Fathers day and my kids have spoiled me as usual , mostly chocolate & books which are two of my favorite things.
Having said that Jude seems to have eaten his way through most of my chocolate and me thinks this was his cunning plan all along.
Also thinking of my beloved father John Chambers , who died way to young and is missed each and every day.
Dad and Me
Also thinking of my wonderful father-in-law Royston , who is terminally ill and currently in hospital.
The views and opinions expressed in this documentary/page are soley intended to educate and provide background information to the subject in question.
They in no way reflect my own opinions and I take no responsibility for any inaccuracies or factual errors
LONDON MAYOR FACES CALLS TO BAN ‘TERRORIST SUPPORTING’ ANTI-ISRAEL MARCH
Thousands of advocates have called on London Mayor Sadiq Khan to cancel an upcoming anti-Israel rally in the British capital due to concerns that the march propagates displays of antisemitism and terrorism.
The controversial event is scheduled to be held in the UK on Sunday as part of the annual ‘Al Quds Day,’ which Iran initiated in 1979 to express support for the Palestinians and opposition of Israel’s existence and is held on the last Friday of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
As of Wednesday afternoon, an online petition entitled “BAN The Extremist, Terrorist Supporting Al Quds March In London On June 18th” had garnered nearly 8.5 thousand signatures.
The petition was launched by the group North West Friends of Israel, a grassroots pro-Israel organization in Britain that works to counter antisemitism and the BDS movement.
See: The Jerusalem Post for full story
Quds Day (Jerusalem Day
History & Background
Quds Day (Jerusalem Day; Quds is the Arabic name for Jerusalem), officially called International Quds Day (Persian: روز جهانی قدس), is an annual event held on the last Friday of Ramadan that was initiated by the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979 to express support for the Palestinians and oppose Zionism and Israel‘s existence, as well as Israel’s control of Jerusalem. Nominally, it exists in opposition to the Jerusalem Day (Yom Yerushalayim) celebration instituted by Israel in May 1968, and which Knesset law changed into a national holiday in 1998.
In Iran, the government sponsors and organizes the day’s rallies, and its celebration in that country has had, down to at least 2012, a decade-long tradition of voicing anti-Semitic attacks. Quds Day is also held in several other countries, mainly in the Arab and Muslim world, with protests against Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem. Rallies are held in verious cities by both Muslim and non-Muslim communities around the world.
| Quds Day | |
|---|---|
Quds Day 2014 in Berlin
|
|
| Observed by | Iran, and other countries and communities |
| Type | Ideological |
| Significance | Demonstrations against the existence of Israel, and its control of Jerusalem; solidarity with the Palestinian people |
| Begins | Last Friday of Ramadan |
| 2016 date | July 1 |
| 2017 date | June 23 |
| Frequency | annual |
| Related to | Anti-Zionism New Antisemitism |
March in Malmö, Sweden; Al-Quds Day 2008
Quds Day demonstration in Berlin, 2011
An annual anti-Zionist day of protest was first suggested by Ebrahim Yazdi, the first foreign minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and a liberal, to the leader of the Iranian Revolution, Ruhollah Khomeini. The context was one of deepening tensions between Israel and Lebanon at the time. Khomeini took over unacknowledged Yazdi’s idea, and on August 7, 1979, he declared the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan each year as Quds Day, in which Muslims worldwide would unite in solidarity against Israel and in support of the Palestinians.
Khomeini declared the “liberation” of Jerusalem a religious duty to all Muslims.That day, he stated:
I invite Muslims all over the globe to consecrate the last Friday of the holy month of Ramadan as Al-Quds Day and to proclaim the international solidarity of Muslims in support of the legitimate rights of the Muslim people of Palestine. For many years, I have been notifying the Muslims of the danger posed by the usurper Israel which today has intensified its savage attacks against the Palestinian brothers and sisters, and which, in the south of Lebanon in particular, is continually bombing Palestinian homes in the hope of crushing the Palestinian struggle.
I ask all the Muslims of the world and the Muslim governments to join together to sever the hand of this usurper and its supporters. I call on all the Muslims of the world to select as Al-Quds Day the last Friday in the holy month of Ramadan—which is itself a determining period and can also be the determiner of the Palestinian people’s fate—and through a ceremony demonstrating the solidarity of Muslims world-wide, announce their support for the legitimate rights of the Muslim people. I ask God Almighty for the victory of the Muslims over the infidels.
Iran celebrates the event characteristically by putting on public display poster images of the city of Jerusalem, thematic speeches, art exhibitions reflecting the issue, and folkloric events. In Lebanon, the Hezbollah organization marks the occasion by a substantive military parade organized for the last week of Ramadan. Since 1989, the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan observes the event by hosting academic conferences, whose venue from university to university varies each year. Arab societies generally pay the occasion lip service in order to make a show of solidarity with the cause of Palestinian aspirations for nationhood.
Quds Day has actually become a day for protestors in Iran and in other societies:
“to attack the legitimacy of the state of Israel and threaten the United States”.
The day is also marked throughout Muslim and Arab countries. During the First Intifada in January 1988, the Jerusalem Committee of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference decided that Quds Day should be commemorated in public events throughout the Arab world.[13] In countries with significant Shi’a populations, particularly Lebanon, where Hezbollah organizes Quds Day observances, there is significant attendance at the day’s events. Events are also held in Iraq, the Palestinian Gaza Strip, and Syria. Hamas, and the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine endorse Quds Day, and hold ceremonies. Outside of the Middle East and the wider Arab World, Quds Day protests have taken place in the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Sweden, France, the United States, as well as some predominantly Muslim countries in east Asia.
According to the BBC, while the idea behind Quds Day originally was to gather all Muslims in opposition to the existence of Israel, the event has not developed beyond an Iranian experience. Apart from rallies, usually funded and organized by Iran itself, in various capital cities, the ritual never took root among Muslims at large.
Shamshad Haider from the Muslim Congress speaking during the 2015 Quds rally, Chicago.
