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thedrifter
12-23-04, 07:37 AM
Fighting Erupts in Fallujah Stronghold

FALLUJAH, Iraq - U.S. Marines clashed with insurgents in the battered city of Fallujah on Thursday with warplanes dropping bombs and tanks shelling suspected guerrilla positions on a day when a first group of residents displaced by fighting were scheduled to return.



It was unclear what caused the clashes, but Marine officers said that both sides had suffered casualties.


The fighting erupted on the day that the first 2,000 residents displaced by last month's bloody U.S.-led offensive to retake the rebel stronghold were supposed to return to the city of 250,000 people. It was not immediately known what effect the fighting would have on the planned return, the first of tens of thousands due to go back.


Witnesses said U.S. F-18 fighter-bombers struck at targets in the city's southern neighborhoods. Tank and artillery fire was also heard.


U.S. officials have hailed the military effort to retake the city in November as a major tactical victory. But many of the guerrillas are believed to have slipped out during the fighting and are now said to be operating across central and northern Iraq (news - web sites).


In the devastated city itself, U.S. troops have repeatedly clashed with pockets of resistance.



Ellie

thedrifter
12-23-04, 07:37 AM
US Marines detain 43 suspects
From correspondents in Baghdad
December 23, 2004
US Marines have detained 43 suspects in a series of raids south of Baghdad, the latest in a sweep that has netted around 600 militants, the military said today.

Troops from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, backed by Iraqi security forces, rounded up 21 suspected insurgents around the town of Yusufiya, a rebellious stronghold about 40 km south-west of Baghdad.

In related searches in the nearby town of Haswah, Iraqi police and Marines detained 13 people.

Nine other suspects were seized in raids near the militant town of Mahmudiya, at the centre of what has been dubbed the "triangle of death".

In the past five months, since Marines took over from Polish troops in the northern Babil province that runs south from Baghdad, more than 850 people have been detained, the statement said.









Of those, nearly 600 remain in prison.

The area to the south-west of Baghdad has been a focus of insurgent activity for months, but saw a surge in violence as US troops prepared to launch their offensive against the Sunni militant bastion of Fallujah to the north-east of Mahmudiya.

Meanwhile, a fuel truck driving along the main highway running north from Mahmudiya was attacked by gunmen who set the truck ablaze and kidnapped the Iraqi driver, police in Mahmudiya said.

Both bandits and militants operate in the area.

Yesterday a suicide bomber rammed a car into an Iraqi forces checkpoint outside Latifiya, just to the south of Mahmudiya, killing nine people and wounding 13.

The blast destroyed around five civilian cars, a witness said.

The area is particularly treacherous for Iraq's fledgling security forces, targeted by insurgents for working with the US-backed government.

The bloated bodies of Iraqi police and National Guards, sometimes shot, sometimes beheaded, wash up frequently on the banks of the nearby Euphrates River.


Ellie

thedrifter
12-23-04, 07:38 AM
Army Braces For More Violence
Cox News Service
December 23, 2004

FORT HOOD, Texas - U.S. Army 1st Cavalry Division troops in Baghdad are braced for increasing insurgent violence, like the Tuesday mortar attack that killed at least 20 near Mosul, as the holidays and Iraqi elections approach, the division's commander said.

Speaking shortly after the attack from Baghdad during a teleconference meeting with news media at Food Hood, Maj. Gen. Peter Chiarelli said he looked forward to the passing of the holidays and "the light at the end of the tunnel" for troops who are scheduled to return to Fort Hood in March.

Chiarelli said he knows of "no plans to extend" the division's tour in Iraq in the teleconference from Camp Liberty, the division's Baghdad headquarters.

The 17,500 troops of the famed 1st Cavalry left for Iraq in March, with the exception of the 2nd Brigade's 3,700 troops, who left in January. The 2nd Brigade's scheduled return in November was postponed to January, then March.

Chiarelli said he did not know of any 1st Cavalry Division troops injured or killed in the Mosul attack on Tuesday.

"We all know that attacks are going to occur," he said. "At the same time, we're going to be on the offensive."





Seated in a spare room with Christmas lights decorating a table, Chiarelli emphasized the reconstruction progress that the 1st Cavalry Division has achieved in Baghdad, a city of 7.5 million.

He oversees the U.S. military's "Task Force Baghdad," which is made up 35,000 troops, including the 1st Cavalry, Marines and airmen.

Chiarelli said American news reports have fixated on violent outbursts while often overlooking the rebuilding projects that command much of the military's time. American reporters working from Baghdad's hotel district have a limited view of reconstruction projects, he said.

"It's been so hard to get the true picture out," he said. "My belief is that you really haven't seen what is really happening in Iraq."

Chiarelli said Americans are spearheading $500 million in Baghdad infrastructure projects that incorporate Iraqi workers. Projects include the construction of two new landfills, improved electrical and sewer service, and the resuscitation of a historic park along the Tigris River called Abu Nuwas.

The success of the reconstruction is evidenced by insurgent leaders' attempts to take credit for the improvements, he said.

Insurgents have also begun attacking Baghdad's electrical infrastructure, which Chiarelli believes is intended to disrupt residents' quality of life and their relationships with American troops.

The stateside debate over U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's comments regarding the military's armor equipment seems to have had little bearing on the 1st Cavalry.

Chiarelli said that troop safety equipment, such as body armor and armor for Humvees, is generally up to par and improving.

All of the division's Humvees are armored and have tough ballistic windshields, he said. Only about half of the division's larger vehicles, such as tractor-trailers, are armored, but the military is working to improve that, he said.

Still, the insurgents' homemade bombs, known as improvised explosive devices, or IEDS, are growing more destructive and causing problems for armored Humvees.

"Nothing over here is a panacea," he said. "The addition of armor does not necessarily mean you're going to defeat IEDs."

President Bush on Monday said the United States has had mixed success in training Iraqi military forces. Iraqi military and police recruits have repeatedly been the target of insurgent attacks, and Iraqi troops reportedly have backed out of their duty when faced with hostile fire.

Chiarelli said the 1st Cavalry has been relatively successful in training Iraqi army troops, partly because 540 American advisors are embedded with Iraqi platoons.

"We're giving them sectors of the city of Baghdad that they're taking over," he said.

Building a credible police force for Baghdad has been more challenging, Chiarelli said.

The Baghdad police force has about 15,000 people, many of whom are dedicated to bureaucratic jobs, and the force needs another 10,000 officers who would mostly be working the streets.

Chiarelli said the troops have been heartened by the support they've received from Texans, including donated phone cards, care packages and holiday greetings.

"If you could write anything for me back there, it would be to thank the people of Central Texas," he told reporters. "Such outpourings of generosity from everybody out there has made this so much easier."

Ellie

thedrifter
12-23-04, 07:38 AM
Veterans Past And Present Honored
Associated Press
December 23, 2004

WASHINGTON - David Fondren held back tears as he described the Thanksgiving Day attack in Iraq that left his son, Jay, a double amputee.

Fondren and other relatives, veterans and volunteers from Walter Reed Army Hospital came to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Wednesday to read holiday greetings to soldiers dead and alive.

