U.S. Transfers Sovereignty to Iraqi Govt.

[snipowsky]

BAGHDAD, Iraq June 28, 2004 — The U.S.-led coalition transferred sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government Monday, speeding up the move by two days in an apparent bid to surprise insurgents who may have tried to sabotage the step toward self rule.

Legal documents turning over sovereignty were handed by U.S. governor L. Paul Bremer to interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi in a ceremony in the heavily guarded Green Zone.

"This is a historical day," Allawi said. "We feel we are capable of controlling the security situation."

Bremer will leave Iraq sometime Monday, coalition officials said on condition of anonymity.

"You have said, and we agreed, that you are ready for sovereignty," Bremer said in the ceremony. "I will leave Iraq confident in its future."

In Washington, the Bush administration said it was pleased by the early transfer and called it was a proud day for the Iraqi people.

Allawi said he requested that the sovereignty be transferred earlier, reflecting a preference to have Iraqis control their own destiny as soon as possible. Last Thursday, the coalition transferred the final 11 of the 26 government ministries to full Iraqi control, meaning Iraqis were already handling the day to day operations of the interim administration.

Bremer went on a series of farewell visits to areas throughout the country over the past few days.

Source: http://www.ap.org

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ_SOVEREIGNTY?SITE=OHRAV&SECTION=HOME

[thedrifter]

Marines get ready for Iraq
TOW Platoon dedicates HQ, hears questions from relatives
Beverly Corbell
bcorbell@theadvertiser.com

June 27, 2004

LAFAYETTE — The eyes of Marine Sgt. Phillip Nelams misted Saturday when he talked about missing his five children.

“Not being able to see the smiles on their faces,” said Nelams, 34, of Church Point. “That’s the hardest part.”

Other members of the TOW Platoon, 23rd Marines, will miss a different kind of parenting experience when their Reserve unit leaves next week to prepare for duty in Iraq.

Nine members of the platoon of about 100 Marines will become fathers while they’re away from home. One wife is expecting twins; another, triplets.

How the people who the Marines leave behind will manage in their absence was one subject at a Saturday gathering at the platoon’s Surrey Street headquarters. The platoon also had a family picnic, dedicated its new headquarters building and watched a Junior Marine graduation ceremony.

The Marines will leave next week to train in California before going overseas.

Nelams was an active-duty Marine for seven years and has been a reservist for five years. He’s also a supervisor with the U.S. Post Office. Like other Marines in his unit, he said, he knows his job will be waiting when he comes back.

Wife Shelley Nelams said the deployment has been difficult for the children to understand. But as a key volunteer for the families, she said they’ll all support each other.

“We’re all going through the same thing,” she said. “So we’re here for any kind of support they need, even if it’s just to talk.”

Family members had many questions during a morning session, said the platoon’s spokesman, Sgt. Brian Ardoin. Many wanted to know when health insurance will go into effect.

“One of the big questions was how much they’ll get paid, whether they can still pay their bills back home, and if they don’t get paid, who do they call,” he said.

Several others had an even more pressing question, he said: How can they be notified when their wives give birth?

Those aren’t the worries of platoon members Khristian Brazee, 22, the son of Dawn and James Brazee of Lafayette, or Matt Feske, 24, son of Barbara and Victor Feske, also of Lafayette. Both are single, enthusiastic and ready to go.

“Mom’s worried, like any mom, but I’m not scared, and I’m excited to go,” Feske said.

“My mom’s depressed, but she knows this is the right cause,” Brazee said with a big smile. “I’m more scared of the training than I am of going to Iraq.”

http://www.theadvertiser.com/news/html/0392D1E1-17AB-41F5-95D0-265B611BFFE4.shtml


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Hostage report brings shock, anger, sadness

By: TIM MAYER - Staff Writer

OCEANSIDE ---- Word that a locally-based Marine had been taken hostage by a militant group in Iraq that is threatening to behead him brought reactions of shock, anger and sadness to Marines in this military city on Sunday.

