GUARDING THE TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER

This video is from several years ago.  Chris Wallace's Fox News Sunday Power Player of the Week profile is a fascinating look at those that guard the Unknown Soldiers at Arlington National Cemetary.

TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER

Interesting facts about the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Sentinels of the Third United States Infantry Regiment "Old Guard"

Q: How many steps does the guard take during his walk across the tomb of the Unknowns and why?
A: 21 steps. It alludes to the twenty-one gun salute, which is the highest honor given any military or foreign dignitary.

Q: How long does he hesitate after his about face to begin his return walk and why?
A: 21 seconds, for the same reason as answer number 1.

Q: Why are his gloves wet?
A: His gloves are moistened to prevent his losing his grip on the rifle.

Q: Does he carry his rifle on the same shoulder all the time, and if not, why not?
A: No, he carries the rifle on the shoulder away from the tomb. After his march across the path, he executes an about face and moves the rifle to the outside shoulder.

Q: How often are the guards changed?
A: Guards are changed every thirty minutes, twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year.

Q: What are the physical traits of the guard limited to?
A: For a person to apply for guard duty at the tomb, he must be between 5' 10" and 6' 2" tall and his waist size cannot exceed 30".

Other requirements of the Guard:
They must commit 2 years of life to guard the tomb, live in a barracks under the tomb, and cannot drink any alcohol on or off duty FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES. They cannot swear in public FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES and cannot disgrace the uniform {fighting} or the tomb in any way.

After TWO YEARS, the guard is given a wreath pin that is worn on their lapel signifying they served as guard of the tomb. There are only 400 presently worn. The guard must obey these rules for the rest of their lives or give up the wreath pin.

The shoes are specially made with very thick soles to keep the heat and cold from their feet. There are metal heel plates that extend to the top of the shoe in order to make the loud click as they come to a halt. There are no wrinkles, folds or lint on the uniform. Guards dress for duty in front of a full-length mirror.

The first SIX MONTHS of duty a guard cannot talk to anyone, nor watch TV. All off duty time is spent studying the 175 notable people laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery. A guard must memorize who they are and where they are interred. Among the notables are: President Taft, Joe E. Lewis {the boxer} and Medal of Honor winner Audie Murphy, {the most decorated soldier of WWII} of Hollywood fame. Every guard spends FIVE HOURS A DAY getting his uniforms ready for guard duty.

The Sentinels Creed:

My dedication to this sacred duty is total and wholehearted. In the responsibility bestowed on me never will I falter. And with dignity and perseverance my standard will remain perfection. Through the years of diligence and praise and the discomfort of the elements, I will walk my tour in humble reverence to the best of my ability. It is he who commands the respect I protect. His bravery that made us so proud. Surrounded by well meaning crowds by day alone in the thoughtful peace of night, this soldier will in honored glory rest under my eternal vigilance.

More Interesting facts about the Tomb of the Unknowns itself:

The marble for the Tomb of the Unknowns was furnished by the Vermont Marble Company of Danby, Vt. The marble is the finest and whitest of American marble, quarried from the Yule Marble Quarry located near Marble, Colorado and is called Yule Marble. The Marble for the Lincoln memorial and other famous buildings was also quarried there.

The Tomb consists of seven pieces of rectangular marble: Four pieces in sub base; weight Â- 15 tons;

One piece in base or plinth; weight Â- 16 tons;

One piece in die; weight Â- 36 tons;

One piece in cap; weight Â- 12 tons;

Carved on the East side (the front of the Tomb, which faces Washington, D.C.) is a composite of three figures, commemorative of the spirit of the Allies of World War I.

In the center of the panel stands Victory (female).

On the right side, a male figure symbolizes Valor.

On the left side stands Peace, with her palm branch to reward the devotion and sacrifice that went with courage to make the cause of righteousness triumphant.

The north and south sides are divided into three panels by Doric pilasters. In each panel is an inverted wreath.

