Friends hail police Sgt. Kimberly Munley for taking down Fort Hood gunman, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan
“The hero cop who ended the bloody rampage at Fort Hood by pumping four bullets into the crazed gunman even though she was wounded is known for her toughness, friends say.” Before relocating to Texas, civilian police Sgt. Kimberly Munley spent about five years as a cop in North Carolina where she forged a reputation as a no-nonsense officer.
“I’d like to say I’m surprised, but I’m really not,” said close friend Drew Peterson, 27.
“She was born and bred to be a police officer. If you were ever to be in a fight, she’d be the first person to stand up next to you and back you up. She’s a tough cookie.”
Munley’s toughness and grace under pressure were on display Thursday when she and her partner responded within three minutes of reported gunfire, said Army Lt. Gen. Bob Cone.
Munley, who had been trained in active-response tactics, rushed into the building and confronted the shooter as he was turning a corner, Cone said.
“It was an amazing and an aggressive performance by this police officer,” Cone said.
Munley was only a few feet from Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan when she opened fire.
Wounded in the exchange of bullets, the 34-year-old Munley was reported in stable condition at a local hospital.
In a posting on her Twitter page before the shooting, she wrote: “I live a good life….a hard one, but I go to sleep peacefully @ night knowing that I may have made a difference in someone’s life.”
“Munley’s brother Daniel Barbour told ABC News that his sister had been shot three times in the hand and the leg. One of the bullets pierced an artery, requiring her to undergo surgery Friday.
The diminutive Munley – she stands 5-foot-4 and weighs about 120 pounds – served as a cop in Wrightsville Beach, N.C., before she moved to Texas to enlist in the military, friends said.
She is married with two daughters and is no longer in the armed forces.
“She’s the happiest, sweetest, most fun-loving girl you’d ever want to be friends with – and never want to cross,” Peterson said.
The hero cop spent Thursday night phoning fellow officers to let them know she was fine and to find out about casualties in the attack – the deadliest ever on a military base in the U.S., Cone said.
Cone said Munley’s aggressive response training taught her that “if you act aggressively to take out a shooter you will have less fatalities.”
“She walked up and engaged him,” he said. He praised her as “one of our most impressive young police officers.”
… … … … …
I expect to see Obama inviting Sgt Munley to the WH to praise her for her bravery and heroism under fire saving so many lives from the radical muslim afraid to fight for the country that gave him so much…. We’ll see!
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton speaks in front of his statue in the capital Pristina, November 1, 2009. Clinton is in Kosovo where he unveiled the statue on Clinton's Boulevard. REUTERS/Hazir Reka
PRISTINA, Nov. 1, 2009 (Reuters) — Kosovo’s Albanian majority unveiled a statue of former U.S. president Bill Clinton on Sunday to thank him for saving them by stopping a wave of ethnic cleansing by Serbia.
As the U.S. President in 1999, Clinton launched NATO air strikes to halt the killing of ethnic Albanians by Serbian troops.
Clinton’s speech was interrupted several times by Kosovo Albanians wildly cheering his name and U.S.A., and waving U.S., Albanian and Kosovo flags.
“I am profoundly grateful that I had a chance to be a part of ending the horrible things that were happening to you 10 years ago giving you a chance to build a better future for yourself,” Clinton told the crowd.
The crowd chanted Clinton’s name when the former president started shaking hands with people along a boulevard named after him.
“I never expected … anywhere someone will make such a big statue of me,” Clinton said after his 3-meter (10 foot) statue was unveiled.
He urged Kosovars to build a multi-ethnic country with the minority Serbs and other minorities and said the United States would always help Kosovo’s people.
“You have to build something good and we should help,” he added.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia last year and was recognized by the United States and major European Union powers — a total of 62 countries worldwide but not by its former ruler Serbia, Russia and China.
Grateful Kosovo Albanians also named a central street in central Pristina after former U.S. president George W. Bush.
Kosovo Albanians regard Clinton, former British prime minister Tony Blair and Clinton’s state secretary Madeleine Albright as their saviors and have named their babies after them.
Ismail Neziri had travelled 60 km (37 miles) to see the president again after they met in a refugee camp in Macedonia where Neziri’s family had fled to escape the forces of late Serb strongman Slobodan Milosevic.
