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This is FRESH AIR. I'm Dave Davies, in today for Terry Gross. In 2018, a decorated U.S. Navy SEAL was arrested and accused of some shocking crimes. Investigators said while Eddie Gallagher was leading a platoon of these elite commandos in the battle to retake Mosul, Iraq, from ISIS, he stabbed a defenseless prisoner to death. The accusations came from SEALs in Gallagher's own platoon, who said he was also known for taking shots at civilians from his sniper's nest, killing at least two.
If you recall Gallagher's name, it might be because his cause was championed by President Trump and covered extensively on Fox News programs. My guest at The New York Times, Dave Philipps, covered Gallagher's trial and interviewed many of the Navy SEALs who leveled the accusations against Gallagher. Philipps also acquired much of the evidence in the case, including thousands of documents, helmet cam images, photos, text messages and video recordings of the interviews that the Navy SEALs gave to Navy investigators.
Philipps' new book is a gripping account of the experiences of Gallagher's unit in Iraq, as well as the investigation and trial of Gallagher and the aftermath of the verdict. Dave Philipps is a national correspondent for The New York Times who writes about the military and veterans from the ground up. He's the author of two previous books and winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. His new book is "Alpha: Eddie Gallagher And The War For The Soul Of The Navy SEALS." I should note that Eddie Gallagher has filed a lawsuit against Dave Philipps and two former secretaries of the Navy, accusing the officials of illegally leaking information and Philipps of defaming him in the articles. That suit is ongoing.
Well, Dave Philipps, welcome to FRESH AIR. The guy at the center of this story, Eddie Gallagher, was a leader of a platoon in - of the Navy SEALs. Tell us a little bit about him, his background and his combat record.
DAVE PHILIPPS: Eddie Gallagher had been in the SEALs for years before this court martial case. He joined in 1999 as a Navy corpsman, which is a medic, and served in a Marine battalion before he joined the SEALs. In the SEALs, he did a number of deployments to Afghanistan, as well as other Middle Eastern countries. And by 2017, when everything happened, he was a chief, put in charge of a platoon of about 20 other commandos. And his job was to lead these guys into the fight in Mosul, which was going to be probably the biggest battle of the whole campaign against ISIS. And he had really carved out a reputation as a badass, you know, a guy who was combat tested and hardened, a guy who had medals for valor, a guy who was well-liked and considered a true SEAL.
DAVIES: There was a story that he liked to tell recruits about his experiences as a sniper and about the tough calls that you have to confront in combat. You want to share that with us?
PHILIPPS: Yeah, this is an interesting story, and I've had a hard time knowing what to make of it, including whether it's even true. But it was a story he told his students that he trained in SEALs basic training. And many of the SEALs who served with him and later turned him in were in that training. He was one of their first exposures to the SEALs. And he told this story about when he was a sniper in Afghanistan. And they knew they wanted to get a Taliban high-value target, a man they considered a dangerous guy. But they believed that this man knew that he was being watched by the Americans because every time he left his compound and went outdoors, he would carry a child with him. And so the snipers watching from a distance couldn't take a shot.
Essentially, the way Eddie would tell it to his students was that the Taliban was using the Americans' own sense of decency as a weapon. And so he was protected. And so for days, they watched this man. And each time, he would go in and out of his house with a child. And eventually, Eddie just took the shot. And whether he intended to or not, the shot went through the child and into the man and killed them both. And he told this story to recruits to let them know that, you know, war is real, and war is dark. And you are going to have to make choices that maybe you don't know you're prepared for. And he was, you know, by all accounts, a very hard dude who took this job seriously and never shied away from those choices.
DAVIES: When he gets this assignment to become chief of Alpha Platoon of SEAL Team 7. I believe - if I have this right - they would do a year of training and then deploy - right? - the extensive training on all kinds of weapons. And part of it involved getting on this big practice area where there would be rooms with dummies and maybe real people. You can explain this. But the idea was to get in, work as a team and make quick decisions, distinguishing combatants from noncombatants and secure the room with the minimum loss of life. It was challenging. What was disturbing about Eddie Gallagher's performance in these drills?
PHILIPPS: This is a practice area that all of the SEALs call the Kill House. Picture a warehouse like building the size of a Walmart at least, made up of a maze of different hallways and rooms that you can watch from above on a catwalk. This is the training area where SEALs would hone all of their quick reaction responses for going after terrorists, rescuing hostages and doing it in a way where they wouldn't end up accidentally killing civilians who are in the room or, just as big of a risk, their battle buddies who may be just a few feet away. And so they would run through drills again and again, having to do everything perfect, you know, down to where your middle finger was on the rifle when you went through the second door. And they would use dummies sometimes, live actors sometimes.
And when they got to the end of training, they were using live ammunition, all operating together in this area. So it's very high risk, and it's very real to them. And mistakes have a huge cost. And so even if you're making mistakes before live rounds are being used, if the instructors see you doing what you shouldn't be doing, it should be a very big red flag.
Well, this is one of the first areas where Gallagher's men started seeing some red flags, because when Gallagher would go through the training and the scenarios, there were a number of instances where he shot civilians and shot friendly soldiers in practice. And more alarming, a lot of the instructors knew him or knew him by reputation and didn't do anything to sanction him. They just sort of viewed it as, hey, who am I to tell a guy like Eddie Gallagher, kind of a legend in the teams, how to do things right?
DAVIES: So when it's time to deploy and go over to Mosul, Eddie Gallagher went over first along with his chief petty officer, a guy named Craig Miller. And when the other members of the SEAL team were starting to come over, Miller alerts two of his senior snipers and says, when you guys get here, we got to have a private conversation about Eddie. They get to Iraq. What does Miller tell them?
PHILIPPS: I should say that Craig Miller is probably kind of the opposite type of personality from Eddie Gallagher. Eddie was very much a rogue and a pirate and enjoyed that reputation, a man who was loose with the rules, a man who did fixes behind closed doors to make things happen. And the platoon kind of liked that because it was working for them. It had gotten them the deployment that they wanted.
And Craig Miller was really a guy who followed the rules. He was the son of a Navy SEAL who then became a cop in Texas. He was an amazing operator, probably the best close quarter shooter in the whole team, but really believed that the rules were there for a reason and you operated within them. And when he got to Iraq to take a look around with Eddie before the rest of the platoon arrived, Eddie essentially said, hey, you know what? We don't have to worry about the rules. The rules say that to not get into combat. We need to stay a kilometer behind the front lines and just advise the Iraqis. The Iraqis will be the ones who do this fight. But we're going to get right up in there, and we are just - won't tell anybody, and we'll get lots of action.
And I think Craig Miller was OK with this, but when he tried to ask Eddie Gallagher - OK, well, what are the tactics going to be? What is - what do we hope to achieve? How are we going to keep people safe? His leader didn't have any answers. It was just, like, go up there and get some, and we'll worry about it later. And for the second-in-command, this was a real concern. He had a wife who was pregnant. He had friends he had served with for years that - he was worried about their safety. And he wanted to give everyone a heads-up that, hey, all of a sudden, Eddie has changed and seems like all he wants is combat.
DAVIES: We need to take a break here. Let me reintroduce you. We're speaking with Dave Philipps. He's a national correspondent for The New York Times. His new book about the Eddie Gallagher case is "Alpha: Eddie Gallagher And The War For The Soul Of The Navy SEALs." We'll continue our conversation in just a moment. This is FRESH AIR.
DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR, and we're speaking with New York Times national correspondent Dave Philipps. He has a new book about the case against U.S. Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher, who was accused of murdering a captive in the war in Iraq. The book is "Alpha: Eddie Gallagher And The War For The Soul Of The Navy SEALs."
When the platoon gathers and Eddie Gallagher takes them out in Iraq, I mean, you write about how the Navy SEALs were functioning among a lot of other troops. There were Iraqi troops, there were U.S. Marines, and there were helicopters and planes in the air delivering ordnance from above. And in order to keep people safe, every SEAL had a tracker on them which could - would show on a display in the Central Command where everybody was so people wouldn't get hurt by friendly fire. The first time they went out on a mission, Eddie did some things that surprised the platoon members. Tell us about that.
PHILIPPS: Yeah, he basically said, we're going to turn off our trackers. And he did it almost as a favor to his men, or at least I think that's what he would have said, because it allowed them to get up close to the fighting and sidestep the rules that had been imposed on them. But in the context of Mosul, it was an extremely risky move. Mosul in 2017 was the biggest combat operation since the invasion of Iraq. Picture a city of about a million people that had been taken over by ISIS and had been surrounded by coalition troops - mostly Iraqi ground troops but also American and NATO air forces. It was surrounded, and no ISIS was going to get out. The coalition troops were just going to slowly tighten the noose and eradicate every single enemy fighter in there.
And so if you are on the ground, you not only have to deal with the fact that there's American Marines and American Army and Iraqi Army; there's also British, various European troops, all speaking different languages, sometimes using different communication devices. And it's extremely easy to get shot or have a bomb dropped on you if someone doesn't know where you are. And so there was just enormous risk in doing this.