"Wow," Cpl. Oliver Garcia, 24, of Texas said in a soft voice as he heard the news at the bar of the Servicemen's Center in downtown Oceanside, just south Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base. "I hope it's not true. If they do have him and he's still alive ---- or not alive ---- we'll go in there and get him."

Reports from military officials and the family of the man indicate that the hostage is from the Camp Pendleton-based I Marine Expeditionary Force.


Arab television on Sunday broadcast a videotape purportedly of a Marine taken hostage. The tape showed a mustached man wearing a blindfold and displayed a Marine identification card in the name of Wassef Ali Hassoun.

Marine officials said Sunday that a corporal with Hassoun's name from the I Marine Expeditionary Force had been missing from his unit since June 21. Family members near Salt Lake City confirmed late Sunday that the man in the videotape was in fact Hassoun.

The news drew mixed reactions in downtown Oceanside, where word of death and danger overseas is nothing new to Marines. The area has been home to dozens who have died in Iraq, including four men killed last week in a highly publicized ambush in Ramadi. Videotape showing the bodies of the slain Marines was heavily televised last week.

Garcia, the Marine at the Servicemen's Center, said he was leaving for Texas to attend the funeral of buddy Lance Cpl. Pedro Contreras, 27, one of the Marines killed in the ambush.

"He was my best friend and I'm going to do down and see him tomorrow afternoon," said Garcia, due to deploy to Iraq in February. "It is so unfortunate that they are killing Marines, killing so many people."

Near the Oceanside Municipal Pier, Lance Cpl. Adam Buonadonna, 23, of Chicago, questioned how a Marine could have been captured alone. A hard and fast buddy system dictates that no Marine travels without at least one other Marine, said Buonadonna, who had just finished a swim.

"It's strange that it would be one, single Marine that would get captured," Buonadonna said. "There's always a buddy system. I'm obviously worried about the Marine and his family."

As to the militants claiming credit for the capture, Buonadonna said, "It will only make things worse for them, whoever it is. You don't want to **** off the U.S. Marine Corps."

Friend Lance Cpl. Alex Vance, 21, also of Chicago, agreed.

"Everybody out there is going to be breaking themselves to get him back," Vance said. "They will tear up anything and anyone to get to him."

Lance Cpl. Jason Sotiroff, 22, of Chicago ---- due to deploy to Iraq in a couple of months ----- said the possibility of being shot or captured is "an occupational hazard" for Marines.

"It's just one of those things we have to deal with," he said.

Waiting to get a haircut at the Beachcomber Barber Shop on Pier View Way, Pfc. Michael Rose, 20, of New Hampshire was one of the few who had heard about the hostage situation.

"I hope that he gets out of there alive," said Rose, who said he may be leaving for Iraq soon.

Rose said he thought the Marines should pull out of Iraq soon.

"We took care of what we should have, and now we're just occupying it," he said. "We should hurry up and get out of there."

Contact staff writer Tim Mayer at (760) 901-4043 or tmayer@nctimes.com.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2004/06/28/military/20_15_526_27_04.txt


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Militants threaten to behead two hostages, one a U.S. Marine

By: Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq ---- Arab television broadcast videotape Sunday of two men taken hostage by militants, one described as a U.S. Marine lured from his base and the other a Pakistani driver for an American contractor. Insurgents threatened to behead them both.

One of the men, Wassef Ali Hassoun, was a Marine with the Camp Pendleton-based I Marine Expeditionary Force, according to The New York Times.

Also, militants hit a coalition transport plane with small arms fire after takeoff from Baghdad's airport, killing an American passenger and forcing the aircraft to return. Turkey rejected demands by militants threatening to behead three Turkish hostages unless Turkish companies cease business with U.S. forces in Iraq.


Death threats against hostages as well as insurgent attacks on U.S. and Iraqi security forces have accelerated as Iraq's interim government prepares to assume sovereignty Wednesday.

The U.S. military said that a Marine with Hassoun's name had been missing from his unit for nearly a week. It said it was unclear if he had been taken hostage, but Hassoun's name was on a Marine "active duty" identification card shown by militants in the videotape aired by the Al-Jazeera network.