"It's a shame that another generation has to go through the same thing that the Vietnam generation did," Fondren said after a nine-foot Christmas tree was decorated with hundreds of greeting cards from around the country. "You would hope we had learned those lessons," he said. "But I guess each generation has to fight for our freedoms again."

The annual ceremony was held a day after an insurgent strike on a military base near Mosul, Iraq, killed 22 people, including 14 U.S. service members, and wounded more than 60 others. It was the deadliest attacks on American troops since the war began.

Fondren and others read about a dozen of the cards aloud in the somber tribute under bright sunshine. The tree was then placed at the center of the memorial's black granite wall, its branches heavy with messages of gratitude, remembrance and hope.




The cards, mailed in each year by members of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, range from simple notes to thank soldiers for their service to more personal messages.

"To My Brothers," one card said. "My heart is with you always. My mind will always remember those I fought along side."

Another: "Bro: Been there, done that. Sorry you bought it in the jungle so many years ago. Miss you much."

"The idea is that there are so many soldiers from Vietnam who never came home for the holidays," said JoAnn Mangione, a spokeswoman for the memorial fund. "It reminds us that today we are again in a situation where there are soldiers fighting for us around the world and won't be home for the holidays."

Fondren was at the ceremony because his 24-year-old son is recovering at nearby Walter Reed. Army Staff Sgt. Jay Fondren, of Corsicana, Texas, lost both legs and suffered shrapnel injuries to his arms after his Humvee was struck by a bomb in an attack near the Sadr City area of Baghdad.

"It's like our child was born twice to us, to get him back another time and it's just a blessing," David Fondren said. "We're going to stay with our son through the first of the year and just try to have the best Christmas we can have."

Craig Barron, 38, an Iraq war veteran from Reno, Nev., said his own experiences have given him a newfound respect for veterans of other wars.

"I wanted to pay my respects to a different generation of veterans who didn't come back," Barron said. "Every generation has a defining conflict. The Iraq war is the defining conflict of my generation."

Barron has already spent nine months in Iraq and is returning for duty there next week, after a three week medical leave for non-combat related treatment. He said the attack Tuesday on a military mess hall was similar - though more deadly - to incidents he has seen before.

"It happened to us on a much smaller scale, so I know what those soldiers are going through," Barron said. "I know what it's like to lose a friend - I lost a friend over there."

The tree will be on display through the holidays.

Ellie

thedrifter
12-23-04, 07:39 AM
Notes from the war zone

By C. Mark Brinkley
Times staff writer


If anyone needs proof that Iraq is truly another world, perhaps these vignettes of life in the war zone will suffice ...
Trade ya

As U.S. troops packing 9mm pistols look longingly at the brand-spankin’-new Glock semi-automatic handguns issued to Iraqi police officers, many Iraqi officers are, in turn, tossing wistful glances back at the American troops’ Berettas.

Why? There’s a common belief among the Iraqis that U.S. troops carry the best weapons in the world.

One Army military police lieutenant said a Mosul cop offered his Glock — the weapon of choice for U.S. law enforcement these days — plus $400 to a soldier in the lieutenant’s platoon, in hopes the soldier would trade him the Beretta. The deal was regretfully declined.

Haven’t these guys ever heard of the “lowest bidder” concept?

Can you hear me now?

“Back home, I’m not allowed to drive and talk on a cell phone at the same time,” one Army staff sergeant said, weaving his up-armored Humvee around a pile of trash and dodging an old man in a donkey cart.

“Over here, they expect me to drive, man two radios, keep my weapon ready to respond to attacks and constantly scan the road for bad guys and IEDs [improvised explosive devices].”

Subliminal messages

On a handful of televisions in a contractor-run chow hall, images of soldiers talking about why they serve flash across the screens. It’s an Armed Forces Network house ad, designed to be motivating to the troops watching worldwide.

What song would the producers choose to best illustrate this dedication to service? “Proud to Be An American” perhaps, or another of the patriotic tunes that flood the airwaves in our post-Sept. 11 society? Nope. Try “The Unforgiven” by Metallica, the sad tale of a man who struggles against his oppressors and dies without achieving his freedom.

Among the lyrics: “They dedicate their lives to running all of his, he tries to please them all, this bitter man he is ...”

Anyone for re-enlisting?

Speaking of heavy metal

Canned soda is popular and plentiful here, with a flavor to suit most any taste bud. Guess where those fully recyclable cans go? Right into the same trash bags as the half-eaten cheeseburgers and unwanted green beans.

If every service member in country has only one canned soda a week — yeah, right, tell that to the boys on night duty guzzling four cans of Mountain Dew with breakfast — that’s about138,000 unrecycled aluminum cans a week.

So what, you say? Turning a used can into a new can requires only 5 percent to 8 percent of the energy needed to turn raw ore into a new can, according to the Aluminum Association. Throwing away a single can is like pouring out six ounces of gasoline, which is likely to be replenished by foreign oil reserves, much of which is situated under Iraq.

See the pattern? And yes, both Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates have recycling facilities.

Sex and the service member

Officially, troops in Iraq are barred from having sex with each other, with government contractors or with visiting journalists — basically, with anyone. But some get two-person trailers with lockable doors, heaters and comfy mattresses.

“In any human circumstance where you put men and women together, and some of that time will be spent after dark, nature is gonna take its course,” said one Army specialist. “Ain’t no different here.”

Speaking of heavy metal II

Every Humvee in theater that can get it is sporting heavy-duty armor plating. They call them up-armored Humvees, but even with extra plates and bulletproof glass, up-armor is no match for artillery shells wired to garage-door openers and half-buried at the edge of the road — and the troops know it.

“Does this stuff work?” I asked a driver, knocking on the extra-thick side window.

His response: “You want the truth, or you want to enjoy the ride?”

C. Mark Brinkley is on assignment in Iraq.

Ellie

thedrifter
12-23-04, 07:41 AM
Mosul Base Commanders Had Warning of an Attack

Dec. 22, 2004 -- Three weeks before the deadly attack on a U.S. base in Mosul, commanders at the base had a warning that insurgents were planning a "Beirut"-type attack on U.S. forces in northern Iraq, ABC News has learned. The warning prompted them to take additional unspecified security measures on the base.

On Tuesday, 22 people — including 13 U.S. soldiers — were killed in an attack on the crowded mess tent at Forward Operating Base Marez in Mosul. The Pentagon said today the deadly attack was apparently the work of a suicide bomber.

"At this point, it looks like it was an improvised explosive device worn by an attacker," said Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, adding, "I assure you that everything possible is being done to get to the bottom of what happened and to take the appropriate steps so that we can prevent future attacks of this nature."

Earlier, sources told ABC News that investigators at the base had determined the blast was a suicide attack after finding remnants of a torso and a suicide vest that was probably a backpack.


Early Warning

Weeks before Tuesday's attack, soldiers from the base intercepted a document that mentioned a proposal for a massive "Beirut"-type attack on U.S. forces. The reference was apparently to the October 1983 truck bombing of U.S. military barracks in the Lebanese capital in which 241 U.S. Marines were killed.

