War Veteran Refuses 2nd Iraq Deployment

[thedrifter]

War Veteran Refuses 2nd Iraq Deployment
Associated Press
January 14, 2005

SAVANNAH, Ga. - A mechanic with nine years in the Army, including a role in the assault on Baghdad, has refused to return to Iraq, claiming "you just don't know how bad it is."

Sgt. Kevin Benderman, 40, said he became morally opposed to war after seeing it firsthand during his first Iraq tour. Now he faces a possible court-martial after failing to deploy Friday with his unit.

"I told them that I refused deployment because I just couldn't go back over there," Benderman said Wednesday. "If I'm going to sit up there and tell everyone that I do not believe in war, why would I go back to a war zone?"

Lt. Col. Cliff Kent, a Fort Stewart spokesman, said Benderman was being considered absent without leave because he had orders to deploy to Iraq while the Army processed his conscientious objector claim.

"He was AWOL from the unit's movement," Kent said. "Beginning the application process for conscientious objection does not preclude you from deploying."

Benderman has been reassigned to a rear detachment unit at Fort Stewart while his case is processed, Kent said. Kent said the Army has not decided whether to bring charges against him.




Gaining objector status is a time-consuming process for soldiers, requiring meetings with counselors and a chaplain with lengthy paperwork reviewed far up the chain of command. Under military law, a person must be opposed to war in all forms to be considered a conscientious objector.

"If a person said, `I'm not opposed to war, but I'm opposed to the Iraq war,' they would not qualify," said Louis Hiken, an attorney with the Military Law Task Force of the National Lawyers Guild.

Filing an objector claim does not prevent the Army from prosecuting soldiers for disobeying orders.

In May, a Fort Stewart court-martial sentenced Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia of the Florida National Guard to a year in prison for desertion despite his pending objector application. Mejia filed his claim after refusing to return to his unit in Iraq while home on leave.

In December, a soldier who re-enlisted with the Marines after becoming a Seventh-Day Adventist was jailed for refusing to pick up a gun. Cpl. Joel D. Klimkewicz, 24, of Birch Run, Mich., told his superiors he was a conscientious objector and cited his new religious status. It was rejected in March 2004.

Benderman served in Iraq from March to September 2003 with the 4th Infantry Division based at Fort Hood, Texas. When he later transferred to the 3rd Infantry at Fort Stewart, Benderman said, he was already questioning the morality of the destruction he had witnessed.

"You can sit around your house and discuss this thing in abstract terms, but until you see and experience it for yourself, you just don't know how bad it is," he said. "How is it an honorable thing to teach a kid how to look through the sights of a rifle and kill another human being? War is the ultimate in violence and it is indiscriminate."

Asked why he waited until a week before his unit deployed to file notice of his objector claim, Benderman said, "It takes time for you to make sure that you 100 percent want to do things. This is not something you make a snap judgment on."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Defense Rests In Abuse Case
Associated Press
January 14, 2005

FORT HOOD, Texas - The defense for Spc. Charles Graner Jr. rested its case Thursday without the accused ringleader of abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison taking the stand.

The jury of four Army officers and six senior enlisted men was expected to begin deliberating after closing arguments Friday.

Graner's lawyers had indicated earlier that Graner would probably be the final witness, and that he would offer his version of what occurred in a scandal that stirred outrage against the United States around the world.

But defense lawyer Guy Womack said the other witnesses provided all of the evidence necessary to make the case that military and civilian intelligence agents controlled Abu Ghraib and ordered Graner to soften up detainees for questioning.

"We came in with a checklist of things we wanted to present to the jury," Womack said. "Once we accomplished that, there was no reason to continue."

Graner, a 36-year-old reservist from Uniontown, Pa., is the first soldier to be tried on charges arising from the Abu Ghraib scandal. He had appeared glum in recent days, but outside court he said: "I feel fantastic. I'm still smiling."





He is charged with offenses including conspiracy, assault and committing indecent acts and could get 17 1/2 years in a military prison.

Among other things, Graner is accused of stacking naked detainees in a human pyramid and later ordering them to masturbate while other soldiers took photographs. He also allegedly punched one man in the head hard enough to knock him out, and struck an injured prisoner with a collapsible metal stick.

In testimony Thursday, a former guard at Abu Ghraib testified that intelligence officers wanted detainees roughed up there, and that Graner did not take part in a number of the abuses he is accused of committing.

But the witness, former Spc. Megan Ambuhl, admitted under cross-examination that she had had a brief sexual relationship with Graner and remains a close friend.

"And you don't want your friend to go to jail?" asked Maj. Michael Holley, the prosecutor.

"No, sir," she answered.

Ambuhl, who made a plea deal with prosecutors regarding her own actions at Abu Ghraib, testified that intelligence officers directed the prison's guards to rough up and sexually humiliate detainees, and that the guards were praised for their efforts.

On one occasion, she said, an intelligence officer known as Steve told guards to "break" a prisoner known as al-Qaida, who was believed to have valuable information.

"Steve told us that we were doing a good job and that breaking al-Qaida would save a lot of lives," she said.

Another time, she said, two military intelligence officers told Graner to physically abuse a prisoner in a shower.

Ambuhl also said she lied to investigators who sought to search her personal computer for photos and other evidence of abuse.

Sgt. Kenneth Davis later told the jury about an incident in which intelligence officers stripped three detainees accused of raping a teenage boy at Abu Ghraib and forced them to crawl around the prison floor.

Davis said he was disturbed by the incident and reported it to his platoon leader.

"I said military intelligence was doing some pretty weird things with naked detainees," he said.

On Wednesday, the court heard testimony from an Iraqi detainee who admitted he simply could not be sure whether Graner was following orders to beat him.

"I was continually being beaten all the time, I don't remember," Mohanded Juma said. "All I care about is to save myself."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

.S. Having Impact On Tsunami Aid
Associated Press
January 14, 2005

WASHINGTON - President Bush on Thursday said American's military "is making a significant difference" for tsunami victims, despite demands by Indonesia that foreign troops leave the ravaged Aceh province by the end of March.

"There's a lot of talk about how some in the world don't appreciate America," Bush told reporters after getting an update at the Pentagon on the war on terror and U.S. relief efforts in South Asia. "I can assure you that those who have been helped by our military appreciate America."

Separately, in an interview with ABC, Bush acknowledged that U.S. public relations campaigns abroad could use some work in a time of rising anti-American sentiment. "Our public diplomacy efforts aren't very robust and aren't very good, compared to the public diplomacy efforts of those who would like to spread hatred and vilify the United States," Bush told Barbara Walters. The interview will air Friday night on ABC's "20/20."

Bush said the massive American effort to help tsunami victims could boost the U.S. image abroad. "Absolutely. I think it can," he said.

"Our military is making a significant difference in providing relief and aid and help and compassion for those who have suffered," Bush said at the Pentagon, flanked by Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. "I am very impressed, Mr. Secretary, with how quickly we have responded and the assets you have ordered deployed to help these people."




After the briefing with his top national security advisers, which lasted more than an hour, Bush greeted more than 50 members of various branches of the armed services, who cheered his visit to the Pentagon.

"We're constantly reviewing our strategy as to how to defeat the enemy," Bush said. "We fully recognize that the war on terror will require a coordinated effort within our own government as well as a coordinated efforts with countries around the world, which understand the stakes of this war."

Bush, who did not answer questions, said he has been pleased with the help the United States is receiving in fighting terror "mindful of the fact that we have constantly got to review our plans and never lose our will."

At the State Department, spokesman Richard Boucher said Indonesian authorities have informed the United States that there is no departure deadline for U.S. troops from the tsunami-affected area.

"Nobody is asking us to go home," Boucher said, suggesting that some reports to the contrary may have been "overinterpreted."

"The relief effort will go on for a long time," he added. "The Indonesian statement about three months, they tell us, was intended as an estimate about how long the military part of the operation might be necessary."

He said if that if the U.S. military is asked to leave, it would do so. "It's that simple," he said.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

States May Pay Troops Insurance
Associated Press
January 14, 2005

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - Dawn Archuleta, a member of the New Mexico National Guard, wants to know that her son and daughter will be taken care of if she's called to serve in Iraq and doesn't make it home.

"That's my biggest worry if something did happen," said Archuleta, 25, who spent 11 months in Iraq as an Army truck driver.

Now, lawmakers in some states are hoping to ease such concerns with proposals to pick up the tab for $250,000 life insurance policies.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson wants the state to pay premiums under a federal program that allows service members to buy life insurance through a payroll deduction. The basic premium is about $16 a month, which would cost New Mexico an estimated $800,000.

Since Richardson's announcement earlier this month, legislators in Alabama, Iowa, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania have lined up with similar proposals.

"People think the military gets paid a lot but they don't realize how $16 can make a big difference," Archuleta said. "Getting an extra $16 on a Guard check is huge."

Support for those once regarded as "weekend warriors" is increasing because the active-duty Army is too small to meet demands - particularly in Iraq, where troop levels have far exceeded original predictions.




In fact, the National Guard has been used so much in Iraq and Afghanistan that the Army now has deployed, or put on notice, all 15 of its main combat brigades.

Still, some question whether states should pay insurance premiums since deployed soldiers are following federal orders. New Mexico does not cover premiums for any other state employees, including those with potentially dangerous jobs, such as state police officers.

Delano Garcia of the New Mexico Office of Military Affairs says regardless of who pays the premiums, it's something that needs to be done.

"I'm a Vietnam veteran and I hope that what happened to us never happens to these soldiers. Not again," he said.

New Mexico has about 400 guardsmen in Iraq, while Rhode Island has more than 800 stationed overseas. The Alabama Guard has 13 units in Iraq and four in Afghanistan. Iowa and Pennsylvania each have more than 4,000 guardsmen on active federal duty.

Richardson's administration says New Mexico can afford the premiums, citing its healthy reserves and that the cost will not erode funding used to maintain guard armories around the state.

Staff Sgt. Luis Otero, 22, of the New Mexico Air National Guard's 150th Fighter Wing, may have to return to Iraq this year. He said having his premium paid would make it easier. If anything happens to him, then his parents, brother and sister would benefit from his insurance policy.

"An extra $16 to have in our pocket would be nice, but the thing that the governor is talking about is worth more than $16," says Otero. "It's nice to know your family will be taken care of."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

AWOL Marines remain at large

WINCHESTER, Ky. A pair of AWOL Marines involved in a road rage incident on Interstate 64 in Kentucky remain at large.

Lance Corporal Wesley Wilkinson of Charleston, West Virginia and Private Michael Young of Indiana have not been recaptured since being involved in the incident Tuesday.

Lieutenant Rick Long says the pair deserted their units at Camp Pendleton, California, and were awaiting courts-martial when they left their base at Quantico, Virginia, without authorization.

Police say the two men were shot at by fellow Marine Abraham Cerpa during a 90-mile chase filled with gestures and insults.

Cerpa pleaded innocent to assault and four counts of wanton endangerment. He is being held in the Clark County Jail on 100-thousand dollars bond.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Two U.S. Marines Killed in Western Iraq

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two U.S. Marines were killed in action in western Iraq (news - web sites), the U.S. military said in a statement on Friday.


The statement said the two Marines, assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, were killed on Thursday "while conducting security and stability operations in the al-Anbar Province."


It gave no further details, saying the release of any information might be used by insurgents waging daily attacks on U.S.-led forces in Iraq.


The deaths raised to 1,071 the number of American troops killed in action since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003.