Late Sunday, Hassoun's family in the Salt Lake City suburb of West Jordan confirmed that he was the kidnapped Marine who appeared in the videotape.

"We accept destiny with its good and bad," Hassoun family friend and spokesman Tarek Nosseir said in a brief statement Sunday to reporters. "We pray and plead for his safe release."

In the video, the hostage had a white blindfold covering his eyes. He wore military fatigues, and his mustache was trimmed. The U.S. military said Hassoun was of Lebanese descent, though the Al-Jazerra report said the hostage's origins were Pakistani.

The kidnappers claimed to have infiltrated a Marine outpost, lured Hassoun outside and abducted him. Al-Jazeera said the militants demanded the release of all Iraqis "in occupation jails" or the hostage would be killed.

They identified themselves as part of "Islamic Response," the security wing of the "National Islamic Resistance ---- 1920 Revolution Brigades." The name refers to the uprising against the British after World War I.

The group, which has claimed responsibility for previous anti-American attacks, first surfaced in an Aug. 12 statement claiming the United States was hiding its casualty tolls in Iraq to help President Bush's election chances.

U.S. officials believe the insurgency consists of several groups with different ideologies, among them Arab nationalists, former Baath Party members and Islamic extremists.

Earlier Sunday, the Pakistani driver was shown on a tape broadcast by a different Arab television station, Al-Arabiya. The hostage displayed an identification card issued by the U.S. firm Kellogg, Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Vice President Dick Cheney's former company Halliburton.

Four masked men holding assault rifles across their chests said they would behead the Pakistani within three days unless Americans freed prisoners held at Abu Ghraib and three cities of central Iraq ---- Balad, Dujail and Samarra.

The gunmen said they captured the Pakistani near the U.S. base at Balad, 50 miles north of Baghdad. They did not say whether they were affiliated with any group,

The hostage, who gave his name as Amjad, urged Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to close the Pakistani Embassy in Iraq and to ban Pakistanis from coming to Iraq.

"I'm also Muslim, but despite this they didn't release me," he said, bowing his head. "They are going to cut the head of any person regardless of whether he is a Muslim or not."

It was unclear how either set of kidnappers was linked to Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who claimed responsibility for the decapitation deaths of American businessman Nicholas Berg and South Korean translator Kim Sun-il last week.

In Baghdad, meanwhile, an American soldier was killed Sunday when a rocket slammed into a U.S. base on the southeastern outskirts of the city, the military said.

Gunmen dressed in black killed six soldiers of the Iraqi National Guard, formerly the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, and wounded four others at a checkpoint in Jalawla, 75 miles northeast of Baghdad.

In first reports of the attack on the transport plane, U.S. military officials said the aircraft was American. Later, however, Australia's Nine Network television said it was a C-130 transport from the Royal Australian Air Force. The plane was about 12 miles from the Iraqi capital when it was fired on and forced to return to Baghdad International Airport.

Australia Broadcasting Corp. radio reported that a passenger on the plane who died of injuries was a U.S. citizen. U.S. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt also said the victim was believed to be an American, according to the report.

Attacks against coalition aircraft around Baghdad have occurred before, although no fixed-wing planes have been shot down. The main road linking the airport to central Baghdad also has become increasingly dangerous because of ambushes.

In Istanbul, Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul rejected demands by al-Zarqawi's group for Turkish companies to quit doing business with U.S. troops in Iraq to spare the lives of the three Turkish hostages.

"Turkey will not bow to pressure from terrorists," Gonul told the private CNN-Turk and TV8 television stations.

The demand was issued as Bush and other Western leaders gathered in Turkey for a NATO summit Monday. Turkey, the only Muslim nation in NATO, was put in a difficult position trying to balance alliance solidarity with national interests.

The U.S. mission in Iraq is deeply unpopular in Turkey, and it was feared that any killing of Turkish hostages could intensify anger against the United States.

More than 40 people from several countries have been abducted in Iraq since April ---- many of them released or freed by coalition soldiers. Several kidnappings have been blamed on the al-Zarqawi group.

