Hackasaw Triumph and we’re still working on the girl.
I’m still digging the sand outta my ears from Tahiti. It’s Sunday, daylight savings time has been launched, the sun is shinning and it’s time to ride. So let’s clammor through this shit and hit the road.
I receive Robin Bradley’s American Motorcycle Dealer magazine. Since many of you don’t get this European based book, let me share a couple of items mentioned in the March issue: Check the bikes at habermann-performance.com, outrageous. Hyperformance is building 5 5/16-inch bore cylinders for TC-88 engines. They’re massive. B.I.G.S. Performance in the Netherlands is building a front end with internal brake lines. Don’t ask me how it works, check their web site bigsholland.com. Okay, let’s jump into the news:
Tahiti Run 2003 Update Kiki, the president of the Harley Riders Club of Tahiti, just phoned to see that everyone made it home safely. He asked me to personally thank you for comming. He said that he was very happy to meet you all and hopes you will return again soon. He told me that the Ball on Friday night brought in over $30,000. After expenses that left more than he imagined possible for the kids. I made a contribution to the club in all our names on Friday night and he told me to pass along to everyone his pleasure in having us all there to support their effort. TERE NA TE ARA is Tahitian for Ride Forever.
Nana
Teddy Bear
True American hero.
BEHIND ENEMY LINES
By RALPH PETERS
March 31, 2003 — HAVE faith in the American soldier. Have particular faith in our special operations forces, the shadow warriors who are the most effective fighting men in history. Over the weekend, special ops troops leading Kurdish freedom fighters overran a vast terrorist base near Iraq’s border with Iran. Perhaps a thousand members of Ansar al-Islam, a group with direct ties to both al Qaeda and Saddam’s regime, had pledged to resist to the death. They ran like rabbits and died like sheep. The surviving terrorists are now in detention in Iran. And their huge complex of caves and defensive positions is already yielding critical intelligence. This victory in both the war against Saddam and the War on Terror was one of the rare times when our special operations forces stepped out into the light of day. The Pentagon also showed a tape of Army Rangers raiding an Iraqi headquarters by night. Other reports tell of special operators tracking down a meeting place for over 200 leaders of Saddam’s death squads in Basra. Allied aircraft wiped the building from the face of the earth.
Army Special Forces are active in An Najaf, rooting out the die-hards who have been tormenting the civilian population. Other special operators were in Iraq well before the start of the war, providing intelligence and locating Iraqi missile launchers. We even have special operations forces operating in Baghdad, hunting for targets and killing Iraq’s bloodstained leaders, one after another. This is all mighty impressive. But it’s only a fraction of what the Army’s Special Forces, Rangers and Delta Force, the Navy’s SEALs, and special operations elements from the Air Force and Marines are doing in this war – along with Brit, Aussie and other allied comrades.
These men work best in the darkness, both figurative and literal. So they rarely get credit for their phenomenal skills and courageous accomplishments. Far more is happening behind Iraqi lines than we ever will know. Our special operators have extraordinary capabilities that must be kept secret to remain effective. But I can assure you that some of the most effective actions taken against Saddam’s regime are happening far from any TV cameras.
I was fortunate during my Army career and afterward to know many special operators, from brilliant generals down to sergeants so tough they make steel feel like a down comforter. I was never less than deeply impressed by their skills, professionalism – and intellect. And that leads me to a general misunderstanding. Hollywood portrayals of special ops troops tend to portray them as wild men, hot dogs whose calling is to perform amazing stunts. Well, these guys are certainly amazing, but show-offs and braggarts don’t make the cut. Special ops troops are rigorously self-disciplined. Every man in a team must be able to depend completely on every other man. No drunks, no punks. These are men who must be ready to walk through fire, if the mission requires it.
Physically tough, you bet. But their psychological toughness is even more important, given the enormous stresses under which they operate. And many of them speak multiple languages, have advanced degrees and possess such deep experience of the world that they are among the most intellectually sophisticated men I’ve ever known.
As for courage, well, it’s required of many soldiers, often at unexpected times. But special operators know the risks they take going into a mission. And it’s much easier to perform reliably when surrounded by hundreds of your buddies and backed up by armor and airpower, than when you are hundreds of miles from help, with the enemy all around you.
Our special operations troops aren’t superhuman. But they’re close. Try to imagine the sort of courage it takes to serve in a hunter-killer team in downtown Baghdad. Or a Delta Force element on a direct-action mission deep in Iraq. Or an Air Force special ops pilot flying a helicopter in total darkness, skimming the sand, with only his skills and a pair of night-vision goggles to prevent a catastrophic crash that would kill the Special Forces A-team he’s inserting.
These men are a breed apart. It is no slight to the magnificent performance of all our men and women in uniform to recognize the fearsome risks our special operations soldiers volunteer to undertake, or the extraordinary skills and dedication they bring to their missions. Each one of these men is a national treasure, each one of them a strategic asset. As you read these lines, they are operating behind Saddam’s lines, haunting him and hunting him. You may never see their faces. But you are going to see their results. Ralph Peters is a retired military officer who wasn’t remotely tough enough or smart enough to qualify for a special operations unit. And he doesn’t mind admitting it.