On Nov. 27, an ABC News reporter accompanying U.S. troops during a night raid in Mosul witnessed the rounding up of hundreds of Iraqis in the densely populated Old Town district.

During the roundup, one of the suspects tossed out several crushed sheets of handwritten notes from his pocket in an obvious effort to hide them from U.S. troops. A U.S. soldier at the site, however, noticed the fallen papers, picked them up and asked an interpreter present to translate the Arabic notes.

A U.S. official at the base later described the papers as a treasure trove of information. They contained "the minutes of some type of meeting of a terrorist cell that discussed money laundering, recruitment, weapons effectiveness and future operations," the official said. One of the possible future operations was described as a "Beirut"-type attack, and the notes referred to the importance of seeking and supplying information about Iraqis working for the U.S. military.

Beefing Up Security on the Base


Following the discovery of the papers, commanders at the base — which is about three miles south of Mosul and is used by both U.S. troops and the interim Iraqi National Guard forces — ratcheted up already tight security.

The likelihood that Tuesday's attack on Forward Operating Base Marez was an "inside job" first emerged with an online message allegedly posted by a radical Sunni Muslim group, the Ansar al-Sunnah Army, which claimed responsibility for the blast and called it a "martyrdom operation," a reference to a suicide attack.



Earlier today, a new message, allegedly by Ansar al-Sunnah, said the suicide bomber was a 24-year-old man from Mosul who worked at the base for two months and had provided information about the base to the group.




The message also said the suicide bomber used plastic explosives hidden inside his clothes and that the "martyr" had gotten married about a month ago. It also claimed the group would post a video of the attack on the Web. The authenticity of the message, however, has not been verified.

Security Issues Arise


The bombing at the mess tent was one of the deadliest attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq since the start of the war. Early reports indicated the massive explosion might have been the result of a rocket attack.



The attack has led to questions about security at the facility in Mosul, which has seen an increase in insurgent attacks since the U.S. military assault on the city of Fallujah last month.




U.S. military officials say there were plans to build a bunker-like mess hall at the base. Dining halls at bases have been the target of mortar attacks across central Iraq in the past.







Injured U.S. Soldiers Arrive in Germany


A day after the attack, a group of U.S. soldiers wounded in insurgent attacks arrived at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany for treatment at a military hospital.



A C-140 transport plane carrying some 50 patients — most of them injured in Tuesday's attack — touched down at the U.S. base in Germany. A spokeswoman for the Landstuhl Regional Medical told The Associated Press that the medical facility was expecting at least eight critical-care patients in the group.



Tuesday's attack claimed the lives of 13 U.S. service members, five U.S. civilian contractors, three Iraqi National Guard members and one unidentified non-U.S. citizen, according to U.S. military officials. Of the 69 people wounded, 44 were U.S. soldiers.




U.S. Military Imposes Curfew in Mosul


In Mosul today, U.S. tanks and armored vehicles swept through the streets as a curfew was imposed on Iraq's third-largest city. The governor of Mosul banned the use of all five bridges into the city, and said anyone breaking the order would be shot, according to Reuters.



Once a relatively peaceful city of Kurdish and Arab residents, Mosul was ranked as the U.S. military's greatest success story in the early days of the Iraq occupation. But just days after a massive U.S. operation in Fallujah began last month, insurgents carried out a number of deadly attacks on police stations across the city.



U.S. military officials believe many insurgents hiding in Fallujah before the assault — including Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi — may have fled to Mosul.

Ellie

thedrifter
12-23-04, 07:41 AM
3 To Stand Trial In Soldier's Shooting <br />
Associated Press <br />
December 23, 2004 <br />
<br />
PHILADELPHIA - A judge on Wednesday ordered a soldier, his wife and her cousin to stand trial in an alleged plot to...

thedrifter
12-23-04, 07:42 AM
Auction Irritates Reserve Unit
Associated Press
December 23, 2004

MORGAN HILL, Calif. - An unusual flap has erupted between an Army reserve unit and an Iraq-bound reservist who hopes to raise money for military equipment he wants to bring to the war zone.

Sean Flynn, 18, planned to buy extra equipment for himself and two friends by selling his San Francisco 49ers memorabilia, including a commemorative football and a jersey autographed by Jerry Rice.

Those plans ballooned into a full-blown fund-raising effort organized by a local sports store to better equip Flynn's whole unit - an effort that has angered military brass.

When news of the plan reached the unit - the Mountain View-based 445th Civil Affairs Battalion - officials insisted its soldiers had all the computer equipment and armor they need.

"You can't put on a uniform and solicit money - the Army is not a fund-raising business," said Maj. Barbara Kuhn, spokeswoman for the battalion. "And there was concern that the money raised was going to be used for their personal benefit."




Flynn's plan got noticed when he took his 49ers gear to Fan Club Sports, a memorabilia shop in San Jose. Upon hearing of the motive, the store's owners and many customers decided to organize an online auction and fund-raiser to benefit Flynn's unit.

Mike Herkenrath, who owns Fan Club Sports, said he took responsibility for the confusion.

"We didn't really have a specific list of items to buy; there were just a lot of ideas thrown out there, like goggles or memory sticks for computers," Herkenrath said. "Body armor was mentioned, but it wasn't like this kid was selling his possessions because he needed to buy his own body armor."

Stories of equipment shortages for troops in Iraq have been in the news for months. Recently, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was questioned by a soldier who complained that some troops had to scrounge to provide armor for their vehicles.

Ellie

thedrifter
12-23-04, 08:04 AM
Humble Hero Risks All to Save Fellow Marines, Accomplish Mission
By Cpl. Mike Escobar, USMC
American Forces Press Service
December 16, 2004

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. - In a mountain range in the barren, poverty-stricken country of Afghanistan, automatic-weapons fire and grenade explosions fill the air with soot and rock debris. The high altitude and polluted air choke the Marines and local military forces as enemy tracer rounds whiz past, forcing them to hunker behind whatever cover they may find.

Amid all the chaos and destruction, one man returns fire, adrenaline pumping through his veins. Maintaining his composure and exhibiting poise under fire, he shouts out orders, directing his men to continue firing.

After almost 45 minutes of what seemed to him as a firefight that would never end, Marine Gunnery Sgt. William E. Bodette scans the terrain and sees that his troops have routed the hostile ambush.

He pats himself down and looks all over his chest for signs of entry wounds, but feels none. Bodette reaches down into his cargo pocket and pulls out a worn-out laminated photograph of his wife and three children, thanking the Almighty that he is still alive.

This is the third time this deployment the enemy has ambushed his troops, and the third time he's walked away, miraculously unscathed.




"I could hear (the rounds) snapping off all around me, and I even felt the heat of a rocket-propelled grenade as it flew right over my head," stated the Company K, 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment company gunnery sergeant. "All around me I saw the green and red lights of the tracers. I don't know how I didn't get hit. I thought I was going to die for sure many times."

Boldly leading his troops and remaining stalwart under fire, the 36-year-old Clearwater, Fla., native's command presented him with the Bronze Star Medal with combat "V" device Dec. 13 during a ceremony here.

The award was created in 1944 to recognize individuals distinguishing themselves by heroic or meritorious achievement, both of which Bodette displayed.

