Interesting Items by Alex Gimarc, Mar 2006

1. Apostate. The Religion of Peace in Afghanistan got itself into an interesting little dilemma over the last month or so with a young gentleman that converted from Islam to Christianity 18 years ago. He was outed by his soon-to-be-ex during divorce proceedings – the Islamic version of women accusing men of abusive behavior or molesting kids during divorce proceedings here in the US. Apparently the dual standards of justice between men and women only apply to Muslims in Afghanistan. The Mullahs, Imams, and other loudmouthed intolerant vermin instantly condemned him to death. The Christian, Abdul Rahman was arrested, charged with apostasy – essentially rejecting the faith – which requires a death sentence in Islam (nice enforcement mechanism, eh?). He was arrested, charged, and went to trial, with the entire legal system in Afghanistan arrayed against him, gleefully waiting the chance to murder him for his religious conversion. Now we did not expend American blood over there so that the new government could act just like the Taliban we tossed from power. Once word of this upcoming atrocity st arted making the rounds in the online media, talk radio and the conservative press, we st arted seeing some action by the US government. The Muslim apologists in the State Dep artment wanted to stay back, keep their mouths shut and wait for the Afghani courts to act. This would have been deadly to Mr. Rahman, so conservatives outside the beltway and Christians nationwide st arted to pressure the Bush administration to do something, and they responded nicely. There was back channel contact over a period of days, government to government between the US and the Afghani government, reminding them of our principles, one of which is the right of everyone to choose their own religion. Apparently the Karzai government “encouraged” both the courts and the Mullahs to do the right thing, and they responded in a timely manner. In a logical construct worthy of the best you could ever get out of doctrinaire Jewish or Christians, the prosecutors st arted discussing the notion that he was mentally deficient - insane. And the insane cannot be executed under the Sharia. Nice trick, and it has global implications. Eventually charges were dropped; the prisoner released, and disappeared. There was some worry that he had been kidnapped and murdered by the mob. Fortunately he showed up in Italy over the weekend where he was given sanctuary. Dr. Jack Wheeler, who writes an online intel analysis column went after the Sharia over the weekend using this case as a vehicle. He believes we need to take the offensive against these barbarians, and demonstrate how backward, intolerant, unforgiving, bloodthirsty and un-Godly the Sharia and its current practitioners are. In essence, Wheeler has called the Sharia a vulnerability and is recommending we go on the offense, support the Apostasy movement within Islam (how many parents really want their kids to blow themselves up for Allah?) and maximize the contradictions between Islam and the modern world. He suggests we go after them with vigor, gusto and a great sense of humor – for they don’t have one.

2. IBEW. One of the unfortunate things about Alaska is that there is no right to work law statewide, so the unions hold a lot of clout as they are protected from the marketplace and funnel much great deals of money into local democrat campaigns. The latest campaign st arted about a week and a half ago over elected directorship at the local electrical co-op, Chugach Electric, which supplies electricity to most of the Anchorage bowl. There was a strike around 20 years ago, after which the International brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) decided that they needed to control both sides of the negotiating table. They successfully did so until about two years ago. In recent years, they fought a delaying action, twice extending the existing contract for another three years without notice to the members or open hearings. Fiscally responsive members finally had a bellyful and elected an independent majority of board members and a 5-4 majority. Contract negotiations begin this coming year, and the union is not pleased at all with the prospect of having to sit down and give back some of their bloated, featherbedded contracts. So they decided to win this years’ Board elections. They dumped a large amount of money into a series of radio, television and print ads that have been running for the last two weeks – unprecedented for a co-op election up here. Received my ballot last week and voted against the union. Unions in this state are still overly impressed with their power and importance, for the public is getting fed up with them and their antics. I believe we are within one additional loud, nasty strike of teachers or IEBW against Chugach before the legislature passes right to work legislation and returns freedom to choose to employees statewide.

