The War That Never Ends....

The War in Afghanistan 
"Operation Enduring Freedom"

 The war's goals were to dismantle Al-Qaeda and to deny it a safe base of operations in Afghanistan by removing the Taliban from power.

The War in Afghanistan is the second longest war in United States history, behind the Vietnam War.

President George W. Bush blamed the U.S. 2001 September 11 on Osama bin Laden who was hiding in Afghanistan.

President Bush demanded that the Taliban hand over Osama bin  Laden, who had already been wanted by the U.S. since 1998, and expel Al-Qaeda.

 The Taliban declined to extradite him unless they provided evidence of his involvement in the September 11 attacks.

They also declined demands to extradite others on the same grounds. 

The U.S. dismissed the request for evidence.

On September 26, 2001, the U.S. covertly inserted members of the CIA's Special Activities Division as part of team Jawbreaker into Afghanistan, forming the Northern Afghanistan Liaison Team.

They linked up with the Northern Alliance as part of Task Force Dagger.

 Within a few weeks the Northern Alliance, with assistance from the U.S. ground and air forces, captured several cities from the Taliban.

On October 7, 2001 launched Operation Enduring Freedom with the United Kingdom. 

Later they were joined by other forces, including the Northern Alliance which had been fighting the Taliban in the ongoing civil war since 1996.

 In December 2001, the United Nations Security Council established the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

Its purpose was to assist the Afghan interim authorities with securing Kabul. 

 Hamid Karzai was selected to head the Afghan Interim Administration.

In the popular elections of 2004, Karzai was elected president of the country, now named the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

After the  defeat in the initial invasion, the Taliban was reorganized by its leader Mullah Omar.

It launched an insurgency against the government and ISAF in 2003.

Insurgents from the Taliban, Haqqani Network, Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin and other groups waged warfare with guerrilla raids and ambushes in the countryside, suicide attacks against urban targets and turncoat killings against coalition forces. 

ISAF continued to battle the Taliban insurgency, fighting crossed into neighboring North-West Pakistan.

 On May 1, 2011, United States Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden in Abbotabad, Pakistan.

In May 2012, NATO leaders endorsed an exit strategy for withdrawing their forces. 

UN-backed peace talks have taken place between the Afghan government and the Taliban.

 In May 2014, the United States announced that its major combat operations would end in December 2014. 

It would leave a residual force in the country.

In October 2014, British forces handed over the last bases in Helmand to the Afghan military.

December 28, 2014, NATO formally ended ISAF combat operations in Afghanistan.

As of May 2017, over 13,000 foreign troops remain in Afghanistan without any formal plans to withdraw.

Over 4,000 ISAF soldiers and civilian contractors were killed as well as, over 15,000 Afghan national security forces and over 31,000 civilians.

The 9/11 Commission found that Al-Qaeda was able to use Afghanistan as a place to train and indoctrinate fighters, import weapons, coordinate with other jihadists, and plot terrorist actions.

 An estimated 10,000 to 20,000 men passed through these facilities before 9/11.

BEFORE

After the August 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings were linked to bin Laden, President Bill Clinton ordered missile strikes on militant training camps in Afghanistan. 

 In 1999, the international community imposed sanctions on the Taliban, calling for bin Laden to be surrendered. 

The Taliban repeatedly refused.

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Special Activities Division paramilitary teams were active in Afghanistan in the 1990s in clandestine operations to locate and kill or capture Osama bin Laden. 

These teams planned several operations, but did not receive the order to proceed from President Clinton. 

Their efforts built relationships with Afghan leaders that proved essential in the 2001 invasion.

A change in U.S. policy was effected in August 2001.

 The Bush administration agreed on a plan to start supporting Massoud.

 A meeting of top national security officials agreed that the Taliban would be presented with an ultimatum to hand over bin Laden and other al-Qaeda operatives. 

If the Taliban refused, the U.S. would provide covert military aid to anti-Taliban groups. 

If both those options failed, the United States would seek to overthrow the Taliban regime through more direct action.

Ahmad Shah Massoud was the only leader of the United Front in Afghanistan. 

Massoud set up democratic institutions and signed the Women's Rights Declaration.

Many civilians fled to areas under his control.

In total, estimates range up to one million people fleeing the Taliban.

SEPTEMBER 11TH ATTACKS

On the morning of September 11, 2001, a total of 19 Arab men carried out four coordinated attacks in the United States.

 Four commercial passenger jet airliners were hijacked.