In Iran, the day’s parades are sponsored and organized by the government. Events include mass marches and rallies. Senior Iranian leaders give fiery speeches condemning Israel, as well as the U.S. government. The crowds respond with chants of:
“Death to Israel”, and “Death to America“.
According to Roger Howard, many Iranians under the age of 30 continue to participate in Quds Day events, though proportionately less than those on the streets. He adds that many Iranian students on campus say in private that the Arab–Israeli conflict has “nothing to do with us.”
On Quds Day 1985, amid the “war of the cities” of the Iran–Iraq War, Iraqi bombers and long-range missiles struck 14 cities, reportedly killing at least 78 people and wounding 326. According to the Islamic Republic News Agency, the sound of the exploding bombs and missiles in Tehran was drowned out by the crowds chanting:
“War, war until victory 3/8.”
On Quds Day 1987, held shortly after the outbreak of the First Intifada, effigies of U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Israeli leaders were burned in Iran “as a sign of Moslem nations’ revolutionary wrath against Zionism, imperialism and apartheid.” In Tehran, President Ali Khamenei said the Palestinians:
“should resist and fight Zionism. This is the message of the whole Iranian people who chant the ‘Death to Israel’ slogan.”
On Quds Day 1989, Iranian parliament speaker Hashemi Rafsanjani said that Palestinians should kill Americans and other Westerners in retaliation for attacks by the Israeli military in the occupied territories:
“If in retaliation for every Palestinian martyred in Palestine they will kill and execute, not inside Palestine, five Americans or Britons or Frenchmen, they (Israelis) could not continue these wrongs. It is not hard to kill Americans or Frenchman. It is a bit difficult to kill (Israelis). But there are so many (Americans and Frenchman) everywhere in the world.”
Fearing an Israeli military strike, Hezbollah cancelled its annual Quds Day rallies in 1992 for the first time in the group’s history. 10 days earlier, a suicide bombing in Buenos Aires, Argentina destroyed the Israeli embassy there and killed 29 people injured 242 others. Hezbollah was implicated in the attack.
In 1994, Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani told demonstrators,
“Can Israel really remain? In my opinion it cannot. That artificial entity cannot survive.”
In 1998, former Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani stated that Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians exceeded those of Adolf Hitler against the Jews. He added,
“The Zionist regime is a fake government and homeland which is shaped with millions of homeless Palestinians and hundreds of thousands of Muslim martyrs… I’m sure that in the future we will have Islamic Palestine. I’m sure nothing will remain as the territory of Israel.”
In 1999, a reported three million people attended Quds Day rallies in Iran. In Tehran, a resolution was read aloud calling for struggle :
“until the aggressor Zionist regime is annihilated.”
Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri told worshipers at Friday prayers, “There is no country named Israel. There is Palestine, and the thieves who have occupied the houses of Palestinians should be removed from those houses.” In Beirut, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah told thousands of supporters, “On Al-Quds Day, I reaffirm to you that Israel will be eliminated one day, God willing.” At the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, protesters carried a banner that read:
“America is the enemy of God.”
Over one million people, with over 100,000 in each of Iran’s eight largest cities, marched in the 2005 Quds Day protests in Tehran and other cities across Iran. Protests were staged throughout the Middle East and the wider Arab World, with over 30,000 Bahrainis marching in Manama, and 6,000 Hezbollah volunteers marching in Beirut.
In 2006, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threatened any country that supports Israel, and said the U.S. and its allies had “imposed a group of terrorists” on the region with their support of the Jewish state. He added that Israel no longer had any reason to exist and would soon disappear:
“This regime, thanks to God, has lost the reason for its existence. Efforts to stabilize this fake (Israeli) regime, by the grace of God, have completely failed… You should believe that this regime is disappearing.”
That year, Hezbollah did not organize a mass rally for Quds Day, stating it was unnecessary because it had recently held a demonstration on September 22 to celebrate what it declared to be its
“victory” over Israel in that summer’s conflict. In the place of a mass event, the day was commemorated with an “invitation-only event in a concert hall [which] featured an orchestra, a choir and several anti-Israel speeches.”
The 2007 Quds Day protest saw millions of Iranians march in support of the Palestinians. During the rallies in Tehran, President Ahmadinejad said that the “creation, continued existence and unlimited (Western) support for this [Zionist] regime is an insult to human dignity.”
The protests also featured signs denouncing the U.S government for its support of Israel.Over 3,000 people marched in Damascus carrying Palestinian flags. Hezbollah organized marches in the city’s Yarmouk refugee camp.
Supporters of Iranian opposition groups used the 2009 Quds Day to stage protests against President Ahmadinejad and the Iranian government in response to the disputed 2009 Iranian presidential election. Estimates put the opposition protest in the tens of thousands, with participants shouting slogans in support of former prime minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the candidate who received the most votes in the presidential elections.
Rejecting the government’s support of Palestinian militancy, opposition protesters chanted,
There were reports of similar protests in Isfahan, Tabriz, Yazd and Shiraz.
Iranian state TV played down the unrest, and state-funded Press TV reported that millions of Iranians marched for the Palestinian cause in Iran and different countries throughout the Middle East and the world.
Independent sources estimated
“tens of thousands” to over 100,000 in Tehran, many of them bused in by the regime. At least ten anti-government protesters were arrested during the demonstrations. An angry crowd of Ahmadinejad supporters attacked Mousavi’s car while shouting “Death to the hypocrite Mousavi.”
In other cities Basiji militiamen attacked protesters.
As he has done on previous such occasions, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad provoked intense criticism and condemnation from Western governments in particular. He stated,
“The pretext (Holocaust) for the creation of the Zionist regime (Israel) is false … It is a lie based on an unprovable and mythical claim.”
His statements drew immediate condemnation from the governments of the United States, Russia, and the European Union.
In Lebanon, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, used the occasion to call for popular resistance to replace the regimes in the Middle East with regimes that are ‘convinced of war in order to send their armies to war.’
Demonstration against Al Quds Day 2010 in Berlin.
