'If it wasn't for Hitler I could have won a gold medal': Amazing story of Britain's oldest living Olympian

When the 1948 Games came around, Britain was still under food rationing – which didn’t help his preparations for the race

The oldest surviving British athlete of the 1948 London Games was robbed of a gold medal by the Second World War – but he refuses to be bitter.

Gutsy Bill Lucas, 95, who ended up getting a medal for his flying heroics, told the Mirror: “I had a good war instead.”

The 5,000m runner was on course to steal gold in 1940… then the Olympics were axed that year and again in 1944 because of the global conflict.

By the time they were held again in 1948, Bill was 31 and past his prime.

But he says: “I was gratified that I was picked to take part.

“I had been looking forward to going to Helsinki in 1940 but Mr Hitler deprived me of that and of the Games in 1944 but I had a good war instead.

"By the end of it I’d been flying missions for Bomber Command and drinking gallons of beer.”

Bill, from Cowfold, West Sussex, flew 81 death-defying missions over Germany, including the 1,000 bomber raid on Cologne in 1942.

His bravery earned him a Distinguished Flying Cross medal and he was Mentioned in Dispatches.

He volunteered in 1940 and flew for 9 Squadron (Wellingtons), 15 Squadron then 162 Squadron, rising to the rank of Squadron Leader.

However, he can’t help musing: “But for the war I could have won a gold medal or set a world record.”

When the 1948 Games came around, Britain was still under food rationing – which didn’t help Bill’s preparations for his race.

He says: “The athletes were on rations just like everyone else.

“I was pushing 32 and had only had 12 months of reasonably good training, whereas today’s athletes take eight years.

“At the opening ceremony it was 34C. We had four hours of marching about, standing up, sitting down then standing up again.

"We raced two days later so I wasn’t at my best, and didn’t run my best race. None of the British boys did.”

Bill was beaten in the heats by Emil Zatopek, who was dubbed the “Czech Locomotive” and went on to win four Olympic golds.

“Emil and I didn’t say much,” Bill remembers. “We just sort of passed each other on the starting line.

“Was I disappointed with the result? Not really. The war had hardened me up.”

The post-war Games – the last time Britain hosted them until now – were a far cry from London 2012.

Bill, who worked as an insurance broker, says the athletes were housed not in a glitzy Olympic village but in cramped conditions at RAF Uxbridge, Middlesex.

“I’d been stationed there when I joined up so I preferred to stay at home,” he adds.

There were no Games road lanes or other special treatment for competitors, either.

Bill simply took the bus from his home in Surrey to Croydon, the train to London and then the Tube to Wembley.

“I walked to the stadium with the fans,” he says. “Everybody was just the same.

“When my race finished I went home and went back to work – but I did go back for the closing ceremony.

"They gave us a blazer, tracksuit, vest and a beret and that was about it.”

Bill, who lives with his wife Sheena, still wears his blazer with pride, and has the 1948 Games programme of his 5,000m battle with Zatopek, which cost a shilling.

He remains heavily involved with athletics, despite not being able to walk very well, and has been a member of London’s Belgrave Harriers for 77 years.

For a long time he was the announcer at London’s now defunct White City stadium, where he was known as “the golden voice of athletics”.

And currently he is campaigning against the planned closure of the Broadbridge Heath Leisure Centre in Horsham, West Sussex, which has a 400m running track.

“It’s a marvellous centre,” he says. “They’ll probably knock it down and build houses.”

Bill is involved in the RAF Association and the Royal British Legion, too, and helped raise £10,000 towards the £7.5million Bomber Command memorial unveiled by the Queen last month.

“I’m also in a group called PROBUS – Poor Retired Old B****** Unfit for Sex,” he adds with a glint in his eye.

At the moment Bill is looking forward to London 2012, and has been contacted by the British Olympics Association after a public outcry persuaded them to involve our 1948 athletes.

He’s had lunch with Princess Anne and toured Team GB’s headquarters with the other surviving competitors.

They include Dorothy Tyler, 92, who won the high-jump silver, John Parlett, 82, an 800m finalist, and his wife Dorothy Manley, 85, the 100m silver medallist.

Bill has also been given tickets to the final of this year’s 5,000m race.

He says: “I’m pleased to get the tickets and I did enjoy the lunch.

“There had been talk some time ago of me carrying the torch in the relay before the Games but it never amounted to anything.

