30 Killed in Pair of Major Attacks in Iraq

[thedrifter]

30 Killed in Pair of Major Attacks in Iraq

By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents launched two major attacks Friday against a Shiite mosque and a police station in Baghdad, killing 30 people, including at least 16 police officers, the deadliest insurgent attacks in weeks.


Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Sunni rebel group, al-Qaida in Iraq (news - web sites), claimed responsibility for the attacks. The claim, which appeared on an Islamic Web site, could not immediately be verified.


"The destructive effect that such operations has on the morale of the enemy inside and on its countries and people abroad is clear," the claim said.


The attacks occurred in the western Amil district and in the Sunni Muslim stronghold of Azamiyah, where police said a car bomb exploded during a clash between Iraqi government security forces and armed rebels near a Shiite mosque called Hameed al-Najar. Witnesses said the mosque suffered some damage, including shattered windows.


Fourteen people were killed and 19 others were wounded, according to the Numan hospital. Azamiyah was a major center of support for Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).


Initial reports had suggested that the bomb targeted a nearby police station. However, if the mosque was in fact the target, it could have been a bid by the Sunnis to stoke civil strife in the area.


In the Amil attack, gunmen stormed a police station near the dangerous road to Baghdad International Airport, killing 16 policemen, looting weapons, releasing detainees and torching several cars, Police Capt. Mohammed al-Jumeili said. He said several policemen were wounded.


U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Jim Hutton said the battle began when gunmen in 11 cars attacked the station with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire. He said a U.S. military Humvee was also damaged. There were no American casualties.


Detainees being held at the station were also hurt, al-Jumeili said. There was no word on the insurgents' casualties.


The rebels had first shelled the station with mortars. Thick black smoke rose from the burning vehicles after the attack.


Meanwhile, two city councilmen from Khalis were ambushed and killed by gunmen Friday, officials said.


The two were driving from Khalis, 50 miles north of Baghdad, to Baqouba, the capital of Diala province, to attend the regional meeting on the country's Jan. 30 elections, said deputy governor Ghassan al-Khadran. He said a third councilman was injured in the attack.


The claim from al-Zarqawi's group said 30 people were killed in the Amil attack and only two escaped. The group also claimed to have attacked two police patrols in the western Baghdad area of Nafq al-Shorta, killing everyone, but that could not be verified.


The attacks were the latest against Iraq's police and security services, which have been targeted throughout central, western and northern Iraq in recent weeks.


The U.S. Embassy on Thursday barred employees from the dangerous highway.


Also Thursday, insurgents killed an American soldier in the restive city of Mosul, and mortar strikes pummeled central Baghdad. Despite the violence, a top Iraqi official insisted the security situation had improved since U.S. forces scattered insurgents in the Sunni Muslim city of Fallujah last month.


To provide security for the election, the U.S. government has announced it is raising troop strength in Iraq to its highest level of the war. The number of troops will climb from 138,000 now to about 150,000 by mid-January — more than in the 2003 invasion.





While Iraq's Kurds and majority Shiites back the elections, Sunni groups have demanded a postponement because of the poor security. President Bush (news - web sites) dismissed those calls Thursday, insisting the elections must not be delayed.

"It's time for Iraqi citizens to go to the polls," Bush told reporters in the Oval Office.

Lt. Col. Paul Hastings said Iraqi and U.S. forces discovered 14 unidentified bodies in Mosul on Thursday. He said there were also reports of five more bodies picked up by family members. That brings to at least 66 the number of bodies — many of them believed members of the Iraqi security forces — found there since Nov. 18.

Mosul's police force disintegrated during an insurgent uprising last month, forcing the U.S. command to divert troops from the offensive in Fallujah.

Also Thursday, attackers launched at least five mortars in central Baghdad, including two that crashed into the Green Zone, the compound that houses Iraq's interim administration and U.S. diplomatic missions.

U.S. senators visiting Iraq on Thursday said they were pleased with Bush's decision raising troop levels, but criticized him for not doing so earlier.

"We should have leveled with the American people in the beginning," Sen. Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record), a Democrat from Delaware, told reporters. "It was absolutely inevitable" that more troops would be needed, he said.

The U.S. Embassy decision to ban its employees from using the highway to the airport followed a nearly identical warning Monday from Britain's Foreign Office. The embassy also cautioned Americans in Iraq to review their security situation and warned those planning to travel to Iraq to consider whether the trip was "absolutely necessary."

However, Qassim Dawoud, Iraq's national security adviser, said insurgent attacks were down since the invasion of Fallujah. He provided no details but said Iraq didn't need U.S.-led coalition forces' help to safeguard the election.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines find insurgents' torture chamber
Fallujah stronghold contains evidence of prisoner abuse

Katarina Kratovac
Associated Press
Dec. 3, 2004 12:00 AM

FALLUJAH, Iraq - Down a steep staircase littered with glass shards and rubble, U.S. Marines descended Thursday to a dark basement believed to have been one of Fallujah's torture chambers. They found bloodstains and a single bloody handprint on the wall, evidence of the horrors once carried out in this former insurgent stronghold.



The basement, discovered while Marines fought fierce battles with Fallujah insurgents last month, is part of the Islamic Resistance Center, a three-story building in the heart of this city 40 miles west of Baghdad. advertisement




Maj. Alex Ray, an operations officer with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said all evidence indicates the 15- by 20-foot space was used by insurgents to imprison and torture their captives.

"Based on the evidence we have found here, we believe people were held here and possibly tortured - we have found enough blood to surmise that," Ray told reporters shown the basement on Thursday.

On the wall adjacent to the handprint, human fingernails were found dug deep into the porous gravel around a hole in the wall. It's evidence, the Marines say, of a tunnel-digging attempt.

Although most of the evidence had been taken away, there was enough to suggest "they tried to dig their way out," Ray said.

No human remains, except for the fingernails, were found when the Marines discovered the underground chamber on Nov. 11, but they found "plenty of blood," he said. Samples have been collected for forensic and DNA testing.



Although unmarked, the center was a known base of operations for the insurgents who ruled Fallujah with terror and fear until U.S. forces and Iraqi troops captured it last month.

The assault was launched Nov. 8 to wrest Fallujah from the control of radical clerics and fighters who seized it after the Marines lifted a three-week siege of the city in April. The city fell after a week of fierce battles and overpowering airstrikes which reduced many of the buildings to rubble.

Two weeks later, Marines continue to fight sporadic gunbattles with holdouts as they clear streets, homes and buildings of weapons caches and rubble. More than 350 weapons caches have been found so far.

As troops inspected the Islamic Resistance Center on Thursday, gunshots and small arms fire reverberated from Fallujah's northeastern Askari neighborhood. The Marines said it was a sign the insurgents are still active.

On the Islamic center's first floor, the Marines discovered a weapons-making factory at the back of what appeared to be a legitimate computer store.

It contained boxloads of empty shotgun shells and a primitive-looking reloading machine on one of the tables. On the second floor, they found a sack of gunpowder and numerous mortar-launcher cases.

Elsewhere in Fallujah, the Marines have discovered DVD recordings of beheadings as well as a cage and chains bearing traces of human blood. They say it was "apparent the cage was not holding animals."

"It's the combination of the chains, the cage, the blood - there were not nice people here, that's for sure," Ray said. "They certainly didn't have the morals I would expect in a human society."

Reporters were not taken Thursday to the other sites, many of which have been cleared of evidence and the buildings destroyed.

The military says an estimated 1,200 insurgents and more than 50 Marines have been killed in the assault on Fallujah.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Bush To Thank California Troops
The Orange County Register
December 3, 2004

SANTA ANA, Calif. - After more than a month of deadly street-to-street fighting in Iraq in which dozens of Camp Pendleton Marines died, President George W. Bush will travel to the base Tuesday to offer his thanks.

"This is an opportunity to thank the troops for all their service and sacrifice in defense of freedom," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Thursday. "I expect the president will talk about the progress we're making in the war on terrorism as well."

