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thedrifter
11-01-04, 06:42 AM
Posted on Mon, Nov. 01, 2004




CONFLICT IN IRAQ


Marines prepare for major assault on rebel stronghold

U.S. Marines are training and priming equipment in case the order is given to attack rebels in Fallujah.

BY PATRICK J. McDONNELL

Los Angeles Times Service


NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq - The Marines are getting ready for an all-out assault.

Troops are dismantling, cleaning and reassembling their weapons, stocking up on supplies, studying tactics and participating in numerous drills in preparation for a large-scale assault. A sense of exhilaration is evident among the Marines training at dusty bases near Fallujah, a rebel stronghold now firmly in the cross-hairs of the U.S. military and the Iraqi interim government.

''I've been waiting for this fight ever since I joined the Marines,'' said Staff Sgt. Dennis Nash, an 11-year Marine veteran whose platoon has been fine-tuning its skills. ``This battle is going to be written about in history books. . . . The terrorists who want to fight us are in that city, and we're going to get 'em.''

U.S. and Iraqi commanders want to put down the insurgency before elections scheduled for January. Security, too, seems to be getting worse every day. On Saturday, nine Marines were killed and nine others were wounded when insurgents ambushed a U.S. convoy on the outskirts of Fallujah. The car-bomb attack was the deadliest incident involving U.S. troops in nearly nine months.

PREVIOUS ASSAULT

The enemy has had six months to dig in.

In April, U.S. Marines launched a major assault on Fallujah after the slaying of four American security contractors, whose mutilated bodies were dragged through the streets. But the assault unleashed a firestorm of criticism among Iraqis, who complained of hundreds of civilian casualties, and the Marines lifted the siege after three weeks.

Marine commanders stress that they are still awaiting final orders to begin a new offensive, and will abide by a negotiated settlement if a deal emerges from ongoing talks between Fallujah representatives and Iraqi government officials.

`FINAL PHASE'

In a news conference Sunday, interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi warned that the window was closing for reaching a negotiated resolution with the insurgents, calling it ''the final phase'' of efforts to avoid an all-out attack.

Using much the same language as the Americans, he described Fallujah residents as victims of foreign fighters and eager to be rescued from them.

ALTERNATIVES CITED

''If there is a failure in doing this peacefully, then we will do it by force,'' Allawi said. ``We have to restore stability in Iraq. . . . The window for such a peaceful settlement is closing.''

U.S. troops are openly skeptical of any settlement. ``The terrorists are barking up the wrong tree,`` said Cpl. Anibal Paz, a 21-year-old from Boston. ``They're taking us on, and they won't be able to back it up.''

The upbeat mood contrasts to the generally spartan conditions here, where many Marines are billeted in bombed-out barracks that once housed Iranian fighters sponsored by Saddam Hussein. Arabic slogans meant to inspire the Iranians are still scrawled on many walls. Hussein's image stares down in one large room converted to a mess hall.

The day and night are filled with detonations: mortars coming in, artillery fire going out, airstrikes on Fallujah, about three miles to the east.

Helicopter rotors rumble and F-16 fighter jets zoom overhead. The ground shakes, a slight wind ripples, and mushroom clouds rise from massive controlled explosions of 2,000 pounds or more of captured weapon caches from Hussein's forces.

Military officials will not say how many troops are preparing, or when the assault is scheduled to begin. But the number of Marines this time is sure to exceed the fewer than 3,000 who participated in last April's operation.

Joining the Marines would be Army units and an unknown number of Iraqi troops. Officials stress the need that any assault be perceived as an Iraqi operation ordered by Allawi.

''Even more important than the battle is the aftermath,'' a senior commander said. ``The Iraqis need to go in there like the American government goes into Florida after a hurricane. They need to be seen on the ground helping people.''

FOLLOW-UP PLANS

Several thousand Iraqi police, national guardsmen and army personnel are said to be poised to move into Fallujah to help maintain order once the Marines have secured the city. Most are from outside Fallujah, and thus are immune to the intimidation and threats that contributed to the failure of the Fallujah Brigade, the special unit of Iraqi forces set up in April to help maintain the peace. Many turned out to be insurgents or sympathizers.

In addition, tens of millions of dollars in reconstruction funds may be spent on projects in Fallujah once the fighting stops. Marine lawyers are traveling with combat units, ready to handle compensation claims for battle damage.

But first, commanders say, the city must be wrested from criminals; religious militants; foreign fighters, including Jordanian militant Abu Musab al Zarqawi; and nationalist elements, including many former Iraqi army personnel still loyal to Hussein.

''The Marines are motivated,'' said Gunnery Sgt. Doug Berry, who was helping to oversee the drill.


http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/world/10066635.htm


Ellie

thedrifter
11-01-04, 06:43 AM
U.S. Marines Can't Easily ID Enemy in Iraq

Mon Nov 1, 1:36 AM ET Middle East - AP


By EDWARD HARRIS, Associated Press Writer

NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq - Scouring turnip patches and dimly lit homes, U.S. Marines on patrol outside the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah search for guns, mortar rounds and rockets in villages where the Marines believe people smile by day — and launch deadly projectiles by night.



In a fight without front lines against civilian-clothed enemies, Marines in central Iraq (news - web sites) can't easily identify enemies called "The Muj" — short for mujahedeen, or Muslim holy warriors — who boobytrap roads and fire into U.S. bases from nearby hamlets.


"They're watching us right now. They're everywhere, but you can't tell who they are," says Sgt. Alexander Munoz as he leads a 1st Marine Division patrol through one town. "They wave and salute — then they bomb you."


The Marines have stepped up activities in Iraq's restive Sunni Triangle and are laying plans to attack Fallujah, whose rebel leadership is believed a leading force behind the insurgency as well as the hostage-takings, bombings and beheadings.


An attack, if ordered by Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, would likely be led by Marines now patrolling near Fallujah, seeking to clear weapons caches as well as prevent the kind of rearguard action the U.S. forces faced during an aborted attack on the city in April.


U.S. forces hope to cut down the rebellion and boost security in Iraq ahead of nationwide elections scheduled for January.


But as the Marines try to calm the area around Fallujah, they say they face a foe who mixes with the local population, threatening unsympathetic civilians into supporting their goals. And collaborating with the Marines can be deadly.


"The people here are against a wall. They help us and they help the Muj," says Munoz, as the Marines look for roadside bombs — which the troops call improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.


"Sometimes they tell us about the IEDs, sometimes they don't. They're scared," says the 28-year old from San Sebastian, Puerto Rico.


Civilians escaping Fallujah — with some rebels likely among them — are taking refuge in abandoned houses and schools shuttered during the fighting.


"There has been a large influx of refugees fleeing Fallujah. Overnight, we usually go out and stay in abandoned houses and now we're competing with refugees," says Lt. John Jacobs.


"They're definitely out there in numbers," the 31-year old from Santa Cruz, Calif. says. Food shortages are beginning to show up among the displaced, he says.


The Fallujah displaced provide the Marines an opportunity to ingratiate themselves.


"We came from Fallujah a month ago. We have no money," one Iraqi woman, Nazha Ahmed, tells patrol leader Munoz, speaking through an Iraqi translator.


"This is our family here, but we don't have anyone to help us," says the wizened, middle-aged mother of four.


"Okay. Tell them I'll send this upstairs and the Marines will bring them food," Munoz says to the translator.


A Marine attack on Fallujah in April was called off after widespread Iraqi protest at reports of civilian casualties, but not before insurgents sneaked around and attacked the Marines' rear, touching off a dayslong battle outside the city.





So the Marines are showing their force this time before any upcoming attack on Fallujah, walking through turnip and tomato fields and looking for weapons buried in irrigation ditches as rebel rockets crash in the area.

Children scamper nearby with wide grins, shouting "Give me, Give me."

"'Sup homies! Salaam, Salaam," shouts one Marine as he hands out candy.

The Marines are on constant lookout for the roadside bombs, often connected by wires to a mobile phone, which when dialed sets off the blast. Rebel spotters are presumed to be watching.

The bombs can also be mounted on telephone poles or put in trash, and the Marines suspect the townspeople often know where the bombs lay.

"Another way you know of an IED is that the people run away when we pass by," says Munoz. "Especially the kids."

The Marines quietly enter families' walled compounds, shining their flashlights in corners and looking on rooftops.

Adolescent Iraqi boys hold their empty palms to the Marines, indicating they're hiding no contraband.

"Yeah, yeah, I know you don't have anything," says Lance Corporal Brian Davis.

"A lot of these people are very respectful, they give you water," the 27-year old from Kelseyville, Calif. says later. "But you always have to ask yourself who they really are."


http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041101/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_who_s_the_muj_1

Ellie

thedrifter
11-01-04, 06:44 AM
Fresh American Troops Arrive in Iraq <br />
<br />
By JIM KRANE, Associated Press Writer <br />
<br />
BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. troops clashed with Sunni insurgents west of the capital Monday, and gunmen assassinated...

thedrifter
11-01-04, 06:44 AM
GOOD TO GO:
Marines ready to end stalemate
By PATRICK J. McDONNELL
Los Angeles Times



NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq — The Marines are getting ready for an all-out assault.

Troops are disassembling and cleaning their weapons, stocking up on supplies, studying tactics and participating in numerous drills in preparation for a large-scale assault. A sense of exhilaration is evident among the Marines training at dusty bases near Fallujah, a rebel stronghold now firmly in the cross-hairs of the U.S. military and the Iraqi interim government.

