Posted on 03/28/2005 6:56:03 PM PST by TexKat
U.S. Air Force Capt. Robert Frees, Col. Abdul Hadi, Brig. Gen. Shams Ahmad, and Mr. G.K. Madhu Kiran conduct a site survey on TV Hill overlooking Kabul, Afghanistan, March 17, 2005, to locate a new microwave radio antenna tower that will link all Kabul area Afghan National Army facilities for data and voice communications. Office of Military Cooperation-Afghanistan photo by Senior Airman Michael Payne
050319-N-4308O-149 Persian Gulf (Mar. 19, 2005) - The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75), foreground, is relieved by the Nimitz-class Aircraft Carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) in the Persian Gulf. The Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group completed nearly four months in the Persian Gulf in support of the Global War on Terrorism. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate Airman Ryan O'Connor (RELEASED)
U.S. Air Force Capt. Robert Frees, strategic network consultant for the Office of Military Cooperation - Afghanistan, congratulates an Afghan National Army soldier and hands him his Super User certification during a graduation ceremony at Kabul University, March 12, 2005. Office of Military Cooperation-Afghanistan photo by Master Sgt. D. Keith Johnson
Afghan National Army Joins Information Age
As the Afghan National Army continues to grow and decentralize some operations, a robust communications network becomes ever more crucial.
By U.S. Army Maj. Rick Peat, Kansas National Guard Office of Military Cooperation-Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan, March 28, 2005 — “We are building a communications infrastructure starting from virtually nothing,” said U.S. Air Force Capt. Robert Frees, a strategic computer network consultant for the U.S.-led Office of Military Cooperation-Afghanistan, regarding construction of a viable and sustainable computing infrastructure for the Afghan Ministry of Defense and the Afghan National Army.
As the Afghan National Army continues to grow and decentralize some operations, a robust communications network becomes ever more crucial.
Prior to September 2004, all Afghan National Army operations were controlled by either the Central Corps in Kabul or coalition units with whom the Afghan National Army operated. Since then, the Afghan National Army has set up four additional regional Corps around the country, each capable of commanding and controlling operations in their assigned area of operations.
Remarking on the importance of a strong communications infrastructure for the new army, Office of Military Cooperation-Afghanistan Chief of Communications Army Lt. Col. Mark Baxter said, “The (Afghan National Army) must have a comprehensive strategic network to allow effective centralized command and control of the Army. Without effective centralized command, tribal rule will dominate the future of Afghanistan.”
“I’m excited to take what I’ve learned during this training and go to work wherever the (Afghan National Army) needs me,” Afghan National Army soldier Mohammed Saber
Through tremendous effort by Office of Military Cooperation-Afghanistan and the Afghan Ministry of Defense Communications Directorate, computers and networks are being installed at the Ministry of Defense, at all five corps headquarters and at all training facilities. Office of Military Cooperation-Afghanistan is carrying out a $31 million comprehensive plan for initial stand-up, intermediate automation and permanent sustainment of communications systems connecting all echelons of the Afghan National Army with their first-ever automated command and control systems.
Frees indicated the financial support comes from the U.S. Department of State as well as funds allocated to foreign military assistance in support of the global war on terrorism. The funds have so far been spent on the design and implementation of 17 communication network contracts linking more than 30 Afghan National Army facilities throughout Afghanistan.
A large investment in human resources is also necessary. The base of knowledge and experience Afghan National Army soldiers have with computer technology is very limited. Afghan National Army Maj. Gen. Mohammad Amin Norestani, chief of legal affairs for the Ministry of Defense, recognized the importance of computer technology early in the development of the new Afghan National Army.
“The world has become a small village through use of computers,” Norestani said. “In the past, a person with a high school degree was called a literate person. Now a person who doesn’t know how to use computers is considered not educated; it has become a life requirement for everyone.”
The next project in the Office of Military Cooperation-Afghanistan comprehensive plan is to set up eight computer labs at the Kabul Military Training Center so new recruits can learn about computers before they get to their first assignment.
To run the new Afghan National Army computing infrastructure, Office of Military Cooperation-Afghanistan contracted out computer maintenance and network administration to a regional civilian computer consulting firm. The long-term solution, as for all aspects in the reconstruction of the Afghan defense sector, is for the Afghan National Army to be self-sustaining.
“To achieve this, soldiers must be trained and afforded the opportunity to work hands-on with experienced system administrators,” said Brig. Gen. Shams Ahmad, deputy communications director for the Ministry of Defense.
To provide the necessary training, Office of Military Cooperation-Afghanistan and the Ministry of Defense partnered with Kabul University’s Computer Science Department to design a training program for Afghan National Army soldiers to becomecomputer system administrators. Five instructors from Kabul University’s Computer Science Department are now involved in teaching the Afghan National Army students.
Members of the Office of Military Cooperation-Afghanistan configure the Afghan National Army network hub at the Ministry of Defense building in Kabul. Office of Military Cooperation-Afghanistan photo by Terry Spanier
U.S. Air Force Capt. Robert Frees, strategic network consultant for the Office of Military Cooperation - Afghanistan, congratulates an Afghan National Army soldier and hands him his Super User certification during a graduation ceremony at Kabul University, March 12, 2005. Office of Military Cooperation-Afghanistan photo by Master Sgt. D. Keith Johnson
Along with the department head, Prof. M. Homayounnaseri, they teamed up with Office of Military Cooperation-Afghanistan and the Ministry of Defense Communications Directorate to create a curriculum that would produce soldiers capable of carrying out the Ministry of Defense long-term network administration needs.
“From the beginning, students had no experience with computers,” said Homayounnaseri. “So we had to consider this in deciding what to teach them and where to start.”
The first class of 48 soldiers, drawn from the Ministry of Defense Communications Directorate and the five corps headquarters, reported for class at Kabul University Sept. 18, 2004, for a 14-week training program. The inaugural program faced many challenges early on, including having only a few Pentium II personal computers available in the classroom, sporadic electrical service, and no heat during one of the coldest Afghan winters in decades.
The instructors faced another significant challenge. Many of the soldier-students had never touched a computer before and did not know English, the universal computer language. According to Homayounnaseri, the most successful students in this class were familiar with English, had completed high school and had completed several math and science courses while in school.
Instructor Hassan Adelyar added, “It is different teaching the (Afghan National Army) than our university students. We are only teaching the (Afghan National Army) for a relatively short time on very specific subjects. The ages of the (Afghan National Army) are different too, ranging from 18 to over 50 years old.”
Brig. Gen. Shams Ahmad, deputy communications director for the Afghan Ministry of Defense, congratulates one of his soldiers and hands him his Super User certification during a graduation ceremony at Kabul University, March 12, 2005. Office of Military Cooperation-Afghanistan photo by Master Sgt. D. Keith Johnson
In overcoming these challenges, Office of Military Cooperation-Afghanistan provided the university with a generator and enough new PC’s that every student had their own in the classroom. Modifications were also made to the curriculum, lengthening it, adding some basic English instruction, and dividing it into two semesters.
The first semester includes training in English computer terms, typing in English and Dari, Microsoft Office, Internet concepts and computer anatomy. Graduates of the first semester are certified by Kabul University as “Super Users” and are qualified to work on the Afghan National Army computer help desk.
The best Super Users continue on through a 12-week second semester and are certified as System Administrators upon successful completion. They are qualified to install cable, establish peer to peer connections and other networking responsibilities. Additionally, several of the best second semester students participate in a cooperative education program that Frees arranged with the Afghanistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which has a relatively advanced information technology department.
The revised training plan will put the first 25 of 100 required System Administrators in the field by July 15, 2005. The Afghan National Army is projected to have the infrastructure and trained personnel in place to sustain itself by May 2006.
Graduates of the first semester participated in a simple but prideful ceremony attended by Ministry of Defense and university officials on March 12 at Kabul University. The soldiers were excited to receive their Super User certificates, and each poured over his certificate in detail and with great interest after he returned to his seat.
“I’m excited to take what I’ve learned during this training and go to work wherever the (Afghan National Army) needs me,” said Mohammed Saber in his native language.
Truman Strike Group Heads Home, Vinson Strike Group Takes Watch
By Journalist 3rd Class (SW) John Stevens, USS Harry S. Truman Public Affairs
USS HARRY S. TRUMAN, At Sea (NNS) -- The USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) Carrier Strike Group concluded operations in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and maritime security operations (MSO) March 19, after being relieved by the USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70) Carrier Strike Group in the Persian Gulf.
MSO is aimed at setting the conditions for security and stability in the maritime environment. Illicit activity at sea has a global impact. MSO pressurizes the maritime environment and is the single most significant component of the conventional maritime effort against terrorism.
Truman and Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 3 launched 2,577 sorties, totaling nearly 13,000 flight hours, in support of OIF and MSO since relieving USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67) Nov. 20. Truman and CVW-3 kept an eye on U.S. and coalition forces in country during the Jan. 30 Iraqi elections.
“I’m very proud of the close cooperation and esprit de corps on the ship, air wing and throughout the strike group,” said Commander, Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 10 Rear Adm. Michael C. Tracy. “I know for a fact that the troops on the ground appreciated our ability to provide close air support.”
Shipboard leadership mirrored Tracy’s approval.
“For all the people in the mission - absolutely superb job,” said Truman Commanding Officer Capt. James P. Gigliotti in an all-hands address. “We’ve done an outstanding job all the way through this evolution for the past four months.”
Truman had the privilege of visiting Manama, Bahrain, and Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where Sailors and Marines enjoyed what the local culture had to offer during the brief periods of rest and relaxation.
“I went on the Sunset Safari,” said Interior Communications Electrician 1st Class (SW) Jill Harris, “and it was one of the best tours I’ve ever been on. Four-wheeling and sand boarding were my favorite parts.”
Underway between Arabian excursions ashore, the ship and air wing team hit the deckplates hard when it came to the daily grind of flight operations, general quarters training evolutions and underway replenishments.
Truman’s Supply Department won Ship’s Store Best in Class Award and their fourth Capt. Edward F. Ney Award for excellence in food service, an honor that now encompasses the entire Navy rather than the East and West Coasts separately.
“We are recognized as the best food service organization in the United States Navy,” said Senior Chief Culinary Specialist (SW) Susan Reece, Truman’s food production chief. “It’s a privilege to work for this supply team and bring the Ney back to [Truman].”
CVW-3 witnessed the end of an era this deployment with the final combat flight of Fighter Squadron (VF) 32’s F-14 Tomcats, which will be replaced by F/A-18 Super Hornets later this year. While there are some heavy hearts within VF-32, they know it’s a necessary step forward in their mission.
“It’s a little sad,” said VF-32 Maintenance Officer Lt. Cmdr. Randy Stearns, who’s flown Tomcats for 14 years, “but it’s good to know we’re introducing the Super Hornet and pressing on.”
VF-32 has already begun the transition to the new platform and will rejoin CVW-3 in early spring 2006.
Bolstering Truman’s ability to complete its mission, a supporting cast of surface ships conducted MSO to protect not only Truman but also the interests of regional allies.
“We’ve done a lot of significant regional engagement,” said USS Mason (DDG 87) Commanding Officer Cmdr. Gene Black. “We’ve acted as air defense commander, and we’ve done [MSO] to deter international terrorism and protect the maritime industry.
Although one stage of the mission is now complete, the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group's transit home will still be busy.
Before the team reaches its home port, Fleet and Family Support Center representatives will come aboard and conduct preparation training for new parents and those just preparing to return to family life.
