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thedrifter
12-04-04, 07:09 AM
Six Killed After Baghdad Car Bomb
Associated Press
December 4, 2004

BAGHDAD, Iraq - In the second major assault on Baghdad's police force in two days, two car bombs exploded next to an Iraqi police station just outside Baghdad's Green Zone on Saturday, killing six officers and wounding 10. Insurgents killed 16 officers in an attack the day before.

The U.S. military said two car bombs exploded at about 9:30 a.m. near a checkpoint leading to the heavily fortified area, which houses the offices of Iraq's interim government and several foreign missions, including the U.S. Embassy. Only one blast was heard at the time, suggesting the bombs may have been timed to detonate simultaneously.

Bursts of automatic fire followed the thunderous detonation, which shook windows in buildings on the opposite side of the Tigris River from where the attack occurred. An Iraqi National Guard official at the scene, speaking on condition of anonymity, said six Iraqi policemen died and 10 were wounded.

The interim government's security forces are regular targets for insurgents, who have been ramping up attacks ahead of scheduled Jan. 30 elections. Hundreds of police officers and members of the Iraqi National Guard have been killed in strikes by insurgents, who regard the police as collaborators with foreign occupiers.

The latest attacks, however, were particularly audacious, and sent a clear message that the insurgents can strike wherever they choose. Friday's came on the airport road, which, while extremely dangerous, is frequently patrolled by U.S. troops. And the police station hit Saturday was just yards from the seat of American and Iraqi power in the country.




Police in the northern city of Samarra also came under attack Saturday. Mortars were fired at a station after midnight, wounding two officers. Gunmen injured two policemen in another attack at about 10 a.m., according to police Maj. Sadoon Ahmed Matroud.

On Friday, 11 carloads of gunmen drove up to the police station in Baghdad's western Amil district and attacked it with rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire, killing 16 officers. Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's militant group claimed responsibility for that attack.

Another car bomb attack Friday at a Shiite mosque in the Sunni stronghold of Azamiyah killed 14 people and wounded 19 gathering for a Friday prayer service. That attack was followed by insurgents and Iraqi government forces fighting for about two hours around a nearby police station.

U.S. Embassy spokesman Bob Callahan said Saturday's car bombing in Baghdad caused no U.S.-led coalition casualties.

Iraqi police sealed off the area, barring reporters from the scene.

U.S. military spokesman Maj. Jay Antonelli confirmed the blast had occurred near "Checkpoint 3." That's close to the Convention Center - a building next to the Green Zone where the American military and embassy regularly stage meetings - and the nearby al-Rashid Hotel, which houses diplomats and foreign contractors.

Various government buildings, including the foreign and housing ministries, also are close to the area where the explosion occurred.

U.S. commanders and Iraq's interim authorities hope to boost security in Iraq - mainly in Sunni Muslim areas of central and northern Iraq - before the Jan. 30 elections. Sunni politicians have urged the postponement of balloting because of recent violence.

The visiting NATO commander expressed surprise Friday that Iraq's insurgency had proven so resilient by comparison with Afghanistan, where he said security has improved significantly.

"At the beginning I would have projected the opposite, with Iraq coming along faster," said U.S. Gen. James Jones, the supreme allied commander in Europe.

In Kirkuk, U.S. soldiers killed an Iraqi driver who didn't slow down at a checkpoint set up following a rocket propelled grenade attack on a liquor store, Iraqi police and the U.S. military said Saturday.

The store was attacked late Friday, prompting U.S. forces to seal off the area just outside Kirkuk, said U.S. military spokesman Master Sgt. Robert Powell. Powell said the slain man was not regarded as a suspect in the store attack, which hurt no one.

An investigation has been launched into the killing, which involved soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division's 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment.

Elsewhere, Japan's top defense official, Yoshinori Ono, traveled to Iraq on Saturday to visit Japanese troops on a humanitarian mission. Tokyo must soon decide whether to extend its military dispatch to Iraq.

Tokyo is widely expected to approve an extension beyond a Dec. 14 deadline for the 550 Japanese troops based in the southern Iraqi city of Samawah.

"I want to witness for myself the security situation in Samawah," Ono told reporters in Japan.

The non-combat mission, launched early this year, is Japan's first military deployment to a combat zone since the end of World War II.

Ellie

thedrifter
12-04-04, 07:10 AM
Marine Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company

By SUE A. LACKEY
Associate Editor

Sea Power
December 2004

During Operation Iraqi Freedom, a small, ill-equipped, yet elite unit of Marines fanned out across Iraq, attached to U.S. Army 3rd Infantry Division, British Commandos and Marine Task Force Tarawa. The 46 men of 2nd ANGLICO, one of the Marine Corps’ Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Companies, were at the forefront of battle in every major battlespace of the war.

Unique to the Marine Corps, ANGLICO is the only unit qualified to plan, execute and control U.S. supporting arms fire for joint and combined forces worldwide. ANGLICO has a 50-year history within the Corps, but is virtually unknown to the public. Briefly deactivated in the 1990s, ANGLICO was reconstituted in 2003 and is in the process of re-inventing itself as an organization often associated with Special Operations, but with a mission and organizational structure unlike any other.

Since the start of the Iraq war, ANGLICO has grown to almost 500 men, with three active-duty companies and two reserves. The war’s original ANGLICO units were forced to borrow equipment from other services en route to Baghdad, but the Corps has invested greater resources in their training and support in advance of redeployment to Iraq next year.

Central to the company’s mission is specialized training that certifies Marines as Joint Tactical Air Controllers (JTAC). JTACs have highly specialized knowledge of ordnance, and familiarity with aircraft, that enables them to call close air support and naval guns on target accurately, and under any conditions. JTAC training and certification expands the basic knowledge of a forward air controller to its highest technical and professional level, and is recognized by all joint and combined forces. ANGLICO commanders have battalion authority, and field three-man teams that are attached to U.S. and coalition units to provide the technical knowledge needed to coordinate fire support and deconflict fire.

ANGLICO teams also must have the basic knowledge to patrol, observe and locate a target. Because ANGLICO teams may be attached to any unit, they must train to the standards of the highest level they may be called upon to support.

“We have the ability from within our own company to support whoever needs us, at whatever level,” said 2nd ANGLICO’s Staff Sgt. Johnny Pyles. “We could get attached to Army Special Forces and be able to support them, or we could get called from a mechanized Army unit and be able to support them. We have that ability because we train to that level. Whoever needs us, we can go, conventional to Special Operations.

“That’s what sets us apart — the entire organization is at that level. We’re more battlefield shapers than observers. We go out, we find, we kill, we report and then we go.”

Team members carry packs, or “rucks,” that may contain 80 to 120 pounds of gear, and are trained for deep insertion behind enemy lines. Each man goes through an ANGLICO Basic Course, receiving training in communications, scouting and insertion techniques, as well as fire-support coordination. ANGLICO is expected to regain its previous status as a jump billet, which will revert it to a volunteer unit with parachute qualifications.

ANGLICO teams employ the small-unit tactics of Special Operations, but unlike units such as Force Reconnaissance, their job is not to engage the enemy. Regimental commanders typically request an ANGLICO team to operate independently, often deep within the battlespace, locating a target and calling in immediate fire support from forward positions.

