Marines Unfazed By Election

[thedrifter]

Marines Unfazed By Election
Associated Press
November 2, 2004

NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq - As Americans head to the polls, U.S. Marines squaring off against Iraqi insurgents say they expect trouble in Iraq for years no matter who wins the White House. What they want is better equipment, more pay and a clear exit strategy from their next commander in chief.

Many Marines fighting in Iraq's Sunni Triangle don't talk much about the race between President Bush and Sen. John Kerry. For them, the focus is on staying alive and following orders that they don't expect to change: Defeat the insurgency and help rebuild Iraq.

But what really concerns them is the prospect of an open-ended mission lacking a final benchmark for victory.

"We obviously can't just leave Iraq now and waste all of the good work the Marines have done here," said Hospital Corpsman Quinton Brown, a 24-year-old Chicagoan attached to the 1st Marine Division.

"Regardless, I want to see the next president give us an idea how we're going to end the occupation," he added. "What are we doing while we're here? What's next? Bush has done that to some degree. But we need more."

Marines based in the dangerous areas west and north of Baghdad are preparing for a possible big offensive against insurgent strongholds if they get the go-ahead from interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, who has warned he is losing patience with negotiations.

But Marine officers caution that even if U.S. forces overrun the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, they don't expect the insurgency to evaporate. And troops on the ground say they've heard nothing from either Bush or Kerry indicating Marines will soon leave Iraq.

"It doesn't matter who the president is. Our role should be less and less here - the Iraqis want to do it themselves. But we'll be here for at least the next four years," said Lance Cpl. Charles Revord, 24, of National City, Mich.


With violence expected to intensify ahead of Iraqi elections planned for January as a crucial step in the effort to stabilize the country and entrench democracy, Marines say they need better equipment, particularly well-armored Humvees.

"I hope the Marine Corps gets more funding, for better weapons, better gear and better Humvees," said Lance Cpl. Jonathan Sandoval.

"You see those Humvees out there?" he added, gesturing at vehicles jerry-rigged with armor plating so heavy it bows the vehicles' axles. One of the Humvees, its top open to the elements, has been peppered by shrapnel from roadside bombs.

The Marines see their Army counterparts driving professionally armored, closed-back Humvees - provoking an old rivalry. "We work with the worst, but we do the best," said Sandoval, a 20-year-old from Los Angeles.

Many Marines are eager to go after the insurgents.

"The next president needs to stop stalling. We're waiting around and they're getting stronger," Sandoval said of the insurgents. "At the same time, we're losing a lot of good Marines."

Marines say they would like a boost in danger pay, an increase in base salaries and better health benefits for their families back home.

"Pay should be better, that's for sure. It's a pride thing," said Sgt. Israel Sanchez, 27, also from Los Angeles.

"Tax cuts, that's what everyone wants - tax-free paychecks," said Revord. "But that's just a dream, of course."

As for the political fight that has swirled back home, Marines say it seems millions of miles away, even though some analysts think military write-in ballots could help sway a close race.

Battlefield unity is crucial to survival, so they shy from divisive issues, the Marines say. Members of one Marine company suspect it's Bush country, but no one has taken a tally.

"We don't ask who voted for who. We're focused on our mission," said Sanchez. "We just want to get back home and get on where we left off."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Success Of Battle Hard To Gauge
Chicago Tribune
November 2, 2004

CAMP RAMADI, Iraq - A battle is being fought with high explosives and wits on the outskirts of Ramadi.

On one side is an American artillery platoon and light infantry, with all the latest technology the U.S. Army can bring to bear. On the other is a team or teams of Iraqi mortar men -- probably working from the back of a car.

As U.S.-led forces prepare for a possible assault on the rebel stronghold of Fallujah, an intense conflict is rumbling 30 miles west in Ramadi.

At times the Ramadi fighting is sudden and focused, as on Sunday, when one Marine was killed and four were wounded by a roadside bomb that tore into their patrol downtown.

At other times, it is drawn out and random. There were no casualties in sporadic exchanges of mortars and howitzer fire Sunday at Camp Ramadi, the sprawling Army and Marine compound just west of this capital of Al Anbar province.

The fight involved scores of American troops, disrupting meals as multiple explosions silenced conversations and drew heated responses from an Army field artillery unit on base.

The Americans didn't lose, but it isn't known whether they won.

"What we've learned about the mortar men is they're very good. In fact, they're experts," said Army Capt. Andre Takacs, 29, who at 3 a.m. Sunday was briefing a dozen members of Alpha Company of the 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment about trying to catch the Iraqi mortar men. The mission would last from before sunup until after sunset.


It is next to impossible to catch them, he said.

"They know exactly when to fire," and move quickly afterward, Takacs said. They have accomplices who spot American troops and sometimes delay them, "to prevent us from intercepting the mortar teams, which makes the quick-response team ineffective in getting the mortar team."

The fastest reactions come from American artillery, which uses radar to spot incoming mortar rounds. In a nondescript low building on the base, Army officers with radios and a tabletop aerial photo of the Ramadi area plot out where the rounds originated.

In another building, a decision is made whether it is safe to fire as the coordinates are relayed to a dirt field occupied by 1st Platoon, B Company of the 2nd Battalion, 17th Field Artillery Regiment.

"Counterfire!" yelled Sgt. 1st Class Gregory Scott, ordering the men to prepare their response. Just after noon Sunday, mortar fire was detected nearby, aimed at another U.S. installation. Scott, 36, a native of South Boston, Va., who is platoon sergeant of 1st Platoon, waited for permission to shoot.

In the concrete blast protection surrounding a huge 155 mm Paladin field howitzer, four soldiers dropped electronic games and flyswatters, scrambled into the gun's hatches, turned on the engine and aimed at a far-off point.

A minute later, Sgt. Anselmo De La Cruz, 25, of New York, with a phone receiver tucked between his ear and shoulder, drew his hand across his throat and shook his head. The Paladin's motor cut off. Someone in headquarters decided that taking the shot was too risky. No one in the Paladin knew why.

Ramadi and Fallujah are part of the so-called Sunni Triangle, and both cities are hotbeds for insurgent activity.

U.S. forces and the Iraqi interim government believe Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is running his group -- now called Al Qaeda in Iraq -- from Fallujah. In early April, 12 Marines died in an ambush in Ramadi.

Officers at Camp Ramadi believe Saddam Hussein's former Baath Party supporters are underwriting the insurgency here, largely fought by locals for money and inspired by an influx of foreign jihadists through Iraq's porous western border with Syria.

Attacks on U.S. supply routes and installations in the area have been relentless. Nearly every day -- often several times a day -- that has meant mortar attacks on Camp Ramadi.

For only the second time ever, Takacs on Sunday led a quick-response team from the base into the farmland and urban sprawl outside city limits. The mortar teams have been firing from grassy areas or among crops, at least 150 yards from buildings, so that counterfire from the Americans doesn't destroy civilian structures.

"So they don't lose the local support," Takacs explained. "Just like we are, they're trying to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis."

There are about 8 square miles in which the insurgents operate. Takacs and his unit can stake out about a 655-yard circle with snipers, Humvees and armed troops.

Their first mission didn't end successfully. Hoping to catch a mortar team in the farmland near Camp Ramadi, an Army sniper set up in a pasture. A cow and an Iraqi farmer found him the next day.

On the second mission, the soldiers didn't catch anybody.

Back in Camp Ramadi, Scott and his team still were waiting around the howitzer.