"His decisiveness and combat leadership enabled three different patrols to quickly overpower enemy forces, and he was also directly responsible for establishing landing zone security for evacuating wounded U.S. and Afghan Forces," the award citation states. Still, Bodette remains humble.

"I owe my life to a lot of people, to all the Marines who were with me and did what they were trained to do," Bodette said. "I did what I've been trained to do all the years that I've worn this uniform, and I didn't do anything special. Somebody just saw me and thought I had."

Bodette has much to be proud of, military awards aside. As a 16-year veteran of the Marine Corps and former Marine Corps Recruit Depot drill instructor, he has touched many lives. It is this that gives him the greatest sense of personal satisfaction and accomplishment, he said.

"Not too long ago, I went to the (National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.) to award one of my former recruits (Cpl. Mark O'Brien, an infantryman with 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment) his Purple Heart," Bodette said. "He was injured during a firefight in Ramadi, (Iraq,) and now he's missing his right arm and leg. He specifically asked for his senior drill instructor to pin on his medal.

"It was the greatest honor of my life," Bodette added. "No Bronze Star could ever take the place of what I did for that Marine, a Marine that I made. That's what's so special about the Marine Corps. It's not about the individual wars going on right now, or being able to say 'I did this, I did that,' but about the service you're doing for your country and your fellow Marine."


Ellie

thedrifter
12-23-04, 08:50 AM
Marines gratified by Iraqis' gratitude
Submitted by: 24th MEU
Story Identification #: 2004122152126
Story by Cpl. Sarah A. Beavers



HILLAH, Iraq (Dec. 20, 2004) -- Inside a small classroom at Hillah University, 25 miles south of where they've spent most of the past six months hunting insurgents, a dozen Marines of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit sit attentively at their desks.

Farqad Al-Hussani Al-Qazweni, a primary instructor, has absorbed them in a discussion of religious principles, part of a daylong education in the struggles, triumphs and customs of the culture they risk their lives every day to protect.

For many of the Marines, the Dec. 14 visit to the capital of Babil province, home to some of the world's richest history, was eye-opening.

"This trip made me realize that there are a lot of good people in this country," said Cpl. Michel Mouzong, 26, of Clamath Falls, Ore., and a supply clerk with the Supply Detachment of MEU Service Support Group 24.

Upon their arrival at the Regional Democracy Center, the Marines were escorted to a large room with numerous couches and were asked to help themselves to soft drinks and cigarettes provided by the school. Emerging through the doorway, a tall man wearing a robe and black headscarf approached the Marines and, speaking through his interpreter, welcomed them to his school with kind words and a smile.

"You are among brothers and friends," said Qazweni. "As we are sons of this university, you are sons of this university."

As he encouraged the Marines to ask questions about the Iraqi community, the topic of the upcoming elections took center stage. Comparing the strife afflicting Iraq to America's own Civil War, he discussed his faith in his country's ability to overcome the differences between the religious extremists and its common citizens.

"Iraq is similar to the situation of the (United States) about 200 years ago," added Qazweni. "There was a big war - (between the) south and north - but they were finally able to agree upon ideals and opinions (to) build (their) country upon."

He returned repeatedly to a refrain many of his guests were not used to hearing: an appreciation for their efforts and for those of all who have helped bring Iraq closer to independence.

"Our freedom has (cost) the blood of Iraqis, the blood of Americans, the blood of coalition forces," he said. "We appreciate their assistance and sacrifices. We hope with your help and support to practice real democracy."

After the introduction, it was onto lunch, which was nothing short of a feast. The Marines were taken to the dining area, where a smorgasboard lay upon a long table. Lamb, chicken, rice, pita bread and eggplant soup were among the dishes that beckoned. Following the meal, Marines also enjoyed servings of a strong, sugary tea called chai, which is popular with the Iraqi people.

"In this culture, when you are invited to visit an Iraqi, you truly are treated as an honored guest," said 1st Lt. David Horan, 32, a Tuscon, Ariz., native and a 24th MEU communications officer working with the Iraqi security forces. "I have visited simple farmhouses, and the result is the same. The best is brought out, and the efforts of the host far exceed your expectations."

The Marines next moved to a classroom as guests for a lecture titled "The Pillars of Religion", given by Qazweni, which highlighted Iraqi philosophies.

"What does God want from us?" Qazweni asked rhetorically. "Justice, peace, liberty, equality. These are the principles of democracy."

Qazweni added the obvious, that the freedom of instructors to discuss such views and ideals was still a new privilege, another happy byproduct of the liberation of Iraq from Sadaam Hussein's regime.

"Now, we are free to teach anything, to discuss any subject," said his interpreter, Dahham Mohammed, an English instructor at the university. "Religious teachers (aren't forced to) concentrate on radical subjects - extremes."

In addition to the lecture, Marines also watched a video documentary showing Iraqi and American forces exhuming thousands of bodies, victims of the former regime's practice of disposing of entire families in what became known as "collective graveyards."

"They would dig holes and bury people alive - men, women, children," said Qazweni. "(Others) would see, but could not speak (because) they would be taken and hung."

He went on to explain that the bodies that could be identified were returned to the remaining families, and those which were unidentifiable were taken to the university to be transplanted.

"They did this for people they didn't even know," said Cpl. Chamere Sabbath, 21, a Detroit native and supply clerk with the Supply Detachment of MSSG-24. "It's like our Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. They had enough respect to give a proper burial instead of just leaving them."

The visit ended with a tour of the campus grounds, which included a mosque and graveyard monument. The statue itself, towering at least 20 feet high, was a memorial to the 66 mass graves and more than 15,000 citizens resting at its base. The two large, black hands stand with open palms, representing a new beginning from the evil regime. Below the hands are scriptures of equality from the Koran, Torah, and Bible. In the center of the burial site, a large, white fist projecting from the graveyard symbolizes the uprising of the Iraqi people and their continued fight for a better future.

"The absolute best part of the day was visiting the memorial," said Horan. "To my knowledge, this memorial is historic in the fact that it openly depicts the desire for a free and democratic society in Iraq regardless of religion."

Whatever their preconceptions, the Marines left with a personal rededication to the stabilization effort and a better understanding of the culture they're defending. Reflecting on their new outlook about Iraqi society, they enthusiastically recommended the trip to fellow
Marines who question the difference they're making in the country.

"The young Marines that don't understand the cause and say we're doing this for nothing need to go," said Sabbath. "When I first came (to Iraq), I thought the Iraqi people were ungrateful (for our help). (This) made me feel appreciated ... proud to be here. Of all the visits I've been on, this was the best. I came back smiling. I think everyone did."


Ellie

thedrifter
12-23-04, 09:45 AM
December 27, 2004

Fallujah assault said to set stage for elections

By Vince Crawley
Times staff writer


With just a month to go before Iraq’s scheduled elections, the level of violence there has dropped but remains stiff even as the United States is close to fielding its largest force in the region since the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
Even so, the senior U.S. commander in Iraq says November’s assault into the formerly rebel-held city of Fallujah has largely set the stage for Jan. 30 elections.

“The levels of violence since Fallujah have dropped dramatically,” Army Gen. George Casey, commander of Multinational Force Iraq, told Pentagon reporters Dec. 16.