“I can’t walk more than about 200 yards these days but it would have been nice if a few of the Belgrave Harriers could have pushed me in a wheelchair while I held the torch.”

He plans to watch as much of London 2012 as he can on a new television he has bought especially for the Games. “We will certainly have a good view,” he says.

“At lunchtimes I will have a gin and tonic, and in the evenings Sheena and I will pour ourselves a Scotch as we usually do at 5.40pm. On the dot.”

Mass Murder 'Normal' in World That Rejects God -- Ray Comfort Explains Why The 'Joker' Pulled the Trigger

By Christian Newswire

The experts are fervently seeking clues as to why James "the Joker" Holmes murdered 12 people and injured 58 others in a shooting attack at an Aurora, Colo., movie theater where people had gathered to view the latest Batman movie.

But they're not likely to find it, says author and television host Ray Comfort--because they're looking in all the wrong places.

"This latest alleged mass murderer isn't so easy to peg," says Comfort, author of the new book "Hitler, God, and the Bible." "He came from a good home, in a good area, and he had a good education. But those who ask 'What went wrong?' are asking the wrong question. It should rather be 'What is wrong?' The biblical worldview isn't that anything went wrong. Here was a normal, sinful human being involved in an evil act of murder. The Scriptures tell us, 'The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked' (Jer. 17:9), and that no one is morally good in God's eyes."

Comfort continues: "However, the humanistic worldview is radically different. It says that no one is born with a sinful (evil) nature. All human beings are inherently good, so when someone goes off the rails, there must be some mitigating factor--he was bullied, was a loner, had an abusive father, or a domineering mother, etc. While some of these are serious issues, millions of people get through them without going out and murdering others."

In other words, in a world that rejects God, mass murder would be normal.

As a sequel to "Hitler, God and the Bible," Comfort is working on a book called "The Beatles, God, and the Bible" and a movie about John Lennon. In preparation he has been interviewing people to ask if they would murder for $10,000. While most say they wouldn't, some would.

"When I questioned those who refused, it usually came back to being morally responsible to God for murder," said Comfort.
 
"However, any real fear of God is slowly dissipating from our nation. I would dare to say that there are many who love violent video games and violent movies, who would like to know what it feels like to kill another human being. But they don't carry out their fantasy because of the fear of retribution from civil law."
 
Comfort explains that when the biblical premise of man being evil by nature is forsaken, a criminal often isn't held responsible for his crimes. Societal conditions and life's circumstances are frequently blamed, and so the criminal gets a mere slap on the wrist for his violent crime. He is not considered evil; he is just sick or insane, and therefore receives rehabilitative treatment rather than punishment.
 
"Imagine how wicked society would be if the fear of God and the fear of civil law were both completely removed," said Comfort. "Imagine if a man could rape and murder, with no concerns about being punished. That's when we would see the true heart of humanity, and that's where we as a nation are slowly heading."

With the rejection of God by more and more Americans, Comfort expects to see an exponential escalation of Auroras.
 
"We have turned our backs on God, and given Him lip-service by maintaining a belief in His existence while at the same time embracing that which is abhorrent to Him: things such as homosexuality, abortion, adultery, fornication, pornography, lying, theft, and blasphemy," said Comfort. "Few have any fear of God, which the Bible says is the 'beginning of wisdom.' A wise man once said, 'Most I fear God. Next I fear him who fears Him not.' When men don't fear God, they give themselves to evil. This was clearly the case in the latest mass murder."
 
So what's the answer?

"The only answer is the gospel," says Comfort. "Christians must share their faith in obedience to the Great Commission, because we are only seeing the fruit of sin this side of death. There's another side, what many call 'the other side.' There's a very real Hell after death for anyone who dies in sin. Yet God is rich in mercy and has provided a Savior. All who repent and trust in Him not only find everlasting life, but they no longer give themselves to evil by lying, stealing, or killing. That's the only answer for America--and every other nation."

Big Russian fleet nears Syria. Iran to fight regime change as foreign forces pile up

DEBKAfile Special Report

Russian, Western and Arab forces were piling up on Syrian borders Wednesday, July 25, bringing closer a war confrontation which could spur the Assad regime into making good on its threat to use chemical weapons against “external aggression.”