There was a second call for counterfire. For the first time Sunday, 1st Platoon shot back. Within two minutes, the two Paladins nearest Scott fired eight rounds toward the spot where Army 2nd Brigade specialists told them a mortar was fired.

With a thunderous crash, 95 pounds of high explosive were launched out of the tubes, each a black dot against the blue sky.

"I'm assuming we hit them," said Pvt. Jacob Pippin, 19, of St. Elmo, Ill.

But it's difficult to know for sure.

"The little info we got, we've been pretty precise, pretty accurate," Scott said.

While the U.S. soldiers are certain they are shooting at the right places, they are less certain whether the insurgents are still there when the rounds arrived.

The most common evidence of success is relative quiet afterward. "Sometimes we go seven, eight days without firing, then we'll get hit three or four times in a row," Scott said.

Enemy bodies are rarely found, either because the rounds missed their mark or because it is Muslim custom to quickly bury the dead.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Car Bomb Kills Six in Northern Baghdad

By MARIAM FAM, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A car bomb exploded Tuesday near the Ministry of Education in a busy commercial area in northern Baghdad, killing six people including a woman, according to the Interior Ministry and hospital officials.


Meanwhile, kidnappers released two Iraqi guards abducted along with an American, a Nepalese, a Filipino and an Iraqi from the Baghdad compound of a Saudi company on Monday, police and a U.S. Embassy spokesman said Tuesday.


Spokesman Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman of the Interior Ministry said the 8:45 a.m. car bomb occurred in the northern Azamiyah district.


Al-Nu'man Hospital officials said six people were killed, including one woman. Ten others were wounded, including a 2-year old girl.


The blast detonated near the Ministry of Education offices, according to a ministry employee who refused to give his name.


Most of the employees managed to escape unscathed but the building's guards, who were in the rear of the building, were among the casualties, he said.


The two freed guards, who had been beaten, were left blindfolded and handcuffed in Baghdad's Hay al-Amil area late Monday, said a police officer involved with the investigation on condition of anonymity.


"Don't work with them again or else we'll kill you," the kidnappers told the two men, according to the officer. He said he believed the two were freed because they were from the Fallujah area.


On Monday, assailants stormed the compound of a Saudi company in the upscale Mansour district of western Baghdad and seized the six during a gunbattle. One guard and one assailant were killed during the shootout, police said.


The U.S. Embassy confirmed that an American was abducted but has not identified him.


The six were originally identified as an American, a Nepalese and four Iraqi guards. The U.S. Embassy on Tuesday identified the four remaining captives as an American, a Nepalese, a Filipino and an Iraqi.


The kidnapped Filipino is believed to be an accountant, sources speaking on condition of anonymity said Tuesday. They said Filipino diplomats in Baghdad were trying to verify reports that initially identified the man as Roberto Torrongoy.


The offices where the hostages were abducted is about 500 yards from the home of two Americans and a Briton kidnapped by militants in September. All three were later killed.


The abductees are believed to work for the Saudi Arabian Trading and Construction Company, or Satco. The company caters food and provides food supplies to the Iraqi army and others, a company official said from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.


Neighbors in the area described seeing several cars filled with gunmen, some blocking the road to the house.


"We heard gunfire. I went outside to see what's going on when a man pointed a machine gun at me and said: 'Get in or else, I'll shoot at you,'" said Haidar Karar, who lives in the neighborhood.


From his house, Karar saw "at least 20 attackers, some masked and some not." He said some were wearing traditional Arab robes and all were carrying automatic weapons.





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.

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.

Al-Zarqawi's group claimed responsibility on Tuesday for Koda's beheading and posted a video on an Islamist Web site of the gruesome death.

The al-Qaida-affiliated group said the Japanese government had offered "millions of dollars" in ransom for Koda's safe return.

"The world should know, from east to west, north to south that al-Qaida is firm on its jihad, God willing, in spite of the Japanese government offering a ransom of millions of dollars," the statement said.

Japanese government officials couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

The latest car bombing occurred as American troops are gearing up for a major offensive against Fallujah, the strongest bastion of Sunni insurgents and located about 40 miles west of the capital.

On Tuesday, the U.S. military reported overnight airstrikes in Fallujah that destroyed a known enemy cache site on the southeast side of the city.

Hospital officials in Fallujah said one person was killed and six others were wounded during clashes. It was unclear whether they were casualties of air or ground attacks.

The order to launch the assault must come from Iraq's interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi who warned Sunday that his patience with negotiations was thinning.

Allawi has given no deadline for an attack on Fallujah. The city fell under insurgent control after the Bush administration ordered Marines to call off their attack against the city in April following a public outcry over reports of hundreds of civilian casualties.


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041102/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq


Ellie

[thedrifter]

U.S. increases troops in Iraq ahead of January poll

5:18 a.m. November 1, 2004

BAGHDAD The United States has begun to increase the number of its troops in Iraq to provide security for January elections expected to face possible disruptions by insurgents, the U.S. military said on Monday.

The announcement came on the eve of the U.S. presidential election. In the runup to the poll, President George W. Bush has been under pressure from his Democratic challenger Senator John Kerry over the financial and human cost of the Iraq war.

A U.S. military spokesman said the 1st Cavalry's Second Brigade will stay longer than planned and about 4,000 new troops have begun arriving to join the 138,000 U.S. soldiers already in Iraq.

"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," the spokesman said.

The 256th Enhanced Infantry Brigade, a Louisiana National Guard unit of about 4,000, had begun rotating into the Baghdad area, he added.

The spokesman could not say how many U.S. troops would be on the ground when the elections, which Washington hopes will be Iraq's first free vote in decades, are expected to take place in January.

The increase in the U.S. contingent of the 160,000-strong multinational force is aimed at guarding against attacks by insurgents bent on trying to undermine the U.S.-backed interim government by derailing the elections.

American forces will probably work alongside fledgling Iraqi security forces to help guard polling stations around the country and protect election workers.

The Pentagon sent 1,100 82nd Airborne soldiers to Afghanistan in September to boost security for the presidential election there. Polling took place in Afghanistan on Oct. 9 with little violence.

The Pentagon raised the U.S. presence in Iraq by about 20,000 troops this spring by delaying the scheduled departure of some troops by three months and hastening the arrival of others.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/military/20041101-0518-iraq-troops.html


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines get warm Michigan welcome after return from Fallujah
11/1/2004, 6:54 a.m. ET
The Associated Press

ROCHESTER, Mich. (AP) — Friends, family members and local officials have given a warm welcome home to two Marine Corps lance corporals returning home after seven months of duty in Fallujah and elsewhere in Iraq.

Jeff Firman and Rick Zappella did their best to remain straight-backed and staid Sunday in their uniforms Sunday. But the pair could not help cracking smiles at their high-school buddies and stealing kisses from their beaming mothers.

Huddled against the wind in a mall parking lot, dozens of people welcomed home Firman, of Rochester Hills, and Zappella, of Rochester. Both are 2003 Rochester High School graduates.

"It's just awesome to come home and everyone supports you," said Firman, 19, locked arm-in-arm with his mother, Bobbi Fedricks.

Zappella, 20 and Firman's friend since the pair met as fifth-grade Little Leaguers, told the Detroit Free Press that that the welcome-home was "nice to see, especially the veterans,"

Generations of veterans from all branches of the military were on hand, while Boy Scouts held signs bearing Firman's and Zappella's names and others waved American flags and posters saluting them.