Around 10,000 Albanians were killed as Serb forces moved to wipe out an ethnic Albanian guerrilla force and 800,000 were expelled to neighboring Macedonia, Albania and Montenegro.
“I was only eight years in a refugee camp in Macedonia when Clinton took me in his hands and today he is the same big and young man,” said Neziri, 18, holding a U.S. flag.
“In 1996 everybody was speaking that Clinton is a good man and he will help us, and then my father named me after him,” said 13-year-old Klinton Krasniqi. LINK
********** more…
Thousands of ethnic Albanians have braved the cold in Kosovo’s capital Pristina to welcome former president Bill Clinton at the unveiling of a statue of himself on a key boulevard that also bears his name.
Clinton is celebrated as a hero by Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority for launching NATO’s bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999 that stopped the brutal Serb forces’ crackdown on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians.
This is his first visit to Kosovo since it declared independence from Serbia last year.
Many waved American, Albanian and Kosovo flags and chanted “USA!” as the former president climbed on top of a podium with his poster in the background reading “Kosovo honours a hero.”
Some peeked out of balconies and leaned on window sills to get a better view of Clinton from their apartment blocks.
To thunderous applause Clinton waved to the crowd as the red cover was pulled off from the 3.5 metre statue.
The statue is placed on top of a white-tiled base, in the middle of a tiny square, surrounded by communist-era buildings.
“I never expected that anywhere, someone would make such a big statue of me,” Clinton said of the gold-sprayed statue weighing nearly a ton.
He also addressed Kosovo’s 120-seat assembly, encouraging them to forgive and move on from the violence of the past.
The statue portrays Clinton with his left arm raised and holding a portfolio bearing his name and the date when NATO started bombing Yugoslavia, on March 24, 1999.
An estimated 10,000 ethnic Albanians were killed during the Kosovo crackdown and about 800,000 were forced out of their homes. They returned home after NATO-led peacekeepers moved in following 78 days of bombing.
Leta Krasniqi, an ethnic Albanian, said the statue was the best way to express the ethnic Albanians’ gratitude for Clinton’s role in making Kosovo a state.
“This is a big day,” Krasniqi, 25 said. “I live nearby and I’m really excited that I will be able to see the statue of such a big friend of ours every day.”
Clinton last visited Kosovo in 2003 when he received an honorary university degree. His first visit was in 1999 – months after some 6,000 US troops were deployed in the NATO-led peacekeeping mission here.
Some 1,000 American soldiers are still based in Kosovo as part of NATO’s 14,000-strong peacekeeping force.
*******
Amazing! Such a truly great honor bestowed on our former president by a country showing their gratitude for the help President Clinton delivered ending the massacre of their people by a rouge dictator…. and the only photo I could find in the major news outlets commemorating Clinton’s legacy, besides the one above, is this one…. (Thanks to whoever converted the video feed to youtube.)
PIC UPdate: pictures courtesy of U-turning Hummingbirds during their migration to Argentina.
Ethnic Albanian children hold portraits of former US President Bill Clinton, during his visit in Pristina, Kosovo, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2009. Thousands of ethnic Albanians gathered in Kosovo's capital Pristina to welcome former President Bill Clinton on Sunday as he attended the unveiling of an 3.5 meter statue of himself on a key boulevard that also bears his name. Following the 1998-99 war authorities in Pristina changed the name of the capital city's thoroughfare from Vladimir Lenin Street to Bill Clinton Boulevard. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)
Former US President Bill Clinton, centre greets ethnic Albanians during his visit in Pristina, Kosovo, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2009. Thousands of ethnic Albanians gathered in Kosovo's capital Pristina to welcome former President Bill Clinton on Sunday as he attended the unveiling of an 3.5 meter statue of himself on a key boulevard that also bears his name. Following the 1998-99 war authorities in Pristina changed the name of the capital city's thoroughfare from Vladimir Lenin Street to Bill Clinton Boulevard. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)
Workers install a monument to former U.S. President Bill Clinton on Bill Clinton Boulevard in Pristina, Kosovo October 12, 2009. The government of Kosovo said that Clinton's statue will be unveiled next month, with the former president expected to attend the ceremony. Picture taken October 12, 2009. REUTERS/Hazir Reka (KOSOVO POLITICS SOCIETY)
Former US President Bill Clinton poses with ethnic Albanians during his visit in Pristina, Kosovo, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2009. Thousands of ethnic Albanians gathered in Kosovo's capital Pristina to welcome former President Bill Clinton on Sunday as he attended the unveiling of an 3.5 meter statue of himself on a key boulevard that also bears his name. Following the 1998-99 war authorities in Pristina changed the name of the capital city's thoroughfare from Vladimir Lenin Street to Bill Clinton Boulevard. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton cuts a cake during his visit to Pristina, November 1, 2009. Clinton is in Kosovo where he unveiled his statue on Clinton's Boulevard. REUTERS/Hazir Reka (KOSOVO POLITICS)
Hillary risks her life for us visiting terrorists countries and all the media can come with is reporting how blunt she is with her criticism, taking the side of leaders hostile to our Foreign Policy representative speaking TRUTH to hypocrisy..I ask you, is msnbc any better than al-Qaida?