"I've been waiting for this fight ever since I joined the Marines," said Staff Sgt. Dennis Nash, an 11-year Marine veteran whose platoon has been fine-tuning its skills. "This battle is going to be written about in history books. . . . The terrorists who want to fight us are in that city, and we're going to get 'em."

The day and night are filled with detonations: Mortars coming in, artillery fire going out, airstrikes on Fallujah, some three miles to the east.

Helicopter rotors rumble and F-16 fighter jets zoom overhead. The ground shakes, a slight wind ripples and mushroom clouds rise from massive controlled explosions of 2,000 pounds or more of captured weapon caches from Saddam Hussein's forces.

On Saturday, nine Marines were killed and nine others were wounded when insurgents ambushed a U.S. convoy on the outskirts of Fallujah. The car bomb attack was the deadliest incident involving U.S. troops in nearly nine months.

Marine commanders stress that they are still awaiting final orders, and will abide by a negotiated settlement if a deal emerges from ongoing talks between Fallujah representatives and Iraqi government officials.

In a news conference yesterday, Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi warned that the window was closing for reaching a negotiated resolution with the insurgents, calling it "the final phase" of efforts to avoid an all-out attack.


http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=46410


Ellie

thedrifter
11-01-04, 06:45 AM
Remembering Dondo … a sarcastic, witty leader of Marines
Submitted by: 11th MEU
Story by: Computed Name: Gunnery Sgt. Chago Zapata
Story Identification #: 2004103110123




FORWARD OPERATING BASE ECHO, Iraq(Oct. 31, 2004) -- This is the sixth in a series of seven articles paying homage to the Marines of the 11th MEU who bravely fought and lost their lives during fighting in An Najaf, Iraq, this August.

He was young, barely 20 years old, but he made a lasting impression. His friends fondly remember a ready smile, quick wit, total selflessness and of course, his signature sarcastic sense of humor.

As one of the seven Marines who fell in combat during the battle of An Najaf, Iraq, Lance Cpl. Alexander S. Arredondo, fireteam leader, 3rd Fireteam, 3rd Squad, 1st Platoon, Company A, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable), will remain forever young and his memory will remain engraved in the minds and hearts of the Marines who served with him.

"Dondo," as he was commonly called, died late in the morning of Aug. 25, 2004, of wounds received in combat in Old City Najaf.

Two months after his death, two of his closest friends sat and talked, not about how he died but about how he lived. There was quite a bit of laughter as they talked, as well as moments of silence where they sat lost in their thoughts and remembrances. They didn't dwell on any negatives … as far as they were concerned, there were none.

Lance Cpl. Christian D. Bauzo, fireteam leader, 1st Fireteam, 2nd Squad, 1st Platoon, A Co., BLT 1/4, 11th MEU (SOC), first met Dondo at the School of Infantry where they were rack mates.

"When I first met him, he was really quiet but he was always a happy guy," said the Miami native. "We came to (BLT 1/4) together and once we started to grow with the unit, he just burst out of his shell. Once he did, he was one of the loudest Marines, always cracking jokes, always trying to make the situation better."

According to Lance Cpl. Peter P. Brogdon, a Phoenix native and fireteam leader for 3rd Fireteam, 2nd Squad, 1st Platoon, A Co., BLT 1/4, 11th MEU (SOC), Dondo's sense of humor was sarcastic but in a serious kind of way.

"He was always up-beat. He always had some kind of sarcastic remark about a situation to make it better," 21-year-old Brogdon said. "He really liked complaining about a lot of things. But if he didn't complain, he used sarcasm. It had to be a joke."

Bauzo said that if you had a fault, Dondo would throw it in your face. He'd show you your fault by making a joke out of it, and would make you want to laugh about it.

"Whenever I fall, I laugh at myself. No one really makes fun of you if you laugh at yourself, but Dondo would," 20-year-old Bauzo said, laughing and shaking his head. "Pointing at me he'd say 'Oh you fell and you're laughing about it. Ha, you fell man, you hit the ground hard. Hey look at me, I'm Bauzo. I fell and now I'm laughing at myself. This is my defense mechanism.' We'd all be laughing by then."

He'd go out of his way to embarrass his buddies, but they'd always end up laughing. He was never malicious about it, that's just the way he was. It was funny the way he did it, Bauzo explained.

Laughing, Brogdon recalled an instance during Operation Iraqi Freedom I, when he and Dondo got in trouble for something Brogdon did while standing on watch. Earlier he had found a grenade fuse and, during the amnesty period when they were supposed to turn in captured ammunition and other contraband, he decided to keep it.

"I was a junior Marine, I was a boot … not too smart," said Brogdon, laughing and shaking his head. "Later I decided I had to get rid of it. Stupid me I decided to set it off while I was on watch."

The result was a loud harmless BOOM, which left them standing there looking at each other stunned not by the fuse but by the knowledge that Brogdon was in trouble.

"Dondo had this shocked smirk on his face when I asked him 'Dude, what are we going to do?'" recalls Brogdon. "He answered with the only possible answer 'Dude, you're (expletive) man!'"

Although Dondo had played no part in the fuse lighting incident he still got in trouble because he was on post with Brogdon and he was considered an accomplice, Brogdon explained.

This misadventure, however, did not affect their friendship. They had been together through too much and gotten to know each other too well for it to harm their bond, Brogdon said.

One thing they had in common was their love of the culture and people of Iraq, Brogdon said.

"We both wanted to learn the language and wanted to help the people here," Brogdon said. "We had a kind of knack for the language. We could connect with these people. Whenever Marines got frustrated when trying to communicate with the Iraqis, they'd call us over and we could understand each other just fine."

According to Bauzo, Dondo had a deep seated desire to learn about Iraq and its people.

"Ever since he found out his brother was half Iraqi, he became very passionate about Iraq, about learning the culture and the language, about the people in general," Bauzo explained. "He actually loved being here."

According to Bauzo, Dondo also loved martial arts. He loved to climb, surf, and snowboard. He loved this country and he was also somewhat of a ladies man.

"He did a lot of karate before he joined the Marine Corps. That's basically where he got his physique. He was always disciplined and physical," said Brogdon. "He'd been into it for about six years or so. One year he did one kind of martial arts, the next year he tried something else. He never stuck to just one thing. He always wanted to do his own thing."

Dondo was a well-built young man -- tall, broad shouldered, with a V-shaped body.

"He was pretty cut even though he didn't work out. It was just natural," said Brogdon. "He always looked like he was in peak condition. It's just the way he was."

His physique wasn't the only reason his friends considered him a ladies man.

"He had a thing for picking up girls," said Bauzo. "He'd go up to a girl and play off their game. The worse they treated him, the worse he treated them, and they loved it. They just couldn't get enough of him. At the end of the night, there he'd go with that girl that at first didn't want anything to do with him."

There was more to Dondo than his sense of humor and good looks. He was an excellent fireteam leader, according to a member of his fireteam.

"Throughout the month of August, while we were in Najaf, he proved himself to be an exceptional leader," said Lance Cpl. Jason W. Williams, 19, a Lander, Wyo., native and machine gunner in Dondo's fireteam. "He wasn't shy about jumping out there and giving cover fire for Marines, making sure his Marines were safe, making sure that they were getting their food and water. He was one of the best Marines I've known and he was an exceptional fighter."

To his platoon sergeant, Staff Sgt. Simon L. Sandoval, 28, who had only know him about nine months, Dondo was a humble, unassuming, quiet kind of guy who was really close to his family and could be depended on to lead his fireteam right.

"He was a good leader, mentally tough, always running his fireteam well and always ready to go," Sandoval said. "He always made sure things were done before I said anything to him. He did them without supervision. You didn't have to push him to do the right thing. You could always depend on him to do the right thing."

According to Sandoval, when 1st Platoon was in the middle of combat in Najaf, every time there was a fireteam that needed to do a mission, he picked Dondo's fireteam.

"He was a strong leader and his fireteam showed it," Sandoval said. "Dondo was ready to be an NCO."
Alpha Company's 1st Platoon lost two good Marines, Arredondo and Pfc. Nicholas M. Skinner, during the battle in Old City Najaf. Sandoval felt both deeply.

"One thing I can say about Dondo and Skinner is that I loved them both, even though I didn't show it," he said. "I'm proud to have been their platoon sergeant. I plan to tell their parents that when I see them."

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/20041031105242/$file/P6130050_3lowres.jpg

Lance Cpl. Alexander S. Arredondo, fireteam leader, 3rd Fireteam, 3rd Squad, 1st Platoon, Company A, Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable), was one of the seven Marines who fell in combat during the battle of An Najaf, Iraq, in August. Photo by: Lance Cpl. Christian D. Bauzo

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/0/62AA075446AAFAD085256F3E00528682?opendocument

Ellie

thedrifter
11-01-04, 06:47 AM
Fresh Qaqaa: The “Missing Weapons” Story and the Spin Wars <br />
<br />
November 1, 2004 <br />
<br />
<br />
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <br />
by Nicholas Stix <br />
...

thedrifter
11-01-04, 06:47 AM
7. As the New York Post’s military writer, Ralph Peters, observed on October 28, in “The Myth of the ‘Missing Explosives’: A Shameless Lie,” “looters” could not possibly have stolen the explosives,...

thedrifter
11-01-04, 07:20 AM
November 01, 2004

Troops were used to test anthrax vaccine, book says
DoD denies adding immune-boosting substance to doses

By Deborah Funk
Times staff writer


A new book alleges that U.S. troops received experimental anthrax vaccinations in the 1991 Persian Gulf War and during the Pentagon’s more recent mandatory anthrax vaccinations.
The book, “Vaccine A,” by investigative reporter Gary Matsumoto, describes military plans to create a new, more effective anthrax vaccine, and says scientific evidence shows that the vaccine used on at least some troops contained squalene, an oil that is being studied as a possible substance to help boost immune response.

