The Mystery Of The “Unknown Englishman”

In a grove of trees near the suburb of Rome named La Storta, a group of captives of the fleeing German forces in Italy were forced to kneel and were then shot. Thirteen of the people executed that day in 1944 are commemorated on a plaque just off the Via Cassia. The fourteenth victim is identified only as the "Unknown Englishman." A historian announced the the identity of that unknown Englishman might be known today. At least partly.

An “Unknown Englishman” murdered outside Rome by fleeing Nazis was a secret agent who had been landed by submarine to organise anti-Fascist resistance on Sardinia, a historian claimed yesterday.

The officer, whose anonymous grave lay in a wood dedicated to victims of a 1943 massacre, was named last month by Second World War veterans as “Captain John Armstrong”. But they cautioned that this could have been an alias and appealed for those who might know the truth to come forward.

Yesterday it was claimed that “John Armstrong” was Gabor Adler, a Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent code-named “Gabriel”, who was landed in January 1943 at Cape Sferracavallo, in German-occupied Sardinia. He was captured almost immediately however, together with Salvatore Serra, an Italian Carabinieri (paramili-tary police) officer who had defected to British forces while serving in Eritrea. The pair were found to be carrying a list of Sardinian antiFascist activists whom they hoped to recruit for sabotage operations, including Salvatore Mannironi, a Catholic antiFascist, who was arrested and interned.

Mannironi’s son, Domenico Mannironi, a lawyer in Nuoro, Sardinia, said that he had tracked down “Captain Armstrong’s” identity in SOE papers held in the Nation Archives, at Kew. “After the war my father became a Christian Democratic deputy and served as minister of the merchant navy before his death in 1971” he told The Times. “He spoke little about his wartime experiences”.

He said that SOE files on his father and on Emilio Lussu, a leading Sardinian antiFascist partisan who died in 1975, identified Captain Armstrong as Gabor Adler, described by SOE as “a man of astonishing courage” who had swiftly become a “first class radio operator”.

Was Gabor Adler the mysterious unknown Englishman? If so, was that his real name? It would be nice to have the right name on the plaque, wouldn't it?

Still Think It’s A Good Idea?

Seriously, do you really think socialized medicine is a good idea? Do you really believe that the code phrase "Universal Health Care" is anything but socialized medicine? Read this article from the Telegraph before you answer. Read it all the way through because the really important information is buried toward the end. Because it matters.

British cancer patients are substantially more likely to die of the disease than those in other western European countries because of poor access to the latest drugs, according to an authoritative report to be published today.

While more than half of patients in France, Spain, Germany and Italy have access to new treatments provided since 1985, the proportion in the UK is four out of 10.

French women with cancer are 34 per cent more likely than those in the UK to still be alive five years after being diagnosed, while French male patients have a 23 per cent higher survival rate after the same period.

The report into cancer treatment in 25 countries found the uptake of newer cancer drugs was "low and slow" in the UK as well as New Zealand, Poland, Czech Republic and South Africa.

Its Swedish authors from the influential Karolinska Institute added that there was "no evidence" that the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) was meeting its objective of avoiding significant delays in introducing new treatments.

The kicker:

The proportion of colorectal cancer patients with access to the drug Avastin was 10 times higher in the US than it was in Europe, with the UK having a lower uptake than the European average.

All the complaints about US health care from the left. Ten times better access to drugs that can save your life. Ten times. Ten times better than the role model the left holds up - European-style socialized medicine.

Still think it is a good idea? Really? Better hope you don't get cancer.

Let’s See, Character Assassination, Check.

The French left has lost no time at all in mounting attacks on President-elect Nicolas Sarkozy. As I mentioned the other day when AFP let go with a broadside over Sarkozy's vacation - which he had announced he would take before he won - expect this to continue. This is a routine tactic at this point for the left everywhere in the West. Attack at all costs, no matter if you have to invent things to attack about. But you have to like his response to the press on this one: "I have no intention of hiding, I have no intention of lying, I have no intention of apologising."

Nicolas Sarkozy, France's president-elect, shrugged off criticism yesterday of his holiday on a businessman's yacht.

The three-day cruise with his family had not "cost the French taxpayer a cent", he told reporters after disembarking at Malta before flying back to Paris.

"I could have gone to a hotel, but imagine what that would have been like," said Mr Sarkozy, 52, who was elected last Sunday with a mandate to introduce sweeping economic reforms.

"Already when I'm on a boat you rented out planes and helicopters to take photos of me," he added.

"I have no intention of hiding, I have no intention of lying, I have no intention of apologising."

The opposition had accused him of "debauchery" and "tactlessness" for using the private jet of Vincent Bolloré, who has interests in shipping and the media, and for borrowing his yacht.