The two corporals received proclamations from the cities of Rochester and Rochester Hills and gift baskets from area merchants.

They came home Oct. 16 and leave for Camp Pendleton on Nov. 9.

•__

Information from: Detroit Free Press, http://www.freep.com

http://www.mlive.com/newsflash/business/index.ssf?/base/news-20/109931034523720.xml&storylist=mibusiness


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Copters Maxed In Counterinsurgency War
Associated Press
November 1, 2004

TAJI, Iraq - The U.S. military is increasingly turning to attack helicopters to battle guerrillas in Iraq, using tactics closer to those from Vietnam or Israel than the Gulf war formations that blasted Iraqi tanks.

The Army is also pushing its fleets of transport helicopters as hard as it can, ferrying U.S. troops and Iraqi leaders by air, rather than letting them drive the country's ambush-prone roads.

"When we fly, soldiers don't die," said Col. Jim McConville, who commands the 1st Cavalry Division's aviation brigade. "We're basically flying as much as we can. And we can't fly them enough."

Since February, McConville's 4th Brigade, headquartered on this dust-blown air base just north of Baghdad, has flown 50,000 combined hours in its nearly 100 helicopters, the highest airborne rate in division history.

Helicopters have emerged as the most important weapon in the U.S. air war in Iraq. Pairs of Apache, Kiowa and Marine Cobra attack helicopters often act as the eyes - and arms - for small bands of ground troops.

And they are expected to be critical to the forthcoming attempt to retake guerrilla-held Fallujah.

Helicopters have proven themselves in dozens of counterinsurgency battles, with pilots radioing directions or firing rockets, allowing ground troops to overcome ambushes or blocked streets.

"It's an adrenaline rush, guys flying 140 miles per hour just above the trees and firing rockets," said McConville, whose own helicopters have been rocked by rocket-propelled grenades or punched with bullets.

The Black Hawk, which entered service in 1979, has become a taxi for soldiers and contractors hopping from the safety of one U.S. base to another.

"If everyone had a choice no one would drive," said McConville, 45, of Quincy, Mass. "But there's not enough aircraft to fly every soldier who wants to fly."


The ominous thumping sound of American helicopters roaring over Baghdad's rooftops is becoming as emblematic of this war as it was of Vietnam.

In February, an Iraqi reporter asked Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, spokesman for the occupation forces, what he would recommend Iraqi mothers tell their children frightened by low-flying helicopters.

"What we would tell the children of Iraq is that the noise they hear is the sound of freedom," Kimmitt said.

American helicopters provoke dread among insurgents as well, McConville said. The shooting often stops when one shows up.

"The Iraqis are afraid of helicopters," McConville said. "We think they're pretty deadly. But they think they're a lot more deadly than they are."

The 1st Cavalry, whose pioneering of Vietnam "Air Cav" operations was featured in the 1979 movie "Apocalypse Now," has seen two of its helicopters shot down. Two other 1st Cavalry Kiowas collided and crashed, for unknown reasons, in October.

Heavy armor, like the Black Hawk's Kevlar flooring, helps bring the machines back after they've been hit.

"They'll come in with holes and we'll repair them," said Maj. John Agor, 42, striding through a Taji hangar filled with disassembled Black Hawks and Apaches. "More likely than not we'll put them back into battle that night."

Helicopter tactics here resemble those that emerged at the end of the Vietnam war, when the Viet Cong acquired Soviet-made SA-7 missiles that were able to pick off high-flying choppers. U.S. pilots began flying low and fast, skimming the trees and fields in a technique known as "mapping the earth."

When the Apache gunship entered service, tactics evolved again.

The Army trained pilots to hover behind front lines and blast tanks with long-range missiles. Apache pilots did just that in the Gulf war.

But Iraqi insurgents have no front lines or tanks. After rebels with shoulder-fired missiles took down a pair of helicopters, including a Chinook transport in November that killed 16 U.S. troops, the Army stopped flying at high altitudes.

"We used to hover around. We can't do that now because you get shot down," McConville said. "People thought it was safer to come down low and risk small arms fire and wires."

So the Army went back to mapping the earth, with improvements. Helicopters have better armor and are loaded with precision weapons and night targeting systems, including those that can detect a person's body heat.

Apaches and Kiowas operate in street battles much the same way as in the Israeli military: rocketing single cars or buildings sheltering insurgents.

"You try to shoot them in an alleyway or shoot one car that's moving along a street," said Capt. Ryan Welch, 29, an Apache pilot with the 4th Brigade. "It's not something we used to train for."

The urban fighting puts big decisions into the hand of a 20-something flier.

When a 1st Cavalry Apache team fired on a disabled Bradley armored vehicle in August, among those killed was an Al-Arabiya television reporter who was broadcasting live. The widely viewed carnage brought criticism on the U.S. military. McConville said his pilots are well aware of their potential for instant infamy.

The Army relies so heavily on its helicopters that some are being flown at rates beyond military recommendations.

Lt. Col. Mike Lundy, commander of the 1st Cavalry's Kiowa regiment, said each of his armed Kiowas flies around 105 hours per month, well over the recommended 65 hours.

Major overhauls normally done every two years are now needed every six months, said Agor, the maintenance chief.

In the case of the Apache, the interval between complete overhauls been pushed back from once every 250 hours to once every 500 hours, said Agor.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

October 27, 2004

Troops never ordered to secure now-missing weapons cache

By Kimberly Hefling
Associated Press


One of the first U.S. military units to reach the Al-Qaqaa military installation south of Baghdad after the invasion of Iraq did not have orders to search for the nearly 400 tons of explosives that are missing from the site, the unit spokesman said Tuesday.
When troops from the 101st Airborne Division’s 2nd Brigade arrived at the Al-Qaqaa base a day or so after other coalition troops seized Baghdad on April 9, 2003, there were already looters throughout the facility, Lt. Col. Fred Wellman, deputy public affairs officer for the unit, told The Associated Press.

The soldiers “secured the area they were in and looked in a limited amount of bunkers to ensure chemical weapons were not present in their area,” Wellman wrote in an e-mail message to The Associated Press. “Bombs were found but not chemical weapons in that immediate area.

“Orders were not given from higher to search or to secure the facility or to search for HE type munitions, as they (high-explosive weapons) were everywhere in Iraq,” he wrote.

The 101st Airborne was apparently at least the second military unit to arrive at Al-Qaqaa after the U.S. led invasion began. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told The Washington Post that the 3rd Infantry Division reached the site around April 3, fought with Iraq forces and occupied the site. They left after two days, headed to Baghdad, he told the newspaper for Wednesday’s editions.

Associated Press Correspondent Chris Tomlinson, who was embedded with the 3rd Infantry but didn’t go to Al-Qaqaa, described the search of Iraqi military facilities south of Baghdad as brief, cursory missions to seek out hostile troops, not to inventory or secure weapons stockpiles. One task force, he said, searched four Iraqi military bases in a single day, meeting no resistance and finding only abandoned buildings, some containing weapons and ammunition.

The enormous size of the bases, the rapid pace of the advance on Baghdad and the limited number of troops involved, made it impossible for U.S. commanders to allocate any soldiers to guard any of the facilities after making a check, Tomlinson said.

Pentagon officials could not be reached for comment Wednesday night. A spokesman for the 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart, Ga., said the unit was checking on whether any of its troops was at Al-Qaqaa.