The hijackers were members of Al-Qaeda's Hamburg cell. They intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City.

 Everyone on board and more than 2000 people in the buildings were killed.

Both buildings collapsed within two hours from damage related to the crashes.

Nearby buildings  were destroyed and others were damaged.

 The hijackers crashed another airliner into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C.. 

The fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville, in rural Pennsylvania.

Later it was discovered that some of its passengers and flight crew attempted to retake control of the plane.

 No one aboard the flights survived.

The death toll among responders including firefighters and police was 836 as of June 2009.

 Total deaths were 2996, including the 19 hijackers.

WIKI LEAKS SECRETS

July 25, 2010, the release of 91,731 classified documents from the WikiLeaks organization was made public. 

The documents cover U.S. military incident and intelligence reports from January 2004 to December 2009.

The documents contain reports of Pakistan collusion with the Taliban. 

Supposedly the documents clearly show that the Pakistani intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence is the most important accomplice the Taliban has outside of Afghanistan.

Pakistan allowed representatives of its spy service to meet directly with the Taliban in secret strategy sessions. 

They organized networks of militant groups that fight against American soldiers in Afghanistan, and even hatch plots to assassinate Afghan leaders. 

An alleged incident in which Pakistan's former ISI spy chief Hamid Gul met with Afghan insurgents in January 2009.

It was right after alleged Pakistani Al-Qaeda figure Osama al-Kini's death by a CIA drone attack. 

Evidence that Iran provided assistance to the Taliban was also revealed in the documents.

Iranian involvement in Afghanistan steadily widened from 2004 to today and constituted armaments, money, and physical deployment of anti-NATO militants.

The documents stated that Hezb-e-Islami party leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Amin al-Haq, a financial advisor to Osama Bin Laden, both flew to North Korea on 19 November 2005, and purchased remote-controlled rockets to be used against American and coalition aircraft. 

Hundreds of civilians have been wounded or killed by coalition forces in several instances that were not previously revealed.

The shootings to the often massive loss of life from air strikes led to President Hamid Karzai stating publicly that the US was treating Afghan lives as "cheap". 

There were sums paid of 100,000 Afghani per corpse.

A U.S. patrol machine-gunned a bus, killing 15 of its passengers.

On 4 March 2007, U.S. Marines opened fire on civilians after witnessing a suicide bombing and supposedly coming under small arms fire. 

The marines escaped down a six-mile stretch of highway, opening fire with automatic weapons, hitting almost anyone in their way. 

Such as teenage girls in the fields, motorists in their cars, old men as they walked along the road. 

Nineteen unarmed civilians were killed and 50 wounded.

None of the soldiers involved were charged or disciplined.

March 2007, CIA paramilitaries fired on a civilian man who was running from them. 

The man, Shum Khan, was deaf and mute and did not hear their warnings.

In 2007, U.S. special forces dropped six 2,000 lb bombs on a compound where they believed a "high-value individual" was hiding.

 They insured that there were no innocent Afghans in the surrounding area. 

A senior U.S. commander reported that 150 Taliban had been killed.

 Locals, reported that up to 300 civilians had died.

The reports included incidents involving civilian casualties like the Kunduz airstrike and Nangar Khel incident.

August 2007, Polish troops mortared the village of Nangar Khel, killing five people.

Two of the victims were a woman and her baby.

It was supposedly a revenge attack shortly after experiencing an IED explosion.

The Taliban have killed more than 2,000 civilians to date with their road side bombs.

The documents revealed that contractors for the U.S. Department of Defense had hired local male child prostitutes.

In my opinion, this has been a ridiculous situation.

Do we really still need that many troops over there?

Snorky A.K.A. Al Capone

Alphonse Gabriel Capone "Scarface"

"i'm a kind person, i'm kind to everyone, but if you are unkind to me, then kindness is not what you will remember me for."

The most famous gangster  in American history.

He was a businessman who aquired his fame during the Prohibition.

Capone's multi-million dollar Chicago operation in bootlegging, prostitution and gambling dominated the organized crime scene.

He was responsible for many brutal acts of violence, mainly against other gangsters.

He was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, to poor Italian immigrants on January 17, 1899.

His parents were Gabriele Capone and Teresa Capone.

His father was a barber and his mother was a seamstress.

Capone went to Catholic school.

Capone was a good student school, but then he began falling behind and had to repeat the sixth grade.

 He started playing hooky and hanging out at the Brooklyn docks. 

Capone’s teacher hit him for insolence and he hit back. 