“This is something we’ve done traditionally since my first cruise,” said Truman Command Master Chief (AW/SW) Clarence Frye. “They’ve actually put together a very good and comprehensive program for those who are returning from a deployment.”
Frye said the classes will include parenting skills, relational intimacy and handy tips for those buying cars with their savings from the cruise.
The strike group, consisting of Truman, Mason, USS Barry (DDG 52), USS Monterey (CG 61), USNS Arctic (T-AOE 8), USS Albuquerque (SSN 706) and CVW-3, deployed Oct. 13 for its second deployment in support of OIF and anti-terrorism operations.
For related news, visit the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) Navy NewsStand page at www.news.navy.mil/local/cvn75.
RED SEA SUNSET — The sun sets behind an F-14B Tomcat, assigned to the “Swordsmen” of Fighter Squadron 32, on the flight deck aboard the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman in the Red Sea, March 23, 2005. The Truman Carrier Strike Group recently turned over its responsibilities in the Persian Gulf to the USS Carl Vinson Strike Group, following nearly four months on station supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. U.S. Navy photo by Airman Philip V. Morrill
By Tony Perry, Times Staff Writer
HADITHA DAM, Iraq — Even before Saddam Hussein's regime was toppled, U.S. military planners knew that this mammoth hydroelectric dam about 150 miles northwest of the capital was important to Iraq's future.
To prevent retreating Iraqi troops from destroying the dam and flooding the region, Army Rangers seized the site on the night of April 1, 2003, a week before the fall of Baghdad, while warplanes hammered an Iraqi army unit nearby.
Nearly two years later, as U.S.-led forces battle an insurgency that has targeted much of the war-ravaged country's infrastructure, protecting the 10-story dam that provides electricity for a third of the country remains a priority.
The job is split between U.S. Marines and a company of soldiers from Azerbaijan.
The Marines, notoriously tough in their evaluation of other military forces, say the Azerbaijanis have been impressive with their discipline, respect for authority and careful handling of their weapons.
"If the Marines are an 8, the Azerbaijanis are at least a 4," said Sgt. Refugio Llamas, 38, of San Jose. "The Iraqis, well, they're not on the scale."
The Marines, members of the 1st Battalion, 23rd Regiment, a reserve unit from Houston, provide security to the area's towns and roadways. The Azerbaijanis, in their crisp tan and green field uniforms and pith helmets, are responsible for security inside the dam and within its fenced perimeter.
Each day, the Azerbaijanis search Iraqi dam workers as they arrive and leave. Some of the workers have made their displeasure known, but the soldiers appear unmoved.
"They don't like us," said Maj. Elkhan Shalbuzov, the top Azerbaijani officer. "Our soldiers tell them nothing. We are not here to talk to Arabian people but to catch terrorists."
Since gaining independence in 1991 from the former Soviet Union, Azerbaijan has made military service mandatory for young men and sent troops to Kosovo and Afghanistan. The U.S. has responded with military aid for the nation of about 8 million people.
Haditha, Iraq's second-largest hydroelectric dam, was a showpiece for the Hussein government. The structure was designed by Soviet engineers and built by 2,000 workers from Eastern Europe. After eight years, the first phase was completed in 1984.
During construction, the course of the Euphrates River was altered and archeological sites and small villages were flooded.
Before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, American officials worried that Iraqi forces would blow up the dam to swamp the region and slow the advance of coalition troops.
Officials now fear insurgents may strike Haditha to signal their determination and intimidate the populace.
No serious attempts to attack the dam have been made, though insurgents are active in the region, especially after a U.S.-led offensive in November drove many fighters out of Fallouja, 100 miles to the southeast.
Militants occasionally fire mortar shells at the dam, but the rounds fall hundreds of yards short.
A raid on an insurgent stronghold uncovered a diagram of the dam, its checkpoints and patrol routes.
Marines from the 4th Platoon of the Small Craft Company patrols the Euphrates and the dam's immense reservoir, Lake Qadisiya, in small watercraft. They recently discovered several caches of weapons and explosives along the banks of the river, within striking distance of the dam.
Days later, a squad was ambushed by insurgents while on patrol.
A lance corporal was killed and a captain lost an arm.
The river unit is constantly on patrol while the Azerbaijanis staff the lookout towers.
The two military units live on opposite sides of the dam but share a chow hall and Internet room.
The Azerbaijanis are polite but reserved, and there's little interaction between the two groups, as the chasm of language and culture appears to be too wide.
On the Marine side, signs of Texas are plentiful: a state flag above the dam and a "Texas Born, Texas Proud" sticker on the gun turret of a Humvee, among others. The Azerbaijanis watch their national equivalent of MTV.
The Americans and Azerbaijanis must use stairs: 290 of them in the structure.
Like much of the dam's internal operations, the elevators do not work.
Haditha shows the deterioration common to Iraqi infrastructure during the final years of Hussein's rule. Walls are moldy, some cracked and crumbling, and offices and workspaces smell of sulfur.
By one account, the structure was functioning at 30% capacity when the Army Rangers descended and rounded up the workers.
A $12-million improvement project was administered by Colorado-based CH2M Hill and overseen by the Army Corps of Engineers. Two turbines were rehabilitated and by last June, the dam was functioning at capacity for the first time since 1990, providing 660 megawatts of electricity.
The presence of the Azerbaijanis allows the Marines to launch missions in the countryside without worrying that insurgents might use their absence to attack the dam.
"No problem, we are here," said Azerbaijani Lt. Rashad Garayev.
New Radios Improve ANA Communications and Enhance Military Operations
Story and Photos by U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Mack Davis, Office of Military Cooperation – Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan—The Afghan National Army can now talk freely—from Kandahar, to Kabul, to Herat—thanks to recently received communication equipment that replaced Soviet-era radios and systems.
Implementing the new communications system was a complex task. Attempting to set up and manage all the different aspects of the country-wide tactical communication network was even more difficult, requiring the procurement and deployment of various equipment types; installation into different environments; and training for administrators, operators and maintainers.
The Office of Military Cooperation-Afghanistan assigned that task to its communication section in Kabul.
According to Sgt. 1st Class David Miller, an Army Reservist with the 3rd Battalion Signal Command, Anderson, Ind., and head of the OMC-A tactical communication section, “We are on track with what we have to complete. This is a challenge, but of a good sort. I thought I would be repairing radios here, and was surprised that I was honored to have such a high level of responsibility.”
In the past the ANA relied on older, Soviet-style radio equipment, the R130 and the R123 for high frequency and very high frequency communication. They also used the PRC-77—a man-pack short-range VHF radio the United States deployed during the Vietnam War era.
The difficulty was finding someone to conduct the training and maintain the radios once deployed.
According to Capt. Stephen Robinson, Alabama Army National Guardsman and embedded trainer during Coalition Joint Task Force Phoenix II, the Romanian Army used to provide some communications training and repair at the ANA’s Pol-e-Charki site.
“The biggest challenge for them was making daily repairs on the Soviet radios while trying to conduct training at the same time,” said Robinson. “Repair parts were almost non-existent, and the U.S. embedded trainers had never seen the radios before.”
Mixing Afghan soldiers, U.S. trainers, Romanian instructors, several interpreters and Soviet radios presented some challenges.
The first mission for the OMC-A communications team was to find a company that had some experience with similar circumstances. They assembled a summary task list of equipment and initiated a bid process in the United States. U.S. company Datron World Communications Inc. won the contract to provide communication equipment and training to the Afghan Army.
OMC-A chose four types of radios and repair part kits to give the army both long-range communication capabilities and squad-level abilities. The Datron RT7000 long-range high-frequency radio and the PRC-1099 man-portable HF radio will replace the R130 Soviet-style radios. These radios have the capability to communicate between Kandahar, Herat, Mazar-e-Sharif, Gardez and back to Central Corps in the Kabul area.
The Datron PRC-1077 man-pack radio and the PRC-1070 hand-held radios will be very high frequency and will complement the U.S. PRC-77. The ANA will use these radios for platoon and squad-level communications.
Maj. Brad Letner, Materiel Officer for OMC-A, said the U.S. government has spent $46.5 million dollars on radios and $1.7 million on repair parts for the Afghan National Army. The British Government provided an additional $6 million dollars.
Each of the repair part packets was put together to give the radios a 10-year serviceability.
After the equipment started arriving in Afghanistan it was time to begin the training process.
Robert Fable is the project coordinator for Datron in Afghanistan. A retired Marine master sergeant in the communication field, Fable has worked for Datron for four years.
Fable’s first visit to Afghanistan was in March 2004, when he set up Datron’s program. His first step was to develop administrator-level training, which focused on how to program the radios and properly deploy them for optimum use. Training included choosing the appropriate antenna, setting up communication networks and procedures for handling radio traffic. He also initiated operator-level training, primarily a non-technical approach to equipment use.
At the same time Fable was trying to get his training program off the ground, the U.S. embedded trainers and the ANA were deploying throughout Afghanistan.
Said Fable, “During the day I would teach one-week classes to the ANA on how to use the different types of radios, and at night I’d meet with the ETTs to bring them up-to-date on the equipments’ capabilities.” One key difference between the older radios and the new Datron equipment was the new radios are digital.
Fable continued to work almost around the clock in Afghanistan until June 2004, training 100 ANA soldiers and many U.S. advisors. While “a lot of the Afghan men do not have a formal education,” said Fable, “They are really sharp and pick up on the equipment. They have a genuine interest on learning the radios so they can do their jobs.”
Because of the tremendous growth in the Afghan Army, Fable has returned again to train the ANA soldiers. During the next five months, Fable will concentrate on intermediate and depot-level maintenance courses.
To maintain the equipment throughout its lifespan, the Afghan Army and the Ministry of Defense will have to be able to troubleshoot and repair the Datron radios. Saad Forouk, Afghan Ministry of Defense Communication Officer, said, “I welcome the training we are receiving. It will be my office that will be responsible for the fault identification and advanced trouble repairs, and I want to learn all I can while the instructor is here.”
The ANA has used the radios in Afghanistan since March 2004, allowing Fable to concentrate repair training on faults appearing in the field environment. He has prepared the ANA to sustain the equipment in the future, through train-the-trainer programs. While the Ministry of Defense will provide some future training, future communication mobile training teams from the United States will include classes on the Datron radio as part of their Signal Course.
Whether calling in reports from Kandahar to the Central Corps in Kabul, or calling for additional troops when quelling a riot in Herat, the Afghan soldiers will have the equipment to enable their efforts to provide peace and security to the people of Afghanistan.
The Bayji power plant supplies 270 megawatts of power to the Iraqi power grid. Photo by Harry Weddington
Engineers Work Together to Improve Iraq's Power Production
American Forces Press Service
March 28, 2005 – As March draws to a close, temperatures in Iraq are on the rise. Getting more electricity on the national grid is of foremost concern as the summer months draw near. An international team of engineers and technical professionals at the Bayji power plant has spent the past nine months working to get an additional 270 megawatts of power on the grid, which is enough energy to power more than 200,000 Iraqi homes and businesses.
The Bayji power plant supplies 270 megawatts of power to the Iraqi power grid. Photo by Harry Weddington (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.
In April 2004, a $64 million contract was awarded to Odebrecht-Austin, Joint Venture to rehabilitate two gas turbine units, each capable of generating 135 megawatts of power. After months of hard work, the units had “first fires” Feb. 25 and March 11 and started applying power to the national grid March 3 and 16. Final reliability tests are being performed, and the project will be transferred to the Iraqi Ministry of Electricity this month, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials said.