At the 2010 Quds Day rally in Tehran, Iranian President Ahmadinejad again predicted the demise of Israel, stating, “If the leaders of the region do not have the guts, then the people of the region are capable of removing the Zionist regime from the world scene.” He dismissed any Israeli military threat to Iran’s nuclear program, declaring,
“The Zionist regime is nothing and even its (Western) masters are too small to conduct any kind of aggression against Iran and the rights of the Iranian people.”
Ahmadinejad also proclaimed new peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians as “stillborn and doomed.
” The tens of thousands of Iranians participating in the rallies continued the regular chants of “Death to America! Death to Israel!”
The day before the rallies, Ayatollah Khamenei tweeted, “Israel Is A Hideous Entity In the Middle East Which Will Undoubtedly Be Annihilated.”
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Israeli flags being burnt at the 2011 Quds Day demonstration in Nishapur, northeastern Iran.
In Lebanon, the day after the resumption of direct peace negotiations between Israel and Palestine, Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah secretary-general, declared that:
Our nation cannot ignore and forget this cause (al-Quds) because it is part of our religion, our religious commitment, our culture, our civilization, our morals and values and our past history . . No one has the right to give up one span of its land, one grain of its sacred sand, one drop of its water, or one letter of its name. Al Quds Day is the day for announcing this ideological, legal, historic true constant position. On this day we make the announcement that neither al-Quds nor even one of its streets nor even a neighbourhood of its neighbourhoods – and not only all of al-Quds -may be an eternal capital for the so called state of Israel. Al Quds is the capital of Palestine, and as we have said in the past, it is the capital of earth and the capital of heaven one way or another.
In Quetta, Pakistan, a suicide bomber attacked Pakistani Shias holding a Quds Day rally . The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed at least 65 people and wounded 160.
Protesters against the 2011 Quds Day demonstrations in Berlin.
On 17 August 2012, millions of Iranians commemorated al-Quds Day, where they waved Palestinian flags, chanted “Death to Israel and America,” and burned Israeli and American flags. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called to destroy Israel, which he termed an “insult to all humanity” and called to remove the “Zionist black stain.” Ahmadinejad said that “the Zionist regime is a tool to dominate the Middle East,” as well as that world powers are “thirsty for Iranian blood.” Ahmadinejad stated that “The Zionist regime and the Zionists are a cancerous tumour.
Even if one cell of them is left in one inch of (Palestinian) land, in the future this story (of Israel’s existence) will repeat.” He further stated that:
“The nations of the region will soon finish off the usurper Zionists in the Palestinian land. … A new Middle East will definitely be formed. With the grace of God and help of the nations, in the new Middle East there will be no trace of the Americans and Zionist.”
In Lebanon, Hezbollah Leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah stated in a televised speech that, in the eventuality of a future Israeli attack on Lebanon, only a few rockets fired by the group’s militia could cause massive casualties, given its well-planned target list, explaining that:
| “ | “Rockets are ready and directed at these targets. We will not hesitate to use them, if we have to, at any point in time in the course of aggression against our country to protect our people. … Hezbollah cannot destroy Israel but we can transform the lives of millions of Zionists in occupied Palestine into a real hell. We can change the face of Israel.” | ” |
Hundreds of people turned out in Gaza to protest the Israeli occupation of Jerusalem. A spokesman for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said:
“We are committed to the right of return and to liberation of prisoners and resistance against the occupation as long as it is on our land”.
In Bahrain, dozens took part in the protests, which were dispersed by security forces’ tear gas.
On 2 August 2013, Quds rallies were held in “the United Kingdom, Australia, Iran, the United States, and across the Muslim world”. While Iranians were commemorating al-Quds Day, Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) reported that newly elected President Hassan Rouhani said:
“the Zionist regime is a wound that has sat on the body of the Muslim world for years and needs to be removed,”
although ISNA later retracted the statement. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded by saying “Rouhani’s true face has been exposed earlier than expected,” and warned that despite the election of the so-called moderate, “the objective of the regime – to acquire nuclear weapons to threaten Israel, the Middle East and peace and security throughout the world – has not changed.”
Outgoing Iranian President Ahmadinejad addressed Al-Quds day crowds, warning of an impending regional storm that would uproot Israel. He also said that Israel “has no place in the region.”
In Toronto, Canada, a crowd of approximately 400 held an Al-Quds Day rally. One of the speakers, Elias Hazineh, a Christian, reportedly elicited cheers from the crowd when he declared an ultimatum to Israelis:
“You have to leave Jerusalem. You have to leave Palestine. When somebody tries to rob a bank the police get in, they don’t negotiate and we have been negotiating with them for 65 years. We say get out or you are dead! We give them two minutes and then we start shooting. And that’s the only way that they will understand.”
Hazineh then concluded his speech by quoting from the Koran: “And prepare against them whatever you are able of power and steeds of war – that’s the only thing that they’ll understand!” A video of the event, including Hazineh’s speech, was later posted online. Those remarks drew swift condemnation.
On 25 July 2014, Iran’s Press TV claimed that millions of people from around the world rallied in a show of support for Palestinians.This year’s rallies were held with a higher turnout as Israel and Hamas began renewed armed conflict on July 8 in Gaza.
Thousands of British demonstrators joined the rally on international Quds day demanding justice for “killers of Gaza children” in central London. The march ended with a rally outside the US embassy.
Quds Day 2014 in Berlin
More than a thousand people gathered at Adenauerplatz in Berlin for a demonstration against “zionists” calling for a free Palestine while thousands of police were on alert to avoid possible conflicts between protesters and pro-Israeli groups on Quds Day. Approximately 700 pro-Israel marchers also held a rally according to the German police.
Jurgen Grassmann, the chief organizer of Berlin’s Al-Quds Day March asked the demonstrators not to shout “Allahu Akbar”. He reminded them the fact that they had gathered against Zionism and not Judaism, advising the protestors to “Keep Allah in your heart, but don’t say so out loud.”
Hundreds of thousands of Iranians in the capital Tehran and more than 770 other towns and cities throughout the country on international Quds day took part in massive rallies to express their support for the Palestinian resistance against Israel.The event took on added significance this year given the ongoing Israel and Hamas conflict in Gaza.