But I think the SEALs, who were much younger than Eddie Gallagher - most of them were in their 20s, the men he was leading - I think they were excited about this. I mean, you don't join the SEALs to avoid risk. You would join to, you know, fight the enemy, and they saw the fight against ISIS as a really righteous fight. So when he said turn off your trackers, everyone in the platoon was down with that. And I think it was only in hindsight that they realized that this was sort of the start of a pattern of disregarding the rules, of doing things that could, you know, cause trouble. And this one seemed innocent, but it quickly got dark from there.
DAVIES: Well, again, I think - his chief - the chief petty officer, Craig Miller, had a concern about it. You know, you - we don't want to get a bomb dropped on us. When they go out onto the field, Eddie Gallagher kind of appoints himself as a sniper to support Iraqi troops, which surprised a lot of the SEAL team members because he's their leader, and he hadn't really worked as a sniper for a long time. He got in the habit of doing this, and some of the SEAL team members became convinced that he was shooting at civilians. This is tricky business. He was acquitted of murder at his trial, so we want to be careful about how you know this, but you describe at least two cases in which he seems to shoot and kill civilians.
PHILIPPS: It kind of dumbfounded the platoon that Eddie Gallagher would be behind a sniper rifle in the first place. He was the chief of the platoon, the boss, you know, or a better analogy may be the coach of the team. And to leave your guys below in the truck while you climb up to a building and get behind a sniper rifle is a little bit like the coach leaving the players on the bench and going in to dunk. So they - it wasn't supposed to happen. They were confused about why it was happening. And at first, they just viewed it as Eddie being selfish. You know, Eddie wants to get all the action for himself, even though it's - his role is to sit back and coordinate.
And then it grew from there in really strange ways. So Eddie might be up in a sniper hide in a building, overlooking all of Mosul, and there might be a couple other snipers up there. And Eddie might start firing and then claim to the other snipers that he had shot two ISIS guys, and the other snipers would swing their scopes over and not see anything. And day after day, this sort of stuff happened. Eddie would come down at the end of the day and boast about the people that he had killed, and then the other snipers would quietly say to the other guys, like, look; I didn't see anything. He was shooting, all right, but, like, I think he's making it up.
And so at first in the deployment, there was just sort of this overarching feeling in the platoon that, like, man, our boss sucks. You know, not only is he taking jobs that don't belong to him, but he's just making up stories to, you know, self-aggrandize.
DAVIES: Right, and actually, not commanding the platoon.
PHILIPPS: Right, right. The - he left that to his second-in-command. You take care of things while I go up and shoot, essentially. And it was a mix of them grumbling about how he wasn't really doing his job and laughing about the ridiculous stories he was returning with every day. And they all just assumed that he was shooting at nothing. But then one by one, they started seeing that he was actually shooting at people and people that the snipers believed didn't fit the rules of engagement at all. They weren't ISIS. They weren't combatants. They were civilians.
DAVIES: So let's talk about these two examples. One of them involved an elderly man. What do we know about this?
PHILIPPS: This is a report that came from the most senior sniper in the platoon, a guy named Dylan Dille, and probably the most proficient sniper in the entire Team 7. He was watching through his scope a man standing by a corner in downtown old Mosul, a very crowded area of narrow streets and alleyways. And he was watching him because he was trying to decide whether he should shoot a warning shot or not. By this point, he had seen Eddie start to take shots at civilians and become really concerned about it. He'd seen him shoot at women going down to the water, or at least this is what he reported to Navy authorities - groups of women and children out along the riverbank.
And so what he and other snipers did in response is they started taking warning shots, warning shots that would scare civilians away from places where Eddie could get a shot at them before Eddie had a chance. And so on this morning, it was Father's Day 2017. He saw this old man standing on a corner talking to another old man and thought, oh, no, I've got to decide whether this guy's ISIS or not and what I should do before Eddie gets a chance. And he knew that he might only have seconds to make this decision. So he started running through his checklist, looking for weapons, looking for other signs of whether this guy was a combatant. And before he finished his mental checklist, he heard a shot, he said, from Eddie's position. And he saw a splotch of blood spreading on the man's back. This man stumbled to the ground, tried to get up, stumbled again and, eventually, crawled behind a corner.
Now, this was, you know, obviously a really shaking thing for Dylan Dille because he had just seen his chief, at least he believed, shoot someone who didn't deserve to be shot. But it also was really unsettling because then he had to think, OK, we've been kind of laughing about Eddie and all his stories of the people that he shot for weeks and weeks, and what if all those stories are true? You know, how many people has he shot? And that realization kind of spreads slowly throughout the platoon, as other people saw this type of stuff.
DAVIES: And there was another case involving a school-aged girl wearing a brightly colored hijab. You want to tell us about that one?
PHILIPPS: Right. And this one comes from someone who was really one of Eddie's disciples, a sniper named Josh Vriens, who considered himself the most aggressive person in the platoon. He saw his job as to be, basically, a pit bull. And Eddie could keep the leash on him, but, you know, his job was to be aggressive and lethal. He hated ICIS. He wanted to do as much damage as he could. And one morning he was scanning old Mosul for targets and heard a shot and swung his scope down over to a blown-out bridge along the river. And he asked his chief, Eddie Gallagher, what are you shooting at? And he said, there's some under the bridge. And so he looked, and he saw a group of four school-aged girls making their way along the river. And he was confused and sort of swung his scope back and forth, looking for the actual targets and focused back on the girls because he didn't see anything.
And again, he - just like Dylan Dille, he heard a shot that he thought came from - well, actually, he didn't know where it came from. But he saw this girl get shot in the stomach, a girl with a gray dress and a flowered hijab, and go down. And then her friends sort of drag her behind a dirt berm, where they disappeared. And at first, he thought that this was such a cowardice, brutal act that it must have been ISIS that had shot this girl. And it was only later in the day he told Navy investigators that another SEAL who had been in Eddie's position said, no, you know, it was Eddie that shot that girl. And he was shocked because he loved Eddie. He had seen Eddie as, you know, his path to success as a SEAL and a mentor. And all of a sudden, he saw him as worse than ISIS.
DAVIES: We need to take another break here. Let me reintroduce you. We're speaking with Dave Philipps. He's a national correspondent for The New York Times. His new book is "Alpha: Eddie Gallagher And The War For The Soul Of The Navy SEALs." He'll be back to talk more after this short break. I'm Dave Davies, and this is FRESH AIR.
DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Dave Davies in for Terry Gross. We're speaking with New York Times national correspondent Dave Philipps. He covers the military and veterans, and his new book is about the case against U.S. Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher. Gallagher was accused of war crimes including the murder of a defenseless prisoner while leading a platoon of SEALs in the battle to retake Mosul, Iraq, from ISIS in 2017. The book is "Alpha: Eddie Gallagher And The War For The Soul Of The Navy SEALs."
So let's talk about the incident which is best known. And this involves a prisoner that came into the company of Alpha Platoon. I guess there had been a house with ISIS fighters that had been destroyed by a Hellfire missile. And the Iraqi troops say that they have captured a wounded ISIS fighter. Eddie Gallagher was actually not kind of right there at the moment. Where was he, and what did he do when he heard this over the radio?
PHILIPPS: At the time, Eddie Gallagher was up as close to the front lines as he could be which is where he usually liked to be. He was in a armored vehicle with a heavy machine gun on top, sort of providing flanking fire for this Iraqi operation. But when he heard that there was an ISIS fighter who was being brought back to this blown-out government compound that they were using as a base, he immediately got on the radio and, according to the witnesses, said, no one touch him. He's mine. And he drove a kilometer or two back to this area.
DAVIES: So he gets there. Who was this fighter? I mean, what did he look like, the prisoner?
PHILIPPS: There's actually helmet cam video of the fighter being brought in. He's splayed across the hood of a Humvee that's riddled with bullet holes. And what the SEALs immediately noticed was how young he was. This is the first fighter that they had ever seen up close. And they were all kind of eager to get a look at what ISIS was. And when they walked up to him, they realized that he was a scrawny teenager. He's covered in dust from a bomb blast likely. He's got a wound in his leg that's been bandaged, but there's a blossom of red spreading across the bandage. And he's vaguely coherent, but you can tell he's in bad shape.
When the Iraqis pull him down off of the hood of the Humvee, he can barely lift his head to look around. And they lay him out on the ground. And that's when Eddie Gallagher shows up. And there's video that shows him saying to the Iraqi officer in charge, is this guy ISIS? And then he says, I got him. And he immediately starts pulling up in a medical bag and providing medical care.
DAVIES: Which was odd because although he had been trained and worked as a medic earlier in his career, it wasn't his job on this platoon. And in fact, they had medics who were there and actually working on this young man. So what did Eddie Gallagher do? What did they see him do?
PHILIPPS: The platoon was really confused because Eddie had never opened a medical bag that they had seen during the whole deployment. He didn't particularly relish that part of the job. And yet, here he was working on a captive. And so they were confused about why he was doing it and what he planned to do with this captive afterwards. Were they going to treat him and then, you know, take custody of him and take him to a U.S. jail? Were they going to turn him over to the Iraqis? None of the SEALs in the platoon had ever gone through a scenario where they knew what to do with this.