“If you engage [exchange fire with the enemy], something went wrong, you got compromised,” said Gunnery Sgt. Mike Heller. “Our main weapon is that radio.”

But the inherent danger of a small team operating deep within the battlespace remains. Teams carry only small unit weapons, operate without the support of platoons or companies and would be unable to sustain themselves in a firefight. To offset that risk, ANGLICO personnel undergo enhanced marksmanship training, requiring rifle skills superior to that of an infantry Marine, as well as Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape training.

Its special mission means the ANGLICO companies may be dispersed at any given time into small teams widely scattered across the battlefield. The teams are exposed in forward positions, but may be unable to access corpsmen, or be attached to foreign forces that do not maintain U.S. medical standards. With 90 days until redeployment to Iraq, 2nd ANGLICO is putting as many men as possible through EMT training in order to give each team basic medical skills designed to increase survivability.

Training for that deployment, ANGLICO teams expect to be operating from urban terrain in the insurgent environment in Iraq. Given this compressed battlespace, with the additional complication of a resident civilian population, ANGLICO’s JTAC expertise is even more vital to U.S. and coalition forces. Their call sign, “Lightning,” assures pilots and gunners that the soldier calling in the fire is qualified, mitigating the chance of friendly fire.

“When you’re talking about a digital battlefield, the preponderance of our fire right now is being delivered by airplanes. Under the rules we’ve set up, you can’t deliver ordnance unless you’re a JTAC,” said Lt. Col. Scott Campbell, commanding officer of 2nd ANGLICO, based at Camp LeJeune, N.C. “A rifle company likely has no ability to deliver air. That company commander and those lieutenants know how to do it, but if an F-16 — an Air Force airplane — shows up, the pilot will not drop the ordnance unless it’s in extremis, and then he’s going to ask for your initials and he’s going to try and protect himself because of what’s happened with fratricide.”

Campbell, a Force Reconnaissance veteran, is acutely aware of the intense training his Marines will have to undergo in advance of the challenge of urban warfare, where JTACs may have to talk pilots onto structural targets in crowded cities. Laser target indicators are not visible in the glaring sunlight of Iraq, and obscure targets may be not be visible to pilots coming in at 10,000 feet.

“These young ANGLICO Marines are dropping 500-pound bombs within 300 meters of friendlies in Iraq,” he said. “We bring the capability that, day or night, we’re going to get a bomb onto the target, and we’re going to do it safely.

“The pilot needs to know where you’re at, they need to know where the enemy is at, they need to know what direction to come in on. It’s not an exact science, and the JTAC has to have the experience to make damn sure that pilot’s nose is pointed in the right direction, or he won’t let him drop that ordnance. At night, when the planes don’t have their lights on and you’re using a set of [night vision goggles] and trying to talk the guy onto a target with an infrared pointer, we’re counting on that JTAC’s ability to look into the sky at an airplane moving pretty fast, in the dark, and ascertain the geometry of the battlefield.


“It’s our job to paint that pilot a picture,” Campbell added, “to give him a feel for how intense the combat is, how close the enemy is in relation to the friendlies; make that pilot comfortable with the decision. When a pilot hears the call sign Lightning, he should smile, and say, ‘OK, this guy knows what he’s doing; this guy’s a pro.’”

Much of the small unit tactics and JTAC qualifications are in line with the Marine Corps’ vision of Distributed Operations, and the concept of leveraged firepower. While the Corps plans to greatly increase the number of JTACs available within conventional battalions, ANGLICO’s intensive training and specific mission will remain. Campbell sees the organization inevitably pushed toward the Special Operations arena in support of current tactics in Iraq, but wants to guard against diluting the mission.

“We need to be able to shoot as well or better than the grunts, and we need to be good at patrolling,” Campbell said. “But you have to be careful how much you put on these guys so you don’t marginalize your skill levels. As a base, I want us great at fire-support coordination and terminal control of fire — let’s have a jump capability to get to work, let’s be in phenomenal shape and know how to swim so we can go in on a rubber boat. Then we can train to special mission sets if we know they’re coming.”

The company now is spending one to two hours every night going over technical details, ordnance specifications and targeting tactics. The goal is to have every detail committed to memory for instant recall by JTACs on the battlefield.

“How does that differ from what a Force Recon JTAC is going to do?” Campbell said. “They don’t have the luxury of spending that kind of time and energy and resources getting to that level of proficiency. When we sit around and have a beer at night, we talk about fire-support coordination, we talk about dropping bombs. We want to be able to move these guys to the sound of the guns.

“If 8th Marines needs six of these guys, by God, the 8th Marines commanding officer is going to get six of these guys. We’re going to go find where they’re at, and move our teams to the sound of the guns so they can kill people. That’s exactly what we’re going to do, and we’re going to do it well.”

For more information, please visit the Sea Power Website at http://www.navyleague.org/sea_power





Ellie

thedrifter
12-04-04, 07:13 AM
Marines ready to pounce when Iraqi rebel leader returns to 'death triangle'
AFP: 12/3/2004
MAHMUDIYAH, Iraq, Dec 3 (AFP) - Sheikh Abdullah al-Janabi, an insurgent leader who battled US-led forces in Fallujah, will sooner or later come back to his ancestral country home in Iraq's "triangle of death."

And when he does, US marines will be waiting for him, intelligence officers said Friday in Mahmudiyah, some 35 kilometres (22 miles) south of Baghdad.

"Fallujah was a sideshow. The centre of this insurgency is the landed gentry from this area," said an officer at a US base in Mahmudiyah.

"Their centre of gravity is the family unit. They've got to come home, and when they come home we're going to own them," said the officer, who asked not to be named.

Marines raid Janabi's house two or three times a week and detain any military age males they find there, he said.

Janabi, a Sunni Muslim cleric in whose mosque in Fallujah US marines last month found a huge store of weapons and explosives, is believed to have fled the city, which faced the biggest US-led offensive since the invasion last year.

Intelligence officers say he is also influential in Baghdad and Mosul.

Janabi was born into a leading family in a village near the town of Yusufiyah, about 40 kilometres south of Baghdad.

Like old-style European aristocracy, members of the leading families in his tribe would go into politics, the army or become religious leaders.

"Janabis were the fist of Saddam in this area," said another officer. "A lot of them were special forces or senior intelligence officers. We have reports that a Janabi was a close bodyguard of Saddam."

During the former Saddam Hussein's long reign a Janabi was head of the Al-Qaqaa arms factory and depot near here on the banks of the Euphrates.

Another Janabi was head of rocket-testing, and another ran the Qarq oil depot, the officers said.

Abdullah al-Janabi made his career in Fallujah, a city of some 300,000 to the northwest of here. There, he found uneducated, jobless workers living in squalor.

"You bring in a powerful figure who has a lot of money and influence and you've got an insurgency," one said.

The officers said the Janabis were also well connected criminally, engaging in smuggling and arms dealing. "The insurgent and the criminal side are tied together."