Says she finds it ‘hard to believe’ that government can’t find terrorists.
The Peshawar bombing in a market crowded with women and children appeared timed to overshadow her arrival. It was the deadliest attack in Pakistan since 2007.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is escorted by Pakistani Rangers at the Iqbal Memorial in Lahore, Pakistan, on Thursday during a three-day state visit to Pakistan.
ISLAMABAD – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton chided Pakistani officials Thursday for failing to press the hunt for al-Qaida inside their borders, suggesting they know where the terrorist leaders are hiding.
American officials have long said that al-Qaida mastermind Osama bin Laden and senior lieutenants of the network accused in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks operate out of the rugged terrain along the border with Afghanistan.
But Clinton’s unusually blunt comments went further in asserting that Pakistan’s government has done too little about it.
“I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn’t get them if they really wanted to,” Clinton said in an interview with Pakistani journalists in Lahore. “Maybe that’s the case. Maybe they’re not gettable. I don’t know.”
There was no immediate reaction from Pakistani officials, but the thrust of Clinton’s comments were startling, coming after months of lavish public comments from her and other American officials portraying Pakistan’s leaders as finally receptive to the war against militants inside their own country.
As a political spouse, career public official and recently as a diplomat, Clinton has long showed a tendency toward bluntness, sometimes followed by a softening of her comments. But her remarks about Pakistan’s lack of action against al-Qaida comes at a particularly sensitive moment — amid a major Pakistani offensive against militants and a deadly spate of insurgent violence.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton addresses a news conference at the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009. Offering sympathy for victims of Wednesday's terrorist bombing, Clinton praised Pakistan's offensive against extremists and pledged U.S. support at a critical point in the country's history.
With Pakistan reeling from Wednesday’s devastating bombing that killed more than 100 people in Peshawar, Clinton also engaged in an intense give-and-take with students at the Government College of Lahore. She insisted that inaction by the government would have ceded ground to terrorists.
“If you want to see your territory shrink, that’s your choice,” she said, adding that she believed it would be a bad choice.
Terrorist ‘masterminds’
Richard Holbrooke, the special U.S. representative on Afghanistan and Pakistan, told reporters that Clinton planned to meet late Thursday with the army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, to get an update on the offensive that began Oct. 17 against Taliban forces in a portion of the tribal areas near the Afghan border.
“We want to encourage them,” Holbrooke said of the Pakistanis. “She wants During her exchange with the Pakistani journalists, one reporter asked Clinton why the fight against terrorism seemed to put Pakistan at the center and why other countries couldn’t do more. Clinton noted that al-Qaida has launched attacks on Indonesia, the Philippines and many other countries over the years.
“So the world has an interest in seeing the capture and killing of the people who are the masterminds of this terrorist syndicate. As far as we know, they are in Pakistan.”
On Clinton’s flight to Islamabad after the interview with Pakistani journalists, U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson said Clinton’s remarks approximate what the Obama administration has told Pakistani officials in private.
“We often say, `Yes, there needs to be more focus on finding these leaders,’” Patterson said. “The other thing is, they lost control of much of this territory in recent years, and that’s why they’re in South Waziristan right now.”
