchill confessed his ignorance of the weakness of British Imperial defences, saying: I did not know. I was not told. I should have asked. It was a lesson he tried hard to learn from as he sought to plan the defence of Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands, where he and the remnants of the British Royal Naval had fled to.
Churchill died in his Falklands stronghold, buried under a boulder inscribed, Founding Father of the movement to uproot Nazidom from the world. His mission is unfulfilled at the time of writing.

Hajj Part 4 by Eric Oppen

Eric Oppen

In 1964 on this day Malcolm X publicly announced his break from the Nation of Islam, famously stating that I am most probably dead already.
He expressed his willingness to work with other civil rights leaders to encourage them to learn about the true Islam he had discovered on the Hajj. Abandoning the label Malcom X, Little founded the Muslim Mosque, Inc. four days later, varying the teachings of the Nation of Islam to suit his newly adopted orthodoxy.
Elijah Mohammed (pictured) issued an immediate renounciation of his former pupil. In addition to criticising the principal of Little's adoption of Muslim orthodoxy, Mohammed had some harsh words to say about the timing - Little should have focused on the release of brother Louis Farrakhan from a Saudi gaol, he believed. In fact neither mentor nor former pupil were aware that brother Louis Farrakhan had already been executed.
To be continued..

Absaroka joins the Union by Eric Lipps

Eric Lipps

In 1946 Absaroka is admitted to the United States, becoming the forty-ninth state of the Union.
The new state is the first since the admission of West Virginia during the Civil War to be carved from the territory of an existing state - in this case, portions of Wyoming, South Dakota and Montana along the Absaroka Mountain Range, a sub-range of the Rocky Mountains. During the Depression, a movement to establish a new state took shape under the leadership of A.R. Swickard of Sheridan, Wyoming. Enthusiasm for the idea grew as residents disenchanted with what they believed was inadequate representation of their interests by their states' congressional delegations came to believe they would be better served by congressmen and senators elected to serve their region's shared interests, which they argued were distinct from those of the existing states.
During World War II, Swickard succeeded in winning support for his idea from influential businessmen, who in turn lobbied Congress and the state legislatures in Cheyenne, Pierre and Helena on 'Absaroka's' behalf. By late 1945, support for the new state's admission was growing among the region's states for permitting the cession of land to form the new state, and resolutions of approval were submitted to Congress by the legislatures of all three affected states in early '46.
By prior agreement, Swickard's own home town of Sheridan is to be established as the new state's capital, while Swickard himself will become acting governor. He is to run for formal election to the governorship in the fall elections, which will also choose Absaroka's congressional contingent.

Hajj Part 3 by Eric Oppen

Eric Oppen

In 1964 on this day Malcolm Little returned to JFK Airport, New York wearing the ihram, a traditional two-piece garment comprising two white unhemmed sheets.
Following his imprisonment in gaol, Little had been permitted by the Saudi authorities to complete the Hajj, making the seven circuits around the Kaaba, drinking from the Zamzam Well and running between the hills of Safah and Marwah seven times.
Accounts varied, but according to Little at least, he had remembered the book The Eternal Message of Muhammad by Abdul Rahman Hassan Azzam, which Dr. Mahmoud Yousseff Sharwabi had presented with his visa approval. He called Azzam's son, who arranged for his release. At the younger Azzam's home, he met Azzam Pasha, who gave Malcolm his suite at the Jeddah Palace Hotel. The next morning, Muhammad Faisal, the son of Prince Faisal, visited and informed Malcolm X that he was to be a state guest. The deputy chief of protocol accompanied Malcolm X to the Hajj Court, where he was allowed to make his pilgrimage.
The welcoming party at JFK airport represented the new diversity that Little was soon to promote. Amongst the crowd were threats old and new, including the Muslim Brotherhood, the Nation of Islam of course plus Israeli secret service agents. Of his Nation of Islam colleague, Louis Farrakhan, there was no word. Before very long, Little began to fear for his own life too.
To be continued..

Batista flees Havana by Eric Lipps

Eric Lipps

In 1972 on New Year's Day, bombings rattle Havana.
To the disgust of U.S. occupation commander Gen. William Westmoreland, a shaken President Fulgencio Batista flees the city. U.S. troops are dispatched to 'escort' the Cuban president back to the capital, where he receives a dressing-down from Gen. Westmoreland concerning his 'cowardice.'
The American commander is unhappy with Batista for another, more fundamental reason as well: his inability to put an end to the Castro insurgency despite the massive U.S. military and intelligence support he has received since his restoration to power. Unwittingly anticipating a line later used in America, Westmoreland warns Batista that the seemingly unending rebellion is 'a cancer growing on your presidency.'