Janabi's brother, Sheikh Mehdi, was the leading figure in Yusufiyah. He is also wantd for questioning by coalition forces and has gone into hiding. His home also gets regular visits by the marines.

This region is today awash with weapons looted from munitions factories in the chaos that followed the invasion that ousted Saddam.

The insurgents, almost all Sunni Muslims, do not want to see democracy come to Iraq because they know the majority Shiites will become the dominant group. But beyond that they appear to have no clear political objective, said the officers.

"They know they can't bring back Saddam, so what is the goal? I think they're trying to figure that out. So with the Americans and the British here, there's something to attack," said one officer.

The region where the Janabis and another powerful tribe, the Cargulis, hold sway, has become known as the "triangle of death" because of kidnappings and daily attacks on both military and civilians.

Even before the large-scale offensives in November to bring Fallujah, east of Baghdad, and Mosul in the north, back under government control ahead of key elections planned for January, the security forces turned their attention to the "triangle of death".

British troops from the Black Watch regiment were brought in to block off what the military called "rat lines" along which insurgents traveled back and forth to Fallujah from this area.

US marines set up bases in Yusufiyah and Latifiyah, from where insurgents had driven out Iraqi security forces. They say that was one of the best strategic moves they have made.

Officers say a major firefight in mid-November, in which marines killed up to 40 insurgents, may have been a bid by fighters returning home from Fallujah to retake their town.

But the marines remain in their heavily fortified base in an abandoned school next to a bombed police station. They regularly raid Sheikh Janabi's house a couple of kilometres to the south.

And the day he dares to come home, the marines say they plan to be there.


12/03/2004 14:16 GMT - AFP

Ellie

thedrifter
12-04-04, 07:14 AM
For Ground Forces in Iraq, Help from Above

By Ron Jensen,
Stars and Stripes Mideast Edition

BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq — Every day in Iraq, soldiers or Marines on the ground find themselves under fire.

Convoys are attacked along a lonely highway. Patrols catch the deadly eye of snipers. Something. Somewhere. Daily.

When it happens, the ground pounders get help from above.

“That’s our primary mission,” said Lt. Col. Steve Langford, an F-16 pilot stationed at Balad. “That’s the only reason we’re here. It happens 24/7. It can happen anytime.”

If not Air Force F-16s, it might be U.S. Navy F-14s or F/A-18s coming to the rescue. Air Force AC-130 gunships are also in the flying arsenal.

But the pilots who put munitions on target are only part of the process.

The Air Force has 2,500 people at Balad, living along with the Army and sharing many of the same risks, which is unusual for the flying service. Through it all, the standard Air Force mission of providing cover for troops on the ground gets accomplished.

The effort starts with the 332nd Expeditionary Air Control Squadron, out of Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, where it is known as the 606th Air Control Squadron.

The squadron’s job “is to provide air power to troops on the ground in an expeditious manner,” said Maj. T.J. Courtney, director of operations.

Inside four modules a bit larger than walk-in closets is equipment linked to several radar stations around the country. Screens tell controllers where the aircraft — as many as 70 at a time — are flying. Everything from fighters and tankers to cargo aircraft and commercial airliners fill the skies over Iraq.

The controllers track them all and provide the information to the Air Force’s Air Support Operations Center and the Marine’s Direct Air Support Center. The centers’ locations cannot be revealed for security reasons.

“They can pick the right asset for the right circumstance,” said Capt. Stuart Wil- liamson, senior director and air surveillance officer.

For the controllers, the mission is one of constant vigilance. At any moment, something could happen and troops could need air support.

“It’s a constant race,” Courtney said.

The controllers also track tankers flying overhead, directing thirsty fighters to the nearest one, Courtney said, “so the [air] support can stay there as long as the people on the ground need it.”

Furthermore, controllers have to watch civilian traffic because Baghdad’s airport has been open for several months to civilian aircraft.

Sometimes a Jordanian airliner, for example, might be flying through an area where air power is needed.

“Like that,” Courtney said, snapping his fingers, “we have to take that airspace away from them.”

That requires coordination with air traffic controllers in the country, a job now being done by other Air Force members.

But even in those dark, cool modules, lit by glowing screens, the squadron members feel a part of the battle on the ground.

“It’s a great job,” Williamson said. “You get to be right in the middle of it, helping the troops on the ground as it happens.”

Tech. Sgt. John Chestnut is one of 23 members of the Ohio Air National Guard’s 123rd Air Control Squadron who volunteered when their unit was given the mission.

“To be honest, when you see troops in combat, you say a quick little prayer,” he said. Helping them, he said, “is the best part of the mission.”

This may be a common mission for the Air Force, but it is performed from an uncommon location — the center of a country engaged in war.

Ordinarily, the airmen and aircraft would be a comfortable distance from the fight, across a national border or two, using their extended reach to assist the cause.

In this war, that’s not possible. So the Air Force makes its home in Balad where mortars and rockets have been as common as chipped beef for breakfast.

An airman was killed by a mortar blast in April. Another was severely wounded in September.

More recently, Tech. Sgt. David Hogden of the 332nd ACS was wounded when a mortar shell landed 15 to 20 feet from where he was riding a four-wheel all-terrain vehicle.

“No sooner do I start it up and give it gas, then — Kaboom!” he said a few days after his weeklong hospital stay ended. “I saw the debris, the flash. I felt the heat. I felt the pieces hitting me.”

Doctors counted nine wounds from shrapnel or rocks.

“I consider it a miracle I’m alive,” he said. The risk is part of the mission and his duty, he said.

“We’re in the military. We all know it’s a possibility,” said Hogden, a computer technician.

“This is a unique experience for, I’d say, 99 percent of the people out here,” said Capt. Lindsay Droz, commander of the 332nd Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron. Back home at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, it is known as the 421st Aircraft Maintenance Unit. About 150 members of the unit are at Balad Air Base.

Senior Master Sgt. Geoff Weimer said, “Proximity is important. We’re here for a reason.”

The job is the same for the maintainers wherever they are: keep the F-16 Flying Falcons airworthy. Weimer said the motivation in Iraq might be greater because the missions are real, “not just Utah training ranges.”

Droz said, “Occasionally, we’ve had to pull guys off the flight line after their shift had ended. Once they start working on an aircraft, they don’t want to stop.”

One thing that does make the maintainers stop is the alarm that warns of mortar or rocket attacks. Staff Sgt. Jerome Knights said work ceases until the all-clear is sounded.

“It definitely adds to the degree of difficulty,” he said.

The fliers, too, who are trained to go into harm’s way, are adjusting to life in a war zone.

“We really haven’t done this since the Vietnam War,” said Langford, the operations officer for the 421st Fighter Squadron from Hill.

But, he said, when the jets are needed, they are needed now, not later.

The missions are mostly close air support, putting ordnance on targets within a few hundred meters — or closer — of friendly troops.

Sometimes, however, the presence of an F-16 screaming low over the area is enough to bring the threat to an end.

There is a risk, Langford said. The country is teeming with anti-aircraft artillery and surface-to-air missiles that are not kind to fighter jets. No aircraft have been hit by fire during the close air support missions, but it is one more thing to think about while doing a hard, dangerous job.