OAJV began work at Bayji in June 2004. The plant, which is located along the Tigris River, is a central location for oil lines and 400 kilovolt transmission lines that feed electricity to various parts of the country.
“This site is ideal for refurbishing and increasing the reliability of current power generation,” said Bob Kennedy, resident engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Kennedy’s background in electrical engineering was heavily utilized during the rehab. As the resident engineer, he provides construction oversight and quality assurance. The project’s intent was to restore the two units to a level where power could be generated on a reliable basis, he explained.
“The overall objective is to increase power output and capacity through immediate rehabilitation of this plant,” Kennedy said. “The project includes the assessment, replacement and rehabilitation of all essential generation components, fuel infrastructure, substations and transmission lines, subordinate equipment, transformers, electrical switchgears and other devices necessary for the production of reliable power for Iraq.”
When the contractor’s personnel arrived, they found only a shell, Kennedy explained. The turbines were only partially constructed, and the plant had been abandoned for four years. Project materials sat unused for several years, and some had been removed and used elsewhere.
The project has employed as many as 1,100 Iraqis, and workers from all around the world have contributed. The project has been an international effort among Americans, Brazilians, Canadians, Chileans, Colombians, English, Germans, Indians, Iraqis, Irish, Jordanians, Scots, and Turks, Kenney said. “Together they have all worked as a team, fully committed to Bayji. They turned many obstacles around and overcame daily challenges.”
The Bayji area and the pipeline around the plant have been targets for the insurgency, Kennedy explained. When insurgents attacked an oil pipeline near Bayji, a picture Kennedy took of the resulting fire reached the Pentagon several hours later and was used to brief President Bush. The oil fire burned through a 400-kilovolt line, which fell into the river and created a cascading effect, causing 90 percent of the power in the country to “trip off line,” Kennedy said.
Company officials expressed pride in their work on the project. “We are proud of our contribution to the improved living conditions of so many people, as well as the trust of our client on our ability to deliver in such a harsh environment,” said Paulo Suffredini, executive vice president with OAJV.
Completion of the contract required expertise in civil, electrical and mechanical engineering, as well as tenacity and lots of hard work. The contractor was able to move around the axiom, “You can’t do things quickly in Iraq,” Kennedy said.
“The Odebrecht materials manager could get almost anything from anywhere to this plant in several days,” he said. “On several occasions he got replacement electronic modules from Germany in less than 24 hours. The project team constantly adapted to meet the needs of the moment and had a great management team.”
Now that the project is complete, Kennedy, who arrived at Bayji in September, is preparing to leave for his next assignment. “This is exactly what I was looking to do to help the Iraqi people,” he said. “When I get home after my 13 month tour, I will go home knowing I have done something useful for mankind and my Iraqi friends. This was truly an experience of a lifetime.”
Since the “Restore Iraqi Electricity” mission began in late 2003, over 1,900 megawatts of power have been added to the national grid, enough to service 5.4 million Iraqi homes. Over 1,400 electrical towers and 8,600 kilometers of transmission lines have been installed and over $4 billion have been allocated from the U.S. supplemental to address the electrical system improvements.
The successful rehabilitation of units 3 and 4 has added an additional 10 percent to the Iraqi grid, Suffredini said. “The project will provide for substantial easing of living conditions for the Iraqi people,” he said. “We are proud of what we have accomplished here.”
(Nicole Dalrymple works for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region Northern District.)
U.S. Army Col. Michael Chesney, director of the Joint Effects Assessment Cell for Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan, hands a young Afghan boy a backpack full of school supplies during a March 27, 2005, visit to Khoshal Khan Boarding School in Kabul, Afghanistan, while the school's principal, Gul Ahmad Waziri, right, checks the boy's name off from his list. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Darren D. Heusel
Coalition Efforts Benefit Kuchi Students
After two decades of war, enrollment at the Khoshal Khan boarding school for boys fell to five students; now, however, the school boasts an enrollment of 1,030 students.
By U.S.Army Sgt. 1st Class Darren D. Heusel 105th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
KABUL, Afghanistan, March 28, 2005 — Representatives of the Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan Joint Effects Assessment Cell set out March 27 to effect change for some students of the Khoshal Khan Boarding School here.
And if smiles, handshakes and hugs were any indication, their mission was a tremendous success.
Nine members of the Effects Cell, which includes Information Operations, Psychological Operations and Political Military Operations, joined with representatives from the Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan Operations Department and the Office of Military Cooperation-Afghanistan to deliver 275 backpacks filled with school supplies as a gesture of goodwill and to learn more about the Afghan culture.
“Many of us have children back home and miss our time with them,” said Capt. Chris Crosby of Castle Rock, Wash., one of the event organizers and a member of the Effects Cell.
“Opportunities to share with other children help us to suppress our feelings of being away from our families. In addition, we are only here a short while and desire to make an enduring difference in the relations between the United States and the people of Afghanistan,” Crosby added. “How else can we demonstrate our goodwill than by assisting the children and the helpless?”
Khoshal Khan is an all-boys boarding school for students in grades six through 12 on the outskirts of Kabul. It was established in 1948 for children of the Kuchi tribe, a nomadic people whose tribes are scattered throughout Afghanistan.
“I sincerely appreciate your help and your assistance with the school,” school principal Gul Ahmad Waziri
The Kuchi children attend school from March through December, while their parents travel the countryside allowing the families’ livestock to graze.
More than 5,000 students attended the school from 1948 through 2004. But more than two decades of war took their toll; toward the end of the wartorn period, the school was serving only five students.
Today, the school boasts an enrollment of 1,030 students with another 600 arriving soon, according to Gul Ahmad Waziri, the school’s principal.
“I sincerely appreciate your help and your assistance with the school,” Waziri told the U.S. servicemembers soon after their arrival. “As you are aware, the war has torn apart our country and we are trying to get through this transition period the best we can.”
Col. Michael Chesney of Carlisle Barracks, Pa., the Effects director, told the principal he looked forward to meeting some of the students and faculty because “we believe this is where the future of Afghanistan lies.”
“We’d like to see educational opportunities available to everyone eventually,” he said.
Last summer, the National Provincial Reconstruction Team, a civil affairs operation based in Kabul and belonging to Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan, conducted an assessment of the Khoshal Khan Boarding School and later donated $700,000 for improvements to the school.
Those improvements included the installation of electricity and running water, three newly remodeled dormitories with indoor bathrooms and showers, 15 classrooms that can hold up to 80 students each, a library, an administration building and a dining facility.
The efforts of the National Provincial Reconstruction Team culminated with a grand reopening of the school on Jan. 15. Since then, the school has become part of the command's community outreach program, where servicemembers volunteer their personal time to serve the community.
Crosby said he and a colleague, Maj. Rob Earl of Brandon, Fla., gained interest in the project after attending a community outreach meeting about four weeks ago.
Members of the Joint Effects Assessment Cell from Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan hand out stuffed animals to faculty members of the Khoshal Khan Boarding School to be given away to their to their students during a March 27, 2005, humanitarian assistance mission to the school in which 275 backpacks full of supplies were also given away. The stuffed animals were donated by the students of Gwin Oaks Elementary School in Lawrenceville, Ga. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Darren D. Heusel
“We chose the Kuchi School because we call ourselves Kuchis,” he said. “Since our arrival at Camp Eggers, we have moved five times and have shared desks and worked out of the coffee shop.
“From this experience, we have some affection for the nomadic wanderers of Afghanistan. As it turned out, our cultural advisor also worked with this school after its near destruction following years of war.”
Not only did Crosby and Earl volunteer to assist the Kuchi School, they also proposed the Effects Cell adopt the school as a community outreach project. Chesney would later vow his complete support for the entire directorate.
Once onboard, Effects personnel set aside time on Thursday nights to pack the school kits in the Pool House Conference Room.
By involving others such as Office of Military Cooperation-Afghanistan Capt. David Betz of Spring Grove, Pa., and Maj. Jimmie James of Wasilla, Alaska, Sgt. 1st Class Reggie Cyrus of Oakland, Calif., and Staff Sgt. Richard Silvano of Albany, N.Y., all from the Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan Operations Department, Crosby said he hoped to create a desire in the servicemembers to take on other volunteer projects like this one.
“There are a number of schools, orphanages, hospitals and daycares in need of support,” he said. “The time spent by our soldiers interacting with the children and needy will break down cultural stereotypes and demonstrate the good hearts of the American people.”
Sher Ahmad, cultural advisor for the Effects Cell, said all the materials given away on the March 27 visit were donated from individuals and family members of servicemembers from the United States.
Crosby said those gifts have created a conduit between the families and friends back home and the people of Afghanistan. “We are all working together to restore Afghanistan,” he said. “These efforts will make a direct impact on the minds of children that may be swayed by extremist organizations in the future.
“The goodwill of our service members ties our cultures togetherwith a bond of friendship.”
Also participating in the humanitarian mission from the command were: Staff Sgt. Greggory Zeliff of Whitefish, Mont.; Sgt. Joel Tavolacci of Fredericksburg, Va.; Sgt. Buffy Schmidt of South Haven, Minn.; Maj. Donald P. Taylor of Stafford, Va.; and Maj. Allison Stewart of Zephyr Hills, Fla.
Quonset Point, Rhode Island Battery A of The 103d Field Artillery (Photo by Sgt John Cervone)
Rhode Island Artillerymen Return Home
Photos: 272nd MP Company Returns from Iraq
3/28/2005 - National Guard Bureau News
By Master Sgt. Bob Haskell
ARLINGTON, Va. - The Army National Guard has retained 73 percent more soldiers during the past three months than it retained during the same period last year, officials reported on Good Friday.
That was the good news from people like Army Guard Maj. Gregg Bliss and Maj. Ronald Lee Jr. who are responsible for keeping Soldiers in the Guard. Bliss is chief of the Retention Branch for the Army Guard. Lee is the Incentives Program Manager for the Strength Maintenance Division.
They are among the Recruiting and Retention people who are striving to make sure the Army Guard meets its goal of 350,000 Soldiers by Oct. 1.
Those men credit this year’s significant increase in reenlistment bonuses and the retention teams currently serving with Guard Soldiers in combat zones as among the reasons why many more men and women are remaining in the Guard during the global war on terrorism.
The bonuses (related story) have been increased from the maximum amount of $5,000 to as much as $15,000 for Soldiers who reenlist or extend their periods of service by six years.
“We want to keep our Soldiers. We’re putting our money where our mouth is,” said LTG H Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, when he announced the increase in bonuses in mid-December.
The retention numbers have more than doubled since then. Lee reported that 3,106 more Guard Soldiers reenlisted from Dec. 14, 2004 to March 25, 2005, than reenlisted during the same time in 2003-04.
The total was 5,388 reenlistments for the most recent quarter, when the maximum bonuses have been $15,000, as opposed to 2,282 reenlistments for the same quarter during the previous year, when the maximum bonuses were $5,000, he said.
“The new bonuses have been a great tool for retaining our force,” Lee said. “The impact is about on line with where I thought it would be. I suspected we’d get a pretty high reenlistment rate. A lump sum payment of $15,000 is pretty significant.”
The Army Guard now offers a lump sum payment of $15,000 to Soldiers who reenlist or extend for six years. It also offers an option of two, three-year bonuses. Reenlisting Soldiers can receive a lump sum of $7,500 for the first three years and $6,000 for the second three years.
