Alpinelite & Kabul Fight Club

2010-12-29T21:44:00.001-08:00

Snow Husky

2010-12-12T06:29:00.001-08:00

Guts

2010-11-30T07:35:00.001-08:00

2010-11-21T13:37:00.000-08:00

Teanaway

2010-06-16T21:14:00.000-07:00

Teanaway

2010-06-16T21:12:00.001-07:00

Teanaway

2010-06-16T21:10:00.001-07:00

Scott

2010-06-07T10:21:00.000-07:00

Chris

2010-06-07T10:20:00.001-07:00

Black Dog

2010-06-06T21:52:00.001-07:00

Black Dog

2010-06-06T21:50:00.000-07:00

Black Dog

2010-06-06T14:11:00.000-07:00

2010-06-06T14:09:00.000-07:00

Gotta love it!

2010-05-28T10:54:00.000-07:00

Deadfall. These logs are so slick and slimy unless you hit them straight on you're going for a spin.

Washington Sun

2010-05-28T10:51:00.001-07:00

New Nomad 2

2009-09-21T10:56:00.001-07:00

A few more

2009 Santa Cruz Nomad

2009-09-21T10:50:00.001-07:00

New Fat Burner

2009-02-21T21:25:00.000-08:00

R.I.P. Don Gonthier

2009-02-12T19:02:00.000-08:00

http://climberdon.blogspot.com/

Moto

2009-01-27T22:38:00.001-08:00

Meet my little friend

2009-01-27T22:00:00.000-08:00

Springfield SOCOM II M1a. 16" barrel with full rail system.

Tim Neill

2008-12-11T20:36:00.000-08:00

So my buddy Tim is going to do this crazy race in Morocco. Tim and I did some climbing together in Afghanistan. He's a former English bobby (Police officer) from Scotland.

Here's a picture of Tim training hard for the event.

OOOPS...wrong one. Eh-eh...

http://www.timneill.co.uk/

Sport Specific Training Link

2008-11-19T22:35:00.000-08:00

Brought to my attention via some interesting Youtube links posted by ice climber John Frieh.

MOUNTAIN ATHLETE

5 years ago

2008-11-12T19:42:00.000-08:00

Not forgotten, rather far from it. Inspiration from the past carries forward to today, and beyond tomorrow.

A young man who accomplished more in a short time than many ever will. Best wishes to Ben's friend's and family.

http://cascadeclassics.org/

2008 AMA SX Crashes

2008-10-23T09:12:00.000-07:00

Nelson, BC Wall Ride

2008-08-25T10:49:00.000-07:00

Granite wall ride. Looks flat and easy in the picture doesn't it? Go for it and let me know what you think.

Baldface, Nelson BC

2008-08-25T10:42:00.000-07:00

Kinrade did a better job of showing the potential of Nelson in this 2006 episode of Stund. Baldface footage starts at around 6:35 into the 15 minute episode and then goes into the FR trails including Newtsack, a fantastic FR trail and an area classic.

Embedding code is broken so here is an external link.

http://www.imeem.com/aeonpsych/video/lwB0dpu8/mker_stund_episode_4/

Nelson, BC

2008-08-25T09:30:00.000-07:00

Some pics of the flavor up in the Great White North. Mike Kinrade was an awesome host, and my riding partners were an unexpected pleasure to be around.

Log drop on Shataqua. Nelson, BC.

Afghan DH medley

2008-07-06T04:36:00.000-07:00

Long live the Yosemite climbing bum

2008-06-29T02:03:00.001-07:00

Good to see little Mikey Shaefer's face again.

Approach Hike

2008-05-27T03:06:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day Rememberances 2008

2008-05-23T07:56:00.000-07:00

Eulogy for a Veteran

Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there, I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.

I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the Gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the mornings hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush
of quiet birds in circled flight,
I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there, I did not die.

-Author Unknown

In Memory Of:

Paul Sweeney (US Army 3rd SFG) Killed Oct 30th 2003, Khunar, Afghanistan

Jerry Zovko (US Army-DoD Contractor) Killed April 2004 Fallujah, Iraq

Luke Petrik (US Army-DoS Contractor) Killed 2005 Iraq

Nathaniel Garfield Hill (US Army-Retired SGM- DoD Contractor) Killed 2005 Basra, Iraq

Michael “Mac” McInnis (US Navy-DoD Contractor) Killed 2006, Mosul, Iraq

Guy (Bear) Barattieri (US Army/USMA West Point/DoD Contractor) Killed October 2006, Baghdad Iraq

Rod (K2) Richardson (USMC/DoD Contractor) Killed October 2006, Baghdad Iraq

Ronald “Catdaddy” Johnson (US Army-Retired CW3-DoS Contractor) Killed 2007 Baghdad, Iraq

Mohammad Iqbal (Afghan Federal Narcotics Interdiction Unit) 2005 Killed by Taliban in Khandahar Province

Rah Manullah (Afghan Federal Narcotics Interdiction Unit) 2005 Killed by Taliban in Kandahar Province

Jack McCracken (USMC-DoD Contractor) Suicide 2006 Pennsylvania, USA

Many fine memories of you on this day friends.

~Junkyard

Down The Dark Pathway

2008-05-07T09:46:00.000-07:00

It's been just over a week since my mate and I purchased some 125cc (4 strokes- so not very powerful) Chinese Moto-X bikes with Japanese engines. About the smartest idea me mate has ever had in the 5 years I've known him. Brilliant in fact.

The past week I've been out every day, at least 2 hours a day, putting the machine through the paces, and learning the capabilities of the funny cheap bike. We've already taken it to a point where my mate dumped his down a steep ravine a couple times today; we're dropping off 5 footers, climbing steep slopes, traversing across loose mountain slopes, and str8t-lining down 40 degree plus down slopes.

We spent an afternoon riding around in the bottom of narrow wadi's with walls over 20 feet above our heads, wailing across open prairie grass, and pinning loose, dusty, irregular Afghan roads. We were shot at 5 days ago by paranoid sentries, and I almost had to go high order on a Kuchi who just wouldn't take no for an answer when he asked if he could take my bike for a spin back to his village.

Our sudden appearance around the area has given us a small amount of celebrity.

I know the location of every dead dog in a 10 mile radius, you can find them by the smell of their rotting bodies.

We've made up 3 significant moto tracks, and then burned them in with our tires just running laps.

1998 World Cup #5 at Snoqualmie Pass

2008-04-27T10:42:00.000-07:00

Wow! Hard to believe that riders like Nico Voullioz (10x's World Cup Champion), Steve Peat (3x's WC Champ), and Anne-Caroline Chausson (like a bazillion championships) were all racing at Summit Central in 1998.....wow...

http://classic.mountainzone.com/mtbiking/98/worldcup/snoqualmie/index.html

Bring it back!

2008-04-27T10:20:00.000-07:00

The Snoqualmie Bike Park was ahead of its time. I lived up at Hyak from 2001-2002 and my ski buddies were constantly trying to get me up for a ride, but I was too geeked out, hiking for turns, pedaling up trails, and riding things like Mission Ridge or Tiger Mountain at the time, and GASP....SHUTTLING was like evil and threatening to my purist ways.

Well how times have changed, and for the better too! I am going to have to make a trip up to Snoqualmie Pass and find Bryan and Tim, apologize for being such an ignorant wretch, making fun of their big biking ways, and atone for my past All Mountain snobbery.

In 2003 I went up there, hiked up and rode some of the DH trails at Central and off of Mt Catherine which I believe was a World Cup DH track (??? anyone????). Let me tell you, talk about over my head on a 3 inch travel bike. Lucky I didn't snap my neck meat. Some of those trails would be challenging today.

Anyway, great video the guys on gohuckyourself put out.

Snoqualmie Pass bike park needs to make a comback. Email them and let them know what you think about it!