The disappearance of the explosives was first reported in Monday’s New York Times and has subsequently become a heated issue in the U.S. presidential campaign, with Vice President Dick Cheney questioning on Tuesday whether the explosives were still at the facility when U.S. troops arrived. The Kerry campaign called the disappearance the latest in a “tragic series of blunders” by the Bush administration.

Two weeks ago, Iraq’s Ministry of Science and Technology told the International Atomic Energy Agency that the explosives had vanished from the former military installation as a result of “theft and looting ... due to lack of security.” The ministry’s letter said the explosives were stolen sometime after coalition forces took control of Baghdad on April 9, 2003.

The disappearance, which the U.N. nuclear agency reported to the Security Council on Monday, has raised questions about why the United States didn’t do more to secure the facility and failed to allow full international inspections to resume after the March 2003 invasion.

On Tuesday, Russia, citing the disappearance, called on the U.N. Security Council to discuss the return of U.N. weapons inspectors to Iraq. But the United States said American inspectors were investigating the loss and that there was no need for U.N. experts to return.

The Al-Qaqaa explosives included HMX and RDX, key components in plastic explosives, which insurgents in Iraq have used in repeated bomb attacks on U.S.-led multinational forces and Iraqi police and national guardsmen. But HMX is also a “dual use” substance powerful enough to ignite the fissile material in an atomic bomb and set off a nuclear chain reaction.

The 3rd Infantry left Al-Qaqaa and moved on to become the first U.S. unit into Baghdad. The day after Baghdad fell, the 101st Airborne arrived at Al-Qaqaa and remained there for 24 hours, later joining the 3rd Infantry in the capital.

“We still had Iraqi troops in Baghdad we were trying to combat,” said Wellman, the 101st Airborne spokesman. “Our mission was securing Baghdad at that point.”

NBC correspondent Lai Ling Jew, who was with the 101st, told MSNBC, an NBC cable news channel, that “there wasn’t a search” of Al-Qaqaa.

“The mission that the brigade had was to get to Baghdad,” she said. “As far as we could tell, there was no move to secure the weapons, nothing to keep looters away.”

She said there was no talk among the 101st of securing the area after they left. The roads were cut off “so it would have been very difficult, I believe, for the looters to get there,” she said.

Wellman, the 101st Airborne spokesman, said the facility was in the unit’s sector at that time but that he does not know if any troops were left at the grounds of the facility once the combat troops from the 2nd Brigade left.

The commander of the 101st Airborne Division’s 2nd Brigade, Col. Joseph Anderson, told Times on Tuesday that he didn’t learn until this week that international inspectors had been at Al-Qaqaa to inspect explosives before the war.

“We happened to stumble on it,” Anderson told the Times. “I didn’t know what the place was supposed to be. We did not get involved in any of the bunkers. It was not our mission. It was not our focus.”

Lt. Gen. William Boykin, the Pentagon’s deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence, said that on May 27, 2003, a U.S. military team specifically looking for weapons went to the site but did not find anything with IAEA stickers on it.

The Pentagon would not say whether it had informed the IAEA that the conventional explosives were not where they were supposed to be. Boykin said that the Pentagon was investigating whether the information was handed on to anyone else at the time.

The explosives had been housed in storage bunkers at the facility. U.N. nuclear inspectors placed fresh seals over the bunker doors in January 2003. The inspectors visited Al-Qaqaa for the last time on March 15, 2003 and reported that the seals were not broken — therefore, the weapons were still there at the time. The team then pulled out of the country in advance of the invasion later that month.

Cheney raised the possibility the explosives disappeared before U.S. soldiers could secure the site in the immediate aftermath of the invasion.

“It is not at all clear that those explosives were even at the weapons facility when our troops arrived in the area of Baghdad,” Cheney said Tuesday.

Both HMX and RDX are key components in plastic explosives such as C-4 and Semtex, which are so powerful that Libyan terrorists needed just a pound to blow up Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, killing 270 people.



http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-473825.php


Ellie

[thedrifter]

November 01, 2004 <br />
<br />
Corps drops charges against Marine in prison abuse case <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
SAN DIEGO — Charges have been dismissed against the former commander of a detention facility where an Iraqi...

[thedrifter]

November 01, 2004

‘Band of Sisters’ to run marathon in honor of fallen

By Gidget Fuentes
Times staff writer


OCEANSIDE, Calif. — Eleven women who have lost husbands, brothers or friends to the war in Iraq have teamed up as a “Band of Sisters.”
The women plan to run in the Marine Corps Marathon on Oct. 31 in Washington, D.C., and are raising money for scholarship funds in the names of two Marines who died in Iraq, Maj. Richard “Rick” Gannon and Capt. Brent Morel.

Both widows, Sally Gannon and Amy Morel, are among the Band of Sisters and will join some 20,000 other marathoners in running the 26.2-mile race. It will be their first marathon.

“We want to run in honor of Rick, and in support of the children,” said Karen Mendoza, who will run with the group and whose Marine husband, Ray, was a best friend of Rick Gannon.

Rick Gannon, 31, of Escondido, Calif., was a father of four children: Richard, 12; Patrick, 7; Conner, 5; and Maria, 2. A scholarship trust fund will provide money for the children.

“The memorial services have [passed], and time is going on,” Mendoza said. “But our group doesn’t want people to forget the wives who are living every day with this sacrifice.”

A company commander with 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, from Twentynine Palms, Calif., Rick Gannon died April 17.

“It’s a deployment for the rest of her life,” Mendoza said of Gannon’s widow, Sally.

Mendoza said the marathon idea grew from Rick Gannon’s love of running. He even got her husband, Ray, into running, she added.

Sally Gannon said that although she hasn’t logged as many training miles as she had planned, she will tough it out and hopes to cross the finish line. Her husband’s love of running is an inspiration, she said.

“Rick had been running in marathons since he was 9,” she said, noting he had run three marathons in the San Diego area by age 11. After Mendoza’s suggestion, “I said, ‘well, maybe I can do it, too,’” Gannon said.

Running with friends helps, she said. “I just feel very lucky to have such a close group of friends who are willing to give up a weekend and attempt to run a marathon,” she said. “To finish it would be such a thrill.”

The Band of Sisters is also running in memory of Brent Morel, 27, a platoon commander with 1st Reconnaissance Battalion from Camp Pendleton, Calif., who died April 7. Amy Morel, who lives in Memphis, Tenn., hopes to raise money for a memorial scholarship fund in her husband’s name through the Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation. The Morels had no children.

Unlike her husband, who was an avid runner, Amy Morel had never thought about completing a marathon — until this year when she learned of the Band of Sisters. Now, she expects to walk across the finish line. Brent “loved to run,” she said.

She said she hopes the marathon will help her spirits. “It’s been difficult for all of us,” she said. “I miss my Marine Corps family dearly.”

Since it organized last spring, the Band of Sisters has been collecting money and soliciting donors. The 1st Marine Division Association donated money for the marathon registration and runners’ bibs, at $85 each. They have asked for donations of at least $1 for every mile run for the scholarship funds.

“Twenty-six dollars is not as much, compared to the sacrifice that Sally makes every day,” Mendoza said.

Tax-deductible donations to the Richard J. Gannon Memorial Scholarship Fund may be mailed to: Band of Sisters, c/o Karen Mendoza, 404 Koelper St., Oceanside, CA 92054.