The principal gave him a beating.

 Capone never again returned to school. 

The Capones had moved out of the tenement to a better home in the outskirts of the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn. 

He worked odd jobs for awhile.

He then became involved with some small time gangs.

He worked his way up to the Five Points Gang.

Johnny Torrio was running a numbers and gambling operation near Capone’s home.

Capone began running small errands for him.

In 1917, Torrio introduced Capone to the gangster Frankie Yale.

He employed Capone as bartender and bouncer at the Harvard Inn in Coney Island. 

One night, he made an indecent remark to a woman at the bar. 

Her brother punched Capone, then slashed him across the face, leaving three indelible scars that inspired his enduring nickname "Scarface."

He hated that name.

When he was photographed, he hid his scarred left side of his face.

His close friends called him "Snorky", because he was a sharp dresser.

Capone was 19 when married Mae Coughlin on December 30, 1918, just weeks after the birth of their child, Albert Francis. 

Johnny Torrio was the boy’s godfather. 

Capone wanted to do right by his family, so he moved to Baltimore where he took an honest job as a bookkeeper for a construction company. 

When Capone’s father died of a heart attack in 1920, Torrio invited him to come to Chicago.

 Capone jumped at the opportunity.

Torrio owned a booming business in gambling and prostitution.

In 1920 the enactment of the 18th Amendment prohibiting the sale and consumption of alcohol.

 Torrio focused on bootlegging. 

Capone brought both his street smarts and his expertise with numbers to Torrio’s Chicago operations. 

Torrio quickly promoted him to partner. 

Capone began to develop a reputation as a drinker and rabble-rouser. 

He hit a parked taxicab while driving drunk, and was arrested for the first time. 

Torrio quickly used his city government connections to get him off.

Capone contracted syphilis after he became a bouncer in a brothel.

He never sought treatment.

Capone cleaned up his act when his family arrived.

 His wife and son, along with his mother, younger brothers and sister all moved to Chicago.

Capone bought a modest house in the middle-class South Side.

In 1923, Chicago elected a mayor who announced that he planned to rid the city of corruption.

 Torrio and Capone moved their base beyond the city limits to suburban Cicero. 

A 1924 mayoral election in Cicero threatened their operations. 

To guarantee their candidate would get elected, Torrio and Capone initiated an intimidation effort on the day of the election, March 31, 1924.

  Some voters were shot and killed. 

Chicago sent in police to respond.

 They brutally gunned down Capone’s brother Frank in the street.

In 1925, after an attempt on his life by rival North side mobsters, Torrio decided to leave the business to Capone and return to Italy.

Capone ignored his mentor’s advice to maintain a low profile.

He moved his headquarters to a plush suite in the Metropole Hotel in downtown Chicago. 

He began living a luxurious and public lifestyle.

Newspapers of the time estimated Capone’s operations generated $100 million in revenue a year.

He was able to gain public sympathy with his sociable and generous personality. 

He gave to charities and was cheered at ball games.

As anti-Prohibition resentment grew, some  considered him a Robin Hood figure. a dissident who worked on the side of the people. 

In later years, Capone expanded his bootlegging business  through increasingly violent means.

His name became connected with brutal violence, and his popularity waned.

William Hale Thompson and the city's police meant he seemed safe from law enforcement.

If an establishment refused to purchase liquor from him often got blown up, and as many as 100 people were killed in such bombings during the 1920s

In 1926, Capone’s sworn enemies were spotted in Cicero.

Capone ordered his men to gun them down. 

 William McSwiggin, known as the “Hanging Prosecutor,” had tried to prosecute him for a previous murder.

McSwiggin was with the two marked men and all three were killed in broad daylight.

The public demanded justice. 

The police raided Capone’s businesses. 

They gathered documentation that would later be used to bolster charges against him of income-tax evasion. 

Capone called for a “Peace Conference” among the city’s criminals.

 An agreement was reached to stop the violence. 

It lasted just two months.

1929 Capone dominated the illegal liquor trade in Chicago. 

Other racketeers fought for a piece of the bootlegging business.

 “Bugs” Moran had previously tried to assassinate both Torrio and Capone.

He was after Capone’s top hit man, “Machine Gun” Jack McGurn. 

Capone and McGurn decided to kill Moran. 

February 14, 1929, posing as police, McGurn’s gunmen assassinated seven of Moran’s men in a North Side garage in broad daylight.

Bugs Moran escaped the slaughter. 

The public and the media immediately blamed Capone for the for what was called the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. 