On the west, or rear, panel (facing the Amphitheater) is inscribed:

HERE RESTS IN HONORED GLORY AN AMERICAN SOLDIER KNOWN BUT TO GOD

The first Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was a sub base and a base or plinth. It was slightly smaller than the present base. This was torn away when the present Tomb was started Aug. 27, 1931. The Tomb was completed and the area opened to the public 9:15 a.m. April 9, 1932, without any ceremony.

Cost of the Tomb: $48,000
Sculptor: Thomas Hudson Jones
Architect: Lorimer Rich
Contractors: Hagerman & Harris, New York City
Inscription: Author Unknown
(Interesting Commentary)

The Third Infantry Regiment at Fort Myer has the responsibility for providing ceremonial units and honor guards for state occasions, White House social functions, public celebrations and interments at Arlington National Cemetery and standing a very formal sentry watch at the Tomb of the Unknowns.

The public is familiar with the precision of what is called "walking post" at the Tomb. There are roped off galleries where visitors can form to observe the troopers and their measured step and almost mechanically, silent rifle shoulder changes. They are relieved every hour in a very formal drill that has to be seen to be believed.

Some people think that when the Cemetery is closed to the public in the evening that this show stops. 

First, to the men who are dedicated to this work, it is no show. It is a "charge of honor." The formality and precision continues uninterrupted all night. During the nighttime, the drill of relief and the measured step of the on-duty sentry remain unchanged from the daylight hours. To these men, these special men, the continuity of this post is the key to the honor and respect shown to these honored dead, symbolic of all unaccounted for American combat dead. The steady rhythmic step in rain, sleet, snow, hail, heat and cold must be uninterrupted. Uninterrupted is the important part of the honor shown.


Soaked to the skin, marching in the pelting rain of a tropical storm, they said that guarding the Tomb was not just an assignment; it was the highest honor that can be afforded to a service person. The tomb has been patrolled continuously, 24/7, since 1930. 



Source: Free Republic

Links:
Arlington National Cemetary
The History Channel~Arlington National Cemetary

The 28 Principles Of Freedom

We are at a critical time in American's history.. We as citizens have the responsibility to stand up for the principles of freedom that made our country great. This is inspired by the book, "The 5000 Year Leap" written by Cleon Skousen.

THE 28 PRINCIPLES OF FREEDOM AND LIBERTY

Discover the 28 fundamental beliefs of the Founding Fathers which they said must be understood and perpetuated by every people who desired peace, prosperity, and freedom.

These beliefs have made possible more progress in 200 years than was made previously in over 5,000 years.

The following is a brief overview of the principles found in The Five Thousand Year Leap, and one chapter is devotes to each of these 28 principles.

Principle 1 - The only reliable basis for sound government and just human relations is Natural Law.

Natural law is God's law. There are certain laws which govern the entire universe, and just as Thomas Jefferson said in the Declaration of Independence, there are laws which govern in the affairs of men which are "the laws of nature and of nature's God."

Principle 2 - A free people cannot survive under a republican constitution unless they remain virtuous and morally strong.

"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters." - Benjamin Franklin

Principle 3 - The most promising method of securing a virtuous people is to elect virtuous leaders.

"Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt. He therefore is the truest friend to the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who ... will not suffer a man to be chosen into any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man." - Samuel Adams

Principle 4 - Without religion the government of a free people cannot be maintained.

"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.... And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion." - George Washington

Principle 5 - All things were created by God, therefore upon him all mankind are equally dependent, and to him they are equally responsible.

The American Founding Fathers considered the existence of the Creator as the most fundamental premise underlying all self-evident truth. They felt a person who boasted he or she was an atheist had just simply failed to apply his or her divine capacity for reason and observation.

Principle 6 - All mankind were created equal.

The Founders knew that in these three ways, all mankind are theoretically treated as:

1.      Equal before God.

2.      Equal before the law.

3.      Equal in their rights.

Principle 7 - The proper role of government is to protect equal rights, not provide equal things.

The Founders recognized that the people cannot delegate to their government any power except that which they have the lawful right to exercise themselves.

Principle 8 - Mankind are endowed by God with certain unalienable rights.