Send donations for the Brent Morel Scholarship to Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation, P.O. Box 3008, Princeton, NJ 08543-3008.


http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=0-MARINEPAPER-463022.php


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Election Brings Uncertainty Over Iraq
Associated Press
November 1, 2004

WASHINGTON - For all the talk about Iraq in the presidential campaign, a crucial question largely has gone unanswered: What would it really take for either President Bush or a President Kerry eventually to bring home U.S. troops?

Both candidates say they are committed to defeating the insurgents, building an Iraqi force that can defend the country and putting Iraq on the road to democracy. What is not clear is what either would do in terms of U.S. troops if those conditions were not achieved fully.

Could U.S. troops ever withdraw, if the insurgency were not crushed but only weakened? How good would Iraqi security forces have to be to be good enough to defend their country? Would it be enough to have a stable Iraqi government if it were elected by only part of the country?

One question no candidate would want to touch is what would happen should the violence escalate. Could there come a point when the situation appeared hopeless, U.S. public opinion had turned against it and the president would have at least to consider a withdrawal or redeployment of U.S. forces?

"No president wants to cut-and-run on purely good policy grounds, but all presidents realize that if you lose public support, you could be forced to do what you don't want to do," said James M. Lindsay of the Council on Foreign Relations.

The Bush administration has a standard answer to the question of how long U.S. troops would stay in Iraq: as long as necessary, and not a day longer.

As he repeated that last month in Cincinnati, Vice President Dick Cheney said the mission of the United States "is to get a democratically elected government in place and get the Iraqis in a position to be able to provide for their own security."

Administration officials have been divided, though, about just how successful Iraqi elections in January have to be.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has said that if some parts of Iraq are inaccessible to voting, a partial vote would be better than none. Secretary of State Colin Powell has said the election will not be credible unless all Iraqis have the opportunity to vote.


As for securing Iraq, both Bush and Kerry expect "we will cobble together some kind of stability on the security and political front," said Bathsheba N. Crocker of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"It will continue to be messy, probably, and it won't be a perfect scenario," she said. "But it may at least enable us to feel that if we started to pull out U.S. troops, the whole thing wouldn't fall apart."

Kerry has stressed the importance of helping Iraq build a democracy and protect itself, saying Bush's efforts have been inadequate. The Massachusetts senator has said he would secure more international help to ease the burden on the United States. His goal is to begin withdrawing U.S. forces within six months and complete the withdrawal within four years.

Yet Kerry's prospects for winning international backing are uncertain.

If public support for the U.S. presence in Iraq should fade, Kerry and Bush could face different pressures to stay firm or pull out.

Kerry's commitment to what he described as "the wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time" is not as clear as Bush's, but any move to withdraw short of clear victory could lead to harsh criticism from Republicans, who are likely to keep control of both houses of Congress.

"Kerry will be just as constrained as Bush would be in terms of figuring out how to extricate U.S. forces," said Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute think tank.

Bush's legacy will be tied closely to Iraq's future. Presumably that would make him more likely to stay the course but also could make him appear more credible - at least in Republican eyes - if he were to decide it was time for U.S. soldiers to leave.

Some Republicans have expressed discomfort with the prospect of a long-term U.S. nation-building effort in Iraq.

"There is definitely sentiment among some Republicans to get out," said Thomas Donnelly of the American Enterprise Institute. But, he added, "I don't think that would carry the day in a second Bush term."

The danger of an early withdrawal is that Iraq might fall into civil war or the kind of lawlessness that would allow terrorists to thrive.

"You can develop and embrace an exit strategy from Iraq, but what are the repercussions on the broader war against terrorism?" said Bruce Hoffman of the Rand Corp., a think tank.

Thomas Keaney, professor of strategic studies at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, says the timing of a U.S. withdrawal might be somewhat out of the president's control. Iraqi leaders could face political pressure to ask U.S. troops to leave, he said.

"The ball is not in our court entirely. Maybe not even primarily," Keaney said.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

1st FSSG Marines brave western Iraq’s roads to deliver the goods
Submitted by: 1st Force Service Support Group
Story Identification #: 2004102991319
Story by Lance Cpl. Travis J. Kaemmerer



CAMP AL ASAD, Iraq (Oct. 29, 2004) -- While some Marines are combating threats in the insurgent-ridden streets of Fallujah and Ramadi, Marines here are braving Iraq’s roadways to provide essential supplies to forward operating bases in western Iraq.

Marines with the 1st Force Service Support Group travel daily to deliver everything from food and water to mail and supplemental items, such as magazines, cigarettes, even alarm clocks and sodas.

The responsibility of delivering these supplies – one of two ways for Marines in remote areas in western Iraq to receive these provisions – lies in the hands of 1st FSSG’s Combat Service Support Company 119.

Since arriving here in August, CSSC-119 Marines have logged in nearly 170,000 miles of road time and put in an average of 90 hours a week to get the job done. This translates into a workload which often times leaves little more than 10 hours a day to eat, shower, relax, and sleep, before it’s time to hit the road and do it all over again.

The Marines here know that if they don’t do their job, then the Marines with 1st Marine Division won’t be able to do theirs, said 1st Lt. Chris J. Lefebvre, CSSC-119’s executive officer.

“They haven’t failed yet,” he said.

Although the Marines here have not encountered as many improvised explosive devices as units further east – luckily none with dire results - the threat of enemy contact, along with the dangers associated with CSSC-119’s fast-paced operations, is always there, said Lefebvre.

“Marines are going out there and facing the threats that come with convoys – the heat, the distance – it’s incredible,” said Lefebvre, a 25-year-old native of Hollywood, Md.


The mission – 500 miles away

Recently, 2nd Platoon, one of two CSSC-119 sub-units responsible for conducting convoys, was tasked with making a supply convoy to Camp Korean Village, a nearly 500 mile drive, round-trip.

The two-day trek is the longest of six regular convoys CSSC-119 is tasked to make.
At 7 a.m. on Oct. 21, 2004, the Marines of 2nd Platoon muster behind the gates of CSSC-119’s motor pool, where the dozen or so military and civilian trucks are staged. They load their personal items, such as hygiene gear, clothing, food and water onto their individual vehicles. They check the air pressure and fuel levels of their vehicles. They mount the heavy machine guns, grenade launchers and other weapons used to provide security against any possible enemy threats during the trip.

An hour later, 1st Lt. Marykitt Haugen, convoy commander, conducts role call and gives a pre-convoy brief to the Marines regarding the planned convoy route, road safety precautions, radio call signs, and convoy procedures.

A chaplain gives a group prayer for the Marine’s safety. The Marines “mount up” in their vehicles, and begin the long haul. Like a line of railroad cars tagging behind an engine, the convoys’ larger vehicles follow several High Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicles, or “Hum-vees,” mounted with crew-served machine guns for security.


Complacency kills

“They say complacency kills, and I dig that,” said Lance Cpl. Brennan M. Rahmaan of Little Rock, Ark., one of the convoy’s drivers.

Working on the third month of his second tour of duty in Iraq, Rahmaan, along with the other handful of Marines who are serving their second tour in the desert, have proven to be an invaluable source of experience for the CSSC-119, said Haugen.

Following major combat operations last year, Rahmaan, 27, ran convoys from Kuwait to Baghdad, often times serving as the convoy commander, a responsibility usually given to Marine officers or staff noncommissioned officers.

“Those guys (Marines on their second tour of duty in Iraq) are huge for us because we have a lot of kids here with not much experience,” said Haugen, a 23-year-old native of Gillette, Wyo. “There are no words for how much they are worth.”