The satisfaction, however, trumps the risk.

“There’s no greater reward than helping out our Army buddies on the ground,” he said. “There’s nothing better than hearing their voices on the radio after an attack. They’re ecstatic.”


Ellie

thedrifter
12-04-04, 07:15 AM
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
12-04-04, 07:16 AM
Goody bags brighten day for wounded Marines

By Linda McIntosh
COMMUNITY NEWS WRITER

December 4, 2004

CAMP PENDLETON – It's just a little bag of goodies. But maybe it's the way Jessica Hartmann hands it to the wounded Marines at the Camp Pendleton Naval Hospital that makes them sit up a little higher in bed.

"Sometimes they're chatty and they talk about how they got hurt, and sometimes they're really quiet," said Jessica, 9. "I tell them I hope they get well soon."

For about six months, Jessica and her mom have been bringing small bags containing items such as a deck of cards, candy, a pen and pad of paper, toothpaste and maybe a book.

"You know it's about more than what's in the bag," said Jessica's mother, Elise Hartmann.

For several years, she has been sending care packages to troops overseas through Operation Interdependence, a civilian-to-military delivery system for Americans to show their support to deployed military.

But then she thought of doing something for those who come back wounded.

"Some don't have any family or friends nearby to welcome them back," Hartmann said. "I feel I'm making a bigger difference doing this."

Inside each bag is a note written by Hartmann. Sometimes she includes notes written by Jessica and her classmates at Alamosa Elementary School in Oceanside.

One note said, "We can't thank you enough for what you're doing for the country. We admire your dedication."

Hartmann has a soft spot for Marines. Her husband served for eight years, including in the Persian Gulf War.

When Hartmann started bringing gifts to the hospital, she came several times a month with a handful of bags each time.

Recently, she has been coming more often and bringing many more bags.

"I love packing the bags," said Jessica. "And I like giving them letters.

"Some of them tell me they want to go back, and that's a really great thing because they're not afraid."

The Hartmanns are among many Operation Interdependence volunteers in the area, but as far as they know, they are the only ones bringing the goody bags to Marines at the Camp Pendleton hospital.

"We want them to know we're still here for them when they come back home," said Albert Renteria, a retired Marine who started the nationwide Operation Interdependence.

"They like it," Jessica said, "and that makes me feel good."


Ellie

thedrifter
12-04-04, 08:06 AM
Texas Realtors Send Support to U.S. Soldiers in Iraq
By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3, 2004 – A Texas realty company has stepped up to provide snacks, socks and myriad other items to members of a U.S. Army unit now serving in Iraq.

Virginia Plekenpol, a realtor with Virginia Cook Realtors in Dallas, noted that U.S. troops serving overseas in harm's way in places like Iraq and Afghanistan "are protecting us … thank heavens for them."

Plekenpol said her stepson, Army Capt. Chris Plekenpol, and his 92-soldier company were deployed from Korea for duty in Iraq in September. The captain's unit, Apache Company, 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, she said, supported U.S. Marines during the Fallujah campaign conducted in early November.

During Thanksgiving week, she said, the captain e-mailed a request for items for his men.

With the blessing of Virginia Cook, the company's owner, Plekenpol said she and co-worker Linda Claycomb started the Adopt-A-Soldier project. The realtors, Plekenpol noted, collected more than $4,200 used to purchase a Christmas tree and decorations, popcorn and other snacks, socks, underwear, paperback books and more.

A local military contractor, Pulse-Tek, provided shipping material and arranged free delivery of the items, Plekenpol said, while Clement Foods of Oklahoma City donated 20 cases of peanut butter and jelly for the soldiers.

Captain Plekenpol's young cousins, she added, provided 85 Beanie Babies to send to the soldiers to give to Iraqi children.

Earlier this week, 1,200 pounds of items were shipped in 44 boxes to the captain's unit to Iraq, Plekenpol said. The realty company, she said, also is preparing to send 300-400 cards with messages of support to the soldiers.

Plekenpol said the items and cards should reach the soldiers by Christmas. "I just don't think there's any finer valor to be found than protecting your country and the things that you believe in," she said.

Cook stated in a press release that her company is proud to support Capt. Plekenpol and his unit. "Showing our love, care and concern by sending Christmas to them," Cook said in the release, "is a small price to pay for the tremendous sacrifices they are making to protect and serve us all."

Ellie

thedrifter
12-04-04, 09:28 AM
Insurgents Had Chemicals Lab
Associated Press
December 4, 2004

WASHINGTON - A chemical weapons laboratory that U.S. forces found last week in Fallujah as they chased out insurgents had chemicals and other paraphernalia to make deadly hydrogen cyanide, Pentagon officials said Friday.

The Americans also found what Army Brig. Gen. David Rodriquez called "a mujahedeen chemical and biological book" outlining instructions and formulas for anthrax, chemical blood agents and explosive materials.

Iraq's national security adviser, Qassem Dawoud, reported the find Nov. 25. He said in Baghdad, Iraq's capital, that the laboratory was discovered in the southwestern sector of Fallujah, where pockets of insurgents were holding out against Marines who entered the rebellious city on Nov. 8.

Rodriquez told reporters Friday that the lab's chemicals, including sodium cyanide and hydrochloric acid, which if combined could be used to make hydrogen cyanide. That is a potentially lethal chemical agent.




Other officials said later the significance of the discoveries was not yet clear.

Rodriquez said other materials and documents found in Fallujah over the past few weeks, including insurgents' lists of telephone numbers, will aid U.S. and Iraqi forces in their pursuit of the insurgents elsewhere in Iraq.

"All that information that we gained out there we believe will help us in the future," he said. He said information might show "what is happening with the insurgency and how they operate."

Ellie

thedrifter
12-04-04, 10:37 AM
Hearings Begin in Abu Ghraib Abuse Case <br />
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <br />
By T.A. BADGER <br />
Associated Press Writer <br />
<br />
FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) -- Sgt....

thedrifter
12-04-04, 10:38 AM
Nobles and knaves
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The Washington Times
Dec. 4, 2004

Nobles: Sgt. Maj. James R. Jordan, for extending a life of service just a little bit longer.

Let's get the obvious out of the way: Yes, Sgt. Maj. Jordan is older brother to that Jordan, as in Michael, the basketball star.

Last weekend, the elder Jordan made headlines after asking to extend his service in the Army one year beyond his mandatory retirement date so he could complete a deployment to Iraq with his 35th Signal Brigade. "We're currently at war," Sgt. Maj. Jordan said. "We are doing things, and it requires leaders to do certain things. That's what I am, a leader."

And his example is being followed. Despite the recent headlines decrying the extension of duty for thousands of soldiers, many more are choosing to re-enlist. The New York Post reported that of the Army's 10 active-duty divisions, nine are exceeding re-enlistment goals by 5 percent or more. Sgt. Maj. Jordan's decision is not unusual at all.

One final point: Having attained the rank of sergeant major, Mr. Jordan is the highest ranking noncommissioned officer in his brigade. Sometimes success just runs in the family.

For giving it one more year in our country's hour of need, Sgt. Maj. Jordan is the Noble of the week.

