Insurgents Worried About Bin Laden

[thedrifter]

Insurgents Worried About Bin Laden
Associated Press
January 12, 2005

CAIRO, Egypt - Osama bin Laden has vowed to turn Iraq into the front line of his war against the United States, but Iraqi insurgents seem worried that he's out to hijack their rebellion.

At times, the Iraqis and foreign Muslim militants seem to be competing. Media reports and Web statements have speculated that a Saudi carried out the Dec. 21 suicide bombing of a U.S. mess tent in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul that killed 22 people. But Ansar al-Sunnah, the homegrown group that took responsibility for that deadliest of attacks on a U.S. target in Iraq, named the bomber as Abu Omar of Mosul, a nom de guerre that pointedly claims him as an Iraqi.

Earlier this month, a posting on Ansar al-Sunnah's Web site told foreign militants to stop coming. The group, which defines itself as both nationalist and Islamic, said it needed money, not more recruits.

"We have concrete information that a sharp division is now broiling between" Iraqis waging a nationalist war and foreign Arabs spurred by militant Islam, said Mouwafak al-Rubaie, the Iraqi government's national security adviser. "They are more divided than ever."

Al-Rubaie said one reason was the perception among Iraqis that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant whom bin Laden endorsed as his deputy in Iraq, was of little help during the American onslaught on the Iraqi insurgent hotbed of Fallujah in November.




"Al-Zarqawi and his group fled Fallujah and let the Iraqis face the attack alone," al-Rubaie said in a telephone interview.

Some Iraqis may have drawn parallels between the debacle in Fallujah and what happened to Afghanistan after it became bin Laden's headquarters.

Since Saddam Hussein's regime was overthrown by the American-led war in April 2003, insurgents including foreign fighters have waged a guerrilla war aimed at forcing out U.S. troops. The Iraqi interim government says it has detained more than 300 foreign fighters, among them men from almost every Arab country.

Some streamed into Iraq shortly before the war, invited by a desperate Saddam. Muslim militants are believed to be behind some of the deadliest attacks against U.S. and Iraqi forces.

In a 33-page address last month, bin Laden, the Saudi-born millionaire-turned-terrorist, called for turning Iraq into an Islamic state that would eventually be part of a worldwide Islamic empire.

In the same message, though, he may have angered insurgents loyal to Saddam by calling the toppled president "a butcher" and "a tyrant." And naming a Jordanian as his deputy in Iraq would not have sat well even among Iraqis who share bin Laden's militant vision of Islam.

Bin Laden's message also scoffed at plans for Iraqi elections, saying democracy was un-Islamic. But Iraqi groups including Sunni clergy that had earlier called for boycotting the Jan. 30 vote now say they want to participate if a timetable is set for U.S. withdrawal.

"Bin Laden's problem is that he is far away from reality, he is a daydreamer. He is even blind," said Shadi Abdel Aziz, a Cairo University professor and author of "Continuity and Change in bin Laden's Thought."

Abdel Aziz said bin Laden's key mistake is to ignore that "people always put their national and personal interests first."

"In this part of the world people have several identities, Islam is only one of them and it does not necessarily come first," he said.

Bin Laden's problem in Iraq seems similar to what he faced in Afghanistan after the defeat of Soviet troops. While bin Laden wanted to follow up with a worldwide war on those he saw as Islam's enemies, some of the warlords who became Afghanistan's new rulers wanted the Arab fighters out.

Al-Rubaie, the Iraqi national security adviser, was an Islamic activist in his youth, but believes bin Laden-style Islam will fail to take hold in Iraq.

"They failed in Egypt, which is a more homogenous society, and they failed in Afghanistan when they had a state," he said. "How can they win here with all this religious and sectarian diversity?"

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Graner Case Continues
Associated Press
January 12, 2005

FORT HOOD, Texas - A Syrian insurgent held at Abu Ghraib prison testified by video Tuesday that Army Spc. Charles Graner merrily whistled, sang and laughed while brutalizing him and forced him to eat pork and drink alcohol in violation of his Muslim faith.

An Iraqi detainee later told the court that he was among a group of prisoners stripped by Graner and other Abu Ghraib guards, stacked up naked in a human pyramid while female soldiers watched, and later told to masturbate.

"I couldn't imagine it in the beginning," Hussein Mutar, the Iraqi, said when asked how he felt during the alleged mistreatment. "I could kill myself because no one over there was stopping it from happening."

The prosecution rested after Mutar's video testimony.

Graner's defense case is scheduled to begin Wednesday. His lawyers have maintained that Graner and other soldiers had no choice but to obey orders by military and civilian intelligence officers to soften up detainees for questioning.

Amin al-Sheikh, the Syrian prisoner, testified that Graner threatened more than once to kill him and on one occasion told him to thank Jesus for keeping him alive.





The inmate also said he listened through his cell wall as Graner and other Americans forced a Yemeni prisoner to eat from a toilet.

Asked if Graner appeared to enjoy hurting him, al-Sheikh said through an interpreter: "He laughed. He was whistling. He was singing."

He described Graner as the "primary torturer" and "a naturally aggressive man" - a characterization that led Graner, sitting in the courtroom, to roll his eyes and chuckle.

Graner is the first soldier accused in the Abu Ghraib scandal to go on trial. Prosecutors allege the Army reservist was the ringleader of the abuse. Three fellow guards from the 372nd Military Police Company have pleaded guilty to abusing detainees.

Graner is charged with conspiracy, assault, committing indecent acts and other offenses. He could get to 17 1/2 years in a military prison if found guilty by a jury of four Army officers and six enlisted men.

