2 dating websites sued for using dead soldier's photo in ads.

A photo of Lt. Peter Burks that appears on his family's website, the Unsung Hero Fund, was misleadingly used on two dating websites without the family's permission, a lawsuit alleges. UNSUNGHEROFUND.COM

The picture of a handsome, uniformed soldier accompanying online ads that proclaim "Military Man Searching for Love" is an Army lieutenant who was killed in Iraq in 2007, according to a lawsuit filed by his parents Monday against two dating websites.

The parents of Army Lt. Peter Burks have sued PlentyofFish.com and True.com, alleging the companies used their son's photo in ads without their permission, benefitted financially and misled the public, The Associated Press reported.

Alan Burks, his father, told AP the ads "disgusted" him and that his son was engaged at the time of his death, so the idea that he was trying to meet women online as the ad portrays "couldn't be more wrong."

"I felt horrified, disgusted. It upset me," Alan Burks, who lives in Dallas, told The Associated Press on Monday.

Vancouver, British Columbia-based Plentyof Fish Media spokesman Paul Bloudoff said the company didn't advertise online in the U.S. in December. He said hundreds of thousands of third parties advertise via his company's site every month, and that it cannot control nor know about the content of those ads.

Even so, the ad has been blocked from the company's network, he said.

"We dealt with this matter a month ago," Bloudoff said in an email. "In our opinion, this case should not have been filed."

True.com President Ruben Buell said Monday that he hasn't seen the lawsuit but "will be researching this diligently." He said the Dallas-based company, whose official business name is True Beginnings LLC, buys ads that run on other dating websites but does not know what happened in this situation.

"I certainly feel for his family," Buell said Monday.

PlentyofFish Media did not say how long the ads - including one with Peter Burks' photo that said "Soldiers Want You!" - ran or how his photo was obtained, said Rogge Dunn, the attorney who filed the suit. In addition to emotional suffering, his parents have also suffered financial damages because, since his death, they have legal control over his image and never authorized any photos to be used to endorse these sites, Dunn said.

Alan Burks said he plans to donate any money awarded in the suit to military charities.

"For me, this is making sure that the honor and legacy of Peter is protected," he said. "But also it concerns me that they would use the likeness of a live soldier or someone else."

SOURCE: http://www.stripes.com/

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Israel blames Iran after attacks on embassy staff

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel accused arch-enemies Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah of being behind twin bomb attacks that targeted Israeli embassy staff in India and Georgia on Monday, wounding four people.

Tehran denied involvement in the attacks, which amplified tensions between two countries already at loggerheads over Iran's nuclear program, and accused Israel of carrying out the attacks itself. Hezbollah made no comment.

In the Indian capital New Delhi, a bomb wrecked a car taking an Israeli embassy official to pick up her children from school, police said. The woman needed surgery to remove shrapnel but her life was not in danger.

Her driver and two passers-by suffered lesser injuries.

Israeli officials said an attempt to bomb an embassy car in the Georgian capital Tbilisi failed, and the device was defused.

Israel had put its foreign missions on high alert ahead of the fourth anniversary this past Sunday of the assassination in Syria of the military mastermind of Hezbollah, Imad Moughniyeh - an attack widely assumed to be the work of Israeli agents.

Israel is believed to be locked in a wider covert war with Iran, whose nuclear program has been beset by apparent sabotage, including the unclaimed killings of several Iranian nuclear scientists, most recently in January.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed both Iran and Hezbollah, accusing them of responsibility for a string of recent attempted attacks on Israeli interests in countries as far apart as Thailand and Azerbaijan.

"Iran and its proxy Hezbollah are behind each of these attacks," said Netanyahu, who dismisses Iran denials that it is trying to develop a nuclear weapon. "We will continue to take strong and systematic, yet patient, action against the international terrorism that originates in Iran."

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast rejected Netanyahu's accusation, saying it was Israel that had carried out the attacks as part of its psychological warfare against Iran.

"It seems that these suspicious incidents are designed by the Zionist regime and carried out with the aim of harming Iran's reputation," the official news agency IRNA quoted Mehmanparast as saying.

Israeli officials have long made veiled threats to retaliate against Lebanon for any Hezbollah attackon their interests abroad, arguing that as the Islamist group sits in government in Beirut, its actions reflect national policy.

White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters in Washington that the United States had no information yet on who was responsible, adding: "These incidents underscore our ongoing concerns of the targeting of Israeli interests overseas."

MOTORCYCLE ATTACK

The New Delhi blast took place some 500 meters (yards) from the official residence of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

B.K. Gupta, the New Delhi police commissioner, said a witness had seen a motorcyclist stick a device to the back of the car, which had diplomatic registration plates.

"The eyewitness ... says it (was) some kind of magnetic device. As soon as the motorcycle moved away a good distance from the car, the car blew up and it caught fire," said Gupta.

The Iranian scientist killed in Tehran last month died in a similar such attack by a motorcyclist who attached a device to his car. No one has claimed responsibility for that, although Iran was quick to accuse agents of Israel and its U.S. ally.

Israel named the injured woman as Talya Yehoshua Koren, who worked at the embassy and was married to the defense attache.

"She was able to drag herself from the car and is now at the American hospital, where two Israeli doctors are treating her," an Israeli Defense Ministry spokesman said.