Almost 5,000 pro-Palestinian rallied in the streets of Cape Town, to express their support for the people of Palestine. The rally commenced from Keizergracht Street in District Six towards the Parliament. The protestors delivered a memorandum calling the government to take solid measures against the Occupation of Palestine to the Parliament. According to the Voice of the Cape, it called for the expulsion of the Israeli Ambassador and also urged the protesters to boycott local stores which stock products manufactured in the occupied territories of Palestine.
Thousand of people in many cities across Pakistan marched in support of Palestine. The Jamat-e-Islami political party organized rallies in several cities. Popular Shia cleric Syed Jawad Naqvi orchestrated a separate rally in the city of Lahore.
International al-Quds rally took place in Damascus, starting from he entrance of al-Hamidiyeh market towards the Umayyad Mosque. Popular figures and representatives of Palestinian and Syrian forces accompanied the rally. The demonstrators claimed to support the resistance until Palestinian freedom is achieved.
In Nigeria, the 2014 Quds day procession took place in 24 major cities, mostly in the north of the country. The processions were organized by Nigerian Islamic Movement. The processions were all conducted peacefully except in Zaria, the abode of the leader of the movement, Ibrahim Zakzaky; where the Nigerian Army reportedly opened fire on the participants and killed 35 people, including three (3) biological sons of the head of the movement.
According to Samuel Laster, the editor-in-chief of the online news outlet Die Jüdische (The Jewish), 700 people participated an anti-Israeli rally in Vienna, while 150 pro-Israel counterprotesters hold a similar event to support Israel.
In London, a protest was organized by the Islamic Human Rights Commission, which accused the BBC of “bias in their reporting of the situation in Palestine” while sharply criticizing the United States for its “heinous support of Israel.”
Almost 700 people participated the 2015 Quds Day rally in Berlin, Germany. The participants chanted “Child murderer Israel” and other anti-semitic slogans, according to German media outlets. A counter-rally comprising 250 participants was also held. Several members of Neturei Karta, a Jewish religious group opposing Zionism and calling for a dismantling of the State of Israel, took part in the rally.
Millions of people hold rallies in 770 cities across Iran chanting “Down with America” and “Death to Israel” on Al-Quds Day.
Almost 250 people participated in a Quds Day rally held in Chicago. Besides focusing on the “continuing siege of Gaza”, the speakers “called for the U.S. to end military aid to Israel.” Almost 150 people formed a rally at the CNN center in Atlanta to support the Palestinian people and call for the US government to stop supporting the state of Israel.
Demonstrations in London were organized by the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) on Sunday, 3 July 2016. The terminus of the demonstration route is the U.S. Embassy at Grosvenor Square. Counter-demonstrations were organized by Suffolk Friends of Israel (SFI).
Demonstrations took place across Iran on 1 July 2016. According to the Washington Post, “tens of thousands” of people marched in the capital, Tehran. Some protesters trampled on Israeli flags, and some chanted “death to Israel” and “down with the USA.”
At a sermon in Tehran on Al-Quds day, IRGC Deputy Commander Hossein Salami claimed that over 100,000 missiles in Lebanon, as well as thousands more throughout the Islamic world, were ready :
“strike at the heart of the Zionist regime. They will prepare the ground for its great collapse in the new era. … They are just waiting for the command, so that when the trigger is pulled, the accursed black dot will be wiped off the geopolitical map of the world, once and for all.”
North America
Al-Quds Day demonstrations were scheduled for several cities in the United States and Canada. In Toronto, the demonstration route began at Queen’s Park, the provincial legislature, and proceeded to the U.S. Consulate. In Toronto, Calgary, New York City, Chicago, Boston and Los Angeles, the Jewish Defence League organized counter-demonstrations.
Killed in Action Afghanistan 13th June 12
James Thomas Duane Ashworth, VC (26 May 1989 – 13 June 2012) was a British soldier and posthumous recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. He was killed in Afghanistan on 13 June 2012 as he led his fire team in an attack on an enemy-held compound. The award was gazetted on 22 March 2013, having been confirmed by the British Army earlier in the week. Ashworth is the 14th recipient of the award since the end of the Second World War.
| James Thomas Duane Ashworth | |
|---|---|
| Born | 26 May 1989 |
| Died | 13 June 2012 (aged 23) Nahr-e Saraj District, Helmand Province, Afghanistan |
| Buried at | Corby, Northamptonshire |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Service/branch | British Army |
| Years of service | 2006–12 † |
| Rank | Lance Corporal |
| Unit | Grenadier Guards |
| Battles/wars | War in Afghanistan |
| Awards | Victoria Cross |
Ashworth lived and grew up in Corby, Northamptonshire, where he attended Lodge Park Technology College. A keen sportsman, he represented his school at both football and basketball.
In 2006, aged 17, Ashworth joined the British Army following his father who had previously served in the Grenadier Guards.[3]Ashworth trained at the Infantry Training Centre in Catterick before being posted to Nijmegen Company Grenadier Guards, which is focused on public duties and state ceremonial events in London.
He was identified as being capable of becoming a paratrooper and was assigned to the Guards’ Parachute Platoon, which is part of 3rd Battalion, Parachute Regiment. In his three years in the platoon, he took part in Operation Herrick 8 and was deployed to exercises overseas on three occasions. He was deployed to Canada before joining the Reconnaissance Platoon for Operation Herrick 16.
Despite the ferocity of the insurgent’s resistance, Ashworth refused to be beaten. His total disregard for his own safety in ensuring that the last grenade was posted accurately was the gallant last action of a soldier who had willingly placed himself in the line of fire on numerous occasions earlier in the attack. This supremely courageous and inspiring action deserves the highest recognition.
Victoria Cross citation for James Ashworth VC
On 13 June 2012, Ashworth was serving as part of the Reconnaissance Platoon, 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards. He was on a patrol in the Nahri Saraj District of Helmand Province, Afghanistan. He was leading a fire-team, clearing out compounds, when his team came under fire from Taliban armed with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades from several mud huts. Ashworth charged the huts, providing cover for his team who followed in single file behind him.