Esmerelda Basin/Deroux Creek

2008-04-25T23:53:00.000-07:00

Found this Youtube video on the Borbonic stream. This was Ray B. and myself on a Teanaway loop, summer 2005. The Deroux Creek descent is still one of the finest AM descents I have ever done. Smooth, fast singletrack descending past lakes, and open meadows straight into interesting rock gardens and root systems. All against the backdrop of a beautiful eastern Washington setting. Thanks to Ray B. for taking the time to put together this little movie, and for being such a great riding partner. That was a fun day, and I look forward this year to re-investigating this section of the Teanaway.

Love a good streetfight

2008-04-12T01:15:00.000-07:00

Weir versus Beneke @ Downieville!!

http://www.bicycling.com/article/0,6610,s1-6-12-16917-1,00.html

Fluidride Cup/Port Angeles

2008-04-10T18:01:00.000-07:00

5th of 22 (Sport 30-39)

Weir Speaketh

2008-03-30T21:59:00.000-07:00

http://www.foxracingshox.com/fox_interbike_mw.mov

Another reason to visit Europe

2008-03-23T10:35:00.000-07:00

Mondial Du VTT Descente de Venosc caméra embarquée
Uploaded by 103TuRtLe

Cap Forest Super-D

2008-03-18T13:57:00.001-07:00

3rd place, Expert.

The only band that will ever matter

2008-03-12T19:52:00.001-07:00

Some background on the Megaavalanche

2008-02-04T10:56:00.001-08:00

The Megavalanche (pronounced Meg Avalanche) is a Downhill Marathon race created by French ex-motocrosser George Edwards in the mid 90’s. It’s organised by the French UCC who run many bike races in Europe.

The first race saw hundreds of French riders arriving at Alpe d’Huez in the Oisans region of France to race from 3330m on the Pic Blanc glacier to Allemont on the valley floor at 720m. Covering some 30 kms and dropping over 2600m, you encounter every different type of terrain from snow and ice, to rocks and mud.

The race gained popularity and by 2001 over one thousand people from around the world were trying to enter. Only 700 could race from the top (although that many never made the start) so a qualifying race on the Saturday was added to weed out some and allow the faster riders to qualify and start near the front. If you don’t start near the front you cannot win the race.

The qualifying race in itself is a mini mega. It runs from the top of Dome des Petites Rousses (2800m). Waves of 200 riders take off into the rocks and sometimes snow and head down toward Alpe d’Huez, never arriving though as the track goes abruptly up a road and then starts to drop seriously through many, many, dusty switchbacks on its way to Oz en Oisans (1350m). The twist in the tail is the firetrack climb just before the end when you can either overtake a lot of people (fit cross country types) or lose a lot of places (fit 170mm bike riders with a single ring).

In 1998 bad weather caused the Sunday race to start lower and in the last couple of years the snow has disappeared from the top, some is left lower down. Whether this is due to global warming, the use of snow cannons and their chemicals or something else is debatable. You are now more likely to ride down a rock field as a piste. This is a shame as the start as always been one of the focal points of the race.

If you are lucky enough to make the Sunday race you can expect to get up early. The top riders hit the lifts at 6 or 7am and get to stand in the freezing cold at 3300m until 9am.

Helicopters buzz over heard and music blasts out until eventually the pack are released in waves. Surviving the first 3 kms of snow (or rocks) is often the hardest part. So many riders fall on the steep slopes. Without the correct technique it can be difficult to stay on.

There are many different techniques for riding on snow, from hanging right off the back, sitting on the frame with both legs out outrigger style, one leg out, one on the pedal, running alongside the bike, sitting on your ass and sliding with the bike on your lap. The best just go fast as you can lose a lot of time on the snow if you don't get it together.

Next up is the rock infested singletrack were riders fight to overtake. You often have to pick your bike up and hike over parts to continue. Then a hikers trails that wants to destroy your pedals, cranks and feet with its rocks. There is even a grassy grinder and some muddy streams to cross. By this point you are covered in snow and mud, tired and sweating. This is nearly half way. A brief respite as you pass the start of the DMC lift at Alpe d’Huez, crowds cheer and you can stop for a drink or just plow on.

Onto the chemin panoramique, but no time for looking as its another singletrack on the edge. Soon there are switchbacks, hot and dusty and another grassy climb and then a road ride uphill to Villard Reculas. Now you are really hot and wish you hadn’t worn all that gear to counter the cold at the top. Then you hit the Foret de Sardonne.

The forest singletrack is muddy and there are a few short steep climbs that sap the rest of your strength. Then more switchbacks that go on forever, a whole normal downhill course of them.

Cross some roads that the Gendarmes have blocked off, its feels like the end but its more forest. Suddenly you cross a pedestrian bridge and there are people. Pedal for the finish and cross the line at Allemont.

The Megavalanche is the toughest downhill race in the world and will take you over an hour to complete. This is not a normal downhill race and doesn’t require a downhill bike, although many choose to ride one, no one has ever won on one. There are a couple of climbs and some road work. The switchbacks are many and tight.

Rene Wildhaber (Swiss) has won the race 4 times and is the most winning rider. The other winners have been French and on 130-152mm travel bikes with single crown forks and at least two rings. Wildhaber has also won many similar races in Switzerland.

The Megavalanche in Alpe d’Huez is a one off event although the UCC also run a Megavalanche on Reunion Island, which is on a volcano in the Indian Ocean. Its quite different in many ways. In 2005 a Megavalanche was run in Peru in the Valley of the Incas in conjunction with the UCC.

Elsewhere in Europe there are other non UCC downhill marathons. The ‘Bike Attack’ (was Red Bull Bike Attack) runs in Lenzerheide, Switzerland and the ‘Mountain of Hell’ is at Les Deux Alpes, France.

There used to be Megavalanche at Saas Fee, Switzerland but this is now a shorter snow race called the Glacier Bike.

Shorter races of about 15 minutes called Maxi Avalanche are now also run throughout Europe by the UCC.

The Obsession Progression

2008-01-29T06:44:00.000-08:00

Registered for this race yesterday. 2 weeks in France, Allez!

The only race that matters

2008-01-17T23:14:00.000-08:00

Khangal Ghashe DH descent

2008-01-10T10:04:00.000-08:00

So you wanna climb in the Hindu Kush?

2008-01-10T09:54:00.000-08:00

A small one...11,000 footer.

Victoria Island

2008-01-07T10:03:00.000-08:00

Throwing Blogger a bone

2008-01-06T12:08:00.000-08:00

Most traffic now goes to my file server, but every once a while I'll toss this old blogger a bone to gnaw on.

Humorous Blog

2007-12-31T23:20:00.000-08:00

Tracked this beauty after finding a link back to this blog. Been reading it for an hour now and I can't quit laughing.

http://www.getoutdoors.com/goblog/

Modern Military Combatives Article

2007-12-28T21:41:00.000-08:00

Martial Arts Meet the New Age:
Combatives in the Early 21st Century American Military
by Joseph R. Svinth

INTRODUCTION
During the early 1990s, in the aftermath of the Gulf War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the U.S. military began devoting significant resources to planning and conducting "military operations other than war" (MOOTW). "Although MOOTW and war may often seem similar in action, ...MOOTW are more sensitive to political considerations and often the military may not be the primary player." Additionally, military personnel had to "understand the political objective and the potential impact of inappropriate actions" (Joint Chiefs, 1995, vii). In other words, early 21st century warfare would take place under the gaze of both spy satellites and television cameras.

At the same time, futurists predicted that in the coming years, the "jewel in the military's crown" would be special operations forces trained to perform both "international housekeeping and wet-work." These special operations forces would be "capable of precisely applying technologically superior weapons" and engaging in hand-to-hand combat (Szafranski, 1995: 81). Accordingly, both the U.S. Army Rangers and the U.S. Marine Corps began looking into upgrading existing training in close-quarter battle and hand-to-hand fighting.