Ellie

[thedrifter]

US Marines close in on Lanka rebel areas

KOGGALA, Sri Lanka (AP) - The USS Duluth, an amphibious assault ship, was bound for eastern Sri Lankan shores Thursday to carry out relief work that will bring it close to areas controlled by Tamil Tiger rebels. The ship with 400 Marines and 400 Navy personnel set sail two days after it anchored off this southern town. It will drop relief supplies in Ampara, one of the worst hit by the disaster.
In eastern Sri Lanka, Tamils and Muslims are the major communities and the Tamil Tiger rebels have considerable influence. The area was the scene of a major clash between the mainstream rebel group and a breakaway faction in March and April last year. The breakaway faction was defeated.

The Tigers have made no comment on either the landing of US soldiers or their movement to the east. But a rebel-backed Tamil politician has said that the troops engaged in relief efforts might use the operation as a cover to spy on the rebels and give intelligence to the government.

"They may try to collect details to help the government crush the Tamil national struggle in a future conflict," Tamil Rebel political leader Nallathamby Srikantha told Voice of Tigers radio.

Ellie

[al20852]

Back in the late 60's and early 70's I was involved with several desertion cases of Marines who refused to either report for duty or ship out to Viet Nam. There are always going to be people like that. Bottom line is you need to have rules and punish the people who don't follow them. If you don't, those people who actually report for duty are short changed. No one, and I mean no one, wants to go into harm's way. Everyone is scared. But, if you sign up you are obigated and you have to deal with your commitment. If you don't, you should suffer the consequences.

[thedrifter]

Marines and sailors set to leave Camp Lejeune
January 14,2005
Eric Steinkopff
Freedom ENC

About 850 Marines and sailors from Camp Lejeune will leave for Iraq today and Saturday as part of an area force expected to number 14,000 by April.

Gunnery Sgt. Sean Wright, a spokesman for the 8th Marine Regiment, said the deployment from 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines will start this morning, ending months of training and anticipation for the spring switch with West Coast Marine Corps infantry units.

The Marines are expected to be away for seven months.

"They (3/8) will become Regimental Combat Team 8 when the East Coast units take over command in February or March," Wright said.

The troops are among the first from the area to leave in what the military has said will be a deployment of about 14,000 troops from Lejeune's II Marine Expeditionary Force. It includes Marines and sailors from New River, Cherry Point and Beaufort (S.C.) air stations.

This "II MEF forward" is expected to swell in size to about 20,000 over the next couple of months as about 6,000 troops from various supporting active duty and activated reserve units join their command.

They are scheduled to replace roughly 20,000 troops under the command of I Marine Expeditionary Force, now in Iraq.

Camp Lejeune's 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, which numbers around 850, is currently training in Southern California and expected to return home before leaving for a seven-month deployment to Iraq.

First Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, also from Camp Lejeune, is slated to leave for its California training this month. When those troops return to Lejeune, they, too, will head to Iraq for seven months.

The reserve 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment - primarily from the northern Ohio area - is also scheduled to go through training in California before deploying to Iraq with II MEF within the next couple of months, said 2nd Marine Division spokeswoman 1st Lt. Kate VandenBossche.

"They are already mobilized," VandenBossche said.

Other II MEF active duty units supporting the spring rotation include:

n The 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing forward with elements of New River Air Station's Marine Aircraft Group 26; and Marine Air Control Group 28 and Marine Wing Support Group 27 from Cherry Point Air Station.

n The 2nd Force Service Support Group forward with elements of Headquarters and Service Battalion, 2nd Maintenance Battalion, 8th Engineer Support Battalion, 2nd Supply Battalion, 2nd Transportation Support Battalion, and 2nd Medical Battalion.


Ellie

[MillRatUSMC]

Yes, I have trouble with Marines that do not meet their commitment.
Especially those that refuse a second tour.
If you're a Non-Commision Officer and you get orders back, you go.
No questions asked, that what you'e getting paid for.
To teach other Marines to survive in one of the most hostile place known to man.
If you refuse, than you must suffer the consequences.
You might ask, what gives you the authority to make such statements.
I got orders twice to Vietnam, I went because that was the moral thing and I was an Non-Commissioned- Officer.
So I don't stand on high moral ground on this issue.

Semper Fidelis/Semper Fi
Ricardo

PS
There will always be fear on the field of battle, those without fear are either insane or mad!

[TRLewis]

Originally posted by thedrifter
Police say the two men were shot at by fellow Marine Abraham Cerpa during a 90-mile chase filled with gestures and insults.

Cerpa pleaded innocent to assault and four counts of wanton endangerment. He is being held in the Clark County Jail on 100-thousand dollars bond.

Ellie

Give that guy an award, not punish him.

[thedrifter]

Run for the money
Parris Island Marines raise nearly $17,500 for tsunami victims
Published Sat, Jan 8, 2005

By OMAR FORD
Gazette staff writer
BLUFFTON -- Lance Cpl. George Holmes could feel his legs cramping as he crossed over the Chechessee River bridge -- the midpoint in a 30-mile run between Bluffton and Lady's Island.
But giving up wasn't in the equation for the sweat-drenched, 21-year-old Lebanon Mo., native, who was running to raise money for survivors of the Dec. 26 tsunami.

"This is the most I've ever run at one time," said Holmes. "This is tough, but we're going to make it."

From 6:30 a.m. to noon Friday, Holmes and four other Parris Island Marines put their bodies on the line by running between the Palmetto Chapter of the American Red Cross headquarters in Bluffton and Hometown Realty on Lady's Island, raising nearly $17,500.

That money will go toward the American Red Cross' International Response fund. Locally the agency has raised $56,500 -- not counting Friday's donation's -- for the effort.

Since Monday, the Lowcountry has seen more than $80,000 worth of support going to aid the victims of the Southeast Asia tsunami that has killed nearly 150,000 people.

Ways to donate throughout the area have been numerous and creative, including Internet auctions, long-distance runs and golf tournaments.

People are stepping up to help, said Larry Rockwell, executive director of the local branch of the American Red Cross, which co-sponsored Friday's run with Hometown Realty.

"Children have brought in their Christmas money (to help)," he said. "It's just touching."

Loy Simmons, a Thailand native and resident of Hardeeville, said she will be selling traditional dishes today to help the survivors.

Simmons said she plans to go to her native country, which was struck by the tsunami, to aid in the relief efforts.

"Even though I don't have family that was affected, I still want to do what I can," she said.

Holmes echoed similar thoughts when speaking about why he approached the American Red Cross with the fund-raising idea.

"I don't have a million dollars to donate like (actress) Sandra Bullock, but I can help -- I can do something to make a difference," he said. (Red Cross) was very supportive."

Rockwell said the agency embraced the idea immediately.

"Not everybody can make a monetary donation, but (Holmes) still wanted to help," Rockwell said. "He wanted to give of himself physically -- it's just heart- warming."

Traffic was severely tied up at some points during the run, and soreness often set in for the Marines.

The five were escorted by an American Red Cross van that provided water along the way and a Beaufort County Sheriff's Office squad car.

Friday's run was a severe departure from the usual routine of running 30 miles a week, said Cpl. Joshua Harris, who was part of the group.

"I'm going to get into the bathtub and soak myself in Epsom salt when I get home," Harris said after the race.

But despite bruises and stiffness and future aches, Holmes and crew said it was worth the effort.

"Definitely I'm hurting," he said. "But I would do it again ... anything to help."

Contact Omar Ford at 986-5538 or oford@beaufortgazette.com.

http://beaufortgazette.com/ips_rich_content/NWS-Tsunami-1-01082005.jpg

Bob Sofaly/Gazette
Lance Cpl. George Holmes, left, Cpl. Joshua Harris, Gunnery Sgt. Scott Duplechain and Cpl. James Shipman jog over the J.E. McTeer Bridge on Friday morning. The Parris Island Marines were running from the American Red Cross office in Bluffton to Hometown Realty on Lady's Island.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

January 17, 2005

Soldier: Question for Rumsfeld was mine

Joseph R. Chenelly
Times staff writer


When Spc. Thomas “Jerry” Wilson emerged from a crowd of some 2,300 troops Dec. 8 to ask Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld why Iraq-bound soldiers had to rummage through Kuwaiti scrap yards to armor their vehicles, he was asking his own question, the way he wanted to ask it — and not acting as a reporter’s puppet as has since been widely implied.
Wilson, 31, said that while a reporter embedded with his National Guard unit helped him get to the open forum with Rumsfeld, the question was all his.

“Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles?” Wilson asked the secretary. The soldiers around him cheered so loud that Rumsfeld asked Wilson to repeat the question.

Wilson said he decided to ask the question after finding out that there were hundreds of armored vehicles at Camp Arijan, Kuwait, for a unit not due in theater until July. He asked that his unit, the 278th Regimental Combat Team, be allowed to use the vehicles in the meantime, but said his request was rejected.

U.S. Central Command did not respond to questions about the vehicles or Wilson’s initial request.

Rumsfeld was criticized for his answer: “You go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time.”

The query garnered an abundance of international news coverage. A week later, Army leaders announced that $4.1 billion had been earmarked to armor nearly 11,000 Humvees and trucks in Iraq and Afghanistan by June.

Still, some officers took exception to the way Wilson addressed Rumsfeld. But Wilson, according to Time magazine, told an officer that if the question “costs me my career to save another soldier, I’ll give it.”

Source of the question

Shortly after word of Wilson’s actions reached the United States, Lee Pitts, a reporter for the Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times Free Press, sent an e-mail to his colleagues taking credit for orchestrating the exchange between Wilson and Rumsfeld, writing that he did so because reporters weren’t allowed to interview Rumsfeld directly.

The e-mail, which appeared on the Internet, began, “I just had one of my best days as a journalist today.” The entire e-mail also was printed in the Dec. 20 issue of Marine Corps Times.

“I was astonished to see the subject [change] so quickly from a lack of armor to whether or not someone planted a line of questions to me,” Wilson said. “The simple answer to the Lee Pitts involvement is no, it’s not true.”

The Times Free Press agreed in a Dec. 19 column by the newspaper’s publisher, Tom Griscom.

Wilson first met Pitts at Fort Irwin, Calif., during pre-deployment training. Once in Kuwait, Wilson said Pitts encouraged him to come up with “intelligent questions” to ask.

Wilson told Time that after he showed Pitts the question, Pitts advised him to reword it in a “less brash way,” but Wilson refused.

“I wanted to make my point very clear,” he told Marine Corps Times.

Wilson said that he talked with Rumsfeld after the forum and shook his hand.

“Actually, I had several more questions for Secretary Rumsfeld, but after the immediate response from my fellow soldiers in the hangar, I thought it was best just to let my question stand for itself,” Wilson said. “I am a longtime Bush supporter and hope that I didn’t do any damage to the Bush administration or to Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld.”

Wilson said he is grateful for the treatment he has received from his command and fellow soldiers since the town hall meeting and its aftermath. He even admits that he has something of a “celebrity status” in his unit.

“As a whole, the response has been overwhelming positive,” he said.

But his family in Georgia has received threats, according to Wilson’s ex-wife, Regina Wilson. “Some people don’t think what he did was right,” she said. “But I am very proud of Jerry. He did what he was supposed to — he said what he had to to help others.”

Regina Wilson said the family received about a dozen “negative” telephone calls in one night, more than two weeks after it all began. Local authorities are aware of the threats and a caller identification device has been installed, she said. Their 9-year-old daughter no longer rides the bus to school.