Based on this reading, Moscow added its voice Tuesday to that of US President Obama and warned Bashar Assad against using chemical weapons in view of “its commitments under the international convention it ratified prohibiting the use of poisonous gases as a method of warfare.”

debkafile’s military sources: With operational intelligence deployment and electronic stations positioned inside Syria, the Russians are better placed than any other outsiders to know what is happening on Syria’s battlefields. Their warning must therefore be tied to solid information confirming Washington’s assessment that Assad is dangerously close to deciding to use his chemical and biological weapons in a way that would precipitate a regional conflict.
  
Israel, Turkey and Jordan would be the first targets on his list.

The immediacy of the peril, debkafile’s military sources report, has speeded the arrival of Russian warships to Syria to counter a potential Western, Arab or Israeli assault on the embattled country.

The Russian Ministry of Defense, which rarely discloses Russian military movements outside its borders, announced early Wednesday morning, July 25 that a fleet of Russian warships had passed through the Strait of Gibraltar and entered the Mediterranean.

The fleet is headed by the anti-submarine and anti-aircraft Admiral Chabanenko warship and consists of another three vessels carrying a large number of Russian marines. This fleet will rendezvous with a Russian flotilla standing by in the Mediterranean since July 21, detached from Russian Black Fleet and composed of the Smetlivy figate and  two large landing craft loaded with Russian marines. This group awaited the main force before approaching Syria.

The fact that Russia is massing large numbers of marines off the Syrian coast looks as though a landing on Syrian soil is on Moscow’s cards.

The Russian marine contingent,  debkafile’s sources say, will stand ready - either to come to the aid of the Assad regime or to serve as a bargaining chip for a last-minute deal between Moscow and Washington for ending the war by establishing a transitional military regime in Damascus whose makeup would be agreed between them and Assad.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hinted at this possibility on Tuesday, July 24, when she said: “We do believe that it is not too late for the Assad regime to commence with planning for a transition.”

But Clinton also hinted, in a more threatening tone, that a situation is developing for the creation of safe zones in rebel-controlled areas of Syria. “More and more territory is being taken and it will, eventually, result in a safe haven inside Syria which will then provide a base for further actions by the opposition,” she said.

Clinton didn’t name the potential protectors of those havens. However, since the Syrian rebels are short of manpower, Western, Muslim or Arab defenders would have to be called in.

Wednesday, British military sources in London said the moment is rushing forward for British forces to get involved in what is happening in Syria. Iran and Turkey are not indifferent either.

Deputy Iranian Revolutionary Guard chief, Gen. Masoud Jazayeri, warned on Tuesday, July 24, that Tehran would not permit regime change in Damascus and if Syria’s enemies intervened, Iran would hit them hard. The Iranian commander pointed a finger at Saudi Arabia and Qatar, adding that the US and Israel are at the forefront of the comprehensive campaign against Syria but are being beaten back.

This was the first time Tehran had explicitly threatened military intervention in Syria.

Wednesday, Turkey shut its border crossings to Syria. Military sources in Ankara confirmed that massive Turkish military strength had been on the move toward the Syrian border.

Exclusive: Katherine Jackson 'Devastated,' Court Hearing 'Based on a Bunch of Lies'

By SHEILA MARIKAR

Michael Jackson's mother is "devastated" his children have been "taken away" from her while she was vacationing in Arizona and she's returning to Los Angeles to be reunited with them today, she told ABC News exclusively.

"I am devastated that while I've been away, my grandchildren have been taken away from me, and I'm coming home," Katherine Jackson said.

Speaking to ABC News' cameras from the Miraval Arizona Report & Spa in Tucson, Ariz., where the 82-year-old Jackson family matriarch had been resting for at least a week, Katherine Jackson also addressed the uncertainty concerning her whereabouts.

Katherine Jackson is the guardian of her late son Michael Jackson's children -- Prince, Paris and Blanket -- but they reportedly have not been heard from her in days. In the meantime, there are reports of disputes among Jackson family members at Katherine Jackson's Calabasas, Calif., home.

"There are rumors going around about me that I have been kidnapped and held against my will," Katherine Jackson said. "I am here today to let everybody to know that I am fine."

"My children would never do a thing to me like that, holding me against my will, it's very stupid for people to think that," she added.

At Katherine's side during the taped statement, which she read from paper, were her children Rebbie, Jermaine and Janet Jackson. Also sitting next to her was Rebbie Jackson's daughter Stacy and a representative from the resort. While reading the statement, Katherine broke off a couple of times and family members helped her find her place.