Knaves: New York Yankee Jason Giambi, for cheating baseball fans.

When President Bush raised the problem of steroids in sports during his State of the Union address in January, many scoffed at the inclusion of a seemingly trivial issue at the expense of more pressing ones. The criticism was unfair, and now we understand why.

Giambi admitted to using steroids in a grand jury testimony last December, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Thursday. Also illegally enhancing his performance, according to the Chronicle, is super-slugger Barry Bonds, who some say is the best player in baseball. These revelations, as disturbing as they are to the sport of baseball, further erode what professional sports once revealed about the American character.

In the movie "Field of Dreams," James Earl Jones remarked: "This field, this game is part of our past. It reminds us of everything that was once good and could be again." It has always been an idyllic description, easily derided by cynics. Yet, one wonders if anyone could rightly use those words today without sounding hopelessly naive.

For further damaging a diminishing piece of Americana, Mr. Giambi is the Knave of the week.


Ellie

thedrifter
12-04-04, 10:45 AM
Marine sniper's accuracy saved lives
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles K. Wilson
El Paso Times

Once Sgt. Guillermo "Memo" M. Sandoval looks the enemy in the eye, the battle is over.

The platoon sergeant for the Scout Sniper Platoon, part of the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, recently proved his battlefield mettle by taking out a group of insurgents who were firing mortars at coalition forces in one of Iraq's deadliest cities: Fallujah.

But the El Paso native was not toe-to-toe with his foe, according to a Marine Corps News report. He was 950 yards away, or slightly more than half a mile, and used only four shots from his M-40A3 sniper rifle to kill three insurgents who had already launched two attacks.

"The battalion (executive officer) ordered me to 'make the mortars stop,' " the 1997 Ysleta High School graduate told the Marine Corps News. "I took it personally and went out specifically to stop the insurgents."

Sandoval's ability to blend into a landscape and hit his target -- learned in the scrub of El Paso County's open spaces and honed in the Marine Corps since 1997 -- drew praise and pride from Eva Poblano, Sandoval's sister.

"He feels sorry for the people," said Poblano, who showed off photos of her brother and family at El Botanero restaurant on Socorro Road. "He said he was trying to help fix the problem. He is really happy. He said it's like a dream come true to go out there and be a part of it."

Concern also came with the smiles.

"I am in part proud and in part scared," said Virginia Poblano, Sandoval's mother. She said hearing the news was good because Sandoval had not called home in a couple of weeks.

Arturo Poblano, who said his son grew up playing cops-and-robbers, said he, too, was worried. "You don't want anything to happen to him," he said.

Sandoval, 26, has a wife, Carmen, and three children, stepson Robert, 11; Cielo, 3, and Gabriel, 1. Robert has been in the Young Marines program for three years, Eva Poblano said. The family lives at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Poblano said her brother has always liked guns and grew up wanting to be a Marine. Sandoval joined the Corps after graduating from Ysleta High School.

The Marine Corps News report said Sandoval wants to try out for the Olympic shooting team. Arturo Poblano said his son has won a number of marksmanship trophies.

Sandoval joined the "3/5" in April. 1st Lt. Samuel Rosales, Sandoval's platoon commander, praised the El Pasoan's skill and leadership.

"I have recently recommended Sgt. Sandoval to be promoted meritoriously," 1st Lt. Samuel Rosales, Sandoval's platoon commander, said in an e-mail from Iraq. "He has saved many lives and has also mentored many."


Ellie

thedrifter
12-04-04, 10:47 AM
Durham Marine has close call in Fallujah
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By BEN EVANS
The Herald-Sun
December 3, 2004

DURHAM -- It took a few seconds for Zach McWilliams to realize he'd been shot as he tried to duck for cover on the streets of Fallujah.

When the pain came, it came hard.

"It felt like Tiger Woods hitting me in the foot with a sledge hammer," the 19-year-old U.S. Marine said. "It curled me up into a ball, just with the force of the bullet."

McWilliams, who enlisted last year just after graduating from Durham's Hillside High School, had been patrolling the insurgent-held Iraqi city for three days.

Weary from staying constantly alert for snipers, bombs and grenades, he never saw the enemy fighter on a rooftop about 20 yards away. But he knows the shot came from an AK-47 because he heard its distinctive pop.

"It went in right underneath the knuckle on the right toe," McWilliams said of the Nov. 10 incident. "It was a pretty clean shot. ... There's a nice little hole."

McWilliams now is back on U.S. soil, recovering at Camp Lejeune. He probably won't be able to walk without crutches for a couple of months, he said, and won't be going back to Iraq.

That's good news to his wife, recent Jordan High School graduate Alexandra McWilliams. She learned her husband would be deployed just two weeks after their April 3 wedding.

The two had been best friends throughout high school but didn't begin dating until their senior year. They moved from Durham to Jacksonville, outside Camp Lejeune, last year.

Alexandra McWilliams took classes at the local community college and worked and volunteered to occupy her time while her husband was away. She said she sometimes would go more than a week without hearing from him and was cleaning Nov. 10 when she got a call from him on a military satellite phone. She immediately knew something was wrong.

"He said, 'I have some good news and I have some bad news. The good news is I'm coming home,' " she said. "I said, 'What's the bad news?' And he said, 'I got shot in the foot.' "

"To me, he might as well have gotten shot in the gut. I was hysterical. I just couldn't handle the fact that my husband ... had been shot."

Alexandra McWilliams immediately called her mother-in-law, Cynthia McWilliams, who now lives in Raleigh.

"Your heart just sinks, because you automatically just think the worst," the mother said. "I was just extremely worried. I just prayed a lot."

At least 135 American soldiers were killed in Iraq last month, making it one of the bloodiest months of the war. Twenty-three were from Camp Lejeune.

Many of those casualties came in the U.S. assault on Fallujah, where soldiers went house-to-house looking for insurgents.

Zach McWilliams, who at Hillside reached the rank of sergeant as a longtime member of the Young Marines of Raleigh-Durham, said the fighting was intense.

"Fallujah's a big city ... even by American standards," he said. "It has a six-lane highway. We weren't really expecting that."

After three days of patrolling, he said, he had slept for only a few hours. The Marines didn't see very many people. Usually when they did, they were being attacked.

"It was definitely nerve-wracking," he said. "The entire time we were there, there was always a firefight. There wasn't any downtime. It makes you pay attention. ... They'll pop out anywhere."

After he was wounded, he was taken to hospitals in Germany and Maryland before finally arriving in North Carolina late last month. He was able to celebrate Thanksgiving with family.

"It's really good to go to sleep next to someone, not just your pillow," Alexandra McWilliams said. "I got my best friend back."

If he is physically able, Zach McWilliams plans to serve out his three-year enlistment in the Marines.

Ellie

thedrifter
12-04-04, 10:50 AM
Understanding the high price of war <br />
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <br />
Laurie Roberts <br />
Arizona Republic columnist <br />
Dec. 4, 2004 12:00 AM <br />
<br />
One day...

thedrifter
12-04-04, 01:16 PM
N.Y. soldiers hurt in Iraq ambush

BY ALISON GENDAR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER


East Harlem firefighter Daniel Swift stands with fellow soldier Sgt. Felix Vargas at hospital in Germany yesterday. Both men were hurt in Iraq bombing and are heading home.