“Our challenge is to get the bonuses where we need them and not break the bank,” Lee added.
He cited three reasons for the success.
-- The maximum bonuses have been increased from $5,000 to $15,000.
-- The maximum number of years of service for which Guard Soldiers are eligible for these bonuses have been increased from 14 to 16.
-- Soldiers who have already received one reenlistment bonus can get another bonus for reenlisting again.
More money is available for other incentives, such as the G.I. Bill for Soldiers who wish to continue their education, said Lee who explained his budget for all incentives is $307 million for this fiscal year compared to $229.5 million for 2004.
Most of the Soldiers who reenlist are considered careerists, men and women who have stayed in beyond their initial eight-year obligation because they like serving their country and because they can eventually collect retirement pay.
“Historically, we have retained 80 percent of our careerists and 65 percent of our obligors,” Bliss reported.
He cited other factors that are also working in the Army Guard’s favor.
The number of recruiters has been increased from 2,700 to 4,100. That means there are more people on duty to recruit new Soldiers and work with those who are thinking about leaving the Guard.
Cells of retention Soldiers have been deployed to Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan to encourage Soldiers whose enlistments are nearing an end to remain in the Guard after they return to their homes.
Leaders are listening to the families’ comments about why the Soldiers are getting out, and they are addressing those concerns.
“It helps with retention to identify and do something about the factors that keep people from reenlisting,” Bliss said.
“We’ve gotten a lot smarter about keeping Soldiers,” he added. “Therefore, more are staying in to take advantage of the incentives that are available to them.”
Sarah Fischer focuses on the portrait of her deceased husband, Nebraska Army National Guard Sgt. Jeremy Fisher, at the Faces of the Fallen exhibit which opened on March 23 at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial, the gateway to Arlington National Cemetery. (Photo by Master Sgt. Bob Haskell)
Gunnery Sgt. Arthur Avitia, II, CMOC operations chief, 5th CAG, (center) checks ID cards on March 26, 2005 while Chief Joe Segar, Navy Seabee project manager (left), waits to escort an interpreter and an Iraqi.
Reserve Marines Reach out to Fallujah
Story by Capt. Julianne H. Sohn
CIVIL MILITARY OPERATIONS CENTER, Fallujah, Iraq -- The line of local Iraqis sometimes stretches to the main street in front of the Civil Military Operations Center, but the Marines, soldiers and sailors here do their best to address their needs.
Gunnery Sgt. Arthur Avitia, II, a Flagstaff, Ariz., resident and the CMOC operations chief, 5th Civil Affairs Group, greets everyone at the door with a smile.
“I’m like the ramrod during working hours,” said Avitia, 40, who is a reserve Marine and is an Arizona Highway Patrol trooper. “I greet people at the hatch, direct them to meetings and set things up. I kind of do a little of everything.”
The CMOC is a hub of activity on most days. It is a meeting hall for local leaders, an identification badge center and a venue where residents go for help. Recently it was the site of the first compensation payments for those whose homes were damaged during Operation Al Fajr.
“There are important meetings going on here with people trying to govern their city,” said Avitia, who has spent a total of 22 years in the Marine Corps. “It shows how important the CMOC is to help rebuild the city.”
Avitia supervises the day-to-day operations at the CMOC and works with Marines like Lance Cpl. Jacob H. Rodrigues-Pereira, 23, a Springfield, Va. resident.
Rodriguez-Pereira, who joined the Marine Corps due in part to September 11th, stands near the door one morning and is one of the Marines who provides security for all the people using the compound.
“We get to have a lot of interaction with the local Iraqis,” Rodrigues-Pereira, who majored in Economics at George Mason University prior to deploying with 5th CAG. “We get to meet the movers and shakers.”
Like most of the Marines at the CMOC, Rodrigues-Pereira said he enjoyed working here.
“I think everyone is learning a lot out here,” he said. “I’m even learning a little Arabic.”
The Marines get lessons in Arabic by interpreters like Raad Yousif, 49, a Baghdad resident. Interpreters facilitate the work between the Marines, soldiers and sailors at the local Iraqis.
“We can’t go the next step until we work together,” said Yousif, who learned English by watching movies.
And that is what Lt. Col. William M. Brown, CMOC director, 5th CAG, is working to build.
“The people of Fallujah wouldn’t come here if they didn’t think we would listen, help them and keep the safe,” said Brown, 40, a Milford, Ct. native.
Brown is responsible for all the CMOC does and fails to do and his biggest focus is on safety for those in the building and being available to the locals. Iraqis have a clear sense of structure because everyone belongs to a tribe and so if someone wants something done, they go straight to the chief, said Brown.
Lt. Col. William M. Brown, CMOC director, works on his computer in the center's Combat Operations Center.
“We want them to have direct access to me, because they understand our rank structure,” said Brown, who spent about seven years on active duty and is now a reserve Marine and assistant U.S. Attorney.
And many people do come to Brown to help solve problems and to get things done. He attends all the major meetings and works with the local Iraqi community leaders such as sheiks, lawyers, judges and government officials to rebuild Fallujah.
But before all this happens, the local Iraqis have to come through the front door where Avitia stands like a traffic cop at the gate with the Marines of 5th CAG.
“The CMOC is a focal point,” said Avitia. “It brings together people to rebuild the city.”
Staff Sgt. Chris McKey from Air Force Reserve Command’s 513th Air Control Group, Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., talks on his headset with the pilot of an EC-135 Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft during preflight operations at Nellis AFB, Nev., during Joint Red Flag 2005, March 23. Approximately 10,000 U.S. service members, with representatives from each branch of the service, along with coalition forces are participating in the Joint Red Flag 2005. Exercises began March 21 and are taking place at Nellis AFB and in Texas at Fort Hood and Fort Bliss through April 2. U.S. Air Force Photo by Tech. Sgt. Patrick M. Kuminecz
MWSS-271 techs make it happen on the tarmac
Submitted by: 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing Story Identification #: 200532683410 Story by Cpl. Rocco DeFilippis
AL ASAD, Iraq (March 26, 2005) -- The expeditionary airfield technicians of Marine Wing Support Squadron 271 work daily to ensure every aspect of the airfield, from arresting equipment to runway lighting, is operational to support the aircrews here.
"We do anything and everything on the airfield," said Lance Cpl. Caleb J. Fox, expeditionary airfield technician and native of Rio Linda, Calif. "Everything from the lighting and markings, to maintaining the recovery equipment and repairing the surface of the runway. We have even chased wild dogs off the runway and out of the path of jets taking off."
Although the runways and taxi strips are now suitable for most types of aircraft in the military, expeditionary airfield Marines from different squadrons have worked extremely hard to take the dilapidated airfield to where it is today.
Lance Cpl. Barrett A. Crow, who is on his second deployment supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom, said the airfield has come a long way since his time here last year.
"At that time, there was only one section of the runway that was usable," said the expeditionary airfield technician and native of Mesquite, Texas. "Since that time we have repaired numerous holes and cracks, set up permanent lighting and remarked most of the runways and taxi strips."
One of the most critical roles the Marines play in supporting the airfield is maintaining and operating the expeditionary arresting gear, a machine that acts as a catching device for drop-hook aircraft. Like a jet landing on an aircraft carrier, the gear allows aircraft to land on expeditionary airfields in emergency and poor weather situations.
"When you have a human life depending on that gear to stop their jet, you do everything you can to ensure it is going to work," Crow said. "We check and maintain our systems every day."
In addition to the arresting gear, the Marines contribute by spraying dust abating materials to prevent "brown-out" conditions from airborne dust and debris caused by aircraft landing and taking off.
"The dust-abatement treatments greatly improve the visibility and safety for pilots," said Cpl. Brian D. Van Gilder, expeditionary airfield technician and native of Adamstown, Md. "Since we've been here, we have sprayed thousands of gallons to ensure that the pilots can see and have safe conditions to land in."
With all they do for the airfield in support of the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing (Forward), the expeditionary airfield Marines are vital to the success of the mission.
"I'm proud to be out here, this is what we have trained to do," Van Gilder said. "What we do is necessary to the success of the mission here, and it's great to be doing my part."
Staff Sgt. Jason Ramsay, from Company A, 1st Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, issues orders to his team at Daegu Air Base, South Korea, during Foal Eagle Exercise. Photo by John Pistone.
Sunni Arab lawmaker Meshaan al-Jubouri speaks with reporters after leaving the National Assembly session in Baghdad, Iraq Tuesday, March 29, 2005. Shouting from their seats, lawmakers failed to agree on a parliament speaker during their second-ever National Assembly meeting Tuesday, with wrangling over bringing in Sunni Arabs, a step officials hope will quell the Sunni-led insurgency, prolonging already tortuous talks on forming a new government.(AP Photo/Karim Kadim)
Iraq Lawmakers Fail to Agree on Speaker
By MARIAM FAM, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's fledgling parliament failed Tuesday to agree on who would be its speaker, with the interim prime minister and president storming out of the chaotic session that exposed deep divides among the National Assembly's Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish members.
The short session — mostly held behind closed doors after leaders kicked out reporters and cut off a live television feed — adjourned until this weekend.
Hussein al-Sadr, a Shiite cleric and member of interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's coalition, said the parliament speaker likely would be chosen Sunday, giving Sunni Arab lawmakers time to come up with a candidate.
"We saw that things were confused today, so we gave them a last chance," al-Sadr said. "We expect the Sunni Arab brothers to nominate their candidate. Otherwise, we will vote on a candidate on Sunday."
Nearly two months after Iraq's historic Jan. 30 elections, negotiations to form a new government have stalled over Cabinet posts and how to include the fragile nation's Sunni minority — dominant under former dictator Saddam Hussein and believed to make up the core of the ongoing insurgency.
The bickering exposed tensions in the newly formed parliament, with Allawi storming out of the session, followed by interim President Ghazi al-Yawer, a Sunni Arab who turned down the speaker's job.
"What are we going to tell the citizens who sacrificed their lives and cast ballots on Jan. 30?" al-Sadr said earlier.
Shiite, Kurdish and Sunni representatives were trying to come up with a Sunni Arab candidate that legislators promised would be announced during Tuesday's session.
Once it began after a three-hour delay, however, lawmakers immediately began arguing over whether to delay their decision, and the leader of the session decided to kick reporters and cameras out and close the meeting to the public.
"We demand to know the details of what's happening behind the scenes!" one woman shouted before the live television feed of the gathering went blank.
Sunni Arab lawmaker Meshaan al-Jubouri called for a decision, saying: "There are voices calling for electing the speaker today. This cannot be."
"This is ridiculous," he said as he left the meeting hall.
Negotiators were lobbying al-Yawer to take the speaker's job.
"We have apologized for practical reasons," said al-Yawer, who is seeking one of the country's two vice presidential spots. "With the small number of Sunni Arabs in the assembly, this post won't put us in a position to strike a balance."
Critics of the process say the Sunni Arab candidates being discussed for government posts have no influence on the insurgency, and their participation is unlikely to affect it.
Some explosions were heard in Baghdad on Tuesday, where officials had warned residents to prepare for stepped up insurgent attacks. It was unclear if they caused any damage. During the first National Assembly meeting, on March 16, militants lobbed mortar rounds at the heavily fortified Green Zone in the city's center, where lawmakers held their meeting.