The Paloma is a 200ft "floating palace" with seven cabins for 12 people, 17 crew, giant plasma screens and an on-deck Jacuzzi. It has two jet-skis, kayaks, water skis and diving equipment.

A spokesman for Ségolène Royal, the Socialist candidate who lost to Mr Sarkozy, described the trip as "a form of arrogance and even an insult" to the French given that his "campaign was about a France which gets up early, a society at work."

A spokesman for Blue Crab Boulevard described Ms. Royal's response as a bad case of sour grapes. Funny about how the left is all about democracy right before the election, then they're all about undermining the will of the voters after they lose.

UPDATE: The Anchoress sees the same trend. She labels it BDS by Proxy. (Wish I'd thought of that.)

Save The Planet: Kill Yourself

An electric car being marketed in Britain as "eco-friendly" appears to be less than human-friendly. Quite a lot less, in fact. The car was exempted from British automobile safety standards by classing it as a "quadricycle". When the car was subjected to the same test that regular cars are required to pass, it didn't exactly shine.

This is what happened when the eco-friendly G-Wiz electric car was put through a crash test that it - unlike most other vehicles - never had to pass to be deemed roadworthy.

Experts at the Transport Research Laboratory who carried out the 40mph test said in real life such a crash would leave occupants with "life-threatening injuries".

It comes just 24 hours after the Daily Mail revealed how ministers were alarmed at the safety risk posed by this type of mini-car - exempt from standard safety test regulations as it is classed as a "quadricycle" - and were considering proposing a ban.

So concerned were the TRL about the Indian-made G-Wiz that they refused to risk their more sophisticated £130,000 crash test dummies - full of electronic instruments - in the test for fear of them being wrecked.

Instead, they used a cheaper, more basic variety.

Their report into the crash noted: "The lower legs of the driver dummy were trapped within the vehicle and to remove the dummy from the vehicle the thorax of the dummy was removed separately to the legs.

"It is probable lower leg fractures could have been sustained."

Probable, hell. Take a look at the pictures. Human occupants would have almost certainly died in that crash. The steering column was pushed into the dummy's midsection. Can you say, "Lacerated liver?" I knew that you could. The legs being pinned completely was also kind of a giveaway. (Ed. Note: No problem, just remove the torso to free the legs - that's what the safety testers had to do.) Now I know that some of the ecostremists are openly advocating a drastic reduction of the planet's human population (like 5 out of 6 must die to meet their numbers, to which rational people should reply, "You first.") but it's kind of underhanded to assassinate them by telling them they are saving the planet by buying a killer car.

What’s A Greek Urn?

$7.50 an hour, just to update an old, old joke. But seriously, archaeologists in Greece have discovered some very, very old cloth inside a copper urn. That urn also contained fragments of a cremated human body and dates back some 2,700 years.

ATHENS, Greece - Archaeologists in Greece have discovered a rare 2,700-year-old piece of fabric inside a copper urn from a burial they speculated imitated the elaborate cremation of soldiers described in Homer's "Iliad."

The yellowed, brittle material was found in the urn during excavation in the southern town of Argos, a Culture Ministry announcement said Wednesday

"This is an extremely rare find, as fabric is an organic material which decomposes very easily," said archaeologist Alkistis Papadimitriou, who headed the dig. She said only a handful of such artifacts have been found in Greece.

The cylindrical urn also contained dried pomegranates — offerings linked with the ancient gods of the underworld — along with ashes and charred human bones from an early 7th century B.C. cremation.

The copper urn actually is what saved the cloth. The copper oxides that formed as the urn corroded are lethal to many microorganisms. Cremation was not widely practiced during that period in Greek history, so the find is doubly unusual.

Launches With Wolves

A Minnesota man has discovered a new way to levitate: Crawl under a deck and meet a 105 pound gray wolf.

THIEF RIVER FALLS, Minn. - Mike Olson had been working under his dad's deck for about 20 minutes when he realized he wasn't alone. "I cocked my head back, and I saw those two eyes looking at me," Olson said of the Monday encounter. "I got out real fast."

Olson had seen what he thought was a gray wolf. "It was probably 6 feet away," he said. "It was just laying down. It had its head up and was just looking at me."

Olson and his dad, Erling, called the police, who responded expecting to find a large, wolf-like dog beneath the deck.

"They put their head under the deck, and sure enough, it was a wolf," said Craig Mattson, deputy chief for the Thief River Falls Police Department.

When they were unable to remove the wolf, they removed a board and shot the animal. The wolf appeared to be suffering from mange. Long time readers will, of course, recognize what this means. It isn't just alligators who have learned the art of camouflage. Now we have wolves disguised as decks. We strongly recommend taking a chainsaw to the deck out behind your house right away. Better safe than sorry. Don't worry, you'll be able to explain it to your spouse, possibly without being involuntarily committed! 

