30 Killed in Pair of Major Attacks in Iraq

[thedrifter]

30 Killed in Pair of Major Attacks in Iraq

By SAMEER N. YACOUB, Associated Press Writer

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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





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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Ellie

[thedrifter]

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

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

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



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




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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Ellie

[thedrifter]

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Jenkins Free To Leave Base
Associated Press
December 3, 2004

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

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

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

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

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




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

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

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

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

Ellie

[thedrifter]

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

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

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

Today, the postcard has even more meaning.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Services for Kolda have not yet been scheduled.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Newport neighbors back up Marines

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Judge To Allow England's Statements
Associated Press
December 3, 2004

FORT BRAGG, N.C. - A military judge ruled Thursday that prosecutors in the court-martial of Pfc. Lynndie England may use a pair of statements she gave describing the posing of naked Iraqi prisoners as "joking around, having fun."

Defense attorneys had sought to keep out the January statements, saying England was coerced by military interrogators who pulled her out of bed in the middle of the night, kept her in closed rooms for hours and failed to fully inform her of her right to have a lawyer present.

The judge, Col. Stephen Henley, did agree to keep out a third statement that England made to investigators on May 5, a few weeks after the photos taken at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison were made public and England had invoked her right to an attorney.

But the judge found that England knew what she was doing when she waived her right to an attorney and spoke during the earlier interviews.

The rulings came on the second day of a hearing on pretrial motions in England's court-martial, which is scheduled for Jan. 18.




The 22-year-old Army reservist from Fort Ashby, W.Va., faces 19 charges of abuse and indecent acts. She could get 38 years in prison if convicted.

The defense has argued that England and others in her Maryland-based 372nd Military Police Company were acting on orders from military intelligence to "soften up" prisoners for interrogations by keeping them nude and humiliating them. But Army investigators testified during hearings this summer that England said the abuse was nothing more than "joking around, having fun."

England was one of seven members of the 372nd charged with humiliating and assaulting prisoners at the Baghdad prison.

Also Thursday, the judge put off until Dec. 22 a hearing on a defense request that he throw out the evidence at the heart of the case - the photographs showing England and others piling naked detainees in a human pyramids, pointing at their genitals and holding a hooded, naked detainee by a leash.

The defense has suggested that the photos may have been doctored.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines Thank Barr-Nunn Employees for Support

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


Ellie

[thedrifter]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Ellie

[thedrifter]

December 06, 2004

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

By Christian Lowe
Times staff writer


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

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

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

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

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

Reaction to the incident was swift and impassioned.

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

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

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

‘Conventional’ thinking

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fighting combat stress

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Taking the high road

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

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

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

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

Ellie

[thedrifter]

December 06, 2004

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

By Laura Bailey
Times staff writer


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A possible exception

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Ellie

[thedrifter]

December 03, 2004

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

By C. Mark Brinkley

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ellie

[thedrifter]

When death has a human face
by Paul Wood

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Ellie

[thedrifter]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marine: 'I knew I was hit'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Nancy Cicco
ncicco@seacoastonline.com

PORTSMOUTH - Capt. John "Brad" Adams forced himself to stay awake the whole time.

The Marine was sitting in the back of a Humvee that was nearing a company compound east of Fallujah, Iraq, when the bomb went off on Oct. 23.

A loud blast, an orange flash, and black smoke. Part of him went numb.

"I instantly knew what it was. I knew I was hit," he recalled on Thursday from the safety of his parents' impeccably appointed living room at Tidewatch Condominiums.

The blast sprayed shrapnel throughout the length of the right side of Adams' body. The shrapnel went through his right arm and upper thigh, and blew a three- to four-inch-diameter hole through his foot.

"It hit me in the areas where I didn't have my body armor," he said. "But if it wasn't for the body armor ... I'd probably be dead. There's no way I could have survived it."

The Humvee sped from the scene. Adams, a member of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, and a fellow Marine who had also been hit, were pulled from the wreckage. A Marine corpsman assessed Adams' wounds and gave him morphine.

"I just keep thinking to myself, 'You gotta stay awake.' The thought of dying isn't something I want to be dwelling on," he said.

He was taken to a military surgical center about two miles away, where medics removed much of the shrapnel.

After hospital stays in Baghdad and Germany, Adams, 33, spent a month at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.

"We had a lot of wounded that came through," he recalled of that stay, noting during the first three days of the coalition forces' strike on Fallujah, some 100 service members were admitted to the hospital.

He is grateful for the medical care he, and others, have received.

"The level of treatment these guys are getting is outstanding," he said. "The support of the country has been unbelievable."

As is the support of his family.

In addition to his parents, John and Jo-Ann, Adams' family includes his twin sister, Beth, and older brother, Mark, 37.

"We have learned how to adapt throughout our life, and this has been another adaptation - and this is one of the most challenging," Jo-Ann said. One thing she wants people to do to support the troops is to give blood, she added.

While Adams was recuperating in Bethesda, Gen. Michael Hagee, commandant of the Marine Corps, paid a bedside visit to present him with his Purple Heart Medal in recognition of his injuries. Adams' parents were there to share the moment.

Adams joined the Marine Corps 15 years ago and also served in the first Gulf War. Witnesses to the blast two months ago have since told him a boy riding a bicycle near Adams' Humvee planted the bomb inside a basket on the bike.

"We had never been hit by a bomb on a bicycle. That was new," he said. The bomb is known as a "platter charge," that is designed to go through armor - and it did, he said.

The improvised bombs of the war are responsible for gruesome injuries. Instead of sustaining simple bullet wounds, "these guys are coming in mangled," Adams said of his wounded brethren. Military body armor is saving lives, but still victims have been subject to "a lot of amputations," he said.

Adams has undergone eight surgeries since the blast. He will undergo a ninth after Christmas. During that procedure, doctors hope to take bone either from his hip or a cadaver in order to replace a bone he lost in his right foot. Surgeons have already taken skin from Adams' left thigh and grafted it over the hole in the foot to help heal the wound there.

He started receiving physical therapy at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard this week. His goal is to one day run again, so he can remain a Marine in the infantry, he said.

He conceded his ability to run might be better achieved if doctors amputated his foot and fit it with a prosthetic device. If it comes to that, he will accept it, he said.

Regardless of whether the U.S. made the right decision to go to Iraq, Adams said coalition forces need to stay there to get the job done, or else the servicemen and women who have been wounded or killed would have done so in vain.

"Whatever we do, we need to leave Iraq winning. We cannot leave there with our heads in defeat," he said.

Adams will remain on convalescent leave until after the holidays. Next year, he wants to return to Camp Pendleton in California, his battalion's home base, to help other injured Marines.

He expects his battalion may be back in Iraq by the end of 2005.

He, too, wants to be there.

"It's war time," he said.


Ellie