After his fire-team took out most of the insurgents, Ashworth pursued the final remaining member. He crawled forward under cover of a low wall while his team provided covering fire and acted as a diversion. When he got within 5 metres (16 ft) of the enemy, he was killed as he attempted to throw a grenade.
Captain Michael Dobbin, commander of the platoon, who was awarded the Military Cross for repeated courage throughout the operational tour, said about Ashworth,
“His professionalism under pressure and ability to remain calm in what was a chaotic situation is testament to his character. L/Cpl Ashworth was a pleasure to command and I will sorely miss his calming influence on the battlefield. Softly spoken, he stepped up to every task thrown in his direction.”
After his death, his body was taken to Camp Bastion and was then repatriated to the United Kingdom.
On 16 March 2013, British media reported that Ashworth was to be posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery and this was confirmed by the Ministry of Defence on 18 March 2013.
His citation was read out at the Grenadier Guard barracks in Aldershot. He was only the second person to be awarded the medal during the Taliban insurgency, after Bryan Budd for his actions in 2006. Ashworth is the 14th person to be awarded the Victoria Cross since the end of the Second World War.
The Victoria Cross was first awarded for actions in the Crimean War of 1854–56, and is the highest British military award for bravery.
Lance Corporal James Ashworth (right) with a colleague in Afghanista
The announcement and accompanying citation for the decoration was published in supplement to the London Gazette on 22 March 2013, reading
St James’s Palace, London SW1
22 March 2013 The Queen has been graciously pleased to approve the award of the Victoria Cross to the under-mentioned:
ARMY
Lance Corporal James Thomas Duane Ashworth, Grenadier Guards, 25228593 (killed in action).
On the 13th June 2012 the conspicuous gallantry under fire of Lance Corporal Ashworth, a section second-incommand in 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards Reconnaissance Platoon, galvanised his platoon at a pivotal moment and led to the rout of a determined enemy grouping in the Nahr-e-Saraj District of Helmand Province.
The two aircraft inserting the Reconnaissance Platoon on an operation to neutralise a dangerous insurgent sniper team, were hit by enemy fire as they came into land. Unflustered, Ashworth – a young and inexperienced noncommissioned officer – raced 300 metres with his fire-team into the heart of the insurgent dominated village. Whilst two insurgents were killed and two sniper rifles recovered in the initial assault, an Afghan Local Police follow-up attack stalled when a patrolman was shot and killed by a fleeing enemy. Called forward to press-on with the attack, Ashworth insisted on moving to the front of his fire team to lead the pursuit. Approaching the entrance to a compound from which enemy machine gun fire raged, he stepped over the body of the dead patrolman, threw a grenade and surged forward. Breaking into the compound Ashworth quickly drove the insurgent back and into an out-building from where he now launched his tenacious last stand.
The village was now being pressed on a number of fronts by insurgents desperate to relieve their prized sniper team. The platoon needed to detain or kill the final sniper, who had been pinned down by the lead fire team, and extract as quickly as possible. Ashworth realised that the stalemate needed to be broken, and broken quickly. He identified a low wall that ran parallel to the front of the outbuilding from which the insurgent was firing. Although only knee high, he judged that it would provide him with just enough cover to get sufficiently close to the insurgent to accurately post his final grenade. As he started to crawl behind the wall and towards the enemy, a fierce fire fight broke out just above his prostrate body. Undaunted by the extraordinary danger – a significant portion of his route was covered from view but not from fire – Ashworth grimly continued his painstaking advance. After three minutes of slow crawling under exceptionally fierce automatic fire he had edged forward fifteen metres and was now within five metres of the insurgent’s position. Desperate to ensure that he succeeded in accurately landing the grenade, he then deliberately crawled out from cover into the full view of the enemy to get a better angle for the throw. By now enemy rounds were tearing up the ground mere centimetres from his body, and yet he did not shrink back. Then, as he was about to throw the grenade he was hit by enemy fire and died at the scene. Ashworth’s conspicuous gallantry galvanised his platoon to complete the clearance of the compound.
Despite the ferocity of the insurgent’s resistance, Ashworth refused to be beaten. His total disregard for his own safety in ensuring that the last grenade was posted accurately was the gallant last action of a soldier who had willingly placed himself in the line of fire on numerous occasions earlier in the attack. This supremely courageous and inspiring action deserves the highest recognition.
Ashworth played football both for his regiment, and for a local team near his home. He was a supporter of Tottenham Hotspur. He has two sisters and two brothers, one of whom is also a soldier
I’m sick of every man and his dog slagging off the Unionist Community of Northern Ireland in the wake of the DUP’s sudden rise in profile and politically clout!
Among the many uninformed and out right ridiculous claims I keep hearing about the DUP’s relationship with Loyalist Paramilitaries. Especially from some Labour MP’s , which is laughable in itself…
Hello what about Sinn Fien/IRA ?
They are lead by a bunch of psychopathic killers , drenched in the blood of the innocent and by some fickle twist of fate find themselves in positions of power – oh how the Barman Adams has managed to carved out a good life for himself & a legacy (Bloody) that insures his name will always be associated with my beautiful home town Belfast.
It tortures my soul that Adams and his like have literally got away with mass murder and to rub salt into the wounds – they seem to have benefited from their brutal pasts and in my book that’s wrong!!
Many of my family and friends in Belfast voted for the DUP not because they supported them , but because they where tactically voting against Sinn Fien/IRA and although I have many reservations about some of their policies and hardline views , I am happy to see a Unionist Party in a position of power , where they can hopefully do some good for not just the Loyalist community of Northern Ireland , but for all the people of Northern Ireland.
Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution – First Degree Murder
My blood ran cold when I learnt of this outrageous insult to the memory of Lee Rigby and regardless of his age , Mr Burke has gone to far and should be ashamed of himself.