FIRST EARTH BATTALION
In 1979, the U.S. Army War College published a futurist document entitled "First Earth Battalion." The tone of the document is hyperbolic and imbued with New Age jargon. On the other hand, it did predict the role that the Internet and cable news networks would play during the coming decades. Therefore, despite the hyperbole and New Age jargon, author Jim Channon's crystal ball proved clearer than cynics expected (Channon, 1979/2000; see also Dare, 1998 and Chevalier, 2001).

Among Channon's suggestions was that future soldiers practice "battle tuning," which he described (in so many words), as a combination of yogic stretches, karate kata, paced primal rock, and Belgian waffles (Channon, 1979/2000). Although "battle tuning" was a bit esoteric for most soldiers, in 1985, the Army hired former Marines Jack Cirie and Richard Strozzi Heckler to provide several dozen Special Forces soldiers with training in aikido, biofeedback, and "mind-body psychology." (Aikido was chosen because the project's purpose was not to train barehanded killers, but to research increases in awareness.) After six months, the soldiers were not aikido masters. Nonetheless, most claimed greater self-awareness, and they were on average 75% fitter than when they started (Heckler, 1992). Navy SEALs received an abbreviated version of this course in 1988.

As a rule, however, the U.S. military of the 1980s neglected training in close-quarter battle and hand-to-hand fighting (Wood and Michaelson, 2000, 107). Firstly, the American leadership envisioned a nuclear war with the Soviet Union, and in a nuclear war, skill in hand-to-hand combat is inconsequential. Consequently, commanders did not devote resources to training in hand-to-hand combat. "In no way did the Army or Marines of the 1980s provide purpose, motivation, and direction for their combatives programs," said Matt Larsen (personal communication, July 2002), who was the primary author of Field Manual 3-25-150, Combatives. "The missing element was any sort of plan other than 'Commanders should dedicate more time."

Secondly, science, in the guise of "non-lethal" technologies, was supposed to solve the problem of military operations in areas filled with hostile civilians that it was impolitic to forcibly relocate or shoot. Sample "non-lethal" technologies included chemical sprays, electronic stun guns, sticky foam, net guns, rope sprays, blinding lasers, and acoustic weapons (Alexander, 1999; Wright, 1998).

Thirdly, martial arts (at least as taught by Heckler) were believed to develop soldiers who knew how to "maintain their stand, coordinate with multiple opponents and maintain their dignity" (Krawchuk, 2000). Yet, as a former Special Forces officer named Alan Farrell (1994), put it, the leaders of a nuclear military did not really want self-actualized soldiers. Instead, the ideal soldier of the nuclear-armed military was rigid, conforming, inhibited, and totally obedient. (See also Heckler, 1992: 153.)

Then came the unexpected collapse of the Soviet Union and a series of messy "peacekeeping operations" in Liberia, Haiti, Somalia, and Bosnia. During these latter operations, soldiers and Marines whose average age was under 23 years were exposed to violent situations in which the use of firearms was not authorized. Meanwhile, the new "non-lethal" weapons proved "less lethal" rather than "non-lethal."

Nonetheless, they still required soldiers and Marines to use (and equally importantly, not use) them. Consequently, during the mid-1990s, U.S. military leaders started paying new attention to close-quarter battle and unarmed combatives. In the Army, the impetus involved mid-level officers and NCOs, whereas in the Marine Corps, the driving force was the Commandant himself. Thus, two entirely different programs emerged.

THE U.S. ARMY ADOPTS GRACIE JIU-JITSU
During late 1994 or early 1995, then-Lt. Colonel Stanley A. McChrystal, the new commander of the 2nd Ranger Battalion at Fort Lewis, Washington, decided to reinvigorate hand-to-hand combat training in his unit. "We got out the FM 21-150," said then-Staff Sergeant Matt Larsen, "and started doing just what it said to do. After about two or three months we went back to the commander and told him that it was a waste of our training time. He told us that it if was a waste of time, then there must be a reason, and told us to come up with a better answer" (personal communication, July 2002).

There was no money to create a Ranger-specific system, so the program had to be reasonably off-the-shelf. Toward determining the best system, the battalion organized a committee of experienced martial arts practitioners. "Our criteria for success was simple," said Larsen (personal communication, July 2002). "The average soldier in the Army had to know what the literature said he should know, and the system should produce its own experts independently of continuing outside instruction."

The style that the Ranger Battalion eventually decided to adopt was Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. It wasn't because other systems were less valid, or that the battalion wanted its soldiers rolling around on the ground with armed enemies. Indeed, Larsen (personal communication, July 2002) readily admitted that a "weakness of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu is its focus on unarmed, one-on-one arena fighting." On the other hand, it "fit the realities of the world" (Larsen, personal communication, July 2002.)

First, Gracie Jiu-Jitsu was reasonably easy to learn and use. Thus, within the few hours per week that commanders were willing to dedicate to combatives training, individual soldiers could become quantifiably more proficient than they were when they started. Additionally, associated injuries were usually no more serious than a black eye or split lip, and fitting it into existing conditioning programs didn't put new demands on already crowded training schedules.

Second, Gracie Jiu-Jitsu allowed competition. This allowed both individuals and units to compete among themselves, thereby building morale and encouraging improvement. "Competition," said Larsen (personal communication, July 2002). "is a key element to the implementation of a successful combatives program. If you can be the unit champion, then there is a reason to excel."

Third, during the years that this program was being designed, the Gracies were winning Ultimate Fighting Championships. Consequently, it was easy to show skeptics that Gracie Jiu-Jitsu worked. Finally, said Larsen (personal communication, July 2002), "The lesson that the Gracies had to teach was that a realistic training plan is necessary if you expect results. The guys they fought in the early Ultimate Fighting Championships had unrealistic training plans, whereas the Gracies' had a training plan specifically geared toward that sort of competition."

Therefore, for a variety of reasons, Rangers took to practicing Gracie Jiu-Jitsu without unreasonable pressure from supervisors, or too much complaining from trainees. Subsequently, former Rangers spread the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu gospel to other commands, and in January 2002, Gracie Jiu-Jitsu became the cornerstone of the U.S. Army's combatives program. "Soldiers have a surprising degree of skill retention from one month to the next," said an Army National Guard sergeant who started training his men in these methods later that year. "I think the fact that they actually enjoy the training contributes greatly to that!" (Jeff Cook, personal communication, July 2002.)

THE MARINE CORPS MARTIAL ARTS PROGRAM
Like the Army's combatives program, the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program (MCMAP) began because a new commander decided that he wanted his unit to train in combatives. However, in this case, the commander was not a lieutenant colonel, but the Commandant of the Marine Corps. Thus, the Marine Corps program was custom-designed rather than off-the-shelf, and it became doctrinal within two years.

Shortly after taking office on July 1, 1999, General James L. Jones, the 32nd Commandant of the Marine Corps, initiated a study designed to determine the feasibility of having all Marines study a martial art such as taekwondo or aikido. First, Jones believed that martial arts training (and discipline) might prove useful during operations other than war. Second, as a company commander in Vietnam, Jones had been impressed by Korean Marines going through their taekwondo exercises. Years later, as a battalion commander in California, Jones noticed that junior enlisted who participated in martial arts training had higher morale and fewer discipline problems than did other Marines. Finally, during the mid-1990s, he met (and was impressed by) Richard Strozzi Heckler, who had written a book about teaching aikido to Special Forces.

The Marine Corps study took place at Camp Pendleton, California, during the spring of 2000. Its first year budget was about $173,000 (FAQ, 2002). To ensure objectivity, two separate programs ran concurrently. Lt. Colonel George Bristol ran the control group. Bristol was a reconnaissance Marine with extensive experience in Japanese martial arts. His motto was "One Mind, Any Weapon," and his trainees went through graded combative performance tests (fighting with pugil sticks, hitting and throwing one another, etc.) following forced marches, river crossings, patrols, and assault exercises. In between, they heard lectures about Zulus and Spartans. According to the Wall Street Journal (October 9, 2000), Bristol's goal was "to give the Marines a sense of the fear-and pain-of combat, so they can surmount it" (Jaffe, 2000).