LANDSTUHL, Germany - The New York soldiers rescued from the wreckage of an Iraqi ambush will fly back to the United States today - and the courageous city firefighter who saved them hopes to be with them.
East Harlem Firefighter Daniel Swift learned late yesterday that he will be aboard a military plane leaving Germany today, unless a more severely injured soldier needs his spot.

Swift, a 24-year-old medic, and his fellow Army National Guardsmen are not taking their homecoming for granted.

"I feel guilty, you know, that I get to go home and so many of our buddies aren't," said Sgt. Felix Vargas, 34, who will leave a German hospital with a steel rod bolted inside his right leg.

Vargas was one of five soldiers - all of them New Yorkers - riding in an armored Humvee that was bombed Monday by insurgents outside Baghdad.

The blast killed Bronx Firefighter Christian Engeldrum, 39, and Long Island soldier Wilfredo Urbina, 29, who was driving the Humvee. After the Sept. 11 attacks, Engeldrum heroically helped raise a battered American flag at Ground Zero - a historic moment captured in a Daily News photo.

Vargas and the unit's gunner, Richard Cornier, of Roosevelt Island, survived the attack because of the brave efforts of Swift.

"He pulled me out - it's that simple," Vargas told The News yesterday while recovering at the German hospital.

"I remember after the vehicle finally stopped flying through the air, like on a roller coaster, hearing a voice yell out: 'Anybody alive? Anybody make it?'"

"It was Swift," Vargas said.

Despite a severe eye injury and shrapnel in his legs, Swift crawled to Vargas, finding him lying facedown near the smoldering Humvee.

The blast shattered a large bone in Vargas' lower right leg. A piece of the bone ripped out of his skin and was protruding through his torn pants.

Swift, who lives in Yonkers and works out of Ladder 43 in East Harlem, made sure Vargas was stable before he went hunting for other survivors.

"I knew he had to look for guys worse off," Vargas said.

But then he felt something dripping onto his other leg, burning it. The Humvee's diesel fuel was raining down on him.

Vargas called out to Swift, who rushed back and dragged the soldier away from the fuel, pulling him by the handle on the back of his body armor.

"I thought he was just being safe. Later I looked up and saw the vehicle was cut in half and burning. I thought, 'Wow, I survived that?'" Vargas said. "He got me out."

Swift also rescued Cornier, who was choking on his tongue after the explosion, by helping him breathe again.

Vargas, a former Marine who grew up in the South Bronx, said he hopes his wounds won't prevent him from eventually joining the NYPD.

He and Cornier are slated to return to the United States today, with Vargas heading to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Tex., and Cornier going to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

Swift was able to remove the white bandage that covered his wounded right eye yesterday and no longer needs crutches to move around. If he flies back to the United States today, he likely will go to an Army medical center in Texas that specializes in eye injuries.

Once he's on American soil, Swift said he would ask military brass whether he can attend Engeldrum's funeral on Thursday in the Bronx.

"I'm going to be at Chris' funeral, no matter what," Swift said a day after being reunited at the German hospital with his father, retired NYPD Detective John Swift. "That's the plan. I'll do what it takes."

Originally published on December 4, 2004

Ellie

thedrifter
12-04-04, 01:23 PM
Country Singer Thanks Troops For Preserving Freedom
By Sgt. 1st Class Doug Sample, USA
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Dec. 4, 2004 -- Though many big-name stars in country music have come out to support troops fighting the war on terror, so too have some lesser- known stars.

Jason Parchert may not be center-stage at the Grande Ole Opry, but during a recent layover at a Nashville airport he expressed his appreciation to troops fighting to preserve freedom here at home.

It is for that reason, he said, that the country must support its troops.

"What they are doing is for our freedom," he explained. "We can live and work here because of what they are doing. If we don't support them, it would be like we were saying 'We don't appreciate our own freedom.'"

Parchert, a born-again Christian and country music singer, has spent the last two years writing songs and performing mainly at clubs and cafes in the Nashville area.

The Reynolds, Ill., native moved to Nashville in January 1997 and later released his debut album, "Love Stained Heart," in 1999. A single from the album, titled "You Were," made the Christian Country music charts.

He recently released his second album, a project containing six original songs and six hymns. Three of those songs have already made it into the Christian Country charts.

According to his Web site, his music is inspired by real-life stories. He said one story that affected his life involved a soldier he met at an airport.

The soldier, a 19-year Army veteran, had just returned from his second tour of duty in Iraq. Parchert said the soldier told him he didn't know what to expect on his return to the United States.

"He thought people would spit on him like they did in Vietnam when he got home," the singer said. However, Parchert replied, "That's not at all the case. We love our soldiers, and I thanked him for his service." Parchert said the soldier just smiled back at him and said, "I'm just doing my job."

Now, Parchert said, he believes it's his job and that of all Americans to show their support of the military.

He said he will do anything he can to support the troops and to become part of a growing Defense Department campaign called "America Supports You" that highlights the efforts of those supporting the military.


Ellie

thedrifter
12-04-04, 01:27 PM
Family suffers another blow
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Stepfather of Marine killed in Iraq takes his own life

By James L. Rosica

DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER


On Tuesday night, Mike Barwick was the grieving but gracious stepdad, speaking proudly of his 22-year-old stepson who was killed in Iraq.

"He was a hell of a man, I'll tell you that," he said of Lance Cpl. Charles Hanson Jr., killed a week ago when a bomb went off as his patrol passed by. "I just hate that he had to go that way."

Barwick, pacing around his home in rural Crawfordville, shared stories about the young Marine who was nicknamed Catfish Junior and loved to read. On Friday afternoon, that's where Barwick ended his own life.

The Wakulla County Sheriff's Office received a 911 call about 2 p.m. Deputies were dispatched to the home where Barwick lived with Hanson's mother, Dana Hanson. It was just five hours before friends and relatives were to gather for his stepson's viewing.

Barwick, 39, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, said Maj. Maurice Langston, Wakulla County Sheriff's Office spokesman. No note was found.

Dellie Barwick of Panacea, his cousin, said Barwick crabbed for a living.

"He was very open-hearted," she said. "He enjoyed life."

A family friend who asked not to be named called Barwick "a great man. He lived life well."

But "he wanted to end his life," she said. His stepson's death "was something that hurt him real bad."

Barwick's funeral arrangements had not been made as of late Friday. Hanson's funeral was still planned for today.

The funeral just started at 1100

Ellie

thedrifter
12-04-04, 02:52 PM
DoD Leaders Recognize Arizona Teen for Supporting Troops
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3, 2004 — Fourteen-year-old Alison Goulder got personal thanks at the Pentagon today from Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for supporting U.S. troops in Iraq through a grassroots-level campaign collecting Beanie Baby dolls.

The Pentagon leaders praised the Scottsdale, Ariz., eighth-grader for commitment and perseverance that led to the collection of 28,000 of the stuffed critters for deployed troops to hand out to Iraqi and Afghan children.