"Those rights, then, which God and nature have established, and are therefore called natural rights, such as are life and liberty, need not the aid of human laws to be more effectually invested in every man than they are; neither do they receive any additional strength when declared by the municipal [or state] laws to be inviolable. On the contrary, no human legislation has power to abridge or destroy them, unless the owner [of the right] shall himself commit some act that amounts to forfeiture." - William Blackstone

Principle 9 - To protect human rights, God has revealed a code of divine law.

"The doctrines thus delivered we call the revealed or divine law, and they are to be found only in the Holy Scriptures. These precepts, when revealed, are found by comparison to be really a part of the original law of nature, as they tend in all their consequences to man's felicity." - William Blackstone

Principle 10 - The God-given right to govern is vested in the sovereign authority of the whole people.

"The fabric of American empire ought to rest on the solid basis of the consent of the people. The streams of national power ought to flow immediately from that pure, original fountain of all legislative authority." - Alexander Hamilton

Principle 11 - The majority of the people may alter or abolish a government which has become tyrannical.

"Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes ... but when a long train of abuses and usurpations ... evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security." - Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence

Principle 12 - The United States of America shall be a republic.

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands...."

Principle 13 - A Constitution should protect the people from the frailties of their rulers.

"If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.... [But lacking these] you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself." - James Madison

Principle 14 - Life and liberty are secure only so long as the rights of property are secure.

John Locke reasoned that God gave the earth and everything in it to the whole human family as a gift. Therefore the land, the sea, the acorns in the forest, the deer feeding in the meadow belong to everyone "in common." However, the moment someone takes the trouble to change something from its original state of nature, that person has added his ingenuity or labor to make that change. Herein lies the secret to the origin of "property rights."

Principle 15 - The highest level of prosperity occurs when there is a free-market economy and a minimum of government regulations.

Prosperity depends upon a climate of wholesome stimulation with four basic freedoms in operation:

1.      The Freedom to try.

2.      The Freedom to buy.

3.      The Freedom to sell.

4.      The Freedom to fail. 

Principle 16 - The government should be separated into three branches.

"I call you to witness that I was the first member of the Congress who ventured to come out in public, as I did in January 1776, in my Thoughts on Government ... in favor of a government with three branches and an independent judiciary. This pamphlet, you know, was very unpopular. No man appeared in public to support it but yourself." - John Adams

Principle 17 - A system of checks and balances should be adopted to prevent the abuse of power by the different branches of government.

"It will not be denied that power is of an encroaching nature and that it ought to be effectually restrained from passing the limits assigned to it." - James Madison

Principle 18 - The unalienable rights of the people are most likely to be preserved if the principles of government are set forth in a written Constitution.

The structure of the American system is set forth in the Constitution of the United States and the only weaknesses which have appeared are those which were allowed to creep in despite the Constitution.

Principle 19 - Only limited and carefully defined powers should be delegated to government, all others being retained by the people.

The Tenth Amendment is the most widely violated provision of the bill of rights. If it had been respected and enforced America would be an amazingly different country than it is today. This amendment provides:

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

Principle 20 - Efficiency and dispatch require that the government operate according to the will of the majority, but constitutional provisions must be made to protect the rights of the minority.

"Every man, by consenting with others to make one body politic under one government, puts himself under an obligation to every one of that society to submit to the determination of the majority, and to be concluded [bound] by it." - John Locke

Principle 21 - Strong local self-government is the keystone to preserving human freedom.

"The way to have good and safe government is not to trust it all to one, but to divide it among the many, distributing to every one exactly the functions he is competent [to perform best]. - Thomas Jefferson

Principle 22 - A free people should be governed by law and not by the whims of men.

"The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings, capable of laws, where there is no law there is no freedom. For liberty is to be free from restraint and violence of others, which cannot be where there is no law." - John Locke

Principle 23 - A free society cannot survive as a republic without a broad program of general education.