So they watched Eddie start to perform emergency medicine on this young captive. He put an emergency airway into the captive by cutting a hole essentially in the front of his throat and inserting a tube. And at that point, one of the actual medics noticed that Eddie had kind of messed up the procedure, and he instinctively knelt down and helped. And so eventually, there were two other medics and one other SEAL all helping to provide medical treatment to this guy even though they had no idea what they were going to do with them once they were done.
DAVIES: And then there's the moment where Eddie does the thing that shocks everyone. What happened?
PHILIPPS: Once they had the captive all stabilized and, you know, would have transported him to a hospital if that had been the plan, what witnesses say - and there are three who saw this - they say that he wordlessly pulled out a custom hunting knife that he always had on the back of his belt and stabbed the prisoner multiple times in the base of the neck and then, without really saying much more, got up and just walked away.
DAVIES: The prisoner bled profusely and died. What happened then?
PHILIPPS: After the prisoner had died, they were still at this compound for several hours waiting for other operations to end so that they could leave. And during that time, Eddie Gallagher and the lieutenant in charge of the platoon, a guy named Jake Portier, gathered up as many guys as they could find and took a group photo with Eddie Gallagher and the dead body. And in those photos, Eddie has his hunting knife in one hand and is gripping the hair of the corpse in the other and has sort of a determined look with his whole platoon, or many of them, arranged all around him.
DAVIES: Yeah, it's a pretty weird scene. And a lot of the Alpha Platoon members weren't exactly happy about this, right? But they did it anyway.
PHILIPPS: There are some that refused to get in the photos. There are some that just quietly disappeared when they realized what was going on 'cause they wanted no part of it. There are some that were happy to get in the photo. They knew that an ISIS fighter had died. They may not have known how. They might have believed it was from a legitimate airstrike. And they wanted to celebrate what one of the members of the platoon called the fruits of their labor. And there were other guys that were in the photo but felt they couldn't say anything or refuse because they had witnessed a murder, and they were still trying to process what had happened and what they were going to do with it. But meanwhile, the best thing to do was just quietly go along and pretend that everything was fine.
DAVIES: This wasn't OK with members of Alpha Platoon. What kinds of conversations did they have with each other and with Eddie Gallagher later?
PHILIPPS: Right away, the second-of-command, Craig Miller, he realized this was against everything that the SEALs believed and everything that they served. You know, to just murder a prisoner of war, he thought was so wrong that I think he was just shocked, bereft. He went - almost immediately, he told investigators to tell the officer in command. The officer in command didn't do anything. And so Craig Miller realized he had to address the rest of the guys, tell them what happened and say it was wrong and tell them that it wouldn't happen again.
But when he was doing this the day of the murder, the - Eddie Gallagher actually walked in, walked in on their meeting. And, you know, it's - it was - all of a sudden, a hush fell on the room. And they all started to awkwardly leave because no one wanted to confront him. But eventually, the senior guys, Craig Miller and others, did confront him and say, hey, Eddie, like, this was wrong. You can't be doing this. We're not OK with it. And Eddie Gallagher acknowledged it, at least according to the witnesses, and apologized. But he apologized in an odd way that suggested that they were being too sensitive, that this is what war was. And he was sorry that he had offended them. And next time, he would do it when they weren't around.
DAVIES: We need to take another break. Let me reintroduce you. We're speaking with Dave Philipps. He's a national correspondent for The New York Times. His new book is "Alpha: Eddie Gallagher And The War For The Soul Of The Navy SEALs." He'll be back to talk more after this short break. This is FRESH AIR.
DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR. We're speaking with New York Times national correspondent Dave Philipps. He covers the military and veterans. And his new book is about the case against U.S. Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher, who was accused of murdering a prisoner while he was in Iraq. The book is "Alpha: Eddie Gallagher And The War For The Soul Of The Navy SEALS."
So Alpha Platoon finishes its tour in Iraq, comes back to a base in California, I guess the fall of 2017. Do - are all the guys pretty united in wanting to report Eddie Gallagher for this crime?
PHILIPPS: That's my understanding, and I've talked to a lot of members of the platoon. There was just an idea that Eddie was, you know, not just a murderer, but also just in terms of the organization, you know, really a cancer. If Eddie comes back successful and gets awarded for this great deployment and then moves up in the organization, he will just teach his ways and his views to other people. And so they really felt, first and foremost, that he needed to be sidelined. He couldn't move up in the SEALs. But at the same time, the SEALs is, you know, it's a pretty covert, classified group of people. They didn't want to take this public. They didn't want to go to Navy authorities. They were hoping that it could be dealt with quietly. Maybe he can just quietly get discharged from the SEALs, and the SEALs will be protected, but nobody will know.
DAVIES: So they try to get commanders to launch an official investigation. They were reluctant. They knew how controversial this would be. How did the SEALs finally - in the platoon finally force the issue and start an investigation?
PHILIPPS: I think the problem initially was not just that SEALs knew that it would be controversial, but the chain of command that they kept working their way up were all friends with Eddie. And so these were guys who were deployed with him, but they repeatedly refused to act even when pressed. And so these SEALs that had tried to deal with things quietly for basically a year eventually felt there was no choice but to essentially break the glass and pull the emergency cord by calling the Navy Criminal Investigative Service.
DAVIES: Right. So the Navy Criminal Investigative Service starts interviewing the SEALs, and they see that there is a case here. And so the Investigative Service actually arrests Eddie Gallagher and raids his house. What kind of material did they get in the raid?
PHILIPPS: They search his house. And they find a couple of things that become really key to the prosecution. Perhaps the most important one is in a back drawer of essentially the laundry room, they find a phone that he had taken to Iraq. And on that phone, they find the photos of the dead captive and the rest of the platoon. This is important because Eddie Gallagher has told the rest of the platoon, if you have photos of this day, delete them. And according to witnesses, all of them had. But Eddie Gallagher had not. And so the authorities find these photos that, quite frankly, they didn't even know existed on this phone. And not only that, they find text message traffic, where a few days after the killing, Eddie Gallagher texts the photo of himself with the dead captive with the knife to one of his fellow SEALs saying, good story behind this. I got him with my hunting knife. And they really see that as sort of a red-handed confession.
DAVIES: You know, this was a case where a lot of the typical elements of a murder investigation weren't there. I mean, there was no medical examiner's report on the body. They didn't have the body. The the SEALs left it in the hands of the Iraqis. There was no crime scene they could look at. It was on the other side of the world. But based on the accounts of the SEALs and the evidence collected, they bring a case. What exactly was added to Gallagher charged with?
PHILIPPS: Eventually, he was charged with murder, murder of this prisoner, attempted murder of the civilians that other SEALs said they saw him shoot, and also of some very military specific crimes, conduct unbecoming and damaging the good order and discipline, things that basically were punishing him for being a bad leader, being a bad soldier, causing discredit to the Navy. And so he was, by the end of it, looking at, you know, potentially life in prison.
DAVIES: The story of the trial was fascinating. And we can't go through it all here, but people can read it in the book. As you tell the story, some senior commanders in the Navy become concerned that there may be witness tampering going on. And the prosecution were kind of outgunned by the defense lawyers. Gallagher's family had gone on television and raised a lot of money. And they could hire some some very high-priced defense attorneys. All that said, I mean, when the trial happened, two testified that they personally saw Gallagher stab this defenseless prisoner. A critical witness was a medic named Corey Scott, who was right there when it happened. And he did take the stand, but the story he told on the stand was very different from what he had told Navy investigators. What was his original story? What had he told the Navy investigators happened?
PHILIPPS: He told investigators that when the captive came in, he had been right there. He had knelt down across from Eddie Gallagher and was providing medical care with him to this captive - that the captive was, you know, not in great shape, but medically stable, that he wasn't going to die from the wounds that he received on the battlefield - and that Eddie Gallagher, for no reason, stabbed the prisoner in the neck multiple times and then got up and left. He gave that account to prosecutors and to criminal investigators multiple times without ever adding anything to it, even though they, you know, grilled him.
And then once on the stand, Corey Scott did something very different. He got up, and he provided the same story - that he'd been right next to the captive, that he'd been kneeling there and watched his chief stab the prisoner. But then he said he wasn't sure anymore how many times he stabbed the prisoner. Maybe it was just once. And he wasn't sure if he saw any blood. And then the most consequential change in his story was that when Eddie left, the kid remained stable. The captive was not going to die from the wound he received from Eddie. And in fact, it was Corey Scott who killed him by plugging his breathing tube and suffocating him.
DAVIES: What was his motive, according to his testimony, for killing him then?
PHILIPPS: Well, this was really surprising. His motive, he said, was that he was killing him essentially for mercy, that he knew that they would turn over this captive to the Iraqi soldiers, and the Iraqis would torture and possibly rape him, and the kid would suffer. So in order to avoid that suffering, he just wanted to suffocate him. And now this is a really important legal distinction because if Corey Scott had said, look - this kid had been stabbed; he was going to die, and so I just put him out of his misery more quickly - Eddie Gallagher would have still been on the hook for murder. But if the medic testifies, no, this guy wasn't going to die - Eddie Gallagher did not give him a fatal wound; I killed him for a completely independent reason, that is - that gets Eddie off the hook. The worst Eddie is looking at in charges, then, is assault.
