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thedrifter
12-28-04, 07:18 AM
Iraq Edges Towards Civil War
United Press International
December 28, 2004

NEW YORK - Iraq faces the prospect of civil war as Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's government loses credibility and violence against U.S. forces increases, according to almost a half dozen former and serving administration officials.

In last Tuesday's suicide bombing attack at a mess tent at Mosul, 22 were killed -- 18 of them Americans -- and 50 wounded.

"We can't afford to keep taking that kind of hit," a Pentagon official said. "We can't afford it in terms of American public opinion, and it causes us to loose credibility with the Iraqi public."

Upcoming January elections will not improve the deteriorating security situation, these sources said, all speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitiveness of the topic.

Plus a new threat has arisen.

"We are starting to play the ethnic card in Iraq, just as the Soviets played it in Afghanistan," said former CIA chief of Afghanistan operation Milt Bearden.




"You only play it when you're losing and by playing it, you simply speed up the process of losing," he said.

Phoebe Marr, an analyst who closely follows events in Iraq, told United Press International that "having the U.S. military unleash different historical enemies on each other has become an unspoken U.S. policy."

Bearden, Marr and others also referred to the Pentagon's tactic of pitting one group of enemies against another in Iraq as being fraught with danger.

For example, during the assault on Fallujah, wary of the reliability of Iraqi forces, the Marines used 2,000 Kurdish Peshmerga militia troops against the Arab Sunnis. The two groups share a long history of mistrust and animosity, according to Marr.

Both ethnic groups are Sunni, but Kurds speak a different language, have distinct customs, and are not Arabs.

"I think the U.S. military is trying to get ethnic groups to take on the insurgents, and I don't think it will work," Marr said.

According to a former senior CIA official, the agency is dealing with reports of ethnic cleansing being undertaken by the Kurds in areas near Kirkuk.

"It's all taking place off everyone's radar, and it's very quiet, but it's happening," this source said.

Original reports disclosing that up to 150,000 Arab Sunnis had been uprooted and placed in camps have proved to be unreliable, several U.S. officials said.

"There's so much white noise, so much unreliable rumor in the air," said Middle East expert Tony Cordesman. "You are going to have to get data from people on site, not from those in the rear areas."

According to Marr, Iraq has always been a complicated mosaic of religious and ethnic groups and tribes. The tilt of the Bush administration towards Iraq's Shiites, who compromise 60 percent of the population, upset the balance of power, she said.

Former Defense Intelligence Agency chief of Middle East operations, Pat Lang, said the key blunder was the disbanding of Iraq's 400,000-man army. "At a stroke, we went from a liberator to an occupier."

A Pentagon official said that the Iraqi army had been "a respected institution," in Marr's words, "a focal point of national identity," utterly abolished.

From the beginning, sectarian and ethnic groups have been quietly at war. A U.S. intelligence official told United Press International that soon after the U.S. victory, there were Shiite assassination squads "that were going around settling scores that dated back from the time (Iraqi leader) Saddam Hussein was in power."

There were also suicide bombings of Shiites by Islamist jihadis allegedly led by Abu Musab Zarqawi, an Islamist militant now associated with al-Qaida. According to the intelligence official, Zarqawi in the late 1990s was responsible for bombing Shiites in Iran from his base in Pakistan where he was associated with the militant SSP party.

The Sunni Arabs, once the leading political group under Saddam Hussein, feel threatened and made politically impotent by the Shiite majority, according to U.S. officials.

This partly explains their leadership of a broad, deeply entrenched insurgency designed to humiliate American military power, keep the bulk of the Sunni population on the fence, and rally anti-U.S. forces in the region, U.S. officials said.

While the Shiites and Kurds are eager to participate in the upcoming elections, the Sunnis are indifferent, U.S. officials said. "They feel they don't have a dog in this fight," a former senior CIA official said.

Another problem is the Iraqi middleclass, many of them Sunni, and almost all of them anti-American, according to Marr. "They disliked us in the past because the U.N. sanctions made them suffer. When the war came, they had expectations that were much too high. Then they became passive and they won't work with us, and yet this is the only chance they're going to get."

"The Sunnis and Shiites don't like the occupation and want us out as soon as possible," she added. "Their idea is that if a security force is needed, they want to do it themselves."

The Sunnis are also divided. "Iraq is such a complex mosaic that breaks down into terribly diffuse groups," Marr said. "In places like Mosul, Basra and Baghdad, the Sunnis are secular professionals who look down their noses at the tribes and Shia."

Outside of Baghdad and the cities, the Sunnis are "isolated, and, by history, clannish and tribe-oriented," she said.

"But even with the Shiites, there is no real unity there either. Some are Iran-oriented, others are more secular," Marr said.

The war has made all three groups, Kurds, Shiites and Sunni, "crawl into themselves," she said.

And the future? "All sorts of ugly things could happen -- the Kurds could declare independence or the split between the Shiite and Sunni could deepen. The new Iraqi state could fail," an administration official said.

For Marr the outlook was also grim: "The whole Bush administration policy has been outrageously careless" and because of this, she said, the tenuous unity of Iraq "could break down."

Said former senior CIA Iraqi analyst Judith Yaphe: "Elections will not solve anything -- we are grasping for events that will enable us to get out of Iraq, but there are no such thing. Democracy is not an event but a process."

Ellie

thedrifter
12-28-04, 07:19 AM
Kids Raise Money For Phone Cards <br />
Associated Press <br />
December 28, 2004 <br />
<br />
BOSTON - For all the billions of dollars being spent on the war in Iraq, 14-year-old Brittany Bergquist is surprised that...

thedrifter
12-28-04, 07:19 AM
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Iraqis Help Train American Troops
Associated Press
December 28, 2004

EDINBURGH, Ind. - As American soldiers attempted to tow a Humvee hit by a fake roadside bomb, Saleh Thanon, an Iraqi national, taunted them with insults.

"Criminal, get out of my country!" Thanon yelled in Arabic, heckling the troops in a mock Iraqi village. "I don't want you in my country. You're killing people."

Harsh words for someone who professes to love America, but Thanon is just doing his job. He's training troops for Iraq, and he wants them to be ready.

The Army has been using Iraqi nationals to help troops develop language and cultural skills since the invasion of that country in March 2003. They are among about 1,000 Arabic speakers the Army uses for training, said Bob Close, spokesman for U.S. Army Forces Command.

At least eight mobilization stations are using Iraqis to help Guard, reserve and active troops prepare for deployments, Close said. Among them are Camp Atterbury, 30 miles south of Indianapolis; the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, La., and the National Training Center at Fort Irvine, Calif.

Some days, the Iraqis play welcoming townspeople, friendly mayors or Iraqi police; on others, they portray terrorists or hostile villagers.




The training represents a change in philosophy for the military, said David R. Segal, director of the Center for Research on Military Organization at the University of Maryland. Army troops have long received language help as they prepared for battle, but cultural training was nonexistent in such conflicts as the Vietnam War, he said.

Winning over the Iraqi people, who play a key role in this mission, is crucial to success, Segal said. "This is a war where cultural knowledge may be more important than the number of bullets that you have," he said.

Many of the participating Iraqis immigrated to the United States after the 1991 Persian Gulf War to escape oppression under Saddam Hussein's regime. Some are now American citizens.

Their work with U.S. troops is coordinated by defense contractors such as Goldbelt Eagle, which is paid $15 million to provide role players at five military bases. President Wayne Smith said applicants typically hear about the jobs through word of mouth or recruiters.

All participants must pass rigorous screenings by a private investigator and the government.

Thanon and his friend Salim Alshimary said they sought the work to help their homeland.

"I love this job, trying to help the U.S. military understand my language and my culture and save lives, both of them, the Iraq and the U.S.," Thanon said.

Alshimary, 36, of Basra, Iraq, said he deserted from the Iraqi Army after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait. He believes he would have been killed if he had not left the country.

He has been surprised by the postwar violence in his homeland.

"We never thought this bad stuff would happen," he said. "We thought it would be easy and it will be very quick."

It has been neither, which makes understanding the Iraqi culture essential, participants said.

Thanon, who attended Basra University and coached soccer in Iraq, advises the troops to not touch women and not to yell at children; both actions perceived as disrespectful.

In one scenario, he pretends to be the head of a household who won't cooperate with the troops unless they are polite.

"That way, I will help you get into my house and search my house and be friendly," Thanon said.

"We know the Americans go over to help us, but there are some people in Iraq that can't understand that because they see them do things in different ways."

Segal said those cultural differences were evident in the media portrayal last month of the shooting of a wounded and apparently unarmed man by a Marine in a Fallujah mosque.

The Arabic media expressed outrage that the Marines wore boots in the mosque - a taboo in the Muslim faith. The issue was hardly mentioned in the American media, Segal said.

Maj. Gen. Bruce Robinson, commander of the 98th Division, which recently deployed from Camp Atterbury to help train the Iraqi military, said the cultural lessons have been beneficial.

"We go in as guests to a host country and poised to respect the cultures and customs of that culture," Robinson said.