“My immediate chain of command is aware of both the positive and negative responses,” the soldier said. He said he does not regret asking the question, but hasn’t “slept well since.”

A Defense Department spokesman said the criticism and threats are unfortunate and unnecessary.

“Specialist Wilson was on the verge of moving into Iraq, a combat environment, and deserves to have his concerns addressed,” the spokesman said.

President Bush echoed the sentiments. “If I were a soldier overseas wanting to defend my country, I’d want to ask the secretary of defense the same question and that is: ‘Are we getting the best we can get us?’ And they deserve the best,” Bush said Dec. 9.

Joseph R. Chenelly covers the Army.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Sacrifice for comrades cited
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Will Hoover
Honolulu Advertiser Staff Writer
Jan. 14, 2005

For regimental commander Col. Jeffrey J. Patterson, the sacrifice of nine Marines and one Navy corpsman killed in the battle for Fallujah can best be summed up by words from the Bible.

Yesterday, he quoted John 15:13 at a memorial for his fallen comrades: "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."

The 10 warriors, said Patterson, exemplified that sort of love.

"Each of them gave their life for their brothers," said Patterson, adding that yesterday's service was the second of its kind in as many months, and a "stark reminder to all of us that freedom isn't free."

The men, from the 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, were all killed since Nov. 8. They were honored at the special Service of Remembrance at Marine Corps Base Hawai'i in Kane'ohe.

One by one, Patterson praised each man's commitment, courage and character. Their helmets, rifles and boots were lined up across the stage at the base theater, where the service took place.

There was Sgt. Rafael Peralta - "the old man of the group" at age 25 - an immigrant from Mexico who enlisted before he became a U.S. citizen.

Peralta has been nominated for the Medal of Honor for using his body to smother the blast of an enemy grenade to protect his men.

There was Lance Cpl. Blake Magaoay, 20, of Pearl City, the only one of the 10 from Hawai'i. He was wounded twice before returning to the fight and being killed in a enemy ambush, said Patterson, whose booming voice broke several times as he fought back tears.

"Our motto is 'Always Faithful - Semper Fidelis,'" said Patterson. "It does a lot to explain why these Marines fought so hard and were so brave in combat. Oddly enough, during the heat of battle their acts of bravery have little to do with the Constitution or patriotism.

"They act instinctively, and they do it for the love of their brothers. Commitment and brotherhood are the things that inspired Petty Officer Julian Woods to turn, run out and give aid to a wounded Marine."

In so doing, Woods, a Navy corpsman, gave his life.

Among the hundreds of Marines attending the service were about a dozen men wounded in action and recently returned from Iraq. They watched quietly from the first two rows.

Lance Cpl. Michael Erdman, 23, of Denver, Colo., was one who stood to speak about his experience. Erdman, a machine gunner, was shot in Fallujah in early December. A week earlier he watched as two of his buddies - Lance Cpl. David M. Branning, 21, and Lance Cpl. Brian A. Medina, 20 - were shot and killed in a gun battle.

Erdman said he and Medina had become especially close in a short time in Iraq. He described Medina as the stuff of which legends are made.

Once, he said, he and Medina were chatting about finding themselves in the thick of battle in one of the world's hottest war zones. Erdman said he uttered something about being there to do his job, whether he liked it or not.

Medina's response was that he had joined the Marine Corps to defend his company, his family, and his friends in the United States of America. Medina said he considered Fallujah an opportunity to fulfill that commitment.

"I had never heard anybody say anything like that with such sincerity," Erdman said. "I salute him as a friend, as a brother in arms, and as a man of honor."

Following the service, Blake Magaoay's grandmother, Leilani Roberts of Ka'alaea, said she had been very moved.

"I'm so glad that I came," said Roberts, whose father and brother were Marines. "I just feel that the service was so beautiful and a fitting closure to the lives of these young men who sacrificed their all.

"Blake was the kind of person who would have done anything for his buddies."

Nine Marines and a Navy corpsman who were memorialized:

Lance Cpl. Aaron C. Pickering, 20, of Harrisburg, Ill.
Petty Officer Julian Woods, 22 of Jacksonville, Fla.
Lance Cpl. David M. Branning, 21, of Cockeysville, Md.
Lance Cpl. Brian A. Medina, 20, of Woodbridge, Va.
Sgt. Rafael Peralta, 25, of San Diego, Calif.
Lance Cpl. Michael A. Downey, 21, of Phoenix, Ariz.
Cpl. Michael R. Cohen, 23, of Jacobus, Pa.
Lance Cpl. Jeffrey S. Blanton, 23, of Fayetteville, Ga.
Lance Cpl. Franklin A. Sweger, 24, of San Antonio, Texas.
Lance Cpl. Blake Magaoay, 20, of Pearl City.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Hometown punks nearly kill Taliban-fighting leatherneck
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Jules Crittenden
The Boston Herald
Friday, January 14, 2005

Back from the Marines and two combat tours chasing the Taliban in the mountains of Afghanistan, Joseph Singer found more trouble than he ever expected just two blocks from home.

Tuesday night, Singer, 22, and his father, Bruce Singer, 50, both of Revere, fended off an attack by knife and shovel-wielding punks that left the younger Singer stabbed in the gut.

``They were vicious, godless animals, that's what they were,'' Bruce Singer said yesterday.

About 6:30 that night, Joe Singer was on his way home to have dinner with his dad when he saw some youths throwing chunks of ice at some cars on Crescent Avenue, and saw that his dad had pulled over to confront them.

``It's the neighborhood I grew up in. I asked these kids, what's the problem?'' Joe Singer said yesterday from his bed at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he is recovering from a stab wound. Singer served in Afghanistan in the initial combat around Kandahar in late 2001, and went back to hunt the Taliban in 2003.

The youths, five or six of them, began arguing and kept throwing ice balls.

``My son said, `Let's get out of here. Let's get the cops,' '' Bruce Singer said. That's when, they said, the punks came at them with snow shovels and sticks, backing Joe up against a fence.

``I was doing all I could to defend myself,'' said Joe Singer, who said he was hit in the head and arms as he tried to fend off the blows. One of the attackers pulled Singer's shirt up and over his head, trying to immobilize him. Then one of them pulled out a buck knife and stabbed him in the gut.

``I felt it and I saw the knife. Now I was in fear for my life,'' Joe Singer said. The kids bolted. ``They must have seen the blood and got scared. There was a lot of blood.''

But they didn't get far. Bruce Singer was able to show the police where they were hiding under a tarp in a backyard nearby. Michael T. Whalen Jr. and Vincenzo DiLeone, both 18, of Revere were charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. Detectives are considering whether to up the charges.

In his hospital bed yesterday, Joe Singer said, ``It's sad. It's a lot different even than four years ago when I was in high school. Everybody's in a gang, everybody's using OxyContin. It's crazy to come back to stuff like that. You can't even walk down the street.''

Bruce Singer said, ``He came back from Afghanistan without a scratch. Two streets away, he almost got killed.''


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marine Arrested After Road Rage Shooting
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bond reduction request denied for Marine in road rage case
01/14/2005
Associated Press

Bond will remain at $100,000 cash for a Marine charged with assault and wanton endangerment in a highway encounter with two other Marines.

Police say Abraham Cerpa, 20, pulled out a semi-automatic rifle early Tuesday and fired three or four shots at another car, hitting Lance Cpl. Wesley Wilkinson, 31, of Charleston, W.Va.

Meanwhile, Lt. Col. Rick Long said Thursday that Wilkinson and Pvt. Michael Young, 21, of Indiana, deserted their units at Camp Pendleton, Calif., and were awaiting courts-martial when they left their base at Quantico, Va., without authorization. Wilkinson and Young have not been recaptured.

Cerpa, from Camp Lejeune, N.C., was traveling with his wife and her children to Chicago when they encountered the other Marines on Interstate 64 in eastern Kentucky.

The two vehicles made contact in what Cerpa's attorney, Alex Rowady, called "a menacing way." A 90-mile chase filled with gestures and insults ensued.

The Cerpas thought the men in the other car would eventually turn around and go home.

"They wouldn't leave him alone," Rowady said.

Rowady told Clark County District Judge Brandy O. Brown that Cerpa was preparing to go to Iraq when the incident occurred.

Assistant County Attorney John Keeton opposed the request for reduced bond, saying the Cerpas could have exited and called for help.

Brown said the charges were too serious to warrant reduced bond at this time.

Cerpa pleaded not guilty to assault and four counts of wanton endangerment. He is scheduled to be back in court Jan. 24.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Jury Told Abu Ghraib Abuse Was for Laughs

By T.A. BADGER, Associated Press Writer

FORT HOOD, Texas - Military jurors began deliberating the fate of Spc. Charles Graner Jr. on Friday after a prosecutor told them that the defendant and other Abu Ghraib guards beat up and humiliated detainees at the Baghdad prison simply for the fun of it.


In his closing argument, Capt. Chris Graveline, one of the prosecutors, recounted incident after incident of alleged abuse, buttressing many with photos and video taken inside the prison in November 2003, to make the case that Graner was a sadistic soldier who took pleasure in seeing detainees suffer.


The panel of four Army officers and six senior enlisted men began their deliberations at late morning. On each of the five charges, seven of the jurors must vote to convict for Graner to be found guilty in the court-martial.


"It was for sport, for laughs," Graveline told jurors. "What we have here is plain abuse. There is no justification."


Defense lawyer Guy Womack countered that his client and other Abu Ghraib guards were under extreme pressure from intelligence agents to use physical violence to prepare detainees for questioning.


"It was a persistent, consistent set of orders," said Womack. "To soften up the detainees, to do things so we can interrogate them successfully in support of our mission. ... We had men and women being killed."


Graner, a 36-year-old reservist from Uniontown, Pa., is the first soldier to be tried on charges arising from the prison scandal. He is charged with conspiracy, assault, dereliction of duty and committing indecent acts and could get 17 1/2 years in a military prison.


Womack reminded jurors that Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) was not yet in U.S. custody when the alleged abuse happened.


"There was somebody very important on everybody's mind," he said. "Wouldn't it be logical to have your interrogators use pressure to get information to try to find him?"


Womack described the notorious photos taken inside the prison as "gallows humor" arising from unrelenting stress felt by the Abu Ghraib guards.


He also tried to plant the seed that Graner and the other low-level guards were being used in a cover-up to protect Army officers once those photos went public.


Among other things, Graner is accused of stacking naked detainees in a human pyramid and later ordering them to masturbate while other soldiers took photographs. He also allegedly punched one man in the head hard enough to knock him out, and struck an injured prisoner with a collapsible metal stick.


Graner did not testify during the four-day trial, which included testimony from three guards who had made plea deals with prosecutors.


Two other guards are awaiting trial, along with Pfc. Lynndie England, a clerk at Abu Ghraib who last fall gave birth to a baby believed to be fathered by Graner.


Womack said Thursday that there was no need for Graner to tell his version of what went on inside the prison because his other witnesses were so effective in making the case.


The final two witnesses testified that intelligence officers wanted detainees roughed up, and that they praised guards for their performance.


Graveline used some of Graner's own e-mails as evidence of how much he enjoyed the pain he inflicted on detainees. In one e-mail, he described beating on prisoners as "a good upper-body workout, but hard on the hands."





The e-mail messages were given to jurors Tuesday. The New York Times, which said it got them from a person close to the defense, reported that they were sent to Graner's family and friends, including his young children.

"The guys give me hell for not getting any pictures while I was fighting this guy," said the message with the photograph of the howling detainee, according to the Times.