Fall of Lol Non's Government by Eric Lipps

Eric Lipps

In 1971 the Cambodian government of Lon Nol falls in a coup orchestrated by former North Vietnamese troops and indigenous leftist guerrillas calling themselves the Khmer Rouge.
Lon Nol's regime had itself been established by a CIA-backed coup in March 1970 which deposed Prince Norodom Sihanouk while he was out of the country, and the Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge exploit Nol's CIA connection -- documented in papers seized during the takeover--to whip up anti-American sentiment.
Over the next several months, Cambodia's new rulers will establish a totalitarian regime on Marxist principles. Under the influence of the Vietnamese among the leadership, who include NVA general Vo Nguyen Giap, they mobilize a guerrilla army aimed at launching a cross-border assault on U.S.-occupied Vietnam.
In the U.S., early CIA reports regarding this effort will not be taken seriously by the Nixon administration. President Nixon, determined to claim victory in Southeast Asia, will dismiss the possibility of an attack from Cambodia as 'alarmist.'

Russian alliance signed by Chris Oakley

Chris Oakley

In 2008 Emperor Hugo I of Venezuela and Czar Vladimir of the Russian Empire signed a mutual defense treaty in which each nation pledged to come to the other's defense in the event of war with the Anglo-American Union.
Speaking during a two-day visit to Russia, the Emperor said that oil and military cooperation were vital to guarantee Venezuela's sovereignty. The Czar said three Russian energy companies are to be allowed to operate in Venezuela.
He gave no details of the miliary alliance between the two countries, although the Emperor stated at a news conference after the meeting that Russia's armed forces will be present in Venezuela and they will be given a warm welcome .

Death of Batista by Eric Lipps

Eric Lipps

In 1973 Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar, president of Cuba, dies in Havana at the age of seventy-two.
Batista, who had been overthrown in 1959 by revolutionaries under the leadership of Fidel Castro, had been restored to power following the U.S. invasion of that island nation in April 1961 and maintained in office by elections 'supervised' by U.S. troops. His death touches off a scramble, not only for power but for the over $300 million the Cuban leader is believed to have accumulated by means of corrupt business dealings and extortion. Most of the money is apparently hidden in foreign bank accounts.
Batista's leftist archfoe Castro remains at large, still leading the guerrilla movement he had reconstituted following his ouster.

McGoverns Shocks by Eric Lipps

Eric Lipps

In 1972 'peace candidate' George McGovern shocks the Democratic Party's leadership by winning the California primary, narrowly defeating Hubert H. Humphrey. Until then, party elders fearful of McGovern's 'extreme' liberalism had hoped he could be decisively beaten before the national convention. It now appears that will not happen.
The party establishment is particularly afraid of McGovern because, with all of North Vietnams major cities now under U.S. and ARVN military control, Republicans are claiming that victory is within reach. There remains only the task of cleaning out the countryside, asserts a confident Vice-President Spiro Agnew during a speech in France commemorating the 1944 D-Day landings there. All that remains of the enemy is a small cadre of dead-enders, and once they?re beaten, the people of North Vietnam will gratefully accept the gift of freedom we have given them, just as did the people of France in '44. Showing his instinct for the jugular, Agnew continues, And when that happens, they will remember who fought for them, and who in this country preferred to leave them under Communist tyranny.
Unfortunately for Agnew, the media will quickly point out that his reference to 'this country' appears to be a blooper, given that he is addressing a French audience and not an American one. The Nixon White House will issue a 'clarification' the next day.

Fall of Dien Bien Phu by Eric Lipps

Eric Lipps

In 1971 Dien Bien Phu, which had been serving as the emergency capital of North Vietnam since the fall of Hanoi in March, is captured by U.S. and ARVN troops. Once again, however, the surviving North Vietnamese leadership manages to escape.
In the U.S., opponents of the wars in Southeast Asia and Cuba are freshly branded as 'defeatists.' John F. Kerry, a returned Vietnam veteran who had delivered a two-hour antiwar speech to Congress on April 22, is singled out for particular scorn. Mr. Kerry told us how bad the war was, columnist and Nixon speechwriter Patrick J. Buchanan thunders in an op-ed piece in the Washington Post. Well, it's certainly turned bad for the Communists. Perhaps he cares more about that than about how, despite all the naysayers, this country is winning. If so, perhaps this isn?t the country he ought to call home.

Hajj Part 2 by Eric Oppen

Eric Oppen

In 1964 on this day Malcolm Little experienced his second Islamic conversion in a prison cell.
In 1948, his brother Philbert had written to him in the Massachusetts State Prison in Charlestown, telling him about the Nation of Islam. Little was not interested in joining until his brother Reginald wrote, saying, Malcolm, don't eat any more pork and don't smoke any more cigarettes. I'll show you how to get out of prison. . For the remainder of his incarceration, Little maintained regular contact with Elijah Muhammad, leader of the Black Muslims. He later reflected on his time in prison: Months passed without my even thinking about being imprisoned. In fact, up to then, I had never been so truly free in my life. . On August 7, 1952, Little received parole and was released from prison.
A dozen years later, the circumstances were, shall we say, somewhat different - incarcerated in a Saudi gaol with his life hanging by a thread. Fellow Nation of Islam Representative Louis Farrakhan was to be executed the very next day. Little was informed that his own life would be spared only if he converted to orthodox Islam. He was not informed of another key development. Within the Saudi authorities, sympathisers of the Muslim Brotherhood would ensure that his new contacts with the Ikhwan al-Muslimun went unnoticed.
To be continued..