Ellie

thedrifter
12-28-04, 07:20 AM
Shelters Gear Up For Returning Vets
Boston Herald
December 28, 2004

Bay State shelters are bracing for an influx of Iraqi war veterans, concerned the returning troops will be confronted by costly housing, cheating wives and a tight job market when they get back home.

"We do expect to see veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts in the shelter. It's just about inevitable," said Stephen Spain of the New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans in Boston.

Quincy is opening a lodging house with a floor designated for veterans, said John Yazwinski, executive director of Father Bill's Place, a shelter where vets make up 20 percent of the population.

"We are going to see people struggling with employment, housing and mental health and substance issues," said Yazwinski.

The city has a waiting list for another eight-unit veterans' rooming house that opened in 1997.

In New Bedford, the Veterans' Transition House is also preparing for post-war arrivals. "There are so many people over in Iraq now. At some point, we will start getting people," said executive director Dan Perry.




Complicating matters, thousands are returning home as amputees, as body armor improves the likelihood of a soldier surviving land-mine explosions and attacks, said Leslie Lightfoot, director of the Veterans Hospice Homestead in Fitchburg.

Many turn to alcohol and drugs to "numb some of the pain and memories," said Lightfoot.

Recent vets are already showing up in group therapy, said Lightfoot, who is helping them deal with anger toward the government, cheating wives and spouses who have drained bank accounts.

"I had a guy who didn't have the money to get a haircut because his wife had taken all the money he'd sent home and spent it," Lightfoot said.

Veterans make up about about 30 percent of the nation's homeless, said Fran McMorrow, director of the Quincy Veterans' House, where three jobless Iraq veterans already are receiving help.

"We're helping them with their rents," McMorrow said.

While reservists are promised their jobs upon returning home, others joined the military right out of high school.

Nearly two dozen unemployed Iraq and Afghanistan veterans enrolled in a job training program at the New England Shelter for Homeless Veterans, but the federal government recently cut funding for the program.

Nick Tenney, 23, joined the Marines after high school. The machine gunner returned to his parents' home in Lynn last summer after serving overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Tenney recently took a security training course at the shelter.

"It's a whole different world when you're in the Marines and then you get out and come back into the civilian world," said Tenney. "It was kind of hard."

Ellie

thedrifter
12-28-04, 07:20 AM
12-27-2004

Iraq Is A Racket



Sir,

Can we win here or are we just stuck in a quagmire? There are many things to consider in this outwardly simple question. Political hand tieing, the very nature of the enemy, and our own political administration's motives for invading Iraq in the first place to name but a few. So far as political hand tieing is concerned here is a case in point. The Imam of one of the mosques in our area, a vociferously anti-coalition individual, and his mosque were once on our target list. It was basically common knowledge that the mosque was, and is a haven for the insurgents in a district that has supported the insurgency since the outset of the war. We had actively hunted him for more than six months. We raided this mosque at one point early in our tour here along with certain special operations elements and found a mountain of medical supplies. One of our platoon's squad leaders with experience in the medical field noted that these supplies were of the type used to treat trauma. No wonder we almost never found wounded insurgents at the local hospital after a firefight, they went to the damn mosque for treatment! At one point this imam called for a jihad against the "infidels" and has called for the citizens to rise up and fight against us on numerous occasions.

The Iraqi counter terror unit raided the mosque. With in 24 hours the Mehdi army retalliated and my unit was engaged in heaviest fighting we have seen since we have been in country. Within days he and his mosque appeared on the "do not target list". Another case in point comes in the form of one particular cell that we spent four months hunting down and either killing or capturing. The ones that we did not send to their maker spent a total of two months in Abu Ghraib, were then released, and are now back on the streets free to make war against us once again. This is typical of how things work here. It is almost as though someone, other than the guerrillas, does not want stability to be achieved here. Because so long as insecurity reigns then there will be a need for our involvement and opportunities for money to be made. As you know in order to win in a counter insurgency role we must take away the guerrilla's sanctuaries. During Vietnam it was the neighboring countries and North Vietnam. Places where the enemy could go to lick his wounds, consolidate and reorganize to fight again another day. Here it is the mosques and surrounding countries along with the very population we are supposedly trieing to protect. This brings us to the point of the nature of our enemy. It is apparent from my perspective that the guerrillas have a great deal of popular support. As Che Gueverra noted it is essential that guerrilla movement have popular support in order to have any chance at success. Not only that but the very structure of this over 4,000 year old society lends itself to the organization and protection of an insurgency. You, of course, are intimately familiar with guerrilla warfare and know the things that must be done to win. Militarily we whoop their ass in every engagement. Casualty ratios are always extremely lopsided in our favor much as they were in Vietnam. The insurgents are thankfully rather inept when it comes to the actual fighting.

However, I recall a documentary about Vietnam that I watched on the history channel years ago and some American General told General Giap that they had never defeated us on the field of battle and Giap replied, that yes this was true, but "it is also irrelevent". They did not need to defeat us on the battlefield to win the war, only to change pulic opinion in America enough to pressure the administration sufficiently to pull out. Well apparently our military, and government has no institutional memory, or the reason for being here does not include winning. To that end, what is the real reason for being here? There was obviously no real threat to the U.S. from Saddam's conventional forces. He simply did not possess the force projection to threaten us in that manner. Did he support terror? Probably. But we KNOW that Saudi Arabia actively supports terrorism and are we invading there? Hell no! They have far too much financial clout in the world and with our political leaders for us to **** with them like that. Unfortunately it is money that seems to be driving this whole thing. All the contractors and the like. Reconstruction etc. Hell I have seen ING wearing MICH helmets. The other day we spent a couple of hours on the range and I saw a bunch of ING with brand new AKs, black plastic stock types with holographic sights, Tac lights and the whole nine yards. The bottom line is that there is a ton of money to be made so long as the U.S. remains engaged here. Every Bradley that is lost, every Humvee that burns, every round that is fired, every meal that is served to American soldiers someone somewhere is making a buck.

So can we win here? Yes I believe fully that if we were allowed off the leash to wage war against the isnurgency as we see fit we could certainly win. In our zones we have enjoyed tremendous success by combining the efforts of Special Forces and conventional forces to ID, locate and remove the guerrilla elements. If the rest of the Army were to use our successful operations as a new paradigm for future operations against these bastards we could win. But that is simply not going to happen. The Army has one hell of a rough time with any type of change. Hell, "About Face" is a prime example of this problem. You had the solution and noone was willing to listen. As was done in Vietnam the ones wearing the suits and ties are calling the shots in this war. Compounding these problems is the money factor. Unfortunately certain key people appear to have dollar signs in their eyes and are blinded by them. No matter how many service members fall the allure of money and the incredible power of greed can override any sense of responsibility in those who are making the cash. Sure Saddam was a brute and needed to be taken out and that was an excellent achievment. However it is not my belief that we are here for some noble cause of freeing the Iraqi people. Despite the fact that the war has the beneficial side effect of acting as a magnet for the terrorists, drawing them here and causing them to commit assets here that could be used elsewhere we are not here to prevent the spread of terror.

The bottom line for me personally is that I am a soldier. While our political leader's motives for waging war may be questionable the reasons that a soldier fights cannot be questioned. We fight for our brothers in arms, we fight for survival, we fight for each other. I belong to this fight. And I will continue to fight and to lead soldiers until my country says it is time to stop or until God calls me home.

A Grunt Squad Leader


Ellie

thedrifter
12-28-04, 07:21 AM
12-27-2004

For the Record: Iraq Isn’t Enough



Editor’s Note: This email memorandum was provided to DefenseWatch by a Reserve Component officer who notes that the essence of the document is, “Simply having served a tour in Iraq isn’t enough to get you out.”



From: Slay, Leonette W Ms. 81 HQ DCS G1



Sent: Friday, December 17, 2004 5:32 PM



To: All in 81st RSC MSC/DRU CDR; All in 81st RSC MSC/DRU SR FTUS; All in

81st RSC TPU Primary Staff; All in 81st RSC TPU Special Staff; All in

81st RSC FTS Primary Staff; All in 81st RSC FTS Special Staff



Cc: All in 81st RRC Command Group; Saul, Renee A COL 81 HQ DCS G1;

Studebaker, Harry D Mr 81 HQ DCS G1; Johnson, Raymond E Mr 81 HQ DCS G1



Subject: Unqualified Resignations: New USARC Guidance



Importance: High



Please see new guidance below on the criteria under which USARC G1 will approve requests for unqualified resignations of an officer’s commission. Request that you give this guidance wide dissemination and use it when recommending approval or disapproval of an officer’s request.