If it wasn’t for Lee and others like him our world would be a lot less safer and I for one am eternally grateful for their service and sacrifice.
A sick vandal who ransacked a memorial to Fusilier Lee Rigby just days before the fourth anniversary of his murder got away with a £105 fine.
Patrick Burke, 66, binned several flags and tributes during a destructive rampage at the monument, which marks the spot where the soldier, 25, was butchered by two terrorists.
During the incident a teddy bear left by Lee’s six-year-old son, Jack, was pulled down and thrown over a nearby wall, Bromley Magistrates Court heard today.
Burke was caught on CCTV targeting the display outside the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich on May 22, 2013.
Burke’s defence solicitor Emma Sackville said the pensioner didn’t think it was ‘appropriate’ to have the memorial outside his block of flats.
Michael Adebowale, 25, and Michael Adebolajo, 32, were jailed for 45 years and life respectively for killing the off-duty soldier near his barracks.
The pair knocked him down with a car before hacking him to death with a meat cleaver and knives in an attack that shocked the world.
Ms Sackville told Bromley Magistrates’ Court today that Burke had pleaded guilty at ‘the first opportunity’.
She said: ‘He did not mean any disrespect to Lee Rigby by his actions.
‘There is a memorial in a church nearby which is 700 metres away and Mr Burke’s view is that this is a more appropriate place for tributes to be left.
‘And he asked me to say that he did not intend to cause distress to Lee Rigby’s family or anyone else and he does regret it. He is a quiet man who keeps to himself.’
See here for more details on Lee Rigby
Tomorrow one of the oldest democracies in history will hold a democratic vote and the free people of the UK will decide who will govern for them and who will rule from Downing Street
The Great British people will accept the results of that vote and our great nation will continue to be a shining example to the rest of mankind and off course we will continue to be GREAT!
This is one of the twisted reason’s terrorist’s hate us and why they will NEVER EVER beat us.
Amen!
Challenge
Right then , the wife is in the kitchen cooking a beautiful authentic chicken curry (wish you could smell it!) and the kids are busy or otherwise engaged. So I have challenged myself to watch the WHOLE of Eurovision 2017.
I know what your thinking , Gez – get a life , sad git – but I’ve been busy all week and am now going to chill on the sofa , cold beer in hand and watch the show.
Plus the show reminds me of a younger age when life was less cluttered , more complete and I could enjoy the simple things in life and have no worries – nobody said life would be easy.
Wish me luck!
13th May 1983
The first attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II took place on Wednesday, 13 May 1981, in St. Peter’s Square at Vatican City. The Pope was shot and wounded by Mehmet Ali Ağca while he was entering the square.
The Pope was struck four times, and suffered severe blood loss. Ağca was apprehended immediately, and later sentenced to life in prison by an Italian court. The Pope later forgave Ağca for the assassination attempt.
He was pardoned by Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi at the Pope’s request and was deported to Turkey in June 2000.
| Pope John Paul II assassination attempt | |
|---|---|
The location of the shooting, marked by a stone tablet, in St. Peter’s Square
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| Location | St. Peter’s Square, Vatican City |
| Date | 13 May 1981 |
| Target | Pope John Paul II |
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Attack type
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Shooting |
| Weapons | Browning Hi-Power |
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Non-fatal injuries
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3 |
| Perpetrator | Mehmet Ali Ağca (Grey Wolves) |
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Beginning in August 1980 Ağca, under the alias of Vilperi, began criss-crossing the Mediterranean region, changing passports and identities, perhaps to hide his point of origin in Sofia, Bulgaria. He entered Rome on 10 May 1981, coming by train from Milan. According to Ağca’s later testimony, he met with three accomplices in Rome, one a fellow Turk and two Bulgarians, with operation being commanded by Zilo Vassilev, the Bulgarian military attaché in Italy.
Bekir Çelenk
He said that he was assigned this mission by Turkish mafioso Bekir Çelenk in Bulgaria. According to Ağca, the plan was for him and the back-up gunman Oral Çelik to open fire on the pope in St. Peter’s Square and escape to the Bulgarian embassy under the cover of the panic generated by a small explosion.
On 13 May, they sat in the square, writing postcards waiting for the Pope to arrive. When the Pope passed through an adoring and excited crowd of supporters, Ağca fired four shots at 17:17 with a 9mm Browning Hi-Power semi-automatic pistol, and critically wounded him. He fled the scene as the crowd was in shock and disposed of the pistol by throwing it under a truck, but was grabbed by Vatican security chief Camillo Cibin,
a nun, and several spectators who prevented him from firing more shots or escaping, and he was arrested. All four bullets hit John Paul II; two of them lodged in his lower intestine while the other two hit his left index finger and right arm and also injured two bystanders: Ann Odre, of Buffalo, New York, was struck in the chest, and Rose Hall was slightly wounded in the arm.
The Pope was immediately rushed to the hospital while the authorities combed the site for evidence. Çelik panicked and fled without setting off his bomb or opening fire.
The site of the shooting is marked by a small marble tablet bearing John Paul’s personal coat of arms and the date in Roman numerals.
The Fiat Popemobile in which Pope John Paul II was riding at the time of the attempted assassination. This vehicle is now in the Vatican Museums.
Ağca was sentenced in July 1981 to life imprisonment for the assassination attempt, but was pardoned by Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi in June 2000 at the Pope’s request. He was then extradited to Turkey, where he was imprisoned for the 1979 murder of left-wing journalist Abdi İpekçi and two bank raids carried out in the 1970s. Despite a plea for early release in November 2004, a Turkish court announced that he would not be eligible for release until 2010. Nonetheless he was released on parole on 12 January 2006.
However, on 20 January 2006, the Turkish Supreme Court ruled that his time served in Italy could not be deducted from his Turkish sentence and he was returned to jail.
Ağca was released from prison on 18 January 2010, after almost 29 years behind bars.
Pope John Paul II in 1980.
Following the shooting, Pope John Paul II asked people to:
“pray for my brother [Ağca] … whom I have sincerely forgiven.”