"They made an early provision by law that every town consisting of so many families should be always furnished with a grammar school. They made it a crime for such a town to be destitute of a grammar schoolmaster for a few months, and subjected it to a heavy penalty. So that the education of all ranks of people was made the care and expense of the public, in a manner that I believe has been unknown to any other people, ancient or modern. The consequences of these establishments we see and feel every day [written in 1765]. A native of America who cannot read and write is as rare ... as a comet or an earthquake." John Adams

Principle 24 - A free people will not survive unless they stay strong.

To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace." - George Washington

Principle 25 - "Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations -- entangling alliances with none."- Thomas Jefferson, given in his first inaugural address.

Principle 26 - The core unit which determines the strength of any society is the family; therefore the government should foster and protect its integrity.

"There is certainly no country in the world where the tie of marriage is more respected than in America, or where conjugal happiness is more highly or worthily appreciated." Alexis de Tocqueville

Principle 27 - The burden of debt is as destructive to human freedom as subjugation by conquest.

"We are bound to defray expenses [of the war] within our own time, and are unauthorized to burden posterity with them.... We shall all consider ourselves morally bound to pay them ourselves and consequently within the life [expectancy] of the majority." - Thomas Jefferson

Principle 28 - The United States has a manifest destiny to eventually become a glorious example of God's law under a restored Constitution that will inspire the entire human race.

The Founders sensed from the very beginning that they were on a divine mission. Their great disappointment was that it didn't all come to pass in their day, but they knew that someday it would. 

John Adams wrote:

"I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in Providence for the illumination of the ignorant, and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth."

Source: over 150 volumes of the Founding Fathers original writings, minutes, letters, biographies, etc. distilled into The Five Thousand Year Leap, by W. Cleon Skousen, published by National Center for Constitutional Studies, 1981. 

Source: Learn The Constitution

Additional sources/links:

America's Founding Fathers

Founding Fathers Information

Tuscon's Mexican-American Studies Class Advocates Overthrowing Of The USA

In Tucson, AZ there is a LaRaza Mexican-American studies class that promotes the overthrow of the United States of America. 

Loretta Hunnicutt  (www.TU4SD.com), a liberal democrat is bravely fighting this curriculum and agreed to come on Glenn's show to expose the radical cirriculum.

It seems that a professor at The University of Arizona is producing these young radicals who support this anti-American studies program that want to teach the children treason. Professor Roberto Rodriguez, professor of Mexican-American Studies at the University of Arizona, is seen in one of the videos leading these children in these protests.

Our country is under attack in many areas of the United States.
www.GlennBeck.com



On TV today, Glenn addressed the problem of indoctrination. He referred to Tucson Indoctrination Program, the curriculum can be read here. For more info, go to local journalist Mike Shaw’s website here. The Blaze reports (read the full story here):

At a Tucson Unified School District school board meeting on Tuesday — which was a make-up for one canceled after students chained themselves to board-room desks on April 26 — riot police were called in to restore order after program supporters become restless during the public input section of the meeting.

So what exactly has the protesters upset? The answer may surprise you. As we’ve previously reported, the district isn’t trying to ban the program outright. Instead, it wants to make a controversial history class — that calls for “death to the invaders” and was found to advocate overthrowing the U.S. government — an elective instead of allowing it to substitute for required history credits. That’s it. And the disturbing class would still be available to students.

But that’s not the rhetoric coming from the supporters. They’re trumpeting the message that the district is trying to eliminate the program altogether, a tactic used to stir up anger and action.

“Last week brave students from UNIDOS took over the Tucson Union School Board meeting and turned it into a pachanga,” a petition e-mail supporting the student action, and obtained by The Blaze, says. “They chained themselves to the seats to prevent the school board from voting to put ethnic studies on the chopping block. Their action worked.”

Outrage over the program isn’t split down liberal vs. conservative lines. As local citizen journalist Mike Shaw recently found out, some of the biggest advocates of removing the program and class are liberals and Democrats. He also found those who believe the student protest movement is being organized by a state university professor

Glenn will have more on indoctrination on Friday’s TV show at 5pm ET on FOX News

***~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~***

Ward Churchill Spotted at TUSD Board Uprising

Posted by Mike Shaw on Friday, April 29, 2011 

Students who chained themselves to chairs in order to stop the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) Board from taking action against "Mexican-American Studies" the other night may have had some rather infamous company.