Ms. Slay

HRO



-----Original Message-----



From: Underwood, Danny L Mr USARC G1



Sent: Friday, December 17, 2004 3:53 PM



To: USARC G1 MPO; Belk, Douglas COL, HRC-St. Louis; Darling, William

MAJ, HRC-St. Louis; Prewitt, Helen COL, HRC-St. Louis



Cc: Thomas, Billy W USARC G1; Hill, Eric J LTC USARC G1; White, Jeffery

E Mr USARC G1; Lynn, Joyce D SSG USARC G1; Schear, Ramona H Ms USARC G1;

Jacaruso, Natalie*COL (94RRC-ODCS,G1)



Subject: Unqualified Resignations (UNCLASSIFIED)



Classification: UNCLASSIFIED



Caveats: NONE



Ladies and Gentlemen,



Below is the guidance that will be used by us for approving resignations:



1. The USARC DCS, G-1, under the authority delegated by the Cdr, US Army Reserve Command, will approve requests for unqualified resignation by non-obligated officers who are not subject to Reserve Component Stop Loss if one or more of the following criteria are met:



a. The officer previously completed a term of mobilized service in support of Operations Noble Eagle, Enduring Freedom, or Iraqi Freedom.



b. The officer provides convincing evidence of compelling personal reasons for separation. Documentation must include statements of counseling from Army medical or chaplain personnel.



c. The officer is assigned to a rank and specialty with current officer personnel strength above 50% of authorized manning.



2. Compelling personal reasons for separation may exist under the following

circumstances:



a. Death or disability of an officer’s family member which results in other family members becoming principally dependent upon him or her for care or support to the extent that continued service would result in undue and genuine hardship.



b. Other circumstances not involving the death or disability of a family member (as noted in paragraph 5a above) in which the separation of the officer will materially affect the care or support of his or her family by alleviating undue and genuine hardship.



3. In order for an unqualified resignation request to be favorably considered on the basis of compelling personal reasons, the officer must clearly establish that:



a. The hardship is permanent, did not exist prior to entry into the Army Reserve, and can only be eliminated or materially alleviated by the officer’s separation; or



b. If the hardship existed prior to entry into the Army Reserve, the hardship is permanent, has significantly worsened since entry into the Army Reserve in spite of the officer’s reasonable efforts to remedy the situation, and can only be eliminated or materially alleviated by the officer’s separation.



4. Officers whose resignation request is based on their own statement of a medical condition will be referred to a medical evaluation board to determine medical fitness.



5. Unqualified resignation requests from officers subject to Reserve Component Stop Loss will be returned to the officers without action with an explanation that Reserve Component Stop Loss policy extends service through the period of mobilization plus 90 days. Officers should also be advised that they may submit a resignation request after the Stop Loss stabilization period has expired.



6. Mr. Jeff White at (404) 464-8977 or SSG Joyce Lynn at (404) 464-9627 can provide assistance to your staff.



Danny L. Underwood

Chief, Military Personnel Management Division

Deputy Chief of Staff, G-1

Voice: 404.464.8904

Fax: 404.464.8950



Classification: UNCLASSIFIED



Caveats: NONE

Ellie

thedrifter
12-28-04, 07:22 AM
U.S. Mortuary Affairs unit catalogues the dead just yards from Marines on Fallujah battlefields


(Camp Fallujah, Iraq-AP, Dec. 27, 2004 11:10 PM) _ When U.S. servicemen and insurgents die in Fallujah, the bodies are brought back to camp and laid on a concrete floor under a tent hidden behind blast walls topped with concertina wire. The sign outside says: "Do Not Enter."

Five men check the corpses and put them in refrigerators. Within 72 hours, the slain American will arrive at Delaware's Dover Air Force Base in a flag-draped coffin, while the Iraqi will be buried in a plot outside Fallujah facing Mecca.

This is the work of Mortuary Affairs, the Marine unit that catalogues the remains of American servicemen who die in combat, referred to as angels, as well as the Iraqi guerrillas they fight and civilian victims. These Marines must cope with one of the most psychologically punishing but unavoidable tasks of war.

They are shunned by their peers because of a superstition that contact with them brings bad luck. Yet some don't want to go home and leave their fellow Marines who are among the few who have witnessed the same horrors. They must try to stay sane even as they are confronted with the effects of gruesome killings by the shrapnel-filled roadside bombs set by insurgents and terrible U.S. firepower.

"Some of the guys, when it gets dark, don't want to go out by themselves. Sometimes they feel like somebody's watching them when they know there isn't," said Lance Cpl. Boyce Kerns, a 24-year-old from Greenville, S.C. "Some of the stuff we've seen you wouldn't see in the worst horror movies and it leaves a little imprint."

It may be unsettling for soldiers and Marines to pass the Mortuary Affairs compound as they prepare to go out into Fallujah's dangerous streets. But the unit's presence here reflects a change in thinking meant to cut down on missing in action and get the dead sent home as quickly as possible.

Instead of working hundreds of miles from the battlefield, Mortuary Affairs units operate just minutes from it, sometimes processing a Marine's corpse just hours after he dies. In this area west of Baghdad, the unit has 15-20 servicemen at three camps: Taqaddum, Al Asad and Fallujah.

"What was happening was a lot of bodies didn't have positive IDs," said Gunnery Sgt. Byron Bess, 37, from Washington. "By the time they got to the area, they were unidentified and you couldn't get in touch with the units because they'd pushed forward."

Bess said the change is one reason there is only one American serviceman currently listed as missing in action in Iraq, Army Spc. Keith M. Maupin, of Batavia, Ohio.

Since Oct. 7, Mortuary Affairs has processed 84 Americans along with 26 Iraqi soldiers and 525 insurgents. During the worst of the Fallujah fighting, which began Nov. 8 and lasted a week, the unit handled up to about 10 Marines a day and many more insurgents.

The unit is still pulling Iraqi bodies from the city. On a recent day, four sets of Iraqi remains arrived -- one, just a pile of bones and rags, another a man clad in black and wearing running shoes, had been on the street for days.

Many in the Mortuary Affairs unit at Camp Fallujah are reservists, former cooks and supply clerks from a unit in Washington. On a recent day, their routine was perfectly normal. Several sat around a television watching "Saving Private Ryan," others laughed and teased each other, while some were about to leave to play video games.

Some, like Kerns, volunteered for the work because they just wanted to join the Iraq fight no matter what. Others decided to do it so their colleagues wouldn't have to, and some were assigned.

They were sent to a two-week training course that included a stop at the Baltimore morgue to get accustomed to the sight and smell of death. Many among them had never seen a human corpse before.

"As for seeing the insurgents dead, I know that these guys were out there killing Marines, they were given a choice whether to surrender or not, so seeing their corpses mangled up doesn't bother you," said Cpl. Jeffrey Keating, a 26-year-old from Queens, N.Y. "But seeing the Marines dead, that hurts a little bit more. But you just got to see it as a
job."

The 16 Marines who process the dead, working eight at a time in 24-hour shifts, follow the same routine.

When a body arrives, it is brought inside the tent and placed on a concrete floor. Two men are the "dirty hands" who inspect the body, catalogue wounds and check for unexploded weapons. One sorts through the slain person's belongings. Two more are the "clean hands," writing down what the others find.

The dead American's name, social security numbers and place of death are written into a hardcover lime-green log book. The body is given an evacuation number and then placed in a body bag -- a stack of unused bags labeled "pouch, human remains w/6 handles" sits to the side of the tent.

Iraqi dead go to a white refrigerator while American dead go to one of two camouflage refrigerators on the other side of the tent. The entire process usually takes about 15 minutes.

American bodies are then sent to a U.S. base in Doha, Qatar and on to Dover, while Iraqi bodies are buried in a plot outside Fallujah marked with coordinates from a global positioning system so relatives can identify the remains later.

"We take a picture, make sure there's no unexploded ordnance or personal effects, and look for identification," said Marine Cpl. John Belizario, 23, of Washington. "We bury them in a plot -- four rows of 10, all facing Mecca as a sign of respect, basically."

When the work is finished, the Marines clean up and go to chow hall. Anyone who knows who they are stays away or barely acknowledges them because talking to them is considered bad luck.

"When the day is done, we're by ourselves," Kerns said. "We've tried to have interaction with the other units, but when they find out what we do, that's about the end of that."


Ellie

thedrifter
12-28-04, 07:23 AM
1/8 Marines check cement factory for terrorists
Submitted by: 1st Marine Division
Story Identification #: 2004122832618
Story by Cpl. Randy L. Bernard



FALLUJAH, Iraq (Dec. 27, 2004) -- With the citizens of Fallujah waiting to return to their homes and city, the Marines currently operating in the city are concerned about insurgents making their way back in with the rest of the populace.

To ensure a safe return for the people of Fallujah, Marines with Company B, 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, checked up on a cement factory where hundreds of displaced Fallujans have taken up temporary residence.

At the first light of day, the Marines of the company were poised around the factory, ready to launch a surgical raid on what was known to be an area of terrorist activity. The factory is a key objective not only for the Marines, but for the people of Iraq.

“This factory was a major industrial facility, the majority of cement in the city of Fallujah and the other outlying villages came from here,” said Capt. Read M. Omohundro, the company commander.

According to Omohundro, a 34-year-old native of Fort Worth, Fla. “There have been indirect fire attacks coming from the area of the factory, and they suspect some of those weapons may be stored in the area.

“We’ve always wanted to check this place out,” said Omohundro, “But now that they are going to let the people back in, we are going to make sure there aren’t any terrorists going back in there with weapons, especially after all of the hard work everyone did in the city to get rid of those things.”