Matsumoto asserts that the alleged experiments may be responsible for some of the undiagnosed illnesses of fatigue and joint pain in 1991 Gulf War veterans, as well as autoimmune disorders found in service members who were inoculated since the Pentagon launched its mandatory Anthrax Vaccination Immunization Program in 1998.

Small amounts of squalene were found in five lots of anthrax vaccine tested by the Food and Drug Administration in 1999. Traces also were found later in a sixth lot in tests conducted by a private contractor.

Pentagon officials deny purposely adding squalene to the current anthrax vaccine or secretly using the potential new vaccine on troops.

Army Col. John Grabenstein, deputy director of the Military Vaccine Agency, said the FDA also found squalene in two other vaccines it tested, not just anthrax vaccine.

“We think that the most likely explanation is that in the course of looking for squalene, they introduced it themselves … not intentionally,” Grabenstein said.

Squalene is used in a flu vaccine in Europe for humans but is not approved for use in the United States. Matsumoto said it has been shown to cause autoimmune diseases in animals that correlate to the autoimmune diseases among troops who received shots of anthrax vaccine from the lots that tested positive for squalene.

Tests by civilian researchers at Tulane University show a strong correlation between squalene antibodies and illnesses in sick service members or veterans who received anthrax vaccination.

And Matsumoto warns that the military’s new anthrax vaccine candidate, which is far purer than the current one, needs an added ingredient to get a good immune response. A patent held by the Army for the potential new vaccine includes squalene in one of its several formulations, Matsumoto writes.

In its 1999 tests, the FDA found squalene in amounts ranging from 11 to 83 parts per billion. Grabenstein said that is far less than the 40 million parts per billion in Europe’s flu vaccine. He also said the potential new anthrax vaccine under study does not contain an oil-boosting ingredient.

Matsumoto asserts that even amounts of squalene as small as the FDA found in anthrax vaccine several years ago could do harm.

He first reported allegations of the use of a secret vaccine in 1999. A posting on the Pentagon’s anthrax Web site about that article states: “The writer’s interpretation and presentation of the facts regarding the Department’s use of anthrax vaccine are speculative, inflammatory, and wrong.”

Defense officials mount several challenges under “The Facts on Squalene,” at www.anthrax.mil. Among other things, the DoD says civilian physicians who reviewed adverse reaction reports “found no meaningful differences based on lot or on geographic location” in numbers of, or severity of, adverse events after vaccination.

Matsumoto’s book title refers to one of the ways the anthrax vaccination was recorded in service members’ records during the 1991 Gulf War.

In “Vaccine A,” scheduled for publication Oct. 19 by Basic Books, Matsumoto writes: “I have no whistleblower saying the experiments on military personnel described in this book took place. I have no copy of a memo ordering them to commence. There is hidden, in plain sight, however, clinical and forensic scientific evidence that they were done.

“The two-fold serial dilution of squalene, Tulane’s antibodies, the autoimmune diseases in troops that are known [to follow] injection with oil adjuvants, and the dramatic rise in adverse reactions to the vaccine in the 1990s — specifically allergic and autoimmune reactions — all point to an experiment with an oil adjuvant that the Army has been using in its new anthrax vaccine from 1987 to the present day,” he writes.

Some members of the 436th Airlift Wing at Dover Air Force Base, Del., received anthrax shots from one of the lots found to contain squalene. The wing’s former commander, retired Air Force Col. Felix Grieder, temporarily halted Dover’s vaccination program in 1999. In an interview, he said the scientific evidence points to experimentation and called for an independent investigation.

“Our military’s medical system needs to be held accountable,” Grieder said. “There aren’t enough checks and balances.”

Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Jay Lacklen, a former pilot based at Dover, agreed. He received seven anthrax shots, including three from lots that the FDA identified as containing squalene.

Tests show that he also has antibodies to squalene, he said, but he does not have an autoimmune disease.

Lacklen believes “DoD conducted a medical experiment on front-line troops.”

Prior to the release of “Vaccine A,” Grieder aired his concerns in an article in the Wilmington (Del.) News Journal, which led Delaware’s congressional delegation, including Democratic Sen. Joe Biden, to send a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld seeking an explanation, an investigation, assurances that vaccine stocks at Dover contain no squalene, and whatever data the Pentagon has on squalene.

“At a minimum, a great deal of unnecessary confusion and anxiety has been caused by the handling of this issue. At a maximum, intentional actions or unintentional incompetence may have created a health hazard for our personnel,” the letter stated.

The delegation wants a response by Nov. 15.


http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=0-MARINEPAPER-463410.php

Ellie

cjwright90
11-01-04, 07:38 AM
I say we go in with our bulldozers, and guns blazing, and level Falluja. If there is no where for Zarqari (sp) to hide, he can't hide.

thedrifter
11-01-04, 09:00 AM
November 01, 2004

Anthrax program resumes, expands
Troops who started regimen to pick up where they left off

By Deborah Funk
Times staff writer


Service members who started their anthrax vaccinations before the Pentagon ran out of supplies more than three years ago are receiving shots again, regardless of where they are assigned.
Some 200,000 troops fall under the plan that resumes shots for anyone who received at least one in the series and is still in the military. Anthrax vaccine is given in six shots at prescribed intervals over 18 months, according to its label, followed by annual booster shots.

But under the Pentagon’s plan, service members are simply picking up the series where they left off. If they got their first shot three years ago, they will get the second now. If they were up to the fourth shot before, they’ll pick up with the fifth shot now.

Army Col. John Grabenstein, deputy director of the Military Vaccine Agency, said the practice is based on advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, and from the Food and Drug Administration. Picking up where a shot series left off is seen in vaccines administered to children and health care workers.

“The delay doesn’t reduce getting to the ultimate goal,” Grabenstein said. “The delay causes a delay.”

The body has memory cells that recall exposure, Grabenstein said. “This is a fundamental principle of immunology.”

Dr. Henry Shinefield, co-director of the Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center, agreed. He cited a Defense Department study published in the journal Vaccine that showed a body remembers receiving one to three shots of anthrax vaccine 18 to 24 months after they were administered. Shinefield said it could be presumed that the body’s recall would continue beyond the 24 months measured.

Several years ago, however, before supply shortages began narrowing the program’s scope, federal officials had warned defense officials against deviating from the approved schedule.

“This schedule is the only regimen shown to be effective in protecting humans against anthrax and is the only schedule approved by FDA,” Kathryn Zoon wrote in a 1999 letter to then-Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Dr. Sue Bailey. At the time, Zoon was director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.

In her letter, Zoon reiterated what the FDA had told defense officials two years earlier: “FDA approval of the anthrax vaccine is based on the six-dose regimen found in the approved labeling. Because we are unaware of any data demonstrating that any deviation from the approved intervals of doses found in the approved labeling will provide protection from anthrax infection, we strongly recommend that the Anthrax Vaccine Immunization Program follow the FDA-approved schedule.”

Grabenstein said the letter was written before the vaccine shortage occurred and was aimed at ensuring troops received their shots on schedule.

Lenore Gelb, spokeswoman for the FDA, said there is no legal penalty for deviating from the schedule and physicians can use drugs in ways not specified on the label based on patient needs.

“The vaccine is shown to be safe and effective,” Gelb said.

But Mark Zaid, an attorney representing current and former service members in a suit against the government alleging that the vaccine’s use to protect humans against inhalation anthrax is illegal, said deviating from the schedule is not authorized by the vaccine’s license.

Dr. Meryl Nass, a Maine physician and researcher, said that means military officials should be required to get “informed consent from those taking the vaccine.”

A military history of the vaccine

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=0-MARINEPAPER-460482.php


Ellie

Toby M
11-01-04, 09:46 AM
We have been "preparing" for over a week now. How much more warning do we need to give them? By now, they will have stockpiled enough ammo and brought in more help from all over the world...Marines are the best but why is our government hamstringing them by making it known to the world what we are planning to do? Am I seeing something here that isn't there? I agree with CJ-let's go in with bulldozers and clean them out-once and for all!!!

thedrifter
11-01-04, 10:23 AM
Errors in Iraq Abuse Case Raise Concerns <br />
<br />
By SETH HETTENA, Associated Press Writer <br />
<br />
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. - Working in a makeshift lab in a bombed-out building, an Army pathologist dipped her...

thedrifter
11-01-04, 11:50 AM
Reaching Out at Fallujah Outpost <br />
Behind Heavy Security, Marines Put On a Friendly Face <br />
<br />
By Jackie Spinner <br />
Washington Post Staff Writer <br />
Monday, November 1, 2004; Page A01 <br />
<br />
NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq,...

thedrifter
11-01-04, 12:52 PM
American, 3 Others Kidnapped in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq - An American and three other foreigners were kidnapped Monday from their office in western Baghdad, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. An Iraqi guard and one attacker were killed in a gunfight during the abduction, a police lieutenant said.