Remember Ward Churchill?  The Former Ethnic Studies Professor and activist that was fired from the University of Colorado?  The one who pretended to be an American Indian?  The one who called 9-11 victims "Little Eichmann's"?  Yeah, that Ward Churchill.  He was apparently in Tucson supporting the students who took over a TUSD Board Meeting.

Here is a rather long and poorly shot video of what took place on Tuesday.  Pay attention to the guy leaning on the podium in the middle of the room.  (I know it's hard with the excessive zooming and panning).  Churchill can be seen chanting along at 1:57, 2:35, 3:30ish and 5:39.  I have posted freezes below the video.

So why was he there? Did someone bring him in? He certainly appeared to be having a good time. Mysteries for now.

If you've forgotten some of the controversies that led to Ward Churchill's firing from the University of Colorado, here is an instructive refresher link: 
Michelle Malkin's Ward Churchill Category

 
(h/t the fine folks who run TU4SD.com)


UPDATE:  Daily KOS article from April 27th also mentions Ward's presence at the meeting.
Source for this story and additional photos of this event: Mike Shaw TV

***~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~***

Tucson’s Mexican-American Studies Problem

Posted by Mike Shaw on Monday, May 2, 2011 

Specifically, Tucson Unified School District's Mexican-American Studies Problem as assisted by the University of Arizona's Mexican-American Studies Program.

I can hear the cries of "racist" already.  To which I will counter, "Hey, some of my best friends are Mexican-American's."

America saw the results of teaching a racist curriculum to an impressionable group of kids and many may be wondering, "what is going on down there?"  I spend nearly 8 minutes trying to answer that question, and honestly, it's not nearly enough time.  Many thanx to the fine folks with Tucsonans United for Sound Districts (TU4SD.com) for all of the information.  Loretta Hunnicutt, her husband John and long-time educator Richard Kronberg have decided to stand for what is right even though they are paying a high personal price.

Watch the video and please excuse my voice.  I've been coughing all week and it's fading.  Still, I hope the story gives you a better idea of what La Raza Studies is all about at TUSD.

The next meeting is tomorrow, Tuesday, May 3, 2011.  The School Board is determined to have a vote and is expected to return Mexican-American Studies to elective only status.  Currently, students can take La Raza Studies (as it was formally known as) as a core History credit.  Meanwhile, students are on record saying they will do everything they can to prevent a vote.  Should be an interesting meeting.  I hope the La Raza folk aren't planning anything drastic.

As for the University of Arizona Professor that is apparently very much involved in the alleged indoctrination of students.  There is a much larger story there.  From what I know at this time, it sounds like Professor Roberto Rodriguez, professor of Mexican-American Studies at the University of Arizona, is hoping to export Tucson's version of Mexican-American Studies to the rest of the country.  Hopefully, if time allows, I can do a story of how Social Justice is being taught overtly and covertly to America's future teachers and administrators at the U of A and across the country.


The light is the best disinfectant. 

Spread this post around!
Source:Mike Shaw TV

***~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~***

TUSD board postpones vote on ethnic studies issue 

Posted: May 03, 2011 7:57 PM CDT   

Updated: May 11, 2011 10:27 AM CDT 

After a school board meeting that lasted for more than four hours, the Tucson Unified School District's governing board members voted to postpone voting on the controversial ethnic studies program, and announced they would hold public forums in the near future.

The decision came after chaos broke out at the meeting.

The crowd turned uncivil at Tuesday night's TUSD board meeting to discuss its ethnic studies program.

A call to the audience became an opportunity for audience members to confront the district board about its plans for the program. It grew raucous at times, with one man saying the board's actions were "disgraceful," and that he hoped the board members would "go to hell for it."

Many in the crowd yelled "shame on you" at the board members.

The board was forced to take a break when the crowd refused to relent and allow the meeting to continue after the 30 minutes allotted for audience comments had expired.