Eternal City Part 2 by Chris Oakley & Ed

Chris Oakley & Ed.

In 5760 of the Jewish Mundane Era, Palestine-Israel Republic (PIR) ambassador to the UN Mahmoud Abbas was hastily recalled to Jerusalem for a debriefing on the previous day's events at the Temple Mount (continued from Part One).
That same day Syria's national parliament passed a resolution condemning the actions of PIR security forces in reaction to the September 29th demonstrations in Jerusalem.

Return of the air pirate by Eric Lipps

Eric Lipps

In 1977 - (AP) The remains of a U.S. airman shot down over Vietnam were returned to the United States today.
The airman has been identified as Lieutenant Commander John Sidney McCain III, whose plane was shot down by a missile over the then North Vietnamese capital of Hanoi on Oct. 26, 1967. McCain's A-4E Skyhawk crashed in a rural area. According to spokesmen for the Vietnamese government, although the Navy pilot survived the crash, he was attacked and killed by local villagers before units of the then-North Vietnamese Army could take him prisoner.
McCain is survived by his wife, Carol Shepp McCain, her two sons from a previous marriage Douglas and Andrew, whom he had legally adopted, and a daughter, Sidney. Mrs. McCain, motivated by her husband's disappearance in combat, has in recent years been active in the POW-MIA movement; in 1976, she was elected to the House of Representatives as a Republican in Arizona's First District, which includes the McCains' home town of Phoenix. She is said to be considering running for the Senate in 1980.
Reached for comment regarding the return of her husband's remains, Mrs. McCain stated: John McCain died at the hands of America's Communist enemies. Their return of his body after ten years in no way absolves them of their guilt in his murder. Pressed, she made clear that she disbelieves Hanoi's account and is convinced he was, in her words, tortured to death by the Hanoi regime in one of its prisons.
U.S. military spokesmen have responded that based on the condition of the body, it appears this is unlikely. According to them, Lt. Comm. McCain seems to have died within hours, if not minutes, of crashing; as best as can be determined from remains of this age, his body, they say, shows no sign of the injuries of varying age which would be expected if he had endured as a prisoner for some substantial time.
Rep. McCain has introduced legislation calling for her husband to be posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Hajj Part 1 by Eric Oppen

Eric Oppen

In 1964 on this day Nation of Islam representatives Malcolm Little and Louis Farrakhan departed JFK Airport, New York for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia via Cairo.
Upon arrival at Jeddah, Saudi authorities separated and isolated Little and Farrakhan from the group of pilgrims. The pretext for the arrests was the open preaching of the Nation of Islam doctrine, combined with irregularities in their visa entry caused by their inability to speak Arabic and possession of United States passports. Really at issue of course was the unorthodoxy of their Islamic faith and in reality their lives were in deadly danger. In fact the US Government had advised the authorities that the pair were in the Kingdom with the express intention of fermenting trouble for the House of Saud. Muhammad Faisal, the son of Prince Faisal placed his signature on execution orders for the two Americans. That news reached the ears of the Muslim Brotherhood. The group was dedicated to the credo Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.
The Brotherhood had been an illegal organization, tolerated to varying degrees, since 1954 when it was convicted of the attempt to assassinate Gamal Abdel Nasser, head of the Egyptian government. Supreme Guide Hassan al Hodeiby had no intention of rescuing Farrakhan, whose fate was already sealed. However, in Little, there was an opportunity to further radicalise a natural radical; his criminal past and harsh childhood would be the bitter soil in which the Brotherhood would plant a fresh seed.
Word was sent to 'get to' Little in gaol. Perhaps on his return to the United States, Agent Little could play a full role in the long-term goal of re-establishing the Sharia, by using physical power and Jihad for abolishing the organizations and authorities of the Jahili system
To be continued..