Richard Strozzi Heckler ran the other group. During his instruction, Heckler stressed personal accountability. "During combatives," said Heckler (2002), "accountability became a living concept in regards to how, where, why and with whom one trains to be combat ready." This accountability applied equally on liberty, in garrison, or in combat. In Heckler's world, combatives were part of the force option continuum of a Marine rather than "simply something to do if his rifle malfunctions." Nonetheless, practical hand-to-hand and bayonet skills were necessary.

For Heckler, the hand-to-hand techniques that a Marine needed to know included knee strikes, elbow strikes, and neck wrestling. At first, these techniques were done slowly. Later, they were combined with the "aiki principles" of "correct body placement, dynamic relaxation, extension, balance, centering, reading your opponent, entering, fluidity of motion, blending, and power," and done at full speed.

After reading the after-action reports, the Commandant directed the establishment of MCMAP. The program officially started in October 2000, and in February 2001, Marines began graduating from its instructor training courses. Full implementation throughout the Corps was expected by September 2002.

MCMAP included elements from both Bristol's and Heckler's programs. Thus, training included "warrior studies" as well as tests of physical skills conducted in simulated combat environments. Of course, since Bristol was program director, his ideas (and those of his chief enlisted man, Master Gunnery Sergeant Cardo Urso) predominated. Well, at least they did until Bristol and Urso were reassigned. Said an observer of an instructor training course conducted during the summer of 2002, "Urso is gone. So is Bristol. Some of the crazy stuff they did is gone too. And it is not uncommon for one of the instructors to say 'the Colonel ain't here anymore' or 'Master Guns isn't running this' when explaining why something has changed" (DT, personal communication, July 2002; see also USMC, 2002c).

CONCLUSION
As of this writing (September 2002), both the Army and Marine Corps combatives programs are still evolving. Because both programs are new, it is impossible to predict how they will do in the future. Nevertheless, continuing doctrinal emphasis on "operations other than war" and smaller (but better-trained) special operations forces suggests that combatives are likely to play an increasingly important role in U.S. military training. At least until the next time doctrine changes.

New Protege

2007-12-26T09:44:00.000-08:00

With Numero 11 out of the picture I kind of considered shutting down the club for good, but instead I took on a new fighter a few nights ago. A New Zealander keen to learn. We did some mirroring drills, and he seems like he may have a good stand up game. Back to the fight oriented training and workouts. It was nice to take a break, but I'm ready to get back at it.

Like to hear from you

2007-12-22T06:41:00.000-08:00

I've never published an email address, but after recently investigating my logs, I'd like to hear from you. Send me a personal email @ adamson.m AT hotmail DOT com. Please include the word "Alpinelite" in the subject line, so I can filter spam.

Mike

Ninja Obstacle Course

2007-12-18T10:59:00.001-08:00

Fricking FUN!

Monday

2007-12-11T21:52:00.001-08:00

Link Changed

2007-12-08T01:33:00.000-08:00

The link to the file server has changed to:

http://www.michaeladamson.eu/iWeb/Site/Alpinelite/Archive.html

If you had previously bookmarked this is why you are seeing an account message from Dot Mac.

Best,

Mike

Messin' with Sasquatch

2007-12-05T08:53:00.000-08:00

Training

2007-12-03T09:08:00.000-08:00

Training is consisting of primarily running and plyometrics with about 60-90 minutes of stretching thrown in 4-5 times a week. I also produced 2 workouts, that involve a series of power and kinesthetic movements to improve body awareness and positioning against both a grappling opponent and a stand up guy.

I slightly modify the series and volume for cycling to practice crashing movements. Crashing is a skill. Sounds kind of moronic, but if you're pushing it you WILL crash. Being able to control your body through the motions of falling and hitting the ground hard can pay off. I do a series of drills similar to doing parachute landing falls in Airborne School, both front and rear rolls, and from various heights. A lunging motion similar to high siding over the bars, requiring a two hand catching motion. Most injuries involve the clavicle, the hands/wrists, and hyper-extended elbows. I know I've had my share of pretty hard falls into my arms, and a few years back had a fracture from a relatively light fall. I wear armor on all DH courses now, and it's saved me numerous times. On mountain and X-country I tend to ride more controlled, especially on the remote backcountry stuff, and substitute restraint for padding.

Number 11 opted not to fight (again) on this rotation home, so I am no longer training him as a fighter, and simply more as a dude in my gym.

Traverse

2007-11-24T09:35:00.000-08:00

Afghanistan
Courtesy J.M.

What's New?

2007-11-15T00:18:00.000-08:00

Well, not really much at all.

It's nearing the start of my 6th year in the various war zones, and the fighting seems to be curtailing. Or maybe just an ebb and flow would be a better description.

Training and war footing has slackened a bit if you ask me. It's a dangerous time. A subtle complacency seems to be permeating all but the most forward units. It worries me, but I think everyone is just somewhat weary. Rightfully so, without a draft to put fresh young faces on the front, the same tired, albeit experienced, bodies return year after year after year. The media continues to get the most misrepresented stories in front of the mainstream with the journalistic integrity of a street pimp, while the truth and real analysis are left behind the scenes. At least the discerning take the time to educate themselves.

So somewhere between leaving at the end of August, and returning in November there was an estrogen transplant around here. Number 11 has put on about 15 pounds, and is back to lifting weights as his primary training. Then he is out of here for the holidays, so I'll be working with some less than ideal training partners and students. I may end up taking some time off to train properly for ski season.

I've continued to pursue some of the training paradigms we experimented with during my last rotation, but an upper respiratory infection, crumpling jet lag, and a hit the ground running workload have left me a little unsteady.

I've cut my food intake a result and quickly dropped 3-4 pounds, but realistically strength to weight ration is noted in several training books as the #1 method to increase VO2 max.

It's short tours from here on out, and I am already looking forward to pulling out, and watching this place disappear in the rear view mirror. I have to say that this may well be my last year. I'm not looking to up the ante on the ancient Romans and Greeks who's warriors would disappear for a decade at a time.

Virgin, Utah

2007-11-10T01:02:00.000-08:00

So it's time to start training for the upcoming ski season and get off the bike, and what better way than to watch pro skiers training then RIDING THEIR BIKES! So sick.

Sage Cattabriga-Alosa, Matt Collins, and Tyler Knoles

Peshawar

2007-11-01T16:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was in Peshawar, Pakistan. Pretty awesome really. Green, and spacious. I can see why the Afghans fled to it, and rally there when necessary. The views into the Himalayas are inspiring, the massifs in the distance are truly the kind which make your eyes go wide, and you involuntarily suck your breath in when you contemplate the stature of something that must be over a hundred miles in the distance. None of the Cascade quaternary volcanoes can compare, not even Rainier in it's isolated grandeur. These are truly mystical mountains, on a scale which defies comprehension. Only those few brave souls who routinely venture into the sanctuaries of gravity would even come close to that awareness. I am envious.

The sand sculpted deserts of the southern frontier only lend to the eventual majesty of the ranges in their crumpled intricacies, and the silver shine of sluggish rivers only reveal their existence in the angular light of morning or afternoon.

The sky revealed it's power when it transformed a midnight blue laced field of stars, cut and summoned by the fierce orange light of the setting sun, which striated the sky into bands of nocturnal rainbows. What a blessed life to see and know these things in first person. I keep my pictures to myself, as they would only dishonor, and trivialize the power that such places exude over your spirit.