“They are actually down to levels … back where we were at transfer of sovereignty” in early summer, Casey said, referring to the U.S. handover of day-to-day governance to an Iraqi interim authority. Casey, a former Army deputy chief of staff, took on-the-ground command of the Iraq mission immediately after the handover.

As of mid-December, U.S. troop levels in Iraq had reached 148,000 — the same size force as the peak in May 2003, after American-led forces overthrew Saddam Hussein and before the insurgency erupted.

Casey has delayed the departure of 10,400 troops from Iraq and is deploying another 1,500 paratroopers ahead of the January elections to beef up the U.S. force from 138,000 to more than 150,000. The expanded force includes a high percentage of combat veterans at the end of long tours in Iraq whose battle skills are needed to help prevent rebels from undermining the elections, officials say.

Pentagon officials said in early December that the large U.S. contingent would be in place in Iraq by mid-January. However, Army Brig. Gen. David Rodriguez, deputy director of regional operations for the Joint Staff, told reporters Dec. 15 that 148,000 Americans are already on the ground there.

U.S. and Iraqi government forces are pitted chiefly against remnants of the former Saddam regime, Casey said.

“With the liberation of Fallujah, they no longer have any safe havens anywhere in Iraq,” Casey said of anti-government rebels. However, he acknowledged that insurgents continue to roam the countryside, targeting U.S. convoys and Iraqi government sites.

Officials in Washington have increasingly pointed to Iraq’s Jan. 30 elections as a potential turning point in the troubled mission to create a stable, democratic nation. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said that successful elections are key to allowing a reduction in the U.S. military presence.

But in his news conference, Casey avoided suggesting that Iraqi elections will be decisive one way or another in the U.S. mission. Instead, he called the elections an “important intermediate step in our campaign plan.”

Casey said the insurgents remain a force to be reckoned with. Still, he agreed that successful elections could create an environment for reducing U.S. forces in the region.

As of mid-December, the U.S. death toll in Iraq stood at roughly 1,300. But Casey said the attacks are not necessarily growing in sophistication.

“The levels of violence have come way down,” he said, and Iraqi insurgents are “not necessarily operating effectively against coalition forces.”

On Dec. 15, Rodriguez, of the Joint Staff, said that if elections are slightly delayed or extended to take place over several days, he does not anticipate further extensions for American troops whose tours already have been stretched for the elections.

And Casey said that his most recent talks with Iraqi leaders indicated they intend to hold the country’s voting all on one day instead of over a period of days.

Ellie

thedrifter
12-23-04, 10:22 AM
December 27, 2004

Not home for the holidays

Military families stay connected any way they can

By Karen Jowers
Times staff writer



Lauren Huston doesn’t want to cancel Christmas. She just wants to hurry up and get through it. It’s normally her favorite time of year — but not this year.
By Dec. 6, the tree still had not gone up. A week later, her kids could wait no longer and put it up themselves.

Huston’s husband, Joe, is a soldier deployed to Iraq. And like many families this Christmas, the Huston family is grappling with how to get through the holidays.

For deployed troops, the concerns are much the same.

“My grandparents are both getting a little older, and I worry that with me not being there to help, something could happen,” said Marine Sgt. Dennis Jones, in an e-mail from Iraq.

Holidays are always a challenge for families and deployed troops. But in wartime, worries about safety and deployment lengths make the pain of separation at this time of year especially acute.

“The holidays, for some people, are just hell — it’s a time for family, and if your family’s not around, it’s hard,” said John Moore, a licensed professional counselor who teaches a psychology course in interpersonal relationships for online American Military University that has been dubbed “Love 101” by many of the troops and family members who take it.

“I hear a lot from military families that they curtail holiday activity,” he said. “They may not have Christmas dinner.”

But it’s not a good idea to abandon such traditions.

“It’s important for continuity and familiarity to keep those traditions going, especially for children,” Moore said. “It’s the wrong message to send to a 5-year-old that Christmas is canceled because daddy’s not home.”

Maintaining spiritual traditions such as attending religious services can be an important way for families and deployed troops to stay connected, even if they’re half a world apart, Moore said.

For example, at the base in Mosul, Iraq, where there are four chapels, Jewish worship is on Fridays. Services are held each Sunday evening; Catholic Christmas Mass will be held Dec. 24 and 25.

Army National Guard Chaplain Eddie Barnett in Mosul said he and other chaplains in Iraq continually visit troops in the field. And the family readiness groups have sent family holiday pictures to the troops for Christmas, which has been a big hit. They’ve taken video shots of service members to send back home to family, too.

The service member and the family should communicate about holiday plans, Moore said, so that nobody feels left out.

“On Christmas Day, a spouse can tell the children that mom or dad helped plan this,” he said. “That’s where anxiety comes in for the parent and the children, when you don’t plan. It’s better to have a dialogue with the soldier.”

That plan might include an arranged time for a phone call from the service member. But everyone should understand that in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan, things can happen to delay phone calls, such as long waits for telephones.

How will Barnett spend Christmas?

“Well, right here in Iraq with whatever family I have here,” he said.

Lauren Huston and her children have focused on making sure Sgt. 1st Class Joe Huston has a decent Christmas. He’s a big NASCAR fan, so they sent him a Jeff Gordon stocking and NASCAR ornaments with tiny pit-crew people carrying tires and gas cans.

“He’s done a good job as far as Christmas,” Lauren said. “He’s sent pictures of the stuff we sent him — the tree, garlands, the little choo-choo train underneath the tree, with the fake snow. It’s so cute. He’s done a lot better than I have.”

Her husband has noticed.

“He’s asked that we please put up the tree … for his sake,” she said.

One Army Special Forces wife said she’s looking at this Christmas differently:

“I’m indulging in some of the things I like to do during the holidays,” she said. “He doesn’t like to travel, so the kids and I are going away for the holidays. And I’m trying to find someone to go Christmas caroling with me.”For some families, it helps to be with others in the same situation, which is the point of Marine wife Rachel Caero’s military spouse Web site, www.support4life .ipbhost.com.

Jamie, an Army wife at Fort Belvoir, Va., whose husband is in Iraq, said Caero’s network is all she has, with no family nearby. She asked that her last name not be used.

On Thanksgiving, she chatted with other wives whose husbands are deployed and expects to do so on Christmas and New Year’s, too.

Some families cope by trying to move up or postpone holiday celebrations. Tina Holt, whose fiancé is a sailor, said she tries to have the holiday celebration before he leaves when he is going to miss Thanksgiving or Christmas.

“That way he can open presents and have yummy food,” she said in an e-mail.

Jamie is holding off on her daughter’s first big Christmas until her husband’s return next November. Their 2-year-old daughter will get presents this year, but the celebration will be minimal.

“It’s just me and her,” Jamie said.



Ellie

thedrifter
12-23-04, 11:24 AM
With many area Marines in Iraq, volunteers step in to collect gifts for needy families' children

Reinforcements help toy brigade

By KRIS WERNOWSKY

kwernowsky@leader.net


WILKES-BARRE - Former Marine John Dickson thought nothing of his daily rush to collect toys for the Toys for Tots gift campaign.
"Once a Marine, always a Marine," he said. "Someone had to pick up the slack, so I made it a mission."