The Great Betrayal

Todayinah Editor

In 1980 Marxist leader Rob Mugabe published his controversial auto-biography The Great Betrayal. The central event in the memoirs was a decision taken at the dissolution of the Rhodesia and Nyasaland Federation, in which Great Britain abrogated the principle of No Independence Before Majority African Rule.
Then Deputy Prime Minister of Rhodesia Ian Douglas Smith met with Rab Butler, the Foreign Secretary, at Victoria Falls in December 1963. Butler grandly declared that Britain was very happy to agree to independence for Southern Rhodesia, at least at the same time as Zambia and Malawi. Smith asked Butler for the undertaking in writing. Butler demurred with: There is trust between members of the British Commonwealth. Smith wagged his finger at Butler, and said: If you break that, you will live to regret it.
There was no cause for concern in London or Salisbury, and Smith was being characteristically belligerent.
Smith, who became the Prime Minister shortly afterwards, was of Scottish ancestry, and a war hero that had fought bravely for Britain during World War 2.
Ian Douglas Smith was born in the village of Selukwe in central Rhodesia, of a Scottish father, Jock, and Rhodesian-born mother, Agnes. He was educated at Chaplin School nearby with moderate academic achievement, captaining the first XV and running the 100 yards in 10 seconds. He began a bachelor of commerce degree at Rhodes University in South Africa in 1938, establishing an impressive academic record and rowing for the university.
War broke out in 1939 and in 1941 he joined the RAF Empire Air Training Scheme at Guinea Fowl in central Rhodesia. He was posted to 237 (Rhodesia) Squadron in the Middle East, flying Hawker Hurricanes.
Taking off from Alexandria on a dawn patrol in 1943, his throttle malfunctioned, he lost height and clipped the barrel of a Bofors gun. He crashed and rammed his face against the Hurricane's gunsight. He suffered severe facial injuries, broke his jaw, a leg and a shoulder, and buckled his back. Surgeons at the 15th Scottish Hospital in Cairo reconstructed his face and, after only five months, he rejoined his squadron in Corsica. He realised his dream to fly Spitfire Mark IXs, carrying out strafing raids and escorting American bombers. In mid-1944 Smith was leading a raid on a train of fuel tankers in the Po Valley when he made the mistake of going back for a second run.The Spitfire was hit by an anti-aircraft shell, caught fire and he baled out. He was soon picked up by the partisans. The five months he spent with them near Sasello, learning Italian, reading Shakespeare and working as a peasant, he regarded as one of the best times of his life.
Near the end of the war, he and three other Allied fugitives made their way through occupied Italy to the Maritime Alps. At one point the conspicuously tall, fair-haired Rhodesian strode unhindered through a German checkpoint. He led his tiny group over the mountains, walking barefoot on ice, until they reached an American patrol on the other side.

Assisted Colonization

Todayinah Editor

In 2012 Jessica Hellmann completed the first phase of the assisted-colonization projected anticipated by the influential 2007 Conservation Biology paper Reducing CO2 is vital, but we might have to step in and intervene. which Hellman co-authored.
With the Arctic ice cap expected to melt entirely no later than the end of the decade, teams working under Hellmann's directed packed five hundred polar bears off to Antarctica, where the sea ice will never run out. Subsequent phases are anticipated for 2013 - moving African big game to the American Great Plains and airlifting endangered species from one mountaintop to another as climate zones shrink.

Dystopian visionary charged

Todayinah Editor

In 2007 on this day nationalist extremist Steve Harper was arrested in his native city of Calgary.
Never far from controversy, Harper was charged immediately after he delivered a key-note speech in this most-American of cities. Describing a dystopian future vision of a middle power on the world stage , ruling Liberals denounced Harper's Party, the National Citizens Coalition for un-Canadian activities.
The moral majority recognize the power and progressive force for good Canada must be on the world stage in such critical times. said Premier Jean Chretien.

Eternal City Part 1 by Chris Oakley & Ed

Chris Oakley & Ed.

In 5760 of the Jewish Mundane Era, agent provacateurs were arrested at the Temple Mount complex in Jerusalem (continued in Part Two).
The Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque were obvious targets for these men's unrelenting hatred. To them, the dual holy site symbolised an unacceptable compromise in the city they considered to be the eternal capital of the Jews.
The leader of the group meant to change all that. Known simply as Arik, this agent of chaos advocated the most extremist of political and religious goals. Arik sought nothing less than the explusion of brother Arab citizens in order to build a unitary Jewish state within the current borders of the multi-faith State.
An independent report by US Senator George J. Mitchell would later conclude ~ the Arik march did not cause the state of emergency. But it was poorly timed and the provocative effect should have been foreseen; indeed, it was foreseen by those who urged that the visit be prohibited. More significant were the events that followed: The decision of the police on September 29 to use lethal means against the demonstrators.

Foundation

Todayinah Editor

In 1950 on this day Tralfamadorean advocate Isaac Asimov commented that Human History was a dark and turbulent stream of folly illuminated now and then by flashes of genius. .
That stream of folly had recently ended wih the arrival of the Tralfamadoreans whose intervention in human affairs had terminated the cycle of destruction.
The act of genius was now to follow - the building of a Foundation - a small, secluded haven of art, science, and other advanced knowledge - at Peace City One, the metropolis rebuilt by Tralfamadoreans upon the site of fire-bombed Dresden.