For a few moments I can understand the mindset of the mystical Hindu pilgrimages. For it seems as if a giant eye has cast itself upon you, and locks your gaze upon it, revealing your fears, your inner desires, and you stand in judgment waiting for that distant benign or perhaps malevolent eye to pass over you. Many climbers, ski mountaineers, and indeed everyday mountain folk have commented on the presence of something in the mountains that only something of great power could exude, perhaps the inherent power of nature, perhaps an inner consciousness that manifests when we feel our own puny life breath cast up against the thousand fold millennial might of stone, ice, cold. For each one of us, maybe it is a different voice we hear, but it seems to be a common sensation to be deeply awed and humbled by mountain giants, raging rivers, tempestuous oceans.

This vision, this memory, this fleeting emotion is something I will always carry with me, inside me, and remember when my mind and body pass over it for that last and final time. I look forward to more of these moments in my life, and I will endeavor to seek them out when I can.

Galbraith

2007-10-23T20:46:00.000-07:00

Bellingham

Dropping the log ride on Mullet

Eric Yotz on Ridge Trail

Eric Yotz and I went to Galbraith Mountain in Bellingham, and rode a number of high quality trails and an awesome system. We teamed up with local rider Scott for the last ride of the day down Bob's, and a fun tour through what he called the BMX trail. Eric tested my 2007 Specialized Enduro Expert, and thoroughly enjoyed the plush suspension and travel options. Perhaps another XC rider converted to AM travel & geometry? Then we hit Fanatik bike company in Bellingham, checked out the Iron Horses, and exotic boutique bikes, before staring out the window at the Indian summer afternoon.

Trails ridden

Upper/Lower Ridge Trail
Cedar Dust
Upper/Lower Bob's ****
Family Fun Center *
El Pollo Elastico
Kung Fu Theatre
Cheech and Chong's Wild Ride
Mullet
Ewoch Village
Shawns ****
Not Shawns
Rusty Can

Video Link

2007-10-20T15:59:00.000-07:00

In case you weren't aware I maintain another link to some of the videos I have made over the years. These are mostly the mountain biking ones, a few of Kabul Fight Club, but none of the old Cascade Trad Clan climbing videos exist anymore.

Click on the subject header to redirect.

South Fork with Cole

2007-10-20T15:52:00.000-07:00

Today Cole and I ran out to the southfork at Twin Falls to watch Jeff, Eric, Sandy, and Lynne put in. What a beautiful little stretch of river. Inside, I was doubled over with envy, but it was such a great rainy afternoon hanging out with my little boy, that I quickly forgot the river I was missing. Instead I just enjoyed watching him hike the trail, splash in puddles, and say "bye-bye" to the little streams that cross underneath the trail.

Eric snapped a few quick pictures of us while standing waist deep in the cold water, which of course ABSOLUTELY drove Cole nuts, because he wanted to get in there so bad I had to restrain his little body. He's just so eager to explore the world around him. It's wonderful.

We have been riding "bikes" recently, which involves him riding his trike bigwheel all over the trails in the neighborhood. We have even have one little section of singletrack we go through on the way to the park. Today I bought one of those Chariot carriers and we ran around the neighborhood in the dark. He LOVED it. So tomorrow morning we'll be riding out the lake and back.

Weather

2007-10-18T22:08:00.000-07:00

Well it appears the weather is transitioning to more of a winter feel, and the high alpine rides are done for the year. Snow is falling steadily at 3000 feet, with accumulation, and even in some of the valley systems on the eastern side of Washington.

The riding from the end of August (When my season began) till now was great, and I have several goals for next season. Baldface Lodge in the Kootenays opened this fall, and I am already onboard for next season. 3-4 days of the alpine there will be good.

Downieville. Never been there, but it will likewise be a trip I'll be making.

Dnalrag Peak, pumice surfing and difficult descent off the ridge awaits.

Whistler/Pemberton/Squamish, mandatory to make several trips to do repeats and check out new terrain. Next season, Khyber Pass, Gargamel, and a repeat of Comfortably Numb.

A few trips down to Mt. Hood to compete on the DH circuit.

For now though, it's all about getting some October skiing on Mt Rainier. Then off to work for a few months, and back to tackle winter whitewater and ski days.

I can hear the storm outside picking up again.

Iron Peak

2007-10-17T08:05:00.001-07:00

Greg Wall and I managed to fit in another quality day of riding in the Teanaway. Greg from the named summit (pt 6150) of Iron Peak. We also rode off the summit, and not from the bench on the shoulder.

Megavalanche Peru

2007-10-15T21:21:00.000-07:00

British Columbia 2

2007-10-13T15:29:00.001-07:00

British Columbia

2007-10-13T15:21:00.000-07:00

STUWAMISH CHIEF, SQUAMISH

TANTALUS LOOKOUT

WHISTLER SKATE PARK

Some random photos from my British Columbia trips in late summer and fall.

Miller Peak

2007-10-09T16:34:00.000-07:00

Greg Wall, Stefan Pellens and myself gutted out another ride to add to our seasons tally.

Photos Courtesy Stefan Pellens

Annapurna Region MTB trip/Richey Schley/Wade Simmons

2007-10-09T16:33:00.001-07:00

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/special/audio/nepal/index.html

West Fork Teanaway

2007-10-08T20:51:00.000-07:00

Grainy moto video reminding me to get back in there soon.

Kachess Ridge Again

2007-10-02T20:42:00.000-07:00

Eric 2/3rds of the way down the trail. Colors like those behind him were around every corner.

At the top of the descent.

Eric at the col after doing the hike a bike

My 3rd ride of Kachess in 5 weeks. Today was something different though. The weather was marginal. Wet, cold, dreary fall weather. The colors however; the colors of fall in Washington are amazing.

It was so wet, and subsequently cold, that Eric Yotz and I didn't stop to take much footage. Just pressed on, and found an already amazing ride in a unique condition.

The upper meadow sections were like riding in flowing rivers, the roots were slick and treacherous, the rocks similar. The lines flowed slowly, and deep puddles sucked bikes in above the hubs, and even once up to my knees when I misjudged a stream crossing. Colors blazed from yellow, to orange, to red, and back again. Punctuated by a constant mist of drizzle. As long as you stayed moving you were relatively warm, but stop even for a few minutes, and the cold sunk in fast. In meadows the sound of rain would suddenly be loud and bold. Once again in deep forests, muffled and subdued. This so far was one of my favorite rides of the season.

Thanks again to Eric for providing a fantastic motivated partner, for pushing the Enduro to a new height, and enjoying this unique experience with such a great attitude.

Bike For Rent

2007-10-02T20:34:00.001-07:00

Got a friend in town, here on business for a few days with some free time, or looking for someone to take you out to someplace new? Shoot me a line.

I have 1 2007 Enduro Expert Large, and one 2007 Enduro SL Large. One is a bombing trail bike, the other a wicked climber/descender.

Icicle Redux

2007-09-30T17:29:00.000-07:00

Greg Wall, Stefan Pellenz, and myself went up again for another round of Icicle Ridge. This is the type of ride that will just get better the more you get out and do it.

Heck, I'd even do it again. Anyone for Wednesday? Or Dnalrag?

Photos Courtesy of Stefan Pellenz

Icicle Ridge

2007-09-26T08:04:00.000-07:00

5900 feet up

Ridge

5900 Feet Down

Thanks to Eric Yolz for the photos.

Little Bald Photo

2007-09-21T17:20:00.001-07:00

Greg Wall and myself @ the trailhead marker for Little Bald Mountain descent trail. I think this ride is way overrated. I am not sure why so many people rave about it. 3 stars out of 5. mostly for scenery, and location. Not for the ride quality.

Tuned up

2007-09-21T13:15:00.000-07:00

WMBP tuned me up the past few days. I tried charging some of the lines a little harder than previously, and had the opportunity to put my full face helmet, and copious amounts of body armor to use. Got flung head first over a rock face when I came barreling over a blind to find some girls walking their bikes down the exact line I needed to take. That was fun, but I gained so much confidence in the crash that it really did nothing except encourage me to go faster, which of course resulted in getting tossed a few more times. Funny how you come up laughing...sick, sick, sick.