3. Buyout. GM announced their offer of cash buyouts of 113,000 GM employees. The buyout program will offer cash buyouts between $35,000 – 100,000 to United Auto Worker members who chose to leave GM and their union-promised pensions. This buyout is an attempt to get 30,000 people to leave GM so they downsize their workforce to the point they believe they need to be to survive in the new business environment. To date, the UAW has neither approved nor rejected the buyout. If the UAW should reject the proposed buyout and call a strike, GM will declare bankruptcy, get a federal judge somewhere to toss out all its pension obligations, and restructure with or without the support or agreement of the union. The union would be wise to accept the buyout. Expect this model to be used in the future as companies restructure their pensions so they can actually pay for them in the out years. This model could even be used by governments with retirees that they no longer can afford to pay. Should GM offer the buyouts as tax-free 401Ks, Roth IRAs, Medical Savings Accounts, etc., so that the recipients don’t immediately lose half of what they get to the IRS, this buyout will be far more palatable and reasonable to the employees.

4. CAIR. The Council of American Islamic Relations, the Hamas connected Muslim cheerleading organization has been filing libel lawsuits against those who would criticize Muslims and / or Islam in the terror war. Little Green Footballs last week wrote about one such lawsuit that was dropped when the target filed discovery motions against CAIR seeking to discover its connection to Hamas. CAIR dropped the lawsuit and settled quietly out of court. It is difficult to pose as a champion of free speech, tolerance, sweetness and light when you are the local face of an organization that gleefully blows up women, children and innocents simply for being Jewish living in Israel.

5. Buddhas. Little Green Footballs last Monday ran a report out of a Pakistani paper that tied Saudi Arabia to the Taliban’s destruction of 1500-year old statues of Buddha in Afghanistan several years ago. The paper quoted a documentary maker on site at the destruction in 2001 who said that Pakistani and Saudi engineers planned and executed the dynamiting.

6. Mole. Finally, Our Friends the Russians apparently had a mole within CENTCOM headqu arters during the runup to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The mole provided detailed war plans, maps and other supporting documentation to Saddam. The penetration was discovered via analysis of captured Iraqi Immigration Services documents released a few weeks ago for public consumption. Perhaps this is why the Pentagon fought so hard against their release.

1. Libby. Lawyers for the indicted Scooter Libby got the court to issue subpoenas to NYT reporters for their notes and other supporting documents. If Fitzgerald’s case against Libby is based on differences between what Libby told him and what the NYT reporters told him, then the reporters are going to have to substantiate what they said in open court. The media, which st arted this entire mess as a vehicle to destroy Carl Rove after they were unable to do the same to President Bush in the 2004 election, are going to regret st arting this p articular fight. Congratulations to Libby’s lawyers, who are aggressively defending their client. We will hope that the court reimburses their legal costs after Libby wins in court.

2. Ginsburg. Our female SCOTUS Justices have remarkably thin skin. Not only is former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor out making speeches decrying personal, political attacks on the Court, but now we find that former ACLU Legal Counsel Ruth Bader Ginsburg was out making speeches before a court organization in South Africa last month complaining about public and political pressure with the Court. Note that both of these ladies have been quite willing to substitute their morality via unconstitutional rulings for that of the People of the US via their elected representatives, and now that they are getting the expected push-back, aren’t real happy that we are st arting to stand up against them. PowerLine Blog Weds posted extensive commentary about Ginsburg defending her use of foreign law as a foundation for her decisions. She went on in the speech to note that four of her colleagues also agreed with the use of foreign law. Her rationale for using foreign law as a foundation for her rulings from on high is as follows (from her speech via PowerLine):

“We refer to decisions rendered abroad, it bears repetition, not as controlling authorities, but for their indication, in Judge Wald's words, of "common denominators of basic fairness governing relationships between the governors and the governed." “

According to PowerLine, NRO and Limbaugh, this little observation could serve rightfully as the foundation for her impeachment and removal from office, for the word “fairness” does not exist in the Constitution which she swore an oath to uphold and defend. The other thing that Ginsburg spoke about was outside criticism of the court. Apparently she has received some death threats, which she is using, like Bill Clinton used the bombing of the Murrah Building in OKC in 1995, as a vehicle to shut up all active dissent against her, her views, and her unconstitutional blathering from the Bench. At least Ginsburg is consistent with her ACLU roots, for free speech still only applies to those people who agree with her.