About 36 Camp Pendleton Marines were killed in the assault on the Iraqi city of Fallujah over the last month, more than during the entire initial three-month phase of war in early 2003.

Camp Pendleton has borne the brunt of the more than 1,200 casualties suffered during Operation Iraqi Freedom with more than 150 troops killed - the highest casualty rate of any single military base or installation.

Bush's visit comes a week after the Pentagon announced the deployment of 1,500 additional troops to Iraq and the extension of the combat tours of about 10,400 troops already there. The troops will be used to bolster US forces in advance of the Iraqi elections, scheduled for Jan. 30. The additional troops will bring the total number of US servicemen and women in Iraq to 150,000.



Tuesday's visit marks the second time Bush has visited Camp Pendleton. Four months before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, Bush outlined his controversial policy of "pre-emptive war" - striking targets or countries before they become a threat - in a May 2001 speech at the base.

In that speech Bush said that the U.S. military's goal "is to be well-equipped and well-trained, to be able to fight and win war, and, therefore, prevent wars from happening in the first place."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Jenkins Free To Leave Base
Associated Press
December 3, 2004

TOKYO - An American who lived in North Korea for nearly 40 years after deserting his Army post is free to leave the military base where he has been staying since his release from prison last week, a U.S. Army spokesman said Friday.

Charles Robert Jenkins completed processing procedures Thursday night, said Lt. Col. John Amberg.

"At this time, Pvt. Jenkins and his family are free to depart Camp Zama and go on with their lives," said Amberg.

A U.S. military court sentenced Jenkins to 30 days in jail last month for abandoning his unit to cross into North Korea 39 years ago. The sentence was reduced for good behavior, and he was released on Saturday after serving 25 days.

Jenkins, a native of Rich Square, N.C., said he fled his Army post in South Korea on Jan. 5, 1965, because he feared he would be reassigned to combat in Vietnam. He planned to defect to the Soviet Embassy in North Korea's capital, Pyongyang, and eventually make his way back to the United States.




Jenkins told The Associated Press last week that he intends to settle down in Japan with his Japanese wife, Hitomi Soga, and their two daughters, both of whom were born in North Korea. Soga was kidnapped from her Japanese hometown by North Korean agents in 1978, and married Jenkins in the North two years later.

Soga and four other abductees were allowed to return to Japan two years ago after North Korean leader Kim Jong Il admitted his country had kidnapped 13 Japanese citizens to obtain teachers of the Japanese language and customs for its spies.

After a flurry of diplomatic negotiations, Jenkins joined her here in July, and turned himself in to U.S. military authorities at Camp Zama, just south of Tokyo, on Sept. 11.

A support group for Soga and other kidnapping victims said Jenkins would probably not leave Camp Zama until next week.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

UT business student dies while stationed with Marines in Iraq
By Melissa Mixon
Article Tools: Page 1 of 2

English teacher Phyllis Parr kept a postcard her former student gave her six years ago. In it, Zachary Alan Kolda thanked her for introducing him to great writers.

"I've taught for 28 years, and he's one of those that stands out," Parr said. "I've kept his postcard because teaching can be tough, and I can go back to that letter and see why I'm doing it."

Today, the postcard has even more meaning.

Kolda, a UT student from Corpus Christi, died Wednesday in Iraq while serving as a Marine reservist. He was 23.

He is the second UT student to die while fighting in Iraq. More than 110 Texans have died since the war began.

Kolda's family confirmed his death after Marines notified them at their home. He was an international business senior at the University until last spring, when he was called to active duty.

After learning he would be deployed, Kolda married his girlfriend over the summer.

Patrick Kolda, his father, said his son knew the risks of going to Iraq and was proud to face them.

"He had very deep convictions, and he appreciated what this country's all about," Patrick Kolda said. "He certainly had his concerns, but he was willing to lay his life down for people."

Kolda was serving in Al Anbar Province in Iraq when he died in an explosion around 4 a.m. CST on Wednesday, said Marine Corporal Albert Ramirez. The cause of the explosion was unknown, he said.

Kolda was married to Arleen Kolda at the time of his deployment in June.

Last spring, Kolda withdrew from his spring and fall classes after learning that he was going to Iraq, said Red McCombs Business School adviser Greg Murphy.

"If I remember correctly, he knew he was going to be doing something dangerous," Murphy said. "Not just dangerous by being there, but something dangerous within, like driving trucks."

Friends, family and teachers described Kolda as a creative, caring and ambitious person.

His best friend, Justin Lafreniere, said when he talked to him after deployment, Kolda was brave and proud.

"I'd get a call from him, and every time I'd break down," Lafreniere said. "He was just like a rock. He thought it was his duty and responsibility, and he thought it was best. He always did what was best."

Lafreniere said everybody liked Kolda, because he saw people for who they were.

"He was always accessible, just the neatest guy you'll ever meet," Lafrenerie said. "He was everybody's best friend because he saw through all of the stupid stuff that people worry about."

He said Kolda's death brought the war closer to home.

"You hear about it in the news, but this brings the war home. It puts a reality to it," Lafreniere said. "We all hear it and see it, but not many people experience it."

College friend Mike Dominguez, a government and English senior, said Kolda "embodied the attributes of an all-American."

"He signed up for the Marines, knowing anything could happen, just for the love of his country," Dominguez said.

The other UT student who died was Specialist Michael Karr Jr.

Karr died during combat in Iraq on March 31. Karr was a German major at UT and enlisted with the U.S. Army.

Services for Kolda have not yet been scheduled.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Newport neighbors back up Marines

NEWPORT BEACH — Two next-door neighbors are trying to make the holidays a little better for U.S. Marines stationed in Camp Pendleton.

Through "Operation Gratitude," Newport Beach resident Joy Wynkoop and neighbor Laura Dietz are collecting nonperishable food items, toys, baby formula and diapers through Dec. 16 to help support Camp Pendleton's 36,000 troops and their 18,000 dependents over the holidays.

Wynkoop is working with the Military Outreach organization, a ministry that raises money to help get the troops and their families through tough times. Chaplains based at Camp Pendleton fill the organization in on what their immediate needs are.

Wynkoop and Dietz hope to persuade more Orange County cities to sponsor other battalions, she said.

"We'll do anything to help them," Wynkoop said. "It breaks my heart to see so many men deployed, while their wives are at home and trying to do everything. It's not easy. Some of these battalions have single dads trying to do everything by themselves."

They'll even cater to people who can't make the drop-offs themselves before they present the items to the troops Dec. 19 at Camp Pendleton.

"In addition to the toy and food drive, there are individual people we just try to help," Wynkoop said. "I just try to help the needs as they come along. One mother is going to deliver a baby in February, so we're trying to do a baby shower for her and get her some items she might need."

The Daily Pilot is also pledging its participation in the Camp Pendleton toy drive by collecting unwrapped toys, nonperishable food items, baby formula and diapers. Donors can drop these items off through Dec. 16 at the newspaper's satellite office at 299-B East 17th St., Costa Mesa. Those providing donations will receive a certificate good for a free classified ad, limited to one per household.

Wynkoop and Dietz will begin talks about the project next week with Councilman Steve Bromberg, a former Marine who adopted a battalion on behalf of the city last December.

Over the course of a year, the 1st Battalion, 1st Marines Adoption Committee — comprised of City Manager Homer Bludau, a U.S. Air Force veteran, and eight U.S. Marine Corps veterans who reside in Newport Beach — has raised $50,000 that it will use for food and supplies for the Marines, Bromberg said.

"Joy contacted me and indicated she'd like to get a similar program started for the [1st Battalion, 4th Marines]," Bromberg said. "I'm thrilled they are getting involved in this. They're both very good people. Their goals are very noble and any way I can help them, I will.

Wynkoop and Dietz will collect toys and food that people can donate to the troops' families from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the corner of Goldenrod Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway in Newport Beach. They will also sell toys at the site for people who would like to donate them, Wynkoop said.