I stopped in Squamish to boulder in Murrin, but my hands are so jacked from DH mountain biking that they are almost permanently numbed and shaped in claws. Checked out some rivers, as kayaking season will be full on when I return and I am going to hang around Squamish this winter doing some X-country and whitewater. Oh, and skiing of course. Lots and lots of skiing.

Enjoy this beautiful fall. It's amazing in the higher elevations right now. Snow around 6K.

Clean Up

2007-09-16T23:05:00.000-07:00

Hit the following additional trails at WMBP on my 2nd trip. Figure I've hit about 2/3rd's of all the trails and as far as I can tell everything except the double black and pro lines. A few of the doubles looks easy, but some of the doubles have some pretty rugged flow. The lower part of In Deep for example felt brutal in a few sections.

Angry Pirate (upper and lower)
Dirt Merchant (upper and lower)
Drop in Clinic
Hornet
In Deep (Rated Double Black Now)
Little Alder
Old School
Too Tight
Captain Safety (Double Black)
No Duff
Renegade (New trail, not on the map)

Have to clean up the following the next trip
Fatcrobat
Goats Gully
Side Track (? Might be closed)
Dealers Choice (New trails not on the on map)
Clown Shoes
Crabapple Hits
Crack addict
Detroit Rock City
Joyride (upper and lower)
Schleyer
Whistler DH (upper & Lower)
D1 (Pro Line)

Little Bald Mountain

2007-09-10T22:03:00.000-07:00

Greg and I have been cranking out some rides. In the past couple of weeks it's been mostly new trails, which makes riding more interesting. Seeing new places and new trails.

This is a small segment of a trail that descends 4000 ft SE of Mt Rainier. Wasn't the best or the funnest trail, but it was something new. Greg Wall and I had a hellava good time on it. I'd ride it again, but preferably in the fall after a little rain hardens up the dust. I'm sure it would be a ripper then.

http://web.mac.com/adamson.m/iWeb/Site/LilBald.html

Whistler MBP

2007-09-06T20:05:00.001-07:00

For some good video link to:
http://www.whistleroutfitters.com/whistler-bike-videos.html

Finally made it back up to the bike park. The last time I went up there for the summer I ended up hitting the main X-Country trails in the valley, which included Comfortably Numb.

This time was all about the bike park. These are the trails I can remember. Sometimes you'll ride a section of one trail and then jump onto another, and then onto yet another. You can vary the style of riding and flow. You can also throttle it up or back a notch depending on how hard you want to ride, or you can ride easier and take a 'riding break'. It's totally weird getting all that descending without putting in some tough hours of climbing, but it's worth every dime. That and Whistler is just one of the mecca's in this world that everyone who loves outdoor athletics should experience at least once in their life. It's not hard, in 5 hours, to get 20,000 feet of descending. Whistler Mountain Bike Park will definitely up your mountain biking IQ in a hurry.

Original Sin to No Joke to Duffman ended up being my favorite trails on the upper mountain, but Freightrain was partially closed and it was nice to jump on that every once and a while to take it down a notch.

On the lower mountain I liked Crank It up to Heart of Darkness. B-Line to Karate Monkey to A-Line was also a great mix.

Their are skills parks interspersed throughout the entire park, and you can start working on jumping and drops as well as riding wood structures like teeters.

The vibe in southern BC is alive with the possibilities that this type of recreation present, and just about every small resort in BC is jumping on the bandwagon. Even Kicking Horse has a park, as well as Kimberly, Rossland, Kamloops. And the riding in Nelson (Kootenays) is on par with the park, but all peddle accessed or shuttle. Nelson has a sweet vibe, and beautiful location.

Click on the post title to go to the Whistler bike park website.

Trails Ridden (Moderate to Easy):
After Atlantis
EZ Does It (lower-Upper)
World Cup Single Track
Bear Cub (Nasty-nasty Shale-Fireroad connecting portions of the Garbanzo Zone)
B-Line (flowing warmup line)
Crank It Up (Good moderate jumpline)
Devils Club (ladder bridges and rooty singletrack)
Fantastic
Golden Triangle
Heart of Darkness (good Northshore style trail)
Ho Chi Min
Karate Monkey (DO IT)
Smoke and Mirrors (North Shore style???)

Advanced Trails (Drops, difficult singletrack, rock faces, advanced moto jump lines)
A-Line (What The Bike Park is well known for)
Drop In Clinic
Duffman (AWESOME TRAIL!)
Freight Train (Similar to A-Line)
Hornet
Original Sin (SICK ROCK SLIDES-TOUGH ROOT DESCENTS)
No Joke

Lance Armstrong Nike Ad

2007-08-31T14:15:00.001-07:00

The cycle completed

2007-08-30T22:18:00.000-07:00

So Number 11 and I finished up with about 4 straight months of kickboxing and Muy Thai.

The last night before I left we had some guys from Blackwater come out and I put them through a Jui Jitsu fighter workout Number 11 and I used to do. The one guy was pretty strong, good skills, about 215 and 6'2". So he could hold his own and then some. JW and I both commented on how we felt like we had allowed our grappling skills to decline, but vowed to change that next cycle of training.

Nonetheless, our stand up progressed quite a bit. Sparring became about the only training anyone wanted to do anymore, and it was starting to get pretty painful and furious in the ring.

We also did enough yoga to qualify as amateur yogi's, and that was getting so out of hand that we literally overtrained on power yoga sessions. 2-3 hours a day of that shit will cripple you eventually.

A quick reminder

2007-08-29T05:43:00.000-07:00

Hey! If you're one of those tug-job liberals who linked in here from Cascadeclimbers, I just wanted to remind you that you are a worthless slag, and you should probably throw yourself off a mountain.

I know, I know. You guys all think you're so elevated in your thinking processes, and you have it all figured out, and you're soooooo much better than everyone. Well, here's a newsflash. You're not. You routinely sound like a bunch of petulant idiot children, and you demonstrate it by making complete fools out of yourself online everyday.

Your politics, especially your's Doug_The_TugJob, sound so far to the left that it's as stupid as the Neocons. Maybe even worse, because you're all just ineffectual nothings, who count for nothing. Maybe you could all just stay stoned, marginally employed, and drift around in the woods out of sight? That would be good.

I'm sure that girl on youtube probably just got nervous as hell, and totally choked. Yeah, it was one of the worst demonstrations of idiocy I have ever seen. So what? In all honesty I think it's entertainment for your retards (especially MaryLou) to pass judgment on everyone, and everything, from your self righteous perch.

Anyway, I know that in reality it's probably something like 25 folks over there who are just 180 degrees sideways mental, so I'm not trying to paint the lot, just those tourons who continue to propagate over there in a circle jerk of champions.

Cuchis

2007-08-05T02:04:00.000-07:00

Sheep herders near ancient Greek aquifier site. The aquifier is in the distance across the uncleared minefield behind us. The herders who has lived their entire life in the area did not know the names of any of the mountains surrounding their village.

Radio Department

2007-07-31T23:47:00.000-07:00

K2/ Himalayan Mountaineer Brian Tilley

2007-07-29T03:44:00.001-07:00

Butchered in Baghdad
By DAMIEN LEWIS
Last updated at 19:04pm on 27th July 2007
The Daily Mail

This SBS hero, K2 mountaineer and bodyguard to the Beckhams was killed by five NATO-trained Iraqi police officers. Was it for falling in love in Baghdad - or for what he knew about the city's missing 4.5 billion? Brian Tilley was jolted awake at 8am by his mobile phone. A good friend was calling to check that Brian was OK; something told him he was in danger. Like Brian, he was a former special-forces man working the lucrative private-security sector in Iraq. His instinctive concern for his friend was on the money. Brian would be dead within minutes.

