March 17, 2007 was an historic event. You surely would not know this if you are using the Main Stream Media for your information, let alone for a balanced perspective. I will be addressing this fact even further in a future piece on Walter Reed. I will also be writing articles to cover the history leading up to Gathering of Eagles and the silent heroes that dedicate so much of their lives to our country, our military, and their families.
Let me make one thing clear. I whole-heartedly believe that there are people in America who oppose war altogether, and people of all political ideology who are sincerely against the War in Iraq, but are NOT Communist. These are not the people you will find leading these protests.
The media does their very best to portray the members of ANSWER and other communist groups as being peaceful, peace-loving, patriots with a human rights agenda. Listen up folks, these protestors are NOT any of these things. They are anarchists, Marxists, and Communists, who celebrate people like Castro, Che Guevara, and Saddam Hussein. Make no mistake, these people HATE America, all we stand for, and the very foundation of our existence. These people have gathered donations here in America and sent the money to terrorist gangs in Iraq to help fund their bloody attack on our troops. You can go to the websites of these groups and research this information for yourself. You can also visit American and Patriotic blogs and web sites to see the pictures you won't find in the MSM (Main Stream Media).
(Click on the photo for a bigger and better look)
Most of the media did not cover the anarchists covering their faces. NONE of the media covered the flag burning that took place that day, nor did they report on the conspiracy kooks milling about trying to give away their propaganda on how President Bush was the mastermind behind 9/11. They never mentioned the aroma of illegal drugs wafting through the air. I stood right there on media row with them and got a whiff of the stuff myself. I watched these folks try desperately to incite violence by charging into the GOE permitted areas with their Che Guevara flags, and desecrated American flags. I saw first hand how they called out to Gold Star Mothers, telling them that their sons were rapists and murderers. I saw the ones who were literally stumbling around high on drugs.
The people organizing and attending these protests are hard-core anti-American Communists. They are working hand in hand with many members of the Democrats in Congress. Patriotic Democrats shoud be the group speaking the loudest against their members who associate themselves with the behavior, antics, and agenda of groups like ANSWER and Code Pink - much like true pro-lifers spoke out so clearly against the violent criminals who bombed abortion clinics claiming to be pro-life. Sharing a common thought with someone does not mean sharing the same values. I fully believe that one can disagree with the War in Iraq AND be a Patriotic American, although I may question your knowledge and judgement. I do not believe that it is patriotic to seek media attention and go to extreme measures to feed hope to the enemy we face. The way to peace in Iraq, bringing our troops home, and keeping America safe is to allow the troops to finish their mission.
One of the truths you will not see the media cover is that on Saturday, March 17, 2007, the Americans outnumbered the Communists by 3 to 1. I arrived at the Vietnam Memorial Wall at about 8:00 am and there were a good 500 to 600 Americans already there. Total strangers started chipping in to help carry thousands of flags that the Gathering of Eagles/Rolling Thunder/Move America Forward had collected from patriotic Americans across the country who donated these flags for this event. Move America Forward will also be sending these flags to our troops overseas.
I ran into some technical problems with my interviewing equipment that I had in tow for my radio show, so I headed to ‘media row’ (this is basically the gathering area for media vans, etc). For this event, 'media row' was located on Henry Bacon Dr (map of area provided later in this article). I approached one of the media vans and said, “I need help from some friendlies.” We never got the equipment operational, but I had a revealing conversation with them. They pointed out that the turn out was pathetic for the Communists (who had claimed they would show up 100,000 strong), and the GOE obviously had them outnumbered. They were also kind enough to tell me to watch out for the anarchists in red and black. (more on this group and others to be covered in future articles)
This brings up an important point. At the previous Communist rally against our troops, on January 27th in DC, a FOX News van had its windows busted out by these folks, but nary is a word heard about this by any media outlets. If you notice in the first picture above, the police are wearing gas masks. You won’t see this highlighted in the media either. A standing joke among the DC FREEPers is “No Tear Gas Necessary" in our areas, after all, we are conservatives. This tidbit of info, along with the picture above, surely helps to put things into perspective.
Here are some more facts about the events of March 17th in DC. The original plan for the Communist group ANSWER (yes- they are communists, you can do the research yourself- another fact rarely mentioned in the media), was to gather at the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial, in order to use it as a backdrop in the media coverage for dramatic effect. Above is a map of the area. I have shaded in areas to help show and explain the events leading up to the 17th and the events of the day itself. First notice the circle area. The circle area is the original area permitted and sought out by the Communists. This area is known as Constitution Gardens. Three weeks before March 17th, ANSWER announced that they were switching from the Constitution Gardens to the triangular shaped park off Henry Bacon Dr. on the west side of the Wall. The DC FREEPers were handling the permit for the GOE, and immidiately ammended their permit to hold their rally at Constitution Gardens. This set off a turn of events that would leave the ultimate outcome unresolved until the days before the actual rally. The final decison of the the DC Parks service was to split Constitution Gardens between both groups, because ANSWER insisted that even though their main gathering point would be in the triangular park, they would have 10,000 people gathering at their designated area of Constitution Gardens. Because of ANSWER's intransigence the Eagles were forced to hold their rally in a narrow mud filled swamp. On March 17th not one ANSWER protester showed up to make good their word to the Park service.
Map Legend for March 17, 2007:
GOE presence = white shaded areas
ANSWER main rally point = red shaded areas
ANSWER forsaken area - pink shaded areas
ANSWER march through the gauntlet of Eagles = purple
(The Eagles also lined the bridge across the Potamic River but my technical abilities lack in presenting this in the best light possible)
Keep in mind these folks were planning on 100,000 fellow Commies to show up. Their intent was to use the entire Constitution Gardens area around the reflecting pool and the Lincoln Memorial.