In 1983, he and Ağca met and spoke privately at Rome’s Rebibbia Prison, where Ağca was being held. Ağca reportedly kissed the Pope’s ring at the conclusion of their visit; some mistakenly thought the Pope was hearing Agca’s confession. The Pope was also in touch with Ağca’s family over the years, meeting his mother in 1987 and his brother, Muezzin Agca, a decade later.
Although Ağca was quoted as saying that “to me [the Pope] was the incarnation of all that is capitalism”, and attempted to murder him, Ağca developed a friendship with the pontiff. In early February 2005, during the Pope’s illness, Ağca sent a letter to the Pope wishing him well.
Several theories exist concerning Ağca’s assassination attempt. One, strongly advocated since the early 1980s by Michael Ledeen among others, is that the assassination attempt had originated from Moscow and that the KGB had instructed the Bulgarian and East German secret services to carry out the mission.
The Bulgarian Secret Service was allegedly instructed by the KGB to assassinate the Pope because of his support of Poland’s Solidarity movement, seeing it as one of the most significant threats to Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe.[citation needed]
Ağca himself has given multiple conflicting statements on the assassination at different times. Attorney Antonio Marini stated:
“Ağca has manipulated all of us, telling hundreds of lies, continually changing versions, forcing us to open tens of different investigations”.
Originally Ağca claimed to be a member of the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), but they denied any ties to him.
KGB Director Yuri Andropov was convinced that Pope John Paul II’s election was the product of an Anglo-German conspiracy orchestrated by Zbigniew Brzezinski to undermine Soviet hegemony in largely Catholic Poland and ultimately to precipitate the collapse of the entire Soviet Union. The Pope’s announcement of a pilgrimage to Warsaw fuelled Andropov’s apprehension, with Andropov issuing a secret memorandum to Soviet schoolteachers:
The Pope is our enemy…. Due to his uncommon skills and great sense of humor he is dangerous, because he charms everyone, especially journalists. Besides, he goes for cheap gestures in his relations with the crowd, for instance, [he] puts on a highlander’s hat, shakes all hands, kisses children, etc…. It is modeled on American presidential campaigns…. Because of the activities of the Church in Poland our activities designed to atheize the youth not only cannot diminish but must intensely develop…. In this respect all means are allowed and we cannot afford sentiments.
Ağca had made several trips to Sofia, Bulgaria. He also claimed to have had contacts with a Bulgarian agent in Rome whose cover was the Bulgarian national airline office. Soon after the shooting, Sergei Antonov, a Bulgarian working in Rome for Balkan Air, was arrested based on Ağca’s testimony and accused of being the Bulgarian agent who masterminded the plot.
Paul Henze
In 1986, after a three-year trial, he was found not guilty. According to the CIA’s chief of staff in Turkey, Paul Henze, Ağca later stated that in Sofia, he was once approached by the Bulgarian Secret Service and Turkish mafiosi, who offered him three million German marks to assassinate the Pope.
American journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave claimed that the Bulgarians chose Ağca to supply themselves with plausible deniability; choosing a member of the Grey Wolves that had allegedly been involved with the local KGB in drug smuggling routes through Bulgaria to Western Europe would distance themselves because of the implausibility of the link.
Some people, notably Edward S. Herman, co-author with Frank Brodhead of The Rise and Fall of the Bulgarian Connection (1986), and Michael Parenti, felt Ağca’s story was dubious, noting that Ağca made no claims of Bulgarian involvement until he had been isolated in solitary confinement and visited by Italian Military Intelligence (SISMI) agents.
On 25 September 1991, former CIA analyst Melvin A. Goodman (now Senior Fellow at the Center for International Policy) revealed that his colleagues, following orders, had falsified their analysis to support the accusation. He declared to the US Senate intelligence committee that:
“the CIA hadn’t any proof” concerning this alleged “Bulgarian connection”.
Neither the Severino Santiapichi court nor the investigation by judge Franco Ionta found evidence that SISMI planted Ağca’s story. A French lawyer, Christian Roulette, who authored books blaming Western intelligence agencies for the assassination attempt, testified in court that the documentary evidence he referred to actually did not exist.
Former Bulgarian Intelligence Service pin
The Bulgarian secret services have always protested their alleged involvement and argued that Ağca’s story was an anti-Communist plant placed by the Grey Wolves, the Italian secret service, and the CIA – all three of whom had co-operated in NATO’s secret Gladio network. Gladio was at the time involved in Italy’s strategy of tension, also followed in Turkey by Counter-Guerrilla, the Turkish branch of Gladio.
The Pope’s assassination would hereafter have taken place in this frame . Edward Herman has argued that Michael Ledeen, who was involved in the Iran-Contra Affair and had alleged ties to the Italian P2 masonic lodge also linked to Gladio, was employed by the CIA to propagate the Bulgarian theory.
Indeed, Le Monde diplomatique alleged that Abdullah Çatlı, a leader of the Grey Wolves, had organised the assassination attempt “in exchange for the sum of 3 million German Marks” for the Grey Wolves.
In Rome, Catli declared to the judge in 1985 “that he had been contacted by the BND, the German intelligence agency, which would have promised him a nice sum of money if he implicated the Russian and Bulgarian services in the assassination attempt against the Pope”. According to colonel Alparslan Türkes, the founder of the Grey Wolves,
“Catli has cooperated in the frame of a secret service working for the good of the state”.
According to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, documents recovered from former East German intelligence services confirm the 1981 assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II was ordered by the Soviet KGB and assigned to Bulgarian and East German agents with the Stasi to co-ordinate the operation and cover up the traces afterwards.[citation needed] However, Markus Wolf, former Stasi spy-master, has denied any links, and claimed the files had already been sent in 1995.
In March 2006, pending national elections, the controversial Mitrokhin Commission, set up by Silvio Berlusconi and headed by Forza Italia senator Paolo Guzzanti, supported once again the Bulgarian theory, which had been denounced by John Paul II during his travel to Bulgaria. Senator Guzzanti claimed that “leaders of the former Soviet Union were behind the assassination attempt”, alleging that “the leadership of the Soviet Union took the initiative to eliminate Pope John Paul” because of his support for Solidarity, relaying “this decision to the military secret services” (and not the KGB).