–NY POST
Bikernet Investigates The Oil Shortage
There are a lot of folks who can’t understand how we came to have an oil shortage here in America. Well, there’s a very simple answer…… Nobody bothered to check the oil. We just didn’t know we were getting low.
The reason for that is purely geographical. All our oil is in Alaska, Texas, California, and Oklahoma. All our dipsticks are in Washington, DC.
–from Rev CarlR
Myrtle Beach Update–Don’t Go
The fax number for making reservations for Myrtle Beach is 704-853-2947. Please make that change. The number on the form was incorrect. Sorry for any inconvenience.
–Patty
The spirit of the West began long before the white man placed a boot print in the desert sand. When the people knew what it was to live without rules, to move like the mountain lion, to hunt, to survive, to be one with nature.
The code of the west grew from this by the mountain men, wanderers, and cowboys who lived free. Their guide being the mettle of their own moral compass and the only law lay in the quickness of a gun hand.
These loners had a mutual respect for one another and each understood what it meant to live in the wild. The dangers were accepted in exchange for the exhilaration of living without tethers, to drink in life with each breath.
A strong connection grew between men who lived this way and an unwritten… even unspoken code to always help a brother in need was present. Most of these men never met, it was never discussed, it was not decided by a congress, or put into law. Unwritten, unspoken, it was just there. The code of the west said we must live our lives without rules and always help a brother in need.
FTW,
–Stroker
Knives Are Flashed At Art Exhibit
Last night Sin Wu and I slipped into Santa Monica for an Art Exhibit. Bob Roberts and Ed Hardy displayed their tattoo related art at a train depot gone art center. While we were gazing at their tremendous art (watch for a full report next week) and gray-haired old guy snapped open a case on the concrete deck and flashed some Damascus steel blades. Here’s one example. If you’re interested, here’s Daniel’s e-mail address: sverdlin@aol.com.
Hells Angels Chapter President Pleads Guilty To Drug Charges, Money Laundering
The president of Minnesota’s Hells Angels chapter pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court in Minneapolis to money laundering and conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.
Patrick J. Matter, 51, of Corcoran was indicted last year on a charge of hiding drug profits by laundering more than $220,000 through his north Minneapolis motorcycle shop.
Matter admitted earning about $4,000 per pound of methamphetamine obtained from dealers in Texas and California. He wouldn’t name the dealers, and his attorney told U.S. District Judge James Rosenbaum that Matter agreed to take responsibility for his own crimes but didn’t want to implicate others.
Rosenbaum only required him to name codefendant Michael Eason, who pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring with Matter and others to distribute large amounts of methamphetamine. Eason, 63, of Zimmerman, Minn., also pleaded guilty to fraudulently receiving Social Security benefits by saying he was unable to work when he was working full time at Matter’s cycle shop.
Prosecutor Jeff Paulsen noted that Matter deposited $495,985 in cash in a government account on Tuesday that will be used to pay fines and fees at sentencing. The government also will keep $88,300 in cash seized during a search of Matter’s home in April 2001, Paulsen said.
Several other counts, including distributing cocaine and marijuana and operating an ongoing drug enterprise, will be dismissed when Matter is sentenced this summer.
The plea almost didn’t happen. Rosenbaum initially refused to accept it Wednesday afternoon because it limited Matter’s sentence to 12 1/2 years.
After an hour’s recess, Matter agreed to drop the sentence limit. He could face life in prison, Paulsen said, although federal guidelines suggest 10 to 12 1/2 years for Matter’s offense and prior criminal history.
Paulsen said federal prisoners must serve at least 85 percent of their sentence before release.
–Jim Adams is at
Bikernet Reported Embedded At The Front
Hold off till we get this airport ( Geo.Bush International) thing settled. I was surprised this evening to see the Iraqi information minister on CNN telling the world we’re wiped out. I don’t feel wiped out (most of the time).
My Iraqi bagger will have to be greeen (unlucky). I don’t know how I get a registration here. Good news is that there dosen’t seem to be any cops. Ammo we got, and MRE’s. I’ll probably throw the latter at them. Probably hurt more in the long run. The SEALs here say hey. Later, Doc
Stroker attempts cartooning.
It’s Sunday, I quit–Dr. Hamster is riding over and I’ll pull the ’48 Pan out for a putt to the Blue Cafe for blues and beer. We need to discuss the summer run, whether Sturgis is out and we’ll ride straight to Milwaukee. I’ll be on the run from Jose and his gang all over the west.
Watch today as we launch the final Daytona report from Frank Kaisler. You’ll cop a true sense of the wet experience this year. Don’t miss his photography. Wet or not, it kicks. We are also working or a report on the recent Donnie Smith Bike Show. Hang on. It’s going to be a buys week. That’s enough, let’s ride.
–Bandit