3. Iraq. Big Lizards did a bit of reporting about the violence in Iraq last Weds and Thurs. Apparently the Good Guys have captured some Al Qaida documents, including a death list of anti-Al Qaida officials in Iraq. Many of these are in the Sunni Triangle and include religious, military and government officials that are st arting to actively and publicly oppose Al Qaida. Al Qaida is systematically working their way down that list, killing people daily. The discovery of mass graves in the region is most interesting by what is not in them rather than what is in them. If there were death squads operating indiscriminately across Iraq in response to the attack on the Golden Mosque, you would expect men of all ages, women and children to be in the graves. This is not the case. The dead are made up almost exclusively of young Muslim men – specifically the sort of people who have been p articipating in the insurgency and supporting Al Qaida in Iraq. Big Lizards believes that the Sunni in the region have stood up vigilantes, pro-government militias who are quietly hunting down and destroying Al Qaida in their midst. It appears that the Iraqis are well on their way to solving their internal problem. The second Iraq story falls out of how we have decided to rebuild the country. After the war, we concentrated on rebuilding the military and left the police as a follow-on action. As a result, the military is well on their way to becoming a fighting force to be reckoned with in the region. Unfortunately the local police are still dominated by former regime members, infiltrated by Iranian and sympathizers in the south, and about as corrupt as they were under Saddam. This poses a serious problem, as much of the ongoing non-terrorist or insurgency related violence in the country has been caused by the 100,000 criminals Saddam released on the eve of the war. The Coalition commanders realize the problem and are now shifting their focus toward cleaning up, training, and sanitizing the Iraqi police. Of course, none of this fits the leftist media template, so none of it is reported.

4. Moussaoui. The trial of the 20th Hijacker Zacarias Moussaoui who has been convicted of murder for his p articipation in the 9-11 attacks is in its penalty phase, where he will find out if he will live or die. Last week it exploded into a mess, with the Clinton-appointed judge throwing out half of the prosecution’s case because the FAA’s lawyer pre-briefed witnesses via a series of e-mails after being specifically told not to do so. While she may yet be another affirmative action hire, not unlike the prosecution team in the OJ Trial, there may be something uglier at work. One of the claims made by families of the deceased in the attacks was that American Airlines and United Airlines could have stopped the attacks had they screened passengers properly and not allowed box cutters onboard. There is some speculation that this FAA lawyer intentionally blew the prosecution’s case in order to cover the backs of the airlines being sued. If there is a finding of act in the Moussaoui case, then the families can use that as a vehicle for successfully prosecuting their case against those airlines. In any case, the entire thing is a mess, and points out yet another mistake made by the Justice Dep artment. Moussaoui should have never been tried in the federal courts system. He should have been declared an enemy combatant by the President (which he is), hauled in front of a military tribunal, tried for murder, convicted, taken to Leavenworth and executed. There is a lot to be said for military tribunals used in w artime. Perhaps we ought to get back to using them like we have in the past 200+ years of American history.

5. Censure. Russ Feingold (D, WI), US Senator and democrat candidate for his p arty’s presidential nomination in 2008 went after President Bush last week by proposing that the Senate censure President Bush for lies about Iraq. His democrat cronies in the senate immediately ran for the tall grass, dodging reporters’ questions, and hiding from anything with a microphone. Even the normally loquacious Chuckie Schumer, (D, NY), whom you take your life in your hands if you happen to get between him and a microphone or a camera, was uncharacteristically silent. Republicans in the Senate immediately went after Feingold, demanding that he debate the issue on the floor of the senate. Arlen Specter (R, PA) was unusually blunt, all but accusing Feingold of cowardice when he rushed out of the senate floor after tossing this little hand grenade. The game in the senate now becomes the same as the Republican leadership in the House played following former Marine Jack Murtha (D, PA) call to cut and run from Iraq last year – that of forcing a vote. Democrats in the senate are now going to do whatever they can to make sure such a vote never takes place. Tom DeLay was interviewed by Tony Snow last Thursday on his radio show and was pumped, noting that Feingold was the gift that keeps on giving. While this sort of thing may appeal to the democrat kooks – which may be what Feingold is trying to stake out before the primary season begins in a year or two; it is not the sort of platform that will get him elected. In history, only one other president was censured by the senate – Andrew Jackson. And it so angered Jackson, that he got the next senate to reverse it.

