Decatur Again In Weird News

Stephen Decatur.

The Commodore's power moniker is appearing lately in conjunction with some disturbing stories.

Friday, September 19, 2014. Decatur, Georgia. Friday afternoon around 2:00, Decatur (Georgia) Police got several phone calls that a man acting in a "bizarre" matter, running into traffic near B&B Trailer Park. One caller reported the man, later identified as Jose Dorsett, said "someone" was trying to kill him. He reportedly ran into traffic, and several cars had to swerve to avoid him. He was said to be foaming at the mouth. Dorsett charged the officer who responded to the scene, and the officer used his K-9 to detain him. The K-9 bit Dorsett in his thigh, and the officer was able to get him down. Another officer arrived to help handcuff Dorsett. He was taken to the Decatur Morgan Parkway Campus Emergency Room. According to hospital staff, Dorsett was under the influence of cocaine and was likely experiencing a drug overdose. On Saturday, Dorsett was declared brain dead. Source.

Sunday, September 21, 2014. Decatur, Indiana. Stephen Cox, 30, of Decatur, Indiana, died Sunday at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, according to the Hamilton County Coroner. The crash in which he sustained his injuries occurred September 14 at Kentucky Speedway in Sparta, Ohio. the crash occurred during an event called the Rusty Wallace Racing Experience. During the event, which is offered at the speedway on most weekends, people can pay to ride in or drive race cars. Source.

Monday, September 22, 2014. Decaturville, Decatur County, Tennessee. The latest suspect, John “Dylan” Adams, 26-year old younger brother of earlier suspect Zachary, in the Holly Bobo case was arraigned in Decatur County Court. Holly Bobo, a 20-year-old nursing student, was abducted from her home outside Parsons, Tennessee, about 100 miles west of Nashville, on the morning of April 13, 2011. Her remains were found by two farmers in a rural area outside Holladay, Tennessee, in Decatur County on September 7, 2014. The timeline of the events can be found here and here.

Monday, September 22, 2014. Decatur, Alabama. A toddler found submerged in a tank of baptismal water in an Alabama church died of accidental drowning. Brayden King, who was two months shy of his second birthday, was under the supervision of a sister in her early teens when he fell into the tank on Friday at the Pentecostal House of Prayer in Decatur, about 75 miles north of Birmingham. The toddler was found in 33 inches of water and declared dead after unsuccessful attempts to resuscitate him. Source.

The Rebirth of Pan (1st edition, Firebird Press, 1983)

Mysterious America (1st edition cover, Faber & Faber, 1983)

Decatur again. Yes. We are aware that Decatur interacts with bizarre news. Jim Brandon pointed out "Decatur" as a "power name" in his The Rebirth of Pan in 1983, and I wrote about it as part of the "Name Game" in Mysterious America, also first in 1983.

Decatur, Illinois's iconic Transfer Station use to be located in Lincoln Square, named after the assassinated Illinois president, Abraham Lincoln.

My old hometown’s name, Decatur, (of Decatur, Illinois) has a Fortean mystique and synchromysticism about it that has created all kinds of synchromojo.

Several locations are named "Decatur" across the United States of America. Such sites are named after the War of 1812′s Navy hero, Stephen Decatur, who also fought against the Barbary pirates. Stephen Decatur at one time conducted tests in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey in 1804, and allegedly fired on the Jersey Devil. The records say that Stephen Decatur identified the winged creature as a “devil” – pale in color, with leathery bat-like wings. Decatur perforated one of the thing’s wings with a fired cannonball, but it seemed unfazed, which disturbed everybody who was there at the time. It flew off.

The word decatur (French in origin) is loosely translated as “dweller at the sign of the cat.”

Stephen Decatur, a Masonic figure of some noteworthiness, is responsible, as well, for the Stephen Decatur House in Washington D.C., which is located on Lafayette Square.

The USS Bainbridge, which organized the 2009 US Navy rescue of an American ship captain (Captain Richard Phillips) from Somali pirates, was named for Commodore William Bainbridge, who was held prisoner by North African Barbary pirates from 1803 to 1806.

Commodore Bainbridge commanded several famous naval ships, including the USS Constitution and saw service in the Barbary Wars and the War of 1812. Bainbridge was also in command of the USS Philadelphia when it grounded off the shores of Tripoli in North Africa, resulting in his capture and imprisonment for many months. In the latter part of his career he became the U.S. Naval Commissioner.