The Armed Services YMCA is accepting monetary donations at Box 555028, Building 16144, Camp Pendleton, CA 92055. Money will also be earmarked for the Marine Fund through The City of Newport Beach, 3300 Newport Blvd., Newport Beach, CA 92658.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Judge To Allow England's Statements <br />
Associated Press <br />
December 3, 2004 <br />
<br />
FORT BRAGG, N.C. - A military judge ruled Thursday that prosecutors in the court-martial of Pfc. Lynndie England may use...

[thedrifter]

Marines Thank Barr-Nunn Employees for Support

12/3/2004
A U.S. Marine Corps representative recently visited the headquarters of Barr-Nunn Transportation in Granger, Iowa, to thank employees for their support of the Marines of Company E, 2nd Battalion, 24th Marine Regiment during their deployment to Operation Iraqi Freedom II.
Barr-Nunn employees donated razors, shaving cream, soap, hygiene items and morale-boosting treats.
These boxes along with banners signed by Barr-Nunn employees were sent to show support of Company E.
Barr-Nunn offers both company and owner-operator driving opportunities.
For more information call 866.267.2324 or apply online at www.barr-nunn.com.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

America Supports You: Company Pledges $1.25M for Military Families
By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Dec. 1, 2004 -- A power tool company has pledged more than $1 million over five years to help fund a Veterans of Foreign Wars-sponsored initiative designed to help military families in need.

Vermont American Power Tool Accessories, a subsidiary of Robert Bosch Tool Corporation, will provide $250,000 per year for the next five years to help fund the "Unmet Needs Program," according to VFW Foundation senior administrator Rufus L. Forrest Jr.

The six-month-old initiative is co-sponsored and administered by the VFW Foundation, noted Forrest, who is also a brigadier general in the Air Force Reserve.

Vermont American, headquartered in Louisville, Ky., will also donate a percentage of its sales to Unmet Needs, Forrest said.

The program, Forrest explained, is designed to address "critical and immediate needs" of military families that fall between existing assistance programs.

Today about 350 families have requested assistance through Unmet Needs, Forrest said, noting that more than $100,000 has been distributed to about 70 military families.

Forrest noted that families of active, Guard and reserve servicemembers are eligible for Unmet Needs assistance. Recipients have used Unmet Needs-furnished funds to pay for utilities, food, and other urgent family needs "that sometimes pop up" when military members are deployed for duty, he said.

Glitches and delays in the receipt of Guard and reserve pay, Forrest observed, sometimes cause financial duress for deployed servicemembers' families. The Unmet Needs program, he noted, has also referred military families to existing military and public-assistance agencies.

Actor and ex-Marine R. Lee Ermey is the spokesman for the Unmet Needs Program, Forrest said. Ermey, who served in Vietnam, portrayed military men in "Apocalypse Now," "Full Metal Jacket," and other war films.

The VFW, Forrest noted, is the largest contributor of new clothes, including tennis shoes and warm-up suits, to troops being treated at the U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany.

Also, VFW member and Vietnam veteran Hal Koster, co-owner of Fran O'Brien's Stadium Steakhouse in Washington, D.C., treats injured servicemembers undergoing treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and the National Naval Medical Center at Bethesda, Md., to free weekly dinners.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

December 06, 2004

Shoot to kill?
On streets of Iraq, rules aren’t always so clear-cut

By Christian Lowe
Times staff writer


It was a split-second decision that had international ramifications. When the shooting of an apparently unarmed and wounded insurgent by a leatherneck with 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines, was caught on video and broadcast around the world in the closing days of the battle for Fallujah, Iraq, the action threatened America’s position as having the moral high ground in its war against terrorism.
It’s the kind of scenario former Commandant Gen. Charles Krulak had in mind when he coined the term “strategic corporal,” a situation in which one junior leader’s split-second decision can affect the course of the entire mission.

For the 3/1 Marine, the moment came in a mosque cleared in earlier fighting and filled with a handful of wounded insurgents.

In the video footage, filmed by an NBC News correspondent embedded with the unit, one insurgent is prone on the floor. He makes no movement and it is unclear whether he is armed.

The Marine can be heard wondering aloud whether the insurgent is “faking he’s dead.” He then calmly aims his rifle at the figure and pulls the trigger.

“He’s dead now,” another Marine in the background says as the shooter turns and walks away.

Reaction to the incident was swift and impassioned.

Many in the Middle East used the images to brand the U.S. as belligerent invaders, no different from the insurgents. Marines and their supporters in the United States have rallied around the leatherneck, with hundreds of thousands signing an online petition of support.

For its part, the Corps pulled the Marine from the fight and is investigating the possible unlawful use of force.

Making a split-second decision on whether a wounded, dead or surrendering insurgent is a threat can be extremely difficult, medical and legal specialists say. Only continuous training, easily digestible rules of engagement and strong unit cohesion and leadership can prevent warfare from becoming a war crime.

‘Conventional’ thinking

As the controversy over the still unnamed Marine’s decision to shoot points out, even the most basic rules of war are difficult to apply in a counterinsurgency’s myriad ethical “gray” areas.

Most rules of engagement allow for the killing of people who demonstrate hostility or hostile “intent,” said Joe Rutigliano, a legal adviser to the commandant on the laws of war.

If a person dressed in civilian clothing points a gun at a Marine, Rutigliano said, clearly he’s fair game. But the fight for Fallujah, and occupation duty throughout Iraq, have presented Marines with situations far less obvious.

Supporters of the Marine accused of shooting the wounded insurgent argue that the Marine was reacting to what he believed was a threat. If the insurgent didn’t make any moves and was indeed pretending to be dead, a case can be made for hostile intent.

Add to that the common enemy tactic of booby-trapping its dead or wounded and the rules of war might apply in shooting the insurgent — even if he were wounded.

“If he has reason to believe that his or the life of a fellow Marine is in jeopardy, then he can react to end that threat,” said retired Rear Adm. John Hutson, dean of the Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, N.H., and former Navy judge advocate general.

“The question becomes one of reasonableness. How would the reasonable Marine react in the same situation?”

Rules of engagement are based on the foundation of the Laws and Customs of War on Land, known as the “Hague Convention” of 1907 and on the Geneva Convention of 1949. Beyond the broad guidelines the conventions and rules of engagement offer, unit leaders must regularly war-game scenarios that could be construed as a violation of the laws of war to identify the proper reaction, Hutson said. These exercises can be as important as rehearsing a combat maneuver to get the “what ifs” worked through, he said.

Tying it all together takes strong unit leadership, according to mental health practitioners, legal experts and Marine officers.

It is incumbent on a unit’s lawyers to make the rules of engagement as simple and unrestrictive as possible. Likewise, platoon leaders need to make sure their noncommissioned officers understand the rules and have taught them to their junior Marines.

“They’re the ones that need to explain it, train to it, enforce it and make sure everybody understands that it is not only a crime, but Marines just don’t ignore the rules of engagement,” Hutson said.

Fighting combat stress

However, legal experts concede that even the simplest rules of war can be hard to follow if a Marine is under tremendous psychological stress. An urban counterinsurgency fight is especially dangerous, as the enemy hides among the civilian populace and even a roadside pile of trash can hide deadly explosives.

In Fallujah, coalition forces reportedly found scores of weapons caches in mosques, piles of explosives in schools and entire city blocks rigged with bombs. More than 50 U.S. troops were killed and more than 400 wounded, some of them as the result of booby traps and hidden snipers.

The Marine at the center of the shooting controversy lost a fellow Marine to a body rigged with explosives and he himself had been wounded in the face earlier in the fight, according to some published reports.

Making a life-or-death decision in an ambiguous situation while carrying the psychological baggage such incidents can cause is often difficult, mental health experts say.