This handout picture released by Pakistan?s Press Information Department on October 28, 2009 shows Pakistan?s President Asif Ali Zardari (R) speaking with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (3L) during a meeting in Islamabad. A huge car bomb ripped through a crowded market in Pakistan on October 28 killing 92 people and underscoring the gravity of the extremist threat destabilising the nuclear-armed Muslim state. The explosion brought down buildings in the northwestern city of Peshawar just hours after US Secretary Hillary Clinton arrived in Pakistan to bolster the two countries' troubled alliance against Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants.
No guarantee
In Lahore, dozens of students rushed to line up for the microphone when the session with Clinton began. Their questions were not hostile, but showed a strong sense of doubt that the U.S. could be a reliable and trusted partner for Pakistan.
One woman asked whether the U.S. could be expected to commit long term in Afghanistan after abandoning the country after Russian occupiers retreated in 1989.
“What guarantee,” the woman asked, “can Americans give Pakistan that we can now trust you — not you but, like, the Americans this time — of your sincerity and that you guys are not going to betray us like the Americans did in the past when they wanted to destabilize the Russians?”
Clinton responded that the question was a “fair criticism” and that the U.S. did not follow through in the way it should have. “It’s difficult to go forward if we’re always looking in the rearview mirror,” said Clinton, on the second of a three-day visit, her first to Pakistan as secretary of state.
US President Barack Obama has shelved his plans to attend festivities marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will reportedly take his place at the Nov. 9 celebrations.
Germany is going to have to wait longer than expected for US President Barack Obama’s first official visit. Citing government sources in Berlin, Reuters reported on Friday that Obama will not attend the anniversary festivities marking two decades since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The event will take place on Nov. 9 — just two days before Obama embarks on a long-planned trip to Asia on Nov. 11.
According to the German television channel n-tv, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will stand in for the president. It is considered unlikely that her husband, the former President Bill Clinton, will accompany her.
Berlin is going all out for the anniversary, with such luminaries as Kofi Annan, Mikhail Gorbachev and Lech Walesa expected to be in attendance. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is pushing hard to complete ongoing coalition negotiations soon so that her government is fully formed in time for the festivities.
Despite Obama’s absence, however, Merkel will get some face time with the US president in early November. She is planning to travel to Washington and will be addressing a joint session of US Congress on Nov. 3.
Obama has not visited Berlin since taking power. He was in Germany briefly in June, when he made stops in Dresden and at the Buchenwald concentration camp memorial. It was during that trip that Merkel extended the invitation for Obama to help Germany celebrate the fall of the Wall.
Hillary Clinton Rules Out White House Bid, Says She’s ‘Totally Secure’ in Current Role
In the middle of a diplomatic mission through Europe, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made headlines at home this morning when she closed the door on another bid for the presidency.
In an interview on the “Today” show, Ann Curry asked if Clinton ever wishes she, rather than Barack Obama, was setting U.S. policy as the commander-in-chief. “I have to tell you,” Clinton said, “it never crosses my mind.”
Curry followed up, “Will you ever run for president again?”
“No,” Clinton said.
“No?”
“No, no” Clinton insisted, laughing. “This is a great job. It is a 24-7 job. And I’m looking forward to retirement at some point.”
Curry and Clinton spent the rest of the interview discussing President Obama’s decision-making process for Afghanistan, his award for the Nobel Prize, and whether Clinton, as the highest serving woman in the administration, is being marginalized by her 2008 adversary.
“I find it absurd,” she said. “I find it beyond any realistic assessment of what I’m doing every day. I think there is such — you know, maybe there is some misunderstanding which needs to be clarified. . . . Now, maybe that is a woman thing. Maybe I’m totally secure and feel absolutely no need to go running around in order for people to see what I’m doing. It’s just the way I am.”
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will begin a three-day visit to Russia Monday.
The Russian Foreign Ministry described it as an important step in moving the Russia-U.S. partnership forward after a summit in July of the presidents of the two countries in Moscow built a strong base.
Clinton and her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, as coordinators of the Russian-American presidential commission, will discuss “aspects of its structure and effectiveness” and to “outline the schedule for bilateral contacts,” according to Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko.
A key item on the agenda is another round of talks by the two sides on replacing the cold war-era Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I).
United States and Russia have held seven rounds of negotiations so far, aimed at signing a follow-up treaty on nuclear arms limitation.