A photo of him stitched a detainee's wound had the note, "Things may have gotten a bit bad when we were asking him a couple of questions. O well," and a message with a similar photo read, "Not only was I the healer, I was the hurter. O well life goes on," the Times reported.

In his presentation, Graveline cited an earlier comment by Womack, who sought to play down the pyramid incident by saying that cheerleaders build pyramids every day.

The prosecution said that might be a valid comparison if the cheerleaders were stripped naked and roughed up first.

But Womack said there was nothing wrong with stripping what the prisoners, whom he termed "hardened terrorists," and stacking them into a pyramid to control them.

"They did it in a safe manner so nobody would get hurt ... It was an ingenuous move," he said. "If there was anything wrong, it was that they took a picture and they were smiling."


Ellie

[thedrifter]

January 17, 2005

Mayoral Marine
Retired gunny finds unusual new ‘duty’



When Gunnery Sgt. Barry McCool told his colleagues that he was retiring from the Marine Corps to help his parents run the family business in tiny Hunter, Okla., his fellow Marines joked that the town of 200 was so small, he’d probably end up becoming mayor.
McCool, who last served with the staff noncommissioned officer academy in Hawaii before retiring in August 2003, remembers thinking a mayoralty wouldn’t be such a bad idea.

And by last May, that thought became reality.

These days, instead of dealing with the problems of corporals and sergeants training to be leaders, McCool spends his time fielding complaints about a neighbor’s barking dog or a coyote running through people’s yards.

“Being a leader in the Marine Corps is definitely more challenging,” he chuckled. But that’s not to say he doesn’t enjoy the change of pace. “People ask me all the time, ‘Is it hard to go from the Marine Corps to being mayor?’ I say no because I love dealing with people,” he said.

McCool, an infantry Marine, became mayor after serving on the town board for nine months.

He said his devil dog past had something to do with his decision to run. “It’s not so much the aspect of being in charge, but more that if you see something that needs fixing, don’t gripe about it, figure out a way to fix it.”

When he’s not running the town, McCool runs half of his family’s pest-control business.

But he hasn’t forgotten his roots. His new uniform is a pair of jeans and a long-sleeve button-down shirt with an eagle, globe and anchor embroidered on the chest.

“I have seven of them, all different


Ellie

[Doc Crow]

Amazing how Corpsman continue to do this type of work that when you first join the Navy were never told by the way you will end up with the Corps. God I love These Guys they continue to make me Proud to have been a DOC

[thedrifter]

Insurgents Fire Rockets in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents fired rockets Friday night against targets in the center of Baghdad, causing no casualties, police said. Other attacks were reported on the western edge of the capital.


Strong blasts were heard on the eastern bank of the Tigris River, which flows through the heart of the capital, and were followed by a brief burst of small arms fire.


Police said two of the rockets exploded near the Sadeer Hotel, which is used by Western contractors and third fell near the Ministry of Education — both in the downtown area.


Elsewhere, insurgents fired a rocket-propelled grenade at an Iraqi police patrol in the Amiriyah district on the western edge of the city. Three explosions also were heard near the main road from central Baghdad to the city's international airport, police said.


Central Baghdad had been relatively quiet for about two weeks until a series of mortar attacks Thursday near the U.S.-controlled Green Zone.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

S.D. Marines to drop aid near rebel-held areas

By Tini Tran
ASSOCIATED PRESS

January 14, 2005

ABOARD THE DULUTH, off Sri Lanka – The amphibious transport dock Duluth was bound for eastern Sri Lankan shores yesterday to carry out tsunami relief work that will bring it close to areas controlled by Tamil Tiger rebels.

The amphibious assault ship, with 400 Camp Pendleton-based Marines and 400 Navy personnel aboard, set sail two days after it anchored off the southern coast, where it had delivered heavy machinery such as bulldozers and trucks as well as humanitarian supplies.

The San Diego-based ship's commander, Cmdr. Larry Grippin, said 30 tons of relief supplies would be dropped off today near the eastern town of Ampara, one of the worst hit by the Dec. 26 tsunami.

The supplies will be transported by three helicopters to an area so badly devastated by the tsunami it is unreachable except by air, public affairs officer Ensign Nick Rogers said.

"All the roads are in bad shape. The area around it has been cut off from regular contact," Rogers said. "This is something the government asked us to do because they don't have the capability to do that."

In eastern Sri Lanka, Tamils and Muslims are the major communities and the Tamil Tiger rebels have considerable influence. The area was the scene of a major clash between the mainstream rebel group and a breakaway faction last spring.

The rebels have their bases in the north and the east, which is home to most of the country's 3.2 million Tamil minority. The Tamil Tigers, included on a U.S. list of terrorist organizations, have fought a two-decade civil war for independence. About 65,000 people were killed in the conflict until a Norway-brokered cease-fire in 2002.

Once the relief mission is completed, the ship will return to its original anchoring position off the southern coastal town of Koggala by Sunday, the commander said.

From there, the ship will rendezvous with the San Diego-based amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard, which has been off the coast of Indonesia, and other members of its battle group, before returning course to its original destination of Iraq next week.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines paint different picture of Raya
Acquaintance in Iraq says officer's killer did not have combat role

As questions swirl about Andres Raya's state of mind prior to the police shooting Sunday night in Ceres, Marines who say they served with him in Iraq and lived near him at Camp Pendleton paint a clearer picture of his time in service.
Lance Cpl. Sarah Carroll, a fourth-year Marine from Virginia Beach, Va., said Raya never engaged in combat while in Iraq and never served in Fallujah, contradicting statements his parents made earlier this week.

Another Marine, who asked not to be identified, said Raya was hardened by his Iraqi experience, but that he does not believe it was a factor in the shooting.

Those statements support claims by some local law enforcement officials who believe Raya was not suffering from posttraumatic stress when he shot and killed Ceres police Sgt. Howard Stevenson and seriously injured another veteran officer from the department, Sam Ryno. Hours later, Raya was shot dead by police.

Raya's family has said that when Andres returned from his tour in Iraq, his personality had changed from being a likeable, light-hearted teenager to someone who was combative and confrontational with authority. Family members did not return phone calls Thursday.

"The only fighting he saw was occasional mortar and rocket attacks, which we all saw," Carroll said from Miramar Marine Corps Air Station in San Diego. "There was something else behind this."

Carroll said she met Raya while the two were stationed together with the 1st Intelligence Battalion in Ramadi, Iraq, between February and September 2004.

Ramadi, about 50 miles west of Baghdad and 20 miles west of Fallujah along the Euphrates River, was a fierce battleground in April, when 13 U.S. Marines were killed in an ambush by Iraqi insurgents. Eight of those fatalities came from the Marines' 2nd Battalion, 4th Regiment, the unit Raya transferred into when he returned to Camp Pendleton after his seven-month tour ended in September.

While in Iraq, Raya and Carroll were shielded from the most intense fighting as members of the 1st Intelligence Battalion, Carroll said. The 19-year-old Ceres High School graduate was a motor vehicle operator and drove transport vehicles such as Humvees and diesel trucks on supply runs, according to both Marines.

"He was an on-base kind of guy," Carroll said. "He wasn't involved in any door-to-door fighting or anything like that."

The 1st Intelligence Battalion provides intelligence for the larger 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton spokeswoman Capt. Juliet Chelkowski said. Although it's unknown how many Marines from the 1st Intelligence Battalion were killed, the 25,000-member 1st Marine Expeditionary Force was involved in heavy fire between February and September and had at least 81 deaths.

Aside from frequent mortar fire blasts from neighboring battles, Carroll said, the Ramadi base, called Blue Diamond, was largely a safe haven. There was only one Marine death during their time at the base that could be attributed to indirect fire, she said.

"On average, we'd receive two or three indirect-fire attacks a day," Carroll said. "It was just something we learned to live with."

Although Carroll said she didn't have enough contact with Raya to assess his psychological state, she recalled one meeting with him at the base dining hall. According to Carroll, Raya told her he had returned from a morning supply convoy that had rolled over a roadside bomb.

"(Raya) said the convoy had one fatality and said how upset he was that it was the other guy and not him," Carroll said. "It seemed like an odd comment because I didn't get the impression that he knew the guy or had been close to the bomb."

When Raya returned to Camp Pendleton, one Marine noticed a change in his attitude, but didn't think it severe enough to foreshadow Sunday night's shootout.

"He still seemed like the same guy, he just had a hard time (in Iraq)," the Marine said. "He didn't have any signs (of post-traumatic stress). He just didn't like it over there."

Funeral services for Raya will begin with a public visitation at 10 a.m. today at St. Jude's Catholic Church in Ceres. A memorial service will begin at 1 p.m.

Bee staff writer Joel Hood can be reached at 238-4574 or jhood@modebee.com.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Germany Holds 3 More Islamic Extremists

ASSOCIATED PRESS

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) -

German police arrested three more suspected Muslim extremists Thursday in connection with an illegal network that faked passports and recruited people for Islamic holy war, Munich prosecutors said.

Those arrested were among 11 detained in a nationwide sweep Wednesday of alleged militants suspected of building a criminal network, said August Stern, a Munich prosecutor. Eleven others were arrested the same day and another suspect was arrested earlier, Stern said.

It was not clear if the remaining eight detainees had been released after further investigation, or whether they still remained in custody.

The coordinated crackdown in five German states was the culmination of a long-term investigation of the network, which authorities said included supporters of Ansar al-Islam, a group with links to al-Qaida and Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi that is fighting U.S.-led forces in Iraq.

The suspects, aged 17 to 46, included German citizens, as well as nationals of Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya and Bulgaria, police said.

Officials said the group was not suspected of planning any attacks, but was involved in raising money to support extremist organizations, producing false passports and visas, and smuggling illegal immigrants.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

U.S.-Led Forces Damaged Ancient Babylon-Report

By Kate Holton

LONDON (Reuters) - U.S.-led forces, using Iraq (news - web sites)'s ancient city of Babylon as a military base, have caused "substantial damage" to one of the world's most renowned archaeological treasures, a British Museum report said.


The report, quoted in Saturday's Guardian newspaper, said U.S. and Polish military vehicles had crushed 2,600-year-old pavements in the city, a cradle of civilization and home to one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Archaeological fragments were used to fill sand bags, it added.


John Curtis, keeper of the museum's Ancient and Near East department, invited to visit Babylon by Iraqi antiquities experts, also said he had found cracks and gaps made by people who had apparently tried to gouge out the decorated bricks forming the famous dragons of the city's Ishtar Gate.


U.S. military commanders set up a base in Babylon in April 2003, just after the invasion to topple Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), and handed it over to a Polish-led force five months later.


"This is tantamount to establishing a military camp around the Great Pyramid in Egypt or around Stonehenge in Britain," Curtis said in the report.


The camp will be formally handed over to the Iraqi culture ministry on Saturday.


Babylon was the capital of ancient Babylonia, an early civilization that existed from around 1,800 BC until 600 BC.


Most famous for the Hanging Gardens built by Nebuchadnezzar, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, large parts of it were reconstructed by Saddam in an attempt to associate himself with his country's past glories.


In the report, Curtis described the decision to set up a base in the area as "regrettable."


Large areas of the site were covered in gravel, the report said, brought in from outside which was compacted and sometimes chemically treated to make helipads and car parks.


"The status of future information about these areas will therefore be seriously compromised," the report said.


Lord Redesdale, the head of Britain's all-party parliamentary archaeological group, told the Guardian he was horrified.


"Outrage is hardly the word, this is just dreadful.