Lieutenant Stephen Decatur commanding the USS Intrepid executed a night raid into Tripoli harbor on February 16, 1804 to destroy the Philadelphia. Admiral Horatio Nelson is said to have called this "the most bold and daring act of the Age."

It is worthy of pointing out that James Shelby Downard's research in King Kill 33 notes that Bain relates to Bane (fatal cause of mischief), and in Scottish legend, the Bain Fairy is a death fairy who is the keeper of the Bain Bridge. King Kill 33 noted the American battleship Bainbridge, which was dedicated by Lyndon Baines Johnson, is a harbinger of death, according to Downard.

On March 22, 1820, Commodore Bainbridge served as the second for Commodore Stephen Decatur (a Brother Mason) in the duel with fellow Navy officer James Barron that cost Decatur his life at the age of 41. His wife Susan called the seconds Decatur's assassins. The Decatur name game is a book unto itself.

Decatur's name dots the landscape of America.

U.S. Naval Academy

117 Decatur Road

Annapolis, Maryland

The chorus: "That Decatur old Neptune's proud trident shall bear, And the laurels of Vict'ry triumphantly wear" appears in the song Stephen Decatur, as noted in The Life and Character of Stephen Decatur; Late Commodore and Post-Captain in the Navy of the United States, and Navy-Commissioner by Samuel Putnam Waldo (1822).

(Thanks to Robert Schneck for pointing out the Decatur, Alabama story to me.)

Decapitations, Dawns, Masked Men, and Tridents

September 9-11 Alert:

How is it that we find ourselves here? At this juncture of history, after recent years of writings on red dawns, auroras, beheadings, dark knights, masked men, and tridents, we rush towards an exact moment in time foreshadowed in our nightmares (predestined for madness?) by the Libyan Dawn, the Masked Men Brigade, ISIS, and indirectly, the Rapid Trident exercise.

An Islamist fighter from the Fajr Libya (Libyan Dawn) coalition flashes the V sign for victory at the entrance of Tripoli international airport on August 24, 2014 - and his truck has an enigmatic "17" painted on its door. (For more on the synchromystical significance that some give to the number 17, see here.)

What hellish path brings us to this temporal point, with September 9th to September 11th on the horizon for the Mideast? And what is to occur with a mid-September "Rapid Trident" exercise in the Ukraine?

Masked men belonging to various Palestinian factions announced in Hebron on Dec. 15, 2012, the establishment of the National Unity Brigades and the beginning of a third intifada against Israel. Source.

Decapitations

Beheadings are in the news, thanks to ISIS. And thanks to tabloid journalism. These acts of terror have been placed to the forefront of news reportage for over a decade. They are graphic, individual attacks of terror. The list is growing long.

Steven Joel Sotloff, abducted August 4, 2013, beheaded around September 2, 2014.

James Foley, abducted November 22, 2012, beheaded around August 19, 2014.

Kenneth John "Ken" Bigley, abducted September 16, 2004, beheaded on October 7, 2004.

Jack Hensley, beheaded on September 21, 2004.

Owen Eugene "Jack" Armstrong, abducted September 16, 2004, beheaded on September 20, 2004.

Paul Marshall Johnson, Jr., abducted June 12, 2004, beheaded around June 18, 2004.

Nicholas Evan "Nick" Berg, abducted around April 9, 2004, beheaded on May 7, 2004.

Daniel Pearl, abducted January 23, 2002, beheaded on February 1, 2002.

Are you aware there have been three US/UK decapitations/beheadings in the last few days? (There have been several, historically, needless to say.)

On August 29, 2014, an unidentified man, formerly of Chicago, conducted a self-decapitation (with a cable tied to a tree, wrapped around his neck) in Yorktown, Virginia. Source.

On September 1, 2014, using a similar method - a cable, a wooden pole, and a car - Tomas Rivera, 51, of Port Jervis, New York, decapitated himself in Hunts Point, Bronx, New York. Source.

Both news reports used exactly the same wording that the men "hit the gas" before killing themselves.

An unnamed elderly woman was beheaded in the garden of a north London, UK, house, and her body found on September 4, 2014. Source.