Al-Sheikh said he went to Iraq in 2003 to fight U.S.-led forces, and he was taken to Abu Ghraib after being captured with AK-47 assault rifles, grenades and bomb-making material. While being held at a tent camp next to Abu Ghraib, al-Sheikh said, he was wounded in the leg and chest in a shootout with Americans after he obtained a handgun from an Iraqi guard.

Al-Sheikh said he was later sent to Abu Ghraib, where Graner jumped on his wounded leg and struck it with a collapsible metal stick. Another time, he said, Graner handcuffed him to his cell door with his arms behind his back for eight hours.

Graner also accompanied a U.S. soldier who urinated on him, and that the defendant was present when another American threatened to rape him, al-Sheikh said.

Speaking outside court after the video testimony, Graner said he remembered al-Sheikh: "The last time I saw him, he was threatening to kill me."

Under defense questioning, al-Sheikh said Graner at times worked with Americans who were interrogating him at Abu Ghraib. He said interrogators known as "Steve" and "Mikey" made it clear that he would be roughed up by Graner if he did not cooperate.

Defense attorney Guy Womack said al-Sheikh's testimony was good for his client. "It was the face of the enemy," Womack said. "It's very clear that he hates America."

Al-Sheikh conceded that he did not see Graner and others making the Yemeni prisoner eat from the toilet, but said it was clear that was happening from what he heard.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Troops Successful In Relief Effort
USA TODAY
January 12, 2005

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - In a blur of mud and rotors, U.S. Navy helicopters lift off a sodden soccer field here an average of one every 10 minutes with food, medicine and other supplies for villages wiped out by the tsunami.

"Those babies are just rockin' and rollin'," Tim Connolly, adviser to the World Food Program, shouts appreciatively above the roar of helicopter engines and the whir of rotors.

Indonesian military leaders insist they're running the tsunami relief operation. But from the ground at the airport outside this ravaged city, it looks very much like an American show -- albeit one featuring a supporting cast from around the globe.

The governments of Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, Spain, France, Malaysia, China and other nations have all sent troops, medics, cargo planes or rescue teams to help Indonesia dig out from the disaster. "Planes are just dropping out of the sky unannounced," Connolly says. Unexpected generosity sometimes makes it tough to coordinate all the incoming relief, he says.

Officers from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, their faces splotched white with sunscreen applied in a futile effort to vanquish the Southeast Asian sun, have set up a makeshift operations center under a red tent across from the soccer field-turned-helicopter pad. They use radios to direct traffic, sending Navy helicopters to the villages where they're needed most.




When the choppers touch down near the center, dozens of sailors slog through the field to meet them, 44-pound sacks of rice slung over their shoulders.

Sometimes the helicopters carry Navy medics into the villages. The medics use flashcards written in Bahasa Indonesian or that feature stick figures to ask villagers what they need. They bring seriously injured Indonesians back for triage in medical tents at the airport and for transfer to hospitals.

Chief Hospital Corpsman Leslie Ansag of Everett, Wash., says the trips to hard-hit villages the past few days have brought some good news: The number of injured Indonesians is dropping. So far, there is no sign of disease.

Ansag, who is part of the crew of the Abraham Lincoln, says healing injured Indonesians is satisfying work compared with the fundamental task of aircraft carriers: dispatching jet fighters to unload bombs and launch missiles.

Tuesday afternoon, an MH-60S Knighthawk helicopter from the supply ship USS Ranier left the Banda Aceh airport with four crewmen, two journalists and a cargo of rice, bottled water, biscuits and other food packages.

The chopper hewed close to the coast at an altitude of about 500 feet, offering a heartbreaking view of the destruction:

* Villages are flattened (except, in one case, for a mosque).

* Trees are mowed down and plastered into the mud.

* Roads are erased by the water.

The tsunami-hit areas are easily recognizable. They're brown and dead, in contrast to the bright green jungle farther inland. Huge pools stand where the ocean water came and stayed.

Sometimes the helicopter crews spot straggling Indonesian families trying to make their way to relief camps, bewildered and lost in the jungle. Aboard the Knighthawk, crewman Rick White, 21, of Salt Lake City says he and his crewmates spot about three such groups every day.

The chopper can't touch down and pick them up, so crewmembers note their location and report them back at the airport. Relief can be dispatched to reach them later.

The Knighthawk's crew is on its fifth mission Tuesday. On the previous four, crewmembers delivered supplies to relief workers building a temporary tent hospital farther down the coastline. This time, they're headed for a village called Krueng Sabe, just south of Calang, on the devastated west coast of Sumatra.

As the helicopter lands in a flattened field that used to be part of the village, dozens of people move forward. The Knighthawk crewmen have an illustrated placard written in Indonesian warning villagers to stay away from the copter's rotors.

A half-dozen Indonesian troops are on the ground to maintain order. They command the strongest young men to help unload the boxes and sacks of food.

Once the supplies are on the ground, the Indonesians rip into them and carry off water bottles and food packets.

The unloading takes about 10 minutes. An Indonesian soldier mouths the words "thank you" and gives the U.S. crew a thumbs up.

The chopper rises and heads out to sea, touching down aboard the cruiser USS Shiloh briefly to refuel.

Then it's off again toward Banda Aceh and another relief flight. Along the way, the Knighthawk passes two rainbows, which arc over the ravaged coastline and into the sea.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

I MEF senior enlisted visit wounded Marines in Germany
Submitted by: Marine Forces Europe
Story Identification #: 200511243213
Story by Master Sgt. Phil Mehringer



LANSTUHL, Germany (Jan. 11, 2005) -- Wounded Marines recovering from injuries received during Operation Iraqi Freedom witnessed several "friendly" faces as a select group of visitors traversed the wards of the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. Senior enlisted Marines and Sailors from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force visited with recovering Marines who were happy to see a few of their own.