Preventing a Marine from crossing the line and committing a war crime takes awareness of the signs of acute combat stress and the techniques to prevent it, said Lt. Cmdr. Gary Hoyt, a psychologist who served with Regimental Combat Team 7 in Iraq.

During his Iraq tour, a seven-month stint that began in February, Hoyt saw more than 110 cases of acute combat stress, including one in which a Marine had to be evacuated from the field.

Sleeplessness and hyper-alertness are signs that the stress has taken hold. A Marine in combat can be expected to be on edge. But if one of your grunts is seeing an insurgent around every corner, it’s time for gunny to pull him aside for a talk. “The issue is when you become hyper-alert you begin to see a threat when it isn’t present,” said Robert Ursano, chief of psychiatry at the Uniformed Services University School of Medicine in Bethesda, Md.

A Marine needs to make sure he’s eating enough and sleeping when he can. And most important, Marines need to talk to each other about what they’re seeing, maintaining unit cohesion and a higher sense of purpose, Hoyt said.

“When you feel that you are part of something bigger than yourself, you fight with far more resilience and far more hardiness,” he said. “Marines will draw off the strength of each other.”

Taking the high road

No matter the situation, there is no excuse for a Marine to commit a crime of war, Marines and lawyers say.

In the days following the shooting in the mosque, however, some supporters argued that the Marine should not be held accountable if he did indeed violate the laws of war because the enemy the Marines are fighting does not do so.

It is adherence to the principles of land warfare that in part makes Marines professional warriors, Rutigliano said, and stooping to the level of an enemy that beheads and mutilates hostages would debase the Corps.

“We take the high road,” he said. “There’s no point in trying to throw away the law and fight the enemy in as barbaric a way as they are fighting against us.”

Ellie

[thedrifter]

December 06, 2004

Brother’s injury may lead to NCO leaving war zone
Corps may grant an exception to policy on sole-surviving sons

By Laura Bailey
Times staff writer


Two Marine brothers serving in the same division in Iraq have been reunited at a Navy hospital in Maryland about two weeks after one was severely wounded in Fallujah.
But it’s still unclear whether the parents of the Marines will attempt to keep the younger son out of the war zone permanently by trying to invoke the military’s policy on sole-surviving sons.

Cpl. Kevin Johnston, 20, serves with 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, and Cpl. Brian Johnston, 23, is with 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines. Both units are serving in Iraq, and Brian was severely wounded in a Nov. 9 explosion in Fallujah.

The New York Times reported Nov. 18 that Bruce Johnston and his former wife Vera Heron would try to invoke the policy to have Kevin moved to a non-combat assignment. But the policy normally applies only to families in which a death has occurred.

“I would just like them to move Kevin into a non-combat area because they’re my only two children,” Heron told the Times.

Brian was wounded in an explosion — caused by a rocket-propelled grenade or a mortar round — that occurred while he was riding atop an Amphibious Assault Vehicle. He lost his right leg above the knee and his right arm up to the shoulder, Bruce Johnston said in a Nov. 22 interview. Brian, who was in surgery as his father spoke, is being treated at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.

Kevin, on emergency leave, joined his wounded brother at the hospital Nov. 21, Bruce Johnston said. The family had not had a chance to discuss whether Kevin would be willing to leave Iraq if the Marine Corps would allow him to do so.

“Right now, he’s probably torn between a commitment to his buddies in Iraq and a very big commitment to his brother Brian,” said Bruce Johnston, a former Marine.

Kevin Johnston initially turned down the Corps’ offer for emergency leave, according to Maj. Fran Piccoli, a spokesman for I Marine Expeditionary Force in Iraq.

A possible exception

The case brings into question how the military’s sole-surviving son policy is applied. Typically, the policy applies when a service member dies and leaves a family with only one surviving child, but it also can apply to families in which a sibling is captured, missing or becomes 100 percent disabled, according to officials with Manpower and Reserve Affairs at Quantico, Va.

In this case, the rule does not apply because both of Johnston family’s sons are still alive, according to a spokesman at Marine Corps headquarters.

“We have no process by which families can invoke some sort of policy to have their family member taken out of a combat zone,” said Maj. Jason Johnston, who is not related to the family.

The limit for emergency leave periods is 30 days, but Kevin probably will go back sooner, the spokesman said.

“He’s already expressed that he wants to go back,” he said.

Heron could not be reached for comment, but Bruce Johnston said that while he’d prefer that Kevin be reassigned, he will support any decision his son makes.

Manpower officials said that while the Johnston case doesn’t exactly fit the model for the military’s sole-surviving-son policy, they would consider applying the rule if the family decided to pursue it.

“For the sake of the family and to be compassionate, it’s not fair to make the family suffer any more,” said Rick Spooner, deputy director of the enlisted assignments branch at Manpower.

He added, “We don’t want to open the floodgates, but we will look at it and others on a case-by-case basis.”


Ellie

[thedrifter]

December 03, 2004

Insurgents launch attacks again U.S. and Iraqi forces in Mosul

By C. Mark Brinkley

MOSUL, Iraq – A wave of insurgent ambushes swept across Iraq’s second-largest city Friday morning, leaving local police and coalition forces caught in the crossfire. At least nine U.S. troops were wounded in the attacks.
Insurgent fighters attempted to block many Mosul streets with junk and debris, hoping to box coalition patrols into the ambush areas, while others launched coordinated strikes against at least five southwestern police stations. At least 20 insurgents were killed in the four-hour gun battle that followed.

A U.S. Army patrol in the area might have disrupted the insurgents’ plan for the day’s events, as soldiers across the city reported booby traps and car bombs that were deserted before completion.

“Things were cool,” said Army Sgt. Maj. Frank Wood, a senior noncommissioned officer with 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, whose armored vehicle was attacked with rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine gun fire. “We made a turn, went into a market area, started getting some hard looks from people. Then we came out into the traffic circle, and they started firing their RPGs.”

Military dispatches from across the city reported multiple pockets of insurgent fighters using mortars, RPGs and machine guns against coalition troops and police forces. One Army unit reported taking heavy fire from a large-caliber weapon, possibly an anti-aircraft gun, as insurgents tried to pierce the heavy armor of the soldiers’ vehicles.

In one area, a huge cache of about 20 interconnected artillery shells was found lying on the street, the makings of a massive explosive device likely designed to damage an armored vehicle. “They didn’t have time to put them in the ground before we came rolling up on them,” Wood said.

A mosque in the western part of the city was used as a launching pad for some attacks and coalition troops returned fire, U.S. soldiers here said. Iraqi national guard troops found RPGs, machine guns and at least one dead insurgent inside.

It was the largest attack on coalition troops and Iraqi security forces in this city of 1.7 million since early November, when days of fighting left many of the city’s police stations in ruins. At least 100 insurgents were killed during those attacks.

Coalition troops had been preparing for another wave of violence or perhaps a terrorist attack as preparations for Iraq’s general elections continue. Sunny skies and a break from recent cold temperatures might have helped with their decision to strike on Friday.

“The weather’s nice today,” Wood said. “This is a fair-weather foe. They don’t like fighting in the cold. They don’t like fighting in the rain. So today was perfect for them.”

Ellie

[thedrifter]

When death has a human face
by Paul Wood

Lieutenant Malcolm was a good chess player. He looked like any other young Marines officer: skinny, shaven-headed, and with a quite beaky nose. Anyway, you could always pick him out. He'd be the one with the chess board working out moves.

I got to know him a little bit, as his bunk was opposite mine. I'd watch as he gave chess tips to those of his men who hadn't completely given in to poker.

About five hours into the battle for Fallujah, Lieutenant Malcolm was killed.

He was the weapons officer in Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, the unit I'd joined as an "embed".

Just before dawn, Alpha Company blew a large hole in an outer wall, and entered the police station right in the heart of Fallujah.

As the sun rose the Marines found themselves surrounded and under attack from all sides.

Lieutenant Malcolm's squad went up on to the highest rooftop they could find - but not higher than two minarets on either side, with snipers. There was a wall about 38cm high for cover.