Interior Ministry spokesman Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman said the other kidnap victims included an Asian and two Arabs but he did not know their nationalities. U.S. Embassy spokesman Bob Callahan confirmed that the fourth victim was an American.


Abdul-Rahman said the victims were believed to be working for a Saudi company but he had no further details.


Police Lt. Ali Hussein said the attack occurred about 5:30 p.m. during the iftar meal when Muslims break their daylong fast in Ramadan. He said the gunmen attacked with semiautomatic rifles, triggering a gunbattle with guards that resulted in the deaths.


Twelve Americans have been kidnapped or are missing in Iraq (news - web sites). At least three of them have been killed — all beheaded in abductions claimed by an al-Qaida-linked group led by Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.


In September, militants kidnapped two Americans and a Briton from their home in Mansour. All three were later beheaded.


More than 160 foreigners have been abducted this year by militants with political demands or by criminals seeking ransom. At least 33 captives have been killed.


The abduction came two days after authorities found the decapitated body of another hostage, 24-year-old Japanese backpacker Shosei Koda. Al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq group said it had kidnapped Koda and demanded a withdrawal of Japanese troops from the country.


Koda's body was found Saturday, wrapped in an American flag and dumped on a Baghdad street.


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=2&u=/ap/20041101/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_hostages

Ellie

thedrifter
11-01-04, 01:53 PM
Waiting for Falluja


By Kevin Sites
NBC News Correspondent

I'm currently embedded with the Third Battalion, First Regiment Marines or the "Thundering Third" as they like to be known -- waiting for the long-rumored offensive to retake the stubborn, insurgent-held city of Falluja -- prior to Iraq's January elections. It's widely accepted in Iraq and within the U.S. State Department and United Nations -- that Falluja must somehow participate in the upcoming vote -- or else the process will seem illegitimate and further disenfranchise both moderate and militant Sunnis from the new Iraqi government.

But the Marines here see it in simpler terms -- they've got a job to do and when they get the word they'll gladly clear the city of insurgents, foreign fighters, whoever gets in their way. With all the casualties they've suffered from roadside bombs and nightly mortar and rocket attacks -- they're highly motivated. Before a recent mission there's a lot of swagger and bravado as they gear up.

"Hope Haji comes out to play tonight," is the common sentiment.

Like most of the bulk of the military, aside from officers and non-coms, they're kids really -- 18, 19, 20 years old. They switch from playing imaginary war games on an Xbox in the base rec rooms to living and fighting in a real war. They flip from astounding maturity, trusting each other with their lives, brotherly bonds, to head-shaking juvenile antics -- belittling each others manhood, intelligence, haircuts--whatever presents itself as an appropriate weakness.

The Marines here handle their deadly arsenal of personal and squad weapons like they were additional appendages -- loading and clearing them with the casual precision of having done it thousands of times before. Ready to use them in the same manner.

Camp Abu Graib is a well fortified, but livable dusty bowl. There is power (from generators) and running water (in shower trailers) but both are sporadic. Marines coming back from hot and dirty missions may have to go without shower, cleaning up with baby wipes or bottled water. The Marines live in cinder block buildings, retro-fitted with window air-conditioning units and bunk beds. They bunk anywhere from six to ten in each room, usually by squad or team -- cooks in one hootch, snipers in another. Every door has a black stencil of a snorting bull, the Battalion mascot -- and in red letters underneath the words, "Complacency Kills."

There is a chow hall, which serves pre-prepared meals; the camp is too small (under one-thousand) to qualify for a civilian food operation usually provided by Halliburton subsidiary KBR (Kellog, Brown and Root). There is an "internet café" and phone center where Marines can keep in touch with loved ones -- or surf dating sites like, "Hot or Not."

I've also discovered that almost any base, no matter how close to the front lines, will have a well-stocked weight room where Marines and Soldiers can burn off the frustrations of their protracted deployments in hostile territory. Most bases also have what Marines and Soldiers call a "Haji shop," a little store run by Iraqis that sell local souvenirs like rugs, regime military medals or money, sandals, potato chips and pirated DVD's.

While they wait -- Marines talk, smoke -- but most of all, they dip. The most common sound around Camp Abu Graib, next to a weapon being cleared or an incoming rocket (usually one per day) is the sound of a can of tobacco being tapped loose for the next pinch. Empty water bottles seem standard issued for Marines working inside, cheap and handy spittoons.

Despite a history of sacrifice for the nation -- the U.S. Marines are the redheaded, stepchildren of the Pentagon when it comes to the budget process. With only 150,000 active duty Marines in the whole Corps -- they get "hand me down" everything -- or nothing at all. While almost all the combat Army units in Iraq have been issued the shorter-barreled M4 assault rifle (better for urban warfare, easier to wield getting in and out of humvees) and night vision goggles, the Marines are still mostly carrying M16's and are lucky to have one set of nv specs per squad.

But the Marines do have their own distinctive uniforms--a computer-generated, khaki-checkered, camouflage pattern, which appears to operate on the same principle as those pop art pointillism posters -- where Marilyn Monroe or a space shuttle is hidden inside a field of tiny dots. If you look hard enough, you might be able to see the Marine.

Ellie

thedrifter
11-01-04, 02:44 PM
HQ: 'As you were' on medal placement
Submitted by: MCB Camp Pendleton
Story Identification #: 20041028141438
Story by Lance Cpl. Joseph L. Digirolamo



MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (Oct. 28, 2004) -- Marines who stand inspection proudly wearing their Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal may find themselves frowning after they find out they're wearing it incorrectly.

Marine Online is offering guidance -- albeit incorrect -- on how to wear the medal. As of Tuesday, the incorrect information remained on Marine Online with the disclaimer "unofficial."

"Marines relying on precedence of ribbons according to Marine Online could be misguided," said Lance Cpl. Ned C. Vergara, an admin clerk with the Awards Branch at Quantico, Va.

The Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal's correct placement is after the Kosovo Campaign Medal and before the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.

That medal -- for stateside service members who performed certain security roles since 9/11 -- is yet to be released; Vergara said its release date has not been determined.

The Marine Online guidance shows ribbons placed in incorrect order. Its disclaimer says the precedence order "is being researched" by the Awards Branch, and that MOL will update its program as soon as results are made available.

This award was established by executive order on March 12, 2003.

Personnel eligible to receive the medal must be assigned to a deployed unit participating in operations during the Global War on Terrorism for 30 consecutive days or 60 nonconsecutive days.

Marine Administrative Message 129/04, citing DoD exceptions to those criteria, says commands may award the medal to Marines engaged in "dangerous operations" or who becoming casualties during operations.

The scarlet, blue and white stripes on the GWOTEM's ribbon is a representation of the United States. The gold stripes stand for excellence and the blue denote cooperation against global terrorism.

The award's bronze medal represents an eagle with a shield (symbolizing the United States) crushing the serpent (symbolizing terrorists). The swords underneath the shield represent readiness. The wreath shows honor and achievement.

For more information on the GWOTEM, Marines should review MarAdmins 129/04 and 295/04 or speak with their administrative support unit.

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/200410296445/$file/GWOT-expeditionaryLow.jpg

Marines who stand inspection proudly wearing their Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal may find themselves frowning after they find out they're wearing it incorrectly. Marine Online is offering guidance -- albeit incorrect -- on how to wear the medal. As of Oct. 26, the incorrect information remained on Marine Online with the disclaimer "unofficial."
Photo by:

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/AFF727FD9812959C85256F3B006437A1?opendocument

Ellie

thedrifter
11-01-04, 04:21 PM
Under Fire <br />
Haunted by Memories of War, A Soldier Battles The Army <br />
<br />
By Lynne Duke <br />
Washington Post Staff Writer <br />
Monday, November 1, 2004; Page C01 <br />
<br />
&quot;Satchel bomb!&quot; <br />
<br />
His shout shatters the...

thedrifter
11-01-04, 04:23 PM
"He just kept saying 'I need help. I need help. They won't help me. They won't help me.' And I'm going, 'Phil, we're gonna help you, we're gonna help you.' "

It was Nov. 7, 2003 -- the day Fort Knox denied him treatment, the day he went AWOL and entertained thoughts of his own death.

He'd been pressing closer and closer to this moment for months, with each accumulated stress, each life-or-death situation, each episode of conflict with his superiors.

Actually, his problem went back several years. Walter Reed's chief of inpatient psychiatric services, Col. Theodore Nam, testified during the Article 32 hearing that Goodrum's PTSD probably began with the Gulf War. His USS Missouri nightmares, which began only recently, are evidence of what has been embedded in his psyche.

But when he was activated for deployment in the Iraq War, Goodrum did not consider himself stressed. He did not consider himself impaired. He was, in fact, eager to serve. He'd been qualified as a logistics officer, an ordnance officer, and had completed a support operations course. He was ready.

Attached to the 212th Transportation Company, Goodrum went to war in April 2003. As a lieutenant, he was a platoon leader. His troops drove huge rigs called palletized loading systems, or PLSs, which can haul 33 tons.

But things went south fast. He believed the support troops were being put in danger by poor command decisions involving supplies and equipment. He began filing complaints with the Army inspector general about troop preparedness, a move he feels sowed the seeds for retaliation.

Goodrum says he complained because he feared that "somebody was gonna get killed."

As he describes his many filed complaints, one wonders: Is this man a chronic malcontent? MacLean, during the hearing, described his client as a man "fixated" on details.

