PhotoDude.com

Sun. May 26, 2002

Holiday Reading

Holiday Reading – I hope you are enjoying the holiday outdoors or with family/friends, but if you’re stuck inside, or looking for some interesting reading, there’s a collection of articles well worth your time.

From the Washington Post, Ambush at Takur Ghar: Part I and Part II, an excellent piece of military reporting: "What became a 17-hour ordeal atop a frigid, desolate and enemy-ridden mountain ridge cost seven American lives, more combat deaths than any U.S. unit had suffered in a single day since 1993, when 18 Rangers and Special Operations soldiers died in battle in Mogadishu, Somalia. How the operation was conducted revealed serious shortcomings in U.S. military coordination and communication in Afghanistan. How it unfolded highlighted the extraordinary commitment of American soldiers not to leave fallen comrades behind: The entire episode spiraled out of an attempt to rescue a single SEAL, who had fallen out of the initial helicopter and was quickly shot by the enemy."

From Time.com: How the FBI Blew the Case – "In Washington, where the FBI and CIA may be criticized but are allowed to clean up their own messes as they see fit, the memo sent shudders through the establishment for a simple reason: it came from within. If Rowley’s account is accurate and colleagues say she’s not one for shading the truth her letter amounts to a colossal indictment of our chief law-enforcement agency’s neglect in the face of the biggest terrorist operation ever mounted on U.S. soil. It raises serious doubts about whether the FBI is capable of protecting the public and whether it still deserves the public’s trust." You can also read an edited version of the memo itself.

And finally from the NY Times: Fighting to Live as the Towers Died – "Of the 2,823 believed dead in the attack on New York, at least 1,946, or 69 percent, were killed on those upper floors, an analysis by The Times has found. Rescue workers did not get near them. Photographers could not record their faces. If they were seen at all, it was in glimpses at windows, nearly a quarter-mile up. Yet like messages in an electronic bottle from people marooned in some distant sky, their last words narrate a world that was coming undone [...] At least 353 of those lost were able to reach people outside the towers. Spoken or written at the hour of death, these are intimate, lasting words. The steep emotional cost of making them public is worth paying, their families say, for a clearer picture of those final minutes. Many also hope the history of the day is enlarged beyond memorials to the unquestioned valor of 343 firefighters and 78 other uniformed rescuers. It is time, they say, to account for the experiences of the 2,400 civilians who also died that day."