"These are world sites. Not only is what the American forces are doing damaging the archaeology of Iraq, it's actually damaging the cultural heritage of the whole world."


The newspaper quoted Lieutenant Colonel Steven Boylan as saying the significance of Babylon was not lost on the foreign troops.


"An archaeologist examined every construction initiative for its impact on historical ruins."


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Iraq to OK Voter Registration on Jan. 30

By JASON KEYSER, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqis in two of the country's most troubled provinces will be permitted to register and vote on the day of elections, the head of Iraq (news - web sites)'s electoral commission said Saturday. Commission Chairman Abdul-Hussein Hendawi also said he expected a same-day preliminary vote count.


Tallying final results from the Jan. 30 elections could take as long as 10 days.


In the face of increasing concerns about security during the election period, authorities have agreed to let voters register and cast ballots on the same day in Anbar and Ninevah provinces, Hendawi said.


The two provinces, home to restive cities like Fallujah and Mosul, have suffered frequent insurgent strikes and deadly clashes involving U.S. forces, raising questions about whether voting will be able to precede in parts of those areas.


Some 14 million Iraqis are eligible to vote in the election for a legislature that will run the country, draft a permanent constitution and chose a president and prime minister.


A violent intimidation campaign by insurgents has kept voter registrations light in areas north and west of the capital. In particular, rebels have gunned down election officials and members of the U.S.-trained Iraqi forces, which are tasked with providing the bulk of election day security.


Iraqis wanting to vote in Iraq's 16 other provinces will have to register ahead of time, as planned, Hendawi said.


Much is riding on the success of the vote. President Bush (news - web sites)'s administration hopes the election will be a major step in the building of a democracy and set the stage for the withdrawal of American and international military forces.


A lot of attention is likely to be focused on the turnout. Clerics and politicians from Iraq's Sunni Muslim minority have threatened a boycott, citing security concerns. The country's long-oppressed Shiites, eager to win a share of power that reflects their status as the nation's majority community, are expected to turn out in higher numbers.


Some observers have warned such a scenario could further divide the country along ethnic and religious lines.


Meanwhile, a local government building in the city of Ramadi was hit with rocket-propelled grenades, and groups of armed men were seen roaming the streets of the city, where markets and shops were shuttered. There was no immediate word on casualties.


Baghdad University Vice President Nihad Mohammed al-Rawi escaped an assassination attempt Saturday by gunmen who fired on his car in the city's Jadriyah neighborhood, security officials said. One of his bodyguards was wounded, the officials said on condition of anonymity.


Killings of Iraq's intellectuals and professionals were common after the March 2003 invasion but had dropped off in recent months.


Meanwhile, 15 Iraqi soldiers were still missing after insurgents pulled them off a public bus Friday.


In the latest assault on Iraqi security forces, rebels stopped the bus, screened its passengers for the Iraqi security troops and set the vehicle ablaze.


In another development Saturday, the Defense Ministry confirmed a report in a major Arabic daily that an Iraqi woman trained by members of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s regime in Syria tried to assassinate the defense minister but fainted before she could carry out her mission.


Al Hayat newspaper quoted Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan as saying the assassination attempt took place in his Baghdad office more than a week ago.





Shaalan told the newspaper that the woman, who is about 40, entered the ministry claiming she wanted to deliver important security information.

"As she was sitting in the presence of several officials from the ministry, she surprised everyone by taking out a pistol she was carrying and pointed it at me from a distance of about one meter but in the last moment she collapsed and started crying," he was quoted as saying.

In the southern cities of Basra, Amarah and Kut, hundreds of followers of radical Shiite Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr demonstrated in front of government buildings Saturday to demand better services, mainly electricity and gasoline.

Also Saturday, a roadside bomb ripped through a U.S. convoy in the Abu Ghraib area west of Baghdad on Saturday. One U.S. truck was destroyed, said Abu Ghraib police Lt. Akram al-Zubaie.

In the capital, three mortar shells exploded around midday near the heavily guarded Green Zone in the third straight day of insurgent shelling of the nerve center of the U.S. and Iraqi administration.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Wounded warriors get a hand
January 14,2005
TIMMI TOLER
DAILY NEWS STAFF


When Lance Cpl. Michael Meyer came back to Camp Lejeune after convalescent leave, he had a few obstacles to overcome. A big one was what to wear. The 20-year-old from Fort Myers, Fla., had external pins, about 6 inches long, extending from his right arm.

“I’d have to rip the sleeves off of my shirts to get them over the apparatus sticking out of my arm,” Meyer said. “I went through a few shirts that way.”

Meyer, a machine gunner with 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, is currently recovering from an injury that occurred in Iraq on Aug. 9. Shrapnel shattered nearly 50 percent of his humorous bone when an improvised explosive device exploded along the road near his Humvee,

“IEDs are about standard fare over there. I didn’t know it was coming. I felt heat, felt the truck rock,” Meyer said. “I felt like I had been kicked by a horse.”

After seven operations and hospital stays in Baghdad, Germany and Bethesda, Md., Meyer returned to Lejeune in October. His belongings, however, were still overseas or in storage.

“I didn’t have much with me, and I needed help getting things,” Meyer said. “That’s when the USO stepped in. They really helped me out.”

The USO of North Carolina’s Wounded Warrior program was able to provide Meyer with a number of personal belongings while he recovered. Judy Pitchford, the USO’s president and CEO, said the main thing the young Marine needed was shirts.

“He had to adjust his clothing to fit his injuries,” said Pitchford. “As those injuries healed, he’s left with clothing that’s unsuitable. Plus the expense of buying more clothes.”

The USO took Meyer shopping and spent $150 on new shirts. Pitchford said helping with clothing is just one of the ways the program provides injured service members with the items they need.

“When a Marine deploys, to safeguard his property, his personal items are packed up and sent to storage. They carry only what they can fit in a sea bag and that leaves very little room for personal items,” Pitchford said. “If they’re evacuated out of a combat zone, those items don’t come with them. They’re sent out at a later time.”

Pitchford said injured Marines need everything from razors to tennis shoes when they return to the base. The Marine Corps is able to provide certain amenities, but the community can help too — mainly through funding.

On Thursday, business members from the Swansboro Rotary Club presented the USO of North Carolina a check for $6,000. Pitchford said it’s vital to have funds handy for the non-profit organization to help provide for wounded service members. The program also helps with military family members. Often families need help with traveling expenses to visit injured service members.

“We need to do what it takes to take care of our injured Marines and sailors — to ensure they get what they need and what they want,” Pitchford said.

Meyer said the program makes a big difference.

“The USO did me a favor,” he said. “It’s a good program, and there are a lot of guys that are going to need it when they come home. The last thing you feel like doing is buying clothes to fit broken limbs.”

Contact Timmi Toler at ttoler@freedomenc.com or at 353-1171, Ext. 258.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

AWOL Marines remain at large

WINCHESTER, Ky. A pair of AWOL Marines involved in a road rage incident on Interstate 64 in Kentucky remain at large.

Lance Corporal Wesley Wilkinson of Charleston, West Virginia and Private Michael Young of Indiana have not been recaptured since being involved in the incident Tuesday.

Lieutenant Rick Long says the pair deserted their units at Camp Pendleton, California, and were awaiting courts-martial when they left their base at Quantico, Virginia, without authorization.

Police say the two men were shot at by fellow Marine Abraham Cerpa during a 90-mile chase filled with gestures and insults.

Cerpa pleaded innocent to assault and four counts of wanton endangerment. He is being held in the Clark County Jail on 100-thousand dollars bond.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Unit gathers to leave for Iraq
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
January 15, 2005
ERIC STEINKOPFF
DAILY NEWS STAFF

Cold winter rain drove Marines and their families inside a base gymnasium Friday where they said their goodbyes before leaving for a seven-month deployment to Iraq.

Members of India, Kilo, Lima, Weapons and Headquarters companies - the entire complement from Camp Lejeune's 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment - are scheduled to be gone by Monday. They'll fly from North Carolina and be in place in Iraq by the end of next week.

Such a unit typically includes about 850 troops. They will be assigned for duties with the West Coast's I Marine Expeditionary Force until the 8th Marine Regiment headquarters arrives, is reinforced and becomes Regimental Combat Team 8.

"Within about 30 to 60, days they will transition to II MEF," said Gunnery Sgt. Sean Wright, 8th Marine Regiment spokesman.

All told, around 14,000 troops from Lejeune's II Marine Expeditionary Force will leave for Iraq between now and March.

The 3/8's departure date was bumped up a few weeks, perhaps to help maintain security and quell any unrest that might surface before Iraq's Jan. 30 election. Some units, already in Iraq since last summer, have been extended past the elections.

"(The elections) are a concern, but not a show stopper," said Weapons Company Gunnery Sgt. Jeff Dagenhart, 34, of Hickory. As the second-most senior enlisted Marine in his unit, Dagenhart is responsible for logistics and training. He's well aware of current tensions in Iraq, but he expressed confidence Friday.

"We're ready to do whatever mission we are assigned," he said.

Nearby, Dagenhart's mom, Celeste Cullinane of Hampstead, and his wife, Rocio, agreed that much is at stake.

"I think (the elections) are very important, and I hope people in that country realize how important it is that we're there," said Rocio, who was rocking the couple's daughter Randi.

Added Cullinane: "It's the right thing they're doing."

With a slight waver in her voice and her eyes welling with tears, Cullinane proudly displayed a card sent to her son by President Bush. It reads: "The success of our cause will depend on you. Training has prepared you and will guide you. You believe in America and America believes in you."

Cullinane said she will try to keep busy, pray a lot and rely on the help of fellow church members for support during her son's absence.

"Good bless our troops," 5-year-old Randi said in a soft voice.

Since 3/8 troops returned last June from Haiti, where they assisted with humanitarian efforts following deadly and destructive spring floods, they've been training non-stop for this deployment. Atop their priorities: convoy security, urban combat, identifying improvised explosive devices and manning vehicle and pedestrian checkpoints.

They built their proficiency through live-fire training at Lejeune and Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, desert training near Twentynine Palms, Calif., and nearly a week of urban training at a condemned family-housing area at March Air Force Base near Los Angeles.

All of this preparation, said 3/8 air officer Maj. Ray Coleman, 35, of Baltimore, will see them through elections security, if necessary.

"They are more than ready to do that kind of mission if called upon," he said.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

American Troops Cheer Attacks on U.S. Media
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
by Nathan Tabor on 2005/1/15
The American Conservative

Vince McMahon, chairman of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), told American troops in Iraq before Christmas that when he returned to the U.S. he was going to look up the "negative media nay saying types and I'm going to say that you said that they can go straight to hell."

His comments were met with cheers and thumbs up.

McMahon and several of his WWE stars were in Iraq to perform for the troops. They crisscrossed the country in Blackhawk helicopters and met the troops in 16 different locations. They signed autographs, took photos and taped a full show that was broadcast on December 23 on the UPN network.

Those who witnessed the TV spectacle and the reaction of the troops to McMahon's strong attacks on the media saw something that was extraordinary. It is clear that many of our troops are seething with anger and resentment over media coverage of the war.

Speaking to thousands of soldiers in an old soccer stadium near Tikrit, Iraq, McMahon said that "The most important reason why we're here is to simply say 'thank you.' On behalf of an appreciative nation, on behalf of the WWE, on behalf of your family and loved ones back home, we thank you for all that you do from the bottom of our hearts. Quite frankly, we thought we were going to come over here and boost your spirits. Hell, you boosted ours. The secret weapon of the American fighting men and women is the American spirit that lives inside each and every one of you."