Violence also continued in the rest of the country, with a car bombing in the northern city of Kirkuk that killed one person and injured more than a dozen others, police said.
Three Romanian journalists were kidnapped Monday near their hotel, their employers said. They were identified as reporter Marie Jeanne Ion, 32, and cameraman Sorin Dumitru Miscoci, 30, of Bucharest-based television station Prima TV, and Romania Libera newspaper reporter Ovidiu Ohanesian, 37.
The three disappeared shortly after an interview with Allawi, said Petre Mihai Bacanu, managing editor of Romania Libera.
Romanian President Traian Basescu made a surprise visit Sunday to Iraq, where the country has 800 troops.
French authorities, meanwhile, have received "reassuring information" about a French journalist and her guide who are being held hostage, Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin told lawmakers in Paris.
"We now have contacts that appear to have stabilized, which allows us to have some hope," Raffarin said.
Florence Aubenas, of the daily newspaper Liberation, and her Iraqi guide, Hussein Hanoun, were kidnapped Jan. 5. The first public sign of life came March 1 with the release of a video showing a pale Aubenas pleading for help.
The Shiite-led United Iraqi Alliance and the Kurdish coalition, which finished first and second in the landmark elections, have reached out to the Sunnis and to members of Allawi's coalition, hoping to form an inclusive national unity government.
But haggling over the level of participation of the Sunnis, as well as jockeying for Cabinet posts and efforts to resolve differences between the various groups, have left Iraq without a government almost two months after the 275-member National Assembly was elected. Lawmakers have until mid-August to draft a permanent constitution.
The assembly will name a president and two deputies, who in turn will nominate a prime minister. The presidency is expected to go to Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani and the prime minister's post to Shiite politician Ibrahim al-Jaafari — but the exact timeline is unclear.
Some Iraqis have expressed frustration with the drawn-out talks, which critics argued reflected the nature of sectarian politics in the new Iraq. Many Sunnis boycotted the election or stayed away out of fear of attacks. But some have had a change of heart after the vote was touted as a success.
Naseer al-Ani of the Iraqi Islamic Party, a main Sunni group, said the limited options facing the Sunnis — who only have a few members in the assembly — contributed to the delay.
Al-Ani's party dealt a blow to the election process when it withdrew from the race, but it is now participating in talks and wants to help draft the constitution.
Issues such as how many and which ministries should go to the Sunni Arabs, as well as the names of candidates for these posts and for vice presidents, remained unresolved. Some Sunni legislators want the same number of Cabinet posts as the Kurds.
Together, the alliance and the Kurds have 215 seats in parliament — enough to make key decisions. But their members say it would be shortsighted to go it alone, adding they are against marginalizing any of the country's groups.
___
Associated Press reporter Sinan Salaheddin contributed to this report.
Good morning all!!!
Outgoing Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi (L) speaks with his deputy Barham Salih. Iraq's parliament, meeting for only the second time since landmark elections two months ago, failed to pick a new speaker as Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish politicians bickered over cabinet posts.(AFP/Karim Sahib)
Iraqi Parliament fails to agree on Speaker
Iraq's Parliament erupted in acrimony at its second sitting on Tuesday and journalists were thrown out after lawmakers berated leaders for failing to agree on a new government, just two months after historic elections.
When parliamentarians were told that despite last-minute talks that delayed the session no agreement had been reached, even on the post of parliamentary Speaker, several stood up to say leading politicians were letting down the Iraqi people.
"The Iraqi people who defied the security threats and voted, what shall we tell them? What is the reason for this delay?" Hussein al-Sadr, a politician in the bloc led by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, asked the Assembly.
As the meeting grew heated, the Interim Speaker ordered journalists to leave and Iraqi television abruptly switched to Arab music.
Mr Allawi walked out of the session shortly afterwards.
"You can say we are in a crisis," Barham Salih, a leading Kurdish politician, told reporters.
Ahead of the meeting blasts echoed across central Baghdad and a militant group said in an Internet statement it had fired four mortars into the fortified Green Zone where politicians were meeting.
There were no reports of damage.
Two months after more than eight million Iraqis braved suicide bombers and insurgent threats to vote in the January 30 polls, many are increasingly angry that despite intensive haggling no agreement has been reached on forming a government.
"It is a farce," 30-year-old taxi driver Mohammed Ahmed Ali said.
"If they couldn't form a government 'til now, how will they lead a country?"
Fighting
The mainly Shiite Islamist alliance, which holds just over half the seats, and the Kurdish coalition that came second in the polls, have been arguing for weeks on a Cabinet line-up.
They have been trying also to involve Sunni Arabs, who dominated Iraq under Saddam Hussein but have been left with little representation because most voters in Sunni Arab areas stayed away from the polls due to intimidation and anger.
But no deal has been reached.
Several government officials say the delay has stalled key projects, deepened chaos and hampered efforts to defeat the mainly Sunni insurgency.
Political chaos also dents Washington's plans to increasingly hand over security to Iraqi forces and cut back foreign troops.
Officials said Parliament would meet again to try to agree on a Speaker next week, possibly on Sunday.
The Shiite Islamist alliance and the Kurdish coalition have agreed that the Speaker should be a Sunni Arab, to give the Sunni minority more involvement in politics.
Most of the 17 Sunni Arabs in the 275-member Parliament favour Adnan al-Janabi as their candidate, but he is an ally of Mr Allawi.
Mr Allawi is a secular Shiite who has so far declined to join the Government, saying his bloc will move into opposition.
The Shiite Islamist alliance is backing Fawaz al-Jarba, a Sunni who joined their bloc.
But other Sunnis are against this as he is seen as too close to the Shiite alliance.
Some Sunnis Arabs said that if Mr Jarba was pushed through as Speaker, which the Shiites could do with their parliamentary majority, they would walk out of Parliament, leaving attempts to draw them into politics in tatters.
Long road ahead
Once a Speaker is agreed, the National Assembly's next task will be to elect a president and two vice presidents.
A two-thirds majority is needed for that, which will mean the Shiites and Kurds must reach a deal to muster enough votes.
The presidential triumvirate will then have two weeks to choose a prime minister, who will then appoint a Cabinet.
The Shiites and Kurds have broad agreement that Shiite Ibrahim Jaafari will be the next prime minister, with veteran Kurdish politician Jalal Talabani taking the president's post.
But officials have not agreed on the distribution of Cabinet posts.
The Kurds are expected to retain the Foreign Ministry, with the Defence Ministry going to a Sunni Arab.
But the key Oil Ministry is a source of disagreement. The Kurds covet it, but the Shiite alliance insists it should get the ministry.
Violence
Meanwhile, insurgents have pressed on with their campaign of violence.
Three Romanian journalists - Marie Jeanne Ion and Sorin Miscoci of Prima TV and Ovidiu Ohanesian of Libera newspaper - were kidnapped in Iraq on Monday.
Ms Ion's mother told Romanian television her daughter sent a text message from her mobile telephone saying: "We're kidnapped. This is not a joke."
In Kirkuk, a car bomb has exploded near an Iraqi army patrol and the convoy of a local official.
One person was killed and 15 were wounded.
- Reuters
The head of the Iraqi National Congress Ahmad al-Chalabi listens to a reporter's question during the second session of the Iraqi parliament in Baghdad, March 29, 2005. Prime Minister Iyad Allawi walked out of a meeting of Iraq's parliament on Tuesday after angry scenes erupted, with assembly members berating Shi'ite and Kurdish leaders for failing to agree on a government. REUTERS/Ceerwan Aziz
Iraqi Finance Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi arrives at the parliament's session in Baghdad, March 29, 2005. Iraqi politicians delayed the start of a session of parliament on Tuesday for last-minute talks to try to overcome a damaging impasse over forming a government two months after historic elections. The Shi'ite official Abdul Mahdi is expected to be the country's next President. REUTERS/Ceerwan Aziz
Hussein al-Shahristani, a Shi'ite nuclear scientist, speaks to reporters regarding the delay of the Iraqi parliament session in Baghdad March 29, 2005. Iraqi politicians delayed the start of a session of parliament on Tuesday for last-minute talks to try to overcome a damaging impasse over forming a government two months after historic elections. Al-Shahristani, who spent 12 years in Saddam Hussein's jails, was expected to be named as one of the deputy speakers. REUTERS/Ceerwan Aziz
3/29/2005:
TEHRAN - Iraqi border guards have temporarily shut one of the main frontier posts with Iran, blocking large numbers of pilgrims from entering the country ahead of a major Shiite Muslim holy day, press reports said Tuesday.
According to the official news agency IRNA, the Shalamsheh crossing point -- situated close to the southern Iraqi city of Basra -- was closed on Monday, the eve of the end of mourning for the seventh-century martyrdom of Shiite Imam Hussein.
Iraqi border guards also reportedly reinforced their presence at the crossing, and commercial transport was also blocked. The report said the border was likely to be closed until Sunday, adding the move was made without coordination with Iranian officials and apparently without explanation.
Iraqi officials have frequently accused Iran of allowing insurgents to use its territory to enter Iraq, charges that Tehran has denied.
Romanian journalist Ovidiu Ohanesian from 'Romania Libera' newspaper is seen in this undated file photograph. Ohanesian, Prima TV reporter Marie Jeanne Ion and cameraman Sorin Miscoci, were kidnapped in Iraq on March 28, 2005 Romania's President Traian Basescu said. REUTERS/Romania Libera/Handout
An undated picture from Romanian television station Prima TV, shows one of their cameramen Sorin Dumitru Miscoci, 30, one of the three Romanian journalists who were allegedly kidnapped Monday March 28, 2005 in Baghdad Iraq. The others are Bucharest daily Romania Libera reporter Ovidiu Ohanesian, 37 and reporter Marie Jeanne Ion, 32, also of Prima TV. They went missing the Iraqi capital shortly after an interview with interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, the newspaper's director Petre Mihai Bacanu told The Associated Press. (AP Photo/PrimaTV)
Romanian reporter Marie Jeanne Ion from Prima TV is seen in this undated file photograph. Marie Jeanne Ion, Prima TV's cameraman Sorin Miscoci and reporter Ovidiu Ohanesian from 'Romania Libera' newspaper were kidnapped in Iraq on March 28, 2005, Romania's President Traian Basescu said. REUTERS/Handout
Romanians Kidnapped in Iraq Sent Desperate Messages
By Radu Marinas BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Three Romanian journalists kidnapped in Baghdad managed to send desperate messages to relatives and colleagues before disappearing on Monday, the latest foreigners to be abducted in Iraq.
"We're kidnapped. This is not a joke," one of the three, Prima TV reporters Marie Jeanne Ion, managed to message her mother from her mobile phone, Magdalena Ion told Realitatea TV.
Her cameraman Sorin Miscoci and journalist Ovidiu Ohanesian of the Romania Libera daily newspaper, all on a short reporting trip to Iraq, were also missing, authorities said.
Staunch U.S. supporter Romania set up a crisis center to handle the situation while President Traian Basescu said both local and foreign secret services had been alerted.
The kidnappings happened while Basescu was on a whistlestop visit to Afghanistan and Iraq, where Romania has some 800 troops in the U.S.-led military coalition occupying the country.
Like other east European countries grateful to Washington for its support in shedding communism, Romania is a faithful U.S. ally that has unwaveringly supported the war in Iraq, providing logistical support and troops.
It joined NATO in 2004 and is eager to host permanent U.S. military bases on its Black Sea coast.