Sergeant Maj. Carlton Kent, I MEF Sergeant Major, led a group of sergeants major consisting of Wayne Bell, 1st Marine Division, Joseph Staudt, 4th Civil Affairs Group and Carlos Rios, I Marine Expeditionary Force Headquarters Group. Command Master Chief Raphael Sanchez, I MEF and Hospital Corpsman Senior Chief Gerard Chiu, 1st Marine Division, rounded out the entourage of senior enlisted visitors.

The group of senior Marines and Sailors addressed a group of ambulatory Marines first, thanking each of them for their contribution to the War on Terrorism, before moving to the more severely wounded Marines confined to hospital rooms.

"Your priority now is to get healthy so you can get back in the fight," said Sgt.Maj. Kent, as the Marines bellowed a loud "OOH RAH!"

Lance Cpl. Stacy Alexander, infantryman, 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, had just come out of surgery to clean and repair shrapnel damage to his right arm and left leg when Kent and the group entered his room.

The young Marine was surprised by the amount and seniority of his visitors; nevertheless, he enjoyed the conversation and the familiar pattern of Marines wearing their digital pattern desert camouflage utilities.

"I can't really explain it," said the wounded Alexander, a 20-year-old Marine from Carlin, Nevada. "The camaraderie the Corps has when you get some of the highest ranking Marines in the Marine Corps to come see you at the same time. That's a pretty big deal to me."

In addition to meeting every Marine possible during their short visit, the group of senior enlisted advisors had to complete a secondary mission -- thanking the staff of the hospital for providing such great medical care to the Marines of I MEF.

In a brief ceremony, Sgt.Maj. Kent presented a plaque from I MEF to the Commanding Officer of LRMC, Col. Rhonda Cornum. The plaque was created from "up armor" crating material and featured a photo collage of the battle of Fallujah. Embedded in the frame was a unit coin from each of the major Marine Corps units belonging to I MEF.

Col. Cornum accepted the plaque on behalf of her entire staff and thanked the Marines for making the trek from Iraq to present it. "It's our privilege to provide medical care to your Marines," added Cornum who said the new plaque will hang in the hospital dining facility for all to see.



Lance Cpl. Stacy Alexander, 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, describes the events leading up to his injuries to (L to R) Command Master Chief Raphael Sanchez, Sgt.Maj. Wayne Bell, 1st Marine Division, Hospitalman Senior Chief Gerard Chiu, 1st Marine Division and Sgt.Maj. Carlton Kent, I MEF. The senior enlisted Marines and Sailors were visiting Landstuhl Regional Medical Center recently, presenting a plaque to the hospital staff for their great efforts in treating wounded I MEF Marines during Operation Iraqi Freedom. The group also walked the hospital wards, thanking each Marine for their individual contribution to the War on Terrorism. Photo by: Spc. Christopher Goodman

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines on aid mission leave guns behind

By Eric Talmadge
The Associated Press
Posted January 12 2005

ABOARD THE USS BONHOMME RICHARD · Cpl. Sean Foley looks around the ship's main armory and takes a quick inventory. The room is overflowing with guns. Pistols, sniper rifles, machine guns, grenade launchers.

But for the time being, it's all staying right here.

In an effort to ease the fears of local officials, Marines participating in the humanitarian mission to help Indonesia recover from the earthquake and tsunami that have killed more than 100,000 on the island of Sumatra have agreed to leave their weapons behind whenever they go ashore.

For many Marines, that's tantamount to traveling naked.

"They didn't even want us to have protection like helmets and body armor, let alone weapons, because it might look threatening," said Foley, of Erie, Pa. "That's crazy."

His concern isn't unfounded.

Though the nearly 2,000 Marines on this ship and another nearby have only just begun to trickle ashore, and are generally returning to the ship each night, the area in which they are operating presents some significant security threats.

Rebels have long been active in this region, so much so that the Indonesian government had largely restricted it from foreigners. Though a lull followed the Dec.26 disaster, firefights near the provincial capital of Banda Aceh have been reported recently.

"We are concerned," said Col. Tom Greenwood, commanding officer of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which was diverted from duty in Iraq to join in the humanitarian operation. "The Indonesian government is taking it very seriously."

But Indonesian officials have also been reluctant to let the Marines come ashore with their weapons because of the image that might project.

"We are very concerned about force protection," Greenwood said. "But if you go in there and look like an invading force instead of a humanitarian force, that could be just as detrimental as having no security whatsoever. So you have to balance it."


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Vatican Wants U.S. To Finish Iraq Job
Associated Press
January 12, 2005

ROME - The U.S. ambassador to the Vatican said Tuesday that officials in the Holy See want the United States to remain in Iraq and pacify the country despite Pope John Paul II's opposition to the war.

John Paul strongly opposed what the United States called a "preventive war" in Iraq, urging instead that U.N. weapons inspections be allowed to continue.

"We had an honest disagreement between two great leaders and what happened, happened," Ambassador Jim Nicholson, recently nominated by President Bush to be secretary of veterans affairs, said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Since then, most Vatican officials have been "forward looking," he said.

"I will say that virtually everyone I talk to at the Vatican do not want the United States to pull out of Iraq. They want us to stay in there, solidify and pacify Iraq and help it become a free, stable and democratic country," Nicholson said.




On Monday, an Italian cardinal sent to the White House by the pope in March 2003 in a last-hour bid to dissuade Bush from invading Iraq said the president promised the American intervention would be wrapped up quickly.

Cardinal Pio Laghi said Bush told him: "Don't worry, your eminence. We'll be quick and do well in Iraq."

Nicholson said he was present at that meeting and did not recall Bush saying that, although he said he would not dispute Laghi's statement.