McMahon continued, "Unfortunately, back home we don't hear about that. Unfortunately, back home in the media all we hear is all the negatives here in Iraq. Negative, negative, negative, negative. We never hear about all the positives. We never hear about all your progress and accomplishments. We never hear about all the good things all of you do each and every day of your lives."

Upon his return home, McMahon was deluged with requests for interviews. His WWE website featured an article noting that he had "one clear message" for the media: "Report the good work being done in Iraq, not just the bad news."

McMahon said, "We get a little bit closer to the soldiers than most entertainers who just go and do their show and then leave. So we really get to know what's on their mind. And one of the things that concerns them is that the job that they're doing is not very well reported over here in the states. As far as the media is concerned, their point of view-and they get the news just like all the rest of us over here-is that it's generally very negative, and they take exception to that because they're doing a great job over there."

As if to illustrate McMahon's point, the lead front page story in the December 23 Washington Post was more bad news about Iraq. "Iraq Base Was Hit by Suicide Attack" was the headline. However, inside the second section of the paper was a story back on page seven about a funeral service for a U.S. Marine corporal, Binh "Ben" Le, who had been killed by a car bomb in Iraq on December 3. Normally, this would have been another bad-news story. And it was a tragedy. But this story had an interesting twist: "Over his coffin stood two Marines in dress uniform, one holding a U.S. flag steady in the breeze, the other the flag of the fallen South Vietnam."

Binh Le was born in Vietnam and brought to America as a child. "He understood what it was like in a fairly oppressed society, and he really enjoyed the freedoms he had over here," said his friend, Jamey Payne. "He wanted to help others experience that…It was a true American story." His father said, "He did the right job for the family, for the country, for himself."

What an inspiring story about American sacrifice!

A website in his honor, created by his friend Paul Stadig, declares that "Binh joined the Marine Corps to serve the country he loved." A close friend said, "He gave the ultimate sacrifice so that others could live." Another said, "Freedom cannot be achieved without sacrifices, and sacrifices cannot be made without deaths. Binh Le, like other soldiers who gave up their lives for freedom, is a man of honor because of his decision to defend the country from terrorists and enemies abroad so we at home can enjoy freedom."

The Post reported, "Le returned from his first tour brimming with stories of the gratitude of ordinary Iraqis, friends said. Stadig recalled Le describing an Iraqi family that invited the Marines for tea. When they were finished, the Marines handed their cups back, only to find them quickly refilled. Many cups later, they learned that according to local custom, if a guest drains his cup all the way, it should always be refilled."

It is tragic that the inspiring story about Binh Le gets buried in the paper while bad news about the war in Iraq is constantly featured on page one.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Death Without Honors
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By David Zucchino
LA Times Staff Writer
January 15, 2005

ROSHARON, Texas - When the regulars at Johnson's Market Bar and Grill heard that their buddy Allan Smith had been killed in Iraq, they paid tribute by throwing darts and drinking beer, two of Smith's favorite pastimes.

"Allan would've wanted it that way," said Pat Johnson, the bar owner, who was pleased when the funeral featured a video of Smith wrestling a circus bear - and pinning him.

In another Houston suburb, Dona Davis had received an e-mail from her husband, Leslie, just hours before she was told he had died in the same suicide bombing that killed Smith on Dec. 21. Then she began planning what she called a "patriotism funeral."

"My husband loved his country," Davis said. "One of the last things he told me was: 'We're doing good work over here.' "

Leslie Wayne Davis and Allan Keith Smith weren't soldiers. They were civilian contractors, part of an army of mechanics and carpenters and electricians supporting the U.S. military mission in Iraq. Employees of Halliburton Co., they died along with two of their colleagues and 14 soldiers at a military mess hall in Mosul.

America has never fought a war like this one - where the enemy is nowhere and everywhere, where civilians do the jobs once performed by soldiers, and where middle-aged grandfathers die alongside 19-year-old infantrymen. This is the country's first outsourced war, where civilians provide the twin military backbones of logistics and supply.

It is a war without a front, where civilians share the risks and burdens of combat. People are killed in the most prosaic of circumstances - in their sleep, driving to work, eating lunch.

Unlike soldiers and Marines killed in action, contractors killed in Iraq tend to die anonymously, mentioned only in passing. A local newspaper ran a brief story about Davis and Smith, providing basic biographical details.

But their deaths are no less tragic, and the same ripples of grief and pain that flow over military families wash over civilian families.

Unlike the families of service members, the families of contractors have not had years to steel themselves for the possibility of death in combat. Their loved ones don't carry rifles or fire heavy machine guns. They are civilians going about their jobs, and each sudden, violent death is shocking, no matter how many contractors are killed in the chaos of Iraq.

The Pentagon and media organizations maintain meticulous lists of fallen soldiers and Marines. Local newspapers run detailed stories and obituaries noting their service and valor. The dead receive military funerals with honor guards, 21-gun salutes and flag ceremonies. Their families receive letters from President Bush.

No organization keeps an official list of dead contractors, according to Stan Soloway of the Professional Services Council, a trade group whose members include military contractors. He said the group represents 30,000 contractors in Iraq, with the total number of contractors there two to three times that.

Soloway estimated that 200 to 250 contractors had been killed in Iraq since March 2003. An unofficial tally based on news reports and maintained by the Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, a private research group, puts the number at 202, including 72 Americans.

Halliburton, with 40,000 employees and contractors in the Middle East, says 63 of its workers have died in Iraq - more than any other firm, according to Soloway.

The U.S. military, with 150,000 troops in Iraq, has suffered 1,356 deaths.

The top causes of death for contractors, as listed on the Casualty Count website: 48 killed in convoy attacks or highway ambushes, 29 executed by kidnappers, 18 killed by roadside bombs and 25 by suicide bombers or car bombs, including Smith and Davis.

The Pentagon provides funerals with full military honors in military cemeteries for service members killed in Iraq. The families of contractors make their own funeral arrangements.

After the military flew the remains of Smith and Davis to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, after Halliburton employees escorted the bodies back home to Texas, and after Halliburton counselors sat for hours with the two men's loved ones, the families were left to do the rest.

Dona Davis took the wedding band from her husband and replaced it with her own, burying it with him. She made sure his service included a video of Leslie speaking at his brother's recent funeral, where he said his brother had "gone to a better place in heaven." She believed Leslie was there now, too.

Smith's friends attached a dartboard to his casket. They laughed at the bear-wrestling video and wept at the playing of Smith's favorite song, "Silver Wings," by Merle Haggard. There were sobs over a snapshot of Smith holding his newborn grandson at the hospital.

Both Smith, 45, and Davis, 53, were grandfathers. They were more than twice the age of most of the soldiers eating in the mess hall with them the day they died. The typical soldier is single, only a few years out of high school and with few debts or entanglements. The typical contractor is middle-aged, married or divorced, and searching for a big payday.

Smith's friends say he went to work for Halliburton in Iraq as a labor foreman to earn money to build a better life for his two daughters and 4-month-old grandson and to buy one of his daughters a car. Davis' family says he went out of a sense of duty, working as a quality control officer, with hopes of landing a permanent job with Halliburton overseas so that he and his wife could travel the world.

Men like Davis and Smith, with a lifetime of acquired skills and expertise, are in demand at a time when a downsized military has turned to civilians for the support jobs once handled by soldiers. Halliburton, an energy services company based in Houston, has been among the leading private contractors in Iraq, mainly through its engineering subsidiary, KBR.

When the opportunity came to work for the company in Iraq, Smith and Davis seized it, despite pleas from family members and friends not to take the risk.

'I Got It Covered'

Smith was a stocky, moon-faced man with a carefree personality. His life centered on his daughters, Brandy, 21, and Savanah, 18, and his grandson, Koda. He was a regular at Johnson's bar, a low-slung taproom that hugs a narrow county road across from cattle pastures and oil rigs in Rosharon on the southern cusp of Houston.

Smith eked out a living running a lawn care service. He lived in a trailer less than a mile from Johnson's and was a partner, with a lifelong friend, in a now-defunct tavern called Hoot N Annie's.

Miranda Selvera, 29, who worked for Smith as a waitress, said she talked her husband out of going to Iraq but could not talk Smith out of it.

"He just grinned and told me he wanted a better life for himself and his kids," she said.

"Alabama" Terry Hartley, who threw darts with Smith for a decade, said he told him the night before he left in late October: "Man, you don't need to go over there." Hartley said Smith "hugged my neck and said, 'Buddy, I got it covered.' "

Smith's daughter Brandy Wilkison lives in his trailer, where two Halliburton counselors arrived the afternoon of Dec. 21 to deliver the news of her father's death.

She said her father had planned to return for a brief visit in the spring to see her sister, Savanah, graduate from high school and for the birth of Savanah's baby, due in June.

"Then he was going to go back and finish his year there so he could come back home and raise his grandkids right," Brandy said. He told her his salary there was "well over enough," and "a lot better than cutting grass."

She felt bereft now, she said. "He was so courageous. I counted on him for so much, and now he's gone and I'm feeling kind of lost."

When he left for Iraq, she said, Smith handed over his lawn-cutting business to Brandy's boyfriend. "We're going to keep the same name - Allan's Lawn Service," she said.

Smith worried about mortar attacks at the Mosul base where he lived, said his girlfriend, Ellen Hanley. He told her a mortar had hit a nearby storage building.

"But he wasn't scared of anything," Hanley said.

The day before Smith died, Hanley had undergone cancer surgery. "Then, getting the news about Allen, it was more than I could take," she said.

Smith's death has left a hole in Rosharon, a tiny community where everyone knows everyone else and most people work in home construction or the oil business. Everybody recognized his beige Dodge pickup truck, which he drove to Johnson's bar or for regular dinners at a Chili's restaurant.

Selvera said her 4-year-old son still smiled and waved when he saw Smith's pickup pass by, driven now by his daughter.

"He'll holler, 'Allan's here!' " Selvera said. "And I have to tell him, 'No, baby, he's not.' "

'Just as Close to Heaven'

Fifty miles away, in Magnolia, in Houston's far northern suburbs, Dona Davis had tried to talk her husband out of going to Iraq last June. She kept thinking about the time three decades ago when he served on Navy patrol boats in Vietnam, and how she had dreaded the knock on the door.

When the knock came on Dec. 21, it was not a military officer at the door but two counselors from Halliburton. "I completely lost it" when they broke the news, Davis said. She became hysterical, sobbing and screaming, she said.

She ultimately found solace in what her husband had told her when she tried to keep him home. "He told me: 'Dona, I'm just as close to heaven in Iraq as I am in Houston,' " she said.

[thedrifter]

Leslie Davis, known as "Bub," was a religious man, a former church deacon who taught Sunday school and prayed before every meal. He embraced the U.S. mission in Iraq, his widow said. He handed out candy to Iraqi children until the military, concerned about base security, built a wall that stopped him.

Dona said her husband earned about the same amount of money with Halliburton as he did in previous jobs as an auditor with U.S. oil companies.

"He didn't talk with me about the danger, and that was deliberate," she said. "He would joke about having to wear his flak vest to the mess hall. If they'd had a mortar attack, he'd tell me, 'The boys got rowdy last night.' "

Leslie and Dona, married for 35 years, e-mailed each other every night - Leslie's were decorated with U.S. and Texas flags - and they talked by phone almost daily. He spoke often of the fear and anxiety he saw in the eyes of young soldiers. Leslie was 19 in Vietnam, and Dona believes he was reliving his youth in a combat zone far from home.