In other developments:

- A U.S. Marine was killed in action Saturday in Anbar province, which includes Fallujah, Ramadi and other trouble spots, the military said Monday. About 850 U.S. service members have died since Bush launched the Iraq war in March 2003 to seize Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction stockpiles, which have not been found.

- Three rockets exploded near one of Saddam's former palaces in Baghdad's Green Zone, the heavily guarded headquarters of the U.S.-run occupation, causing no damage or casualties. Later Sunday, guerrillas firing mortars in central Baghdad killed two children playing near a Tigris river bank, an Interior Ministry official said.

- In Mosul, mortar shells hit an office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, a pro-U.S. political party. One party member was killed and nine others were injured. Also, gunmen killed a policeman in a drive-by shooting.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2004/06/28/military/20_18_196_27_04.txt


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines get ready for Iraq
TOW Platoon dedicates HQ, hears questions from relatives
Beverly Corbell
bcorbell@theadvertiser.com

June 27, 2004

LAFAYETTE — The eyes of Marine Sgt. Phillip Nelams misted Saturday when he talked about missing his five children.

“Not being able to see the smiles on their faces,” said Nelams, 34, of Church Point. “That’s the hardest part.”

Other members of the TOW Platoon, 23rd Marines, will miss a different kind of parenting experience when their Reserve unit leaves next week to prepare for duty in Iraq.

Nine members of the platoon of about 100 Marines will become fathers while they’re away from home. One wife is expecting twins; another, triplets.

How the people who the Marines leave behind will manage in their absence was one subject at a Saturday gathering at the platoon’s Surrey Street headquarters. The platoon also had a family picnic, dedicated its new headquarters building and watched a Junior Marine graduation ceremony.

The Marines will leave next week to train in California before going overseas.

Nelams was an active-duty Marine for seven years and has been a reservist for five years. He’s also a supervisor with the U.S. Post Office. Like other Marines in his unit, he said, he knows his job will be waiting when he comes back.

Wife Shelley Nelams said the deployment has been difficult for the children to understand. But as a key volunteer for the families, she said they’ll all support each other.

“We’re all going through the same thing,” she said. “So we’re here for any kind of support they need, even if it’s just to talk.”

Family members had many questions during a morning session, said the platoon’s spokesman, Sgt. Brian Ardoin. Many wanted to know when health insurance will go into effect.

“One of the big questions was how much they’ll get paid, whether they can still pay their bills back home, and if they don’t get paid, who do they call,” he said.

Several others had an even more pressing question, he said: How can they be notified when their wives give birth?

Those aren’t the worries of platoon members Khristian Brazee, 22, the son of Dawn and James Brazee of Lafayette, or Matt Feske, 24, son of Barbara and Victor Feske, also of Lafayette. Both are single, enthusiastic and ready to go.

“Mom’s worried, like any mom, but I’m not scared, and I’m excited to go,” Feske said.

“My mom’s depressed, but she knows this is the right cause,” Brazee said with a big smile. “I’m more scared of the training than I am of going to Iraq.”


©The Lafayette Daily Advertiser
June 27, 2004


http://www.theadvertiser.com/news/html/0392D1E1-17AB-41F5-95D0-265B611BFFE4.shtml


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Issue Date: June 28, 2004

Marines gear up for second round


With seven-month tours safe for the time being, the shuffle for the second Marine Corps rotation to Iraq this year is getting underway.
Although at least one unit is expected to return early, the majority of the 25,000 Marines in Iraq who deployed in March are expected to return in September.

More than 4,000 Marines with I Marine Expeditionary Force’s command element will remain in Iraq as expected, and will be joined by a new group of about 20,000 Marines, according to Capt. Dan McSweeney, a spokesman at Marine Corps headquarters.

About 500 Marines and sailors with the Camp Pendleton, Calif.-based 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, shipped out June 18 to relieve a battalion that has spent several months in the war zone, according to base officials.

It was not immediately clear which battalion the 3/1 Marines will relieve, but the longest-serving infantry units in Iraq are those who were on Unit Deployment Program rotations to Okinawa, Japan, when they were tapped for war duty. The most likely candidate for replacement is 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, from Camp Pendleton, which deployed to Okinawa in late December.