Differences over the war aside, Bush's positions are in line with many of the Vatican's - certainly more than his Democratic opponent in the November elections, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, a Catholic who supports a woman's right to have an abortion.

Nicholson acknowledged that when Bush met the pope and other Vatican officials in June, he asked their help in getting American bishops to support his programs.

The ambassador said the pope and others praised Bush and thanked him for his "courageous stand" on such issues as human cloning, the family and marriage that were "so congruent with the Vatican."

"The president thanked him for that affirmation and said it would be helpful if he could receive more of that from senior members of the church community," said Nicholson, a Vietnam veteran and a former chairman of the Republican National Committee.

In a Monday speech to diplomats, the pope put lobbying against gay marriage at the top of the Vatican's agenda for 2005. Bush supports a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and 11 states adopted constitutional bans on gay marriage during the November election.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

ScanEagle Proves Worth in Fallujah Fight
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

FALLUJAH, Iraq, Jan. 11, 2005 -- It's called ScanEagle, and it has already saved the lives of many Marines.

ScanEagle is an unmanned aerial vehicle that the Marines used during Operation Al Fajr, the coalition operation to remove insurgents from this city.

The ScanEagle system, developed by Boeing and the Insitu Group of Bingen, Wash., had its baptism of fire during some of the heaviest urban combat Marines have been involved in since Hue City in Vietnam in 1968. The UAV performed flawlessly, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force officials said today.

ScanEagle is a relatively low-cost UAV at $100,000 a copy. But its real worth was giving Marines in Fallujah a real-time picture of the enemy and helping them close with and kill insurgents without becoming casualties.

Driven by a small propeller, the aircraft can stay airborne for 19 hours on just a gallon and a half of gas.

It is a "launch-and-forget" system. A catapult launches the 40-pound aircraft, and a computer operator just clicks the cursor over the area of interest. The aircraft operates autonomously.

The cameras -- either for day or night -- have enough definition to identify individuals and show if they are carrying weapons. "This was a true advantage for us during the operation," said Marine Col. John Coleman, chief of staff for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. The rules of engagement were such that Marines could not engage unless they were sure the proposed target was carrying a weapon or intent on harming coalition forces.

ScanEagle enabled commanders to ascertain targets and provided specific coordinates via the Global Positioning System.

The system can also track moving targets. ScanEagle gives commanders at several different levels real-time video. With the explosive growth of using the Web in warfare, commanders many miles away can direct the system.

All of this is not bad for a system designed to find tuna fish. Insitu developed the aircraft to be launched and recovered by tuna boats. Fishermen would use the UAV to spot schools of tuna.

When the Marines needed another UAV system, they contracted with Boeing in June 2004 for ScanEagle and the contractors to run it. Four Boeing employees answered the call, and ScanEagles were soon flying missions over the most dangerous city in Iraq.

The UAV is small and tough to see, said Marine officials. The contractors put the mufflers pointing up so that the enemy couldn't track the aircraft by sound. The Marines operate the aircraft at a very low altitude and lost only one to enemy fire during the weeks of intelligence gathering leading up to Operation Al Fajr.

The Marines already use the Pioneer UAV and have access to other UAV information. The ScanEagle has a small footprint. Manning for the system is small, and all the system needs to operate can be carried in four Humvees.

The Pioneer, one of the oldest UAVs in the inventory, needs a runway to operate from and several C-130s to transport the system. And it requires 120 people to operate it.

Marine officials are impressed with the ScanEagle system, and have shown the system's capabilities to Army, Navy and Air Force officials.

Marine officials do not know the true extent of the system's use. "You never really know until the Marines push the capabilities," Coleman said. "Our young Marines are the experts. They know what they need, and they have the knowledge to try new methods and stretch the capabilities of most pieces of equipment."



Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines help pay many college bills


For a while, Nebra Bess, and her father, Nebraska Bess, were in college at the same time.Nebra is a junior at Winston-Salem State. Nebraska is now an interior design graduate of the Art Institute of Charlotte.

Add in a couple of college-bound siblings and that's quite a tuition bill.

A scholarship Nebra earned from the Marine Corps foundation this year and last helped the family through.

"It was kind of like my push to keep striving," says Nebra.

Recipients must be the children of current or former Marines and have a community service record.

Nebra's father, a master sergeant, was in the Marine reserves, then became active duty in 2003-04.

Nebra more than fulfills the community service requirement. While still in school at Independence, she was a mentor at Albemarle Road Elementary. At Winston-Salem State, where she is a sociology major, she and another students founded the Junior Rams, a mentoring program for kids in Winston-Salem.

"I feel that young people are the smartest people in the world because they ask questions," she says.

She prefers working with kids, and will be an intern at WSSU's Center for Community Safety. Her long-term goal is to open a community agency for at-risk teens.

"I don't know how I'd be able to go to college without it," says Meghan McQuerry of Matthews, a chancellor's list student at UNC Greensboro and another local recipient. Her father, the late Lt. Col. Thomas Owen McQuerry, was a Marine for 30 years, and died of illness when Meghan was 11.

Now a junior majoring in nutrition and dietetics, she's volunteered with Loaves & Fishes, Room in the Inn and as a mentor. She is a graduate of East Mecklenburg High.

Recipient Kendric Williams' combination of a Marine scholarship and another award from UNC Chapel Hill is helping him attend there without loans. His father, Kenneth, is a retired gunnery sergeant with 20 years of service. Williams is a graduate of Hopewell High and a freshman at UNC, where he is a management and society major and a member of the football team.

Other Mecklenburg-area recipients for 2004-05 include Jasmine Bristol and Christine Brown.