There were many DC area Americans who had already planned to show up on March 17th. These particular Americans were also present- with permits for areas at the National Archives (across from the Navy Memorial) and Upper Senate Park (on Capitol Hill) - at the January 27th Communist rally organized by United for Peace and Justice. Don’t let the name fool you, they are another anti-American gang. Again, the American people don’t know this, because the media purposefully refuse to inform you of these things.
On January 27th, a group of the Communists managed to vandalize the steps of the Capitol. The police were ordered by their political masters in Congress (the Democrats) to avoid arresting these people as much as they could. In fact, they were ordered to fall back and just protect the doors of the Capitol. The authorities were in a tough spot there. They were responsible for maintaining peace and order, but were also instructed to allow these folks to spray paint the Capitol. I surely don’t want to sign up for that gig!
It is important for people to realize that it is a goal of Cindy Sheehag (A well deserved title) and her minions to purposely break the rules in order to be arrested. They salivate for the media coverage of their arrests. I know some of you think I am making baseless accusations, but I assure you- this IS A FACT! They know the media coverage of their arrests will make the international media and this gives them the opportunity to travel to other countries and claim that they live in a “police state” ruled by the iron fist of the Bush “regime.” (I will cover more about this in a future article, including how I gained this information)
The above information is important to know in order to understand how and why the GOE (Gathering of Eagles) was birthed.
How did the Gathering of Eagles start?In a telephone conversation between COL Harry Riley and me. We were commiserating about the fact that Janie Fonda was going to get another free pass to protest another (more-important) war, and we just agreed to try to do something about it. I called a friend, Kristinn Taylor, in DC, and asked if he would front for us (permitting, PR, etc.), and, when he agreed, Gathering of Eagles was underway. Then a gal in Tulsa, Kit Jarrell, volunteered to become our webmistress, and the GOE website was born. Her buddy, Heidi Thiess, of Houston, who blogs and runs an on-line radio show, came aboard, and we were off to the races.
Back to the map. As I mentioned earlier the media was camped out on Henry Bacon Dr. The white shaded areas are those areas permitted and/or patrolled by GOE (GOE were also gathered across the bridge- not shown in the map- to protect Arlington Cemetery and the Iwo Jima Memorial). In the circle area you will notice a strip of non shaded area through the center. The police used temporary metal dividers (the dividers resemble the metal structures you might find in public areas for bike riders to park and lock up there bicycles) here on either side with a 12 foot open space between the two areas.
The Communists all ended up gathering in the red shaded area. If you visit the ANSWER web site, you will see where the Carlos Commie announced their plans to march on Constitution Ave. The original announcement on their web site specifically stated that they planned to meet at the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial with ‘Constitution Gardens’ written in parenthesis. The thick black line in the map is Constitution Ave. For any of you nay-sayers, let me point out, if the presently posted claim by the Commies were true, and they did not originally intend to bother The Wall or families visiting the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial, how pray-tell did they plan to “march on Constitution Avenue”?
It is plain to see by looking at the map that the GOE was sincere and honest about their true intentions to protect the sacred ground of our Memorials to our fallen heroes. If you take a good look at the map above, you will see how spread out the GOE were. You will also notice the small area in which the Communists gathered. If the main goal and purpose for the GOE had been media coverage, the planners would have not sought to spread their people out so much. While the GOE was hopeful that the media would accurately report on our presence, it was not expected nor the paramount goal.
Once the Communists crossed the bridge, they were supposed to turn to their left and continue on to the Pentagon. This was so clearly understood by ANSWER, GOE, and the police that at the area where the road splits to the left and to the right, there was only one lone officer standing between the GOE on the path to the right. Lo and behold, a group of Communists decided to break away from the plan and headed towards us GOE folks standing at the split to the right. The officer started to get quite nervous, fervently waving them back and informing them to not come any further. One of the Vets called out to the officer, “Do you need any help?” The officer held up his index finger of his right hand, turned his head back to the Vet and yelled, “I’ll tell you in a minute!”
The group ignored the officer and kept marching towards us. The GOE all gathered tightly, shoulder to shoulder, forming our own wall to protect the sacred ground we had come to guard and as they approached from one side we shifted that way; as they tried to move to the other side we shifted that way. The Veterans showed GREAT restraint, quietly keeping their heads down and just shifting side to side when needed and avoiding any chance to ignite violence. Finally, the police on horses came galloping to the scene- pushing back the rush of Communists approaching in the grassy areas, and a motorcade of cycle-mounted authorites came roaring to the scene with lights and sirens blaring to push back the Commies still on the paved streets. They were finally forced to give up, and retreated back to the rest of their anti-American marchers.
Sadly- it has taken over 30 years for the Vietnam Vets to finally be shown the support and honor they deserved all along. As Kristinn Taylor (Co-Leader of the DC Chapter of Free Republic.com) put it, “We didn’t do this for the media. We did it for the Vets, for our troops, and for patriotic Americans who love this country.”
Eagles gathered to protect the Memorials of our fallen heroes. We gathered to show the world that the silent majority will no longer go ignored. We gathered to honor our Vets. We gathered to let our troops in Iraq know that we will NOT ALLOW ANYONE to do to them what our media, John Kerry, and Jane Fonda did to our Vietnam Vets.
This is why Eagles Gathered.
As Kristinn Taylor said on Fox News on the morning of Monday, March 19, 2007……