But the bulk of the units tapped for the second rotation won’t leave until late summer, McSweeney said. They will serve in Iraq until March 2005, when the next series of Army and Marine rotations — known as Operation Iraqi Freedom III — begin.

Once again, the Corps is making special arrangements to support the Iraq rotation. For example, the service will “gap” UDP rotations to Okinawa, sending three infantry battalions to Iraq instead. One infantry battalion still will take part in the UDP, however, to serve as the infantry element for the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit.

The Marine force deploying for occupation duty this fall will closely resemble the current one, albeit with a few additional wrinkles.

This time around, artillerymen with 10th Marines at Camp Lejeune, N.C., will pull duty as a provisional rifle battalion. It’s a sign of the times as the Corps scrambles to fill holes and man an occupation no one thought would include such a sizable Marine force.

Reservists again will play a large part in the rotation, with 3,500 mobilizing this summer for the deployment. Reserve artillerymen with 14th Marines are expected to pinch-hit as military police and motor transport operators, and two battalions are mobilizing in June, according to a Marine Forces Reserve spokesman in New Orleans.

— Gordon Lubold

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=0-MARINEPAPER-3021521.php


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Practicing to make perfect: Marines start final phase of Iraq training exercise

Practicing to make perfect: Marines start final phase of Iraq training exercise

BY MICHELLE KANN
Jun 26, 2004


SOMERTON — With children watching from the parking lot, one Blackhawk helicopter landed at the soccer field at Somerton Middle School.

Four men jumped out carrying cots and medical equipment. They rushed to the two wounded Marines. They asked questions. They applied bandages to their wounds.

In less than five minutes, the wounded men were carried out on cots and placed in the helicopter. Seconds later, the helicopter took off with its escort, the two Cobra helicopters looking for any threats.

This may seem like a simple drill.

But for Marines preparing for deployments to Iraq, this exercise is as close to real as they get, said Marine Maj. Tom Welborn.

"They are all getting some great training out here and by the time it's all said and done, when they get over to Iraq, the insurgents are going to have their hands full if they try to attack these convoys," he said.

Nearly 3,000 Marines and sailors started the four-day integrated exercise on Friday as part of the two-week Desert Talon 2, hosted by Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron-1.

There are 80 aircraft, both fixed-wing and rotary-wing, at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma for this exercise. This is the first time that fixed wing aircraft, such as F-18s, have been used in Desert Talon.

There are also participants from the Army, another first in Desert Talon's short history. MAWTS-1 hosted the first Desert Talon in January.

This exercise is 20 percent larger than the first one and 10 percent larger than the twice-a-year Weapons and Tactics Instructor (WTI) course.

In contrast to the first exercise, Desert Talon 2 will take place outside of the city limits with landing zones on private land.

The only "urban" landing zone is the soccer field near Somerton Middle School, where they are doing casualty evacuation drills.

They will run this drill 11 times during the weekend at this site. So far, everything is running well, Welborn said.

"It's probably the best training I've seen out here and it's much improved over what we did last time," he said.

Welborn said they had more time to plan this training, making it a close replica for Iraq.

"We kind of knew how the convoys were running over there, so instead of having them go to Yuma and sit in one place, we branched them out into the Dome Valley area and south of Yuma to actually drive the routes like they will be in Iraq," Welborn said. "We are hitting them on those routes, just they would be in Iraq trying to make it as real as possible."

Throughout the weekend, eight convoys will be running to four sites located throughout the county practicing their reactions to these situations.

The participants understand the importance of this training, Welborn said.

"The guys that we've run through the last six days say it's the best training they've been through during their entire time in the Marine Corps," he said.

On Monday, the trainees will take notes during the debriefing session, the final part in the training.

"They fold that up, put that in their hip pocket and take that over to Iraq with them," Welborn said.
---
Michelle Kann can be reached at mkann@yumasun.com or 539-6855.

http://yumasun.com/artman/publish/articles/story_11777.shtml


Ellie