The previous evening, Brian's flight out of Iraq to the UK had been cancelled. He had decided to pay a visit to his fiancée Iman, an Iraqi woman with whom he had fallen in love, and her family. The problem was that the family lived in Baghdad's Dawra district, a notorious warren of alleyways and shacks and a local insurgents' stronghold. A no-go zone since 2003 for all British and Americans, Dawra was well away from the relative safety of the Coalition-controlled Green Zone
in Baghdad. But Brian was a fearless veteran of 20 years with the elite Special Boat Service, the ultra-covert sister regiment of the SAS.

He had been a regular visitor to Dawra. His years of working in some of the most dangerous places in the world made him confident. And anyway, he was more than prepared to take a bit of a risk to see Iman. He spoke good Arabic. He drove to Iman's house using his own car, wearing an Arabic "shamag" headscarf and robes. With his dark, unshaven features, he blended in well with the locals and spent the evening with Iman and her family.

Brian's response to the phone call the next morning was typical. He gave a drowsy laugh and told the caller not to worry; he'd catch him for a beer later that day. Seconds after Brian hung up, there was an explosive splintering of wood. The front door was kicked down. Five men wearing Iraqi police uniforms
crashed through what was left of the doorway. At gunpoint, they threw Iman's family to the floor and pinned them there. "Nobody move!" they screamed in Arabic. Iman's sister and brother-in-law, Bushra and Nassar al-Obaibi, had been sleeping with their daughters, Rasha and Mariam, on mattresses in the living room. Brian and Iman were sharing the bedroom at the back.

Their door was wrenched open and one of the Iraqis dragged them out. The intruders screamed abuse at Brian. He stayed calm and tried to talk them down, but the gunmen flew into a wild rage. "This is the Englishman in your house? You keep this Englishman in your house?" they kept screaming to Iman and her family.
Nassar al-Obaibi tried explaining that Brian was a friend of the family, but that enraged the gunmen still more. Brian showed them his American military issue and security company ID cards, saying that he worked for the Coalition forces. The police opened fire, shooting him in the foot. Then they set about him, beating him around the head with their automatic rifles. Two of them dragged him into the kitchen, where the savage assault continued. Iman could take it no more. "He is my future husband and I love him," she cried out. No sooner had she done so than they opened fire on her. Iman collapsed on to the couch, her body riddled with bullets, and then they turned their guns on the rest of the family.

Mariam, 15, dived beneath a blanket. The bodies of her family fell on top of her. When the shooting finally stopped, she peeped out. But a gunman spotted her and shot her in the face. The bullet missed her brain, but Mariam was hit in the jaw and lost consciousness. When she came to sometime later she was covered in blood. "I crawled with the blanket covered in blood into the kitchen," she recalled later. "I saw Brian lying in the back yard. All around him was blood…" The
phone with which he had reassured his friend moments before lay nearby.

We are not supposed to know anything of his death on May 13, 2004. His killers intended there to be no witnesses to his brutal execution, or the massacre of the al-Obaibi family. But Mariam had survived, and when US soldiers arrived at the scene she was able to describe the attackers. None of the five policemen had their faces covered when they carried out the killings, so Mariam was in no doubt about who shot her family. She identified the killers twice – immediately after the killing from pictures on a computer, and several months later in an identity parade.

Still there was disbelief that Iraqi policemen could have killed them. But further evidence provided a darker twist still. Tilley's body was repatriated to England, where a coroner opened an inquest into his death. Home Office pathologist Dr Allen Anscombe conducted the post mortem and confirmed that Tilley had died of gunshot wounds, and that the size of the entry wounds in Brian's body could only fit 5.56mm Nato-standard bullets, as opposed to the 7.62mm bullets normally used by the Iraqi police force. I later discovered that the bullets recovered from the crime scene were sent to the National Ballistics Centre in Manchester and were examined by the British police. Again it was concluded that they were the smaller 5.56mm Nato-issued rounds.

In other words, the five Iraqi police officers who shot a highly decorated British special-forces veteran were almost certainly members of Iraq's new police force, trained and armed by British and American forces with the Nato-issue bullets. The conclusion was part of a detailed report by Dorset Police – Tilley came from Poole and his body was returned to the jurisdiction of the Dorset Police – about the killings, which they handed to the Iraqi authorities earlier this year.

The comprehensive dossier includes photos of the crime scene, witness statements and the identification of the five killers. Not that the Iraqi authorities needed any help. The five policemen identified by Mariam were arrested, charged and held in Abu Ghraib prison. Their trial was keenly anticipated. Lawlessness and corruption among the Iraqi police force is rife.

The trial of Tilley's killers was a real opportunity to tell the world that Iraq's justice system can keep the peace, at a time when talk of US and UK military withdrawal becomes overwhelming. But there was no trial. Two months ago, an Iraqi judge freed all five of them. They are believed to be serving again in the Iraqi police force. It is very hard to explain why.

Brian Tilley was 47 when he died. All but two of his 22 years in the services were in the Special Boat Service. He served in the first Gulf War and Northern Ireland; in undercover operations including fighting drug traffickers in the Colombian jungle; he won the Queen's Gallantry Medal in 1996. He was a talented mountaineer – he scaled K2 and Everest – and was a member of the British Olympic bobsleigh team. After leaving the military, he trained the Saudi Arabian special
forces, before a stint as a bodyguard for the Beckhams in 2002 after the reported plot to kidnap their children. He then went to Iraq. In the cut-throat world of private security work, Brian stood out as a principled operator.

His clients loved him. They called him the "Roadie" – after years of a short, military-style cut, he had taken to wearing long hair. "Brian's hallmarks were integrity and loyalty, coupled with the ability to get the job done," says one of his soldier friends. "We all miss him – such a great man will stay alive in our minds."

Those friends are furious that this British hero has seemingly been forgotten, his murder ignored and his killers set free. Under normal circumstances, the world of private security and ex-special forces operations in Iraq is kept strictly away from the public gaze. But in this instance several of Brian's former SBS colleagues have spoken to me about their friend's murder.

On the morning after the Dawra shootings, tension had risen among Brian's friends because he had failed to show up, and there was no answer on his mobile phone. His friends rang around the US forces and asked if there were any reports of trouble in the Dawra district involving foreigners. The only response was from the US Major Crimes Unit (MCU), that an Iraqi family had been killed. But shortly after, the MCU said that among the dead was a man with a distinctive tattoo on his left forearm – an eagle with the name Brian below it.

This was Tilley. His friends went to the morgue to identify the body. What they found there was deeply disturbing. His corpse was peppered with gunshot wounds and he had clearly been beaten and tortured before he died. He'd been shot first in the foot and shoulder, and then repeatedly in the back, probably as he was trying to make a last desperate bid to escape by climbing over the rear wall of the house. There was one survivor of the massacre, the US military investigators
confirmed; a young Iraqi girl who had been taken to an Iraqi public hospital. Brian's friends were horrified. The sole survivor of a massacre by the Iraqi police of an Iraqi family and a British special forces veteran was being given no special protection whatsoever.

They raced over there, only to discover that their worst fears had almost been realised. Mariam was conscious and had seen her five attackers lurking around
the hospital ward. She told Brian's friend: "The nearest policeman was staring at me. And the four others were close behind him." Brian's friends immediately
employed guards and moved her into a safe house as soon as they could. Mariam went on to identify the five killers from police photographs and her identification was corroborated by the American officers who went through the process with her. Three months after the murders, Mariam also attended an ID parade and
picked out three of the guilty men.The suspects were named, photographed, arrested, charged and incarcerated pending trial. Mariam, as the sole eyewitness, was to be the mainstay of the prosecution's case.