"Details save lives," Goodrum says in one of many interviews. "The Army is based on several foundations, but one of them is attention to detail. Maybe I've taken it to extremes, but I've been put in some extreme situations.

"Yes, I'm a complainer when my soldiers' welfare is at stake and they're put in harm's way unnecessarily and they're sent out on missions without the correct equipment. So yes, if that would make me a complainer, then yes."

This is what he means: He and his men were forced to run supply convoys with no proper maps (only crude hand-drawn renderings); no radios (only the PLS's digital messaging systems); no heavy weapons (only their individual M-16s); no intelligence on the regions in which they'd be traveling; no armor to protect the two-person cabs of their trucks.

One soldier ripped a couple of manhole covers from an Iraqi street and welded them to his PLS cab doors for extra protection, Goodrum recalls. And Goodrum ordered the troops to pile sandbags on their PLS floorboards to absorb blasts.

Convoys routinely came under small weapons or rocket fire. And they routinely got lost. Goodrum remembers harrowing encounters that plunged him into bouts of private panic.

He'd talk himself out of them by repeating his mantra: "Command and control. I got to keep command and control. Command my soldiers, implement plans and control the situation and get the hell out of here."

Once he was a breath away from killing or being killed. A wrong turn left his convoy looking for a place to turn around. Goodrum and two other soldiers got out of their Humvee and stopped local traffic so the PLSs could move.

He noticed several men in a white car, from which an AK-47 was pointed right at him, The car was two feet away. He too had his M-16 ready to fire. He just stood there, eyes trained on the gunman's fingers, which weren't near the trigger. One slight movement of the trigger finger, and Goodrum would have blasted him. After a couple of minutes, the car moved on.

And so it went -- the threat of death lurking all around, he says, "360 degrees, 24 hours a day."

One day he dropped his M-16. In fact, he dropped everything. Suddenly, he could not grasp objects. Army doctors weren't sure what was wrong. But clearly he could not remain in Iraq. In July, three months into his deployment, Goodrum was medevaced home.

He would need surgery. The diagnosis was bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome. But there was a tangle of Army red tape to navigate, between two separate military bases -- Camp Atterbury, Ind., his mobilization site, and Fort Knox, where the region's Medical Hold Company was based -- and between various commanders.

Then, in August, he got word. Back in Iraq, Sgt. Kenneth Harris, 23, a much-loved member of the 212th, had been killed in a PLS accident. The truck in which Harris was riding broke down several times on a convoy. In trying to catch up, the driver somehow crashed into the back of another PLS. Harris was sheared in half, and his death was so traumatic to his fellow soldiers on the convoy that seven went to counseling, says Staff Sgt. Reginal Coleman, a passenger in the vehicle that was struck.

Goodrum had been especially fond of Harris. He viewed him as a natural leader who would rise in the military hierarchy. Goodrum felt he'd been kicked in the gut. And he felt that someone must be held responsible.

He filed another complaint -- once he learned details of the accident -- about the preparedness of the 212th and its command.

"And it saddened me because I knew it was coming and I had done everything in my power to prevent a death," Goodrum says.

Hold in Abeyance

Back at Fort Knox that September, Goodrum had surgery on his left hand. But he had to wait weeks to begin physical therapy. And weeks more passed before he could iron out the red tape for surgery on his right hand.

Conditions for soldiers on medical hold at Fort Knox and elsewhere were poor. There were too few doctors. Soldiers faced lengthy waits for processing and treatment. Many soldiers were sent to civilian physicians. And the base accommodations often were poor. Congress ultimately would investigate and recommend changes.

Goodrum filed more official complaints. And he made his "treated like dirt" comment to UPI. It made him a bit infamous on base. He felt it put a bull's-eye on his back.

Goodrum's treatment situation was becoming even more maddening. Suddenly, there were confusing complications in his quest to get surgery for his right hand. On Oct. 29, oddly, he was dropped from "medical hold" at Fort Knox, though he still needed care.

On Nov. 5, at a base clinic, he says, snide comments were made to his face about his outspokenness in the press. He claims a clinic attendant told him he would not be getting his second surgery.

He was so angry, so unnerved, he began to cry. He called a medical case manager. He called a commander he knew. He received assurances that of course he would receive his surgery.

So on Nov. 7, he reported to the Fort Knox hospital to begin the process. He would have to be readmitted to medical hold. And he also asked for help with the emotionalism and anxiety that seemed to keep overwhelming him. He wouldn't get very far.

Lt. Col. Ronald Stevens, then the deputy chief of clinical services at Fort Knox, had been checking up on Goodrum. Stevens had looked at Goodrum's records after the UPI article, Stevens testified at the Article 32 hearing. Stevens thought Goodrum had exaggerated. The UPI article, said Stevens, contained "untruths."

In his testimony, Stevens claimed he wanted to meet Goodrum. He had instructed medical staff to not readmit Goodrum into the medical hold company, but to send him to see Stevens instead.

The physician's assistant who handled Goodrum that day testified that he remembered few details about the encounter. What Goodrum remembers is this: being told that Stevens did not want him to be treated. And a note on a page of Goodrum's records from Ireland Army Community Hospital at Fort Knox reads, "Colonel Stevens do not [sic] want this pt. to be in med. hold."

Goodrum was sent away. He was, in effect, denied treatment.

"I acknowledge that my direction was misunderstood," Stevens testified at the hearing. "I acknowledge that he was turned away."

MacLean, Goodrum's lawyer, shot back, "I guess now he [Goodrum] knows that being treated like dirt is better than not being treated at all."

Every Day a New Trial

"Getting up is the hardest part." Just getting out of bed each morning is a challenge.

"If you get up, brush your teeth and get dressed, you're on a roll." Goodrum chuckles. Not because it's funny, but because he remembers how hard it was for him, a few months ago, just to greet the day.

He's been living at Walter Reed since Feb. 9 -- first on the psychiatric ward, then as a psychiatric outpatient housed in a dormitory-style room in Mologne House on the Walter Reed grounds.

Vijay Jethanandani, Goodrum's civilian psychiatrist from St. Mary's in Knoxville, treated him as long as he could. But by the end of last year, when Goodrum's medical benefits had been cut off because of his AWOL status, Goodrum began to consider other options.

He felt he could not return to Fort Knox. Jethanandani agreed. They decided Goodrum should present himself to a different Army medical facility for help, and Walter Reed emerged as the right choice. Jethanandani wrote a letter for Goodrum to carry with him, explaining his condition, his medications, and urging Walter Reed not to send him back to Fort Knox.

McGill drove him to the District. He arrived at the Walter Reed hospital emergency room, in full Class A dress, and presented himself as a sick, AWOL soldier in need of help.

As is normal for newly admitted psychiatric patients, Goodrum was confined to Walter Reed's psychiatric ward, Ward 54 -- a secure ward where patients aren't free to come and go. Goodrum progressed well on that ward. On Feb. 19, he was scheduled to be moved to the less secure Ward 53, according to his patient records.

But Stevens's intervention was not over. On Feb. 18, Stevens spoke to Walter Reed officials, according to testimony both from Stevens and from Nam, as well as Goodrum's patient records. It is not clear what Stevens told Walter Reed's doctors that they did not already know. After Stevens's intervention, Nam's staff decided not to move Goodrum.

He was held an additional two weeks on Ward 54, colloquially called the lockdown ward, due to what doctors variously called "legal/admin concerns" or "recent admin developments," the records show. Nam, in his testimony, also explained the prolonged Ward 54 stay in terms of the alternatives: Goodrum's AWOL status could even have landed him in jail, or gotten him hauled back to Fort Knox.

Normally, though, Ward 54 would be used for patients considered a threat to themselves or others. Goodrum, according to his records, was considered neither.

On March 2, after the UPI reported on Goodrum's confinement, he finally was released from Ward 54 and moved to 53 as originally planned. Then, he was downgraded further, to outpatient status, living on his own at Mologne House while continuing therapy.

continued......

thedrifter
11-01-04, 04:23 PM
Life, now, is waiting. He goes to counseling both at Walter Reed and at a Veterans Administration Center in Silver Spring. In counseling, he returns again and again to Sgt. Harris, to the circumstances of his death.

He spends lots of time with Steve Robinson, executive director of the Silver Spring-based National Gulf War Resource Center, who has become his close friend and advocate. It's not just Robinson who helps him, but Robinson's bulldog Bluto. Goodrum loves dogs, and is away from his own back home.

Most days, Goodrum tries to just fly "under the radar," as he puts it, trying to stay away from the "stressors" that can set off his panic, his flashbacks, his racing thoughts. He's on several medications, still.

Movie theaters are a good place to hide, he's found. In two months, he's seen 20 films. It's best to go to early matinees on the weekdays, when there are no crowds, no jostling.

He tries to avoid loud people, loud noises. Horns, shouts, a slamming door all can take his breath away, cause his head to race. Driving in Washington is harrowing; people here love to honk, he says.

But riding the bus is problematic, since the smell of diesel triggers flashbacks to the convoys in Iraqi, to his fear on the "suicide missions."

And both the bus and the subway present a special problem. The hands. He's got to see them. He's got to feel assured that no one's carrying a weapon. He's got to know there is no finger on the trigger.

In his room at Mologne, he is lonely but relatively safe. Before bed, he says, "I search my room for bugs." He does not mean insects.

"I'm paranoid, but I have good reason," he says.