Everyone tried to get close to it while bullets skipped across the paving stones. When he heard his men were in trouble - the men he'd been giving chess tips to just the day before - Lieutenant Malcolm came to get them.

As he ran on to the roof, one of the sniper's bullets hit his helmet, bouncing off. He kept going, and didn't leave until he had shepherded all his men down.

He was killed by the second bullet. It got him in the back, just below the flak jacket, as he jumped down the stairwell. He must have thought he was home free.

I asked another young officer, Lieutenant Bahrns, about the huge amount of firepower the Marines would bring to bear on Fallujah.

He told me: "If there are civilians in there, they are non-combatants, then by no means do we want to hurt a woman or a child. We're here to protect them, we're here to keep them safe and we're here to turn over Fallujah back to them."

Lieutenant Bahrns was leading a squad responsible for clearing out the insurgents from the southern tip of Fallujah. It took more than a week into the battle, the longest continuous period of urban, house-to house fighting since the Vietnam War.

Alpha company were holed up in a house on the edge of the desert. You could see the insurgents had nowhere else to go. Every night, though, they would attack, waiting until just after dark.

Half an hour after sunset the first rocket-propelled grenades made yellow streaks across the sky and exploded just behind us. The Marine snipers would try to pick off the insurgents circling around the building.

The next morning we saw their bodies, splayed at odd angles, already starting to bloat, the flies thick on their faces.

Lieutenant Bahrns told me how he'd lost his machine-gunner. The gunner had been first into a house and been shot and killed by those inside. There was a long battle. For three hours they couldn't even get the dead Marine's body out.

When the Marines finally stormed the house they found three other bodies inside, each holding weapons: two men, and a boy, "maybe 10 years old". You could tell that Bahrns was sickened, almost in anguish.

"They were shooting at my Marines," he said, "what could we do?"

The Marines saw many dead bodies - often being gnawed at by dogs in the streets - but they were all of fighters, even if in this one case the fighter was a child.

The BBC's Middle East correspondent, Paul Wood, was embedded with the 1st battalion of the Eighth Marine regiment during the battle of Fallujah.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Care packages bring a taste of home to Marines in Iraq
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By Sheila J. Robinson
The Daily Ardmoreite
Dec. 3, 2004

An Ardmore man started out making jerky for people as a hobby. Now he's sending his Oklahoma-made products in care packages to Marines in Iraq.

Thompson's Red River Jerky Co. is located in the basement of the Ardmoreite building. A former serviceman himself, Thompson has a pretty good understanding of what some of the deployed troops are going through. This is where his motivation came from.

"I'm an ex-Marine -- four years -- and I know what it's like to be in need," Thompson said. "I personally didn't go to Vietnam but my twin got hit. I went as a combat artist and when he got hit, I became a poster illustrator."

"It's just something that I've always wanted to do," he said about sending the packages overseas. "I feel for the troops. They deserve it. They are doing a good job."

The first four packages he sent went to the embassy of the Green Zone. He wants the jerky and other products to go out to the troops that are doing the fighting.

"Since I'm a Marine, I wanted it to go out to the Marines," Thompson explained. "This time that's where it's going. They deserve it."

He receives some support from people like James Chambers and others who donate $20 here and there. LeRoy Cornell, 75, and a retired First Sergeant from the U.S. Marine Corps who lives in California sends Thompson $70 each time he gets a paycheck.

"I've sent already about 100 pounds," Thompson said. "I pay for everything. I've been putting it in these zip lock non-breathable bags. I cut it up so I send a couple of pounds of each flavor. I have eight flavors. Then I send them some jarred stuff, pickled asparagus, salsa, that sort of thing. I chop it up so they can share it out with everybody."

Letters Thompson receives express how much his gifts are appreciated, such as the one from Catherine T. Lovelady, Operation Semper Fi.

"Thank you very much for the Cowboy Jerky," wrote Lovelady. "The 'boys' sure scarfed it down quickly. It was very much appreciated by everyone who received some of it -- you get the Marine Seal of Approval on your jerky."

"Your thinking of us makes the time away from our families a little easier," Lovelady added. "May God bless you and yours!"

Another letter from Sheldon S. Smith, Major, JASG-C, Deputy Chief of Staff says, "Please accept our gratitude for the special care packages you have sent to the troops serving at the American Embassy in Baghdad. I have no doubt that the Marines here, along with the soldiers, sailors and airmen, will certainly appreciate the quality jerky products sent here as a result of your generosity. Again, thank you for your patriotism and support to the mission here."

Probably 85 percent of costs for this endeavor are shouldered by Thompson. His hopes are that everyone will in some way find it in their heart to send something to the troops, even if it's just a pair of socks.

"They are all in need of something," Thompson said. "That's the way I kinda see it."

After working for The Daily Ardmoreite 11 years, Thompson decided to open his own company. Thompson's Red River Jerky will celebrate 17 years in business in August 2005.

Thompson's wife, Kathy, helps out occasionally when the company is really busy. The couple have two children, a son, who is an architect and daughter, who is a computer consultant.

He's been sending the care packages to troops for about a year and the next one goes out this week to the 2nd Force Recon Marines. Thompson plans to continue sending packages for the soldiers as long as the war continues.

"As long as I can do it and am able to do it," he said. "The orders are all different. Depends on how much I can afford and what people donate. If they do it, there's more to it. I'm not trying to ask for donations. That's what it is."

"I think it's good for the troops, good for morale," Thompson said.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marine: 'I knew I was hit' <br />
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <br />
By Nancy Cicco <br />
ncicco@seacoastonline.com <br />
<br />
PORTSMOUTH - Capt. John &quot;Brad&quot; Adams...

[thedrifter]

Family upset after man accusedof assaulting Marine acquitted
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Rebecca Waddingham
The Greely Tribune
December 1, 2004

A year ago near Thanksgiving, a young Greeley Marine came home for a surprise visit. He didn't expect to stay long -- certainly not for five days in intensive care and seven weeks recovering at home.

Leon DeLaFuente III planned a night of celebration with his friends at a bar in downtown Greeley.

When he left, a fight ensued, and exactly what happened depends on whom you ask. But one sure thing is that DeLaFuente, 23, and now a lance corporal in the Marines, will never be the same physically.

He still suffers hearing loss in his right ear, has occasional spells of vertigo and dizziness and has a metal plate with seven screws in one ankle, said his father, Leon DeLaFuente Jr.

Despite those injuries, the younger DeLaFuente still has a military career ahead of him. He is in desert training in southern California, preparing for a February deployment to his second tour of duty in Iraq.

The man accused of assaulting DeLaFuente, 20-year-old Kaman Morgan, was recently acquitted by a Weld County jury. Morgan claimed he acted in self-defense, but prosecutors said he went too far.

The DeLaFuente family is upset about the verdict and wants the public to know. They're also upset that it was an all-white jury.

"This is outrageous," said the elder DeLaFuente. "I think a great injustice was done. The system doesn't always work."

Morgan's attorney, Jeri Shepherd, said the DeLaFuente family might know only part of the story, or may have heard only what friends and supporters wanted them to hear.

"Bar fights are confusing," she said. "(The elder DeLaFuente) is getting the story second-hand ... He might draw one conclusion, and someone else might draw another conclusion."

It's undisputed that Morgan punched DeLaFuente at least once; what's at issue is whether that punch was justified. In any case, it knocked him to the ground. DeLaFuente doesn't remember the fight.

The elder DeLaFuente said witnesses watched Morgan kick his son after he fell, but many of those witnesses were not called to testify. Morgan said he only hit DeLaFuente in self-defense and didn't want to fight.

Both attorneys said it's unclear how DeLaFuente received such serious injuries; either from one blow or many, or the fall to the asphalt.

Shepherd said she believes the jury did the right thing by acquitting her client.

"Certainly any time anyone gets hurt, it's a regrettable situation," she said. "But the law does allow people to act in self-defense."