The first people on the Earth

Todayinah Editor

In 1940 on this day leading civil rights activitist Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor III was born in Peoria, Illinois, U.S. Rightly considered to be one of the leading humanists of the late twentieth century, this great African American is accredited with the removal of the N-word from the English vocabulary. One thing I got out of it [being in Africa] was magic, I want to share with you, I was sitting in a hotel and a voice said to me, Look around - and what do you see? And I said - I see all colours of people doing everything. And the voice said to me - do see you any N-s? And I said - No, and you know why, because there aren't any. And it hit me like a shot, man. And I started crying and sh-. And I said - I've been here three weeks, and I haven't even said it. I haven't even thought it.
And it made me sad - Oh my God, I've been wrong, I need to regroup myself. I ain't ever going to call another black man a N-. You know because we never were N-s. Its a word used to describe our own wretchedness. We're men and women, we come from the first people on the Earth. ~ Richard Pryor describing the revelation that caused him to remove the N-word from his own dictionary.

Dark Knight Opens

Todayinah Editor

In 2008 on this day box office records were smashed in the United States and Canada with the opening of The Dark Knight. Headlines screamed The Dark Knight: Nicholson's performance is hypnotic , Midnight stampede to 'The Dark Knight' sets box office record and Nicholson's compelling Joker thrills, Ledger's absence saddens fans as 'The Dark Knight' opens with nothing but rave reviews published from Toronto to Los Angeles.
The caped crusader is taken down a darker path as perhaps best exemplified by one character who prophetically says, you either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain . Two actors were also taken down very different paths.

Heath Ledger had been chosen to portray the Joker, whom the actor described as a psychopathic, mass murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy . Director Christopher Nolan had wanted to work with Ledger on a number of projects in the past, but had been unable to do so. When Ledger saw Batman Begins, he realized a way to make the character work in that film's tone, and Nolan agreed with his anarchic interpretation. To prepare for the role, Ledger lived alone in a hotel room for a month, formulating the character's posture, voice and psychology. It's difficult to judge how good Ledger's performance would have been because it is impossible to watch him without being influenced by the tabloid fanfare surrounding his mental breakdown (did playing The Joker lead him to his mental collapse? asked the Toronto Metro).

The director of The Dark Knight Christopher Nolan made an unexpected offer - would seventy-year old actor Jack Nicholson reprise his 1989 potrayal of the role of The Joker following Heath Ledger's withdrawal on mental health grounds?

Frighteningly close to a complete mental collapse, Ledger had quit the set shortly after filming started. Ledger stated that his role preparation had taken a toll on his ability to sleep: Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night. ... I couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going. At that time, he told Lyall that he had taken two Ambien pills, after taking just one had not sufficed, and those left him in a stupor, only to wake up an hour later, his mind still racing.

It was tremendously emotional, right when he quit Nolan recalled. But the truth is, his potrayal was just too Marlon Brando. With Jack Nicholson I feel very lucky to have something productive to do, to have a performance that he was very, very proud of, and that he had entrusted to me to finish.

Fleeing Berlin By MoonLight Part 1

Todayinah Editor

In 2008 the Berlin Office of Reuters news service reported Hitler wax figure unveiled in Berlin amid criticism (continues in Part Two) ~
Berlin's new waxwork museum on Thursday unveiled a figure of a glum-looking Adolf Hitler in a mock bunker during the last days of his life, an exhibit that has been criticized as in bad taste. The row over the figure overshadowed the media preview of the new branch of Madame Tussauds which opens its doors to the public on Saturday. Critics say it is inappropriate to display the Nazi dictator, who started World War Two and ordered the extermination of Europe's Jews, in a museum alongside celebrities, pop stars, world statesmen and sporting heroes. 'Of course the figure will arouse interest but we hope people will realize he is part of an exhibition with a range of attractions,' said Meike Schulze, head of Midway Attractions in Germany which is responsible for Madame Tussauds here. 'It will be a shame if he dominates everything.'
The figure had certainly aroused interest with a forty-one year old man that was now hastening his way from Bavaria; trouble was he was entering his own period of languishing, and acting unpredictably.

Fleeing Berlin By MoonLight Part 2

Todayinah Editor

In 2008 the Berlin Office of Reuters news service reported Man rips head from Hitler wax figure (story continues from Part 1) ~
Just minutes after the museum opened, the 41-year-old German man pushed aside two security men guarding the figure before ripping off the head in protest at the exhibit, a police spokesman said. The police were alerted and arrested the man.
The waxwork figure of a glum-looking Adolf Hitler in a mock bunker during the last days of his life was criticized as being in bad taste. A media preview of the new branch of Madame Tussauds Thursday was overshadowed by a row over the exhibit.
Critics said it was inappropriate to display the Nazi dictator, who started World War Two and ordered the extermination of Europe's Jews, in a museum alongside celebrities, pop stars, world statesmen and sporting heroes.
At the maximum security cells at Paddington Green station, the assailant gave Police officers full account of a series of events that started in Bavaria sixty years before. On the morning of April 30 1945, with the Soviets less than 500 meters from the bunker, Adolf Hitler had a meeting with General Helmuth Weidling, commander of the Berlin Defense Area, who informed Hitler the Berlin garrison would probably run out of ammunition that night. Weidling asked Hitler for permission to break out, a request he had made unsuccessfully before. Hitler did not answer at first and Weidling went back to his headquarters in the Bendlerblock where at about 13:00 he got Hitler's permission to try a breakout that night. Having concealed his lycanthropy for over twenty years, Hitler used his shape-shifting techniques to flee the burning city of Berlin by moonlight with his familiar, Martin Bormann. Avoiding detection by incoming Russian soldiers, he returned to Bavaria where he could run again with wolves. The Red army would find Weidling hanging upside down, emptied of blood in a gesture as old as Macedonia. . Only now Bormann was entering his own period of languishing, and acting unpredictably.