The key to a successful convoy mission is staying alert at all times, and not allowing the often mundane drive to detract from situational awareness, said Rahmaan, 27.

“This is your life here,” said Rahmaan. “If I slip and don’t see something, that truck three or four back could get messed up. Later, I could be thinking, ‘Man, I could have prevented that.’”

Rahmaan, who joined the Marine Corps three years ago to “get off the streets” of his hometown, can’t emphasize enough to his fellow Marines: complacency kills.

During the pre-convoy brief, Haugen reiterated to her Marines the need for total awareness on the road: “This is a danger area, keep your dispersion,” she said, pointing to a specific roadway on the map of the Camp Korean Village convoy route. “Stay alert.”


A dangerous job on dangerous roads

Within 10 miles of the departure point, the convoy encounters their first unforeseen obstacle in the trip: a seven-ton truck carrying large containers of water has overturned onto the side of the road. When the truck’s central tire inflation system malfunctioned, the rustle of the thousands of gallons of water it was hauling caused the truck to shift off the road and flip over, throwing the Marine manning the machine gun from the turret.

The truck is completely upside down in the sand. Many on the scene speculated that if the truck had flipped one more time, it may very well have crushed the Marine who was thrown from the truck’s machine gun turret.

During the entire evolution, Marines armed with M16 service rifles surround the scene to provide security for the Navy corpsmen tending to the accident’s victims. Haugen calls in for a helicopter medical evacuation.

“Some things you just can’t prevent,” Rahmaan said, rattled after his friend was flown away. “When we first got here (on the accident scene) we had to make sure the Marines were safe. They’re alive. After that, push on. Focus on the mission.”

The Marines don’t leave anyone, or anything, behind.

“It’s the unexpected breakdowns that equal more time outside the wire,” said Rahmaan. “A three hour convoy can turn into a 10 hour convoy.”

Back on the road, the drive is quiet for many miles. The only sounds are the dull roar of vehicle engines and the quiet hum of radio traffic. After two hours of driving, the monotony of the road starts setting in. Backs and knees begin to ache, but the mission is underway and the Marines continue to drive on as the sun begins to set.

“The knees just ain’t what they used to be,” Rahmaan hollered to a fellow Marine when the convoy took an all-too-quick break to stretch their legs and repair wiring on one of the trucks.

The convoy arrives at Camp Korean Village around 8 p.m. The Marines stage the trucks in a dirt parking lot and turn off their lights for the night.

An hour later, with the vehicles parked in an orderly fashion, Staff Sgt. Rodney Garcia, the assistant convoy commander, gathers the troops for an evening brief on the first half of the convoy. He informs them that their injured comrades from earlier in the day are all right. One suffered a minor shoulder injury. The other had a bruised hip and fractured wrist.

“Say a prayer for them for a quick recovery,” the 30-year-old Del Norte, Colo., native said.

The Marines set up camp with the trucks in the parking lot. They slept on cots in the sand next to their vehicles.


Mission complete, on the road again

At 5 a.m., the Marines are awaken boot camp fashion – another Marine shouting “Reveille!” several times until all are awake.

It’s still dark when they awake, and they get dressed and take care of their personal hygiene in the dark. As the sun begins to rise and shed light on the camp, they set to work – four hours of unloading the supplies off their trucks.

By the end of their task, the Marines of 2nd Platoon have re-supplied Camp Korean Village with everything the Marines operating there need.

“The convoys are the most cost effective means of re-supply for us out here,” said 3rd Light Armor Reconnaissance Battalion’s Sgt. Maj., Leland W. Hatfield.

With their mission of delivering the supplies complete, the Marines start the nearly 250 mile trek back to Al Asad. Although the return trek proved to be uneventful, the Marines remain ever vigilant to ensure a safe return home.

“It gets monotonous, but we know our jobs are important in Iraq,” said Haugen.

As the convoy of now-empty trucks passes through Camp Korean Village’s sandbag and concertina wire-laden gate, a large wooden sign in plain view leaves a final stenciled reminder to those leaving the protection of the Marine camp – “Complacency kills.”

Hours later, 2nd Platoon passes through Camp Al Asad’s gates. The convoy makes its way through the roads here until it reaches its starting point: CSSC-119’s motor pool.

After unloading their helmets, protective vests, weapons and personal items from their vehicles, the Marines clean and gas up each vehicle in preparation for the next convoy, which begins the next morning at 7 a.m.

“The Marines are doing this day in, day out, no questions asked,” said Lefebvre. “They continue to amaze our leadership daily.”

After mustering 2nd Platoon again, Haugen and Garcia take role call a final time and dismiss the Marines.

Signs of exhaustion from the past 34 hours’ activities, apparent during the long drive back from Camp Korean Village, begin to fade from the Marines’ faces as they realize they are now officially “off work,” or on “liberty,” as the Marines call it.

That is at least until the next day - and the next convoy - begins.


http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/20041029101748/$file/119Convoy041020_11LOW.jpg

Several Navy corpsmen, Marines, and a Navy Chaplain tend to one of two Marines injured when the seven-ton truck they were driving overturned during a supply convoy to Camp Korean Village in western Iraq, Oct. 20, 2004. The malfunction of the truck’s central tire inflation system as well as the shift of the thousands of gallons of water it was hauling caused the truck to tip over, throwing a Marine from the machine gun turret located on top of the truck. Although both Marines involved in the accident suffered only minor injuries, the incident served as a reminder that anything can happen on the open roads of Iraq. The responsibility of delivering everything from food and water to mail and supplemental items, such as magazines and cigarettes, to the remote areas of western Iraq lies in the hands of the Marines of Combat Service Support Company-119. Since August, CSSC-119 Marines have logged in nearly 170,000 miles of road time and put in an average of 90 hours a week. “Marines are going out there and facing the threats that come with convoys – the heat, the distance – it’s incredible,” said 1st Lt. Chris J. Lefebvre, CSSC-119’s executive officer. Photo by: Lance Cpl. Travis J. Kaemmerer

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/AD4D50D2E7172FFA85256F3C0048A1BB?opendocument


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Iraq Oil Pipelines Hit by Biggest Attacks Yet

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Saboteurs have mounted the biggest attacks yet on Iraq (news - web sites)'s oil infrastructure, blowing up three pipelines in the north and hitting exports via Turkey, oil officials said Tuesday.


The attacks, which were hours apart, sharply reduced crude oil supplies to Iraq's biggest refinery at Baiji. The government is already struggling to build up stocks of refined oil products ahead of winter.


Sabotage against oil facilities in north and central Iraq has intensified in the past few weeks as U.S. forces attacked Sunni Muslim cities where insurgents have support. Imports of refined products have been also disrupted.


The first pipeline attack Monday night destroyed a section of the Iraq-Turkey export pipeline in the Riyadh area, 65 km southwest of the oil producing center of Kirkuk, officials at the state North Oil Company said.


It was followed by two further attacks, including one in the Qoshqaya region northwest of the city on a pipeline connected to the Bai Hassam oilfield and feeding the main export pipeline, officials said.


Reuters Television footage showed huge blazes with no fire crews to be seen.


"We cut off all flows for now. The Qoshqaya fire is covering around one square kilometer. The export pipeline fire is also big," one official said.


"Technically, the system was shut down."


EXPORTS VIA TURKEY HIT


Iraq has been exporting some 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) in recent days via the pipeline to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, mainly from the Kirkuk oilfields in the north.