With most of Detachment Alpha of Marine Wing Support Squadron 472 serving in Iraq, the Wyoming-based Marine Corps unit was about 150 men short of volunteers for this year's drive, Maj. Tim Crowley said.

Since the campaign's beginning in September, Dickson collected toys, helped set up drop-off locations and helped raise money to buy toys through several fund-raisers.

With the help of people like Dickson, Crowley said, the Marines were able to exceed last year's 66,000 toys with nearly 140,000 in this year's campaign, which ended Wednesday.

"It's been a very successful year," Crowley said. "Everyone in Northeast Pennsylvania has been very generous and kind with the program."

Volunteers ranging from families of troops, Cub Scouts and area businesses helped collect and sort the toys that are handed out to about 40 local charitable organizations for distribution to needy families, Crowley said.

Crowley himself had just completed a final run to collect toys in Clarks Summit.

"No matter what your rank was, we all had to pitch in," he said.

Dickson, 44, of Stroudsburg, has volunteered for the Marines' annual charitable toy drive for the past six years. He does it because while growing up, his family relied on similar drives to help out during the holidays.

"I was one of those children and you have to give back," he said.

The Salvation Army, which pulls some of its toy donations from the Toys for Tots campaign, is also expected to have a good year in the way of charitable donations.

The organization received some of its 28,000 toy donations through Toys for Tots, but also through its own Angel Tree fund-raiser and general donations, according to Capt. Gilbert Parkhurst of the Wilkes-Barre division.

Bell ringers for the Salvation Army's red kettle campaign were stationed at 18 businesses in the greater Wilkes-Barre area, Parkhurst said.

As of Wednesday, he said the group is still about $10,000 short of its $100,000 goal for red kettle collections with two days remaining.

"We had so many people volunteer this year," Parkhurst said.


Ellie

thedrifter
12-23-04, 11:40 AM
No. 1313-04
Dec 22, 2004
IMMEDIATE RELEASE



National Guard and Reserve Mobilized as of December 22, 2004
This week, the Army and Air Force announced an increase in the number of reservists on active duty in support of the partial mobilization, while the Marines and Navy had a decrease and the Coast Guard number remained the same. The net collective result is 634 more reservists mobilized than last week.

At any given time, services may mobilize some units and individuals while demobilizing others, making it possible for these figures to either increase or decrease. Total number currently on active duty in support of the partial mobilization for the Army National Guard and Army Reserve is 160,013; Naval Reserve, 3,388; Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve, 11,542; Marine Corps Reserve, 10,403; and the Coast Guard Reserve, 1,020. This brings the total National Guard and Reserve personnel, who have been mobilized, to 186,366 including both units and individual augmentees.

A cumulative roster of all National Guard and Reserve personnel, who are currently mobilized can be found at http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Dec2004/d20041222.pdf


Ellie

thedrifter
12-23-04, 11:41 AM
Iraq KIA w/faces

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/forces/casualties/2004.12.html

Ellie

thedrifter
12-23-04, 12:27 PM
Three Dead After Fighting in Fallujah

By NICK WADHAMS, Associated Press Writer

FALLUJAH, Iraq - U.S. Marines battled insurgents in Fallujah on Thursday, with warplanes dropping bombs and tanks shelling suspected guerrilla positions in the heaviest fighting in weeks, erupting as the first residents returned to the devastated city. At least three Marines were killed in the area, the military said.


Fallujans lined up in cars and on foot at checkpoints, brandishing documents to Iraqi police to show they had the right to re-enter the city. Once inside, they returned to the remains of bombed-out and looted homes, some with bodies still inside from weeks of fighting.


The return of residents is a key part of U.S.-Iraqi efforts to rebuild Fallujah after the bloody, two-week U.S. military offensive in November that wrested the city from the control of insurgents. Most of Fallujah's approximately 250,000 people fled before the assault.


But the new fighting highlighted that the city is far from completely tamed. Since the offensive, Fallujah has seen sporadic clashes between U.S. troops and pockets of insurgents, and Thursday's battles were the heaviest since a surge of fighting on Dec. 10 that killed seven Marines, three Iraqi troops and about 50 insurgents.


F-18 fighter-bombers were seen striking at targets in the city's outskirts Thursday, and tank and artillery fire was also heard.


U.S. officials said Marines and insurgents were killed in the Fallujah fighting. A military spokeswoman said three Marines were killed in action Thursday in Anbar province, which surrounds Fallujah.


American commanders have hailed the November offensive in Fallujah as a major tactical victory. But since then, violence elsewhere in Iraq (news - web sites) has only escalated, after many guerrillas apparently slipped out of Fallujah to operate in central and northern Iraq.


U.S. forces suffered the deadliest attack on one of their bases, when a blast Tuesday ripped through a dining tent at a base near Mosul, killing 22 people — mostly Americans. The military was reassessing security measures at bases across Iraq after it was determined that a suicide bomber carried out the attack after successfully infiltrating the base, officials said.


The top U.S. general in northern Iraq, Gen. Carter F. Ham, told CNN Thursday that the suicide bomber was apparently wearing an Iraqi military uniform.


A U.S. soldier was also killed Thursday by a roadside bomb in Baghdad, the military said. The deaths raised the number of U.S. troops who have died since the start of the war in March 2003 to at least 1,325, according to an unofficial count by The Associated Press.


Since the Fallujah offensive, tens of thousands of residents who fled have been crowded into camps set up in the region or living with relatives in Baghdad or elsewhere, eager to return to their homes.


With elections approaching on Jan. 30, U.S. and Iraqi officials have been organizing a stage-by-stage return to prevent a flood of people — while at the same time dealing with the persistent clashes with insurgents still in the city.


Authorities had planned on Thursday to allow the return of 2,000 residents, all from a small Fallujah neighborhood called Andalus, a generally commercial district. By the afternoon, only about 200 actually made the trip, according to U.S. officials.


Lt. Col. Kevin Hansen, the Fallujah operations officer with the Marines' 4th Civil Affairs unit, said residents may not be aware of the return, and that more may come on Friday after announcements during weekly prayers at mosques.


"Most of them get their information from the mosques so we think that tomorrow they'll get the word out more," he said.


At a checkpoint into the city, cars were lined up, and returnees showed documents to police and pulled out luggage for search. There was some confusion over who was allowed in and when.


"We traveled hundreds of kilometres (miles) to get to the city," said one man, Abu Omar al-Duleimi. "When we arrived, there was no timetable for our return. And they told us that only a small group could enter the city while others were not allowed."





Once inside, returnees found neigbhorhoods ravaged. "This is all that's left of my property," one man said, waving a dusty blanket. In footage by Associated Press Television News, the corpse of an elderly woman was visible in one destroyed house, lying face down in her black robe. It was not clear how long ago she was killed.

In Mosul, Tuesday's suicide bombing raised questions about how the attacker infiltrated the compound, which is surrounded by blast walls and barbed wire and watched by U.S. troops who search every person going in and check his identity.