DAVIES: So how long did the jury, who was - who, by the way, you note, were composed mostly of combat veterans themselves - it's a military trial. How long did the jury deliberate, and what did they decide?
PHILIPPS: Yeah. So this jury was all military, of course, because it's a court-martial. But more striking than that, it was all men, and nearly all of them had ground combat experience. So it was a little bit like having a bunch of cops on a jury trying to decide the fate of a cop who is accused of an illegal killing. They certainly share a worldview, to a certain extent, with Eddie Gallagher. They did not take very long at all. This was a two-week trial. They essentially deliberated for one full day and then came back first thing in the morning and had a cup of coffee and gave their verdict. And the verdict was essentially that Eddie Gallagher was found not guilty of all of the serious charges - murder, attempted murder. And the only thing that he was convicted of was small charges that were related to taking a picture with a dead body.
DAVIES: Eddie Gallagher never testified under oath about what happened in Mosul. I mean, that's a right, of course, every criminal defendant has. He didn't have to take the stand. Were you able to interview him?
PHILIPPS: No. I tried, and he refused. He, as you mentioned at the onset, is suing me and doesn't like me very much, so I'm not surprised.
DAVIES: Let me reintroduce you. We're going to take a break here. We're speaking with Dave Philipps. He's a national correspondent for The New York Times. His new book is "Alpha: Eddie Gallagher And The War For The Soul Of The Navy SEALs." We'll continue our conversation right after this. This is FRESH AIR.
DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR. We're speaking with New York Times national correspondent Dave Philipps. He covers the military and veterans. His new book is about the case against U.S. Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher, who was accused of killing a prisoner in Iraq. The book is "Alpha: Eddie Gallagher And The War For The Soul Of The Navy SEALs."
You write about a Navy SEAL commander named Matthew Rosenbloom. He's a captain. If I have this right, I think he sort of basically commanded all of the SEALs on the West Coast. And as the case unfolded, he was furious about Eddie Gallagher's conduct and particularly the way he felt the public was being misled about what had happened. What was at stake to Matt Rosenbloom? Why was he so passionate about wanting to set the record straight?
PHILIPPS: I feel that Matt Rosenbloom and probably a lot of people in the SEAL leadership felt that a case like Eddie's really needed to play out without interference, that people had to understand what he was accused of doing and justice had to take place - because these guys had seen what they call ethical drift in the teams. They had seen the growing influence of this belief that the laws of war are a hindrance, that they are not important to true Navy SEALs. And they really felt that this trial could be a corrective. And when Chief Gallagher's family kept going on conservative media and saying things that were just not true, not even based loosely in fact without any challenge, it was extremely frustrating because the Navy was unable to respond at all.
In the military legal system, if a commander is seen to take any side, even slightly, in a court-martial trial, it could negate the whole court-martial because of something called unlawful command influence. And so Matt Rosenbloom and the entire Navy had to keep their mouths shut the entire time while Eddie Gallagher's family was going on Fox constantly.
DAVIES: You know, there's a question that hangs over this story. I mean, if Eddie Gallagher got away with terrible crimes and emerged to many Americans as a hero, what does that do to the Navy SEALs, to the American military in general? What's the message about the standards of conduct will really be regardless of what the rules say? Can you just share your assessment of that?
PHILIPPS: I think that within the military, that was the great tragedy that they saw in this trial. It wasn't so much who the victims were because the victims never even had names in this trial. It was, how will this affect the culture? How can - you know, if someone decides to be a rogue operator and go out and kill people beyond the rules and then essentially go to the president, make the entire issue political and get off and get around the rules that way, that is so damaging to the good order and discipline of the ranks because it lets everyone else who's serving know that they might be able to do the same thing.
DAVIES: There's another important part of the story. You know, the captive who Eddie Gallagher was accused of killing was unidentified at trial. Nobody knew what happened to the body. But you - or the paper figured this out. Right? Tell us about him.
PHILIPPS: Yeah. You know, what was striking about this case is it's not only did they never find out who the captive was or what his name was, they never even acknowledged in the Navy that he had a name. In the case, he was never referred to as John Doe or anything else. He was just the terrorist, the fighter, the captive, the victim. And that really sort of, I thought when I was watching it, denied a humanity to him that made it easier for the jury to find Eddie Gallagher not guilty because there was no consequence. There was no mother and father who are sitting in the courtroom.
The New York Times - we've had staff on the ground in Iraq for almost 20 years, more than that. And so they thought it was very possible to find this guy, which the Navy did not. And we have stringers who are from Mosul. And so with a little bit of footwork, they were able to go to the neighborhood where this fighter was from and find his parents. And so we were able to interview them and finally put a name to him. And his name, by the way, is Moataz Mohamed Abdullah. His big passion, when he was growing up, was soccer. And he would go down to the soccer field almost every day and play with his local team. And his father was really proud of him. He was the second-oldest son, but his father thought that he would probably take over the family business selling used cars because he was just gregarious and smart and good with numbers.
What his father realized, to his horror, was that down at the soccer field, ISIS fighters were hanging out, and they were grooming and recruiting some of the young players to become fighters. At the time, the city was occupied by ISIS and surrounded by Iraqis' army, and it was obvious that a giant battle was coming. And so ISIS needed these young fighters to take up arms. And you know, through, you know, daily interactions, through things like giving jerseys and soccer balls and shoes to these young people, they befriended them and brought them over until Moataz really - he went and joined ISIS. His father tried to stop him. He literally, at one point, chained him up in their house to keep him from going out into the streets again. But Moataz broke the chain and disappeared, and his father never saw him again.
DAVIES: Well, Dave Philipps, thank you so much for speaking with us.
PHILIPPS: It's my pleasure.
DAVIES: Dave Philipps is a national correspondent for The New York Times. His new book is "Alpha: Eddie Gallagher And The War For The Soul Of The Navy SEALs." On tomorrow's show, we speak with Dr. Anna Lembke, medical director of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Clinic. She says we live in a time of unprecedented access to high-reward, high-dopamine stimuli - drugs, food, news, gambling, shopping, texting and tweeting - making us vulnerable to overconsumption and addiction. Her new book is "Dopamine Nation." I hope you can join us.
DAVIES: FRESH AIR's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham with additional engineering support from Mike Villers. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Amy Salit, Phyllis Myers, Sam Briger, Lauren Krenzel, Heidi Saman, Therese Madden, Ann Marie Baldonado, Thea Chaloner, Seth Kelley and Kayla Lattimore. Our producer of digital media is Molly Seavy-Nesper. Roberta Shorrock directs the show. For Terry Gross, I'm Dave Davies.
(SOUNDBITE OF FRANK WOESTE, RYAN KEBERLE AND VINCENT COURTOIS' "BLUE FEATHER") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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"I could not put The Syrian Christ down until I finished reading the last word in it. It is a magnificent book which should be of special interest to those seeking a better understanding of the psychological, social and cultural background to the teachings of Christ."Dr. Aida Warah, University of Ottawa
by Abraham Mitrie Rihbani
First appeared as a series of articles in the Atlantic Monthly. First publication in book form: 1916, by Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston and New York, USA . It was reprinted seventeen times in the USA between 1917 and 1937. Other Editions: UK editions: at least three by the year 1926. German Translation, 1926 under the title: Morgenl�ndische Sitten im Leben Jesu � which translates as: Oriental Customs in Jesus� Life. Subsequently, five more editions were published. Arabic Translation: by Oussama El-Mohtar, published by Dar Amwaj, Beirut-Lebanon; First edition 2001, Second edition 2002, and Third edition, Dar Atlas Damascus, 2005
| About The Author | Preface | Table of Contents |

subset: commoncrawl


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CHIROPRACTIC CAN HELP SCIATIC PAIN IN Murrieta
There is hardly a more misunderstood condition that a chiropractor treats than sciatica. While it is true that any form of discomfort in your lower back that prevents you from living life your way merits proper treatment, no all of this pain should be classified as sciatic pain. The truth is, sciatic pain is in a class all of its own, thankfully chiropractic care in Murrieta can provide relief that lasts.
Sciatica Explained
The nerve that extends from the lower region of your back, and extends down towards the rear of each leg is the sciatic nerve. It is both the most lengthy and wide nerve in your body and is in charge of giving your extremities the ability to feel sensations. In the case of suspected sciatica pain, these regions of the body are the most likely to feel significant pain.
To be more specific in terms pain, those who deal with sciatica can feel a wide range of symptoms. These can be anything from numbness, to sharp poking pains, and even feeling hot or cold in the area despite the temperature in the room being constant. The location of sciatic pain can also vary wildly. As far as common threads go, individuals who are middle-aged are more likely to be affected by sciatic pain. More often than not, the pain arises from simple overuse with age instead of some sort of trauma. The pain tends to become amplified if one sits too long or move too suddenly.
