From the Overseas Above Michigan Canada Great White North Desk...

Come these interesting tidbits, sent in by Regular Reader JMHeinrichs, a neighbor several counties north of Castle Argghhh!

First, from the National Post of Canada is on the ability, to say with a straight face, that I went overseas, studied terrorist activities at a terrorist training camp, joined a foreign army, fought in a foreign war, and got caught doing it, but, I'm not a terrorist. The best part of the defense being,

Mr. Khadr said if he was really a terrorist the U.S. military would not have let him go.

No, it probably means that you were deemed too inept, too callow, and Canadian. So we're going to let the Canadians deal with you.

"Everybody went to training camp in Afghanistan," he [Khadr] said.

His lawyer opined,

Rocco Galati, a lawyer working for Mr. Khadr's grandparents, said Afghanistan has long been a zone of conflict where many youths learned to handle weapons. "That does not mean my client is a terrorist."

True enough. Here's the curricula of the Taleban Summer Camp for Foreign Students.

Khaldun Camp has been described by intelligence agencies and captured terrorists such as Ahmed Ressam of Montreal as an important terrorist training base for radical Arabs and Muslims from around the world.

Foreign recruits went there to learn how to build bombs and how to use them to blow up civilian targets such as airports, gas plants and hotels, Ressam testified. Plots to attack the U.S. and Israel were hatched at the camp, he said.

Yep, sounds like an innocuous summer camp for spoiled rich kids to me!

Other's in the Great White North were similarly unimpressed:

Professor Martin Rudner, director of the Canadian Centre of Intelligence and Security Studies, said Mr. Khadr's description of a camp that hosted foreign trainees is "exactly the problem isn't it? That's exactly what terrorists did.

"First, to train for a foreign military is not consistent with Canadian citizenship," said Prof. Rudner, who teaches at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University.

"We don't have Canadians sign up in other people's armies and other people's wars, and receive military training.

"Secondly, isn't that precisely what terrorism is about -- taking people from various countries and training them on tactics, methods, explosives and techniques which are tantamount to terrorism?"

I'm also guessing that not "everybody went".

The there's this bit on how to Scare A US Marine. Yes, I said it - scare a US Marine.

How? It's the reaping of a harvest of deceit, sown when the administrative branch of the government conducts shoddy, questionable research on military personnel, or no research at all on products they expose those personnel to... and then lie, for decades, about the results.

Thus, the troops lose a chunk of trust when the nice doctor comes by and says, "Take this pill". Read more about it here in an interesting article in the Spectator.. Will the powers-that-be and their lawyers, ever learn?

Lastly, also from the Spectator, is a way to check your anti-American quotient. Proud to say, I scored a 3. But only because I was honest after I figured out how the scoring was going to work.

Thanks again, CAP'N J!