1. Anti-Muslim
2. Protectionists
3. Iranian IEDs
4. McCain
5. Conyers
6. Steele
7. SD vs Judges

1. Anti-Muslims. Much of the analysis over the ports story on the right has used concepts like racism, anti-Arab bigotry, national security, immigration and other similar arguments. I don’t believe that these concepts are at the he art of the strong, visceral reaction against the Dubai ports deal. Rather, I think it has a lot more to do with an overall hardening of our collective he arts against our Islamist enemies and those that who would support them in any way. If true, this becomes a dangerous time for all involved – p articularly for our Islamist adversaries, their supporters and apologists. Nothing else that I know of can explain the reported 60-80% opposition nationwide to the Dubai ports deal. The drawback on our end is that we may be on the verge of giving the Islamists what they want – an overwhelming, brutal, biblical response to their next act of barbarity. This sort of response and our dep arture in disgust afterwards will remove the civilized world from the region, allowing the Islamists / Wahabbists to turn inward, continue what they’ve been doing, blaming their social and economic ills on the western world. Whatever happens, we must never disengage, for the problem in that p art of the world will continue to fester and worsen. We need to solve the problem right now and drag that p art of the world into the 21st Century whether they want to be there or not. The bad news for the Islamists is that I believe the citizens of the US after getting five years of barbarity rubbed in their faces have about had it with our Islamists enemies, and are stating to embrace the Ann Coulter option articulated following 9-11. I believe the PC response to Islamist barbarity by the administration, the media and chattering classes is being rejected and replaced with a Reaganite “trust, but verify” mindset. Woe be unto the next Islamist fool that does something really awful inside our borders, as they will get a response that the old Soviets would have been proud of. Remember that one of the Soviet fundamentals of warfare is anhilliation.

2. Protectionists. Congressional reaction to the proposed ports deal dredged up some truly awful responses. The most awful came out of formerly rational and sane Congressman Duncan Hunter (R, CA), Chairman of the House Committee on Armed Services, who has proposed legislation that would force divestiture of every single piece of foreign owned property, business or infrastructure designated by the Pentagon as vital national security infrastructure over a five year period nationwide. With this outrageous bit of anti-trade legislation, Hunter has joined other Republicans from 1930 who supported and passed the Smoot-Hawley tariff that took the 1929 economic downturn and turned it into a decade-long depression that almost wrecked this nation economically for good. We are wealthy because we p articipate in and lead by example the worldwide economy. We are not wealthy by hiding, cowering under our beds, behind our bathroom doors, turning inwards away from all competition. It is far more dangerous to hide than it is to be out there among them, leading, educating, creating wealth and changing he arts and minds. We are safer when the entire world is over here making money and creating a new life for themselves and their families. Hunter and his supporters ought to be ashamed of themselves.

3. Iranian IEDs. Captain’s Qu arters last Tuesday ran a note describing a new series of powerful IEDs used against American forces in Iraq. These are being mass-produced in a factory (or factories) in Iran and being shipped into Iraq. A shipment was stopped at the border on the way in last week. Over the course of the week, the administration including the WH, Pentagon and State Dep artment all st arted rattling their sabers against the Iranian weapons. The presence of these weapons also gives the CINC the excuse he needs to defend his forces and press military action directly against Iran, should the administration give the proper go-ahead. If the Mullahs want a fight, I expect they will get one.

4. McCain. John McCain ( RINO, AZ) came in fourth in a straw poll in TN last week. McCain’s nose counters apparently knew he was going to do poorly at the meeting, so a couple days before it took place found some TV cameras and suggested that his supporters cast their votes for President Bush (who is not running for any more elections). P arty regulars saw right through the smokescreen and ignored the call. Some of McCain’s supporters did end up casting their votes for the President. McCain, who is the media’s favorite Republican and anointed nominee, is about to learn a basic lesson as a Republican. That is one must be a conservative to be a national player. The people who turn out in the primaries are not impressed with politicians who believe their most important constituency is the national media. They are not impressed with politicians who author legislation that slice away large p arts of the Bill of Rights for simple political gain and media cheerlieading, as McCain – Feingold did to the First Amendment. McCain is busily attempting to get himself as close to President Bush and his policies as possible and will continue to do so for the next couple years, or at least until he figures out he cannot win the nomination. I don’t think it will work.