Chiropractic Treats the Source of Your Pain
Individuals dealing with severe sciatic pain will try every trick in the book to find relief. However, modern medicine is often ill-equipped to deal with this kind of condition. Often, a physician will use a ham-handed approach to provide relief that just involves some type of prescription drug that cover up the symptoms without treating the underlying issue. Your chiropractor in Murrieta will work to treat the source of your sciatica to ensure you find relief that lasts.
The patients who visit our chiropractic clinic often exclaim that they enjoy our prescription-free, surgery-free, natural approach to care. Patients are wary of expensive medical procedures and for good reason! The spine is a delicate structure and opting for more conservative care first only makes sense with so much as stake. Get to the heart of your condition and find out what it's like to experience real relief.
Advice for Overcoming Sciatica
While it can be easy to feel powerless when it comes to sciatica, you do have some aspects you can control. By working to live a healthier lifestyle, standing up straight, and using good form in day to day life, you allow yourself a better chance at recovery. To take you the rest of the way on the road to full rehabilitation, contact Pure Chiropractic in Murrieta to start your journey today.
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8:00am - 12:00pm
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By Appointment
Pure Chiropractic
25186 Hancock Avenue #100
Murrieta, CA 92562


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I have two textbooks, and they seem to give opposite definitions for 「〜というものではない」. The first one says it means "it's not just a matter"; while the other one says that
[It follows] a statement to express that the speaker really feels the statement to be accurate or appropriate. [It emphasizes] the speaker's desire to convey the meaning of the statement or the essence of the matter discussed.
My confusion manifests in the following example sentences, which appear to have almost opposite meanings given each explanation:
- この病気は寝ていれば治るというものではない。
- 相手が好きだから結婚できるというものでもない。
From what I understand, I would translate them either (using the first explanation) as
- Curing this disease isn't just a matter of resting in bed.
- You cannot marry your partner just because you love him/her.
or (using the other explanation) as
- I really think that resting in bed will cure you of this disease.
- I really think that you can marry your partner because you love him/her.
Can someone fill me in on the points I'm obviously missing? Thank you.
Edit: I checked with my teacher; and she agrees with the two answers below. Thanks again!


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Can I say - I am SO excited about this product? I am!!
Most of you already know about my love of essential oils. I use them most often in my baths after a long day in the garden to soothe my aching muscles (or after a lapse in exercise when I decide to return to it), for aromatic soaks when I'm feeling a little under the weather, and mixed with carrier oils as neck and chest rubs. I've even mentioned my two favorite books from which I get many of the basic formula mixes I use. I also love diffusing essential oils in the air, both for fragrance and especially for the sick room or as a sleep aid. I use them on the carpet, as room sprays, and have even used them in my laundry. {I have a post planned to share some of those formulas soon.}
There are as many applications for the use of essential oils as you can possibly imagine, but one area that I have not ventured into, though I knew about it, has been cooking with them, or taking them internally, both of which you can do with a high quality essential oil that is therapeutic grade certified as GRAS (generally regarded as safe) by the FDA. I was recently surprised to learn that none of the oils I have been purchasing all of these years are certified GRAS, so I have never ventured past the more common, external skin applications and aromatic use in the bath or by diffusing.
Then I met Joni, and learned a bit about dōTERRA essential oils. I have so much to say about these oils so bear with me - it'll be worth it! First a bit about this company.
dōTERRA seems to be a visionary company, combining a wealth of knowledge from health care and business professionals who each had a strong belief in the life-enhancing benefits of essential oils and who wanted to bring a new standard of high quality, therapeutic-grade essential oils to the masses, instead of only in the hands of the professionals.
dōTERRA, which means literally 'Gift of the Earth,' are Certified Pure Therapeutic Grade™ essential oils, guaranteed to be 100% pure and natural and free of synthetic compounds or contaminates. They are the safest, purest, and most beneficial essential oils available today, gently and skillfully distilled from plants that have been patiently harvested at the perfect moment by experienced growers from around the world for ideal extract composition and efficacy. Experienced essential oil users will immediately recognize dōTERRA's superior quality standard for naturally safe, purely effective therapeutic-grade essential oils. The casual home users are going to be in for a pleasant and fragrant surprise!
Before taking any oil internally, always check its references and determine that it is certified as GRAS (generally regarded as safe) by the FDA. Most dōTERRA essential oils are GRAS.
Joni sent me one full bottle of product and several other samples of some of dōTERRA's more popular blended essential oils. I received a full sized bottle of On Guard™ blend, a blend of immune enhancing oils, plus throat drops and some hand sanitizing wipes in that same blend, as well as samples sizes of Deep Blue®, DigestZen™, and Elevation™.
The very first thing that I noticed about dōTERRA® oils was how highly fragrant they were. The four blends I had the opportunity to try all smell amazing and not overpowering. They are clean, fresh and wonderfully fragrant. I was very interested in trying the On Guard™ blend since I work from home now. Because of that, I'm not around a wide range of people to be exposed to common, everyday germs like I once was, and my immune system is not as resistant as it once was. The result of that is that I seem to pick up viruses easy now, and virtually every time I go to visit with my grandchildren, I end up with a bit of a bug within a day from my visit, I assume from common germs that they are picking up from other children. On Guard™ is a blend of wild orange, clove, cinnamon, eucalyptus and rosemary essential oils, all immune supporters. It can be used topically, taken internally as a dietary aid, and can also be diffused aromatically into the air, or to wipe off countertops, door handles, and more.
Now, before I go visit, I drop a single drop of the On Guard™ blend into a small coffee cup of warm water and take it. I repeat that when I get home. I honestly have not gotten sick again following my visits, and that hasn't happened since the babies have been old enough to be around other kids. Amazing. While the cold and flu season is winding down, germs never go away, so if you are concerned about the spreading of germs and viruses like most of us, this might be the oil for you to try.
Many years ago - pre-seat belt enforcement days - when I was a teenager, I was a passenger in an automobile wreck that threw me into the windshield, and left me with a whiplash injury that causes a lot of stiffness in my neck. I've used a bit of the Deep Blue® blend, on the back of my neck and it brings immediate relief. Deep Blue® is a for topical use only and is a blend of wintergreen, camphor, peppermint, blue tansy, blue chamomile, helichrysum and osmanthus, and produces that sort of icy/hot sensation and penetrating muscle relief as those over the counter products, but with a much more pleasant aroma. With gardening season coming up, I could frankly use a vat of this stuff - now if only I can figure out how to get my husband to give me a massage with it!
Another thing that affects me physically are changes in the weather. The last two recent cold fronts that moved through left me with one of those horrible, splitting headaches - the kind that will not go away with any over the counter meds for some reason. I generally just have to suffer through them until they finally go away. I happened to have one of those headaches when I thought I might have recalled something about the Deep Blue® blend helping with headaches. I applied some of the oil on my temples, forehead and on the back of my neck and didn't think about it until later when I realized that my headache was gone. I could not believe it!
I have only used the DigestZen™ twice, the first time right after the Super Bowl, when I had eaten very unbalanced, overindulged on party food and wasn't feeling quite up to par - digestively speaking. Let's just say, my tummy was very unhappy and I was just a bit miserable. DigestZen™ blend contains essential oils that are helpful with balancing the digestive system, including, ginger, peppermint, tarragon, fennel, caraway, coriander and anise. So I put a drop of the DigestZen™ blend into a cup of warm water and drank it. DigestZen™ can be used as a topical, an aromatic, or as a dietary aid.
I have to be honest and say that I did have a small reaction to it, as I began to itch all over. Now there could be two reasons for this. First I was using a sample and had a bit of difficulty getting it to dispense. I could have used a tad too much. I've used all of those ingredients before with no reaction so I know it wasn't an allergic reaction, but I've used enough natural products to understand that a reaction like this is sometimes an indication of an imbalance of some kind in the body, and the whole "itch" response could have been a detoxifying indication. But ... I have to say, despite the itching, my stomach felt much better near immediately. I was sure happy about that and the itching did subside fairly quick.
The second time I used it, I had eaten a second helping {I didn't need} of a rich and delicious food I had made (have I mentioned I'm a food blogger?) and had a bit of stomach upset. This time I didn't experience that itching sensation at all, and the indigestion subsided in minutes. I tell you - I've never seen anything like these oils.
I had not tried the Elevation™ blend - thinking I didn't need my mood elevated. My mood has been fine, thank you very much. Until the melt-down over the burning-leaf-neighbor occurred that is. So I decided to give it a try. Now this particular oil is a topical and aromatic application only, so to be honest, I still need to figure out the best application, but I applied some to the palm of my hands and sort of smudged it all over my lower face, neck and upper chest as we were about to go outside and rake the yard.
It was later in the evening when my husband commented about my "happy mood" that day as I was telling him yet another funny story and I realized that I had been laughing and felt well, a bit elated, instead of feeling overworked, fussy and tired (have I mentioned I'm not only am I a food blogger but I'm also a mommy to one four legged nine month old and another one year old?) . Wow. Elevation™ is a blend of lavandin, tangerine, elemi, lemon myrtle, melissa, ylang ylang, osmanthus and sandalwood, essential oils that can elevate your mood and increase your energy. I am definitely ordering this one!