Shipping sources in Turkey told Reuters some crude still appeared to be flowing to Ceyhan, albeit at a reduced rate.


The oil is likely coming from smaller fields further north of the blast via the pumping station at Tikrit but it is unclear how long this can be sustained.


"The pumping has been sort of sporadic in the past week. It is down to about 140,000 bpd today," one shipper said.


But the sources said about 3.5 million barrels of Kirkuk crude are lying in storage tanks at Ceyhan, meaning tanker loadings can continue on schedule.


ExxonMobil's Framura tanker was due to lift 700,000 barrels later Tuesday, shippers said.


The Kirkuk region produces 600,000-700,000 bpd out of the country's output of 2.6 million bpd. Exports were continuing normally via the southern Basra terminal.


Oil officials said relentless sabotage since the war has cost the treasury billions of dollars in lost revenue. Iraq's October exports were at 1.76 million bpd from Basra as well as Turkey, shipping lists compiled by Reuters showed Tuesday.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=574&e=10&u=/nm/20041102/wl_nm/energy_iraq_dc


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Hundreds flee Fallujah after night of US air strikes

Tue Nov 2, 3:20 AM ET Mideast - AFP



FALLUJAH, Iraq (AFP) - Hundreds of people fled the Iraqi rebel-held Fallujah after a heavy night of US air strikes, while an Iraqi cameraman working for Reuters was killed during clashes in the nearby hotspot of Ramadi.


"There are a bunch of cars leaving the city right now, about 400 cars backed up," said US marine gunnery sergeant Brett Turck. "I don't know if it is a mass exodus or regular traffic flows."


The movement came after the US military unleashed an air raid on the flashpoint city west of Baghdad in what has become a near daily bombardment.


"A US air force plane engaged a pre-planned target using precision ordnance, which destroyed a known enemy cache site on the southeast side of the city," it said in a statement.


A marine official said the mission lasted for about two hours.


Thousands of residents have fled the Sunni Muslim bastion since the US military began a campaign of air strikes during the summer in the hunt for the Islamic militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his followers who are believed to use the city as an operating base.


Zarqawi, a Jordanian national who is Iraq (news - web sites)'s most wanted man, is blamed for some of the worst bombings and kidnappings in the country since last year's US-led invasion.


A large proportion of the 250,000-strong population is thought to have left already, US military officials say. Some have settled in camps to the west of the city while others have sought shelter in nearby towns or in Baghdad.


US ground troops have encircled Fallujah since mid-October, and Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi issued an ultimatum to the city on Sunday to surrender insurgents holed up inside or face an all-out military assault.


Violent clashes flared on Monday in the sister city of Ramadi, to the west of Fallujah, leaving at least six people dead, including a cameraman working for the London-based Reuters news agency.


Dhia Najim, a 57-year-old freelance video cameraman, was apparently shot dead by a sniper while on assignment for Reuters, one of its reporters in Baghdad said.


It was unclear whether the sniper had been an insurgent or a US soldier.


The US military is known to have stationed marksmen in Ramadi as it fights to restore order to the lawless city.


A video camera found on Najim, a father of four, showed pictures of previous attacks on US-led troops, the military added.


A doctor at Ramadi's hospital on Monday reported that a total of six people had been killed and 15 others wounded in clashes during the day.


Elsewhere at least five people were killed when a car comb exploded outside Iraq's education ministry in Baghdad on Tuesday, hospital sources said.


A doctor in the emergency unit of the nearby al-Nohmane hospital said that five dead and 12 wounded had been admitted.





A national guard at the scene said the bomb detonated at about 9:30 am (0630 GMT) in front of the education ministry in the Aazamiyah district of northern Baghdad.

Expectations of a two-pronged assault on Fallujah and Ramadi -- believed to be the nerve centre of Iraq's violent insurgency -- are rising as the interim government vows to crush rebels ahead of elections promised by January.

Najim's death brings to at least 46 the number of journalists and other media workers killed in Iraq since the beginning of the US-led invasion in 2003, according to a tally by Paris-based media rights group Reporters Without Borders.

Four days ago, a car bomb ripped through the Baghdad offices of Al-Arabiya television, killing seven people and wounding 19.


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1514&e=13&u=/afp/20041102/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_us_raids_fallujah

Ellie

[thedrifter]

26th MEU conducts raids with aid of helo squadrons
Submitted by: MCAS New River
Story Identification #: 20041029155212
Story by Sgt. Christine C. Odom



MARINE CORPS AIR STATION NEW RIVER, N.C. (Oct. 26, 2004) -- In collaboration with Special Operations Training Group and New River rotary squadrons, the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit conducted gun drills and helicopter raids here Oct. 25 - 29 in preparation for deployment next year.

Approximately 150 Marines from Golf Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines, 26th MEU participated in what Gunnery Sgt. T. P. Haney, company gunnery sergeant, called "raid week."

Golf received a simulated warning order Oct. 25 of insurgents in Iraq smuggling weapons. The company staff devised several plans of attack in response, but ultimately SOTG decided on what course of action to take, added Haney, from Curwensville, Pa.

"Our orders were to destroy the weapons cache and stop the smuggling," said Haney. "We're also conducting 'helo' raids in (CH-53Es) and (CH-46Es)."

Although the main purpose of the exercise was for SOTG to determine the capabilities of an infantry company during 'helo' raids, another area they focused on was the speed and accuracy of gun drills.

"I can get them off the bird and loaded in one and a half minutes," said Sgt. Evan E. Rowe, section leader, Golf Co., from Flint, Mich.

Three-man teams demonstrated expeditiously how to set up 60 and 81 mm mortars from laying the base plate down to setting the aiming steaks toward target coordinates and plotting a direction of fire, explained Rowe.

Both Haney and Rowe agreed that the goal for these gun drills was to teach the junior infantrymen how to fire mortars in preparation for possible illumination missions.

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/20041029155912/$file/26000000002low.jpg

A Golf Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines, 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit Marine carefully sights in on his target during an 81 mm mortar gun drill at New River on Oct. 25. The Golf Co. Marines were preparing for a deployment in early 2005 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom III. Photo by: Sgt. Christine C. Odom

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/EDAC08D83DA3862D85256F3C006D263C?opendocument


Ellie

[thedrifter]

November 01, 2004

Toughened-up Humvees making a difference

By John Andrew Prime
The (Shreveport, La.) Times


Marine reservist Jesse Spivey didn’t feel the bullet that struck his left leg Oct. 11, not until he’d returned to base and was about to go back with reinforcements to rescue buddies pinned under fire in Iraq.
“There were tracer rounds and machine-gun fire hitting the vehicle, and one round hit the armored door of the Humvee,” the lance corporal said via telephone of his Humvee. “The round bounced off the door, covered a foot or so of distance and ended up in my leg.”

That extra metal turned his injury into something a medic at their main base at al-Asad Air Base could treat, rather than a full, direct hit that could have crippled him or sent him to a hospital. He’s still in Iraq.

“It was a freak accident,” said Spivey of Bossier City, La., who turned 30 the following day. “Everything we have is armored. I examined the Humvee’s door later on, and you could see where the round had hit it but didn’t even faze it. All you could see was a black mark. That armor was tremendous.”

Heavily armored Humvees were developed in the early 1990s but saw limited use until last year, when production of the type called the “up-armored Humvee,” or UAH, was dramatically increased.