The Marines had to exercise extreme care when entering the facility, because not only was there a large group of civilians living among the buildings, but because the factory can still be used in the reconstruction efforts in Fallujah by supplying cement, mortar, and tiles to the city.

While the Marines were patrolling the facility, members of the Iraqi Security Forces spoke with the civilians to ensure that the people knew what was going on.

While the ISF were interacting with the people, they were also keeping an open ear for any foreign accents or any other bits of information that could aid in finding anyone that wasn’t supposed to be there.

While examining the buildings for weapons caches, the Marines patrolled the facility to interact with the civilians.

“From a strategic viewpoint, we are also here to interact with the people. So when they go back into the city, we can continue to win their hearts and minds and let them know that we may have been heavy handed in the city, but we are going to take care of them as best as we can,” said Omohundro. “It’s unfortunate but a lot of innocent civilians got caught in the middle of this.”

After a long day of patrolling, the Marines did not find any hidden weapons or terrorists. Though their interaction with the people did pay off. The Marines learned that the people had not been equally sharing the food and supplies given to them. With that information, the Marines will be able to supply them with an equal share of the humanitarian aid they need.



http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/2004122842341/$file/5low.jpg

Marines of Company B, 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, crouch at an intersection within the cement factory. The Marines patrolled the facility, searching the buildings for weapons caches or enemy fighters. Photo by: Cpl. Randy L. Bernard

Ellie

thedrifter
12-28-04, 07:24 AM
St. Nick visits Marines of HMM-774
Submitted by: 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing
Story Identification #: 2004122822218
Story by Sgt. Nathan K. LaForte



AL ASAD, Iraq (Dec. 27, 2004) -- A day of rain and months worth of clashes with insurgent forces weren't enough to dampen the Christmas spirit of the "Wild Goose," a reserve CH-46E Sea Knight squadron based in Norfolk, Va. Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 774, Marine Aircraft Group 16, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, held a Christmas Day party at Al Asad, Iraq that included a surprise visitor for the Marines.

Gone was the traditional early morning gift exchange, but that doesn't mean moods should be as sour as Ebenezer Scrooge, said Lt. Col. Rex Bartles, plans officer, HMM-774.

"It went great. We had a lot of people out here laughing and smiling which is a big plus from what you normally see. It pulls guys out of the work rut and the routine we normally do," said the 44-year-old from Ringgold, Ga. "You take a break and get your mind away from the everyday mission over here to have some fun and some laughs. Everything's brown out here in the desert, but we've got lights and music, just a nice change from everything."

The reserve squadron deployed to Iraq earlier this year and this holiday season marks a milestone for a majority of the younger Marines, said Sgt. Michael Williamson, Sea Knight crew chief, HMM-774.

"For a lot of the younger guys, this is their first Christmas away from home and I think stuff like this shows them that the Marine Corps is a good organization and they have people that care about them here," said the 24-year-old from Baton Rouge, La. "It's good to see all this going on. You get to come out here and have a little bit of fun. You don't get a chance to do this on a day-to-day basis with the (operational tempo) so when you get a chance to slow down and do this it's real nice to do."

A surprise visitor in the form of a jolly old elf even showed after a 24-hour, globetrotting work-shift to bolster spirits even higher. St. Nick, Santa Claus himself, made an appearance to grant a few holiday wishes and hand out "sand-bag stockings" filled with gifts from Americans back home.

After the Marines got their gifts from Santa, the squadron was serenaded by the musical styling of their own Marines who sang a few Christmas carols, one of which was revamped to reflect the squadron's time in Iraq. The Marines sang "The Twelve (general support) missions of Christmas," which parodied the classic, "Twelve Days of Christmas."

The time and effort put into the party was great for the Marines who have been working long hours since arriving in country, Williamson said.

"A lot of squadron's wouldn't take the time to do all this even if they had the availability to do it, so it's kind of cool to actually be out here when they're making the effort when they could very easily not do it," Williamson said. "Doing things like this helps the morale out a lot. Day to day here gets pretty monotonous and boring sometimes. It shows everybody they still kind of have a family out here in the Marine Corps even though they're not home with their real family."

Although the Marines have to contend with the loneliness of being away from their families this holiday season, they have stepped up and filled the void for each other and portrayed that "band of brothers" concept unique to the Marine Corps this Christmas, said Sgt. Robert Kuzniar, airframes mechanic, HMM-774.

"This was great and more than I ever expected it could be. We're a family out here and we make the best of what we can," Kuzniar said. "It definitely shows that there are a lot of creative minds here that can take a bad situation and just turn it into something that is pretty good for everyone. There are a lot of young guys out here and this is something they'll remember for the rest of their lives. There are a lot of lonely individuals out here and this probably put a smile on their faces."


http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/2004122822411/$file/005Christmas%20LR.jpg

Sgt. Maj. Steve M. Golder, squadron Sgt. Maj., Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 774, Marine Aircraft Group 16, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, sits on Santa Claus's lap and tells him what he wants for Christmas. Santa visited the reserve squadron from Norfolk, Va., during their Christmas Day party at Al Asad, Iraq to deliver presents and lift their spirits. Photo by: Sgt. Nathan K. LaForte


Ellie

thedrifter
12-28-04, 07:38 AM
Iraq in Transition
from the December 28, 2004 edition

GETTING READY: Professionals wrote campaign banners at their home in Baghdad Sunday, Dec. 19. They work from home for fear their shop will be bombed.
SAMIR MIZBAN/AP



Problems mount for Iraqi vote

A UN memo details added concerns about registration and security before election Jan. 30.

By Annia Ciezadlo | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

ARBIL, IRAQ – Planning an election is difficult even under the best of circumstances. As one United Nations consultant remarked, it's "the largest logistical operation that a country undertakes outside warfare." To pull it off, many postconflict nations need at least a year.
Iraq is aiming for eight months.


But with election day less than five weeks away, the Iraqi effort to choose 18 provincial councils and a 275-member National Assembly that will appoint a central government and draft Iraq's constitution is facing serious logistical problems. The short time frame, coupled with the insurgency, is forcing Iraq's election commission to sacrifice both voter education and the safeguards necessary for a fair election. The logistical hurdles also raise questions about the legitimacy of the Jan. 30 vote.

A new memo from the chief UN election official in Iraq, obtained by the Monitor, spells out an array of serious challenges:

• The number of new voter registrations is below expectations.

• Even though polling centers are likely to be attacked, Iraq's election commission is asking to use schools as voting sites, and trying to draft teachers and school administrators to work the polls on election day.

• A security assessment found that the warehouses for storing ballots in some provinces are not "fully defendable" in case of attack.

• The $55 million program for out-of-country voting by Iraqi expatriates has faced "significant delays." Fourteen countries are scrambling to allow eligible Iraqi exiles to vote in the Jan. 30 election.

One of the few bright spots is the number of people who are running for office. Preliminary figures showed close to 19,000 candidates, 6,239 of whom were competing for National Assembly seats.

But in Anbar province, where the violence-torn cities of Fallujah and Ramadi are located, there are only 43 candidates competing for a 41-seat provincial council.

"While there is no technical reason ... to cancel the election (as there are more candidates than seats)," said the memo, "the board is carefully studying the situation to determine whether that election should go ahead as planned."

On Monday, the Iraqi Islamic Party, the country's largest Sunni Muslim political group, announced it was pulling out of the election, citing the same types of concerns outlined in the memo: difficult security and lack of public education about the vote.

Iraq's election commission has been hampered from the beginning by a violent insurgency. In July, one of the seven commission members resigned due to safety concerns. (The commission has seven Iraqi members and two nonvoting UN advisers.)

By September, the commissioners were still "begging" international agencies for funds to protect themselves and their families, according to an international consultant who asked not to be named.

"When the election commissioners are asking the UN to find a donor for your election commission's security, that's a big problem," said the consultant. "How does that allow you to focus on your work, if you have to worry about your family members being threatened?"

Poll workers targeted

Insurgents are targeting poll workers, too. Sundus al-Shemmeri, a young Iraqi journalist who quit her job to help prepare for the elections, was approached by an acquaintance with ties to the insurgency. "He said, 'Be warned: If you work with this organization, they will do to you what they did to Margaret Hassan [a charity worker who was killed by insurgents],'" said Ms. Shemmeri, laughing nervously.

These threats are serious: On Dec. 19, insurgents dragged three elections workers out of the their car on a busy Baghdad thoroughfare and shot them execution-style in the street.

The danger to election workers has made it difficult to find enough people to work the polls. According to the memo, the election commission is planning to ask Iraq's Ministry of Education for permission to use schools as polling centers, and teachers and administrators to staff them.

While that may solve the immediate staffing problem, it could make schools vulnerable to attack in a country where many parents are already afraid to send their children to school.

The number of polling centers will be lower than expected. The memo puts the number of polling centers at "no more than 6,000, with no more than 29,000 polling stations" - a significant reduction from earlier estimates of 9,000 polling centers and 40,000 or so polling stations.

Voter registration problems

That's partly because voter registration is below expectations. According to the memo, about 200,000 people made corrections and about 650,000 made new registrations. Divided into the total number of eligible voters - about 15 million - they come out to about 5.6 percent.