Sunlight: A Great Disinfectant

You know, if the media would actually start reporting some of the real news in the Middle East, there's no telling how much better things would get. Just turning over the rock and exposing the jihadi Mouse character that Hamas was using to indoctrinate the Palestinian youth has caused the government to pull that show off the air. Funny how a little sunlight works, isn't it?

A program using a Mickey Mouse-like character to urge Palestinian children to fight Israel and the West and work for world Islamic domination has been pulled off Hamas's television station for "review," Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti said Wednesday.

Barghouti said the use of the cartoon character in such a role represented a "mistaken approach" to the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation.

Barghouti wrote that following a request from his ministry, the program was pulled from the Hamas-affiliated Al Aksa TV and "placed under review."

In the statement, Barghouti said his ministry "would continue to ensure freedom of expression and freedom of the press, but that media outlets breaking the law would be penalized."

Barghouti complained that the Mickey Mouse story continued to receive attention by "some American television stations" after it was resolved, and that media did not broadcast video of Israeli human rights violations supplied by his ministry in recent weeks.

Aw, shucks. You mean you don't like the world seeing what a sick operation you're running over there? What a surprise. More sunlight, please.

Aw, shucks. You mean you don't like the world seeing what a sick operation you're running over there? What a surprise. More sunlight, please.

Let Freedom Ring

David Kopel over at the Volokh Conspiracy provides translations of both the prepared speech by Nicolas Sarkozy and the actual spoken version and notes a very significant alteration in the as-delivered speech.

In the prepared text, the penultimate paragraph is:

Je veux lancer un appel à tous ceux qui dans le monde croient aux valeurs de tolérance, de liberté, de démocratie et d’humanisme, à tous ceux qui sont persécutés par les tyrannies et par les dictatures, à tous les enfants et à toutes les femmes martyrisés dans le monde pour leur dire que la France sera à leurs côtés, qu’ils peuvent compter sur elle.

In English: "I want to launch a call to all those in the world who believe in the values of tolerance, of liberty, of democacy and of humanism, to all those who are persecuted by the tyrannies and by the dictators, to all the children and to all the martyrized women in the world to say to them that the pride, the duty of France will at their sides, that they can count on her."

(The italicized words were in the speech as delivered, but not in the prepared text.) Pretty good so far. Then, Sarkozy delivered a paragraph which did not appear in the prepared text, and his rising passion matched that of the audience:

La France sera aux côtés des infirmières libyennes enfermées depuis huit ans, la France n'abandonnera pas Ingrid Betancourt, la France n'abandonnera pas les femmes qu'on condamne à la burqa, la France n'abandonnera pas les femmes qui n'ont pas la liberté. La France sera du côté des opprimés du monde. C'est le message de la France, c'est l'identité de la France, c'est l'histoire de la France.

In English: "France will be at the sides of the Libyan nurses locked up for eight years; France will not abandon Ingrid Betancourt; France will not abandon the women who are condemned to the burqa; France will not abandon the women who do not have liberty. France will be by the side of the oppressed of the world. This is the message of France; this is the identity of France; this is the history of France."

That is, indeed, the best that French history has offered the world. Stirring words that could well signify a tectonic shift in the Western world. If Sarkozy carries through and governs in this manner, France could become an important ally to freedom in the world. One thing that is interesting is how the left in this country held France up as a model before and is now busily downplaying Sarkozy's victory and declaring France and French opinion to be irrelevant to American politics. 

Mickey Mouse Games

Michael Goodwin, writing in the New York Daily News, discusses the use by Hamas of the jihadi Mouse character named Farfour(or Farfur). He points out that there is a massive wave of raw sewage spewing from the Arab media and that the problem is much, much bigger than Iraq.

You hear it all the time: If only the Israelis and Palestinians would make peace, the rest of the world would follow. The next time you hear it, remember that the Palestinian version of Mickey Mouse preaches death to Jews and Americans.

There can be no peace with a culture like that.

The article about Farfur, the clone of Walt Disney's gentle Mickey, in the Daily News yesterday was a shock to many New Yorkers. He sings and dances on Hamas' children's TV show "Tomorrow's Pioneers" about the need to eat right, pray - and kill. That Hamas comprises most of the Palestinian government shows Farfur is no rogue character - it is sponsored by the very people Palestinians elected to represent them.

To those who monitor the sewage spewing from Arab media, the only shock about the report is that many Americans don't grasp the depth of depravity. Television, newspapers and the Internet daily urge violence in the name of Islam. Cartoons and music videos are used to brainwash children.