5. Conyers. John (I want to Impeach George Bush) Conyers, (D, MI) has been accused of violations of House ethics rules by two of his aides. Michelle Malkin last Thursday reported that two congressional aides filed complaints against Conyers accusing him of using staff in election campaigns, forcing staff to run personal errands, including babysitting Conyers’ children. The complaints were first made two years ago to the House Ethics Committee which was too busy hounding Tom DeLay investigate Conyers. The double standard still exists.

6. Steele. One of Chuckie Schumer’s (D, NY) campaign operatives in the Democrat Senate Campaign Committee pled guilt last week to identity theft against MD LtGov Michael Steele (R). The dirty tricksters obtained Steele’s social security number, took it to a credit reporting company and illegally obtained his credit history, which they st arted shopping around to their friends in the (formerly) mainstream media. Schumer, who has long railed against campaign corruption was absolutely silent on the corruption of people in his employ.

7. SD vs Judges. The South Dakota legislature last month finally went after activist federal judges on the issue of abortion. They passed a virtual ban on the procedure with no escape hatch for the aborto-docs or Planned Parenthood to use. I expect this law to be immediately litigated and probably tossed out. I also expect it to be passed again and again, not only by the SD legislature, but by other legislatures nationwide who have had a belly full of federal meddling in the law by self-anointed moral superiors masquerading as federal judges. Perhaps the federal judiciary will get the message. If they don’t that’s even better, for the more power they lose, the quicker they lose that power, the freer we all will be. And this is ultimately all about liberty and our ability to govern ourselves as we see fit.

1. Antarctica. This week’s environmental scare story out of NASA was printed in Science Magazine, breathlessly reporting that satellite data shows that the Antarctic ice cap has been losing significant ice over the last three years. On one level, it is a pretty neat story, as they are st arting to figure out how to use small variations in the gravitational field felt by the satellite as it passes over the e arth to measure changes in thicknesses of ice. On all other levels, the notion of taking a three year data sample and concluding that we are indeed in the midst of mankind caused global warming is complete garbage. Once again, Dr. Patrick Michaels in TechCentralStation.com last Thurs puts the story in perspective with an interesting article. Natural climate variations operate on decades-long cycles, few of which are even mapped, much less understood at any level, and to reach any conclusion about changes caused by global warming or the return of the next ice age is beyond idiotic. Interestingly enough, the NASA scientists chose their st art point for data analysis at a high fluctuation, so they could then point to a decline in total ice on the continent. Michaels presented other data from a significantly longer timeframe and demonstrated that the total amount of sea ice and ice on the caps is growing over the decades rather than decreasing. He ends up with a map of Antarctica showing the western p art of the ice cap decreasing in mass while the eastern p art thickening. I don’t know what is going on with the environmental scientists from NASA, but this is the third bogus global warming story released over the course of the last three weeks. All have decent observational science. All arrive at the wrong conclusions about global climate changes by taking near term observations and making far-term predictions. And finally, all are reported in the most misleading manner possible. Perhaps it is budget time for NASA climatological scientists in DC. As I asked last week, why are we paying these guys’ salaries?

2. Belugas. Cook Inlet is the body of water that Anchorage sits near the top of. It is wide, extremely muddy due to glacial outflow, has up to 30’ tidal changes, supports oil and natural gas exploration, superb salmon and halibut runs, one volcano currently in eruption, and all the sea traffic into and out of the Port of Anchorage. It also supports a population of small white whales, Belugas that feed on the salmon runs into Cook Inlet rivers and streams. Local natives have long hunted the Belugas, taking a few every year. Local Orca also hunt the Belugas, occasionally chasing schools of them onto the tidal flats to die. Nearly 50 were killed in this way near Girdwood (home of Alyeska ski resort, 40 miles east from Anchorage) three years ago. The inlet has long supported a population of around 1,000 Belugas. The greens have decided that Cook Inlet Belugas are a distinct species, separate and completely unrelated from the tens (hundreds?) of thousands of other beluga pods roaming around Alaska. It is a good trick, for if you can figure out how to draw the boundary lines of any habitat sufficiently tight, you can draw lines on a map that will render every single square foot of ocean, lake, river and land habitat for an endangered species. That is the game up here. Like they did in the Pacific Northwest 15 years ago with the spotted owl, the greens have identified a small population of animals, fenced off a sufficiently small portion of coastline, and are purposely undercounting the population of animals, hyping an environmentally caused population crash and demanding they be listed as endangered. If Cook Inlet belugas are listed as threatened or endangered, we can kiss oil and gas exploration in the Inlet goodbye. There are several oil platforms producing from the Inlet. They can work on shutting down commercial and guided fishing in the Inlet. They can st art disrupting shipping into Anchorage via the Port of Anchorage. In short, they can raise no small amount of Holy Hell via the simple stroke of a pen. For what it’s worth, local whale hunters claim that the Cook Inlet population is between 700 – 1,500 animals, which means NOAA and the National Marine Fisheries Service is deliberately undercounting the animals via their airborne surveys.