I love these oils and dōTERRA sells all of these essential oil blends, and several other blends as well. The TerraShield® Repellent Blend is an all-natural, super-concentrated insect repellent - with the bugs around here, I am definitely getting some of this. Whisper™ is a blend of essential oils that helps to bring out our feminine beauty and allure. Serenity is a calming blend of lavender, sweet marjoram, roman chamomile, ylang ylang, sandalwood and vanilla bean - oils that promote a sense of well-being and relaxation - seems perfect for evening application. And there are loads more.
They also offer a multitude of single oils, as well as well thought-out kits to provide you with some basic collections of more common oils, making it easier for a beginner to learn to use the oils. There are wellness supplements of antioxidants, omega fatty acids, and a vitamin/mineral complex, plus special formulas for probiotic, gastrointestinal support, muscle and joint support and a special formula for women. They also have a skin care line, hand sanitizers and On Guard™ Foaming Hand Wash - a gentle, healthy alternative to harsh antibacterial soaps made with synthetic ingredients. Click right here and then click on "Shop for Products" to view the full dōTERRA line.
Many of the single oils dōTERRA sells are familiar in the kitchen, and the same places that you use dried spices like ginger, cinnamon and peppermint - such as in cookies and cakes, and herbs like rosemary, thyme, marjoram in meats, casseroles, and marinades - you can use dōTERRA line of GRAS quality oils. This is a step beyond dried herbs and even fresh, because it is a concentrated oil. Finding this amazing source of quality oils that can be used for dietary purposes is opening a whole new door for me. If you are interested in purchasing these wonderful oils right now, click right here to view the product catalog.
I hope that you've enjoyed this review. Thanks so much for reading - the hosted giveaway has ended.
Sorry - the giveaway is over!
For more information about dōTERRA and essential oils, or if you have any questions, you may contact Joni at her blog.
Please note. This review addresses only my personal experiences with several dōTERRA Essential Oil blends. While dōTERRA also has a business opportunity, I did not research that and do not address that in my review. If you are interested in finding out more about the business opportunity, please contact doTERRA for more information.
Disclaimer. The advice shared in this site has not been evaluated by the FDA. The products and methods recommended are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any illness or disease, nor is it intended to replace proper medical help.


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They say that time heals all wounds, but your lower back pain might take longer than you thought.
The Web site Science Centric reports that according to recent research in the British Medical Journal, recovery times for such pain have been grossly underestimated. While the upside is that you're not alone in your lingering injury, the news is especially dire if the pain is severe enough to have required compensation, which portends for even longer recovery time.
The study, cited by Research Australia and conducted by the George Institute for International Health, belied the conventional wisdom, which assumes that 90% of low back pain incidents resolve in 4-6 weeks regardless of method of treatment. The research found that approximately a third of patients took longer than a year to heal.
Said Professor Chris Maher of the George Institute, "For many people back pain becomes a long-term problem that severely impacts their life." The study will therefore help clinicians reevaluate back pain management, including treatment and compensation recommendations.
Don't take a chance with your health. Previous studies have shown that chiropractic can help you recover more quickly from an episode of back pain – and prevent future episodes of back pain, as well.


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Wow; has it been five long years since we issued "Full Time Groovers" CDKEND 183, a collection of southern soul sides from GRC records out of Atlanta, Georgia? 1,000 apologies for the wait.
GRC also had the Aware and Hotlanta labels and later acquired Clintone and Moonsong from Birmingham, Alabama. "Groovers" was actually a sequel itself, to "Good Guys Don't Always Win" CDKEND 163, which was issued two years previously. In effect HOLDING THE LOSING HAND is volume three of this series.
One of the main musical links between the two cities is the magnificent singer/songwriter Sam Dees, who hailed from Birmingham and wrote for Act One Music which was acquired by GRC. They knew a good song when they heard one and several of Sam's songs were cut by their top artists John Edwards and Loleatta Holloway. The company's tape vault contained many of Sam's original demo recordings of his music and despite having released two acclaimed CDs worth of these, we have found even more examples of Sam's craft gathering dust on the tape vault shelves.
Indeed the opening track is Sam's demo of the beautiful I Know Where You're Coming From that Loleatta had a hit with in 1975. Taken at a more sedate pace than the single, it is a rather restrained start to a Kent CD, but what it lacks in drama and impact is more than made up for by Sam's emotive vocal and a beautiful accompaniment that includes his own soulful, electric piano work.
Virtually all of Loleatta Holloway's Atlanta sides have been out on Kent solo CDs, so it is Roszetta Johnson who is the most heavily featured female here. She had several Clintone singles out, but sadly not enough for a solo CD. We've put the addictive A Woman's Way up as track two and again it is full of emotion but has an easy rhythm and feel that is so hard to try to attain, but sounds ridiculously easy when it works. There are four songs by Roszetta in a variety of styles, check out her Early Morning Love, a Rock Your Baby-influenced mid-70s groover.
Roszetta's male equivalent at Moonsong was Bill Brandon who also benefited from Sam Dees songs, production and general tutelage. Though he could handle a ballad with the best of them, it is on the gritty, slightly funky, uptempo numbers that he shines on this album. Doing Right Don't Wrong Nobody moves along at quite a pace and Bill is well served by a tough sounding female backing group. He has three more excellent tracks here, plus a tender ballad recorded with Lorraine Johnson.
As well as showcasing important artists who don't have quite enough tracks for their own solo CDs, these Various Artist comps always have some gems from semi-known singers and complete unknowns. CL Blast and Delia Gartrell aren't household names but serious soul fans know of their hard-earned reputations. Mr Blast gives us a tough, tough tune, unsurprisingly written by Sam Dees, that he wrings every ounce of emotion from. Delia delivers an uplifting Beautiful Day that was new to me, as the vinyl is incredibly rare. It's another one that etches itself onto your memory: in the nicest possible way. The Johnny Smith Congregation however are complete unknowns but their church origins are clear on A Better Way, a fabulous ballad, co-written by Mr Dees.
There's a typical Jimmy Lewis song that escaped the net previously when we were compiling his two solo CDs and Delia Gartrell's husband of the time, King Hannibal, provides two tracks, one from his solo LP and an equally fine one that was found in the vaults. Detroit group Deep Velvet travelled all the way down to Atlanta to record a soundtrack for a Blaxploitation flick about a female bandit called Hanna Mae, but all that came out of the project was a few pre-production stills and the catchy title track on a 45.
There are also one-offs from Dee Ervin, Peggy Scott and Frederick Knight all of which were undeservedly unreleased at the time. Compiler John Ridley gives the package a critical and historical eye, along with the good news that there are still extra tracks, that we couldn't squeeze on here and we have already scheduled a fourth volume. However John informs me that if I take five years over it again, I'll be writing the notes myself!
By Ady Croasdell


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SAS spotlights work with Ann Taylor, Belk, Hershey and Office Depot Europe at NRF19
Retail and CPG companies rely on AI and advanced analytics from SAS to improve planning and reimagine the customer experience
Consumers have almost endless choices when looking for a chocolate fix or the latest fashion. Retailers and consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers must use all available tools to connect with and delight customers in the mall and online. Increasingly, these tools include artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced analytics from SAS, the leader in analytics, to transform customer, pricing and supply chain data into better decisions and healthier margins.
At this year's National Retail Federation's Big Show and EXPO, SAS will showcase its work with leading retail and CPG companies, including:
Ascena Retail Group Inc. (NASDAQ: ASNA), an American retailer of women's clothing, is the parent company of Ann Inc., operator of Ann Taylor, LOFT, and Lou & Grey stores. Ascena also owns the Maurice's, Justice, Dressbarn, Lane Bryant and Catherine's brands. With analytics and merchandising software from SAS, Ascena manages and analyzes data from all its stores, brands and channels. This omnichannel analytics approach helps Ascena's leadership and merchandising team create a localized mix of sizes for each store, to quickly maximize customer satisfaction and reduce markdown prices.
Founded in 1888, Belk is an American department store chain with nearly 300 stores in 16 states. SAS analytics and AI are driving the company's digital transformation and boosting its omnichannel efforts. With SAS, Belk delivers the right size and style of merchandise, resulting in improved customer satisfaction and profitability.
Hershey Company
The Hershey Company (NYSE: HSY) is one of the largest chocolate manufacturers in the world. It creates sweets, mints and snacks, including iconic brands Hershey's chocolate, Reese's, Hershey's Kisses and Jolly Rancher.
Office Depot Europe
Boasting a strong brand name and a loyal customer base, Office Depot Europe operates in 14 European countries across three main activities and brands: Viking, Contract, and Retail. Under the prestigious Viking brand, the company is a leading vendor in six product areas: office supplies, printing and document services, paper, computers and printers, business services like facility management, and office furniture. Viking sells directly to more than 1.2 million small and mid-sized firms in 10 European countries through online, mail order and call center channels. The main markets for Viking include Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The Contract segment maintains contracts to supply more than 100,000 large business customers and corporations in the main markets in the United Kingdom, Benelux/France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The Retail segment sells products under the strong Office Depot brand to more than 600,000 active customers in more than 100 stores and online.