Brig. Gen. Ham told CNN, "What we think is likely, but certainly not certain, is that an individual in an Iraqi military uniform, possibly with a vest-worn explosive device, was inside the facility and detonated the facility, causing this tragedy. That's preleminary. We'll find out what the truth is and take necessary actions as we gain more information."

A contingent of FBI (news - web sites) bomb technicians has been deployed to help the military investigate the bombing, said an FBI official on condition of anonymity. The Baghdad-based FBI team will help identify the type of explosive and components used, which could provide forensic links to previous Iraq bombings.

The apparent sophistication of the bombing indicated the attacker probably had inside knowledge of the base's layout and the soldiers' schedule. The blast came at lunchtime.

"We always have force protection keeping their eyes out," Lt. Col. Paul Hastings, spokesman for Task Force Olympia, said Thursday. "For somebody that wants to take his life and kill himself, its very difficult to stop those people."

Asked how will they act following the attack, Hastings said that now that the cause of the attack is known, "a full investigation is now ongoing and from that full investigation we will act according."

Early Thursday, hundreds of U.S. troops, Iraqi National Guards and Kurdish militiamen were seen in the streets of Mosul moving around in Bradley Fighting vehicles. In some eastern neighborhoods they searched homes for weapons. One of the city's five bridges over the Tigris River reopened Thursday, after all were blocked off by U.S. troops a day earlier.



Ellie

thedrifter
12-23-04, 01:31 PM
Entrepreneur Supports Troops Via Military-Themed Cookies
By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Dec. 21, 2004 -- A California businessman is supporting the U.S. military through his line of special cookies featuring emblems of the armed services.

Cliff Smith of San Diego, founder and president of the Cookie Club of America Inc., launched Stampers cookies this spring. The vanilla-almond cookies bear embossed emblems of the branches of the military.

"I'm a private citizen who has a passion for the country and for those who serve," said Smith, a restaurateur who has worked for major hotel chains over the past 25 years.

Smith's family has a history of military service; one brother is a lieutenant colonel with the Army's 82nd Airborne Division and another served in the Marines. And, Smith noted, his father, Harold, is a World War II veteran who fought in Europe with Gen. George S. Patton.

The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States and the ensuing war against global terrorism prompted Smith "to do something to support the troops." It took two years to get the Cookie Club off and running, he said, noting he'd secured permission from the armed services to make the military- themed cookies.

There was some trepidation, Smith said, that military members might take offense at having their service's emblem stamped on a cookie, "but that never happened."

The intricate Army emblem was especially difficult to reproduce in cookie dough, Smith recalled, but the challenge was surmounted. The cookies have proven to be extremely popular, he said, noting, "everyone flips" over them.

Five percent of cookie sales are earmarked for the National Military Family Association, a nonprofit group dedicated to supporting servicemembers and their families. Smith said the cookies officially debuted here at a May 2004 NMFA event.

President Bush and Joint Chiefs Chairman Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers have both received a box of the cookies. And, Smith said, the president sent him a letter of thanks.

Since November, the cookies can be found at 2,000 Kroger- and A&P-affiliated
grocery stores in many parts of the United States, as well as on the Internet. The cookies' store displays feature dog-tag cards so that customers can fill out messages for deployed troops. The messages are mailed to Smith's business and then are forwarded to troops serving overseas.

Smith's cookies may one day also be sold in military commissaries. "That's where we ultimately want to go," Smith said, noting he's conducting research "to make that happen."

Smith said his cookie initiative represents "a quiet showing of gratitude" for servicemembers and helps military families.

And, as Americans count their blessings over the holidays, Smith said, they should also thank the many U.S. servicemembers who are spending the holiday season "in Fallujah (Iraq) or Kabul (Afghanistan)."

Ellie

thedrifter
12-23-04, 02:17 PM
December 27, 2004

5th CAG created for duty in Iraq

By Christian Lowe
Times staff writer


They come from all walks of life — a school teacher, an engineer, an environmental specialist.
Many have been to Iraq already; some have gone twice. A few have come back from retirement, while others are reservists who have been watching the war in Iraq from the sidelines, a Marine uniform hanging neatly in the closet as they await the call to duty.

But in February, 193 Marines will deploy with the colors of the 5th Civil Affairs Group — a unit that, until this fall, didn’t even exist — for a seven-month tour in Iraq to help a people torn by civil strife and national upheaval.

The group will join deployed Marines, mainly from II Marine Expeditionary Force, in restive Anbar province, which includes the insurgent hotbed cities of Fallujah, Ramadi and Mosul.

Marine Forces Reserve scrambled to stand up the new civil affairs unit to offer relief for the Camp Pendleton, Calif.-based 3rd CAG and the Washington, D.C.-based 4th CAG, which have deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan several times. More civil affairs Marines will be needed to keep public works projects going during the next Iraq rotation beginning in March, so a new CAG was born.

The leathernecks of 5th CAG, all volunteers, will go through a two-week civil affairs school and a two-week security and stabilization operations training package at Camp Lejeune, N.C., in mid-January.

The diverse makeup of the new CAG shows just how willing Marines in and out of the Corps are to help their brethren, said Lt. Col. Steve McKinley, 5th CAG commander.

“We’ve got a complement of Marines that really reflects the Marine Corps [of] 2004 — they come from across the spectrum,” said McKinley, who commanded the 4th CAG from 2000 to 2002.

A recently retired bond trader from Richmond, Va., he was asked in October by the Marine Forces Reserve commander, Lt. Gen. Dennis McCarthy, to head the new CAG.

“I said, ‘I’m in. I’ll take care of it. You’ve got nothing to worry about,’” McKinley recalled.

All of the Corps’ civil affairs expertise is in the Reserve, with two groups of about 150 Marines. The groups often work in small teams in Iraq, linking up with Marine or Army units in local communities, relying on wit and good humor to deal with sometimes caustic Iraqi public officials.

Headquarters support for the group will be provided by Headquarters and Service Company, 4th Combat Engineer Battalion. Officers with the Baltimore-based battalion are undergoing civil affairs training in their hometown, McKinley said.

The new CAG will be disbanded after returning to the United States in September, McKinley said. It is unclear whether the Corps will activate another civil affairs unit permanently, though civil affairs commanders have recently pushed for change, including incorporating the groups into the active duty force.

Ellie

thedrifter
12-23-04, 04:05 PM
U.S.: Mosul Bomber Wore Iraqi Uniform

By RAWYA RAGEH, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The suicide bomber believed to have blown himself up in a U.S. military dining tent near Mosul this week, killing more than 20 people, was probably wearing an Iraqi military uniform, the U.S. military said Thursday.


The top U.S. general in northern Iraq (news - web sites) acknowledged that the bomber may have gotten through the vetting process conducted by U.S. and Iraqi authorities to check the backgrounds of Iraqis joining the security services.


Lt. Col. Paul Hastings, spokesman for Task Force Olympia in Mosul, said a general officer will be flying in from headquarters in Baghdad to take over the investigation into how the devastating attack on the base near Mosul was carried out. The FBI (news - web sites) is also participating in the probe.


"He'll initiate an investigation ...then we will be in a better position to find out what happened," Hastings said in a telephone interview.