START I, expiring at the year-end, places a limit of 6,000 strategic or long-range nuclear warheads on each side. The Moscow understanding calls for reducing nuclear warheads held by each country to between 1,500 and 1,675 by the end of 2012.
Dropping of Washington’s European missile defense plan was a major condition by Moscow to consider major cuts to its nuclear arsenal.
The top diplomats will also discuss Afghanistan, Iran’s nuclear program, and the Middle East peace process.
Clinton’s visit will be preceded by consultations between Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov and U.S. under secretary of state Ellen Tauscher on missile defense.
****TALK ABOUT SKEWING THE POLL… ADDING THE WORSE COLUMN TOGETHER
divide by 3= 26.67%**** (not 28%) Hillary Wins by a slight margin
A Fox News/Opinion Dynamics telephone survey of 900 registered American voters conducted Sept. 29 and 30 found that 27 percent think Hillary Clinton would have been doing a better job than Barack Obama had she won last year’s presidential election. On the other hand, 28 percent said she would be doing worse.
The margin of error is 3 percentage points, so that’s probably not a statistically significant difference. Overall, it appears people, regardless of their political affiliation, are more or less divided on who would be a better president, though Republicans skew a bit toward Clinton and Democrats a bit toward Obama.
If this poll is even half accurate, then the so called Democrats are just plain jealous of Hillary’s success. If 27% say that she would do worse than Obama as president, then I have to seriously question their judgment.
Independents are right down the middle, which I pretty much expected. The Republicans surprised me however. 34% said that she would do a better job than Obama would. That’s showing some surprising strength for a party that hounded her and her husband for eight years. Then again, the Republicans hope the Democrats keep doing what they are doing and they will happily remove the Democrats from their seats in November. Bwaaaahaha!
Former U.S. President recognized for lifetime of outstanding leadership
McGill University is proud to announce that it will award an honorary doctorate to President Bill Clinton, founder of the William J. Clinton Foundation and 42nd President of the United States of America, at a private honorary degree ceremony in Montreal on Friday, October 16.
“Few individuals define the expression global leader as perfectly as Bill Clinton,” said Heather Munroe-Blum, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of McGill University. “During his presidency and in the years since, President Clinton has demonstrated an unyielding devotion to social justice in the world. His continued leadership inspires us all to do more, and we are honoured to have the opportunity to formally recognize his contributions.”
About President Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton was the first Democratic president in six decades to be elected twice – first in 1992 and then in 1996. Under his leadership, the country enjoyed the strongest economy in a generation and the longest economic expansion in U.S. history, including the creation of more than 22 million jobs.
After leaving the White House, President Clinton established the William J. Clinton Foundation with the mission to strengthen the capacity of people in the United States and throughout the world to meet the challenges of global interdependence. Today the Foundation has more than 1,400 staff and volunteers around the world working to improve lives through several initiatives, including the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative, which is helping 2 million people living with HIV/AIDS access lifesaving drugs. Other initiatives — including the Clinton Climate Initiative, the Clinton Hunter Development Initiative, and the Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative — are applying a business-oriented approach worldwide to fight climate change and develop sustainable economic growth in Africa and Latin America. As a project of the Foundation, the Clinton Global Initiative brings together global leaders to devise and implement innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing issues. In the U.S., the Foundation is working to combat the alarming rise in childhood obesity, and is helping individuals and families succeed and small businesses grow.
In addition to his Foundation work, President Clinton has joined with former President George H.W. Bush three times – after the 2004 tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and Hurricane Ike in 2008 – to help raise money for recovery efforts. He also served as the U.N. Envoy for Tsunami Recovery to help people “build back better.”
President Clinton was born on August 19, 1946, in Hope, Arkansas. He and his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, have one daughter, Chelsea, and live in Chappaqua, New York.
About McGill University
McGill University, founded in Montreal, Que., in 1821, is Canada’s leading post-secondary institution. It has two campuses, 11 faculties, 10 professional schools, 300 programs of study and more than 34,000 students. McGill attracts students from more than 150 countries around the world. Almost half of McGill students claim a first language other than English – including 6,000 francophones – with more than 6,400 international students making up almost 20 per cent of the student body.