Christian Schulte is the deputy district attorney who prosecuted the case. He disagreed with the jury, but realizes it is difficult to prove guilt in a bar fight, he said.

Both Schulte and Shepherd noted there were no Latino jurors, but neither attorney thought ethnicity was an issue.

"I was disappointed in the verdict, but as a prosecutor I have to accept it and move on to the next case," Schulte said. "Unfortunately, the lingering injuries for Leon DeLaFuente are real, and he can't just move on."


Ellie

[thedrifter]

December 06, 2004

Laws of war may not reflect reality of terrorism fight

By Christian Lowe
Times staff writer


The combination of an insurgency involving non-native fighters, unconventional warfare tactics and religious sensitivities make Iraq a battlefield where a service member’s snap judgments could push the edge of legality.
The rules of warfare were crafted in the mid-20th century in an era of large, well-defined military forces and nation states that could be held accountable for their actions on the world stage. The fact that these rules are contained in treaties make them somewhat anachronistic in an age of terrorism, where the enemy signs no treaties.

Nevertheless, the Pentagon has vowed to fight its war in Iraq under the rules outlined in the articles of the Geneva and Hague conventions.

Some argue, however, that this situation breeds confusion and should prompt a re-examination of the Geneva Convention and the rules under which the world conducts armed conflict. “We do need to look at the Geneva Conventions with modern, 2004 warfare in mind,” said retired Rear Adm. John Hutson, dean of the Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, N.H., and former Navy judge advocate general. “There are some things we need to change. These things are not written in granite.”

Updating urged

The rules of war have evolved with technology to incorporate air warfare, for example, and have been changed to protect citizens under occupation. Now, with the advent of global terrorism, it’s time to adapt the conventions yet again, Hutson said.

He suggests rethinking:

• Who is considered a prisoner of war?

• How does one determine who is a prisoner of war?

• What is the definition of collateral damage?

• Should churches and mosques still be considered sanctuaries?

• How should civilians in a war zone be treated and defined?

“The line of demarcation between a combatant — lawful or unlawful — isn’t going to exist anymore. Just look at Fallujah,” Hutson said.

Changes to these and other laws of war must be done with the consent and in consultation with other nations. Acting unilaterally in this context could put U.S. forces in further danger, Hutson said.

“We need to have a pretty good idea of where we want it to go, but I’d like to see the United States take a leadership role in readdressing the Geneva Conventions,” he added. “The Geneva Conventions are there more to protect us from the enemy than to protect the enemy from us.”

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Reporter's Notebook: A Fallujah Diary
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Friday, December 03, 2004
By Greg Palkot

Editor's Note: FOX News was on the ground with U.S. Marines for the assault on Fallujah in November. Following are Greg Palkot's day-to-day observations from the war zone. Watch the FOX News Channel on Sunday at 9 p.m. EST for a Breaking Point special about the eight-day fight in Fallujah.

Monday: Nov. 8

It's finally happening. After months of Fallujah owning the title of insurgent capital of Iraq and weeks of training for U.S. troops to prepare for intense urban combat, the battle of Fallujah is about to begin.

It's nighttime. Crammed into an Amphibious Assault Vehicle not too much bigger inside than a Chrysler Voyager with a dozen heavily equipped Marines, cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski and I get ready to witness battle.

None of us knows what will happen. The hype of the worst-case scenario is pretty bad - hordes of suicide-crazed fanatical terrorists with all sorts of weaponry hunkered down in a heavily booby-trapped bastion of a city, ready to battle the West.

The Marines seem pretty calm. Almost all are smoking or chewing tobacco. Feeling a bit drowsy, I call over to Lance Cpl. Klayton South for the can of Red Bull he had promised to save for me. He drank it. Oh well, my adrenaline should do the trick.

The minute we cross through a gap blasted in a railroad berm on the north side of the city, explosions take place all around us. The comforting thing is they are mostly American blasts. It is a planned "shock and awe" opening to the assault designed to knock any terrorists hanging out in that corner of the city out of their collective sandals!

We get to where we need to be and there is already confusion. The Marines of 2nd Squad, 3rd Platoon, India Company -- are arguing about when to launch their attack (we're embedded with them for the coming week).

After a bit of back and forth, the back door of the vehicle lowers and we scramble out into a "night turned into day" by the U.S. munitions. Air strikes, artillery, tank blasts, rockets, small arms fire - you name it.

The plan is for Pierre and me to stick with a small "fire team" within the squad to keep everything organized and straightforward. That lasts about 30 seconds. We're all too busy staying out of the way of the guys rocketing the first house the Marines are supposed to clear.

The house is full of more wires then a badly hung Christmas tree lighting - a sure sign the bad guys have a booby trap surprise for anyone going in. The decision is made to take a pass and go to the next house.

Then begins what we will watch for the next week - Marines entering house after house, room after room, in search of insurgents. Luckily on this first night, there would be no rebels hiding behind any doors.

That will come later.

Tonight there's just a particularly annoying wall to scale and a rooftop to reach. The roof seems like a nice place to relax until the sky above it is filled with whizzing terrorist AK-47 fire and much nastier Marine responses.

This will be the first of many times the phrase "nowhere to run, nowhere to hide" rattles around my head.

Tuesday: Nov. 9

While dozing on a funky-smelling carpet on the ground floor of a Fallujah house, I get a wake-up call at dawn from the roar of Marine Cobra helicopters swooping in over the house and blasting some nasty real estate a few blocks away. I nudge Pierre awake (I'll learn later that this guy works 24/7 but could sleep through Hiroshima if allowed) and we scrambled up on the roof.

We watch what would be the beginning of another routine of the week. The enemy hunkers down at night, intimidated by the hi-tech night-vision gear the U.S. military commands. Then, the bad guys get out at first light to make trouble.

What they don't know is that the Marines want the guys to come out. That's what they came for.

From our rooftop perch we get our first good view of Fallujah. The city is filled with mostly two- or three-story stucco houses but punctuated by dozens of Mosque minarets (there are supposed to be a few hundred, according to reports). The city is thought to be filled with insurgents.

Today, that landscape is dotted with plumes of smoke, explosions and fire.

A palm grove looks like something out of "Apocalypse Now." Apparently used by insurgents, it's being torn apart by U.S. fire. A low-slung bunker-like building becomes a bunker no more after heavy gunfire. And, as we leave the house to make it to our next location, we hear big blasts just down the block. It's all a bit too close for comfort.

Wednesday: Nov. 10

We're dragged out of our sleeping bags at around 6 a.m. after getting three hours of sleep (hey ... better than last night's 1½!).

Capt. Brian Chontosh, the commander of India Company, wants us with him today and lets us sit in on his early morning officers' meeting. The assault is going better than planned, Chontosh tells the officers who led U.S. forces into the city.

Chontosh says that this day India Company might even finish taking the bulk of the territory they were assigned. That would be ahead of the most optimistic plans.

We watch the action on top of one occupied house, viewing the progression of Marines through the Fallujah neighborhoods like some 18th century general.

The day seems to be going along pretty well. But later signs appear that this isn't going to be the neat, antiseptic fight that it looked like it might be at first. We get word of a casualty, and a stretcher with a wounded Marine is pulled out of one alley.

Later, we find ourselves on yet another roof for an end-of-day officers' meeting with Chontosh. As sniper fire flies overhead, the Marines get word that a group of 15 to 20 militants are roving around a neighborhood a few blocks away.

As I quickly learn, Chontosh (who won an award for bravery in last year's initial invasion of Iraq) is not one to sit back and let his guys do the dirty work. Moments later we are out on the street, heading for potential trouble.

Make that REAL trouble.

By the time we make it to the heart of the neighborhood, the unit is caught in three-way sniper fire. But the sun is setting. The decision is made to come back the next day and finish the folks off.

Little did we know what would come.