“It’s the Army’s intent that every Humvee be armored,” said Michelle McCaskill, spokeswoman for the U.S. Army Materiel Command at Fort Belvoir, Va.

Until all the vehicles are armored, the upgrades will be used by units “based on mission priority.” They’re working 24-7 to produce as many as they can, but the physics only allows you do so many at one time.”

The Army Research Lab at Adelphi, Md., has developed several kits, called add-on armor to retrofit the more than 12,000 regular Humvees now in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the fall of 2003, only one of every 10 Humvees was armored. This spring, Congress reviewed progress and the ratio had increased to about one of every four Humvees.

By the end of October, 8,776 Humvee add-on armor kits had been produced in the United States and shipped to Iraq, and most have been installed. Another 3,500 kits are on order for production.

Army Capt. Lance Magee, spokesman for the Shreveport, La.-based 1/156th Armor Battalion, whose 600-some National Guardsmen are en route to Iraq, said in an e-mail that he couldn’t release numbers of up-armored versus “thin-skinned” Humvees but said the unit has received some of the newest and toughest of the breed.

“We have been issued ‘up-armored’ M1114s, which are the premier combat vehicle available,” he wrote. “Every other vehicle rolling north will have armor added to some extent. Those units/crews most likely to encounter hostile fire are the ones that get the best armored package, or M1114. All soldiers are expected to further harden their vehicles with sandbags.”

Congress recently authorized $740 million to upgrade the vehicle fleet and the armor kits are now being manufactured at seven armories and depots across the nation.

Production has stepped up. Around 450 armored Humvees are leaving the assembly line in Fairfield, Ohio, each month, said Michael Fox, spokesman for one of the vehicle’s manufacturers, O’Gara-Hess & Eisenhardt Armoring Company.

“Every single one leaving the factory is heading for Iraq,” he said. “But they still need more over there.”

The day when the re-armored Humvees arrive in Iraq can’t come soon enough, said John Goheen, spokesman for the National Guard Association of the United States.

“If you’re in Iraq right now, regardless of what your requirement is in terms of needing an up-armored vehicle, you want one,” he said. The Army “is making progress, but they only come off the line at a particular pace, and that pace is not enough to satisfy everyone who would like one.”




http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-482460.php


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Stripes Spotlight: Marine indulges taste bud with fine spirits


By Charlie Coon, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Monday, November 1, 2004



STUTTGART, Germany — The Highland Park 18-year-old had earned the highest rating from one expert, the book said.

So Lt. Col. Aaron Potter, connoisseur of single malt Scotch whisky, had to test it for himself. He poured a little into a glass, added a few drops of water, raised the glass to his nose and sniffed deeply.

At $90 per bottle, it was a big moment. Potter took a sip and let the liquid wash over his tongue and gums before it slid down his throat like drops of silk. He weighed the different sensations from nose to finish and furrowed his brow.

“Maybe … lemon,” said the Marine, finally. “That’s the weirdest finish. It sort of hits in a different place.”

Potter — who assumes his new rank Monday — is not a rumpled barfly or highbrowed socialite. He’s just a guy who took his first sip of single malt Scotch whisky a little more than a year ago and was captivated by the distinctiveness of its smell and taste.

“It was weird,” Potter said of his first taste. “I always thought Scotch was for old guys and drunkards. But I thought, ‘That’s good. What kind is that?’

“I was curious enough, so I started to research single malts to find out why they taste better than anything else. The more I read, the more fascinated I was.”

Exploring the virtues of single malts — the nose, the taste, the “balance” between nose and taste and the aftertaste or “finish” — is now Potter’s hobby.

He has quite a collection of bottles. Some are aged for 10 years, some for 12 years, some for longer. They cost between $30 and $100 per bottle, but older doesn’t necessarily mean better, Potter said. Neither does the price.

After his first sip and 10 minutes or so of reflective thought, the jury was still out on the 18-year-old Highland Park.

“I’m going to have to spend a little more time with this one,” he said.

Single malts are Scotch whiskies made at one distillery that uses its own barley. Single malts vary in taste and character from year to year much like wine, as opposed to blended Scotch whiskies, such as Dewar’s White Label, which are blended from various spirits to achieve the same taste every time.

“[Single malts] all have their own little fingerprint,” Potter said. “You just can’t get that with a blend.”

When Potter has friends over for a tasting, he will put out five or six bottles along with tasting glasses that are narrow at the top to funnel the aroma up the nose.

At a recent tasting, he put out a 10-year-old Balvenie (it has a “big licorice finish”), a 10-year-old Ardbeg (“very smoky”), a 12-year-old Dalmore (“almost like grapefruit”) and Glenfiddich, an 18-year-old Ancient Reserve.

“It just fits,” he said of the Glenfiddich. “It’s not going to knock you down. It’s just a nice experience.”

Potter doesn’t get drunk. An entire tasting lasts an hour or so and includes five or six different whiskies. But the total amount consumed is perhaps just one ounce, or the equivalent of one small drink.

For him, the enjoyment comes from grading the virtues of the fine spirit as it dances on his pallet, and from learning about the science and craftsmanship it takes to make such an elixir.

“To me, the enjoyment is the discovery of it,” Potter said.

One of Potter’s recent dinner guests, Lloyd Miller, an “old retired jar head” who prefers beer, said he got a kick out of Potter’s scotch-tasting hospitality.

“You could appreciate the different tastes of it like you appreciated the company of the people,” Miller said. “It added flavor to the environment.”

Potter’s wife, April, said her parents, brother and sister have all been initiated during visits to Germany. Her husband, she said, doesn’t dabble in a hobby.

“He becomes an expert,” she said. “It’s enjoyable for me; not only is he enjoying it himself, but it’s fun watching him share it with others.”

At a recent tasting, another guest was initiated.

He took a big whiff and the aroma was absorbed deep into his sinuses.

He took a sip and his taste buds sprung to life, all corners of his mouth went on high alert. The beverage trickled down the guest’s throat and disappeared, leaving behind an aftertaste he tried to define.

As the guest smiled, Aaron Potter smiled back. Another enlightened soul.

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=25249


Ellie

[thedrifter]

NEWS RELEASE from the United States Department of Defense

No. 1100-04
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nov 02, 2004
Media Contact: (703)697-5131
Public/Industry Contact: (703)428-0711

DoD Stresses Troop Support Mail Policy

The Department of Defense announced today the continued suspension of
the “Any Servicemember” mail program. Accordingly, the general public is urged not
to send unsolicited mail, care packages or donations to service members during the
holiday season.

During this time of the year, the number of donation programs increases
and causes mail from families and friends to be mixed with mail from unknown
sources resulting in delivery delays.

DoD continues to emphasize that names and addresses of military service
members must not be distributed by the media, Web sites, companies, non-profit
organizations, schools and individuals for the purpose of collecting letters of
support or donations for mailing to service members.

Service members should receive mail only from those friends and family
members to whom they personally give their address.

Military addresses should not be passed around by family members for
use by donation programs. Unknown mailers could then obtain those addresses and
mail harmful items to service members.

For these reasons, DoD continues to indefinitely suspend general
donation programs from unknown mailers.

Americans, who don’t have loved ones deployed overseas, can still show
support during the holidays by other means.

A list of these programs is available at http:// www.defendamerica.mil

To guarantee mail arrives in time for end of year holidays, family
members are encouraged to view the mailing guidelines at
http://www.usps.com/cpim/ftp/bulletin/2004/pb22138.pdf .

Ellie