News on his possible court-martial could come any day.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14786-2004Oct31_5.html


Ellie

thedrifter
11-01-04, 04:34 PM
Heavy Clashes in Ramadi as U.S. Troop Buildup Begins

Mon Nov 1,12:33 PM ET

By Alistair Lyon

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces battled rebels in Ramadi and pounded Falluja on Monday, but there was no sign that an all-out American-led offensive to retake the insurgent-held cities had begun on the eve of the U.S. presidential election.


Kidnappers armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades seized an American, a Nepali and two Arabs from their Saudi company's office in Baghdad, the Interior Ministry said.


A spokesman said the attackers killed a guard when they stormed the company villa in the affluent Mansour district.


The U.S. military said it had begun to increase its troop strength in Iraq (news - web sites) ahead of nationwide elections due in January.


"The Second Brigade Combat Team has been informed that its departure has been delayed for 30 to 60 days to provide a secure environment for this election," a military spokesman said.


While the 1st Cavalry's Second Brigade will stay longer than planned, new troops have begun arriving, he said. The United States already has about 138,000 troops in Iraq.


Three people were killed in the Ramadi fighting, including an Iraqi cameraman working for Reuters, apparently killed by a sniper after fierce clashes had died down.


Dhia Najim was near his house in the Sunni Muslim city's Andalus district when he was shot in the back of the neck. A video taken from a nearby building shows him appearing from behind a wall when a single shot cracks out and he falls dead.


Footage he took earlier shows U.S. Humvees racing across a junction and flashes from gunfire and explosions, but there was no sound of fighting on the tape recording his death.


Najim's colleagues and family said they believed he had been shot by a U.S. sniper. U.S. Marine snipers are posted in Ramadi. There was no immediate response from the U.S. military to questions about the incident from Reuters.


FALLUJA AIR STRIKES


U.S. forces hit the eastern part of the Sunni Muslim city of Falluja with on-off artillery barrages through the day and air strikes in the evening, but there were no reports of casualties.


The Marines are preparing to attack Ramadi and Falluja in a drive to pacify Iraq before the Iraqi national assembly polls.


It is not clear if the assault will begin before Tuesday's American presidential poll. Iraq has been a divisive campaign theme, President Bush (news - web sites) defending the invasion to topple Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) and his handling of its aftermath against fierce criticism from Democratic challenger John Kerry (news - web sites).


Iraqi President Ghazi Yawar criticized the planned offensive in remarks published in the Kuwaiti daily al-Qabas.


"The coalition's handling of this crisis is wrong. It's like someone who fired bullets at his horse's head just because a fly landed on it; the horse died and the fly went away," Yawar said.


"What's needed is that the coalition forces continue dialogue so that the Iraqi armed forces will come, which will prompt those on the sidelines not to join the rebels ..."





Gunmen assassinated the deputy governor of Baghdad, Hatem Karim, and wounded two of his bodyguards in a drive-by shooting in the southern Dora district of the capital.

The Islamic militant group Army of Ansar al-Sunna claimed responsibility for the killing in a statement on its Web site.

Rebels have assassinated many officials seen as cooperating with U.S.-led forces in Iraq, while revenge killings against former Saddam loyalists are also common.

Gunmen killed retired Republican Guard Lieutenant-Colonel Athir al-Khazraji and a passerby in Baquba, northeast of Baghdad. A morgue official there said he had also received the body of an Iraqi contractor working for U.S. forces.

GUERRILLA BASTIONS

The government says former Saddam loyalists and militants led by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi operate in Falluja and Ramadi, which have long been hotbeds of anti-U.S. resistance.

Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said on Sunday the government, which has demanded that Falluja people hand over Zarqawi's men, was losing patience and would soon "free this town from the grip of terrorists who came from abroad."

The Ramadi clashes broke out in the east of the city around 7 a.m. (11 p.m. EST Sunday). Black smoke rose from buildings as gunmen fired grenades and mortar rounds amid heavy U.S. return fire.

Families began to flee their homes as fighting intensified and witnesses said they saw a U.S. military vehicle ablaze.

(Additional reporting by Michael Georgy near Falluja, Sabah al-Bazee in Samarra and Faris al-Mahdawi in Baquba)


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=574&e=15&u=/nm/20041101/wl_nm/iraq_dc_689


Ellie

thedrifter
11-01-04, 05:02 PM
Mortality rates drop from past to present





Improved body armor, medical care cited
By Otto Kreisher
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE
October 31, 2004



WASHINGTON – On average, two U.S. troops die every day in Iraq and almost 15 are wounded.

The war's 7-1 ratio of injuries to deaths is much higher than in past U.S. combat experience, where it ranged from 2-1 in the earliest conflicts to better than 3-1 in Korea and Vietnam.

Experts attribute the lower mortality rates to several factors, including the nature of the threat, the stronger body armor being worn by U.S. forces and improved battlefield medical care.

In 18 months of conflict, 1,106 U.S. personnel have died in Iraq from combat action or accidents and 8,150 Americans have been injured, according to Pentagon statistics as of Friday.

During the intense first six weeks of the allied ground assault on Iraq in March and April 2003, the ratio of wounded to killed was at the more traditional levels of 2-to-1 and 3-to-1.

After major combat operations were declared over on May 1, 2003, the ratio shifted to the current level of roughly 7-to-1. About 90 percent of all U.S. casualties have occurred since then and shrapnel from roadside bombs has been the primary cause.

The deadly effect of those crude but powerful weapons is reduced by "the better body armor," said Navy Capt. Steven Yowell, a physician at the Bureau of Navy Medicine.

Because of the protection afforded by the bulky "flak vests" the troops wear, "the serious chest-and abdominal-wounds percentages are lower," Yowell said. While there can be "significant bleeding" from wounds to the unprotected groin and arm pits, "it's not as immediately life threatening as wounds to the chest."

The next major factor in the survival rate is improvements in medical care, ranging from new first-aid devices, such as a "self-applying tourniquet" that a wounded fighter can use if no one else can help, and "QuickClot," which is effective at stopping life-threatening arterial bleeding, Yowell said.

"We have anecdotal evidence those are saving lives," he said.

Wounded Marines also get treatment first from the Navy hospital corpsmen who are attached to every small combat unit, then at "forward resuscitative surgery teams" that operate close to the battle. They can be treated at an "expeditionary medical facility," or at the two larger Army combat surgical hospitals in Iraq, Yowell said,

And the most seriously wounded are airlifted then to the permanent Army Medical Center at Landstuhl, Germany.

Wounded soldiers get a similar series of treatment, said Jaime Cavazos, a spokesman for the Army Medical Command.

A recent improvement in Army battlefield aid, Cavazos said, is the "combat life saver," ordinary soldiers who receive training so they can provide a higher level of first aid, including administering IV fluid to prevent shock from blood loss. The Army combat medics also "are much better trained than in Desert Storm," he said, giving them the skills of a civilian emergency medical technician.

The Army has a dedicated medevac helicopter unit in Iraq, using specially equipped H-60 Blackhawk helicopters to speed seriously wounded troops to the advanced medical facilities, Cavazos said. And they have deployed an ambulance version of the new Stryker armored troop carrier, he said.

Retired Army Maj. Gen. Robert H. Scales, a military scholar and historian, said using helicopters for medevac in Iraq can be difficult because many of the serious casualties have been in congested cities.

Michael Vickers, a former Army special forces officer, said he was surprised the death rate was not higher because of the insurgency nature of the conflict, which "levels the playing field" by giving the adversary more of the advantage on when and where to strike.

But, Vickers added, "We've gotten a lot better at medical treatment since Vietnam" and the body armor also is improved.

"There are two countervailing factors: The playing field benefits them more, they have more opportunity to inflict KIAs," he said, using the term for killed in action. But with the improved body armor and medical care, "we're converting KIAs into WIAs, (wounded in action)."

"The big difference is medical care," said Loren Thompson, a national security analyst at the Lexington Institute.

"The type of war that's being fought in Iraq normally produces fewer casualties than traditional combat. But that in itself does not explain the ratio," Thompson said.

"The big difference here is, when an American soldier is actually wounded, the emergency medical process in the field, the quick transport to hospital and new medical treatments goes to work," he said.

While the body armor and improved medical care are saving lives, the experts noted, the devastating effect of roadside bombs and car bombs mean many of the surviving troops have lost limbs or suffered serious face and head wounds.

And there are the less visible wounds. Officials at Landstuhl estimate that one in 10 of the service members evacuated from Iraq are treated for psychiatric or behavior problems, a product of the stress of a prolonged conflict where it is hard to spot the enemy.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/images/041101crosses.jpg

On average, two U.S. troops die every day in Iraq and almost 15 are wounded.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20041031-9999-1n31casualty.html

Ellie

thedrifter
11-01-04, 06:29 PM
THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ
Not Much Choice in Plans for Iraq
Instability and a lack of military options mean the candidates would likely take similar paths.

By Tyler Marshall and Alissa J. Rubin, Times Staff Writers


WASHINGTON — No single campaign issue has defined the presidential candidates' differences more clearly than the war in Iraq. Yet it seems that whoever wins Tuesday's election will steer a remarkably similar course in the troubled country.

Despite their passionate debate on the issue, President Bush and his Democratic challenger, Sen. John F. Kerry, offer plans for Iraq that substantially overlap. Both are committed to stepping up the pace of training a new Iraqi security force, holding national elections quickly and broadening international military support for the effort.