The numbers are approximate, and data from Anbar province is still missing. But the low numbers may mean that some people won't be able to vote if their food ration cards are inaccurate or outdated.

Because Iraq has no official census, voters were registered through ration cards from the UN oil-for-food program, which began in 1996. If the existing ration card information was correct, they didn't have to register or make a correction.

The low number could mean that ration cards were mostly correct. But it could also mean that Iraqis are counting on being able to use invalid ration cards.

"A big fear is that people in the Sunni triangle just won't register, and will count on current registration because they weren't able to confirm their registration during the confirmation period," said the consultant.

The electoral commission is debating whether to extend voter registration in Kirkuk, where leading Kurdish political parties have called for a boycott of the provincial election.

Despite the low numbers, the election commission decided not to extend registration countrywide, mainly for logistical reasons, noting that an extension would create a "tremendous new operational burden on the election administration - and just as the administration is attempting to prepare for polling day."

But the biggest problem for the elections, consultants say, is still the truncated time for voter and candidate education.

"All of them need education - civic education," said another international consultant working to prepare Iraqis for the poll. "They still don't know the rules."

Ellie

thedrifter
12-28-04, 09:01 AM
In search of elusive bin Laden


December 28, 2004


Where is Osama bin Laden? We have heard from him via video and audiotape. But despite one of the most aggressive manhunts in history, his capture has proven elusive.

The most likely answer is Pakistan. Common knowledge places bin Laden near the Afghan border, particularly in Pakistan's northwestern tribal areas, where the terrain is rugged, at turns mountainous or desert. The tribes are often sympathetic to bin Laden and his Islamist cause, and hostile to the United States and Pakistan's President, Pervez Musharraf. Many supported the jihad against the Soviet Union in the 1980s, the Taliban in the 1990s, and now al-Qaida's jihad against the U.S.

U.S. intelligence and military resources are now focused on Iraq, and U.S. forces in Afghanistan are restricted from pursuing al-Qaida and Taliban fighters into Pakistan. The CIA has reportedly set up bases within Pakistan to hunt bin Laden, but they are largely dependent upon Pakistanis for support. Most locals are not inclined to help.

Understandably, some Americans are asking if Pakistan -- which receives billions of dollars in U.S. aid -- is doing all it can to capture America's most dangerous adversary. There is no easy solution. For Pakistan, sustained military operations in the border region -- or permission to the U.S military to operate within Pakistan -- could fuel violence and even rebellion. For the U.S., we are so dependent upon Pakistan for cooperation on Afghanistan, counter-terrorism and counter-proliferation that it is hard for us to "get tough" on the issue of bin Laden.

But bin Laden's freedom is a blow to U.S. credibility and a boost to al-Qaida's propaganda. Killing or capturing him is necessary to achieve a measure of justice for 9/11 and other terrorist attacks, and is a stated goal of U.S. policy. Meanwhile, bin Laden can present himself to his followers and the wider Islamic world as a daring revolutionary, decrying, striking and then defying the world's greatest superpower.

Perhaps more important is bin Laden's role in the global Islamist terrorist movement. Al-Qaida now lacks the fixed command and control system used to carry out the 9/11 attacks, but recent tapes demonstrate how bin Laden provides broad strategic guidance to a global decentralized network of terrorist groups. Several months ago, he called for attacks on American allies in the Iraq war, and the Madrid bombings followed. Bin Laden's calls for jihad in Iraq may have fueled the insurgency, or at least aligned al-Qaida's cause with those fighting in Iraq. In recent tapes, bin Laden has singled out the Saudi government for attacks and overthrow, threatening the global oil supply.

Bin Laden has also dropped his most inflammatory language about killing all Americans, and has targeted contempt on policies such as the Iraq war and support for Israel, which are widely unpopular in the Islamic world. He has also highlighted the strain placed on America's budget and trade deficits, pointing out that the 9/11 attacks cost al-Qaida $500,000 and have led to $500,000 billion in costs to the U.S.

This shift may be intended to draw wider support from those who oppose American policies yet resist violence. Bin Laden may also be laying out a clear strategic vision for his followers: target America and its interests in the Persian Gulf, overthrow the Saudi government, sever the Western alliance, and overextend American economic and military power.

There is no doubt that bin Laden is evil. But we should not underestimate his capabilities. He is an effective propagandist, strategist and leader of men. No doubt somewhere in the world he is plotting attacks on the United States, and fomenting terrorism and instability around the world. His removal must remain an urgent priority in 2005.

Hamilton is the director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., and director of the Center on Congress at Indiana University. He served as a U.S. representative from Indiana from 1965 to 1999.

Ellie

thedrifter
12-28-04, 09:19 AM
Six Area Marines Wounded In Iraq
Bartonville
HOI 19 News

Hoi 19 News has learned that six marines from Bartonville-based Charlie Company "C" have been injured in a roadside attack in the al-Anbar province of Iraq. At least three of the soldiers are from Central Illinois including Corporal Matthew Dickson of Springfield...Corporal Peter Carey of Washington... and Lance Corporal Tyler Zeigel of Bartonville.

No fatalities have been reported, but at least three of the marines were flown to Germany for medical treatment.

About 130 members of Company C were deployed in August for the second time since the war in Iraq began.

Two members of the unit died in Iraq on their last deployment.

We will update this story as the information is made available.



Ellie

thedrifter
12-28-04, 10:51 AM
Madison Police Search For Stolen Money From Marines Fund
2 In Custody

POSTED: 12:42 p.m. CST December 23, 2004
UPDATED: 9:34 p.m. CST December 23, 2004


Story by Channel 3000

MADISON, Wis. -- Police say they have caught the people responsible for stealing money meant for Marines overseas.

The money was stolen in November outside a Wal-Mart. Two men ran up and grabbed a bin the money was in.

Police said tips led them to two suspects, an 18-year-old and a 16-year-old. They're still trying to find the money.

As bad as it was, organizers say it helped get the word out about their collection drive.

"People just came from everywhere and donated money it was just phenomenal and they still are," said organizer Chris Lowery.

While the missing money has not been recovered, an additional $20,000 has been raised for care packages and other items for area marines.

So far, Lowery's group has sent more than 1,000 care packages overseas.


If you have information, call Crime Stoppers at (608) 266-6014.

Ellie

thedrifter
12-28-04, 11:36 AM
Two local Marines answer the Item's questions
By Kurt Allen/Assistant Managing Editor



Josh Hill and Josh Lyons are two Marines who have served two tours in Iraq. Hill, a corporal whose mother works and lives in Walker County, is scheduled to attend sniper school January before heading back to Iraq for a third tour. Lyons, a Marine Corps first lieutenant whose father is publisher of The Huntsville Item, is back home at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

The following is a question-and-answer session with these two Marines:

€ HI: How long did you serve in Iraq?

JL: January 2003 to August 2003, and the second time from February 2004 to September 2004.

JH: Seven and a half months. I arrived in country the first of March and got home the 17th of October.

€ HI: What surprised you the most about Iraq?

JL: The first time, we were told we would be treated as liberators, and we were. Then over there the second time, I was a little more surprised to see how divided certain areas of Iraq could be. ... For the second deployment, stuck in the triangle where the insurgency was running its most rampant course, people there didn't seem to like us as much as when we first arrived. Kind of the change in attitude, how we were perceived. Basically, no one was waving at us anymore.

JH: You can be briefed as much as you want, but for me, the first thing is watching my life flash before my eyes. It would be different for everybody. When bullets start cracking and you hear explosions and you see your brothers fall left and right, that overcomes every brief.

€ HI: What were some of the biggest cultural differences between the U.S. and Iraq?

JL: The biggest thing, the burden was the language barrier, just trying to explain through all your weapons and armor you really do come in peace. Everybody talks about the differences in religion, but I didn't really think that was something that caused trouble with us. I think it was more of them not understanding why we are there. Some U.S. soldiers didn't understand you had to take your sunglasses off when you talk to them. There are little things, like shaking hands (only with your right hand). And you never want to show them the bottom of your feet.

JH: The amount of living space. It's so intensely crowded. Their hygiene was so pathetic and poor. There were dead animal carcasses everywhere in the streets. No power. I don't see how people can actually live like that, but they do it, and they've been doing it for centuries. I've seen them jump in the Euphrates and guzzle the water. It's so nasty. I just couldn't believe people lived like that.

€ HI: Did you make friends with any Iraqis or foreign nationals?

JL: That happened our first time over there because we did a lot of work with traffic points. Basically, we were just really trying to befriend Iraqis. Many of them didn't have the news. ... When we were invited to some Iraqi's house, we had tea and talked and discussed things. Really, the one, I spoke of this before, that we befriended was an Egyptian doctor taken prisoner by Saddam and we liberated him. He stayed with us for five months and did translations. Dr. Mohammed. He spoke pretty good English and he educated us a lot on the culture and the Middle East.

JH: We had our translators. I got really close with two of them. They were Iraqis. They graduated from Baghdad College. The one I had with me a lot, you couldn't really tell him apart. He looked like a Californian. It's kind of like he was one of us. He hated Saddam, and he hated the problems of his own country. He wasn't even a Muslim. He was an atheist. Having one of them on our side made it a little easier knowing we weren't fighting everyone over there.