They later reconvened and eventually voted to delay action on the ethnic studies program until a public forum can be held.

Several people have been thrown out of the meeting, escorted by police.


Earlier reports:
When capacity in the room had been reached, the doors were locked and speakers were set up for the overflow crowd outside.


The meeting has been called to order. Security officials are standing in rows, as people chant "No vote."


KOLD's JD Wallace reports that the crowd outside TUSD is listening to the meeting from large speakers. The doors are locked, ID is required and a visitor checklist is in use.


The police blocking all doorways.


KOLD's Sonu Wasu reports that people in the crowd are demanding to know the racial breakdown of the students. The board's response:

• 60.5 percent Hispanic
• 5.7 percent African American
• 25 percent white
• 3.9 percent Native American
• Rest mixed

Last Tuesday, students forced the cancellation of the meeting when they chained themselves to board members' chairs.

Board president Mark Stegeman promised that would not be repeated tonight. Security is tight and the meeting will be broadcast to the people who are unable to get inside.

Opponents are against a proposed plan to make the history and government portions of the Mexican-American Studies program elective courses.

The English and literature portions would remain as they are.

Stegeman's idea is to make changes now before the state forces the issue later this month.

That's when the Arizona Department of Education finishes looking into whether the M-A-S program violates a new state law, a statute Stegeman calls "terrible."

Source: KOLD News

***~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~***

UPDATE: 5/12/11

Shocking Excerpts Read at Tucson School Board Meeting From A Book In The Ethic Studies Curriculum

Source: Naked Emperor News

A Tribute to Mother's of Soldiers

Letters From War from Mark Schultz on Vimeo.



She walked to the mailbox
On that bright summer's day.
Found a letter from her son
In a war far away.

He spoke of the weather
And good friends that he'd made.
Said I'd been thinking 'bout dad
And the life that he had.
That's why I'm here today.
And then at the end, said
You are what I'm fighting for.

It was the first of his letters from war.

She started writing ...
You're good and you're brave.
What a father that you'll be someday!
Make it home.
Make it safe.

She wrote every night as she prayed.

Late in December
A day she'll not forget
Oh, her tears stained the paper
With every word that she read.

It said "I was up on a hill,
I was out there alone,
When the shots all rang out
And bombs were exploding,
And that's when I saw him
He came back for me.

And though he was captured,
A man set me free.
And that man was your son.
He asked me to write to you.
I told him I would, oh I swore."

It was the last of the letters from war.

And she prayed he was living
Kept on believing
And wrote every night just to say ...

You are good
And you're brave
What a father that you'll be someday!
Make it home.
Make it safe.

Still she kept writing each day.

Then two years later ...

Autumn leaves all around
A car pulled in the driveway
And she fell to the ground
And out stepped a captain
Where her boy used to stand.

He said "Mom, I'm following orders
From all of your letters
And I've come home again."

He ran in to hold her
And dropped all his bags on the floor
Holding all of her letters from war.

Make it home
Make it home
Make it home

Homeland Security Official Asked Why The US Had To Bury UBL At Sea (video)

White House Reporters Repeatedly Ask Obama Official “Why” the U.S. Had to Bury Osama Bin Laden “According to Islamic Requirements” – Video 5/2/11

Here is video of John Brennan – Obama’s Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Adviser – facing a chorus of questions from White House Reporters today as to “Why” the Obama Administration felt it necessary to follow Islamic Law and bury Osama Bin Laden within 24 hours “according to Islamic requirements.” Brennan just repeated several times that it was felt this was the best course of action, but never really answered the fundamental question of “Why?” the United States has to follow Islamic Law.

Hmmmm..well, there seems to be information that this wasn't following Muslim procedures:

Islamic scholars criticize bin Laden's sea burial

By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Hamza Hendawi, Associated Press – Mon May 2, 1:25 pm ET

CAIRO – Muslim clerics said Monday that Osama bin Laden's burial at sea was a violation of Islamic tradition that may further provoke militant calls for revenge attacks against American targets.