"I would like to believe that only economic reasons triggered their situation. I don't want to believe that their kidnapping was politically motivated," said Simona Marinescu, an adviser to the Romanian embassy in Baghdad.
More than 150 foreigners have been seized in Iraq over the past year. Most have been freed after negotiations or payment of ransom, but about a third have been killed. Many more Iraqis have been abducted, often for ransom.
The news editor of Prima TV, Dan Dumitru, said Ion managed a quick call to her newsroom before disappearing and that he had heard her desperately pleading with her kidnappers.
"I heard Arabic, English and Romanian words shouted," he said. "I heard her imploring the attackers not to kidnap them because they come from a poor country which won't be able to pay the ransom."
Her mother appealed to authorities not to rush into rescue operations before hearing out the abductors. "Please don't send special troops to look for them," Magdalena Ion said. "We must wait and see what the kidnappers want."
Journalists at Romania Libera had a difficult time believing their colleague Ohanesian was kidnapped since there was no official confirmation or demand from the kidnappers.
"We cannot say we are absolutely positive he was kidnapped. We have tried to contact our colleague and we will continue to try," said fellow journalist Cornel Popa.
Former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, chief of the investigation probing the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq, ;leaves a meeting with Secretary General Kofi Annan at the United Nations, Tuesday March 29, 2005. A report to be released Tuesday will fault Annan for failing to take aggressive action to deal with possible conflict of interest in the awarding of a U.N. oil-for-food contract to Cotecna Inspection S.A., which employed his son, Kojo, in Africa, the officials said. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Annan receives new report on misconduct probe of Iraq Oil-for-Food programme
29 March 2005 – The independent committee probing alleged misconduct and mismanagement in the United Nations Oil-for-Food programme for Iraq today presented to Secretary-General Kofi Annan a second interim report dealing with the employment of his son by a Swiss company awarded a contract in the multibillion dollar relief effort.
Former United States Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, head of Independent Inquiry Committee (IIC), brought the document, which will be made public at noon, to Mr. Annan in the Secretary-General’s 38th floor office at UN Headquarters in New York.
Mr. Annan is to hold a news conference on the report’s findings this afternoon.
Last week, the Secretary-General’s Chief of Staff, Mark Malloch Brown, said Mr. Annan expected to be fully exonerated by the report concerning past employment of his son, Kojo, with the Swiss company Cotecna, which was awarded a contract to monitor the now defunct Oil-for-Food programme that allowed then sanctions-bound Iraq to sell oil in exchange for humanitarian supplies.
Mr. Malloch Brown told a news briefing that Mr. Annan had consistently maintained that he himself was not guilty of any wrongdoing, that Kojo’s work for Cotecna had nothing to do with its contract, and that Kojo had confirmed that he misled his father about the extent of his relationship with the company.
Annan Criticized in Oil-For-Food Report
By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK - Investigators probing the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq will criticize U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, his son, and the Swiss company that employed him but will not accuse the U.N. chief of corruption, officials said.
The report to be released Tuesday will fault Annan for failing to take aggressive action to deal with possible conflict of interest in the awarding of a U.N. oil-for-food contract to Cotecna Inspection S.A., which employed his son, Kojo, in Africa, the officials said.
It will also be highly critical of Kojo Annan for concealing information about his dealings with Cotecna and for deceiving his father, and it will blame the Swiss firm for failing to make information public about the secretary-general's son, the officials said on condition of anonymity.
The report will be the second issued by the team of investigators led by former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker. It comes a week after Annan called for the biggest overhaul of the United Nations in its 60-year history. It also coincides with allegations of sex abuse by U.N. peacekeepers and of sexual harassment and mismanagement by senior U.N. staff.
Volcker's committee of inquiry will also censure Annan for failing to detect shortcomings in the U.N. bureaucracy that allowed problems in the $64 billion humanitarian aid program to continue until it was wrapped up after the U.S.-led war in Iraq, the officials said.
While the new report will fault the secretary-general's overall management of the oil-for-food program, it will support statements by his chief of staff and spokesman as recently as Monday that "the secretary-general expects to be cleared of any wrongdoing."
As one official said, "He's not going to be implicated in corruption in any form whatsoever."
For the secretary-general, this will almost certainly be the most important finding. But it may not appease his critics, including several U.S. lawmakers who have called for his resignation.
The oil-for-food program was the largest U.N. humanitarian aid operation, running from 1996-2003. Saddam Hussein's government was allowed to sell limited amounts — and eventually unlimited amounts — of oil in exchange for humanitarian goods as an exemption from U.N. sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
In a bid to curry favor and end sanctions, Saddam allegedly gave former government officials, activists, journalists and U.N. officials vouchers for Iraqi oil that could then be resold at a profit. U.S. congressional investigators say Saddam's regime may have illegally made more than $21 billion by cheating the program and other sanctions-busting schemes.
Senior U.N. officials insist the secretary-general has no intention of stepping down, and U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard dismissed reports describing the secretary-general as weak and depressed.
Kofi Annan, his son, and Cotecna all deny any link between Kojo Annan's employment and the awarding of the U.N. contract to the company.
The officials said Volcker still has questions about Kojo Annan and will state in the report that his investigation of the secretary-general's son is continuing. So is his investigation of Benon Sevan, who headed the oil-for-food program.
Volcker has promised a final report in mid-summer.
In his first report in February, Volcker accused Sevan of a "grave conflict of interest," saying his conduct in soliciting oil deals from Iraq was "ethically improper and seriously undermined the integrity of the United Nations." He also questioned where Sevan got $160,000 in cash, calling it "unexplained wealth" despite Sevan's claim it came from his aunt. Sevan's attorney has said he did nothing wrong.
Kojo Annan worked for Cotecna in West Africa from 1995 to December 1997 and then as a consultant until the end of 1998 — just when it won the oil-for-food contract. He remained on the Cotecna payroll until 2004 on a contract to prevent him from working for a competitor in Nigeria or Ghana, but that was only disclosed in November.
At the time, the secretary-general said he was "very disappointed and surprised" that his son continued to receive money.
Cotecna initially said Kojo Annan was only employed until 1998. It released details of his payments only last week, after a report in the Financial Times and the Italian business daily Il Sole 24 said he received over $300,000, double the amount previously reported.
Cotecna spokesman Seth Goldschlager told The Associated Press last week that Kojo Annan got more than $365,000 from the company — about $200,000 as a full-time employee and consultant from 1995-1998 and more than $165,000 from 1999 until February 2004 under the so-called "non-compete" contract.
He also disclosed that Volcker sought payment records from five companies linked to the firm for the years 1996 to 2004. The Swiss accounting firm BDO Visura is currently conducting an audit, expected to be completed at the end of April.
Goldschlager also confirmed reports in the two papers of three meetings between Kofi Annan and Cotecna executives and disclosed a fourth contact. Two were in social settings, one in Annan's U.N. office, and one after the Cotecna contract was signed.
As for Sevan, the United Nations on Monday reversed its decision to pay his legal fees related to the investigation. The plan to pay Sevan's fees had stirred controversy because of the seriousness of the allegations against him and because U.N. officials said the reimbursements would be paid with money from Iraqi oil sales used to finance the oil-for-food program itself.
Associated Press writer Desmond Butler contributed to this report.
Tue, Mar 29, 2005 (15 minutes ago)
By ALEXANDRU ALEXE, Associated Press Writer
BUCHAREST, Romania - Three Romanian journalists had finished interviewing Iraq's interim prime minister hours earlier when one of them sent an ominous text message back to her newsroom: "Help, this is not a joke, we've been kidnapped."
The three were abducted Monday night near their Baghdad hotel, officials said Tuesday — the latest journalists to be taken hostage in Iraq.
They were identified as reporter Marie Jeanne Ion, 32, and cameraman Sorin Dumitru Miscoci, 30, from Bucharest-based television station Prima TV, and Romania Libera reporter Ovidiu Ohanesian, 37.
Petre Mihai Bacanu, managing editor of Romania Libera newspaper, said the three disappeared late Monday, shortly after interviewing interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.
Bacanu said no group had claimed responsibility and no ransom demand had been made.
The three were abducted about 8:30 p.m. from a street next to the hotel, which is not in the city's heavily fortified Green Zone, a hotel employee who works at the reception desk told The Associated Press by telephone.
A group from the Romanian Embassy told the hotel staff that their driver reported the three had been kidnapped, the employee said. The hotel, where other foreign journalists also stay, is in Baghdad's upscale Jadriya neighborhood and is surrounded by a concrete barrier, he said.
A Prima TV statement said Ion called the newsroom, speaking a mixture of Romanian, Arabic and English, and was heard apparently talking to her abductors.
"Don't kill us, we are from a poor country and we have no money," the statement quoted her as saying.
She later sent a text message to the station, saying, "Help, this is not a joke, we've been kidnapped."
Dumitru said Ion had called during an editorial meeting, and he put the phone on speaker.
"Marie-Jeanne was begging in English and in Arabic 'to be left alone,'" he said. "Their translator said that they were from Romania, a poor country and don't have money to pay a ransom."
"All I know they have been taken by force and we can't reach them any more," Dumitru told private television station Realitatea TV.
President Traian Basescu made a surprise visit Sunday to Iraq, where Romania has 800 troops, but they were not traveling with him.
Dan Dumitru, news director at Prima TV, said the two broadcast journalists were in Iraq for five days to interview Allawi and interim President Ghazi al-Yawer.
Bacanu said Ohanesian "had just had an interview with the prime minister and he told me he wanted to do some features, but I told him not to do that and to come back."
Basescu, who was in Iraq and Afghanistan for two days visiting troops, said on his return to Bucharest that his government was doing all it could to find the journalists. He said Romania had sought the help of U.S.-led coalition authorities in Iraq.
Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu said he had set up a crisis center to coordinate attempts to free the three.
No Romanian forces have been lost in Iraq, and their presence there has not so far been a sensitive issue at home.
But a Romanian political commentator said the kidnappings could undermine public support for Romania's role there.
"It will be a shock for the public. It is the first time something like this has happened. If Romanian authorities do not manage to free the journalists it will harm the support that Basescu enjoys," said Stelian Tanase by telephone.
An Iraqi officer looks at the damage following a car bomb in Kirkuk. Iraq's parliament, meeting for only the second time since landmark elections two months ago, failed to pick a new speaker as Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish politicians bickered over cabinet posts.(AFP/Marwan Ibrahim)
Bombing targets Kurds in Kirkuk as Iraq parliament reconvenes
BAGHDAD, March 29 (AFP) - 10h59 - At least 18 people were wounded Tuesday by a car bomb targeting a Kurdish official in the divided northern oil city of Kirkuk as Iraq’s new parliament was set to elect a speaker amid tight security.
At least four of Baghdad’s main bridges were closed to traffic, while Iraqi police and soldiers fanned out on the streets and US helicopters patrolled the skies for the session, only the second since historic January 30 elections.
The Kirkuk bomb went off in the path of a convoy carrying the city’s water chief, Abdulqader Zanganah, a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, in the second assassination attempt against a KDP official in three days.
Several buildings in the predominantly Kurdish neighbourhood of Rahimawa were also damaged by the blast, said the area’s police chief, Colonel Adel Zeinalbeddin.
He said preliminary inquiries suggested that a bomb-rigged vehicle parked on a sidestreet had been detonated by remote control.
Five of the wounded were in serious condition, hospital officials said. Zanganah’s condition was not immediately clear.