€ HI: What area of the U.S. does Iraq look like?

JL: I've tried to point that out before. Getting close to Yuma, Ariz., not including the mountains, some of the landscape looks like Kuwait or the open desert of Iraq. Getting into the actual towns, it's hard to find a place in the U.S. as underdeveloped. It's tough to make that comparison. When I went to some of the border towns in Mexico, I was somewhat reminded of Iraq. The climate seems to change. Sometimes you forget where you are. You see these beautiful palm groves and you think you're in Palm Beach.

JH: When we'd go to 29 Palms (Marine Corps base) for training in the desert.

€ HI: What was the hardest adjustment returning to the U.S.?

JL: I was just more relieved not to hear the guns going off and the mortars and rockets. Every time I'm on the road, I'm more focused. Here, you can relax and zone out, and you can't do that over there.

JH: The sound of peace. People just living their lives normally. It was really hard to get used to.

€ HI: What did you miss most while serving in Iraq?

JL: I've got to say my wife. Just basically everything about America. My wife and family. People could stay a lot longer over there if they had their family with them. ... Little things, especially for the second time. Like driving around in my car and listening to music and not worrying about a piece of debris that's going to blow up.

JH: I missed my friends that I lost the most. When we started I lost a couple of friends, and the freedom of America became more clear. There's thousands of us who served. Unless you're ... if you have bullets flying at you and see your friends go down, you're going to drop down. It breaks you down and you realize what you're doing and what the price of freedom really is. A lot of people don't really understand that.

Kurt Allen can be reached at (936) 295-5407 ext. 3024 or by e-mail at kallen@itemonline.com


Ellie

thedrifter
12-28-04, 12:07 PM
Marine follows his forebears
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By SARA A. CARTER
STAFF WRITER
The Daily Bulletin

Monday, December 27, 2004 - ONTARIO, Calif. - As a toddler, Kenneth M. Zebley was fascinated by airplanes and a grandfather he never met.

That's because his grandfather, a pilot in the Marine Corps Reserve, died in a training accident while flying over the California desert.

On Monday, at Bellevue Memorial Park, Kenneth Zebley was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps at the grave site of his favorite unknown hero.

"I love you, Kenneth," said Patricia Zebley Bowen, 80, as she pinned the bars on her grandson's dress blue uniform.

Kenneth Zebley, 25, an Ontario native who now lives in Daytona Beach, Fla., is preparing for Marine flight training school, which he will attend in April.

His grandmother then kissed him on the cheek, embracing him the same way she has always embraced her children and grandchildren who have given their lives to the armed services. It is a family affair.

"This has been a dream of mine since I could walk," Kenneth Zebley said as his father, Ronald Zebley, and his mother, Jan Zebley, reminisced about his childhood dreams of one day flying. "I've always wanted to serve my country and be a pilot. Now I can see them coming true but I owe it to my grandfather who was an example to us all."

The sky darkened, but rain did not fall on the third-generation Marine who stood, eyes forward, while his cousin, Michael Zebley, state department official and an ensign in the Naval Reserve, gave him his commission.

They smiled. The family mission was complete and another Zebley will take to the sky like his grandfather before him.

"His grandfather would be so proud of him," Bowen said.

Kenneth Zebley's first salute as an officer came from another cousin, Air Force Staff Sgt. Matthew Hegbloom, 25.

Kenneth Zebley reached into his pocket, pulled out a silver dollar and placed it in his cousin's hand - a Marine tradition.

Traditions are strong in this military family. Both of Kenneth Zebley's uncles fought in Vietnam and his grandfather was a veteran of World War II. Four of his cousins are now serving as officers and enlisted men in the various armed forces.

Many of the Zebley men walk in their grandfather's shoes, Bowen said.

"I guarantee (my grandfather) helped me along the way and I believe that," Kenneth Zebley said. "I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for the stories I've heard about him. He had more of an impact in my life passed away than any grandfather alive could have."

When Kenneth Zebley was young, his grandmother and father would tell him stories about his grandfather's bravery, he said.

"(My grandfather's) stories always inspired me to be something better," Kenneth Zebley said. His girlfriend, Melissa Berbeek, a hockey player and school teacher from Ontario, Canada, flew in for his commission and she was inspired by his family's love and dedication.

Franklin Zebley would have been a major league baseball player had it not been for World War II, Kenneth Zebley said. Zebley played for a farm team of the Philadelphia Athletics when he was 19 years old and was being looked at by some of the major teams when World War II broke out. Franklin Zebley enlisted in the Marine Corps infantry division without hesitation, Kenneth Zebley said.

"He was a good man," he said. "He was a fair man. He is someone I aspire to be and he died doing what he loved most. Nobody forced him to join the Marines. He did it for his country, giving up a future in baseball, and you don't see that type of dedication in our world today."

Franklin Zebley was killed when his F9F-6 Cougar jet crashed and burned into the Tehachapi Mountains, near the Mojave desert. Zebley's aircraft experienced engine problems. The then 34-year-old reservist pilot tried to parachute out and lost his life in the attempt, his son Ronald Zebley said.

"I was only 5 years old at the time," he added. "It makes me very proud and proud that my family was able to serve the country. There is a price to pay for our freedom."

The Zebley family understands the great risks many in their family have taken to defend the country.

And by the grave site, listening to the stories of ghosts long gone, the Zebley family places their faith in each other and their country.

"I can't help but worry about my son," Jan Zebley said. "I watch the news and see all the children who have lost their lives in the war. But I support our troops and I support his decision to defend our country. I guess all we have left is to pray that things will turn out all right."


Ellie

thedrifter
12-28-04, 12:10 PM
Marine recruiter trawls South Shore
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By DON CONKEY
The Patriot Ledger
Dec. 28, 2004

For some servicemen, a sense of accomplishment comes with carrying a rifle. For others, it comes from carrying a pen.

''At times, it does bother me that I am not over there, helping in places like Iraq,'' said Marine Sgt. Eugene Bryant, a recruiter working in Quincy.

''It is not always a good feeling to be sitting here where it's warm, drinking a cup of coffee, and knowing that they are over there, doing who knows what. But I do know that what I am doing here is important.''

Bryant is doing his part to keep the force strong. He contacts young men and women, first gauging their interest in joining the military and then trying to channel that interest toward a career in the Marines.

Last week, a Patriot Ledger reporter spent a day with Bryant to get a glimpse of a military recruiter's typical day.

At Weymouth High School, Bryant set up a booth in the rear of the cafeteria and stood through three lunch periods to talk to students who approached him.

It was an ''up'' experience, he said. Several students came to the booth, some signing contact forms so that Bryant could call them with more information.

''I'm about 90 percent sure that I'm going to join the military. It's wanting to be able to fight for what you believe in, and keep people you love safe,'' said Joe Murphy, an 18-year-old junior who chatted with Bryant.

Bryant said the reaction from teenagers and their parents is not always favorable. One mother was angry when she learned her son had seen the recruiter.

''The worst part of what I do is having to accept the fact that not everyone is pro-Marine,'' Bryant said. ''There are people out there who probably appreciate what we do, they're glad the Marines are here, but 'my son or daughter, I want them to have no part of it,' '' he said.

Donna Agnew of Weymouth has one son, Brian, serving with the Marines in Africa and another, Joseph, a Weymouth High senior, who signed up with Bryant and will enter the Marines in August. She said recruiters aren't the only ones who take flak.

''You don't get a lot of support from regular people. It's like if one of their children brings it up, joining the military, it's, 'There is no way, you're not doing it. It's OK for the Agnew boys to do it, but not you,''' she said.

While trying to cut through parents' opposition can be difficult, for Bryant the rewards of the job far outweigh the bad times.

One of those rewards is taking someone who would like to be a Marine but doesn't meet all of the requirements, and helping him or her get there.

Bryant, who is 26, joined the Marines eight years ago and has been a recruiter for two years.

Bryant has not lost a recruit in Iraq, but he knows it could happen.

''It would be tough because you meet these kids when they're young, and they're not even Marines yet, and it would bother you because you took them where they used to be, where nothing was going to hurt them, to be part of your brotherhood,'' Bryant said.


Ellie

thedrifter
12-28-04, 12:14 PM
Tank unit to walk a beat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Rick Rogers
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
December 28, 2004

MIRAMAR MARINE CORPS AIR STATION - Normally, troops from the 4th Tank Battalion, 4th Marine Division would ride a nearly indestructible tank into battle.

But these days, the U.S. military needs more boots on the ground in Iraq. So about 200 reservists from the San Diego-based battalion are training to serve as military police. In March, they'll join the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force from Camp Lejeune, N.C., when it takes over patrol duty for the Camp Pendleton-based 1st MEF.

The transition from weekend warrior to Iraq-ready Marine is daunting for members of Alpha Company, especially because they're training to take on one of the most dangerous jobs in Iraq.

"When I found out we'd be going without our tanks, it was a little shocking," said Cpl. Juan Ordaz, 23, of National City, a former retail clothing worker. He was referring to the M1A1 Abrams, which weighs 67 tons.

