Gen. Boykin believes he has a photo of the Devil in Mogadishu

[BurtWorm]

http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh102703.shtml

ODD BOYKINS: We assume that Lt. General Jerry Boykin is a perfectly decent individual. We also assume that he has served in full good faith during his thirty-year military career.

But in recent years, Boykin has said some odd things to a string of religious assemblies. For example, when William Arkin reported on Boykin in the Los Angeles Times, he started with this strange example:


ARKIN (10/16/03): In June of 2002, Jerry Boykin stepped to the pulpit at the First Baptist Church of Broken Arrow, Okla., and described a set of photographs he had taken of Mogadishu, Somalia, from an Army helicopter in 1993.

The photographs were taken shortly after the disastrous “Blackhawk Down” mission had resulted in the death of 18 Americans. When Boykin came home and had them developed, he said, he noticed a strange dark mark over the city. He had an imagery interpreter trained by the military look at the mark. “This is not a blemish on your photograph,” the interpreter told him, “This is real.”

“Ladies and gentleman, this is your enemy,” Boykin said to the congregation as he flashed his pictures on a screen. “It is the principalities of darkness... It is a demonic presence in that city that God revealed to me as the enemy.”

[Swede]

1. Finally a General that talks directly to God!

Phew. For awhile there I thought the world was in trouble.

[Starpass]

2. Let's send him a picture of Bush and see what kind of

interpretation he gets on that one.......hmmmm, are those horns growing out of the top of the head????

[Starpass]

3. Let's send him a picture of Bush and see what kind of

interpretation he gets on that one.......hmmmm, are those horns growing out of the top of the head????

[Loonman]

4. Guy's a freak

n/t

[not systems]

5. The Omen.

That strange black mark sounds like the plot to the Omen.

He is unable to maintain the separation of fact and fiction.

In addition to the separation of church and state.

[itaintoveryet]

6. hmm, i didn't know that

the Revs. Robertson and Falwell were in Somalia at the time.

[maggrwaggr]

7. in all seriousness it sounds like he's delusional

and needs psychiatric help.

If he starts talking about his "precious bodily fluids" we're in big trouble.

[BurtWorm]

10. I had the same image!

Sterling Hayden chomping on a big cigar.

I think this incident alone would make me think twice before I let this guy anywhere near top secrets. Would Rummy be defending him if he claimed the dark shadows on his pictures were aliens?

[DrBB]

8. Now that's INTELLIGENCE!

Wow, just think what a great Dep. Sec. of Intelligence he'll make if he can turn up images of Satan himself!!!

Why, who knows, with skills like that he may be able to find a real person like OBL too.

[BurtWorm]

9. If raw data don't help, I'm sure prayer will.

[northzax]

11. you know, I think that the Grinch

may have described this guy best when he said "there's a light on one side that doesn't light up quite right."

[The_Gopher]

12. "if he said he saw a leprechaun over ireland, he'd be fired"

someone said something like that, anyone remember who or where?

talkingpointsmemo maybe?

[BurtWorm]

13. Krugman on Boykin, the Christian Soldier

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/28/opinion/28KRUG.html

Why is aiding a brutal dictator O.K., while trying to understand why others don't trust us ? and doing something to create that trust ? isn't? Why won't the administration mollify Muslims by firing Lt. Gen. William Boykin, whose anti-Islamic remarks have created vast ill will, from his counterterrorism position? Why won't it give moderate Muslims a better argument against the radicals by opposing Ariel Sharon's settlement policy, when a majority of Israelis think that some settlements should be abandoned, and even Israeli military officers have become bitterly critical of Mr. Sharon?

The answer is that in these cases politics takes priority over the war on terror. Moderate Muslims would have more faith in America's good intentions if there were at least the appearance of a distinction between the U.S. and the Sharon government ? but the administration seeks votes from those who think that supporting Israel means supporting whatever Mr. Sharon does. It's sheer folly to keep General Boykin in his present position, but as Howard Fineman writes in a Newsweek Web-exclusive column, the administration doesn't want "to make a martyr of a man who depicts himself as a Christian Soldier, marching off to war."

[Scurrilous]

14. A 2nd opinion.

Lt. General Boykin supposedly took his photograph of Mogadishu with it's 'dark mark' to an imagery interpreter trained by the military and was told “This is not a blemish on your photograph,” the interpreter told him, “This is real.”

He should have got a second opinion from another imagery interpreter. An imagery interpreter trained by civilians and w/ no military ties. An imagery interpreter less in awe of Lt. Generals. One that would have given Mr. Boykin the real explanation for the 'dark mark' on his photograph. "It's your finger @sshole."