Ascena and Office Depot Europe discuss Big Ideas powered by SAS
Ascena Retail and Office Depot Europe will share their stories during a Big Ideas Session, "How Omnichannel Analytics Creates Perfect Assortments, Prices and Sizes at Scale," on Monday, Jan. 14, starting at 2:15 p.m. ET, in EXPO Hall Room 5, Level 3 of the Javits Center.
Fifteen minutes can transform your organization
Travel from the supply chain to store shelves on a 15-minute analytics tour in the SAS booth and hear directly from SAS customers about the ways analytics drives their business. For example, Tim Carney, Belk Director of Allocation, will share details about the way his company works with SAS for support with size and pack optimization, localized assortment planning and profitability by size. Tours take place Sunday, Monday and Tuesday at SAS Booth 3637.
See AI in action
Interact with a live computer vision demonstration using SAS IoT, deep learning and event stream processing in the SAS Booth. Visitors will see an IoT-enabled conveyor belt that marries hardware and machine learning to sense product quality, recognize inventory location and mine product attributes, all in real time with analytics on the edge.
"With hundreds of online and offline customer touchpoints, accurate data management and artificial intelligence is a must-have for all retailers," said Dan Mitchell, SAS Global Director of Retail and CPG. "Your customers are on the move and demand product availability and timely communications, which is how you maintain trust in your brand. The only way to keep up with your customer is to apply analytics in real time to predict future outcomes that enhance that lifelong relationship."
To learn more about how SAS supports omnichannel retailing, download The Real-Time Predictive Commerce Playbook for CMOs, a white paper developed by SAS and Brian Solis from Altimeter Research.
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Why Skeptics Love to Hate Homeopathy
by Amy L. Lansky, PhD
Perhaps the most derided of alternative medicines is my own favorite — homeopathy. Over the past few years, detractors have focused their efforts in the United Kingdom and have succeeded in crippling homeopathic hospitals and clinics funded by the National Health Service, as well as the practices of many homeopaths. A few well-placed editorials in prominent newspapers have done the trick, despite the fact that Prince Charles and the rest of the royal family are ardent supporters of homeopathy.
It now seems that some of these folks are taking their show on the road. Two key UK players, Michael Baum and Edzard Ernst have published a commentary in the November 2009 issue of the American Journal of Medicine [2] in which they state, "a belief in homeopathy exceeds the tolerance of an open mind. We should start from the premise that homeopathy cannot work and that positive evidence reflects publication bias or design flaws until proved otherwise."
Not surprisingly, their commentary also reflects a complete ignorance of homeopathy and the range of studies that support its effectiveness. For example, their article incorrectly uses the term "potentation" instead of "potentization" for the method used to create homeopathic remedies (more on this later). The authors also insist on citing a single negative meta-analysis study that has already been shown to be methodologically flawed [3], while ignoring many positive studies in respected publications, including two other meta-analyses that showed positive results [4-9].
So why do the skeptics love to hate homeopathy? Perhaps because it is one of the most threatening alternative modalities — financially, philosophically, and therapeutically. Actually, homeopathy has been a threat to allopathy ever since the 1800s, when German physician Samuel Hahnemann developed the homeopathic system.
Founder of Homeopathy
Hahnemann, a respected doctor and chemist who helped to pioneer the importance of hygiene as well as homeopathy, was forced to move frequently during his life because the local German apothecaries objected to the fact that he created his own medicines rather than use theirs. A fierce battle was also waged against homeopathy in the United States during the 1800s, where homeopathy had achieved a strong presence by 1840. In fact, in 1847, the American Medical Association (AMA) was formed specifically to fight the battle against homeopathy.
Most homeopaths of the 1800s were former allopaths who had abandoned their brethren because they found Hahnemann's system to be more successful in battling cholera, typhus, yellow fever, diptheria, influenza, and other epidemics of the 1800s. In retaliation, the preamble to the AMA's charter forbade its members to associate with homeopaths or to use their medicines, and many doctors were expelled for failing to comply.
But does homeopathy really pose such a threat to conventional medicine today? To see how the little David of homeopathy could take down the Goliath of big pharma, we need to take a closer look at what homeopathy is all about.
Like Cures Like
Homeopathic practice is based on a single law of therapeutics called the Law of Similars. This law states that a substance that can cause the symptoms of a disease can also cure it. In fact, that's exactly what word "homeopathy" means: similar ("homeo") suffering ("pathy"). For example, one reason that the remedy Coffea Cruda (made from coffee) can be curative for insomnia is that coffee can cause sleeplessness. Interestingly, allopaths sometimes utilize the Law of Similars, but are unaware of it when they do and are perplexed by the phenomenon.
Ask any conventional doctor why Ritalin (a substance that would normally cause hyperactivity) can treat hyperactivity in children, and they'll scratch their heads in confusion. Ask a homeopath, and it's a no-brainer: the Law of Similars.
The reason why homeopaths run into trouble with the skeptics, though, revolves around how homeopathic remedies are prepared. Obviously, many of the substances that can cause the symptoms of disease are toxic. This inherent toxicity poses a challenge if you want to administer these substances safely. In an effort to deal with this problem, Hahnemann tried various methods of diluting his medicines so that they would become less harmful to his patients. This proved unsuccessful until he also incorporated vigorous shaking or succussion into the process. The result was a method that he called potentization, in which a substance is serially diluted and succussed over and over.
Much to Hahnemann's own surprise, these ultradilutions — so dilute that they cannot possibly contain a single molecule of the original substance — were still potent therapeutically. In fact, they were even more potent than low levels of dilution.
Of course, this was and still is too much for the skeptics to bear. It turns much of accepted science on its head!
What the skeptics keep ignoring, however, are an increasing number of scientific studies that indicate that some kind of signature of the original substance is embedded in a potentized ultradilution. In a 2007 paper by Professor Rustom Roy, the founding director of the Materials Research Laboratory at Penn State and one of the world's leading experts on the structure of water, it was demonstrated that lab instruments could pick up energetic signatures in ultradilutions that were not only specific to individual homeopathic remedies, but to specific potencies of these remedies [10].
Indeed, science has backed up the phenomenon of potentization for over 20 years. In 1988, Nobel Prize nominee and medical researcher Jacques Benveniste turned the course of his life upside down when he discovered that ultradilutions could retain substance-specific properties. In particular, he found that a certain antibody could be serially diluted and succussed beyond the point where a single molecule could remain, but still cause the same effects [11].
Naturally, the skeptics quickly attacked Benveniste. But he continued his work and further demonstrated that the electromagnetic signature of an ultradilution could be recorded electronically, transmitted via Email, replayed into water, and still achieve the same substance-specific effects in the laboratory [12]. Eventually, Benveniste's results were replicated [13]. Most recently, a 2009 paper by Nobel Prize winner Luc Montagnier underscored the power of ultradilutions too [14].
Drug Companies Are Running Scared
Now think about it. This is what big pharma is scared of.
What if an expensive drug could be potentized to create billions of effective doses at essentially no cost? It would destroy big pharma entirely. Medicines that cost essentially nothing? Nontoxic ultradiluted medicines that cause fewer side effects? How could the coffers of big pharma be sustained? Forget about the Law of Similars. It's potentization — the process of creating effective ultradilutions — that big pharma is scared of! No wonder Baum and Ernst got the word "potentization" wrong. This one word is the small stone that could take Goliath down.
Of course, homeopaths add fuel to the fire. The fundamental philosophy of homeopathy implies that the primary tools of allopathy are harmful. In particular, homeopaths believe that suppressing symptoms with anti-pathic drugs — drugs that oppose the symptoms of a disease rather than mimic them — cannot cure and can even do harm. If a symptom is suppressed — for example, if a seasonal allergy is suppressed by an antihistamine — it is only temporarily palliated.
A patient still has allergic tendencies and his or her symptoms will eventually return. That's why suppressive drugs must be taken again and again. And of course, big pharma loves that! It's good for business.
Deceptive Cures
Unfortunately, if a substance succeeds in completely suppressing a symptom, there may be an illusion of "cure," but the real result is more sinister. Another key tenet of homeopathy is that the true result of suppression is a deepening of the underlying disease state — because the energy of the disease is now forced to manifest in a more serious way. That's why repeated application of cortisone cream to eczema can lead to asthma.
That's why the suppression of arthritis pain can lead to heart disease. That's why teenagers who take acne drugs sometimes develop suicidal depression. Doctors call this phenomenon a "side effect" or a "natural disease progression." But that's because they don't understand the effects of suppression or the signs of true cure.
Over the past two hundred years, homeopaths have discovered that homeopathic medicines — drugs that mimic a person's symptoms rather than oppose them — can lead to genuine cure of chronic disease, not mere palliation or suppression. Rather than creating a deeper disease, a homeopathic medicine that is similar to a patient's disease can not only cure it, but reveal previously suppressed layers of disease that can be treated too.
