Scrapbook
Scrapbook The Surprisingly Good Guys List (cont.) Our winner this week of membership on The Scrapbook's Surprisingly Good Guys List™ is the German Navy. Obviously, as they are NATO members in good...
...That's what we call civic journalism...
...The remainder of our port visits have all been canceled...
...Something to bear in mind whenever you hear the Taliban and its sympathizers discussing civilian casualties: "Each Afghan has a rifle in his home, and each Afghan's home is his bunker...
...Dear Dad, We are still at sea...
...About two hours ago, we were hailed by the German Navy destroyer Lutjens, requesting permission to pass close by our port side...
...Here's a bit from a comprehensive story filed late last week by Gary Matsumoto, lending further credence to the commonsensical theory (resisted by the White House) that al Qaeda or Iraq—and not some domestic Ted Kaczynski type—is behind the germ warfare...
...The e-mail, which is now in wide circulation, was written by a young ensign on the USS Winston Churchill...
...weapons inspectors in 1994...
...The existence of such bentonite means further tests are needed to rule out the presence of the troubling additive...
...We have spent every day since the attacks going back and forth within imaginary boxes drawn in the ocean, standing high-security watches, and trying to make the best of it...
...One of America's leading experts on mineral clays, Hayden Murray, a professor emeritus of geology at Indiana University, says a company based in Munich, Germany, removes aluminum from bentonite to create a finer, more refined additive than one could make from the bentonite deposits found in Iraq...
...Wearing a flag as a cape might be one thing, but lapel pins...
...But in their actions described in the e-mail below and depicted in the photo, they went above and beyond the call of duty...
...One of its principal ingredients is aluminum,' said Maj...
...It's amazing to think that only a half-century ago things were quite different...
...Murray says at least two American companies mine such high-quality bentonite, but the German company has a much larger customer base in the Middle East...
...For the Army, no aluminum equaled no bentonite...
...This was more than we were able to learn from any of the large daily newspapers...
...Presumably, this meant the flag pins and patriotic ribbons that festoon nearly everyone in Washington these days...
...Mineralogist William Moll, who has mainly worked in private industry, says these synthetic bentonites are used as 'free-flow agents' that give dry powders a 'fluid' or 'slippery' quality as the particles float through the air...
...The German Navy did an incredible thing for this crew, and it has truly been the highest point in the days since the attacks...
...Several of the Capitol Police's finest tell us that, a little over a week after the first terrorist attacks, orders came from on high they were not to wear "adornments" to their uniforms...
...But the zero recognition they're receiving for their enterprise is a professional travesty...
...ABCNews.com and Anthrax On the critical issue of who sent the anthrax, it's time to give credit to the ABC website, ABCNews.com, for reporting rings around most other news organizations...
...I'll write you when I know more about when I'll be home, but this is it for now...
...Full disclosure: The Scrapbook has no business relationship with and doesn't even personally know the ABC-News.com reporters...
...And I will say to you that we see no aluminum presence in the sample.' "That assessment may prove correct, but not based solely on the absence of aluminum...
...We've been generally siding against the civil libertarians in their disputes with central authority, but not this time...
...ABC News has learned that at least two European chemical companies make a processed, aluminum-free bentonite...
...It was the most powerful thing I have seen in my life...
...Strange, since we're in the middle of an empty ocean, but the captain acquiesced and we prepared to render them honors from our bridgewing...
...The government's top labs have run the Daschle anthrax sample through a series of tests...
...Dan Nichols wouldn't provide us with a rationale for this restriction, maybe because it's hard to imagine one...
...An electron microscope study found the Daschle spores looked 'virtually identical' to those found in Iraq by U.N...
...They had made a sign that was displayed on her side that read "We Stand By You...
...As she came alongside us, we saw the American flag flying half-mast and her entire crew topside standing at silent, rigid attention in their dress uniforms...
...We have seen the articles and the photographs, and they are sickening...
...As they were making their approach, our conning officer used binoculars and announced that Lutjens was flying not the German, but the American flag...
...There was not a dry eye on the bridge as they stayed alongside us for a few minutes and saluted...
...Amir Khan Muttaqi, chief Taliban spokesman, to the Associated Press, November 1, 2001 No Flags for the CapitolPolice...
...John Parker, overall commander of the military laboratories doing the analyses...
...Being isolated, I don't think we appreciate the full scope of what is happening back home, but we are definitely feeling the effects...
...After Lutjens pulled away, the Officer of the Deck, who had been planning to get out of the Navy later this year, turned to me and said, "I'm staying Navy...
...Obviously, as they are NATO members in good standing, we expect a lot of the Deutsche Marine...
...Police spokesman Lt...
...But after subjecting it to a sophisticated X-ray test last week, the Army concluded it contained no bentonite [which the Iraqis are known to use], a clay comprised of several minerals, including aluminum...
...If the officers working round the clock to protect the seat of the republic want to wear a lapel pin, we say let a thousand flags bloom...
...And surprisingly little of this reporting, perhaps because of its technical nature, actually ends up on the air...
...What Afghan Civilians...
Vol. 7 • November 2001 • No. 9