North Carolina had 88 students for 2004-05 earn Marine Corps scholarships, up from 77 last school year.

The foundation holds balls and golf tournaments across the country to raise money for the scholarships. The deadline to apply for 2005-06 is April 15.

For details on applying or donating to the foundation, visit www.marine-scholars.org.

22 semifinalists for Morehead picked

Twenty-two students from Mecklenburg are in the running for UNC Chapel Hill's most prestigious scholarship program.

They are semifinalists for the 2005 Morehead scholarships, which pays all expenses for four years, including a laptop computer and summer enrichment experiences.

The value of the award is about $80,000 for N.C. residents.

The semifinalists, announced by trustees of the John Motley Morehead Foundation, were chosen from among 1,362 students nominated by their high schools in October.

They will go before regional selection committees, who will select finalists to compete for the awards.

Mecklenburg semifinalists include:

Ellie

[thedrifter]

January 17, 2005

An unexpected calm
Complacency is the enemy as Marines patrol Ramadi’s newly quiet streets

By Gordon Trowbridge
Times staff writer


RAMADI, Iraq — All the Marines here know for sure is that it’s quiet now. They’re less sure if that’s a permanent condition or a cruel tease.
For 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, December was a welcome break from the three months of constant violence they faced after arriving here in September. Then, things were so bad in the capital of rebellious Anbar province that just getting the daily logistics convoy across town was a major combat operation.

Now, the worry for some Marine commanders is not combat, but complacency. There are roughly as many theories why as there are troops in Ramadi, but there is little argument that the city has calmed. Marines from 2/5 credit their own work, the November arrival of assistance from the Army and the assault on Fallujah, just to the east, as possible factors.

“Night and day. Black and white. That’s the difference,” said Capt. Ed Rapisarda, commander of Fox Company, 2/5. “Completely opposite. We hit the ground running, and we didn’t stop for three months. We still have [combat with insurgents], but not at nearly the level we had.”

Though pinning down the degree of improvement in the situation here is tricky, one possible indicator is the Pentagon’s casualty reporting through Dec. 30. Though the Marine Corps does not release exact locations in its casualty reports, 2/5 last reported a Marine killed in action on Nov. 15, when a car bomb killed three Marines, including the commander of Weapons Company.

The Army’s 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, which splits Ramadi with 2/5, last reported a combat death on Nov. 28.

If the improvement holds, the calming of Ramadi would be a significant step in the larger battle against the Sunni-led insurgency in Anbar province. Since the Marines took over operational control of Ramadi in April, commanders have considered the city a key to subduing the province.

But no one is willing to bet that this is a permanent condition.

“It’s been quiet, but it doesn’t mean they’re not still out there,” said 1st Lt. Zachary Buitenhuys, commander of Fox Company’s 2nd Platoon. Buitenhuys, of El Cajon, Calif., called the weeks after 2/5’s arrival “like something out of World War III,” far different than the quiet street patrols of late December.

“Whether they’re saving up for the elections [in late January] or they’re just off to another place, we don’t know,” said Cpl. Justin Oxenrider, 23, of Patterson, Calif.

It’s also clear that, as in much of Iraq, the insurgents are turning their attention toward Iraqi government and security forces, perhaps hoping to derail the January elections. While attacks against U.S. forces are down, several insurgents attacked a police station and government complex in the city just before Christmas, forcing the police out before blowing up both buildings.

Despite the muddled signs, many feel several weeks of sustained operations, after months of being largely on the defensive in Ramadi, have paid off.

“We know we’re getting the job done,” said Lance Cpl. Daniel Robinson, 21, of Sherman, Texas.

Some leathernecks, from the I Marine Expeditionary Force headquarters level on down, said the November assault on Fallujah has had an impact beyond that city, both in eliminating a logistics hub for the rebels and in demonstrating to them and the Iraqi population that insurgency carries a heavy price.

But another November event — the Army’s arrival here — also played a vital role.

Leathernecks from 2/5 — and 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines before them — were spread perilously thin over the city until the arrival of 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment. Manning observation and guard posts sapped much of the battalion’s manpower, limiting commanders’ ability to go on the offensive.

With the Army on hand, “it’s allowed us to saturate our half of the city,” Rapisarda said. “We used to be spread over six to eight square kilometers of area. We couldn’t do any more than put a Band-Aid on any situation that came up in the city.”

During a week with 2/5’s Echo and Fox companies, raids, patrols and weapons sweeps were a daily routine.

“We usually don’t get much from these sweeps,” said 2nd Lt. Ryan Schramel, commander of Echo Company’s 2nd Platoon, as he led a late-afternoon patrol the day after Christmas. “It’s more of a presence thing — to let them know we’re here and we’re going to be around.”

As the patrol walked the city’s narrow streets, curious residents stood in entryways to their walled and gated homes, with little hostility evident. Children called out “mister, mister” and held hands out for the candy that Marines passed out from holiday care packages.

“We’ve been through here a few times, so most of the people in this neighborhood know us,” said Cpl. Kyle Farwell. “That means it’s been pretty quiet.”

The platoon questioned people in several houses, asking about insurgent activity. Most claimed to know nothing, but a middle-aged teacher overseeing the remodeling of his daughter’s house claimed the neighborhood had chased several away.

“You are our best friend,” the teacher told Schramel in English. “Our best friend.”

The sincerity of the statement — like so much in Ramadi — was hard to measure.

“About 10 percent of the people here are actively against us,” said Capt. Eric Dougherty, commander of Echo Company. “And about 10 percent are looking to actively help us. It’s that other 80 percent we’re working to bring around.”

Still, it’s hard for the Marines to believe the battle for Ramadi is truly over yet.