Thailand said last month its police had arrested a Lebanese man linked to Hezbollah, and that he later led them to a warehouse stocked with bomb-making materials. Also last month, authorities in Azerbaijan arrested two people suspected of plotting to attack Israel's ambassador and a local rabbi.

In a speech on January 24, Israel's military chief of staff, Lieutenant-General Benny Gantz, accused Hezbollah of trying to carry out proxy attacks while avoiding direct confrontation.

"During this period of time, when our enemies in the north avoid carrying out attacks, fearing a harsh response, we are witnesses to the ongoing attempts by Hezbollah and other hostile entities to execute vicious terror attacks at locations far away from the state of Israel," Gantz said.

"I suggest that no one test our resolve."

Israel and Hezbollah fought an inconclusive and costly war across the Lebanese border in 2006.

source: REUTERS

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So How Long Before Openly Gay Troops Can Serve?

In the wake of the Senate’s vote to end “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” on Saturday — and President Obama’s plan to sign the bill into law Wednesday morning — just how long is it going to be before gay men and women can serve openly? Some Pentagon officials have suggested it could be a lengthy process, perhaps more than a year, while a new report from an independent think tank says it can — and should — be done in a matter of weeks.

Marine Col. Dave Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman, said Monday that the Defense Department will “move out carefully, deliberately and purposefully” to implement the new policy, which suggests speed is not of the essence. But at the same time, ending the ban should not be “overly burdensome,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs emphasized. The Pentagon’s formal 87-page implementation blueprint says that “leaders must be given clear, equitable, and enforceable standards of conduct and the tools required to enforce standards and maintain good order and discipline in a sexual orientation-neutral way.”

But in a soon-to-be published study, the Palm Center of the University of California at Santa Barbara says Pentagon talk of the need for a year before gays can serve openly “is not based on a reasonable assessment of what it takes to educate the troops.” Air Force veteran Aaron Freed says “the Pentagon can quickly train all personnel regardless of status or location” — including in war zones — and that “training is not prerequisite to a policy going into force.” Implementing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” required less than two months in 1993, he notes.

But that’s not likely to be the prevailing view. Some inside the Pentagon take pride in how the military has handled repeal so far, and don’t want to do anything to jeopardize its implementation. Bottom line: the policy won’t change until Pentagon leaders can assert the action won’t harm U.S. military readiness, and they maintain they don’t know how long that will take. There’s talk of up to 18 months for the Army and Marines, less for the Air Force and Navy. But such a lengthy time frame is not likely to win approval from Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, who championed repeal.

But it will take months. The services have to draft training and communications plans to educate the force, rig personnel policies to accommodate the change, and figure out how benefits will be adjusted. Once they have everything in line, the Pentagon will declare it is ready to allow gays to serve — and then there will be a final 60-day period before they do.

Counseling will be a key element of dealing with conflict under the new rules. Maintaining good order and discipline will trump personal feelings, as it always has. Gay couples will be treated for the most part as unmarried heterosexuals, suggesting they won’t be eligible for most military benefits. A sailor upset with a gay roommate is likely to be able to move to new quarters. Chaplains — many of whom view homosexuality as a sin — will not be muzzled.

Army leaders told their troops the change simply represented another order to carry out. “We will implement this change in the same disciplined manner that has characterized the Army’s service for the past 235 years,” they said in a weekend message. Gen. Norton Schwartz, the Air Force chief of staff, told his people that “the standards of conduct we expect of all Airmen will not change. Moreover, we will continue to treat each other, as members of the Air Force family, with dignity and respect.”

Despite the controversy surrounding the issue, the basic approach seems to be — hold on to your hat — common sense. Harassment of gays won’t be tolerated. There will be no public displays of affection — but PDA has always been banned. Separate barracks and bathrooms? Didn’t we vainly try “separate but equal” during our struggle to integrate American public schools? Many military personnel, speaking privately, have been preparing for this change to come for years. They don’t see it as a big deal, and many wonder what all the fuss is about.

Source:  http://battleland.blogs.time.com/

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SU-30 Redefines the Laws of Gravity.

Watch This Video of SU-30..fantastic! manuver. U-30 pilot demos some amazing skills.

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U.S. brigadier general dies in Afghanistan

(CNN) -- U.S. Brig. Gen. Terence Hildner died in Kabul of apparent natural causes, officials said, making him one of the highest ranking officers to die in Afghanistan.

He was 49.

Hildner, who was commander of the 13th Expeditionary Sustainment Command, Fort Hood, Texas, was in Afghanistan to support the NATO training mission.

"The unfortunate and untimely death of Brigadier General Hildner was a shock to our unit and Families," Col. Knowles Atchison, 13th ESC rear commander, said in a statement posted on the Foot Hood website. "Both forward deployed elements and we at home station are deeply saddened by this loss. We will all pull together through this difficult period and care for one another."

The circumstances surrounding his death are under investigation, the statement said.

Hildner graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1984 and attended the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in 1997. A Connecticut native, he listed his home in Fairfax, Virginia.

In 2003, Hildner assumed command of the 13th Corps Support Command's Special Troops Battalion at Fort Hood. That battalion conducted two operational deployments during his years in command -- the first in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the second in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Previously, Hildner served in Iraq during Operation Desert Storm and participated in the last U.S. patrol along the East-West German border before its reunification.

source: CNN NEWS

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