KDP leader Massoud Barzani has been one of the most outspoken champions of Kurdish demands for Kirkuk to be incorporated in their autonomous region in northern Iraq, despite the opposition of the city’s Turkmen minority and Arabs settled in the city under Saddam Hussein’s regime.
The Kurdish alliance emerged as the second largest bloc from January’s elections after the main Shiite list and its support is vital for the two-thirds majority required to approve a new government.
The Kurds have made the Kirkuk issue a central demand in coalition talks, which are still dragging on more than eight weeks after the election.
MPs were to meet Tuesday for a largely formalistic session to elect a speaker and two deputies after their inaugural session on March 16.
"I hope the assembly will continue its meetings because we have a lot of work ahead of us and millions of Iraqis have pinned their hopes on this body," said Sami al-Askari, a member of the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA).
Both Shiites and Kurds have agreed to award the speakership to one of around 20 Sunni Arabs who won seats in the 275-member national assembly in a bid to reach out to the embittered community that largely boycotted the election.
The Shiites were backing UIA member Sheikh Fawaz al-Jarba, a tribal leader from the powerful Shammar tribal confederation, which straddles the sectarian divide.
A Shiite negotiator said the Kurds wanted Hajem al-Hassani, the outgoing industry minister, who won a seat in parliament as part of the list of outgoing President Sheikh Ghazi al-Yawar, a Sunni Arab.
Hassani is a native of Kirkuk and a devout Muslim who studied and worked in the United States before returning to Iraq after Saddam’s fall in April 2003.
The Sunnis were meeting among themselves and expected to give a name Tuesday morning, said Shiite negotiator Jawad Maliky.
For their part, the Kurds were far from thrilled with Jarba.
"He is a member of the UIA. It would be better to choose an independent Sunni politician if we want a national unity government," outgoing foreign minister and senior Kurdish official Hoshyar Zebari told AFP.
The Kurds also wish to temper Islamist influence in the Shiite bloc by including members of outgoing Prime Minister Iyad Allawi’s secular alliance.
Allawi has said clerics must stay out of politics if he is to join a new governing coalition, an aide of the secular politician told AFP on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the Romanian foreign ministry announced that three journalists working for the private television station Prima TV were feared missing in Iraq.
"Contacted by the management of Prima TV about the possible disappearance in Iraq of three of its journalists, the ministry and the main intelligence services have formed a crisis cell," a statement said.
The apparent disappearance of the journalists, including a woman, follows a surprise visit to Romania’s 800 soldiers in Iraq by President Traian Basescu on Sunday.
Prima TV’s news director Dan Dumitru said the station’s management had received a telephone call around 1700 GMT Monday during which they "heard voices speaking Arabic as well as journalist Marie-Jeanne Ion calling out in English: ’Don’t kill us, we are journalists, we don’t have any money’."
Iraqi security personnel survey a damaged civilian vehicle at the scene of a car bomb explosion in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk March 29, 2005. A car bomb exploded on a street in Kirkuk killing one guard and wounding over a dozen of civilians, police and hospital sources said. REUTERS/Salah al-Deen Rasheed
3/29/2005:
DUBAI - The Islamic Army in Iraq, one of the main armed groups in the country, claimed responsibility Tuesday for the firing of mortar rounds near the convention center in Baghdad where the new Iraqi parliament was meeting.
A unit fired "four mortar rounds against the seat of the Iraqi National Assembly in the Green Zone where a meeting was underway in the afternoon," the IAI said in a statement posted on the Internet.
The authenticity of the statement could not be confirmed.
Two mortar rounds struck near the convention center where MPs were gathering for the session at around 1:15 pm (1015 GMT).
The center is located inside the heavily fortified city center compound known as the Green Zone, which also contains the US embassy and the offices of the interim government.
The Islamic Army in Iraq has repeatedly taken credit for attacks and for the abduction -- and sometimes killing -- of foreign hostages.
Pedestrians cross the Tigris in Baghdad after roads near Green Zone were closed to vehicles. Two mortar rounds struck Baghdad near the convention centre where the new Iraqi parliament was gathering for its second session, an AFP correspondent on the scene said.(AFP/Sabah Arar)
Mortar rounds hit Baghdad near Iraq parliament meeting
BAGHDAD (AFP) - Two mortar rounds struck Baghdad near the convention centre where the new Iraqi parliament was gathering for its second session, an AFP correspondent on the scene said.
It was not immediately clear whether the rounds had caused any casualties or damage inside the heavily fortified city centre compound known as the Green Zone, which contains the convention centre as well as the US embassy and the offices of the interim government.
Baghdad is regularly shaken by explosions. At least two mortar rounds hit the Green Zone on March 16 shortly before MPs held their first session.
Former French hostage in Indonesia Jean-Jacques Le Garrec, front, right, reads a text calling for the release of French journalist Florence Aubenas and her Iraqi guide Hussein Hanoun, who were kidnapped in Iraq 78 days ago, during a ceremony in front of the Eiffel tower in Paris Thursday, March 24, 2005. Standing behind from left: are former hostages Roger Auques and George Hansen (kidnapped in Lebanon), Roland Madura (held in Indonesia), Eric Giet (held in Iraq) and Jean-Paul Kauffmann (held in Lebanon), all of them reporters. (AP Photo/Remy de la Mauviniere)
France Has 'Reassuring' News on Iraq Hostage - PM
PARIS (Reuters) - The French government has "reassuring" news about a French reporter kidnapped in Iraq in January, Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin told parliament on Tuesday. He gave no details.
"Following the appeal we launched for the kidnappers to contact our country's official services, the French official services today have reassuring news," Raffarin said in comments to the lower house of parliament.
"We now have contacts which seem to have stabilized, allowing us to have some hope," Raffarin said.
But he added: "Caution remains our rule."
Journalist Florence Aubenas was taken hostage with her Iraqi driver Hussein Hanun al-Saadi in Baghdad on Jan. 5. Little is known about her fate since then.
Raffarin launched a direct appeal to her kidnappers after the reporter was shown alive in video footage released by Iraqi insurgents on March 1. Looking distraught and fragile, Aubenas made a desperate appeal for help.
France had hoped its opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq would help it secure her release, as it did in the case of two French journalists freed in December after four months held hostage by Iraqi militants.
But concern is growing in France that its firm line on Syria after last month's killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri may hinder its efforts. Syria has denied any involvement in Hariri's killing.
March 29, 2005:
From combined dispatches
CAIRO -- The condemnation of Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda by the Islamic Commission of Spain on the first anniversary of the train bombings in Madrid that took 200 lives is making waves throughout the Muslim world.
The Spanish commission's fatwa, or condemnation, follows other signs of the kind of public theological debate rarely seen in the Muslim world, openly challenging the dominance of Saudi Arabia's wealthy Wahhabi fanatics.
One Islamic scholar even calls it a sign of "a counter-jihad."
In a recent interview with the Qatari daily newspaper Al-Raya, for example, Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari, the former dean of Shariah and law at the University of Qatar, urged his fellow Muslims to purge their heritage of fanaticism and adopt "new civilized humane thought."
Such humane thought, he said, "must be translated [into deeds] in educational ways, via the media, tolerant religious discourse, nondiscriminatory policy and just legislation."
"We must purge the school curricula of all sectarian implications and elements according to which others deviate from the righteous path and the truth is in our hands alone. We must enrich the curricula with the values of tolerance and acceptance of the other who is different [in school of faith, ethnic group, religion, nationality or sex].
"The political regime must refrain from sectarian or ethnic preference; it must respect the rights and liberties of the minorities and must guarantee them through legislative action, practical policy and equal opportunity in the areas of education, media and civil positions."
Other Muslims quickly attacked the Spanish fatwa.
A group calling itself al Qaeda in Iraq -- the name Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab Zarqawi gave his organization after he aligned himself with bin Laden -- mocked it in the familiar religious rhetoric. "Allah has promised us victory," it said in a posting on its Internet Web site. "... Terrorizing enemies of God is our faith and religion, which is taught to us by our Koran."
Nevertheless, the reaction to the Spanish fatwa astonished its authors, who were swamped with e-mail messages of congratulations.
"I couldn't even read them all -- there's at least a thousand, maybe more," said Mansur Escudero, secretary-general of the Islamic Commission of Spain. "The tone was nearly all the same: 'It's about time someone did it. Bravo!' "
Says Khaled Abou El Fadl, an authority on Islamic law at the University of California at Los Angeles: "The long and painful silence of moderate theologians and experts in Islam jurisprudence -- who had been bought off or intimidated into silence -- is finally starting to break apart. We are seeing signs of a counter-jihad."
The response to the Spanish fatwa was dominated by Muslims outside the Middle East, suggesting most moderates live outside traditional Muslim areas.
"I'm glad that someone of authority in Islam is taking a stand and demanding their religion back from the terrorists who have hijacked it," a respondent from the United States wrote.
"This shows the Muslim world is tired of the harm that radicals and terrorists are doing to Islam," said Mr. Escudero, whose declaration carried the support of Muslim leaders in Morocco, Algeria and Libya. "We hope this will inspire others to speak out."
The subject of suicide attacks sharply divides the Islamic world. Many Islamic scholars denounce it, citing the Koran: "Do not kill yourself." There are deep divisions over what the Koran justifies in a perceived defense of Islam. "There needs to be an awakening that radicals are manipulating the Koran for their own narrow motives," said Omid Safi, professor of philosophy and religion at Colgate University.
In December 2003 -- a year after the Bali bombings that killed 202 persons -- Indonesia's highest Islamic authority, the Ulema Council, declared terrorism and suicide bombings illegal under Muslim law, but said "holy war" is justified if Islam is under attack.
Some scholars caution that moderates exchanging fatwas and denunciations with radicals does little to make lasting reforms.
"Islam needs a new approach -- to get away from the Islam of the Middle East being the only point of reference," said Abdullahi An-Na'im, a specialist in Islamic law at Emory University in Atlanta.
Tue Mar 29, 2005 10:01 AM ET:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - First lady Laura Bush will make a quick visit to Afghanistan this week to greet U.S. troops and offer support for Afghan women, the White House said on Tuesday.
President Bush's wife was departing on Tuesday morning on a trip that will include a stop at Bagram Air Base north of Kabul to speak to U.S. troops and a tour of a teacher training institute.
© Reuters 2005
An Iraqi army soldier speaks with a handcuffed detainee following his arrest in the northern Iraqi city of Baquba, March 29, 2005. Iraqi security forces backed by U.S. troops detained 25 people and seized a large weapon cache as they launched a joint operation in Baquba on Tuesday, military sources said. REUTERS/Faris al-Mahdawi
Insurgent attacks on police Latest violence kills 16 in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Mar 28 (AFP): At least 16 Iraqis, including three members of a Shi'ite political party, were killed in the country's latest incidents of violence as politicians fought over the oil ministry and the role of Islam in the next government. A suicide car bomber blew himself up late Sunday in the path of a US military convoy in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, said police, but it was not immediately known if there were any US casualties.
Three members of the Badr Organistion, a Shi'ite political grouping, were killed on the road near Baqouba, 60 kilometres (40 miles) northeast of the capital, where insurgent attacks have been frequent. Gunmen in another car pulled alongside their vehicle and shot them, police and defense ministry sources said. Iraq military forces and police were also targets of the seemingly relentless insurgent attacks Sunday. Three Iraqi soldiers were killed and three more were wounded in separate attacks in and around Baquba. In the first instance, a lieutenant colonel from the former Iraqi army was shot dead by unknown gunmen in his friend's shop, according to police. Nearby, one soldier was killed and another was injured in an attack in Dhuluiyah, 70 kilometres (55 miles) north of Baghdad, said police captain Omar Jumaha.