The goal, openly stated, is to enlist children in the "culture of martyrdom" - to die fighting and killing the enemies of Islam. Suicide bombers are glorified and promised everlasting paradise. Grade-school textbooks fill children with dreams of a glorious death…..

…..What can we do about it? Maybe nothing - except be smart. We can start by dropping any pretense that we are not at war, or that Islamic terror will stop if only we get out of Iraq. The problem preceded our invasion, and it will last beyond the resolution. Whatever we do in Iraq, we shouldn't fool ourselves about the nature of the enemy or its goals.

The voices of moderation in the Middle East are drowned out or threatened into silence by this hate which is spewed on a 24/7 basis. It will not go away if we leave Iraq, in fact it will get even worse. As Goodwin points out, this has been going on for a long, long time.

Mustering Patience

This is a downright surprise. The Chicago Tribune has just published an editorial counseling patience on the Iraq war. They note signs of real progress in Anbar province that warrant patience on the part of Americans.

Al Qaeda's terrorists in Iraq now face a new enemy: Sunni tribesmen in Anbar Province. These tribal leaders in the heart of the insurgency are now backing coalition and Iraqi forces against the terrorists.

You want good news from Iraq? There it is, in flashing neon.

These Anbar leaders aren't just jawing. Thousands of Sunnis have rushed to join local police forces, with tribal leaders' encouragement. "The progress has inspired an optimism in the American command that, among some officials, borders on giddiness," The New York Times reported. "There are some people who would say we've won the war out here," one Marine officer said.

That's a phrase you don't hear often in Iraq.

While the Sunni tribal leaders probably haven't developed a sudden fondness for U.S. forces, they have apparently developed a deep disgust for the Al Qaeda agenda. The Sunnis don't want what Al Qaeda is peddling: a soul-crushing fundamentalist Islamic dictatorship.

About a year ago, Army Col. Sean MacFarland began exploiting that split. He defied conventional wisdom by negotiating with a group of Sunni sheiks to fight Al Qaeda, according to USA Today. He built small, more vulnerable combat outposts in Ramadi's most dangerous neighborhood to expel insurgents and provide security. "I was going the wrong way down a one-way street," MacFarland told the newspaper.

Turns out it was the right way. Violence is down in Ramadi and the surrounding province. MacFarland's alliance has ultimately expanded to include more than 200 sheiks, the paper reported. The tribes started attacking Al Qaeda leaders on U.S. target lists.

This is pretty strong coming from the Chicago Tribune. Even though the Tribune has sent clear warnings to the Democratic leadership that they have gone too far to the left, I honestly am surprised to see this kind of a turnaround in coverage by a major newspaper. (Expect the screeching from the left to reach threshold of pain levels.) The paper again warns that timetables are a very bad idea, too.

Jamestown Turns 400

The Washington Post has an interesting article about the discovery of the location of the original fort at Jamestown. archaeologist William Kelso managed to locate the fort that many others had tried to find in the past century.

JAMESTOWN, Va. — Once again, the three brave ships will sail the mighty James and moor by Virginia's fair shore.

But this weekend, it will be to the noise of a party — the 400th anniversary celebration of the first permanent English settlement here in 1607. There will be feasts, music, reenactments and a visit by President Bush on Sunday.

Yet lost, perhaps, amid the celebration of the famed landings, is an achievement of another kind — one not of adventure, but of science.

Much that is new and exciting in the story of Jamestown is the result of discoveries made in the past 13 years by a white-haired 66-year-old archeologist named William M. Kelso, who found something here no other archaeologist had been able to find in a century of looking:

The long-lost site of Jamestown's fort.

Kelso's findings, unfolding quietly over more than a decade, take Jamestown's story back to its beginning, experts say, and rank among the greatest in North American archeology in the past 50 years.

It is quite an interesting story. Kelso deduced that others had been looking in the wrong spot.

Among other things, Kelso said, he reread the account of the deep-water landing and thought: "They didn't say they put the fort there; they said they landed there."

In addition, the approximate size of the fort — 1.75 acres — could be deduced from a surviving description penned about two years after the landing.

There was also an ancient Jamestown map, apparently drawn in 1608 by Spain's ambassador to Britain, which included a crude rendering of a triangular fort.

And there were remains of an old church about 50 yards from the river, which Kelso figured might be on the site of an earlier church that was said to have been in the middle of the fort.

"The whole key to digging here was the church," he said. Churches might be rebuilt over time, he reasoned, but they are seldom moved far from their original site.

Longtime readers know I'm a bit partial to history and archeology, so this kind of thing gets my attention. There is also a very nice slideshow of pictures from Jamestown, including a number from the site of the fort.