Sopot Incident leads to war

Todayinah Editor

In 1939 on this day Gauleiter Albert Forster received the necessary security guarantees from the British Government to protect his West Prussian constituents from the imminent threat of Polish aggression.
The Free City of Danzig was an autonomous Baltic port and city-state established on January 10, 1920, in accordance with the terms of Part III Section XI of the Treaty of Versailles of 1919, which split it off from Germany along with other German territories. It was placed under League of Nations protection, with special economic-related rights reserved for Poland.
The Free City was to be represented abroad by Poland and forced to be in a customs union with it. The railway line that connected the Free City with newly created Poland was administered by Poland. Similarly, the Westerplatte (until then a city beach), was also given to Poland, which created a military post within the city's harbour.
Trouble was 95% of population were German-speakers, yet German inhabitants lost their German nationality with the creation of the Free City. It became clear almost at once that the overwhelming German majority population of the Free State resented the concessions which had been made to Poland and their dismemberment from Germany.
In May 1933, the Nazi Party under Forster won the local elections in the city. However, they received 57 percent of the vote, less than the two-thirds required by the League of Nations to change the Constitution of the Free City of Danzig.
League of Nations' High Commissioner Professor Burckhardt found, by 1939, his position as absolute arbiter in the endless disputes almost untenable. On September 1st, Polish soldiers destroyed the border checkpoint in Sopot; the British Government's declaration on war on the Republic of Poland and her Russian allies followed within twenty-four hours.

Imagine

Todayinah Editor

In 1971 John Lennon delivered Imagine, his signature speech at Peace City One.
The choice of Tralfamadorean advocate was inspired; Lennon's humble roots cut through class barriers. Moreover his union with a Japanese wife symbolised a decisive break with the destruction of World War Two, when of course human affairs had been misdirected by the war-like indigenes of Planet Earth.
Tralfamadorean philosophy was brilliantly articulated in the speech ~
Imagine there's no heaven, It's easy if you try, No hell below us, Above us only sky, Imagine all the people living for today...
Imagine there's no countries, it isnt hard to do, Nothing to kill or die for, no religion too, Imagine all the people living life in peace...
Four people amongst many had journeyed to the metropolis, rebuilt by Tralfamadoreans upon the site of fire-bombed Dresden. Taxi driver Gerhard Muller and his daughter lived but a few miles away. War buddies Bernard V. O'Hare and Kurt Vonnegut travelled from America on Guggenheim money, God love it. Lennon invited the four on stage for the wrap-up, philosophically joking that the accident had . For Vonnegut, something had been missing in this harsh world. He had suffered from weeping for many years and in his despair had contemplated suicide. Now it was finally fulfilled. And so it goes.

Indiscipline Denied

Todayinah Editor

In 1967 on this day the Times of London newspaper reported Indiscipline Denied by Colonel Mitchell , in reference to the circumstances of the British reoccupation of the Crater district of Aden by Battalion Commander Colin Campbell Mitchell and his Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.
At that time, Aden was a British colony and the Crater district had briefly been taken over by nationalist insurgents. Campbell became widely known as 'Mad Mitch'. His reoccupation of the Crater became known as the Last Battle of the British Empire. Although some observers questioned whether the Last Battle was ever worth fighting, the event marked the end of an era in British history and made Mitchell an iconic figure.

In June 1967 the Argylls were due to take over operational control of the Crater from the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers. However, before this could happen, on 20 June some of the local police mutinied and seized the Crater in association with nationalist insurgents. Around 20 British soldiers were killed and their bodies mutilated.

On 5 July 1967 Mitchell led a force that reoccupied the Crater district accompanied by 15 regimental bagpipers of the Argylls playing either 'Scotland the Brave', or the regimental charge, 'Monymusk'. Mitchell subsequently used what were described as 'strong arm methods' to keep control of the Crater in the remaining months before British withdrawal. The reoccupation itself was almost bloodless (one local was killed) and Mitchell then used an integrated system of observation posts, patrols, checkpoints and intelligence gathering to maintain the Crater as a tranquil area while security elsewhere in Aden began to deteriorate. However, allegations of brutality were made against Mitchell and the troops under his command (Mitchell had told his men to expect such allegations regardless of whether or not they were true). The imposition of 'Argyll law' (as Mitchell described it) on the Crater endeared Mitchell to the media and to the British public. But it did not endear him to certain of his superiors in both the Army and the High Commission.