"We're used to having our weapon carry us and now we are carrying our weapon," Ordaz said as he hunkered down behind a concrete barricade during recent training.

To give Ordaz and his fellow reservists the best chance of surviving in Iraq, the company underwent simulated scenarios this month at the Naval and Marine Corps Reserve Center in Scripps Ranch. The sessions were part of their ongoing preparations for deployment.

The switch from tank rider to cop demands physical and psychological adjustments, said Maj. Darrin S. Brightmon, 37, of Sorrento Valley and the company commander.

The physical part requires pushing the body to withstand the rigors of toting a weapon while wearing a flak jacket in 120-plus-degree heat nearly every minute of every day.

The psychological part might be tougher.

Tankers defend or destroy - generally at a distance. An MP, however, is highly vulnerable because he or she works within arm's reach of potential danger.

"It's pretty easy for (the enemy) to kill you because you have to get so close to them," Lance Cpl. Jay Bourland, 20, a machinist from Rancho Peñasquitos, said while crouched next to Ordaz. "They can drive up and blow you up. It's hard."

To add realism, a company called Strategic Operations was hired to bring in actors and produce special effects.

How real was it?

The woman who played an amputee really is an amputee, and a Marine who got knocked on his keister hit the ground so hard that he bounced.

"It gives them psychological conditioning to prepare them," said Maj. Christopher Hage, the unit's executive officer. "They are going to be tired and they'll have to make life-and-death decisions. The more we can expose them to stress, the greater the chance that they'll survive in combat."

During one scenario, Marines went to help a village woman whose leg was blown off. The Marines arrived to treat her, but soon several angry men were blaming them for causing the injury.

Shouting escalated to pushing, and suddenly actor Gable Darbonne knocked a Marine on his butt with a push. The Marine sprang to his feet while his fellow Marines looked shaken. A few seconds later, the downed Marine "shot" Darbonne several times at point-blank range.

As the Marines carried the injured woman away, the village men hurled curses - and the woman's severed leg - at them.

"The Marines came in very itchy. They reacted out of fear and confusion. I've been there," said Darbonne, 22, who served in Afghanistan and Iraq. Several of the actors were former members of the military.

Brightmon, the company commander, appeared within minutes to dissect the scenario. He knows that such a shooting can turn a bad situation into an international media headline.

"I chose that platoon for this scenario because they are aggressive and I wanted to see how they would react," Brightmon said. "I'm trying to train the Marines to use lethal force only when necessary. I want them to think on the fly."


Ellie

thedrifter
12-28-04, 12:17 PM
Wed Marines off to war
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BY RICHARD WEIR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Jittery nerves are nothing new for grooms, but newlywed Lance Cpl. German Cruz struggled yesterday with a double dose of butterflies.

The Marine was marrying his military sweetheart, Jessica Frugoni, in a quickly planned Long Island ceremony - a month before he is set to ship out to war in Iraq.

"My hope is that he comes home safe and we live a happy life," said the beaming 20-year-old bride, who temporarily traded her Marine garb for an off-the-shoulder white gown.

Cruz, 20, had proposed only two weeks ago at his apartment in Camp Lejeune, the North Carolina base where the couple is stationed.

"I was getting ready to deploy. We really didn't have that much time," said Cruz, 20, of Woolrich, N.J.

So they called her dad, Charles Frugoni, a Nassau County court officer, who helped schedule the wedding to coincide with their Christmas visit up north.

The judge, like the groom - dapperly attired in his crisp dress blues - wore a uniform. And a Marine motto made its way into the vows.

"Semper Fi. Always faithful. There's real meaning to that," said Nassau Supreme Court Justice Edward McCarty, a retired colonel with the U.S. Army Reserve.

Frugoni, of Babylon, and Cruz met while they were stationed in Okinawa in August 2003. They clicked immediately and have dated ever since.

"I have a mixed bag of feelings," said the bride's mother, Nancy Frugoni. "You are happy for them and hope they will be happy for a long time. But he's going off to Iraq, and she's in the military, too. So who knows what will happen."

Milagros Cruz, 39, said she would have preferred her son had gotten a college degree before being married in a big, traditional ceremony. "I guess this is the right thing for him," she said. "They are in love."

Their parents' caution was lost on the lovebirds, who walked out of the courtroom through a color guard of military and court officers.


Ellie

thedrifter
12-28-04, 12:18 PM
The new great generation
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Suzanne Fields
December 27, 2004

"When I first came to fully understand what effect members of the World War II generation had on my life and the world we occupy today, I quickly resolved to tell their stories as a small gesture of personal appreciation."

So writes Tom Brokaw on the first page of his book, "The Greatest Generation." Who among the young today will one day write a similar tribute to the young Americans fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq? Who is the scribe to honor those who serve among the treacherous in the smoke and fire in a place where freedom is a stranger, where peril lurks for civilization?

The front pages and the television screens are awash with the evidence of the danger to American troops, posed by evil men who thrive in a hideous culture of death, and yet they persist in the sure knowledge that that they are defending the culture of life.

I've had the humbling honor to meet and talk to several of these splendid young men - men who suffered grievous wounds in places far from home, who traded limbs for pain from splintered metal that often resides still in their bodies. Yet they believe their sacrifice was right, and worth it. They are volunteers all, harboring no illusions about the threats and dangers they left behind. They believe - as I do - that their fight was in behalf of a more secure world for all children.

They sound a lot like the surviving soldiers of World War II, men moving now into the shade of their ninth decade, who become the boys of summer once more when they talk of their war now receding swiftly into a distant past. They're proud of how they did what they had to do. Like all men who have marched to the sound of the guns, they are marked by the grace of modesty. "No, no," one of them told Corinna Lothar, in her moving account in The Washington Times of a visit with veterans returning to the field of the Battle of the Bulge in December of 60 years ago, "the guys who didn't come home are the real heroes."

When I look into the faces of our young veterans, I see the same faces staring back at me from the photographs in Tom Brokaw's book, men caught up in the turmoil bequeathed to their generation, willing to do whatever it takes to make the world a better place. They evoke the words of Franklin D. Roosevelt: "This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny."

No war is ever the same and comparisons come with the organizing principles of hindsight, but the glue that binds the perceptions of our veterans of yesterday and today and places them on a roll call of honor is their appreciation for the freedom that burns in American hearts and lights the torch for others to enjoy.

It's impossible to speculate with any confidence how the prospects for democracy in the Middle East will play out, but it's not difficult to see the appreciation and the courage of those Afghan men and women who got up before dawn to walk for miles to line up to elect a new leader. Iraq is more opaque, but Saddam Hussein is gone, his torture chambers emptied, and mass graves stand as mute testimony of the cruelty he inflicted on the innocents.

In neither country were our troops greeted with the roses and kisses that greeted American soldiers when they marched through the streets of liberated Paris. The menace in the Middle East thrives within covens of suicide bombers and covert terrorists who slither through back streets and darkened alleys. But soldiers who have served there have seen the joy reflected in the faces of women who now are free of their tormentors, in the smiles on the faces of children who freely bounce soccer balls with them.

What runs through the personal portraits in the "The Greatest Generation" is the way men and women accepted responsibility for doing their duty without anger or self-pity. There was a job to be done, and they did it.

"The World War II years will forever be testimony to America's collective and individual resistance to tyranny," writes Tom Brokaw. Common values impart common strengths. The dissent that dominated the land in the 1930s evaporated after Pearl Harbor. We thought that might happen again in the days following September 11, but it didn't. Too bad for all of us.

Outrage seeks to place blame and politics divides. But if we and our allies succeed in Afghanistan and Iraq, we will look back yet with pride in this new generation that answered the call of duty, honor, country. They deserve our gratitude now.


Ellie

thedrifter
12-28-04, 03:35 PM
Iraq Infiltration On Bases Well Known
Associated Press
December 28, 2004

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq - American commanders are fully aware that Iraq's insurgents exploit their policy of employing locals on U.S. military bases but insist the practice will not stop, though some security measures may be tightened.

The vulnerability of the American stance was exposed on Dec. 21, when an Iraqi suicide bomber dressed in a military uniform detonated his explosives at a mess hall at Forward Operating Base Marez in Mosul, killing 22 people including 14 U.S. servicemembers.

Since then, security has been tightened at chow halls in some camps, with military guards demanding proof of identification more often and not allowing backpacks. Officials say they are constantly reviewing procedures to make sure such an attack doesn't happen again, but insurgents infiltrating camps is unavoidable.

"They're trying to infiltrate the base as much as possible, taking pictures, videos drawing diagrams, grabbing people who are coming off base to intimidate them into giving them locations where different facilities are located on the base or torturing them until they do tell them," said Lt. Col. Dan Wilson, deputy for current operations for the 1st Marine Division. "We know it is active and ongoing."

Officials describe force protection as a game of cat-and-mouse, constantly refining tactics on base to counter changes by Iraq's insurgents.

One aspect the insurgents also appear to have exploited is the American desire to give Iraqi security forces a greater role, to treat them more as equals and to try to get them to do their jobs on their own, without U.S. supervision.