Another soldier was killed and two more were wounded in violence in Balad, about 70 kilometres (55 miles) north of Baghdad, said Assad Sudad, a police captain there. Meanwhile, Iraqi politicians fought over the oil ministry and the role of Islam in the next government. Iraq's parliament, due to meet Tuesday, seemed far from a deal on a coalition government, as the country's ethnic and religious factions bickered nearly two months after Iraq's historic January 30 election.
Meanwhile, insurgents targeted Iraqi security forces Monday in the capital, gunning down a neighbourhood police chief and hitting a patrol with a roadside bomb in attacks that left three people dead and at least five injured. Gunmen opened fire on a car carrying police Col. Abdul Karim Fahad Abbass as he headed to work in the sprawling southeastern Doura quarter, killing the neighbourhood station chief and his driver, Capt. Falah al-Muhimadawi said.
Two handcuffed detainees wait after their arrest in the northern Iraqi city of Baquba, March 29, 2005. Iraqi security forces backed by U.S. troops detained 25 people and seized a large weapon cache as they launched a joint operation in Baquba on Tuesday, military sources said. REUTERS/Faris al-Mahdawi
Iraqi soldiers guard a group of handcuffed detainees following their arrest in the city of Baquba, north of Baghdad, March 29, 2005. Iraqi security forces backed by U.S. troops detained 25 people and seized a large weapon cache as they launched a joint operation in Baquba on Tuesday, military sources said. REUTERS/Faris al-Mahdawi
An Iraqi soldier watches civilians walking across al-Jumhuriya bridge after several roads were blocked in Baghdad, March 29, 2005. Several Baghdad streets were closed and traffic restricted to try to thwart insurgent attacks as Iraq's new parliament prepares to meet on Tuesday for the second time since it was elected two months ago in historic polls, but it faced deadlock with politicians unable to agree on a new government. REUTERS/Ali Jasim
Last Updated: 03/28/2005 10:29:49 Middle East:
JERUSALEM [MENL] -- Israel's military has determined that the Palestinian Authority has smuggled surface-to-air missiles from Egypt.
Israeli officials said Soviet-origin SA-7 missiles were smuggled from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula to the Gaza Strip over the last few days. They said the missiles were ordered by PA officials and their delivery to the Gaza Strip was facilitated by elements within the PA and Egyptian security forces.
On Sunday, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said the SA-7 Strella was transferred from Egypt to the Gaza Strip through any one of 18 tunnels that connect the divided city of Rafah. Mofaz said PA intelligence helped relay the missiles, but did not elaborate.
"Last week, several Strellas were smuggled in by Palestinian military intelligence," Mofaz told the Cabinet. "If the Palestinians don't get seize the Strellas, we will."
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An Iraqi Army soldier stands near a burning oil pipeline following a blast near the town of Baiji, north of Baghdad, March 28, 2005. Photo by Sabah Hamid/Reuters
Pipeline sabotage is terrorist’s weapon of choice
Until recently, the pipeline industry has been preoccupied primarily with environmental, safety and maintenance issues. Beyond occasional cases of vandalism, the human factor was hardly perceived as a threat to the world’s vast web of oil and gas pipelines, which, all told, carry roughly half of the world’s oil and most of its natural gas.
This has changed since September 11. With the threat of terrorism looming, pipeline operators in the industrialized world have taken action to prevent terrorism from harming energy infrastructure with steps that include:
Increasing system redundancy, Deploying state-of-the-art surveillance equipment, Deploying aerial and ground patrols, and Fortifying pipeline systems against cyber-security breaches.
All these have made the pipeline system in places like North America and Europe relatively secure. But since most U.S. oil and a growing portion of its natural gas come from abroad our energy system cannot be protected unless similar security measures are applied at the generating points of oil and gas in the Middle East, the Former Soviet Union, Africa and Latin America.
Unfortunately, the security situation in those parts of the world where terrorists are known to operate leaves much to be desired. In fact, terrorists no longer need to come to the U.S. in order to wreak havoc in our energy system. They can achieve the same degree of damage by going after energy targets in their home base where they enjoy support on the ground.
In mid-December 2004, Arab satellite channels aired an audiotape message by Osama bin Laden in which he called on his cohorts to take their holy war to the oil industry and to disrupt supplies to the U.S from the Persian Gulf.
Two days later a follow-up statement by the Saudi branch of al Qaeda was published, calling on “all mujahideen ... in the Arabian Peninsula” to target “the oil resources that do not serve the nation of Islam.” These statements reflect the reality of the post-September 11 world in which terrorist groups have identified the world’s energy system, “the provision line and the feeding to the artery of the life of the crusader nation,” in the words of al Qaeda, as the Achilles heel of the West. Throughout the world the jihadist message is gradually being heeded and it is becoming increasingly apparent that a new chapter in the war on terror is looming on the horizon and that its primary targets are oil and gas pipelines.
Weapon Of Choice
Pipelines are very easily sabotaged. A simple explosive device can put a critical section of pipeline out of operation for weeks. This is why pipeline sabotage has become the weapon of choice of the insurgents in Iraq.
Since President Bush declared the end of major hostilities in April 2003, there have been close to 200 pipeline attacks. According to the Iraq Pipeline Watch at the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, most of the attacks took place in northern Iraq, primarily on the pipeline running from Kirkuk to the Turkish Mediterranean terminal of Ceyhan.
In addition, there have been dozens of attacks on oil and gas pipelines leading to the refineries around Baghdad, primarily near the Bayji refinery complex 125 miles north of Baghdad. In March 2004, terrorists began striking at oil installations in the south near Basra as well, where more than two-thirds of Iraq’s oil is produced. The attacks have exacted a heavy price from the new Iraqi government— it is estimated that pipeline sabotage costs the country more than $10 billion in oil revenues — and have undermined the prospects of Iraqi construction.
Such attacks also have a corrosive influence on the morale of the Iraqi people and their attitude toward the presence of U.S. forces in their country. Iraqis are growing increasingly vexed by the coalition’s slow progress in the reconstruction effort and its inability to guarantee a reliable supply of electricity, which is primarily derived from oil. Worse, the sabotage campaign has created an inhospitable investment climate in Iraq and scared away oil companies that were supposed to develop its oil and gas industry.
Emulating the success of the saboteurs in Iraq, terrorists in many oil-producing countries have set their sights on pipelines and other oil installations. In December 2004, Sudanese rebels attacked an oil field, killing 15 people. “This was our first military operation and we chose the oil fields because this is the wealth of Sudan, which this government is not sharing with all of its people,” said Ali Abd al-Rahim al Shindy, leader of the group that carried out the attack.
Chechen guerrillas fighting to sever themselves from Russia are going after the country’s gigantic pipeline web of roughly 31,000 miles. Russia is the world’s second-largest oil exporter and 40% of its revenues are derived from oil. There is no better way for the Chechens to hurt the Russian economy than hindering Russia’s capability to export crude. In 2004, pipelines were blown up in Volograd, Dagestan, Stavropol as well as in and around Moscow.
In India, a separatist rebel group called United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), which fights for independence for oil-rich Assam state, has taken responsibility for a number of pipeline attacks. Assam is the source of some 15% of India’s onshore crude oil production and, as the country’s oil demand grows, the implications of disruption of the flow of oil from there will become increasingly noticeable.
In southeast Turkey, Kurdish guerrillas belonging to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have staged a campaign of bomb attacks on an oil pipeline.
In Colombia, terrorist groups, primarily the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN,) have attacked the 480-mile Cano Limon-Covenas oil pipeline so many times that it became known as “the flute.”
The campaign against the world’s vulnerable pipelines is likely to continue to spread to new territories. Terrorists have already indicated interest in the nearly completed 1,000-mile Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, slated to transport 1 million barrels of oil a day from the Caspian Sea to Western markets through the Turkish port of Ceyhan. The pipeline is expected to be operational by the end of 2005 but even before construction ends, terrorist elements may already be planning attacks on it. According to Azerbaijan’s National Security Minister, Namiq Abbasov, the country’s special services had obtained information that regional insurgents and members of al Qaeda are planning acts of sabotage against the pipeline.
Another problematic area in the pipeline’s path is Georgia, where separatists in South Ossetia and Abkhazia provinces often clash with the Georgian government. In addition, there is increasing threat by Islamist groups operating in the Caucasus such as the Islamic Party of Eastern Turkestan, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), Chechen separatists and Hizb-ut-Tahrir al-Islami. The latter group seeks to seize power and supplant existing governments with a sharia-based caliphate for the purpose of jihad against the West.
China, the world’s fastest growing energy consumer, is also vulnerable to terrorist strikes against oil. To satisfy its growing energy needs, China has decided to run pipelines connecting the northwest district of Xinjiang with neighboring Kazakhstan. This means China’s oil will be at the mercy of increasingly hostile Muslim Uighur minorities trying to break away from the central regime in Beijing.
But in no oil and gas domain could pipeline sabotage do more damage than in Saudi Arabia, home to one-fourth of the world’s oil. Over 10,000 miles of pipeline crisscross Saudi Arabia, mostly above ground. Were concerted pipeline attacks to spread to Saudi Arabia, repeatedly interrupting the Saudi oil supply, the implications for the global economy could be profound.
Not all pipeline sabotage is politically driven. Thieves often pilfer fuel from pipelines for personal use or to sell on the black market. Such activity sometimes ends tragically. In 1998, more than 1,000 villagers in Nigeria died when a ruptured gasoline pipeline exploded as they scavenged fuel.
Fear Premium
Whether perpetuated for political or criminal reasons, assaults on oil infrastructure have added a “fear premium” of roughly $10 per barrel of oil.
The cause and effect are not lost on terrorists whose goal, feasibility aside, is to bankrupt the U.S. “The killing of 10 American soldiers is nothing compared to the impact of the rise in oil prices on America and the disruption that it causes in the international economy,” exhorted one jihadist website. For the U.S., which imports more than 10 million barrels a day, the spike in oil prices due to oil terror cost close to $40 billion in 2004.
Governments, oil companies and pipeline operators are seeking to put in place mechanisms to reduce the impact of the scourge. The most effective way to address the scourge of sabotage is to confront terrorists wherever they are. This is already being done by most countries as part of the global war on terror. By pursuing jihadists and separatist groups, denying them freedom of operation and destroying their infrastructure, governments can reduce the number of attacks.
The most obvious way to increase pipeline security is the use of patrols and the creation of buffer zones along the pipeline routes into which unauthorized personnel are prohibited from entering. In Iraq, close to 14,000 security guards have been deployed along the pipelines and in critical installations. But ground patrols are only effective to a certain degree, especially in areas of inclement weather and forbidding terrain.
Another way to reduce pipeline sabotage is by paying tribes and powerful warlords to protect the pipes on their territory. This method was tried in Iraq with limited success. Rival tribes would often blow up a pipeline and then claim to be more deserving of the protection money.
Sensing Systems
Technology could also play an important role in the effort to secure pipelines. Sophisticated surveillance systems to enhance infrastructure security can be deployed in critical locations. New technologies for seismic sensing of underground vibrations can provide early warning when saboteurs approach the protected area. