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USA Today February 10, 2010 Former Texas congressman Charlie Wilson dies -From his post on the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, Wilson helped finance the United States' covert war in the 1980s against the former Soviet Union in Afghanistan. -Wilson said of Afghanistan at the time: "It's the only place in the world where we are killing Russians." Former Texas congressman Charlie Wilson, a swashbuckling lawmaker played by Tom Hanks in a recent movie about the Democrat's efforts to get the Soviets out of Afghanistan, has died. He was 76. Wilson had been suffering from heart problems in recent years. The former Naval officer represented parts of East Texas from 1973 through 1997. .... >From his post on the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, Wilson helped >finance the United States' covert war in the 1980s against the former Soviet >Union in Afghanistan. A book about the congressman's efforts, Charlie Wilson's >War, was made into a 2007 movie starring Academy Award winners Tom Hanks as >Wilson and Julia Roberts as Joanne Herring, the Houston socialite who helped >draw attention to the issue. As the book and movie chronicled, Wilson's top cause for years was U.S. support for the Mujahedeen rebels in Afghanistan - people he called the "Muj." Wilson said of Afghanistan at the time: "It's the only place in the world where we are killing Russians." CBS' 60 Minutes did a profile of Wilson, and he became well known outside of East Texas for his work. In more recent years, he's been consulted by Congress because of his intimate knowledge of the region where the 9/11 attacks had their roots. .... On a 1986 trip, Wilson became enraged when he was told that the U.S. Air Force could fly him -- but not his date, former Miss World-USA Annelise Ilschenko -- from Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, to Peshawar, the border town where Afghan refugees were gathered. Wilson, who had said he would pay the cost of his girlfriend's air travel, got a lift from the Pakistani air force instead. The following year, the congressman used his position on the House Appropriations Committee to slash funding for two of the planes that embassies used to fly around dignitaries. Though he insisted he wasn't taking revenge, Wilon cheerfully acknowledged his actions could be interpreted otherwise. ''It just can't help but look like this kind of spoiled congressman with a bloated sense of self-importance trying to get back at someone for not flying his girlfriend around," he told the New York Times in 1988. .... =========================== Stop NATO http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato Blog site: http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/ To subscribe, send an e-mail to: rwroz...@yahoo.com or stopnato-subscr...@yahoogroups.com Daily digest option available. ============================== --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST --^---------------------------------------------------------------- This email was sent to: arch...@mail-archive.com EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.bNM5nn.YXJjaGl2 Or send an email to: antinato-unsubscr...@topica.com For Topica's complete suite of email marketing solutions visit: http://www.topica.com/?p=TEXFOOTER --^----------------------------------------------------------------