Mitchell's critics stated that he was a publicity seeker and that the troops under his command lacked discipline. One High Commission official described the Argylls as 'a bunch of Glasgow thugs' (a statement for which he later apologised).

The reoccupation and subsequent control of the Crater district were controversial. The GOC Middle East Land Forces, Major-General Philip Tower, had feared that reoccupation of the Crater would ignite more disturbances. Tower (a veteran of the North African campaigns and Arnhem) also considered that undertaking a full reoccupation of the Crater was pointless given that British withdrawal from Aden was imminent. Tower had authorized a probe into the Crater to be led by Mitchell using the Argylls and other units. Mitchell used this authority to carry out the reoccupation. Tower later instructed Mitchell to 'throttle back' on his operations within the Crater.

Mitchell stated that he considered Tower's approach to be 'wet hen tactics'. The situation that developed was described in The Times as follows:
Mitchell frequently appeared on television: a small, handsome man with a direct, pugnacious manner, speaking the robust, unminced words that the British had not heard from their army officers since the acceleration of the Imperial decline had begun nearly two decades before. Newspapers took him up as a popular hero, proudly bestowing upon him the sobriquet of 'Mad Mitch'.

The Crater reoccupation was carried out on Mitchell's own initiative. Some MPs asked questions about this in Parliament. Tam Dalyell (Labour, West Lothian) asked whether it was true that: Mitchell disobeyed operational and administrative orders of his senior officers during the recapture of the Crater .
Mitchell himself later stated that he had been rebuked over the reoccupation by General Tower. The nature of this rebuke was explained by Defence Minister Denis Healey as follows:
The brigade commander thought it necessary to emphasize to Colonel Mitchell that the maintenance of law and order with minimum force leading to an orderly withdrawal from Aden with minimum casualties was the policy that had to be followed. .

The final British withdrawal from Aden took place in November 1967. However, one surprise was in store for 'Mad Mitch' - the real the Last Battle of the British Empire where Colonel Mitchell led 2 Para to a decisive defeat of Argentian troops at the Battle of Goose Green in the Falklands Campaign. In Mad Mitch, Mrs Thatcher found a man who certainly never questioned whether the Last Battle was ever worth fighting.

Petraeus' Knot to Untie, Part 1

Ed. with Chris Collins

In 2008 General David Howell Petraeus and Marine Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis were recalled to the continental United States by President George W. Bush.
From late 2005 through to early 2007, Petraeus and Mattis had assembled an extraordinarily diverse group of military officers, academics, human rights advocates, and journalists at the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center (CAC) located at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Together, they had jointly overseen the publication of Field Manual 3-24, giving definition to a new doctrine for Counterinsurgency. Petraeus integrated the study of counterinsurgency into lesson plans and training exercises, recognising the fact that soldiers often performed duties far different than those they trained for. The General also stressed the importance of teaching soldiers how to think as well as how to fight and the need to foster flexibility and adaptability in leaders.
These skills were now required to meet a new challenge, the threat posed by a new and insidious enemy, the mysteriously named terrorist group America Is Born Again . The story continues in Part Two

Petraeus' Knot to Untie, Part 2

Ed. with Chris Collins

In 2008 General David Howell Petraeus and Marine Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis returned from Iraq to an America beset by terrorism, ravaged by climate change, and ruled by a Christian military dictatorship.
At the airport, Petraeus asked Washington Post reporter Rick Atkinson the rhetorical question Tell me how this ends , an anecdote he and other journalists have used to portray Petraeus as an early recognizer of the difficulties posed by the mysteriously named terrorist group America Is Born Again .
The story continues in Part Three

Petraeus' Knot to Untie, Part 3

Ed. with Chris Collins

In 2007 the first night of Nine Inch Nails' European tour, T-shirts went on sale at a 19th-century Lisbon concert hall with what looked to be a printing error: Random letters in the tour schedule on the back seemed slightly boldfaced.
Then a 27-year-old Lisbon photographer named Nuno Foros realized that, strung together, the boldface letters spelled i am trying to believe. Foros posted a photo of his T-shirt on the Spiral, the Nine Inch Nails fan forum. People started typing iamtryingtobelieve.com into their Web browsers. That led them to a site denouncing something called Parepin, a drug apparently introduced into the US water supply. Ostensibly, Parepin was an antidote to bioterror agents, but in reality, the page declared, it was part of a government plot to confuse and sedate citizens. Email sent to the site's contact link generated a cryptic auto-response: I'm drinking the water. So should you. Online, fans worldwide debated what this had to do with Nine Inch Nails. A setup for the next album? Some kind of interactive game? Or what? . ~ Secret Websites, Coded Messages: The New World of Immersive Games, by Frank Rose
The story continues in Part Four