That's why good homeopathic treatment can often cure asthma — and also reveal and treat previously suppressed eczema. That's why it has the potential to cure arthritis and chronic bladder infections, not simply palliate them with endless medications. Indeed, homeopathy can effectively treat acute diseases like influenza and bacterial infections too. With its ability to successfully treat both chronic and acute disease with low-cost medicines, homeopathy really could be a threat to big pharma, given half a chance.
Ideal for Poor Countries or Rich Ones with Declining Economies
Poor countries with less access to expensive drugs have already discovered this. That's why homeopathy is the second most widespread form of medicine in the world. In India, homeopathy is a full-fledged medical system with its own medical schools and hospitals. Homeopaths in India successfully treat the full range of diseases, including AIDS, cancer, and malaria.
In Cuba, a poor country with a health care system that often does better than our own, homeopathy is being used more and more. In 2008, 2.5 million Cubans were given a homeopathic remedy to prevent Leptospirosis, an infectious disease also known as swamp fever. This disease has plagued the country for several years in the aftermath of flooding, but the year in which homeopathy was used, in contrast to previous years, there were no fatalities and very few cases of the disease [15].
But here's the rub. Homeopathy is harder to practice than allopathy. There are no cookie-cutter cures, especially for chronic disease. (Luckily, however, effective treatment of epidemic diseases like the flu is easier; see Resources.) Each patient's health pattern is unique, so each patient must be treated as an individual.
A homeopath must find a single remedy (among thousands of possible homeopathic remedies) whose associated symptoms match those of the patient — not just their main complaint, but their entire symptom picture that includes emotional, mental, behavioral, as well as the physical symptoms of the entire body. It's a daunting task. A practitioner who practices classical homeopathy (the kind of homeopathy I advocate) typically needs at least two hours for an initial case interview and may spend just as long deciding upon a remedy.
And sometimes it takes a homeopath several tries to find just the right remedy — the one that homeopaths call the simillimum. This process also requires patients to engage in their own treatment, because symptoms are gathered not by machines or by using tests, but through direct communication between patient and homeopath.
Of course, this is not something big pharma, conventional doctors, or insurance companies would be happy about. No expensive medicines or tests or equipment needed? No five-minute appointments reimbursed at $300 a shot? A medical system that requires long appointments, time for case analysis, and patients who must participate in the healing process? Not very lucrative.
How I Broke Out of the Mold and Reliance on Failed Medical Therapies
Of course, I used to be a lover of conventional medicine like most people. Back in the early 1990s, my husband Steve Rubin and I were both computer researchers in Silicon Valley and followed our doctors' instructions obediently, loading our kids up with every recommended vaccine on schedule. Our allopathic trance began to break in 1994 when our 3-year-old son Max began to show signs of autism.
I first read about homeopathy in the January 1995 issue of Mothering Magazine, which contained an article about the successful homeopathic treatment of ADD and other children's behavioral problems [16]. Steve and I decided to give it a try and found a practitioner in our area. Within a week we began to see small and subtle improvement in Max — improvement that became a slow and steady trend. After two years of treatment, he was testing normally and was released from eligibility for special education benefits.
His speech and language therapist told the county representative that she had never seen an autistic child recover like Max had, and she fully credited homeopathy for his recovery. By the time he was eight, nearly all signs of Max's autism were gone. Today he is 18, a freshman at a leading university, completely autism free, and without restrictions of any kind.
Needless to say, this experience was both mind-boggling and life-transforming. I began to study homeopathy myself and ultimately wrote what became the best-selling patient education book in the USA — Impossible Cure: The Promise of Homeopathy [17] — a comprehensive introduction to homeopathic history, philosophy, science, and experience, sprinkled with dozens first-person cure stories for a variety of ailments, along with a chapter about Max's cure.
In the end, I left my work in computer science and devoted myself to letting others know about the healing powers of homeopathy. I got involved in the successful campaign for health freedom legislation in California too [18]. Steve also got involved and developed the National Vaccine Information Center's online interface to the VAERS database [19] (the CDC's public record of vaccine injuries). I guess Max's healing led us both to become alternative medicine activists, and we haven't looked back.
So why not take a look at homeopathy for yourself? Make it your New Year's resolution to find a good classical practitioner and to learn more about this amazing medical modality. The skeptics manage to create a lot of smoke in an effort to hide homeopathy from public view. But where there's smoke, there's fire. Find out about how this powerful healing system — a system that packs a lot of firepower into an infinitesimal punch — can help you and your family.
(1) Impossible Cure: The Promise of Homeopathy – www.impossiblecure.com.
This website includes: book ordering information; autism help page; free archive of Amy's show on AutismOne Radio – There's Hope with Homeopathy; Cure Stories Database; helpful links.
(2) National Center for Homeopathy – www.nationalcenterforhomeopathy.org.
Leading open-membership organization for homeopathy in the USA that organizes the yearly national conference. Membership buys a quarterly magazine, Homeopathy Today, monthly eNewsetter, online chats with leading experts, extensive online resources and social network. Website includes many free resources, including practitioner and resource referrals lists and flu treatment information.
[1] www.bolenreport.net.
[2] Baum, Michael and Edzard Ernst, "Should We Maintain an Open Mind about Homeopathy?" The American Journal of Medicine, Vol. 122, No. 11, pp. 973-974 (November 2009).
[3] Shang, A. et al. "Are the Clinical Effects of Homeopathy Placebo Effects? Comparative Study of Placebo-Controlled Trials of Homeopathy and Allopathy," The Lancet, 366, pp. 726-732 (2005).
An extensive refutation of the results of this study, including statistical analyses and evidence of foul-play, can be found here: http://www.liebertonline.com/toc/acm/11/5.
[4] Linde, K. et al. "Are the Clinical Effects of Homoeopathy Placebo Effects? A Meta-Analysis of Placebo-Controlled Trials," The Lancet, 250, pp. 834-843 (1997).
[5] Kleijnen, J. et al. "Clinical Trials of Homeopathy," British Medical Journal, 302, pp. 316-323 (1991).
[6] Jacobs, J. et al. "Treatment of Acute Childhood Diarrhea with Homeopathic Medicine: A Randomized Clinical Trial in Nicaragua," Pediatrics, Vol. 83, No. 5, pp. 719-725 (1994).
[7] Bell, I.R. et al. "Improved Clinical Status in Fibromyalgia Patients Treated with Individualized Homeopathic Remedies Versus Placebo," Rheumatology, 2004b; 43 (5):577-82.
[8] Taylor, M.A. et al. "Randomised Controlled Trial of Homoeopathy Versus Placebo in Perennial Allergic Rhinitis with Overview of Four Trial Series," British Medical Journal, 321, pp. 471-476 (2000).
[9] For more trials, see www.nationalcenterforhomeopathy.org (under Articles, click Research).
[10] Rao, et al. "The Defining Role of Structure (Including Epitaxy) in the Plausibility of Homeopathy," Homeopathy, 96, pp. 175-182 (2007).
[11] Davenas, et al. "Human Basophil Degranulation Triggered by Very Dilute Antiserum Againt IgE," Nature, Vol. 333, No. 6176, pp. 816-818 (1988).
[12] Aissa, J. et al. "Transatlantic Transfer of Digitized Antigen Signal by Telephone Link," Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 99:S175 (1997).
[13] Brown, V. and M. Ennis. "Flow-Cytometric Analysis of Basophil Activation: Inhibition by Histamine at Conventional and Homeopathic Concentrations," Inflammation Research, 50, Supplement (2), S47-S48 (2001).
[14] Montagnier, Luc, et al. "Electromagnetic Signals Are Produced by Aqueous Nanostructures Derived from Bacterial DNA Sequences," Insterdiscip Sci Comput Life Sci, 1:81-90 (2009).
[16] Reichenberg-Ullman, J. "A Homeopathic Approach to Behavioral Problems," Mothering, Number 74, pp. 97-101 (1995).
[17] Lansky, Amy. Impossible Cure: The Promise of Homeopathy. R.L. Ranch Press (2003).
[18] www.californiahealthfreedom.com.
[19] www.medalerts.org.
Amy L. Lansky, PhD was a Silicon Valley computer scientist when her life was transformed by the miraculous homeopathic cure of her son's autism. In April 2003 she published Impossible Cure: The Promise of Homeopathy, one of the best-selling books on homeopathy in the USA (www.impossiblecure.com).
Amy is an executive board member of the National Center for Homeopathy (www.nationalcenterforhomeopathy.org). She speaks and writes internationally about homeopathy and hosts a monthly radio show on Autism One Radio (www.autismone.org).


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Students Test Their Underwater Robots
Read more at the RoyalGazette.com
Students put their technical skills to the test yesterday as part of an island-wide competition to design the best underwater robot.
A total of 28 teams participated in the event that took place at the National Sports Centre swimming pool with the Clearwater Middle School team coming out on top.
The middle school pupils were tasked with putting their designs through a series of manoeuvrability and speed challenges.
The competition was the culminating event of the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Science's (BIOS) Mid Atlantic Robotics in Education (MARINE) Programme. The new education initiative, which is the current topic of the HSBC Explorer Programme, is aimed at introducing students to the science and technology behind Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs), which are used by researchers and marine industries to survey underwater environments.