“I’d like to think things have improved because of the job we’ve done,” Rapisarda said. “But I think the enemy is moving things around, looking for weaknesses, waiting for their time.

“I don’t believe they’re finished yet.”

Ellie

[thedrifter]

January 17, 2005

Military officials confident of successful Iraqi election

By Gordon Trowbridge
Times staff writer


BAGHDAD — Senior U.S. military officials here are confident — even adamant — that Iraq’s elections will go forward and succeed on Jan. 30, despite a deadly string of insurgent attacks that has raised worries about election security.
In a series of interviews and news conferences in the first week of January, with less than a month left to prepare, top Marine and Army officials said they are determined to succeed on Iraq’s election day, despite such setbacks as the brazen assassination of Baghdad’s governor.

“One way or another, we will be successful,” said Army Col. Robert Piccone, director of operations for III Corps and Multinational Corps-Iraq, which oversees coalition ground forces in Iraq. “We won’t fail.”

But in contrast to those upbeat assessments, Army Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, commander of all U.S. ground forces in Iraq, said Jan. 6 that four of the nation’s 18 provinces were not ready to hold elections.

Metz said those are Anbar and Nineveh provinces, as well as parts of Salahadin Province, which includes Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, and parts of Baghdad province. He said U.S. forces would step up offensive actions in an attempt to disrupt insurgent plans to target the elections.

The outcome of the vote will profoundly affect not only Iraq’s future and U.S. policy here, but the future of thousands of U.S. troops who are serving, or will serve, in the still-violent nation.

Although U.S. officials say the insurgency likely will continue after Jan. 30 regardless of the elections, they see voting as a key step in reducing the U.S. military role in Iraq, hoping that a democratically elected government will gain enough legitimacy in the eyes of Iraq’s citizens to sap support from the insurgency.

Meanwhile, such expressions of confidence came in the same week that a pair of Iraqi cabinet ministers seemed to open the door to a delay in the voting. For months, leaders of Iraq’s Sunni Muslim minority have said elections should not take place under U.S. occupation and during a deadly insurgency.

But when asked about calls for a delay, Maj. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, commander of the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division, said: “I haven’t even given it a thought. All our planning is geared toward Jan. 30.”

Lt. Gen. John Sattler, whose I Marine Expeditionary Force operates in rebellious Anbar province, said he continues to believe all of Anbar’s residents will have a chance to vote, despite widespread destruction in Fallujah and the insurgency’s strength in cities such as Ramadi.

“We are not going to disenfranchise any city,” Sattler said.

A large question mark

Among the vital — and most troubling — factors in the election’s success or failure is the ability of Iraq’s own military and police forces to protect polling places and election workers.

U.S. forces are likely to take a back seat in election security to avoid any appearance of influencing voters. Although U.S. forces will help with coordination and logistics, the job of defending the electoral process in most of the country will fall to new Iraqi army and police forces still in their infancy.

Sattler said his command is taking a fresh look at the police, in particular, across Anbar.

“It became an ineffective force,” he said. “And you can’t establish the rule of law with the military. You need real, professional police. We need to figure out how to build a credible police force that upholds the rule of law, not the interests of your tribe, your community, your people. That old saying, ‘Nobody is above the law’ — that doesn’t exist in Anbar.”

Anbar province and Nineveh province, home to Mosul, are the areas where the elections are most threatened, not only due to security fears but also because in those provinces, Iraq’s electoral commission is far behind its pace of preparations elsewhere.

Sattler said Marine commanders had offered support in several areas, selecting 50 polling places in the province and offering logistics help.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Despite pressure, Bush vows 'no women in combat'


By Rowan Scarborough and Joseph Curl
THE WASHINGTON TIMES


President Bush's policy on women in ground combat takes just four words to articulate: "No women in combat."
Despite extended tours of duties in Iraq for soldiers and an Army examination of women's roles, the president told editors and reporters of The Washington Times yesterday in an interview in the Oval Office that he has no intention of sending women into ground combat, a mission for which they are banned under Pentagon policy.
Some retired generals and commentators have called on the president to increase significantly the 150,000 troops in Iraq. Mr. Bush said he is relying on his generals not the pundits to dictate the makeup of the force.







"The troop size in Iraq is not driven here in the White House," he said. "It is driven by the decisions and the recommendations the recommendations of John Abizaid and Gen. George Casey . And it's really important that that's how a war be fought, that and I would hope it brings great comfort to you as a concerned citizen the commander in chief makes the military decisions based upon the recommendations from the field."
The active force is about 1.4 million troops. The Army has added 30,000 soldiers, using emergency powers, to exceed 500,000.
"As far as the overall force structure and the relationship between the active-duty unit and the Guard and reserve, for example, that's part of the transformation of our military," Mr. Bush said. "In other words, transforming our military to meet a whole new set of threats. And the debate I hear is not overall size, necessarily, but the relationship between the Army to the Air Force and the Navy."
Asked about reports of putting women closer to land combat, the president said:
"There's no change of policy as far as I'm concerned. No women in combat. Having said that, let me explain, we've got to make sure we define combat properly: We've got women flying choppers and women flying fighters, which I'm perfectly content with."
The question came up in light of the Army's transforming its 10 active-combat divisions and re-examining women's roles. Instead of the normal three brigades per division, each division will have four or more "units of action." They are being designed to train and deploy as one modular unit, with combat and support units as one.
Therein lies the potential problem. Pentagon policy not only bans women from direct combat brigades, such as infantry or armor, it also says they cannot join support units that collocate with those units.
But The Washington Times has reported on internal Army memos that show some officials are pushing the Pentagon to lift the ban so that mixed-sex forward support companies (FSC) can collocate with armor and infantry battalions within a "unit of action."
A Nov. 29 briefing for senior Army officers at the Pentagon stated, "The way ahead: rewrite/eliminate the Army collocation policy."
An Army spokeswoman said, "It is my understanding that the November 29 briefing was predecisional. There are a number of Army policies under review."
An earlier Army briefing in May, labeled "draft close hold," stated that one option putting FSCs outside a combat brigade in an organizational chart "could be perceived as subterfuge to avoid reporting requirements."
Congress requires that any change in women-in-combat rules first be presented to lawmakers.
The May briefing portrayed the Army as in a bind. If it collocates FSCs with combat teams and keeps them men-only, then it "creates potential long-term challenge to Army; pool of male recruits too small to sustain force," the Army documents stated.
In 1994, after reports of women excelling during Operation Desert Storm, the Clinton administration lifted bans on women in combat aircraft and ships. But it retained the prohibition against women in ground combat units and collocation.
Any change is opposed by Elaine Donnelly, who heads the Center for Military Readiness. In a letter to House Armed Services Chairman Duncan Hunter, California Republican, Mrs. Donnelly said, "Female soldiers, including young mothers, should not have to pay the price for Pentagon bureaucratic blunders and gender-based recruiting quotas that have caused apparent shortages in male soldiers for the new land-combat brigades."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