The Ansar al-Sunnah Army, the military group that earlier claimed responsibility for the attack, issued a new statement reiterating that it was a suicide bombing.


"God enabled one of your martyr brothers to plunge into God's enemies inside their forts, killing and injuring hundreds," the group said in a statement posted on its Web site Thursday. "We don't know how they can be so stupid that until now they have not figured out the type of the strike that hit them."


The blast Tuesday was the deadliest single attack on a U.S. base, hitting the dining tent at lunchtime and killing 13 U.S. servicemembers, five American civilians, three Iraqi National Guard members, and one "unidentified non-U.S. person." Military officials have said it's not yet known whether that final death was the suicide bomber.


"From preliminary indications of the damage it looks like the guy (the suicide bomber) was wearing an Iraqi military uniform," Hastings said, adding that it seemed like a "vest-type of explosive."


Investigators had still not determined whether the attacker was working on the base or whether he had managed to infiltrate it, Hastings said.


Members of the Iraqi interim government's fledgling security forces routinely operate with U.S. troops in operations against the insurgents. Until now, there have been no reports of serious tensions between the two.


Iraqi government officials said they knew nothing of the report that bomber may have been wearing a uniform. "This was an American declaration, we don't know any thing about it, they did not contact us," said Salih Sarhan, a spokesman for the Iraqi Defense Ministry.


In an interview with CNN, Brig. Gen. Carter F. Ham — commander of Task Force Olympia, the main U.S. force in northern Iraq — also reported the bomber was likely wearing an Iraqi uniform and said the attacker may have gotten through the vetting process run by U.S. and Iraqi authorities.


"The vetting process I think is sound, but clearly we have now at least one instance where that was likely not satisfactory. So we have to redouble our efforts there," he said.


Ham said the bomber likely had help, though he did not say whether it was known if the bomber had accomplices in the camp.


"It is very difficult to conceive that this would be the act of a lone individual. It would seem to me reasonable to assume that this was a mission perhaps sometime in the planning, days perhaps," he said.


Amid the investigation, the military is reassessing security at bases across Iraq in light of the bomber's success in apparently slipping into the camp, entering a tent crowded with soldiers eating lunch and detonating his explosives.


The attack's apparent sophistication indicated the bomber probably had inside knowledge of the base's layout and the soldiers' schedule.





Jeremy Redmon, a reporter from the Richmond Times-Dispatch embedded with troops at the Mosul base, said Iraqis working on the base show identification to get in to the base, but once inside move with relative freedom.

At the targeted dining hall "there was no security that I saw," Redmon told CNN. He said that during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan — in October and November, when authorities had increased concern of attacks — civilians were screened as they entered "but that stopped after Ramadan."

Reports earlier Thursday indicated that security had been boosted in at least several U.S. bases and other facilities following the suicide bombing.

Hastings said that armed guards were posted at the entrances and exits from dining halls and other communal areas at his base in northern Mosul.

Early Thursday, hundreds of U.S. troops, Iraqi National Guards and Kurdish militiamen were seen in the streets of Mosul moving around in Bradley Fighting vehicles. In some eastern neighborhoods they searched homes for weapons. One of the city's five bridges over the Tigris River reopened Thursday, after all were blocked off by U.S. troops a day earlier.

Iraqi National Guards manned a checkpoint near another U.S. base, the former palace of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), stopping passing cars and searching them.


Ellie

thedrifter
12-23-04, 08:03 PM
The Marine comes home for the holidays


Thursday, December 23, 2004
At seven in the morning, the Marine is still in bed with what's left of his leg, so his dad is telling me the story. On their fourth day in Fallujah, the "three-five" -- Third Battalion 5th Marines -- was clearing out one last house. Cpl. Paul Powell III was checking the rear entry when two dozen insurgents, crouched in prayer behind the house, came up shooting.

Powell was hit in the elbow before he put his M-16 on burst and "took out four or five of them," his father says. Then automatic fire from the street strafed his right leg, shattering both his fibula and tibia before fellow Marines could pull him to safety.

He called his father from Fallujah on a satellite phone. He said he'd been shot in the leg and promised, "I'll be fine." The Marines flew the 21-year-old combat engineer to Germany, then to the Bethesda naval base, while his father, Paul Powell Jr., fought to find a way to join him.

The Marine's father has survived several addictions. He's done jail time. "Probation violations. Drugs and alcohol. Assault. Bar fights, mostly. I've been in plenty of those," the elder Powell says. He speaks with the searing, unsparing honesty of a guy who has marched through a recovery program. He has no time to be embarrassed. He is playing forward, not looking back.

Powell lost his job at Willamette Industries 21 months ago. He's been scrambling ever since, a single father doing temp jobs, exhausting his unemployment, scraping by on warehouse work. Gas to Gresham is a problem, airfare to the East Coast an impossibility.

Except for this: His son is a Marine. And the Marines came through. A California-based organization called the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund (www.semperfifund.org) flew Powell to Maryland, set him up at the Navy Lodge and gave him meal money.

The first time he saw his son, lying on that hospital bed, the gaping leg wound elevated above the sheets, he gave him a hug. "Then I had to walk back out," he says. "I lost it. I was crying like a baby."

Not for the last time. Powell spent two weeks in Bethesda and 18 hours a day at the hospital, watching the surgeons work on the leg and the Marine work on his attitude. "I'm very good with adversity. I've passed that on to my son," the father says. "But he's real bitter about it." Even if the leg can be salvaged, "he's going to limp for the rest of his life. He won't play basketball again . . . and my son had a vertical leap as good as Michael Jordan's.

"Those are the things he remembers. Those are the things he's lost."

Loss. Loss is what you find at these hospitals. "I saw faces blown off. I saw enough arms and legs missing to fill a dumpster," Powell says. "It's something I'll never forget. It made my little problems look meaningless."

But it didn't make them disappear. When Powell returned Dec. 6, his 8-year-old daughter, Samantha, was waiting for him. The warehouse job wasn't. Neither Powell, a printer by trade, nor the temp agency has found anything to replace it. The Marine returned to their Milwaukie apartment Tuesday. His father spent the day at the welfare office.

He's tried to build something better than what he grew up with, visiting close relatives every other Sunday at the state pen. He wasn't much of a dad until he shook his own addictions; now that he has, adversity doesn't frighten him. "I could make a Lifetime movie out of this," he says, but as he tells the Marine, things could be worse.

His son comes out of the bedroom, leaning on his walker, fumbling with bandages. Asked about the war and how the Marines view the fighting to come, he says, "It's going to be OIF 17."

OIF? "Operation Iraqi Freedom," the former basketball player says. "There was OIF-1, then Operation Enduring Freedom. There'll be OIF 17. Our kids, our kids' kids, are going to be fighting in this. That's what we all think."

He lowers himself to the floor. His leg is wrapped in an erector set. His sister sits in her purple nightgown on the couch. There's a $12 Christmas tree in the corner, but I search in vain for the angels hanging, calm and bright, over the open wounds.

Steve Duin: 503-221-8597; Steveduin@aol.com; 1320 S.W. Broadway, Portland, OR 97201
----------


Ellie