Tragic and horrible, of course. Perhaps the American suicides are related to the copycat suicidal atmosphere in the USA, in the wake of the Robin Williams self-hanging? Perhaps the UK beheading is stimulated by the beheadings in the news of Sotloff and Foley?  But is there something more wicked this way coming?

Libyan Dawn/Masked Men Brigade

Eleven - yes, 11 - commercial airliners have been stolen by the Masked Men Brigade or the Libyan Dawn or both in Tripoli. And where does ISIS fit in this picture?

Tripoli International Airport was overtaken by the group Libyan Dawn in August 2014, and now 11 aircraft for Libyan Airlines and Afriqiyah Airways are missing. 

Members of the Fajr Libya (Libyan Dawn) coalition guard the entrance to the Tripoli International Airport on August 24, 2014.

September 9-11 Anniversary Syndrome

There is great concern for what might be ahead for next Thursday, on the anniversary of September 11.

But the focus on the 11th could be a danger, in and of itself.

This year's Supermoon on September 9th is metaphorically creating a tidal wave of human emotions in ways unimagined. But astronomy is not the key. It is the human elements in play that will cause what we see unfold.

The 13th anniversary of 9/11 is reinforced with the second anniversary of the attack on the American embassy on September 11, 2012, and killing of former Navy SEALS and American diplomats at Benghazi, Libya.

Human behavior forecasting is not a parlor game. It is a real life exercise to attempt to predict real time behaviors (actions, conduct, performance) that call forth protective factors that should be put in place, and prevention measures to employ to keep our friends out of harms' way.

The anniversary syndrome is strong at this time of year. You can actually "feel it in the air," with the changing seasons.

Here are some events tied to incidents in the past that jumped out during my examination of the dates September 9-11:

September 9 ~
1970 – A British airliner is hijacked by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and flown to Dawson's Field (a remote desert airstrip near Zarka, formerly used as a British Royal Air Force base) in Jordan.
2001 – Ahmed Shah Massoud, leader of the Northern Alliance, is assassinated in Afghanistan by two al Qaeda assassins who claimed to be Arab journalists wanting an interview.
2004 – A bomb explodes outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta, killing 10 people.
2012 – A wave of attacks kill more than 108 people and injure 351 others in Iraq.

September 10 ~ 
1898 – Empress Elizabeth of Austria is assassinated by Luigi Lucheni.
1939 – World War II: The submarine HMS Oxley is mistakenly sunk by the submarine HMS Triton near Norway and becomes the Royal Navy's first loss.
1976 – A British Airways Hawker Siddeley Trident and an Inex-Adria DC-9 collide near Zagreb, Yugoslavia, killing 176.
2000 – Operation Barras successfully frees six British soldiers held captive for over two weeks and contributes to the end of the Sierra Leone Civil War.
2001 – Antonio da Costa Santos, mayor of Campinas, Brazil is assassinated.
2003 – Anna Lindh, the foreign minister of Sweden, is fatally stabbed (assassinated) while shopping, and dies the following day.

September 11 ~

1922 – The British mandate of Palestine begins.

1939 – Iraq and Saudi Arabia declares war on Nazi-Germany. 

1968 – Air France Flight 1611 crashes off Nice, France, killing 89 passengers and 6 crew.
1970 – The Dawson's Field hijackers release 88 of their hostages. The remaining hostages, mostly Jewish and Israeli citizens, are held until September 25.

The origins of the Black September movement began with Arafat's clashes with Jordan, intriguingly due to hijacked planes. On September 6-12, 1970, four TWA, Swissair and BOAC planes were hijacked (the El Al one failed), destroyed, and this was directly tied to Palestine civil uprisings and the resulting suppression that was to be called Jordan's "Black September." 

1972 – The Munich Summer Olympics end. At this Olympics the "Black September" terrorists killed 11 Israeli athletes, on the 5th.
1974 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 212 crashes in Charlotte, North Carolina, killing 69 passengers and two crew.
1976 – A group of Croatian nationalists plant a bomb in a coin locker at Grand Central Terminal. After stating political demands, they reveal the location and provide instructions for disarming the bomb. The disarming operation is not executed properly, killing one NYPD bomb squad specialist.