The report’s claims were based on recent computer analysis of photographs that purported to demonstrate Antonov’s presence in St Peter’s Square during the shooting and on information brought by the French anti-terrorist judge Jean-Louis Bruguière, a controversial figure whose last feat was to indict Rwandese president Paul Kagame, claiming he had deliberately provoked the 1994 Rwandan Genocide against his own ethnic group in order to take power.
According to Le Figaro, Bruguière, who is in close contacts as well with Moscow as with Washington, D.C., including intelligence agents, has been accused by many of his colleagues of “privileging the reason of state over law.”
Both Russia and Bulgaria condemned the report. “For Bulgaria, this case closed with the court decision in Rome in March 1986”, Foreign Ministry spokesman Dimitar Tsanchev said, while also recalling the Pope’s comments during his May 2002 visit to Bulgaria.
Senator Guzzanti said that the commission had decided to re-open the report’s chapter on the assassination attempt in 2005, after the Pope wrote about it in his last book, Memory and Identity: Conversations Between Millenniums. The Pope wrote that he was convinced the shooting was not Ağca’s initiative and that “someone else masterminded it and someone else commissioned it”.
The Mitrokhin Commission also claimed Romano Prodi, a former Prime Minister of Italy, was the “KGB’s man in Italy”. At the end of December 2006, Mario Scaramella, one of the main informers of senator Guzzanti, was arrested and charged, among other things, of defamation. Rome’s prosecutor Pietro Salvitti, in charge of the investigations concerning Mario Scaramella, cited by La Repubblica, showed that Nicolò Pollari, head of SISMI, the Italian military intelligence agency and indicted in the Imam Rapito affair, as well as SISMI n°2, Marco Mancini, arrested in July 2006 for the same reason, were some of the informers, alongside Mario Scaramella, of senator Paolo Guzzanti.
Beside targeting Romano Prodi and his staff, this “network”, according to Pietro Salvitti’s words, also aimed at defaming General Giuseppe Cucchi (current director of the CESIS), Milan’s judges Armando Spataro, in charge of the Imam Rapito case, and Guido Salvini, as well as La Repubblica reporters Carlo Bonini and Giuseppe D’Avanzo, who discovered the Yellowcake forgery affair.
The investigation also showed a connection between Scaramella and the CIA, in particular through Filippo Marino, one of Scaramella’s closest partners since the 1990s and co-founder of the ECPP, who lives today in the US. Marino has acknowledged in an interview an association with former and active CIA officers, including Robert Lady, former CIA station chief in Milan, indicted by prosecutor Armando Spataro for having coordinated the abduction of Abu Omar, the Imam Rapito affair
In 2009, journalist and former army intelligence officer John Koehler published Spies in the Vatican: The Soviet Union’s Cold War Against the Catholic Church. Mining mostly East German and Polish secret police archives, Koehler claims the attempt was “KGB-backed” and gives details.
On 26 June 2000, Pope John Paul II released the “Third Secret of Fatima” in which he said that Ağca’s assassination attempt was the fulfilment of this Secret. 13 May (the date of the assassination attempt) is the anniversary of the first apparition of the Virgin Mary to the three children of Fatima, something the Pope has always regarded as significant, attributing his survival on that day to her protection. Some doubt the Church’s full disclosure of the contents of this Secret, believing that it actually predicted the Apocalypse.
While in prison on remand, Ağca was widely reported to have developed an obsession with Fatima and during the trial claimed that he was the second coming of Jesus Christ and called on the Vatican to release the Third Secret.
On 31 March 2005, just two days prior to the Pope’s death, Ağca gave an interview to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica. He claimed to be working on a book about the assassination attempt. La Repubblica quoted Ağca claiming at length that he had accomplices in the Vatican who helped him with the assassination attempt, saying “the devil is inside Vatican’s wall”. He also said:
Emanuela Orlandi, the daughter of a Vatican employee, disappeared at age 15 on 22 June 1983. Anonymous phone calls offered her release in exchange for the release of Ağca. Archbishop Paul Marcinkus was alleged to be part of the kidnapping, although no charges were ever laid.
A week after this interview, Associated Press reported Ağca denying having made such claims.
In November 2010, Ağca publicly asserted that Cardinal Agostino Casaroli had been the man behind the assassination attempt on John Paul II in 1981.
Is it wrong that I sat transfixed on the edge of my seat ( Steve messed up ) watching the final of Masterchef 2017 – whilst eating a dirty (Large) doner kebab & drinking a cold beer?
The funny thing is until about 2 – 3 weeks ago I avoided kebabs of any description and even the smell of them made me feel like gagging. I don’t recall where or when this dislike of the humble kebab originated , but as a youth after a hard nights/weekend drinking the best and only thing to fill a hungry was a kebab – at least in the circles I moved in.
Somewhere on my journey through life I give-up on kebab’s and haven’t had one in about 10 – 15 years. Anyways A few weeks ago I got a random , mad craving for a kebab and had to have one and it was the best tasting , mouth watering takeaway meal I have ever eaten. It was that good that I ordered the same for the past few weeks in a row. Saves cooking & washing up – I assure the wife!
When I first moved to London at 18 , me and my mates would often party all night long (sometimes for days on end) and when hungry finally called us we use to go to this Kebab shop in Piccadilly.
The old guy there used proper bits of lamb meat on the skew and these were the best kebabs I have ever eaten until this day. I’m going back 25 years here – long before kebabs where a takeaway favourite and pizza were king.
Anyways I’m waffling now , but I really enjoyed that kebab ( stop talking about kebabs) and am going to bed because my heads starting to spin – How did that happen?
It was a cracking final tonight and I knew one of the ladies would win – either Saliha or Giovanna – poor Steve had a terrible day at the office – after so many good rounds. But such is life
Well Done Saliha – You earned it
Saliha Mahmood- Ahmed
belfastchildis.com 