January 11, 2005

Jones visits Bulgaria

Associated Press


SOFIA, Bulgaria — The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Europe, Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, arrived Tuesday in Bulgaria to inspect military sites that could host American troops as part of a Pentagon plan to create new, flexible bases in Eastern Europe.
After talks with Defense Minister Nikolai Svinarov, a ministry spokesman quoted Jones as saying that the United States was interested in three military sites — an air field, a sea port and a training ground.

According to Vladimir Prelezov, the spokesman, Jones said one of the sites could be used as “a training facility for NATO’s rapid reaction force.”

Jones is expected to tour two military sites on Wednesday — the air field of Bezmer and the Novo Selo training area, which have already been identified as possible locations for future U.S. bases in Bulgaria.

Bezmer and Novo Selo are located in central-eastern Bulgaria, some 160 miles east of the capital, Sofia, and 56 miles west of the Black Sea port of Burgas.

Bulgaria, a staunch U.S. ally in the Balkans, allowed U.S.-led forces to use the military airport near Burgas during the campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Bulgaria, which joined NATO last April along with six other ex-communist nations, has declared its willingness to provide training grounds for U.S. troops.

U.S. officials have also said they could use Bulgarian sites to deploy troops on rotational training tours, but the Pentagon has not made a final decision yet.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

These troops know the drill
January 12,2005
ERIC STEINKOPFF
DAILY NEWS STAFF

The walk-through tent was partially hidden by pine trees. Under the canvas roof, there was no floor.

A line of Marines and sailors, clad in camouflage, pulled back the flap that marked the entrance to the tent at the French Creek area of Camp Lejeune. Inside, there were four powered chairs where teams of Navy dentists and enlisted dental technicians worked.

It was a pre-deployment drill of another sort, said Lt. Michael Hawley, a 31-year-old Navy dentist from Excelsior, Minn.

"This is preparation for deployment to Iraq (and) this is the same equipment and tents that we'll use," Hawley said.

When the approximately 30 people from 2nd Dental Battalion leave in February for the Persian Gulf region, they'll go with tools and chairs packed in large metal containers. They have already sent enough dental equipment to Iraq to support nine teams of three.

Although they were seeing patients for routine dental problems on Tuesday, the dentists and tech were also practicing. The mobile equipment is different in style and power from that used day to day.

There are still a lot of questions that can only be answered when they get to Iraq, such as exactly where they will work or what their conditions will be.

"We're going to separate camps in Iraq," said Navy dentist Lt. Bethany Tant, 26, of Richlands. "We're all using the same equipment (but) some will be in a building, some in a tent and the mobile team will be packed up."

"Those going to the main camps will have buildings," added Navy dentist Lt. Jennifer Munson, 28, of Warren, Pa. "We get there, treat them and get them back out (to work)."

While deployed they'll be able to do basic extractions and fillings - if time allows after handling emergencies.

Dentists are at a premium in a combat zone.

"There are all sorts of diseases that can stem from the mouth," Tant said. "We're trying to keep dentists out there so they don't have to evacuate the troops."

By decreasing the number of evacuations for dental emergencies, it also reduces the number and size of convoys that can become a target on Iraqi roads.

In a combat emergency or during a mass casualty situation such as treating victims of a tsunami, military dentists can also be called into action to determine which patient is more seriously injured or to sew up wounds.

Tant said the biggest challenge is learning to work without all the high-power conveniences they have in the United States that limit dust and intense heat.

"Sometimes there are the most difficult conditions during an emergency situation," Tant said.

And if situations get too difficult, the dentists are also trained to fight.

They completed training at a Revised Combined Arms Exercise or RCAX last fall at Twentynine Palms, Calif., where practiced what to do during an ambush and how to protect their convoys, among other combat survival skills.

"We're just as equipped as the Marines," Tant said.


Contact Eric Steinkopff at estein kopff@freedomenc.com or 353-1171, Ext. 236.


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Convoy of U.S. and Iraqi Troops Ambushed

By JASON KEYSER
Associated Press Writer




BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Insurgents launched a string of attacks in the northern city of Mosul as part of their escalating campaign of violence before the Jan. 30 elections, killing two Iraqi National Guardsmen and wounding two others in a car bombing Wednesday, a day after another ambush killed three Iraqis, the U.S. military said.

A U.S. soldier assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force was killed in action in the volatile western Anbar province, the military said Wednesday. The unit is based at Camp Fallujah west of Baghdad.