Goulder said she read in a magazine about Operation Grateful, an effort by law firm Greenberg Traurig to send care packages to troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and Germany. The magazine quoted Joe Reeder, former undersecretary of the Army and now a partner with Greenberg Traurig, as saying Beanie Babies were the top item on the troops' wish list.

Goulder, who started collecting the stuffed critters when she was 7 years old, saw the article as a call to action. "I thought it was great, something that I could do to show support for the troops," she said.

She and her sister Jenna, 11, and brother Greg, 10, scoured through their closets and found about 80 Beanie Babies.

But the effort didn't stop there. Goulder challenged other family members and friends to donate their Beanie Babies to the cause. She hung fliers up around her school, Rancho Solano, urging her classmates to pitch in. She helped sponsor a school dance in October, with the price of admission: one Beanie Baby.

"The effort kind of snowballed," she said. "My original goal was 1,000 Beanie Babies, but we met that the first day." Soon 600 to 800 Beanie Babies being arriving at the school every day.

So far, the effort has raised 28,000 Beanie Babies, more than 15,000 of which have already been shipped to Iraq. Goulder said she's not finished. "As long as people keep bringing them in, I'll keep collecting them," she said.

Goulder's parents say they aren't surprised by their daughter's enterprise. "We've always tried to encourage contributing to the community," they said during their visit to the Pentagon today. "And she's always been very goal- oriented."

Myers thanked Goulder for her "initiative and stick-to-it-ness" and told her the contribution means "more than you will ever know" to U.S. troops in Iraq and Iraqi children.

"This is terrific. It's exactly the right thing to do," Myers said. "Thank you for persevering."

Goulder said she's received "heartfelt notes" from people who have donated their Beanie Baby collections for the cause, and said she took special pride in seeing a magazine cover that depicted a soldier giving a Beanie Baby to a smiling Iraqi child.

"They don't have a lot to hold on to," she said. "Hopefully this will make a difference, at least for a few days."

Reeder called the effort "a part of winning the hearts and minds" of the Iraqi people. "If you send 28,000 Beanie Babies, that's creating 28,000 smiles," he said.

Greenberg Traurig's 22 offices nationwide have sent more than 3,000 care packages to Iraq, Afghanistan and Germany, Reeder said. In addition to Beanie Babies, the shipments include food and snack items, cameras and cosmetics donated by the Estee Lauder Companies.

The initiative is an example of grassroots support for deployed troops being recognized in the Defense Department's "America Supports You" campaign. The program showcases America's support for the men and women of the armed forces and the myriad ways the country is expressing that support.

Ellie

thedrifter
12-04-04, 04:34 PM
Weekly Reader Asks Students to Write President's Inaugural Address
By Sgt. 1st Class Doug Sample, USA
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Dec. 4, 2004 -- Weekly Reader magazine wants to know what its readers would say to the world on Jan. 20, the date President Bush takes the oath of office and gives his second inaugural address.

The school-based educational and news magazine posed that question to its 7 million or more readers for its latest essay contest, titled "My Inaugural Address."

Mia Toschi, Weekly Reader editor, said the magazine wants its readers to voice their opinion on what they would do if they were in the president's shoes and what would they do for the country.

Though she said the contest's aim is to get students to "read, write and do research -- that's the ultimate goal of Weekly Reader," she said she also is hopeful the essays generate opinions on what students, much like the president, feel are important issues affecting the country.

Judging by what she's read so far, Toschi said, concern for the Middle East is on most of the students' agendas.

"Some of the essays from the kids really talk about helping the children in Iraq and Afghanistan, so there is an awareness about the problems of the Middle East, even with the younger students," she said.

She pointed out that students also voiced concern for helping homeless children here in United States.

Toschi said the essay contest, which was announced last week, will wrap up the magazine's yearlong campaign to teach students about the election process.

She said the campaign began in January with students learning about state caucuses and primaries, and then on to the presidential debates -- the magazine sent its own student news correspondents to cover the event.

The magazine even held its own presidential vote among readers, correctly picking Bush as the next president. The magazine has picked the correct presidential winner every year since 1956.

She said the fact that Weekly Reader has picked correctly for so many years is somewhat of a phenomenon. "We're kind of like the experts," she said.

Meanwhile, Toschi said, the words voiced in the winning essays could possibly get the president's ear. She plans to send them to the White House.

"We're not sure if they will get read, but we will surely send them so that the president will have an idea of what students want" she said.

Ellie

thedrifter
12-04-04, 05:01 PM
Holidays in Hell: U.S. Marines send unique greetings from Fallujah
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FALLUJAH, Iraq (AFP) Dec 04, 2004

Holiday cards will soon be pouring into mailboxes across America. But some families might be a little shocked when their season's greetings arrive adorned with bombs and gunmen, and the words "Greetings from Fallujah" spelled out against the backdrop of a shattered city skyline.

Marines killing time in the aftermath of last month's ferocious battle for the Iraqi rebel stronghold have spun a grim joke into an unlikely source of holiday cheer.

Marine James Brisch, a corporal with the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines' Charlie Company, takes postcard-sized pieces of cardboard cut from provisions boxes and carefully inks in Fallujah's low, stubby skyline underneath a generic greeting: Merry Christmas from Fallujah.

He then gives them to other members of his squad to color in and personalize -- most often with bombs, flames or bullet holes -- before writing a message to their families on the other side and putting them in the mail.

"At first it was kind of a sick joke -- putting happy holidays on it was politically correct but then you have everything on fire, which is pretty politically incorrect. There's a lot of black humor," says Brisch.

"Marines can find irony in anything," adds Corporal Nick Misiano.

As thousands of US and Iraqi troops stormed Fallujah on November 8 in a bid to wrest the Sunni Muslim city from insurgents, Brisch, Misiano and the rest of Charlie Company battled gunmen as they moved through its cramped northern streets.

"This is basically what we saw every day," says Brisch, trying to explain his creations.

"It just kind of came naturally. There are a lot of inside jokes."

Corporal Terry Brooks says he's sending one to his family and another to a niece.

He holds up a current work in progress. Floating over the tops of buildings shot through with shells, are the words "Boom", "Boom" and "Boom", while insurgents fire down from rooftops and flames lick at the night sky.

"I don't know, maybe she (his niece) can bring it to show-and-tell at school or something. We'll all have something to remember this by -- to look at a few years down the line and laugh."

The marines, all young men who said Fallujah was their first time in combat, do not know how they are going to explain their time in Iraq to friends and family back in the United States.

"I've seen so much in the last month, enough to last me years," says Brooks.

Although their cards might be pushing the boundaries of good taste, the marines say they are also part of trying to make sense of the last few weeks.

When asked if they thought their families were going to be alarmed by their creations, Misiano said he thought his parents would be "more at ease".

"Despite all the madness we've experienced in the last few weeks, we still have a sense of humor. We can still laugh. Our families will know we've got holiday spirit and are thinking of home."


Ellie

thedrifter
12-04-04, 06:44 PM
Marine reservists swap civilian comforts for war
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
U.S. National - AFP
Dec. 4, 2004

YUSUFIYAH, Iraq (AFP) - A few months ago they were biology students, businessmen, cops, lawyers, surgeons, or teachers. Today these reservists are Marines on the frontline in the fight against insurgents in Iraq's "triangle of death."

"It's the brotherhood. If your brothers are going into the fight you want to be there," said Sergeant Deven Hawkins, standing next to a machine-gun position on the roof of an abandoned school that serves as a Marine base in the town of Yusufiyah.

Hawkins employs 46 people in the entertainment multimedia company he runs back home in Chicago in the Midwest, from where most of the Marines are from in this reservist unit -- the 2nd Battalion of the 24th Marines.

The battalion serves in a region just south of Baghdad dubbed the "triangle of death" because of frequent kidnappings and deadly bomb attacks on civilian and military targets.

The skills acquired in the cut and thrust of business life can be applied here, said 33-year-old Hawkins, who is a Muslim.

"You've got to be able to multi-task to achieve your goal. It's the same on active duty (in the Marines) and in the private sector," he said.

A foot patrol heading out from his heavily-fortified base comprised a firefighter, a wildlife biology student, a cargo pilot, a trade union worker, a kindergarten teacher, an office manager, a welder, a home security technician, and a diary foods distribution worker.

The commanding officer of the base, Major Morgan Mann, 34, who sells Internet telephone systems for Cisco back home in the United States, said being reservists gave his men an edge over regular Marines.

"We're older, more mature, more experienced," he told AFP as he sat in his sandbagged, spartan room in the base. On his table lay "Small Wars", a book on the military lessons to be learnt from Britain's colonial adventures.

"What we're doing here is law enforcement and politics as well as counter-insurgency," added Mann.

Jim Roussell is another Marine who applies skills learned back home here in Iraq.

During the 28 years he spent as a policeman on Chicago's West Side in an anti-gang unit he had to deal with young, disenfranchised and angry men who went out and picked up weapons.

That's how he sees the many of the insurgents he's fighting in the "triangle of death."

And the best way to combat both American inner city gang members and Iraqi rebels is by using informants, said Chief Warrant Officer Roussell, who is now a Marine intelligence officer based in Mahmudiyah.

"It's dirty, murky work, but that's how you get the clearest picture," said the 53-year-old.

Captain Brian Murphy, 32, is another reservist who is a law enforcement officer back in the States. He is an FBI agent who'd been working on counter-terrorism in New York since the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Murphy, now based in the town of Latifiyah, was also doing a masters degree in Islamic studies and learning Arabic before he shipped out to Iraq with his unit, most of which arrived here in September and is set to stay until February.

"I wanted to know the causes of this (anti-Americanism in the Muslim world)," he said.

Murphy is unhappy because he may have to return to New York to testify in a 9-11 related case in January. He said he felt he was more useful to his country here in Iraq.

Corporal Larry Branch, based in Mahmudiyah, where the tough-talking, tobacco-chewing commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Mark Smith, is an Indiana state trooper in civilian life, summed up the fierce pride in being a Marine that drove these men to swap the comforts of civilian life for the rigours of war.

"Some people get a degree, others make their first million," said the phone company technician as he sat in the base's mail room. "If I never make any other accomplishments, this (being a Marine) will be it."

Another thing that unites the Marines here is their belief that they will crush the insurgents.

"Maybe doubt creeps in once in a while," said mechanic Lance Corporal Brian Kollias, as he contemplated a seven-ton truck whose front wheel had been blown off by a roadside bomb.

"But look back at the past -- Germany didn't become a democracy in a year" after World War II, he said. "The guys laying IEDs (improvised explosive devices) will eventually get frustrated, the economy will get better. It's going to take time."


Ellie

thedrifter
12-04-04, 06:47 PM
Danforth quits as U.N. sinks
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BY WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY JR.
The Omaha World-Herald
Dec. 4, 2004

Plop in the middle of the entangled, entangling, impossible mess of the United Nations, where Kofi Annan's ego attempts achingly to overswell diurnal scandals (a recent headline: "Swiss Firm Suspected of Fraud/Paid U.N. Chief's Son $50,000"), enters John C. Danforth.

This resolute human being, who only four months ago became U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, announced that he was quitting. Why? And why at this time?

Because, he said, he wants to be home. He needs to spend more time with his wife, Sally.

"Forty-seven years ago," Mr. Danforth wrote President Bush, "I married the girl of my dreams, and, at this point in my life, what is most important to me is to spend more time with her. Because you know Sally, you know my reason for going home."

Well, if we knew Sally like John knows Sally, we'd perhaps simply ignore all other considerations before the house. But we don't and therefore are driven to pause over other matters that might have entered Danforth's mind when he decided to quit.

Pause, first, for an aerial view of the scene:

The secretary-general is pretty universally discredited by a money scandal, which some estimate to be perhaps the largest in human history.

It is a scandal that has so immobilized normal respiratory practices that Paul Volcker himself, the most direct and fearless public official in recent history, is tongue-tied. He appears to be hiding behind remote technicalities in order to serve the United Nations, whose Secretariat is of course the agent of Kofi Annan, the primary defendant.

There are no less than five congressional committees living on the tether's end of patience for failure to get cooperation from the United Nations on a matter of far-reaching concern.

Is it possible that some of the $20 billion routed and rerouted from the sale of Iraqi oil, ostensibly collected to buy bread for starving Iraqis, has ended up financing the insurgents who kill U.S. Marines every day?

But the framework is even wider, as the files on Sen. Danforth quickly reveal.

New York Times correspondent Warren Hoge says it was actually the day after he wrote his private letter of resignation that Danforth publicly criticized the United Nations "in an unusually brash denunciation of a move in the General Assembly to cut off a motion that would have criticized human-rights violations in Sudan, which the United States has called genocide."

Danforth declaimed: "One wonders about the utility of the General Assembly on days like this. One wonders, if there can't be a clear and direct statement on matters of basic principle, why have this building (in New York City)? What is it all about?"

The question of legitimacy dogs the United Nations. For years it has been so, living lopsidedly on the arbitrary allocations of membership in the Security Council done in San Francisco in 1945.

But these distortions and others - notably the victimization of Israel and the coddling of Castro's Cuba - diminished in strategic consequence because the Cold War swept away everything in its path, generating among other things the undenied and undeniable legitimacy of U.S. leadership of the free world.

That has changed. Europe's security from Soviet imperialism has led to the delegitimization of the United States as inherent and singular leader in policy-making on international problems.

That is the reason for Europe's refusal to back our venture in Iraq. It isn't that Germany and France objected to troops in Iraq. They objected to their being dispatched other than by an organization, the United Nations, in which France has a veto power.

The survival, in its present shape, of a United Nations pockmarked by the charter of 1945 may not be in question. Nobody's about to rescind the United Nations. But its prestige is at rock-bottom low.

Its hypocrisy was sensed and indeed articulated by Danforth, and its bureaucratic self-interest is reinforced by Kofi Annan's refusal to resign.

It is a true mess, and whatever our concern for Sally, the world joins in asking, with John Danforth, "What is it all about?"


Ellie