Although there appears to be some room for debate over the burial — as with many issues within the faith — a wide range of senior Islamic scholars interpreted it as a humiliating disregard for the standard Muslim practice of placing the body in a grave with the head pointed toward the holy city of Mecca.

Sea burials can be allowed, they said, but only in special cases where the death occurred aboard a ship.

Bin Laden's burial at sea "runs contrary to the principles of Islamic laws, religious values and humanitarian customs," said Sheik Ahmed al-Tayeb, the grand Imam of Cairo's al-Azhar mosque, Sunni Islam's highest seat of learning.

A radical cleric in Lebanon, Omar Bakri Mohammed, said, "The Americans want to humiliate Muslims through this burial, and I don't think this is in the interest of the U.S. administration."

A U.S. official said the burial decision was made after concluding that it would have been difficult to find a country willing to accept the remains. There was also speculation about worry that a grave site could have become a rallying point for militants.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive national security matters.

President Barack Obama said the remains had been handled in accordance with Islamic custom, which requires speedy burial, and the Pentagon later said the body was placed into the waters of the northern Arabian Sea after adhering to traditional Islamic procedures — including washing the corpse — aboard the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson.

But the Lebanese cleric Mohammed called it a "strategic mistake" that was bound to stoke rage.

In Washington, CIA director Leon Panetta warned that "terrorists almost certainly will attempt to avenge" the killing of the mastermind behind the Sept. 11 attacks.

"Bin Laden is dead," Panetta wrote in a memo to CIA staff. "Al-Qaida is not."

According to Islamic teachings, the highest honor to be bestowed on the dead is giving the deceased a swift burial, preferably before sunset. Those who die while traveling at sea can have their bodies committed to the bottom of the ocean if they are far off the coast, according to Islamic tradition.

"They can say they buried him at sea, but they cannot say they did it according to Islam," Mohammed al-Qubaisi, Dubai's grand mufti, said about bin Laden's burial. "If the family does not want him, it's really simple in Islam: You dig up a grave anywhere, even on a remote island, you say the prayers and that's it."

"Sea burials are permissible for Muslims in extraordinary circumstances," he added. "This is not one of them."

But Mohammed Qudah, a professor of Islamic law at the University of Jordan, said burying the Saudi-born bin Laden at sea was not forbidden if there was nobody to receive the body and provide a Muslim burial.

"The land and the sea belong to God, who is able to protect and raise the dead at the end of times for Judgment Day," he said. "It's neither true nor correct to claim that there was nobody in the Muslim world ready to receive bin Laden's body."

Clerics in Iraq, where an offshoot of al-Qaida is blamed for the death of thousands of people since 2003, also criticized the U.S. action. One said it only benefited fish.

"If a man dies on a ship that is a long distance from land, then the dead man should be buried at the sea," said Shiite cleric Ibrahim al-Jabari. "But if he dies on land, then he should be buried in the ground, not to be thrown into the sea. Otherwise, this would be only inviting fish to a banquet."

The Islamic tradition of a quick burial was the subject of intense debate in Iraq in 2003 when U.S. forces embalmed the bodies of Saddam Hussein's two sons after they were killed in a firefight. Their bodies were later shown to media.

"What was done by the Americans is forbidden by Islam and might provoke some Muslims," said another Islamic scholar from Iraq, Abdul-Sattar al-Janabi, who preaches at Baghdad's famous Abu Hanifa mosque. "It is not acceptable and it is almost a crime to throw the body of a Muslim man into the sea. The body of bin Laden should have been handed over to his family to look for a country or land to bury him."

Prominent Egyptian Islamic analyst and lawyer Montasser el-Zayat said bin Laden's sea burial was designed to prevent his grave from becoming a shrine. But an option was an unmarked grave.

"They don't want to see him become a symbol, but he is already a symbol in people's hearts."

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Associated Press writers Barbara Surk in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Jamal Halaby and Sameer N. Yacoub in Amman, Jordan, and Zeina Karam in Beirut contributed to this report.

Source: Yahoo News