While Iraqis who work on bases are vetted, Americans acknowledge that they don't do security checks on Iraqi forces on base, instead leaving that task to their Iraqi counterparts.

"We don't do a systematic vetting process on Iraqi security forces, their government that does that," Wilson said. "There's a certain trust factor that goes along with the Marines working with them."

Wilson said top-level military staff had asked bases to re-evaluate how they go about force protection, but things like allowing Iraqis on base would not change. Wilson refused to say what sort of ideas were being discussed, only that the ideas were being passed around with the goal of enhancing security.

Some changes have been more visible. Guards at mess halls are stricter about enforcing a policy that badges be visibly displayed. At the gym at Camp Fallujah, only those with Department of Defense badges are now allowed.

Many U.S. bases employ dozens and dozens of Iraqi and other foreign contractors to drive trucks, do construction work and sweep trash. Iraqi work crews are usually accompanied by an escort. Some of the Iraqis live on base and don't tell their families or neighbors about the work they do, for fear of being attacked.

But with jobs so scarce in the country, they say there's little choice.

"Of course everybody is afraid, these people are criminals who will do anything to hurt people," said one Iraqi man working at Camp Fallujah, an electrician who identified himself as Mohammad. "But we can't find a good job except of these types of places."

Mohammad said he and his fellow workers live on the base and hail from Baghdad, far enough away that word hasn't spread about what they do. He said Iraqis are clamoring to get jobs on bases because there is no other option.

"In Iraq, our livelihood now depend on the Americans," he said. "This is what's best for us."

The workers he was with said they were generally pleased with the food, saying they liked the beef and chicken, as well as all the soda that is stacked in refrigerators at each end of Camp Fallujah's two mess halls.

American troops on the bases express widespread distrust about the Iraqis that work there, and have remarked that they all believe contractors are relaying intelligence back to insurgents on the outside.

But that won't lead to a change in policy, said Marine spokesman Lt. Lyle Gilbert.

"Contracting locals helps the economy. That's something we want to do," Gilbert said. "We want the Iraqi economy to flourish. We want them to have jobs, to have money, to get back on heir feet."

Gilbert said that closing off bases to Iraqis would be like "everybody in America closing their doors in fear and not going anywhere."

"We're here. They know we're here, and we know they're there. It's a fact of life," he said.

Ellie

thedrifter
12-28-04, 05:57 PM
Insurgency in Iraq 'will not end': Powell

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said that the insurgency in Iraq (news - web sites) "will not end," as insurgents are determined to derail the country's democratic transition.


Powell reiterated that Iraq's January 30 elections will take place as scheduled and that the US and Iraqi forces are working to have security in place for the polls.


But, he told CBS television, "the insurgency will not end."


"These insurgents are determined to have no representative government. They want to go back to a tyranny," Powell said.


"And so the insurgency will continue and the insurgency will have to be defeated by coalition forces, but increasingly the insurgency will be defeated and brought under control, if not completely defeated, by Iraqi forces that we are building up as rapidly as we can," he added.


Powell, who spoke to several US television networks early Tuesday, said he hoped the Iraqi Islamic party, the country's main Sunni movement, would reconsider its decision to boycott the elections.


"The party that pulled out, we hope that they will review their actions and take another look at security closer to the event, and perhaps rejoin the process," he told Fox News.


The elections will "go off well" in most of the country, but the security situation in the Sunni-dominated areas needs to improve to encourage voters to turn out, Powell said.


"In the Sunni area, which is the most populated part of the country, we have an insurgency that is raging, and we will be devoting all of our coalition efforts and the efforts of Iraqi military and police forces to bring this under control so that people will feel secure and safe in coming out to vote," he told Fox.


Powell also said an audiotape attributed to Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) shows that the Al-Qaeda chief is linked to Iraq's most wanted man, Jordanian militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.


He added that the CIA (news - web sites) has yet to confirm the authenticity of the tape, which was broadcast Monday by Al-Jazeera television.


In the audiotape, the speaker recognizes Zarqawi as Al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq. The speaker also calls for a boycott of Iraq's January 30 elections.


"If it is Osama bin Laden -- and the CIA has not made a final judgment on that -- it certainly rhetorically puts them together," Powell told CNN.


"We now have two murderers, two terrorists, two thugs, talking to each other. I don't know what this rhetorical support will translate into, but we're moving right ahead toward elections on the 30th of January," Powell told Fox News.


Ellie

thedrifter
12-28-04, 06:02 PM
December 28, 2004 09:15 AM US Eastern Timezone

Force Protection, Inc. Ships Additional Armored Vehicles to U.S. Army and U.S. Marines in Iraq

LADSON, S.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 28, 2004--Force Protection, Inc. (OTCBB:FRCP), the leading U.S. manufacturer of mine- and blast-protected vehicles for military and security personnel, will ship three additional Buffalo mine clearance vehicles to the U.S. Army in Iraq and two additional Cougar vehicles to the U.S. Marines today as it continues to increase its rate of production at its plant in Ladson, South Carolina.


"The most important objective we have at Force Protection is the safety of the passengers of our vehicles," said Force Protection CEO Gale Aguilar. "We have the cutting-edge technology, the manufacturing capacity and dedication to ensure that the Army and Marines continue to have the vehicles that will protect them against the threat of land mines and other explosive devices."

The need for armored vehicles has been recognized by the U.S. Army, which reported that it will spend more than $4 billion in the coming months to ship armored vehicles to Iraq to protect troops against insurgents.

"The demand for armored vehicles that can specifically withstand mine and ballistic blasts is rising dramatically," said Mark Edwards, Vice President for Manufacturing. "It is front page news, and we have made tremendous progress in the production of our vehicles to meet this need. As a company, we will continue to do everything necessary to meet this growing demand."

"Force Protection is demonstrating its ability to produce the right vehicles for our soldiers and marines at precisely the right time," said Michael Aldrich, Vice President for Sales. "In-country commanders have told us repeatedly that their greatest threat to successful missions in Iraq remains IEDs."

Force Protection manufactures two classes of armored vehicles. The Buffalo is a mine clearance vehicle that has recently been approved by the Pentagon to be part of a newly devised hunter-killer team concept that will lead convoys against the threat of mines and IEDs. The cutting-edge technology of the Buffalo employs steel wheels and disc rollers, enabling it to withstand mine blasts and ensuring that other vehicles can safely follow. More than 20 Buffalo vehicles will be in Iraq by the end of 2004. The Army recently ordered 15 more Buffalos for an estimated $11.8 million.

The Cougar H series is a family of medium-size mine-protected vehicles that can be supplied in four-wheel or six-wheel models. The vehicles can be configured for a wide range of tasks including troop transport of up to ten Marines or Soldiers, Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD), command and control, reconnaissance and lead convoy vehicle. Marine Commandant Michael W. Hagee recently inspected it in Iraq where it is being used by the Marines.

About Force Protection, Inc.

Force Protection, Inc. manufactures ballistic and mine protected vehicles through its wholly owned subsidiary. These specialty vehicles are protected against landmines, hostile fire, and Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs, commonly referred to as roadside bombs). Force Protection's mine and ballistic protection technology is among the most advanced in the world. The vehicles are manufactured outside Charleston, S.C.

For more information, visit http://www.forceprotectioninc.com.

This release contains forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements concerning our business, future plans and objectives and the performance of our products. These forward-looking statements involve certain risks and uncertainties ultimately may not prove to be accurate. Actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Technical complications may arise that could prevent the prompt implementation of the strategic plan outlined above. The company cautions that these forward looking statements are further qualified by other factors including, but not limited to, those set forth in the company's Form 10-KSB filing and other filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (available at http://www.sec.gov). The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any statements in this release, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.


Ellie

thedrifter
12-28-04, 08:40 PM
U.S. Accuses Syria of Helping Insurgents

By BARRY SCHWEID, AP Diplomatic Writer

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration accused Syria on Tuesday of helping insurgents in Iraq (news - web sites) by giving haven to elements of the deposed Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) regime.


"And it is a problem that we think Syria needs to act to stop," State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said Tuesday.


Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage is likely to discuss the U.S. complaint when he stops in Damascus on a trip that will take him also to Turkey and Jordan.


Details of Armitage's travels were withheld, except that he would leave Washington later in the week, go to the three countries and return sometime next week.


Syria has shrugged off U.S. complaints, saying it was being made a scapegoat for U.S. failure to stop the uprising in Iraq.


Reports circulated in Damascus, meanwhile, that key support for the insurgents in Iraq was coming from a half brother of Saddam Hussein and Baath Party leaders in the Syrian capital.


Ereli said Syrian officials "have done some things with respect to the border and working with the Iraqis to control the border."


But "the continued presence of former regime elements in Syria who are working, we believe, to the detriment of Iraq and in support of the insurgency is a problem that we think Syria needs to act to stop," he said.


In his travels, Armitage also will convey the importance the Bush administration attaches to Sunni participation in elections scheduled for Jan. 30 in Iraq to select a 275-seat interim assembly.


"That will certainly be a key message," Ereli said.


Ellie