1994 – A private plane attempts to crash into the White House.
2001 – Two hijacked aircraft crash into the World Trade Center in New York City, while a third smashes into The Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, and a fourth into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, in a series of coordinated suicide attacks by 19 members of al-Qaeda. Altogether, 2,996 people are killed.
2003 – Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh dies from her assassination stabbing of the previous day.
2012 – The U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya is attacked, resulting in four deaths. U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, Foreign Service Information Officer Sean Smith, and CIA contractors and former Navy SEALS Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were killed during the series of raids, commencing at nightfall and continuing into the next morning.

11s

There is something special about the number 11 to terrorists, no doubt about it. Such incidents as the 3/11 [2005] Madrid, 7/11 [2006] Mumbai, and 9/11 [2001] terrorist attacks serve as misnamed “celebrity events” that become models copied by other Islamic extremists.

Pakistani Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, the alleged Al-Qaeda mastermind behind the first World Trade Center bombing, was quoted as saying after the failed 1993 attempt that they would do it right the second time. He was also the brains behind the elaborate Bojinka, translated as “the explosion.” This was a plot to place bombs on 11 American jetliners and have them all explode on the same day, over the Pacific Ocean. 

Yousef carried out a test run for Bojinka by planting a bomb that detonated on Philippines Airlines Flight 434, on December 11, 1994. One tourist was killed, ten injured. Yousef called the Associated Press after this bombing, to give credit to Abu Sayyaf. His friend Khalid Sheik Mohammed would launch the deadly September 11 terrorist attacks, which were built from parts of Operation Bojinka.  

It does not seem to be a coincidence that the first airliner to crash into the Twin Towers (a symbolic 11) was American Airlines (AA = 11) Flight 11.

The flight number for the American Airlines plane that crashed into the Pentagon was 77.

As noted in the opening of my 2004 book The Copycat Effect: How the Media and Popular Culture Trigger the Mayhem in Tomorrow's Headlines, September 11th was the date of an assault by a private plane on the White House, in 1994, although the attack is little remembered today. 

September 11th is not to be ignored. But is there a growing "danger zone" around that date now?

For this September 2014, avoid letting your guard down on the 9th and 10th, just because you know you should be on alert on the 11th. Also, realign the hot spots of awareness from land-based sites, and think outside the box. While watching Iraq, Syria, and Ukraine, be careful of soft symbolic targets linked to those that are identified with, for example, the U.S. Navy (tridents), political figures (dark knights/assassinations), and auroras (red dawn attacks). 

A storm is coming. The Dark Knight still rises. We are at a concurrence of circumstances that will be revealed, soon enough. It is up to you to prevent them. Yes, you. Be alert, be safe, and be proactive.

+++

Upon reading the above, the following was sent in response:

"Sometimes these days when I wake up, I think I must have

been dreaming, and it is still the 12th century." ~ Brad Steiger, September 5, 2014.

Tripoli, Tridents, Three Cities, Mermaids, Navy Seals, and Jonah

From the Halls of Montezuma

To the shores of Tripoli;

We fight our country's battles

In the air, on land, and sea;

First to fight for right and freedom

And to keep our honor clean;

We are proud to claim the title

Of United States Marine.

The breaking news Saturday, July 26, 2014, is that the United States is shutting down its embassy in Libya and evacuating its diplomats to neighboring Tunisia under U.S. military escort amid a significant deterioration in security in Tripoli as fighting intensified between rival militias, the State Department said.

To the shores of Tripoli

The lyrics are contained in the book Rhymes of the Rookies by W. E. Christian, published in 1917. The author of these poems was W.E. Christian. They are more commonly known today as being in the "Marines' Hymn," which is the official hymn of the United States Marine Corps.

The line "To the shores of Tripoli" refers to the First Barbary War (1801-1805), and specifically the Battle of Derna in 1805. The conflict involved war with the Barbary States (the Ottoman provinces of Tripoli, Algiers, and Tunis). The run up to the war and the war involved many names you have heard before in this blog (e.g. Bainbridge, Decatur, and others). The return of the bodies of the precursors to today's Navy SEALs has been an ongoing challenge in working with the governments of Tripoli. 