He was dubbed “Public Enemy Number One.”

President Herbert Hoover ordered the federal government to step up its efforts to get Capone on income-tax evasion. 

In 1927, the Supreme Court had ruled that income gained on illegal activities was taxable.

This gave the government a strong case for prosecuting Capone. 

 June 5, 1931 Capone was indicted on 22 counts of income-tax evasion.

 Capone remained confident that he would get off with a minimal sentence.

He struck a plea bargain in return for a two-and-a-half year sentence. 

The judge in the case declared that he would not honor the agreement.

 Capone quickly withdrew his guilty plea.

The case went to trial. 

 Capone used the best weapon in his arsenal: bribery and intimidation. 

At the last moment, the judge switched to an entirely new jury. 

Capone was found guilty and sent to prison for 11 years.

Capone spent the first two years of his incarceration in a federal prison in Atlanta. 

He was caught bribing guards.

 Capone was sent to the island prison Alcatraz in 1934. 

He could no longer wield his still considerable influence.

 He began suffering from poor health. 

Capone had contracted syphilis as a young man.

Now he suffered from neurosyphilis, causing dementia. 

After serving six-and-a-half years, Capone was released in 1939 to a mental hospital in Baltimore.

He remained there for three years. 

His health rapidly declining.

 Capone lived out his last days in Miami with his wife. 

He died of cardiac arrest on January 25, 1947.

 A New York Times headline said, “End of an Evil Dream.” 

Capone’s was at times both loved and hated by the media and the public. 

Prohibition was repealed in 1933.

Some in the public felt that Capone’s and others’ involvement in selling liquor had been vindicated.

 Capone was a ruthless gangster responsible for murdering or ordering the assassinations of many people.

Haunted Disney and IT's Secrets

Walt Disney Haunts Disneyland

Walt had an apartment over the Fire Station on Main Street.

The light in the window is never turned off.

It is  a tribute to Walt, who died in 1966.

Before the tradition of leaving the light on began, a cast member turned off the light and left the room only to find the light turned on again when she returned. 

She heard a voice that said, “I am still here.”

REAL SKELETONS

Pirates of the Caribbean's skeleton props. 

Some of the skeletons are real. 

When the ride first opened in the late 60’s, skeletons from the UCLA Medical School were used instead of fake props due to the fact that they looked more realistic. 

Today, only one real skeleton remains.  

Look for the skull on the headboard of the bed!



SPACE MOUNTAIN'S MR. ONE WAY.

He’s described as a large man with red hair and a red face. 

He sits in the seat next to single riders. 

Then he disappears by the end of the ride. 

He has also been spotted in the cast member locker room.

MONORAIL RUNNER

 In June of 1966, a teenager tried to sneak into Disneyland for grad night by climbing a fence and crossing the Monorail track. 

When he was spotted by a security guard, the teenager ran. 

He was struck and killed by the Monorail train. 

It is said that the ghost of the teenager can be seen at night running alongside the Monorail train.

MATTERHORN GHOST

 1984, a woman named Dolly Young was killed when she was thrown from the bobsled. 

Cast members who are required to walk the tracks when the ride shuts down say they can hear her. 

Some cast members call the section of track where Dolly died “Dolly’s Dip.”

THE CRYING BOY

 The exit of the Haunted Mansion is said to be haunted by the ghost of a boy. 

They story goes that the boy’s mother spread her son’s ashes in the Haunted Mansion without Disneyland’s permission. 

Legend has it that the ghost also appears on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

THE MAN WITH A CANE

There was a small plane crashed in the 1940's in Anaheim.

 The pilot is now believed to be haunting the Haunted Mansion. 

A cast member saw the man with the cane at the loading dock where guests board doom buggies.
http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/The_Man_with_the_Cane

THE WOMAN IN WHITE

A ghost dressed in a 19th century gown has been spotted on Main Street after dark. 

Legend has it that she guides lost children to the Disneyland Baby Care Center where they can be reunited with their parents.

THE SPIRIT IN THE RIVER

 June of 1973, two brothers stayed on Tom Sawyer’s Island after the park closed. 

They tried to escape by swimming across the Rivers of America.

 The older brother drowned. 

Cast members have seen a ghost in the rippling the water.

GHOST PREFER BLONDES

A teenager was killed on the People Mover ride in 1967. 

His ghost haunts Tomorrowland (the People Mover closed in 1995). 

The ghost reportedly grabs the hair of blonde guests.

Construction on the Haunted Mansion began in 1963.