Thursday: Nov. 11

Before the big push to rout the bad guys from that tough neighborhood, Capt. Chontosh thinks it might be instructive for us to visit a little bit of the handiwork of the insurgents who ran Fallujah for the last several months.

At a house uncovered by Marines the day before, we see the bodies of Iraqi men - one in the living room, one in the dining room, one in the kitchen, etc. Five of them. Each man has a bullet in the back of his head.

The Marines' take is that the dead were civilians being used by insurgents as human shields (the word put out prior to the invasion by the U.S. military was that if you stayed in your house without weapons you wouldn't be hurt). The Marines believe the insurgents saw the Americans coming and decided these guys weren't going to help so they blew them away, locked the door of the house and fled.

They are the first of literally dozens of dead bodies we see in the coming days. I've experienced my fair share of seeing corpses covering the wars in the former Yugoslavia in the '90s, but it's still something you don't really get used to.

I do a stand-up report amid a pile of rubble. Later, cameraman Pierre says, "Greg ... did you know you were standing on somebody while you were speaking?"

But now, we're about to walk into real-time terror.

In another neighborhood, the young men of 2nd Squad - whom we've gotten to know pretty well in the last few days - come face to face with the enemy.

Second Lt. J.P. Blecksmith, the commander of the squad's platoon, is killed by a sniper.

Lance Cpl. Klayton South (the "Red Bull" guy) is badly injured by a fat, armed insurgent greeting him with AK-47 fire from behind a door opened by the squad. Others get hurt.

We rush to the scene. Seeing somebody you had been joking with the day before being carried out of a house on a stretcher brings everything into sharp clarity.

Looking at an injured fellow's bloody flak jacket and vest stays with you.

Watching the belongings of someone who has been killed being packed away to be shipped back to family in the States underscores that this is all as serious as it gets.

A few squad members are very shaken and two have to be pulled out of the action. The rest, outwardly at least, seem pretty stoic, ready to press on and get the job done.

When I ask Chontosh what he feels about the day's losses, the captain almost seems annoyed at the question.

"How does it feel to lose a good man?" I ask. Without missing a beat, but also not looking at me, staring at the scene where a sniper cut down one of his commanders, he snaps, "They're ALL good men."

Friday: Nov. 12

Capt. Chontosh denies there is any notion of payback regarding what will happen this day. And he also dodges a question about whether his strategy has been at all altered by Thursday's terrible events.

But something sure seems different.

India Company still hasn't cleared out the neighborhood where the militants were first spotted on Wednesday. And the hope to wrap up India's assault early is long forgotten.

Now the Marines are going to level a neighborhood to make sure the bad guys never use it again. It isn't quite the "destroying a village to save it" formula of the Vietnam War, but it comes close.

Air strikes, tank fire and mortar barrages make minced meat out of school buildings and houses. When the dust clears and the rubble stops falling, Chontosh takes us on a tour of the place.

His instincts are pretty good. We go into a room in a schoolhouse knee-deep in insurgent weaponry. There isn't a schoolbook in sight. No school buses in the courtyard ... just a vehicle rocket launcher.

And in the houses all around, Marines pull anti-personnel and tank mines out of one place, rockets out of another, a complete IED factory in the bedroom of a third.

And there's one other thing we come across this day: Fallujah citizens.

Most of the 250,000 residents of Fallujah knew what was coming and got out of Dodge. But some stayed, including a family claiming it is being held by insurgents in one house.

It's otherworldly to see the young girls and boys in the group laughing and joking as if no maelstrom had smashed through their neighborhood. With no electricity and water, it is hard to imagine how they'll get by in the coming days.

continued..........

[thedrifter]

Saturday: Nov. 13 <br />
<br />
Progress is being made but slower than Marines hoped. Amid some grousing in the ranks about other units that have already been through the area, the Marines we're with think...

[thedrifter]

A Hero's sacrifice <br />
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <br />
FALLUJAH, Iraq (Dec. 02, 2004) -- &quot;You’re still here, don’t forget that. Tell your kids, your...

[thedrifter]

Germany Arrests 3 in Iraqi PM Attack Plot <br />
<br />
By TONY CZUCZKA, Associated Press Writer <br />
<br />
BERLIN - A flurry of hectic phone calls between Islamic radicals led German authorities to arrest three...

[thedrifter]

Baghdad's Sadr City Embraces Reconstruction

By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - After spending much of the year as a battlefield between militiamen and U.S. forces, Baghdad's Sadr City district is now embracing peace and reconstruction.


Anticipation is high for what the residents of the mainly Shiite district say is their overdue empowerment through elections Jan. 30.


The outdoor markets are busy again and the gridlocked traffic is back. The bands of excited children who walked behind local militiamen heading to battle in the fall now clamor around machinery laying down new water pipes.


Workers in orange jumpsuits are laying asphalt in dozens of potholes dug by the fighters to conceal roadside bombs meant to kill American soldiers. The clerics who replaced their turbans and robes with track suits to join the fight are back in mosques and seminaries.


The daily lives of Sadr City's estimated 2.5 million people have not seen much improvement in the two months since fighting ended. But the large Baghdad neighborhood appears on such a euphoric high that the mounds of festering garbage, the constant seepage of sewage and shortage of clean water seem to matter little.


In marked contrast to the skeptical Sunni Arab community, Sadr City's population is looking forward to the January ballot. Banners and posters exhort residents to vote, and booklets explaining the process are distributed house-to-house. Even the sight of U.S. military convoys darting through the district no longer draw resentful looks.


Militiamen of the Imam al-Mahdi Army, who two months ago directed their mortars and rocket propelled grenades at American bases and Humvees, now protect the engineers and laborers working on U.S. military-funded projects. Some of them also have found jobs sweeping streets and fixing the potholes they themselves once dug.


But despite the peace dividends, some ambivalence remains in Sadr City about the government of Prime Minister Ayad Allawi — as well as the Americans.


"Iraq (news - web sites) is for sale: contact Ayad Allawi for details," fresh graffiti declares.


"The Americans came to Iraq to wipe it off the map," a woman speaker told a gathering Thursday of tribal sheiks and professionals to discuss the reconstruction of Sadr City.


Sheik Kareem al-Bakhatti, a senior tribal leader from the area who led the negotiations that ended the fighting in October, said authorities reneged on a promise to free supporters of radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr arrested in connection with the fighting.


He also complained that large-scale development projects promised by the Americans during weeks of negotiations have yet to get off the ground. "Some projects started, but they are small and only a few," al-Bakhatti said. Nothing is being done to improve the area's environment either, he said.


But overall, sentiments against the U.S. presence in Iraq and Allawi's government seem to be well in check while everyone's attention is focused on the election, which Shiites in Sadr City and elsewhere expect to ensure their deliverance from centuries of persecution in Iraq.


Built in the 1950s by a sympathetic government as a nod to Iraq's mostly poor Shiites, Sadr City's residents are mostly migrants from the impoverished south of Iraq. Many of Baghdad's Sunni Arabs shun the area, while some see it as an unsafe place and a haven of criminals.


Some of the rural customs of Sadr City's inhabitants persist. It is not uncommon to see herds of sheep roaming the streets, for example. The conservative character of southern Iraq also is in evidence. Women are rarely seen in public without covering their hair.


Being home to the single largest concentration of Iraq's Shiites — a majority that had been oppressed by the Sunni Arab minority for decades — Sadr City was a thorn in the side of the regime of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), himself a Sunni. His feared security agencies closely watched the area for any sign of dissent. Detaining clerics, restricting the Shiites' freedom of worship and security house sweeps were not uncommon during his 23-year rule.


"We have been marginalized for 14 centuries," a speaker told Thursday's reconstruction gathering, which brought together some 200 tribal sheiks and professionals from Sadr City.





The speaker, Abul-Qasim al-Saadi, an aide to interim Vice President Ibrahim al-Jaafari, was alluding to the birth of Shiism in the 7th century and the persecution of its followers by the Sunni rulers of a then-young Islamic empire.