But five months after the murder, things started to go rotten in the Iraqi justice system. The five men were called before an Iraqi judge in a preliminary
hearing. The judge determined that Mariam was an "unreliable witness", citing her "character and lifestyle" as reasons for throwing out the case. He released the policemen, dropped the charges and declared the case closed – before the five suspects had even had to enter a plea.

Once the case was dropped, Tilley's friends contacted me. They explained Mariam's "troubled" background: her abusive parents were divorced and she had been adopted by her best friend's parents –the al-Obaibis. But this young Iraqi girl – who has one bullet from the savage attack permanently lodged in her neck – had had the spirit and bravery to repeatedly identify Brian's killers. And in spite of the obvious dangers, she had agreed to stand witness at their trial. So why had the judge rejected the case? As I investigated, an intriguing scenario started to form. I discovered that a warrant has now been issued for the arrest of the Iraqi judge who threw out the case. He is wanted on corruption charges, although it is impossible to get any more details. And according to the authorities, the judge has now disappeared. Was the corruption linked to Tilley? Was the judge bribed to throw out the case? Tilley's friends believe that the former SBS man died in what amounts to a contract killing. Someone must have been watching the Dawra house and ordered the hit –though only Iman's family would have known that Brian was there that night.

Iman's family were almost certainly not involved, however, for they also perished in the attack. Since 2004 this case has given rise to a good deal of speculation.
Most of that has revolved around this question: who would have the money to pay off a high-ranking Iraqi judge, and why would they want to cover up the brutal murder of a well-liked British veteran?

Some people suggested to me that Brian was killed by Iraqis who do not like Westerners in their neighbourhood, let alone sleeping with their women. Which would surely be the likeliest reason, except for this – why would such a killing have been carried out by five well-trained, unmasked Iraqi police officers? At the heart of the speculation is the ever-deepening sensation that money washing into Iraq is the root of an evil like the killing of Brian Tilley. An ex-SAS sergeant-major now working in Baghdad told me: "Billions of dollars have been sent from America for reconstruction, but it's all gone into the pockets of government officials. "The Iraqi Government closed the department that was meant to investigate corruption."

Fraud is unquestionably rampant in Iraq.

Of the many billions of dollars allocated for reconstruction, an astonishing $8.8 billion (£4.5 billion) remains unaccounted for, according to a report by the former inspector-general of the now defunct Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). Most of the money has disappeared into thin air.

In the first 14 months after the war, for example, some $12 billion in cash – weighing 363 tonnes – was flown from the Federal Reserve Bank in New York to Baghdad, and distributed from there across the country. More than one-tenth of this vast sum, $1.5 billion, was delivered to the Central Bank in Erbil, and deposited without any receipt being issued. The entire consignment disappeared. "Iraq was awash with cash – piles and piles of money," says Frank Willis, a former CPA official. "We played football with some of the bricks of $100 bills, before delivery. It was a wild-west atmosphere."

As of February this year, there were 78 investigations under way by a US Congressional team into fraud, waste and corruption. Thirty private security companies are also facing legal action in the US courts. "American and Iraqi law was suspended," says Alan Grayson, a US attorney. "In a free-fire zone you can shoot whoever you want. In a free-fraud zone you can steal whatever you want, and that's what they did."

Has this anything to do with Tilley? He had been working for private security firms in Iraq from April 2003 until his death. And one of Brian's clients just before he died was a telecoms company with a multimillion-dollar mobile contract in Iraq. Any company taking contracts from the CPA was seen as a target for
insurgent attacks and Brian had been working as a mid-tier security manager, putting out armed teams to protect workers erecting mobile-phone masts.

This company is under investigation. The US press has accused it of being linked to shadowy arms dealers, corruption and embezzlement scandals, and of rigging contracts in Iraq. For legal reasons we cannot name the company.

Did Tilley know anything of this? Was he about to speak up?

As yet, no other theories have provided a satisfactory explanation of how the state both killed the former soldier then released his killers, and then conveniently removed the judge who carried the whole process through.

I asked the Iraqi authorities to comment on the failure to bring Brian Tilley's killers to justice, but no response was forthcoming. I also got no response to my enquiries as to whether the five killers are still serving as Iraqi police officers. "For 22 years, Brian served his country with bravery and distinction,"
Eileen Tilley, Brian's sister, told me. "He was a man of absolute integrity, and all we're asking for is justice to be done. Three years after his murder we still cannot find any closure."

Much of Iraq is actively looking for "closure" of a different kind; every aspect of the brutal demise of Brian Tilley suggests both a nation and a family are as far from closure as can be imagined.

George Patton Modern Speech

2007-07-26T02:38:00.001-07:00

Deadbolt

2007-07-21T11:28:00.001-07:00

PATCHES THE CLOWN!!!These dates should NOT be missed!! You paying attention there Numbuhio?

http://www.downinthelab.com/ra/tikiman%20faded.mp3

AUGUST 2007

Aug 2nd Seattle @ El Corazon $12 in advance $15 at the door.

Aug 3rd Tacoma @Hells Kitchen $10 at door.

XBOX360

2007-07-21T09:51:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to say that we have now purchased 3 of these units for our entertainment purposes. Since they were all purchased overseas, no one really wanted to take the time to send in the warranty cards. Big mistake on our part.

Long story short. 2 of the units do not WORK AT ALL. And the 3rd stopped playing XBOX360 games months ago, and only plays the original XBOX games. Of course I had to download and install a patch to make that part work. Microsoft appears greedy and overly eager to get this stinker to market. They couldn't release a 400.00 piece of hardware with backwards compatibility coded in from the factory.

So, in summary, we have 1200.00 of plastic junk laying around. Not to mention all the games purchased which are now collecting dust.

Hey Microsoft Games. Thanks for nothing, I'm looking forward to buying Sony Playstation 3 next month. I'm thinking your reputation continues to tank due to your faulty products. Hopefully a blow to your stock price might encourage you to sell working products instead of hyped junk.

KFC

2007-07-18T05:58:00.000-07:00

A-Line

2007-07-15T08:09:00.000-07:00

Another motivator for me. Life in the war disconnects you from the things in life that bring you joy. Someone who's never had to sacrifice a few years of their freedom would never understand.

Exit 27

2007-07-15T07:49:00.000-07:00

Home sweet home. Just 2 minutes up the road from mi-casa. Just something to remind me there is light at the end of this long, dreary ass, tunnel.

Honey Bucket

2007-07-13T02:49:00.000-07:00

You'd be hard pressed to find a finer piece of rock and roll anywhere.

Voxtrot

2007-07-13T02:33:00.000-07:00

Used to dig the sound of the Smiths? Listen to "The Start of Something". Austin, Texas sure has a monopoly on great music these days, don't they?

Smart diplomacy or capitulation?

2007-07-12T00:13:00.000-07:00

http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=9223

EDUCATE YOURSELF. One of the more informative articles I have yet to read.

Links

2007-07-09T10:44:00.000-07:00

I've been reading my wifes blog, looking at pictures of a little boy who seems to change a little every day. A little boy who just happens to look a lot like me, and who I think about all the time. He was a baby the last time I left, but now he is a boy.

I wonder if he will remember me, and if he doesn't will he accept me unconditionally? I kind of doubt it on both accounts. I'll be a stranger in my own house, and everyone will be walking on egg shells trying to adjust. It's a weird life when you work away from your home. It's like coming back to something that should be the same, but it's not, it changes a little bit each and every month.

Project Vote Smart

2007-07-04T23:33:00.000-07:00

I don't think it's ever been more important to educate ourselves on the issues and the candidates in the upcoming executive election. Not pleased with the direction the country is going in, but not sure who to trust or what issues are on the table? Take some time to create understanding of your parties leading candidates, and the opposition.

Project Vote Smart is a one stop shopping outlet for voting information, candidate voting records, and unbiased information.

We are bombarded with one way information platforms such as television coverage. Open the two way channel people. WAKE UP!

http://www.vote-smart.org/index.htm

2007-07-01T10:43:00.000-07:00