ABC News was not allowed to ask the family questions.

Katherine Jackson said a court ruling today that made TJ Jackson -- the son of Michael Jackson's brother, Tito Jackson, and Katherine Jackson's grandson -- the temporary guardian of Paris Michael, Prince Michael and Prince Michael II was "based on a bunch of lies."

She said her stay in Arizona at the Miraval was a "short vacation and rest."
"There's a lot of lies that have been put out there and I am going home to straighten them out and this kind of stuff doesn't make sense," Katherine said.

As for not calling her grandchildren for days, Katherine Jackson said, "One reason I didn't call is I just gave up my phone and I didn't want to have any phone calls while I was here."

Another brother of Michael Jackson, Randy Jackson, said in an earlier interview that their sister, Rebbie Jackson, was with their mother, Katherine Jackson, at the resort and kept her cell phone with her. Michael Jackson's children knew they could call their Aunt Rebbie's phone to reach the group at any time, Randy Jackson said.

It Is Absolutely Shocking How Much Gold China is Acquiring

Today Stephen Leeb told King World News, “... there is a controlled desperation in China when it comes to acquiring gold.”  Leeb, who is Chairman of Leeb Capital Management, also said, “They are acquiring as much as they possibly can without tilting the markets dramatically to the upside.”

The acclaimed money manager also stated, “China mined a total of 355 tons, which was by far the largest amount of gold mined for any country.  And yet they are still buying every single available ounce they can get in the open market.”  Leeb was also quick to point out the strength gold is displaying, “Today we have global stock markets under significant pressure, the US dollar breaking out on the upside, and yet gold is holding firm.”

Here is what Leeb had to say about what is happening with Europe, the Chinese and gold:  “Europe is a mess and sooner or later the Europeans are going to have to come to grips with the dire situation they face.  Yesterday, Moody’s put the three AAA countries on credit watch, Germany, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.”

“Unless the European bank is willing to print money in order to start buying the debt of the failing countries, you are going to have a catastrophe.  The patchwork schemes they have been using are not going to get the job done.  Right now, Eric, as we look at the European crisis, it’s worse now than it has ever been. 

5-Year Spanish bond yields are now trading at 7.6%.  That’s an extraordinary number, and it really says Spain cannot finance anything....

“For practical purposes, Spain has come to a halt unless they get help.  This means lots of money printing going forward and tremendous inflation down the road.  All of this favors the price of gold going dramatically higher.

In the past, when you have seen these kinds of situations, people sell things to get liquid.  The item that is most liquid is gold.  But you are not seeing intense selling of gold today.  I just don’t think gold will go down very much.  If gold does eventually test the lows or break lower, I don’t believe it will go much lower than the previous low. 

In the past, people felt gold could go much lower in a full-fledged crisis, but that is not the case this time.  The Chinese will continue to step in and buy and this is the primary reason gold has remained so strong during this European upheaval.  You have to remember that the stock market is down in China and it is likely to remain down until you see a shift in leadership.

So gold has become increasingly important and China has encouraged its citizenry to buy gold.  With the stock market already frustrating people in China, the Chinese, interestingly, will not want gold to be added to that list of frustrations for their investing public.

In the past, if the Chinese could step out of the way and let gold tumble in price so they could purchase it cheaper they would.  Right now I think they just don’t want to add to their citizen’s frustrations with key markets, gold being one of them.  If I’m right, then the Chinese will continue to support the price of this metal.

I would also note that China mined an unbelievable 20% of their proven reserves of gold last year.  That’s an almost impossible achievement.  That number was reported by the USGS, which is a very credible source for this type of information.

China mined a total of 355 tons, which was by far the largest amount of gold mined for any country.  And yet they are still buying every single available ounce they can get in the open market.  Australia was second with 270 tons.  Keep in mind that Australia has 4 times the reserves that China has.  I have never seen any country mine that percentage of any commodity.  What China has done in truly a Herculean feat.

So there is a controlled desperation in China when it comes to acquiring gold.  They are acquiring as much as they possibly can without tilting the markets dramatically to the upside.

Today we have global stock markets under significant pressure and the US dollar breaking out on the upside, and yet gold is holding firm.  The bottom line is the weak hands are out of gold and China is creating a floor in the market.  So if your downside is around $1,520 and your upside is many thousands of dollars, I would buy.”