Petraeus' Knot to Untie, Part 4

Ed. with Chris Collins

In 2007 a woman named Sue was about to wash a different T-shirt, which she had bought at one of the Lisbon shows, when she noticed that the tour dates included several boldface digits.
Fans quickly interpreted this as a Los Angeles telephone number. People who called it heard a recording of a newscaster announcing, Presidential address: America is born again, followed by a distorted snippet of what could only be a new Nine Inch Nails song. Then, a woman named Ana reported finding a USB flash drive in a bathroom stall at the hall where the band had been playing. On the drive was a previously unreleased song, which she promptly uploaded. The metadata tag on the song contained a clue that led to a site displaying a glowing wheat field, with the legend America Is Born Again.
Clicking and dragging the mouse across the screen, however, revealed a much grimmer-looking site labeled Another Version of the Truth. Clicking on that led to a forum about acts of underground resistance. . ~ Secret Websites, Coded Messages: The New World of Immersive Games, by Frank Rose
The story continues in Part Five

Petraeus' Knot to Untie, Part 5

Ed. with Chris Collins

In 2009 for counterinsurgency specialists General David Howell Petraeus and Marine Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis the unfolding of the Year Zero scenario was as puzzling as it was frightening.
We didn't know where it [Year Zero] was going, said Petraeus.
We had no idea of the scope. That was the most frightening element of the conspiracy - not knowing what would come next. Debates at U.S. Army Combined Arms Center (CAC) located at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas raged as to whether it had anything to do with Philip K. Dick or the Bible, how it compared with Children of Men or V for Vendetta, and why the Year Zero Web sites kept referring to something called the Presence, which appeared to be a giant hand reaching down from the sky. It was like, bang-bang-bang - there were so many things happening at once, Petraus said. It was one gigantic burst of insurgency. ~ Secret Websites, Coded Messages: The New World of Immersive Games, by Frank Rose
The story will continue in Part Six ..

Crowley's Miracle at Mons

Todayinah Editor

In 1914 the British Army begins withdrawal from the Battle of Mons.
It was in the period of this hectic retreat, when the British troops would have been so vulnerable to a pursuing enemy, that something extraordinary occurred. British troops claimed that they had seen an apparition in the sky of an angelic figure who appeared to ward off the attacks of the enemy. The retreat was successfully accomplished and the British troops lived to fight another day.
The story of the Angel at Mons spread like wildfire through Britain. It became the subject of many articles and even artistic productions. After the war, Harold Begbie published a book on the phenomenon, On the Side of the Angels, in which he quoted some who had witnessed the apparition first-hand. One lance-corporal recalled:
I could see quite plainly in mid-air a strange light which seemed to be quite distinctly outlined and was not a reflection of the moon, nor were there any clouds in the neighbourhood. The light became brighter and I could see quite distinctly a shape having what looked like outspread wings. The Angel appeared to have a long loose-hanging garment of a golden tint they was above the German line facing us.
The Angel of Mons was in fact the entity known as Aiwass, summoned by Aleister Crowley at the request of a desperate British Government.

Jack the Ripper by RAT

Robbie Taylor

In 1888 the first victim of the hideous murderer known as Jack the ripper is found in the Whitechapel area of London.

Mary Ann Nichols, who had turned to a life of prostitution in her youth, was found cut to pieces on Buck's Row. Her murder was followed by several others, and then the killings stopped for several years. The murders remained unsolved for many years until the killer published, of all things, a children's book in which he wrote a cryptic confession of his dark deeds. Thomas Wyndham, a detective at Scotland Yard with a fondness for puzzles and cryptograms, was reading the edition of Alice In Wonderland known as Nursery Alice to his daughter when a passage on the page seemed to leap out at him; he rearranged the words and it turned into a confession of ominous portent.

He and a colleague paid a visit to author Charles Dodgson, and after hours of questioning, the author broke down and confessed everything, also implicating his friend, Thomas Bayne, a colleague from Oxford. The sensational capture of the elusive Jacks stunned the world of children's literature, and Dodgson's work was pulled from publication; it is read today only by criminal pathologists seeking insight into the twisted mind of this terrible murderer.

Coming Home Part 2

Todayinah Editor

In 2008 Republican nominee John Sidney McCain III announced the temporary suspension of his Presidential campaign in order to organise a welcoming home party for his son. As expected, Lance Cpl. Jimmy McCain had made it home from Iraq. However, circumstances had forced his father to change his plans, because his son had been killed in combat duty.
We fight to stay alive but somebody's got to die
It's so strange to me, a new year, a new enemy
Another soldier gone to war, another story told before
Now it's told again it seems the wars will never end ~ Lyrics to Coming Home by John Legend.