The reason for the like-minded strategies isn't hard to find: The bleak realities that define conditions in Iraq, and the political climate surrounding the conflict leave little room for either candidate to move in a bold new direction.

"Both will follow the same strategy," predicted Gary Samore, director of studies at the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London and a National Security Council aide in the Clinton administration. "They will try to cobble together a new Iraqi government, build up Iraqi security forces and then begin to draw down U.S. forces."

With little dividing the candidates' proposed strategies or goals, the debate has been dominated by differences in style and character.

Kerry has cast Bush as a hard-edged unilateralist whose actions have made it impossible for him to achieve key elements of his plan for Iraq. Bush sketches Kerry as a man who lacks the strength and leadership skills to make the tough decisions at hand.

The debate has also focused heavily on the past — on Bush's decision to invade Iraq and his handling of the violent aftermath.

"One of the ultimate paradoxes of this campaign is that the subject that so greatly divides the nation and is the source of such differences between the two candidates doesn't point to a different path in the future," said Thomas Carothers, a senior associate and director of the Democracy and Rule of Law project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "This is a huge debate, but it is about the past, not the future."

As such, the choice on Iraq facing voters Tuesday is far more nuanced than the stark options presented to the country 32 years ago — the last time America's military involvement in a far-off nation so dominated a presidential campaign. In that election, an America deeply divided over the war in Vietnam opted overwhelmingly for Richard Nixon's call for a negotiated "peace with honor" in Vietnam over George McGovern's pledge to pull troops out immediately.

For Iraq, such alternatives are not part of the debate. Neither Bush nor Kerry advocates a sharp buildup or an immediate drawdown of U.S. military forces as the key to a solution in Iraq, because neither course is deemed viable. With nine of the U.S. Army's 10 combat divisions either having been deployed to Iraq or preparing to go, military analysts said, American force levels are stretched too thin to contemplate significantly higher numbers.

Conversely, a sudden withdrawal of forces could undermine the struggling U.S.-backed interim Iraqi government, plunge the country into a civil war and destabilize the Middle East.

Although Bush accuses his opponent of wanting to "cut and run" in Iraq, Kerry has talked of an orderly drawdown of forces only after more troops from other nations could be brought in to share a burden that — as he is quick to assert — has left the United States with 90% of the forces and 90% of the casualties.

But political analysts in potential troop donor countries question Kerry's ability to achieve even this modest goal.

"I don't think there's a hope of the Germans or French putting soldiers into combat positions in Iraq," said Frederick Bonnart, a Brussels-based expert on NATO. "No German government … is capable of overcoming parliamentary opposition to this idea, so it wouldn't even try. In France, the reasons are different — anti-Americanism — but the result is the same."

Many analysts, however, believe Kerry could be more effective in winning some support.

"Troops, no, but money, equipment, help with training and reconstruction? It's conceivable," Samore said. "This won't solve the problem, but it will help."

Geoffrey Kemp, a Middle East specialist at the Nixon Center, an independent Washington-based think tank, also believes foreign governments could be more receptive to a Kerry request for help because he wasn't the leader who took the United States into the war.

"That's his edge, but whether he can exploit it is another question," Kemp said.

Bush administration officials noted a recent agreement by NATO to assist in training Iraqi military forces and the deployment of almost 3,000 South Korean troops to northern Iraq. They argue that there is little more Kerry could do to share the burden.

"When you talk about an international coalition and you cross out the Germans and French, there's not a whole lot left," said a senior Bush administration official who declined to be identified.

Despite the recent escalation of violence in Iraq, both candidates remain committed to holding a national election for a 250-seat national parliament as planned on Jan. 31. But any decision to delay that vote apparently would lie more with the country's powerful Shiite religious leader, the Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, than the American president or the interim government in Baghdad.

With such limited alternatives, the political debate often turns on the interpretation of events in Iraq, rather than the events themselves. Bush calls the conflict in Iraq an essential battle in the administration's war on terrorism that is hard work but is gradually being won.

"I think security conditions are improving," a senior administration official said Friday.

Kerry contends that the president is in denial about the disaster unfolding there.

A recent string of atrocities and assassinations, and simmering questions about possible mishandling of caches of explosives in the invasion's aftermath have left Bush fighting to counter the bad news from the region.

The insurgents' reach is widening, and brutality against Iraqis as well as Westerners is mounting. The main population centers of Al Anbar province — Fallouja and Ramadi — are virtually under insurgent control. The roads leading west to Jordan and south to Kuwait are often too dangerous to travel. More than 150 foreigners have been kidnapped since the spring. Of those, about a third have been killed.

There has been a sharp increase in the last six weeks in assassinations of low-level Iraqi government officials, apparently part of an effort to scare off anyone working with the interim government.

Attacks on Iraqi police and national guard members have begun to take the form of mass executions. A week ago, about 50 Iraqis in the national guard were shot execution-style. A video released Friday showed the executions of 11 national guardsmen. And the deaths of U.S. troops continue, with nine Marines killed Saturday in a car-bomb ambush near Fallouja.

The violence usually overshadows gains such as ending Saddam Hussein's tyranny and establishing a multiethnic interim government.

There is evidence — at least among undecided voters — that the chaos has begun to work against the president.

Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center in Washington, said that a recent survey of 500 swing voters who were undecided in early September found that those who since have committed to Kerry were thinking more about Iraq than those who moved to Bush.

Still, experts say that whoever wins will have little room to maneuver in the short term.

"There are no attractive alternatives to what's going on now," Samore said. "There are just not very many good options."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marshall reported from Washington and Rubin from Baghdad. Times staff writer Paul Richter in Washington contributed to this report.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/wire/la-fg-choices1nov01,1,3842882.story


Ellie

thedrifter
11-01-04, 07:37 PM
1st ID spouses not surprised by news of longer Iraq tour


By Rick Emert, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Monday, November 1, 2004



BAMBERG, Germany — Some 1st Infantry Division family members in Bamberg’s Warner Barracks had mixed reactions Sunday over news that their soldiers may have to remain in Iraq through the Iraq elections.

A news story on the Department of Defense Web site said that about 3,000 1st ID soldiers would remain in Iraq to provide security during the country’s elections in January.

About 3,500 soldiers from the 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division out of Fort Hood, Texas, also would remain, according to the Web site.

The 1st ID deployed to Iraq in February. The change will bring the deployment, which soldiers and families expected to be 10 months, to a full year, according to the DOD Web site.

Some spouses had not heard the news until they talked to Stars and Stripes about it, while others found out Saturday or Sunday through phone calls from their husbands.

None of the spouses Stars and Stripes talked to had been officially notified by the Army or the unit’s Family Readiness Group of the change.

“It’s just what we’ve got to do,” said Anna Dietrich, whose husband is attached to the 82nd Engineer Battalion in Iraq.

“It’s not that big of a surprise, really.”

Dietrich said she had heard earlier this year from her husband, Staff Sgt. Larry Dietrich, that the unit was expected to come home after only 10 months downrange.

“He told me not to get my hopes up then,” Dietrich said. “(The news) is a disappointment, but we know that it is what he has got to do.”

Other spouses, like Rosetta DiMeglio, said even the 10-month deployment that 1st ID soldiers and families were counting on was too long.

“I just don’t think it’s right to extend them,” said DiMeglio, whose husband, Master Sgt. Vincent DiMeglio of 1st Battalion, 6th Field Artillery Regiment, called her Sunday to break the news. “A year is too long. I’ve always thought this should be a six-month deployment. It’s a long time to be separated.”

Emily Daigle, whose husband is with the 1st Battalion, 33rd Field Artillery Regiment, called the news “unfair.”

“You know when things like this happen, it’s not only the soldiers who lose morale. Kids lose morale, too,” she said.

Other spouses said that the extension earlier this year of the 1st Armored Division led them to believe the same would happen to the 1st ID.

“I had a hunch; I could feel it in my heart that something like this would happen,” said Chris Watts. Her husband, Sgt. Thomas Watts is assigned to the 1st Battalion, 6th Field Artillery Regiment in Iraq.

“1st AD got extended, so I was sort of expecting this” Watts said.

Samantha Holley had an early warning of a possible extension while her husband, Spc. Kenneth Holley, of the 82nd Engineer Battalion, was home on leave two weeks ago.

“He told me that there was talk of this happening,” Holley said. “I was expecting it. The unit told us in a meeting before the soldiers left not to be surprised if their return date changes.”

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=25247


Ellie

thedrifter
11-01-04, 07:59 PM
The Unvarnished Truth About the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq



By Lt. Gen. Michael DeLong, USMC (Ret.)
Review by Rowan Scarborough
Reprinted with permission from Human Events Online

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Gen. Tommy Franks are clearly two of the biggest stars in the war on terrorism. Entertaining press conferences. Photo-ops with the troops. Tough talk on terrorism. Battlefield victories. The Rumsfeld-Franks show played well across America after September 11.

But for every four-star general and high-profile Defense secretary, there are the aides who work behind the scenes to make their bosses look good. Such a man is Michael DeLong. Now retired, DeLong was a Marine Corps lieutenant general and a Vietnam War aviator who landed the job as Gen. Frank's deputy commander just as war against al Qaeda broke out. As U.S. Central Command's No. 2, DeLong made sure the trains ran on time. He worked to keep the coalition together, briefed the hot-tempered Rumsfeld when Franks didn't have time, and soothed the nerves of jittery Arab moderates. All were the kind of chores that kept him out of the limelight.