One of the first test guests was so scared that she died of a heart attack inside the mansion. 


Her death, led to the closing of construction until 1969.

If you look at the mirror in Fantasyland’s Mad Hatter shop long enough the Cheshire Cat appears!

A time capsule was buried at the Sleeping Beauty Castle in 1995. 

No one knows exactly what’s inside.

It is unearthed during the park’s 80th anniversary on July 17, 2035.  

It reads “A time capsule, containing Disneyland memories, messages and milestones, lies beneath this spot.  

The Disneyland Time Castle is dedicated to the children of the 21st century.

If you ask one of the Disney cast members if you can visit the wheelhouse they will lead you to a secret ladder on the second floor and introduce you to the captain.

 If you ask the captain if he needs help, you will also get the opportunity to steer the riverboat, blow the whistle and ring the famous Mark Twain bell.  

You will also get a certificate to say you piloted the Mark twain Riverboat

Around the World in 80 Days with Iron Maiden.

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS?... NOT QUITE.

On February 2nd, 2017, 27 year old Cassie De Pecol from Connecticut set a world record for visiting 

every country in the world in the fastest time.

She visted all 196 countries in 18 and a half months.

She spend 2 to 5 days in each country.

She smashed the existing record of three years and three months, set by previous record-holder Yili Liu.

HERE IS HER WEBSITE WITH HER AMAZING PHOTOS

IRON MAIDEN

Saddam Hussein's psychotic eldest son Uday owned an iron maiden torture device.

It was around 7 feet tall, three feet across and deep enough to house a grown man.

It was found his backyard in Baghdad.

The sarcophagus-shaped device is essentially a large, metal closet with long spikes on the inside door that closes to impale its victim.

It was clearly worn from  use.

It's nails have lost some of it's sharpness.

It lay on its side within view of Uday's first-floor offices in the soccer association.

As head of Iraq's Olympic committee and also of its soccer federation, he is known to have ordered the torture of athletes who performed below his expectations.

Players had their feet scalded and toenails ripped off for failing to win tournaments.

No player would dare admit to suffering such abuse, for fear of even worse.

IN THE NAVY

George Washington was the father of the Navy.

The U.S. Navy was disbanded following the Revolutionary war in 1785.

The last ship was the Alliance.

It was brought back in 1794 mostly to fight pirates.

Metro-phobia is the fear of seeing, hearing or writing poetry.

People with this fear tend to dislike seeing, hearing or writing poems. Metro-phobia is considered to be a specific phobia.

It is believed that heredity, genetics, and brain chemistry combine with life-experiences to play a major role in the development of phobias. 

The symptoms typically include extreme anxiety, dread and anything associated with panic such as shortness of breath, rapid breathing, irregular heartbeat, sweating, excessive sweating, nausea, dry mouth, nausea, inability to articulate words or sentences, dry mouth and shaking.

It is important to note that medicines do not cure phobias, at best they only temporarily suppress the systems. 

However, there are treatments for phobias, which include counseling, hypnotherapy, psychotherapy, and Neuro-Linguistic programming.

Back Sarcophagus Update: People want to drink the mummy juice.....

On July 29, the Black Sarcophagus found in Alexandra last week was opened.

There wasn't Alexander the great or anything like they thought there was going to be in there.

There were three bodies stewing in red sewer liquid.

Now people are signing a petition so they can be allowed to drink the juices inside...

More than 400 people have signed a change.org petition to let people drink the liquid from the “cursed” dark sarcophagus. 

According to Innes McKendrick, the Scottish game producer who launched the petition, is to turn the liquid into some sort of carbonated Monster-esque energy drink, so people can assume the skeleton’s powers and “finally die.”

Lebanon Hostage Crisis

It was the systematic abductions of of 104 foreign nationalist in Lebanon  by the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah between 1982 and 1992.

At least eight hostages died in captivity, as a result of inadequate medical care, torture, or execution.

Some victims spent years in captivity, while others, including CIA Station Chief William Buckley, were tortured and killed.

Giandomenico Picco was a United Nations negotiator.

He went to Beirut to try to free Western hostages. 

To talk to the kidnappers face to face, he had to allow himself to be abducted. 

His negotiations led to the release of 11 people, including John McCarthy and Terry Waite.

Some believe that all of this led directly to the Iran-Contra scandal, in which Reagan approved secret arms sales to Iran in hope of winning the release of the remaining hostages.

That deal, was begun partly at Jerusalem's instigation.