"We have been third-class citizens for too long. We must now abandon the notion that we are weak," he said.

Political and economic empowerment could well be in store for Iraq's Shiites, but dreams of better days are, for the time being, taking a back seat for many in Sadr City who face a daily struggle to cope with erratic services and find basic supplies.

The seven-member family of Murtada Farag, a retired tennis coach with a monthly pension of less than $100, is an example of both the economic hardships of life in Sadr City and the confusion felt by many over issues such as the U.S. presence, the government and al-Sadr's militia.

Farag pays $40 in rent for the two-room house they live in. Already, two of his children quit school to help the family.

"Elections are a good thing and they will bring a better government. Things will improve," said Seif, the family's youngest child, as everyone laughed over his confident tone.

___

Ellie

[thedrifter]

The few, the proud
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The Port Lavaca Wave
Friday, December 3, 2004

Gunnery Sgt. David Cobb, USMC (Ret.), a disabled veteran who lives in Port Lavaca, has taken on the major task of getting the deceased Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta a medal of honor. Peralta sacrificed his life on Wednesday, Nov. 24 for others during a grenade blast.

Cobb said he was inspired to petition for a medal of honor for Peralta, 25, "because he is not a U.S. citizen yet it was his life dream to come to the United States and become a Marine.

"I saw on CNN television that a young Mexican/American from Mexico with a green card wanted to be a U.S. Marine," Cobb said. "So he joined up and was sent to Fallujah, Iraq where he was shot in the face and dropped on a grenade to save his squad. I think Sgt. Rafael Peralta deserves a medal of honor."

Cobb was amazed to learn about a young man from another country who wanted to become a U.S. Marine. Nevertheless he said he could relate to Peralta's dream to become a Marine.

"I thought it was pretty good if surprising that Peralta's dream in Mexico was to be a U.S. Marine," Cobb said. "He came to San Diego with his family and became a Marine. It is so interesting to me that he came from Mexico to be a Marine."

Peralta came from Mexico to San Diego and gained U.S. citizenship after joining the Marines. Peralta's Marine companions said he built a reputation of always putting his fellow Marines' interests above his own.

Peralta joined the Marines as a platoon scout. He was not assigned to the assault team that entered an insurgent safe house in northern Fallujah on Nov. 24. Despite an assignment that would have allowed him to avoid such a dangerous duty, he regularly asked squad leaders if he could join their assault teams.

Peralta was one of the first Marines to enter the house. He was shot in the face by a rifle from a room near the entry door. Moments later an insurgent rolled a fragmentation grenade into the area where Peralta, wounded and other Marines were seeking cover.

Another Marine scrambled to escape the blast, pounding against a locked door. Peralta grabbed the grenade and cradled it into his body.

After hearing the heroic and tragic story about Peralta, Cobb became inspired to get a medal for Peralta.

"I thought it would be good to start a grass root effort to get a petition going and to get people to write some letters requesting Peralta get a medal of honor," Cobb said.

Once Cobb gets sufficient names and letters, he will send them to U.S. Rep. Ron Paul and request that he forward them to President George Bush.

"That man deserves a medal of honor," Cobb concluded.

Cobb joined the Marines in June 1968 with some Port Lavacans like Sgt. Clarence Matulek, who got a bronze star for bravery; the late Cpl. Ronald Bowan, Tommy Miller, Cecil Patterson, Disabled Veteran Peyton Edwards, who was hit with friendly fire; and Gary Freeze.

Cobb was with the Marines until March 1989. Sixteen months of that time was spent in Vietnam, two years in Korea, one year in Okinawa and one year in Japan. He was inspired by his dad, Tech Sgt. Paskell Cobb, who was a member of the Air Force for 21 years. He retired from Matagorda Island.

Names may be sent to Cobb at 1902 Justice St., Port Lavaca, TX 77979.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Senior Soldier Awarded Silver Star for Actions in Fierce Fight <br />
By Master Sgt. Eric Lobsinger, USA <br />
Special to American Forces Press Service <br />
<br />
FORT HOOD, Texas, Dec. 3, 2004 -- U.S. Army Command...

[thedrifter]

Army Deserter Jenkins to Settle in Japan

By AUDREY McAVOY, Associated Press Writer

SADO, Japan - U.S. Army deserter Charles Jenkins' new home sits nestled on a quiet lane of single-story wooden houses next to a farm. A small patch of tomatoes and red peppers lines the edge of the property.


After 39 years of surveillance in totalitarian North Korea (news - web sites) and a month in a U.S. military prison, the only people watching Jenkins on this wind-swept isle of mountainous forests and rice paddies will be his Japanese wife and their two daughters.


Plus a neighbor or two.


"He's very welcome!" grinned Seiji Chitomo, a 77-year-old cabinet salesman who lives across the street from Jenkins' father-in-law. "We're glad to have him."


Jenkins' arrival on Sado, expected next week, will end a Cold War saga that has generated an outpouring of sympathy in his wife's homeland and offered a rare glimpse of life in North Korea.


Freed a week ago after serving 25 days for deserting the Army and defecting to North Korea in 1965, the 64-year-old Jenkins said he is ready to resettle his family in Japan. That will fulfill a long-held wish of his wife, Hitomi Soga.


In 1978, when Soga was 19, she was abducted by communist agents, bundled into a black bag and loaded onto a boat bound for North Korea. The North allowed her to come home two years ago, but Jenkins and their daughters Mika, now 21, and Brinda, now 19, stayed in North Korea.


Jenkins and his daughters came to Japan in July and he surrendered to U.S. military authorities.


To welcome the family to the island of 70,000 people, City Hall has prepared signs in Korean and Japanese and arranged for bouquets of flowers.


"She was so lonely. It's great the four of them can at last live together," said Machiko Goto, a 62-year-old neighbor. "I hope they get used to life here."


It will be a different life for sure.


Jenkins told a court-martial this year that he and three other American soldiers lived under constant watch in the North for at least seven years. They had to scrounge for food and study the works of communist leader Kim Il Sung for up to 16 hours a day. Sometimes they were beaten.


"I longed to leave that place every day," Jenkins said.


Sado will be a world apart — not only from North Korea but much of Japan.


Separated from the main Japanese island of Honshu by rough seas, Sado is so remote it once served as a place of exile for politicians and a penal colony. The Kamakura shogun banished Emperor Juntoku here in 1221 for inciting a revolt.


Today, the island offers tourists hot springs, and provides traditional craftsmen and musicians a haven far from the hectic pace of the big city.


"We have clean air, and lots of nature," said Kimiko Doke, a 52-year-old supermarket clerk. "Jenkins will be fine."





The island's isolation, however, may have made Sado a favored target of North Korean agents who came to Japan in the 1970s and 1980s to kidnap people to serve as language teachers for their spy program. Agents also wanted Japanese so they could assume their identities.

Chimoto, the cabinet salesman, led a search party for Soga after she vanished from Sado with her mother on Aug. 12, 1978. Villagers scoured the town for traces of the women, looking in the river and the sea. They checked passenger lists of ferries bound for the Japanese mainland.

Soga was only found in 2002 when North Korean leader Kim Jong Il admitted his country had kidnapped 13 Japanese, and said Soga and four others were alive.

Soga's mother remains missing, and North Korea said she never entered the country. Japanese police believe she was kidnapped with her daughter.

Then there is the matter of how Soga was abducted.

Shingo Nishimura, a lawmaker with the opposition Democratic Party, grilled government officials in Parliament Thursday about suspicions a Japanese collaborator may have helped North Korean agents carry out the kidnapping.

Nishimura has second-hand information that Soga has spotted the alleged collaborator since returning to Japan, and he wanted to know what police were doing to solve the case, said his aide, Toshio Sasaki.

Soga issued a denial through Sado's mayor saying she did not know who kidnapped her, the Asahi newspaper reported. The mayor's office could not be reached for comment.


Ellie