After a fatal car bombing in Mosul, Dona said, Leslie described encountering a distraught young soldier who had survived.

"He said he wanted to hug that young man but didn't because he didn't want to do it in front of other soldiers," she said. "And then he told me he would rather it be him who died instead of those kids."

The day he died, the family was planning a pre-Christmas dinner. The boyfriend of the Davises' daughter, Angie, 35, intended to propose that night. The dinner was canceled.

"You know," Angie said, wiping away tears that streaked her eye makeup, "the first thing I would have done was e-mail my dad to tell him. He would've been so happy."

Despite the dangers, she said, her father went to Iraq "because that was where he thought God needed him to be."

For Dona, who began dating Leslie when both were in the ninth grade, his death has been devastating. The couple was hoping to travel the world for Halliburton before retiring to watch their grandchildren grow up. Leslie had planned to take time off in March to meet Dona in Rome.

"It's just so hard to think of life without him," she said.

Davis didn't want to go to lunch that day in Mosul, Dona said, but his fellow contractors talked him into it. One of them, Dennis Barcelona, told Dona that he tried to save Leslie as he lay bleeding from a wound in his thigh near his groin. Barcelona said he used a shirt as a tourniquet but was unable to stop the bleeding.

"Tell my wife I'm going to be OK," Barcelona recalled Leslie saying to him.

For her birthday in November, Leslie sent Dona a prayer rug he'd had made in Iraq. Sewn into the rug were the names and ages of the couple's four children and 11 grandchildren.

Dona thought it was typical of her husband to make it harder on himself by trying to remember ages rather than simply listing birth dates. He had to figure everyone's age, rounding some up and some down. The ages he chose corresponded precisely to the ages of his children and grandchildren on the day he died.

"It's almost like he had a premonition," Angie said.

At Leslie's funeral, hundreds of people flooded the chapel, among them the two Halliburton counselors. TV monitors were set up outside to handle the overflow.

"People were drawn to him. He could charm anybody," Angie said. "If you worked with my dad for a week, you were his friend for life."

There was an eagle and an American flag on the casket. Because Davis was a veteran, two Navy sailors were present to salute the casket, play taps and present Dona with a folded American flag.

A few days later, in the living room of their ranch-style home, where the windows overlook several acres of rolling magnolia woods, Dona and Angie did not weep as they remembered their final goodbye.

"That funeral was a celebration of his life," Dona said.

After all the turbulence of Iraq, Angie said, her father was finally at peace.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Youthful Marines grow up fast at disaster

William Hermann
The Arizona Republic
Jan. 15, 2005 12:00 AM

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - A little tired from the heat, I sat under a palm tree to look through my notes. I had just interviewed the alert Victor Desosa, who saved thousands of lives by paying attention to the sea and realizing everyone needed to head to high ground.

As I looked through my notes, a villager walked up to me, a King Coconut in one hand, a machete in the other. One swift whack and the top of the coconut was gone.

The man handed it to me, smiled, and said: "Look tired, sir. Drink. Good for you." advertisement




I thanked this man who had lost everything but his life in the recent disaster. He walked away, and then in his place a huge monitor lizard, a 3-foot long dragon of a creature, walked up to me, lowered himself on his stomach and stared into my eyes.

"Cheers," I said, drank my coconut milk and reviewed my notes.

It was the end of a long, unique day. Anyone over 30 years old who wants to feel a lot older needs only to go visit some of our country's servicemen and women. They're kids, mostly.

Kids agewise, that is. Otherwise, they're very, very grown up.

I spent the morning Thursday in the southern Sri Lankan city of Galle with U.S. Marines clearing a tsunami-ravaged school. No children had been hurt but one large building had pretty much fallen down.

It was wretchedly hot, about 90 degrees with about 90 percent humidity. Stifling. Broiling. Reporter-wilting weather.

But those young Marines from the 9th Engineer Support Battalion out of Okinawa worked almost without stop. The Marine in charge of this complicated operation, Sgt. John Shottes, of Hamilton, Ala., is 25 years old. But he acted with an authority that few executives in their 40s or 50s could muster.

He also treated his men and women, many 18 and 19 years old, with respect and kindness. He wanted to be sure they were drinking enough water. He wanted to be sure no one got hurt. And he patiently spoke with curious local citizens.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Soldier Sentenced For Mercy Killing
Associated Press
January 15, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A U.S. military judge convicted an Army Sergeant of murder Friday for the alleged mercy-killing of a severely injured Iraqi teenager, and sentenced him to a year's imprisonment.

Staff Sgt. Cardenas J. Alban of Inglewood, Calif., is the second soldier convicted of shooting the wounded 16-year-old as U.S. forces battled an uprising in Baghdad's Shiite Muslim stronghold of Sadr City in August.

Witnesses say U.S. soldiers found the teenager in a burning truck apparently set alight by fighting.

The Americans decided severe burns and abdominal wounds put the teenager beyond help and that "the best course of action was to put (the victim) out of his misery," a criminal investigator has said.

A judge convicted Alban of murder and conspiracy to commit murder during a one-day hearing Friday in Baghdad, the military said in a statement. He was sentenced to one year's confinement, demotion to private, and a bad-conduct discharge.




Staff Sgt. Johnny M. Horne Jr., also with the Fort Riley, Kan.-based 41st Infantry regiment, was sentenced in December to three years in prison after pleading guilty in the same killing.

Separately, Army Capt. Rogelio Maynulet of Chicago faces a Feb. 22 court-martial in Germany for allegedly shooting and killing a man who was gravely wounded when U.S. fighters opened fire on his vehicle last May south of Baghdad.

A fellow officer told a preliminary military hearing that dispatching the wounded man was "the compassionate response" on Maynulet's part.

Rights groups criticize the court-martials for illegal killings of Iraqis, saying the slayings violate international law and should be tried as war crimes. Critics also accuse the U.S. military of hazy training on the rules of engagement that they say contributes to the illegal killing of civilians.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Deployment: Answering the call to serve
Corporal, father to be reunited on Iraq battlefield
Published Wed, Jan 12, 2005


By MICHAEL KERR
Gazette staff writer
Combat deployments usually mean leaving family behind.
But Cpl. Travis Toborg will soon have a familiar face nearby on the battlefields of Iraq: his father.

Toborg, a 20-year-old plane captain with All Weather Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 224, the Bengals, is scheduled to leave Beaufort this afternoon for Iraq, where he'll be stationed at the same base as his dad, Marine Corps Sgt. Timothy Toborg.

"It'll be different," Toborg said early Tuesday, as his squadron's pilots soared away from Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, their F/A-18 Hornets' afterburners sparking through the pre-dawn darkness. "I'll have my dad, and a bunch of my dad's buddies there."

The elder Toborg, a member of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 142, The Flying Gators based out of Naval Air Station Atlanta, will deploy in March.

The young corporal, a native of Milner, Ga., requested the deployment three times before finally landing a spot about two weeks ago with the Bengals, filling in for an injured Marine.

"I'll be on the same base as my father," said Toborg, who has been back in the United States for less than a year after returning in February from a combat deployment aboard the USS Enterprise. "I think it'll be fun."

The Bengals' two-seat Hornets left the air station for western Iraq on Tuesday morning, with about 100 members of the squadron and about 100 members of Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 31 slated to follow today.

Another 100 members of the logistics squadron left for Iraq over the weekend for what is scheduled to be a seven-month deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

"Initially, when we get there we're going to support basically the joint forces over there for the first couple months," said 1st Lt. Michael Greene, a 25-year-old backseat crewman and equipment operator from Newburg, N.Y.

"After that initial role, we'll be strictly devoted to supporting Marines on the ground."

Squadron Sgt. Maj. William Burton, a 20-year Marine Corps veteran from Harlem, N.Y., just attached to the squadron last week, but said he's more than ready to deploy.

"I'm jumping aboard a fast-moving ship," Burton, 44, said, adding that the deployment will be the first of his career. "That's pretty motivating. To get the opportunity to do it after 20 years is pretty motivating."

And the rest of the squadron is just as eager to get on the ground in Iraq, Burton said.

"They're extremely motivated to get into the fight," he said.

While Toborg and his father will be reunited during the deployment, most Marines will have to say good-bye to their loved ones.

Capt. Matthew Markham, a 27-year-old Richmond, Va., native and his wife, Susan, celebrated their first wedding anniversary Jan. 3, less than a week before the pilot left for war.

"She's been a trooper," Markham said before boarding his Hornet on Tuesday morning. "It's kind of setting in today a little bit. She was pretty sad last night and pretty sad this morning. She knows what we're going over there to do is pretty important, and she supports us."

The Hornet pilots of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 122, The Crusaders, also left the air station Tuesday for a six-month deployment to Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan. About 200 members of the squadron are scheduled to deploy to Japan.

Contact Michael Kerr at 986-5539 or mkerr@beaufortgazette.com.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Graner Gets 10 Years in Iraq Prison Abuse

By T.A. BADGER, Associated Press Writer

FORT HOOD, Texas - Army Spc. Charles Graner Jr., convicted of physically and sexually mistreating Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison, was sentenced Saturday to 10 years behind bars in the first trial arising from the scandal fueled by graphic photographs.


Graner, labeled the leader of a band of rogue guards at the Baghdad prison in late 2003, also was demoted to private and ordered to forfeit all pay and benefits. When his prison sentence is completed, he will be dishonorably discharged.


The jury of four Army officers and six senior enlisted men deliberated about two hours to determine Graner's sentence. He could have received 15 years.



Ellie

[thedrifter]

'So far away': Lejeune Marines, sailors head to Iraq
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wilmington Star News
Jan. 15, 2005

CAMP LEJEUNE | For 1st Lt. Christopher Isola, the final days of his service in the Marine Corps were bittersweet.

As the Philadelphia native prepares to move to New York City to work for a consulting firm and earn a master's degree in business administration, the Marines he spent time with over the past several years in Iraq and Afghanistan are again en route to Iraq.

On Friday, just hours before his military career ends today, 1st Lt. Isola bid farewell to his comrades from the Camp Lejeune-based 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion.

"In a way, you feel like you're letting them down because you're not going to be with them," he said. "It's real sad to see them go."

Friday and today, about 850 Marines and sailors from the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, are leaving for an expected seven-month deployment. Initially, their mission will be to continue security and stability operations and train Iraqi defense forces. A Marines spokesman wouldn't say where they're going in Iraq.

On Friday, dozens of Marines - some with family and some alone - waited in a Camp Lejeune gym for buses to arrive to take them to the Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station, where they would fly out that night.

Among them was 24-year-old Sgt. Jamie Smith, a Hampstead resident who was joined Friday by his wife, Tracy, and their 2-year-old son, Joshua, as well as his parents, Irene and Donnie Smith, of Yadkinville.

For Sgt. Smith, the good-byes are the most difficult part of a deployment.

"I hate to leave my family, but I'm excited about going over and doing some business," he said.

Sgt. Smith, who said he is concerned most about Iraq's heat, said he believed going over there was the right thing to do because of terrorist attacks in America on Sept. 11, 2001.

"It made me mad that someone would come over and take innocent people's lives," he said. "It just made me mad."

For his parents, who waited for his departure in the base gym with teary and puffy eyes, his deployment brought sadness and pride. The Smiths knew the date was coming but didn't find out until last month that it would be so soon.

"Of course, we love him and we're proud of him and we're praying for him," Mrs. Smith said.

