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Thursday, January 26, 2017

THE 81ST STAR

An ex-CIA operations officer wrote this piece in the NY Times regarding the affront she and other officers felt when our president stood in front of the wall of stars at the CIA honoring those who gave their life for this country. 

The 81st star belongs to Gregg Wenzel, clandestine officer, and former Dade County Assistant Public Defender. We've written about Mr. Wenzel here and here. 

From the NY Times:

When the 81st star was carved into the wall in 2003, the fallen patriot’s name was not added to the accompanying Book of Honor. At the time, his C.I.A. affiliation was classified, as it remained for nearly six more years. I will never forget seeing his family at the ceremony, knowing they could not tell their loved ones the truth about his death. He died with nobody knowing who he was or what he did for our country. But I believe that is how he would have wanted it, because, as the former C.I.A. director Leon E. Panetta said when finally revealing my friend’s name in 2009, “He lived for a purpose greater than himself.”

Gregg Wenzel left his law career to serve his country after Sept. 11, 2001. He died at 33 years old, in Ethiopia, while working tirelessly in pursuit of information needed to help protect this country. I don’t know if he was a liberal or a conservative; I don’t know whom he voted for. I know only that he was dedicated, loyal, adventurous and a jokester. And he welcomed me as a sister when we met overseas, knowing nothing more than that I was a colleague and shared his sense of mission.

Make no mistake about one thing in our day and age: character counts. Character is what you do and how you act when no one is looking. Gregg Wenzel had character, honor, integrity. He believed and lived and died for the credo Duty; Honor; County. 

There are just some people who have not earned the right to even stand before the 81st star, the 80 stars before the 81st, and those that have come and will sadly come in the future. 

See you in court. 

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

You mean like Obama did in 2009 when he stood in the exact same place and cracked some jokes? Google it Rumpole, before this blog becomes "fake news."

Anonymous said...

The current president is a traitor and the CIA knows it. That's the real reason they are so pissed off at him. It's not just that he is a crass no class rich guy.

Anonymous said...

Can someone post a picture of Greg?

Anonymous said...

I love how the fake liberal media is saying trump banned 134 million people from coming here. Why the hell do we need 134 million people here. We have over 330 million here already. Enough is enough. It's not our obligation to accept and pay for the world. Especially when they come from cultures incompatible with ours.

You put doors on your house, fences around your yards, walls around neighborhoods ( at least the safer ones). Why shouldn't we do the same for our country.

Are we scared of not looking PC enough that we'll let the Middle East come and destroy our lifestyles to satisfy the SJW's?

They did enough damage on 9/11. Now it's time to close our borders. There is no global right to come to America. You don't like your country, pick one of the 300 plus other ones to live in. We don't want you here

Anonymous said...

Does anyone think these 7 Middle East countries would allow mass emigrations of Americans into their countries? Of course not, we would not be welcome there. Why are people up in arms about making sure we give America to middle easterners. This is our country, take some pride in it. If it's so bad, go live in Yemen, I'm sure they'll treat you great.

We can't feed our own population, poverty is a giant problem, a small city like fling hasn't had clean water in years, healthcare is a mess, and all we are doing in protesting our govt not letting more people incompatible with western culture into our country.

Perhaps there should be a sponsorship protest. If you love these people so much, sponsor one or two and they can live in your home, you are responsible for them, and they can't use any govt money or services ( as they didn't put any tax money in). How money of you will do that ? My guess is none.

Instead, protest how much we want to ruin America with illegal aliens and then leave your signs and garbage in the streets for Americans to pick up after you.

If only there was a closer place with resources these "refugees" could go....ah yes, Dubai.

That wall can't go up soon enough!!! I'll volunteer my weekends til its complete.

And please don't interfere with normal people's travel plans by having your "I hate America, I love the Middle East" sit ins at the airport. Individuals who are citizens of this country need to travel and you disrupting their flights bc of your hatred of this country only further alienates your cause. Go do it in a park somewhere

Anonymous said...

I'm not renewing my FACDL membership. The listserv has become a liberal sounding board.

Look - this is not a Muslim ban. The executive order as is still permits 1 billion Muslims (80%) to travel to the US. Indonesia, which has one of the largest Muslim populations, has been left off the list. So has Egypt and Saudi Arabia and countless other Muslim majority countries.

Trump is temporarily halting immigration from terror prone countries. Are these terror prone countries Muslim majority? Yes, but what is the greatest threat the US is facing right now? Radical Islamic terror. This is a temporary ban on migration and the refugee program while we can put our vetting process into place.

If you look at the Paris truck massacre and the Brussels Airport bombing, you will see that the perpetrators used the refugee program to enter Europe. ISIS has declared, and national security experts have confirmed, will infiltrate these populations.

This is an excuse to go after Trump and further delegitimize his presidency. He promised he would do this during the campaign, and he is carrying it out. So use your hijab filters and trendy hashtags and go protest at airports. We'll remember this next time there is a terror attack on US soil.

Anonymous said...

If this was to stop 9/11 terrorists, why didn't POTUS ban entry from the countries that those who committed 9/11 came from, like Saudi Arabia?

Anonymous said...

I think it is sad that this was a blog about a heroic Gregg Wenzel, a lawyer who made an incredible sacrifice, a nice guy known to many in the court house and a person who's muse seemed to parallel Pat Tillman and yet, no comments??? There is no honor, no righteousness, no loyalty, no proper memorializing among many of the lawyers. Rump, I'm disappointed in you allowing posts that had little to do with the theme of the blog.