In Baghdad, U.S. forces detained six suspects in the slaying of the provincial governor of the area around the Iraqi capital, the military said Wednesday. Troops detained the suspects in an early-morning raid on a house in Baghdad's northern Hurriyah neighborhood Tuesday.

Gunmen opened fire on Ali al-Haidari's three-vehicle convoy Jan. 4 in the neighborhood, killing the governor and six bodyguards.


Two of those detained were directly involved in the slaying, said Brig. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, assistant commander of the 1st Cavalry Division, which controls Baghdad.

Iraq's insurgents have repeatedly targeted government officials around the country, saying they are allies of the U.S.-led coalition.

On Tuesday, insurgents in Mosul hit a convoy of American and Iraqi forces by detonating a roadside bomb and firing from a mosque, killing three National Guardsmen.

The troops were bringing heaters and other supplies to a school when they were attacked, a military statement said. The convoy was hit first with a roadside bomb and then sprayed with gunfire from a nearby mosque. No Americans were reported hurt.

In a separate clash, insurgents fired on a U.S. patrol in southern Mosul, sparking a battle that killed one attacker and injured another.

In the city of Baqoubah, northeast of Baghdad, gunmen shot dead Jawad Ibrahim, an assistant to the mayor, as he was fixing his car in an industrial neighborhood, police said.

A top U.S. lawmaker visiting the Afghan capital Wednesday told reporters he hoped Iraq's election would mirror the recent vote in Afghanistan in helping to stop militants and smooth the road to democracy.

"Our hope is that we will see something very similar ... (which will) squelch, or overcome and overpower insurgencies, challenges to democracy, in a way that will far surpass people's anticipations," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Ayad Allawi acknowledged that parts of Iraq probably will not be safe enough for people to vote, and he said he plans to boost the size of the country's army from 100,000 to 150,000 men by year's end.

Allawi discussed preparations for this month's election by telephone with President Bush on Tuesday, and both leaders underscored the importance of going ahead with the vote as scheduled, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

The prime minister said at a news conference that "hostile forces are trying to hamper this event."

"Certainly, there will be some pockets that will not be able to participate in the elections for these reasons, but we think that it will not be widespread," Allawi said.

Also Tuesday, gunmen stopped three trucks carrying new Iraqi coins south of Baghdad and killed the drivers, stole the money and set the trucks on fire, a police official said.

The attack occurred near the town of Salman Pak, 12 miles southeast of Baghdad. The trucks were carrying the money from the southern port city of Basra to the Central Bank of Iraq in Baghdad, the official said on condition of anonymity.

Police searching the area found the three burned trucks a few miles from the scene before discovering the three bodies of the drivers, he said. The official refused to say how much money was in the trucks.

The Central Bank announced Jan. 1 it would start circulating coins for the first time since Saddam Hussein's regime abolished them in the aftermath of the 1990 Gulf War. Coins were scrapped in 1991, when the international embargo sent Iraq's annual inflation rate soaring upward of 1,000 percent.

The military had no further details about the circumstances of the American's soldier's death Tuesday. His death brought to 1,356 the number of American troops killed in Iraq since the invasion in March 2003. At least 1,069 died as a result of hostile action, the Defense Department said. The figures include three military civilians.

Also Wednesday, a U.S. military official involved with reconstruction projects briefed reporters on the progress in repairing and building new water and sewage treatment plants, power stations and upgrading oil infrastructure.

Brig. Gen. Thomas P. Bostick, commander of the Gulf Region Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said $4 billion has been spent so far on 1,550 projects that also include work on schools, clinics and railway stations.

Still, in key sectors like electricity and oil there are enormous funding gaps amounting to billions of dollars, he said.

Bostick also linked reconstruction with improving security, saying putting Iraqis to work on rebuilding the country would help dampen the withering insurgency.

"I think that if they have shovels and they have the opportunity to go out and do reconstruction and they see a better future in their cities, that they're not going to be joining forces that would otherwise be against us," Bostick said.

In a Wall Street Journal editorial published Wednesday, former Iraq administrator L. Paul Bremer defended the coalition's decision to disband Saddam's military after the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003 and bar senior members of the Baath Party from government jobs.

Some have criticized the move, saying it helped push out-of-work military men into the ranks of the insurgency. But Bremer cited past abuses against Iraq's Kurds and repressed Shiite communities as "monuments to Saddam's army's brutality toward Iraq's citizens."

He wrote that disbanding the army reassured Iraq's Kurds and was a decisive factor in convincing them to remain in a united Iraq.

"This decision ... signaled to the Iraqi people the birth of a new Iraq," Bremer wrote.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Court-Martial Ordered in War Booty Case
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AP) -- A court-martial was ordered Tuesday for an Air Force officer charged with illegally shipping AK-47 assault rifles, rocket propelled grenade launchers and other souvenirs from Iraq to this Florida Panhandle base.

Maj. Gregory McMillion is scheduled for trial April 5. If convicted on all charges, he could receive a penalty ranging from no punishment to a discharge and imprisonment.

He faces charges of disregarding orders against bringing home war booty, failing to report and turn over captured or abandoned property, making false statements and conduct unbecoming an officer.

Charges of dealing in captured or abandoned property were dropped because there was no evidence McMillion received anything of value for Iraqi uniforms, bayonets and other items he allegedly gave away, said Capt. Heather Lengel, who is helping prosecute the case.

Capt. Gregory Gagne, one of McMillion's military lawyers, said neither he nor his client had any comment.

McMillion was a maintenance officer with the Eglin-based 728th Air Control Squadron in Iraq. Air Force officials said the alleged contraband was found in crates of equipment shipped to Eglin in September 2003 about two months before the ground radar unit returned.

Ellie