Admits Mistakes

Now, he's telling his story in Inside CentCom: The Unvarnished Truth About the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq . It's not kiss-and-tell. DeLong clearly likes President Bush and his war cabinet. But DeLong admits mistakes on his part and by others, such as Rumsfeld's aides, insisting on making anti-Saddam Hussein Iraqis part of the war plan. They never showed up. A CIA-operated Predator probably had Taliban leader Mullah Omar in its sights. But Franks would not let it unleash an assassin's Hellfire missile because the target could not be confirmed 100%. If only ! Omar had been killed on that day, one has to conclude, wouldn't the Taliban have faded away by now?

Central Command, headquartered in touristy Tampa, Fla., is America's most important military arm. Its area of responsibility includes most of the world's al Qaeda-laden countries. It is CentCom's job to methodically root them out, i.e., kill or capture them, by waging all-out war or covert missions. The command's vital status alone makes DeLong's book important. And he draws you in at first by sketching vivid profiles of Rumsfeld and Franks.

Can't Figure Franks

Franks is an earthy man who brags of his meanest to get the job done, frequently swears to make a point and would belittle people in front of others. DeLong tells of the first time he got the Franks treatment and how he counterattacked. "Dont ever do that again," DeLong told him in private. Franks's response: "F--- you DeLong." The Marine concluded: "Franks was one of the few men I couldn't figure out, but then, nobody else could either."

The book also delivers a convincing example of Mr. Rumsfeld's management style. The defense secretary, a longtime CEO and government executive, works 16-hour days. He doesn't like to waste a minute on some tongue-tied bureaucrat who doesn't have his facts straight.

Author DeLong does not hold grudges. He generally gives Rumsfeld high marks. And although he thinks Rumsfeld's staff botched some aspects of Iraq planning, DeLong has kind words for the chief architect, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz.

Settling Some Scores

But DeLong does settle scores. He claims the media got a lot of facts mixed up. He dismisses anti-Bush generals-turned TV pundits, singling out retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark, whom CNN allowed to bash the administration before he left the studio to run for the Democratic presidential nomination.

DeLong informs us that former National Security adviser Richard Clarke, who wrote a book claiming Bush was negligent in the war, visited CentCom and had nothing but praise for the President. "He specifically told us how comfortable he was with all that President Bush was doing for the war on terror," DeLong recalls. "Intel is ultimately no better than the educated guess of an expert analyst--and there will always be some analyst somewhere who, like Dick Clarke, will step forward after the fact and hurl accusations of ignored intel."

Two War Plans Inside CentCom < http://www.thbookservice.com/BookPage.asp?prod_cd=c6554 > provides a good narrative on just how Rumsfeld and his top commander, Franks, came up with two war plans for Afghanistan and Iraq, absent major disagreements. Coupled with Franks' own book, DeLong's Inside CentCom is added evidence tha! t Rumsfeld did not--despite press reports--dictate war plans. What's interesting is that it was the service bosses on the Joint Chiefs who voiced the most opposition to Franks' evolving blueprints. When several unnamed chiefs tell Franks his soldier-light invasion of Afghanistan won't work, the general responds, "Bull****. It's my plan. And I am responsible for its execution."

Inside CentCom does not provide a definitive answer on weapons of mass destruction. DeLong is sure Saddam had them. "We know that Syria was a hiding place for Iraqi WMD," DeLong writes. But, perhaps sticking to an officer's creed not to release classified information, he does not provide proof. "Let me say categorically that we will eventually find Iraqi WMD," DeLong assures. "The intelligence evidence we had before the war was too overwhelming to be wrong." Well, a Senate committee already has concluded the CIA was wrong. The search in Iraq by some 1,400 investigators has come up empty so far.

More Jobs Ahead

DeLong doesn't see CentCom major battles over even if terrorists are finally defeated in Iraq and Afghanistan. Next on the list are Syria and Iran. "We know they are sponsoring terrorists and sending suicide bombers across their borders into Iraq," he writes. "Syria and Iran are problems ! that have to be dealt with."

A second Bush term may provide the answer to the question, how? Rowan Scarborough is the Pentagon reporter for the Washington Times and author of the New York Times bestseller Rumsfeld's War < http://www.thbookservice.com/bookpage.asp?prod_cd=c6448 >.

The ultimate insider's account about what really happened (and is happening) in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq Printer Friendly Version

Lt. General Mike DeLong was General Tommy Franks' right-hand man in conceiving and executing the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. While Franks was in the field, former Marine combat pilot DeLong ran Central Command ("CentCom"), the nerve center of both wars -- where he was an active participant in discussions involving President Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Franks, George Tenet, and many others. Now, General DeLong offers the frankest and most authoritative look inside the wars -- how we prepared for battle, how we fought, how we toppled two regimes -- and what's happening now on these two crucial fronts.

Inside CentCom takes you inside the center of American defense intelligence and war planning for the greater Middle East. You'll go behind the scenes on the stealth operations leading up to the Afghan and Iraq wars, and then read the after-action report from today's Iraq. You'll also get authoritative answers to questions such as: Was President Bush really focused on Iraq from the start? Were we right to attack Iraq? What intel did we have on Saddam Hussein and his WMD? How did we plan and execute these wars?

In Inside CentCom, General Mike DeLong reveals:

* How President Bush had a clear chance to take out Saddam and his sons before the war -- and why he decided not to

* DeLong's surprising face-to-face meeting with "Chemical Ali"

* Evidence that Saddam and members of his government had had secret meetings with Al Qaeda, and were allowing a number of them to seek refuge in Iraq

* How Rumsfeld asked about Iraq as early as 9/11, and asked CentCom to update its Iraqi war plan as early as December, 2002

* The internal battle between General Franks and the Joint Chiefs of Staff over the Afghan and Iraqi war plans

* The untold threat of enemy GPS jammers before the war. The secret raid on a house in Al Qaim that confirmed their existence -- and confirmed that they were delivered to Iraq through official channels at the Iraqi Embassy in Moscow

* Why we knew in advance that the UN would never have approv security measures against Iraq. The shocking extent of the interests that France, Germany, Russia and China had in Iraq

* The unreported truth about the convicts that Saddam released from prison -- the real reason for the chaos following his fall

* The spectacular planning that occurred behind the scenes for the rescue of Private Jessica Lynch

* The big push among military bureaucrats to award Private Jessica Lynch a medal of honor -- and how General DeLong put himself put a stop to that

* Why Guantanamo? How did the prisoners get there? Plus, the prison that was used before Guantanamo

* Behind the scenes for the hunt for Osama bin Laden -- and an authoritative accounting of his injury

* The U.S. Government's secret plan to enlist 5,000 Iraqi freedom fighters before the war, and why it failed

* Behind the planning and covert missions that made Iraq's SCUDS so ineffectual that Hussein was not able to launch a single missile into Israel

* The astonishing extent of misinformation spread by former generals turned TV commentators following Sept. 11

* Why John Kerry is wrong in claiming that the U.S. military was at fault in missing Bin Laden in Tora Bora

* Behind the scenes of the decision to declare an end to the Baath Party in Iraq -- and its immediate ramifications

continued............

thedrifter
11-01-04, 07:59 PM
* From the military perspective, a convincing case on why we were right to go to war with Iraq

* The unprecedented jointness of the armed forces, and the new reliance on SpecialOps, in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom

* Why chaos in Iraq was greater than predicted -- and the mistakes that contributed to it

"General DeLong did an outstanding job on General Tommy Franks's behalf in dealing with Secretary Rumsfeld, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers, and President Bush himself. General DeLong was also the 'go-to' guy for the sixty-plus countries that participated in the Afghanistan and Iraq campaigns. This is truly an insider's view of these history-making events." -- General Joseph Hoar, USMC (Ret.), former commander of CentCom

No Doubt, CentCom Leader Says -- Iraq Had WMDs By Chad Groening September 27, 2004 (AgapePress) - The former deputy commander of U.S. Central Command says the U.S. had very credible intelligence that Iraq indeed possessed weapons of mass destruction prior to last year's invasion by coalition forces.

In both October 2002 and January 2003, Senator John Kerry stated his belief -- and backed it up with votes in favor of invading Iraq -- that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and represented a real threat to America's security. Now candidate Kerry and his supporters are criticizing President Bush's decision to invade Iraq, based on the premise that no WMDs have been found there.

But in his new book Inside CentCom: The Unvarnished Truth About the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (Regnery Publishing, 2004), retired Marine Lt. Gen. Michael DeLong cites evidence that those weapons did exist.

"We had, let's just say, very, very, very credible [intelligence] from multiple sources that said there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq," the general says. "And about two days before the war, a large number of the senior Iraqis went to Syria with billions of dollars and -- quote -- 'suitcases with weapons of mass destruction in them' -- being biological weapons."

DeLong, described in the book as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's "answer man" during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, ran CentCom -- the nerve center of both wars -- while Army General Tommy Franks was in the field. He says it is clear the Iraqis moved the evidence of WMDs prior to the invasion.

"Is it buried somewhere?" he asks. "The answer is, yes -- that's probably where it is. But it was there before, and they didn't get rid of it."

He says there is no doubt in his mind that the WMDs are hidden in Syria, Lebanon, possibly along the Iran-Iraq border, or buried in the vast desert of Iraq, which is the size of California.

Ellie