Mrs. Smith said she has kept up with news accounts from Iraq until now, but she doesn't know whether she'll be able to while her son is there. Both parents said they support President Bush and the war effort, and that makes it easier to send him off.

This is the first deployment for Pfc. Brian Dunn, 21, of Rock Hill, S.C., who sat under a basketball hoop Friday afternoon in the base gym with his mother, Lori Jacobs, and 16-year-old brother, Clinton Dunn.

Despite the seriousness of his mission, Pfc. Dunn was upbeat and joked that his brother now could borrow his clothes without him knowing.

"We're only allowed to take a couple pairs of civvies (civilian clothing), so everything else is within his grasp," he said.

Such exchanges are what his mother said she'd miss most.

"I'm going to miss his presence, and I'm going to miss his sense of humor," said Ms. Jacobs, a nurse at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte. "He has a good way of lifting people up."

Pfc. Dunn, a machine gunner, said he isn't overly concerned about his safety over there, and he believes his training has prepared him.

"I really think that once I get over there, the training will kick in, and it won't be half as bad as you perceive it's going to be," he said.

Ms. Jacobs said a friend at work told her to tell her son thank you.

"We have a debt to the military," she said. "We take our freedom for granted, and people have paid dearly for it."

Pfc. Shane Willoughby, 24, of Parma, Ohio, said the weapons and methods of attack used by insurgents in Iraq would be much different from in Haiti, where he was previously deployed. He mentioned the suicide bombing of a mess hall on a U.S. base and improvised explosive devices, or roadside bombs, used regularly against U.S. forces.

"There's a lot more to watch out for," he said. "You have to have a lot better situational awareness. You have to be on the top of your game all the time."

A short time before the Marines left, Jacksonville radio station WSFL played the classic Dire Straits song, "So Far Away."

By mid-afternoon, the buses rolled out.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Iraqi Shi'ite Leader Expects Many Sunnis to Vote

By Michael Georgy

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq (news - web sites)'s elections will be legitimate if roughly half the Sunni Arab minority votes despite threats of violence, a leading politician in the Shi'ite alliance expected to dominate the polls said on Saturday.


"I think 40 to 50 percent of Sunnis will vote. That would be very good, with all the threats, with all the measures taken by the insurgents and the terrorism," said Adel Abdul Mahdi, when asked how many Sunnis needed to vote to validate the polls.


Fear of widespread violence in Sunni areas has raised concerns that many Sunnis, once privileged under Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), will not vote, skewing the results in favor of the Shi'ite majority long oppressed by the toppled Iraqi president.


Finance Minister Abdul Mahdi is a senior official in the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, part of a Shi'ite list of candidates in the United Iraqi Alliance expected to win the most seats in parliament after the Jan. 30 poll.


Alliance officials pledged at a news conference to improve security and services in Iraq, where insurgents are waging a relentless campaign of violence aimed at expelling foreign troops and toppling the U.S.-backed interim government.


Iraq's main Sunni party, the Iraqi Islamic Party, has withdrawn from the polls, saying they should be delayed, while the 60 percent Shi'ite majority is poised to gain power and believes voting should go ahead despite fears of bloodshed.


THREAT OF SUICIDE BOMBINGS


"A lot of (security) measures have been taken. We have to keep the suicide bombers from getting to huge gatherings and with the media this might reflect a very negative signal to other centers of elections," said Abdel Mehdi, a contender to lead Iraq after the election.


"I think there will be some (guerrilla) operations but I think elections will go smoothly in most parts of the country.


"We are not permitting cars to reach those (voting) centers. Movement will be limited between provinces. There will be limited movement in the cities," he said.


Shi'ite politicians have repeatedly said Sunnis will have a fair share of power in Iraq after the election to choose a 275-member national assembly, which will draft a constitution.


The alliance, which has the blessing of top Shi'ite cleric, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, includes a few Sunni politicians.


"It is not a question of convincing Sunnis to vote. Sunnis believe in their right to vote but the current security situation is scaring them from going to voting centers. We call on the government to improve security," said Sheikh Fawaz al-Jarba, a Sunni leader from Mosul who is in the alliance.


"God willing, the Sunnis will take part in the elections and they will have a voice and their Shi'ite brothers insist they participate and have a big role in forming the new government."


Shi'ite politician Ahmad Chalabi, a former exile once close to Washington, declined to say if he hoped to be prime minister, focusing instead on the challenges of holding the polls.


"My political ambition is to have the election succeed now," said Chalabi, a leading member in the Shi'ite alliance.


Iraqi security forces charged with safeguarding voters are struggling just to protect themselves from guerrilla bombings that have killed hundreds of police and National Guards.





Chalabi suggested the alliance would favor keeping U.S. troops in Iraq for the foreseeable future after the elections.



Ellie

[thedrifter]

Graner To Speak At Sentencing
Associated Press
January 15, 2005

FORT HOOD, Texas - Army Spc. Charles Graner Jr., the reputed ringleader of a band of rogue guards at Abu Ghraib, may tell his story about what went on inside the notorious Baghdad prison after all.

Graner was convicted Friday of abusing Iraqi detainees in a case that sparked international outrage when photographs were released that showed reservists gleefully humiliating prisoners. He did not testify during the 4 1/2-day trial, but Graner and his lawyers indicated late Friday that he would take the stand when his sentencing hearing resumes Saturday.

The first soldier to be court-martialed in the scandal, Graner was convicted of all five charges and faces up to 15 years behind bars. Four other soldiers have pleaded guilty in the scandal.

Graner stood at attention and looked straight ahead without expression as each verdict was read. His parents, Charles and Irma Graner, held hands tightly as they listened.

On his way out of the courthouse hours later, Graner flashed a thumbs-up to a large group of reporters waiting for him.

Asked what he would say on the stand, Graner said, "The first thing I'm going to say is, 'I swear to God.'"





The verdict came after less than five hours of deliberations and a 4 1/2-day trial in which prosecutors depicted Graner as a sadistic soldier who took great pleasure in seeing detainees suffer.

"It was for sport, for laughs," prosecutor Capt. Chris Graveline told jurors in his closing argument Friday. "What we have here is plain abuse. There is no justification."

The jury began the sentencing phase Friday evening before retiring for the night.

Iraqi detainee Hussein Mutar, in videotaped testimony shown during the sentencing phase, said he had supported the U.S.-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein until he was abused.

"The Americans came to free the Iraqi people from Saddam," Mutar said. "I didn't expect this to happen. This instance changed the entire picture of the American people (for me)."

Graner was accused of stacking naked prisoners in a human pyramid and later ordering them to masturbate while other soldiers took photographs. He also allegedly punched one man in the head hard enough to knock him out, and struck an injured prisoner with a collapsible metal stick.

Irma Graner, testifying in the sentencing phase, described her son as a kind and gentle man who faithfully served his country.

"He is not the monster he's made out to be," she said quietly. "In my eyes he'll always be a hero."

The jury of four Army officers and six senior enlisted men rejected the defense argument that Graner and other guards were merely following orders from intelligence agents at Abu Ghraib when they roughed up the detainees.

Graner, a 36-year-old reservist from Uniontown, Pa., faced 10 counts under five separate charges: Assault, conspiracy, maltreatment of detainees, committing indecent acts and dereliction of duty. He was found guilty on all counts, except that one assault count was downgraded to battery.

Each count required that at least seven of the 10 jurors to agree for conviction.

Graveline recounted the abuse allegations, buttressing many with photos and video taken inside the prison in October and November 2003.

Graner's attorney, Guy Womack, contended that his client and other Abu Ghraib guards were under extreme pressure from intelligence agents to use physical violence to prepare detainees for questioning.

"It was a persistent, consistent set of orders," Womack said in his closing argument. "To soften up the detainees, to do things so we can interrogate them successfully in support of our mission. ... We had men and women being killed."

Womack described the notorious photos taken inside the prison as "gallows humor" arising from unrelenting stress felt by the Abu Ghraib guards.

He also tried to plant the seed that Graner and the other low-level guards were being used in a cover-up to protect Army officers once those photos went public.

The shocking photos of reservists abusing and sexually humiliating prisoners were first broadcast on CBS's "60 Minutes II" in April.

A month later, President Bush urged Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to make sure that any guilty U.S. soldiers are punished for "shameful and appalling acts."

A senior guard at the Pennsylvania prison where Graner once worked praised his restraint in dealing with prisoners and his ability to follow orders.

"He was excellent, he was very disciplined," said Michael Zavada, the defense's first witness during the sentencing phase. "He did everything by policy."

Graner did not testify during the trial, which included testimony from three guards who had made plea deals with prosecutors.

Two other guards from the 372nd Military Police Company, a reserve unit from Cresaptown, Md., are awaiting trial, along with Pfc. Lynndie England, a clerk at Abu Ghraib who last fall gave birth to a baby believed to be fathered by Graner.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Troops Won't Stay Long In Tsunami Areas
Associated Press
January 15, 2005

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - The United States was eager to end its military tsunami relief operation as soon as other nations are ready to take over, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said Saturday. As relief and cleanup continued, the United Nations began paying survivors to clear rubble.

"As soon as our military folks can pass these responsibilities on to other folks ... and make sure the job gets done, we will be happy," Wolfowitz said after meetings in Bangkok to discuss aid efforts for the Dec. 26 disaster.

Later Saturday, Wolfowitz flew to Aceh, where he boarded a U.S. Navy Seahawk helicopter for a tour of the province's tsunami-ravaged coastal areas.

A huge earthquake and the tsunami it spawned killed more than 157,000 people across 11 countries, triggering an unprecedented global response. But Indonesia has expressed unease with the number of foreign troops on its territory as part of the relief effort and wants them out before the end of March.

Wolfowitz said the U.S. military role would wind down by that deadline. "I would hope that we would not be needed (in the region) as a military long before March," he said during the flight to Asia, according to a transcript of his remarks released at the Pentagon.





Wolfowitz, a former U.S. ambassador to Indonesia, said cooperation with Jakarta has been very good.

"For any country it is sensitive to have foreign troops on your territory. It would be sensitive in the United States and I can tell you that it is extremely sensitive in Indonesia," he said. "What's remarkable is that it has caused no problems to date."

In Aceh, thousands of tsunami survivors were being paid by the U.N. Development Program 30,000 rupiah (US$3.27; euro2.50) a day to clear rubble and debris.

"They are trying to hire local people to do this as part of stimulating the economy and getting some sort of livelihood back" for survivors," said UNDP spokesman William Bergman. The number of Acehnese involved in the clean up operation was expected to rise quickly, he added.

U.N. refugee organization, the UNHCR, was Saturday distributing 10,000 five-person tents to survivors in Banda Aceh, said spokesman Mans Nyberg. A further 10,000 tents will arrive soon, he added.

The tents are intended as a stopgap solution to provide shelter for hundreds of thousands of refugees in Aceh province while the UNHCR and Indonesian government plan for 24 more permanent camps with barracks-style shelters, Nyberg said.

With thousands made homeless by the disaster, efforts to keep epidemics at bay intensified. The United Nations sped up its measles vaccination drive after 20 cases of the disease were reported across Aceh. Health workers were spraying tents with insecticide to prevent malaria in areas that were swamped by the killer waves.

In Sri Lanka, U.N. World Food Program Director James Morris was traveling to the southern city of Galle. The tsunami killed more than 30,000 people in the island nation.

The WFP is leading a mammoth effort to feed up to 2 million survivors in the countries devastated.

A half a world away in Saudi Arabia, pilgrims streaming