The Tripoli Monument is the oldest military monument in the United States. It honors heroes of the First Barbary War: Master Commandant Richard Somers, Lieutenant James Caldwell, James Decatur (brother of Stephen Decatur), Henry Wadsworth, Joseph Israel, and John Dorsey. It was carved in Livorno, Italy in 1806 and brought to the United States on board the USS Constitution. From its original installation in the Washington Navy Yard in 1808 it was moved to the west terrace of the United States Capitol in 1831, and finally to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland in 1860. (See additionally, "Remains of 'First Navy Seals' Lie in Tripoli," Washington Post, May 29, 2011, and also, Richard Somers.)

Tripoli (Arabic: طرابلس ‎ Ṭarābulus) is the capital city and the largest city of Libya. As of 2011, the Tripoli metropolitan area (district area) had a population of 2.2 million people. The city is located in the northwestern part of Libya on the edge of the desert, on a point of rocky land projecting into the Mediterranean and forming a bay.

Tripoli was founded in the 7th century BC by the Phoenicians, who named it Oea.

Tripoli is also known as Tripoli-of-the-West (Arabic: طرابلس الغرب‎ Ṭarābulus al-Gharb), to distinguish it from its older Phoenician sister city Tripoli, Lebanon known in Arabic as Ṭarābulus al-Sham (طرابلس الشام) meaning "Levantine Tripoli." It is affectionately called The Mermaid of the Mediterranean (Arabic: عروسة البحر‎ ʼarūsat el-baḥr; lit: "bride of the sea"), describing its turquoise waters and its whitewashed buildings. Tripoli is a Greek name that means "Three Cities," introduced in Western European languages through the Italian Tripoli. In Arabic: طرابلس‎ it is called Ṭarābulus, Libyan Arabic: Ṭrābləs, Berber: Trables, from Ancient Greek: Τρίπολις Trípolis).

Around the beginning of the 3rd century AD, it became known as the Regio Tripolitana, meaning "region of the three cities," namely Oea (i.e., modern Tripoli), Sabratha and Leptis Magna.

Tridents and Tripoli have been associated for centuries. The above Medal of Louis XV, notes the bombing of Tripoli by Duvivier, 1728 Paris. The reverse shows Nepture with his Trident, threatening Tripoli. 

The British Naval General Service Medal, 1848, was given to veterans of the naval battles along the Barbary Coast during the French Revolutionary War and Napoleonic Wars. The reserve shown is Britannia with a trident seated sideways on a seahorse.

Watery creatures and Tripoli go fin-in-fin, so to speak.

In 2011, a Libyan rebel poses on a sofa shaped like a mermaid, with the face of Muammar Gaddafi's daughter Aisha at her home in Tripoli.

The name game in Libya even got involved in the civil war there.

The Battle of Tripoli (Arabic: معركة طرابلس‎ maʻarakat Ṭarābulis) - in August 2011 - was a military confrontation in Tripoli, Libya, between loyalists of Muammar Gaddafi, the longtime leader of Libya, and the National Transitional Council, which was attempting to overthrow Gaddafi and take control of the capital. The battle began on 20 August 2011, six months after the Libyan civil war started, with an uprising within the city; rebel forces outside the city planned an offensive to link up with elements within Tripoli, and eventually take control of the nation's capital.

The rebels codenamed the assault "Operation Mermaid Dawn" (Arabic: عملية فجر عروسة البحر‎ ʻamaliyyat fajr ʻarūsat el-baḥr). As noted above, Tripoli's nickname is "The Mermaid" (Arabic: عروسة البحر‎ ʻarūsat el-baḥr) (literally "bride of the sea").

Mermaid! Dawn!

Libya has remained unstable for some time.

On the evening of September 11, 2012, Islamic militants attacked the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya (560 miles East of Tripoli), killing four Americans in the attack: Ambassador Stevens, Information Officer Sean Smith, and two CIA operatives, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, both former Navy SEALs.

Official Seal of the Navy Seals, with trident.

Now comes the evacuating of Americans from Tripoli, on the heels of the crash of Air Algerie Flight 5017.

Meanwhile, in Iraq, on July 25, 2014, an Iraqi shrine that is purported to be the burial site of Jonah, who the Bible says was swallowed by a whale, has been blown up by Islamic State militants (ISIS). The tomb, a popular destination for religious pilgrims and tourists, was inside a Sunni mosque in Mosul called the Mosque of the Prophet Younis, which is Arabic for Jonah. It dates back to the eighth century BC. The story of Jonah, or Younis, who was said to have survived three days in the belly of a whale, appears in both the Bible and Quran.