3. Stevens. Adding to a week of lousy environmental news came a breathless article in Saturday’s Anchorage Daily News that Ted Stevens (R, AK) has decided that he now officially opposes the planned Pebble mine near Iliamna. Stevens gives the reason he now opposes the mine because it and the metals it will mine are not really needed. According to the Daily Worker (News), Stevens has made a judgment on economic development in one of the poorest p arts of the state based not on jobs, not on ownership, not on wealth injected directly into the region, not on infrastructure development, and not on giving the people of the Bristol Bay region something else to do with their time other than subsistence hunting and fishing, commercial fishing, or running lodges for rich touristas. Either Stevens staff failed him by taking up with Beltway greens or Stevens himself has lost it, no longer able to distinguish between the sorts of things that will help his state and the sorts of things that will hurt it. Remember that the mining company intends (as stated in their business plan) to work the claim for over 60 years. In order to work that long, the must be good neighbors. They must take care of the land. And they probably ought to grow the numbers of catchable fish and killable game in the surrounding area – things that have happened over the generation that the Prudhoe Bay oil fields have been in operation. Interestingly, should there be another major industry in the Bristol Bay region than commercial fishing, there would be less fishing pressure on the salmon returning each year, leading to more not fewer fish in the streams available for guided fishing. If Stevens were to do his job correctly, he would take this proposed mine as an opportunity to demonstrate to the greens and the rest of the nation how we in Alaska have learned from past mistakes elsewhere and can demonstrate how to do it right with mining in the midst of prime fishing and hunting grounds.

4. India. President Bush took a road trip last week into the hottest of Southcentral Asian hotspots – Afghanistan, India and Pakistan. Bush showed the flag throughout the region and st arted finalizing strategic agreements with all three countries – agreements that will pay dividends in peace for decades to come. The most important deal was with India, a constitutional democracy of over a billion people. India also has a long-time nuclear program that has operated outside of the confines of the international regulatory regime. The President pushed a deal with India that brought them into that regime. India opened the majority of its nuclear facilities to international inspection. These are designated as civilian power and research facilities. They closed a handful of those sites to inspection by designating them as military sites. The agreement reportedly also gives the Russians, lately cozying up to Iran, first option for nuclear construction contracts in India. This p art is very important for it sends a message to both Tehran and Moscow: We will take care of our friends and trading p artners. Be one. This trip was a diplomatic tour de force for an administration under heavy fire in recent months. Congratulations.

5. Banks. Finally, Captain’s Qu arters Blog passed along a FNC story a week ago about a North Carolina commercial bank that announced they would not underwrite any development projects that rely on property seizure via eminent domain. This bank has made a business decision based on the morality of legalized theft and has decided to reject it. The National League of Cities immediately blasted away at the decision, calling it “a rush to judgment without reflection or public discussion or debate” – a line that should tell you all you ever wanted to know about the National League of Cities. This was a superb decision by a local industrial bank against those that would steal from their neighbors via the stroke of a pen. It is nice to see that there are Good Guys out there in the banking and underwriting community.

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."
- Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia State House, August 1, 1776.

Note: Interesting Items can be found at the following locations:
Debate USA, http://www.debateusa.com/ ;
MatSu Valley News http://www.matsuvalleynews.com
and the home page: http://home.gci.net/~agimarc
Rod Martin's The Vanguard site is also a long-time supporter of this column. You can find it at: http://www.thevanguard.org/

If you would like to join II's mailing list, have comments or suggestions, please contact me at: agimarc@ak.net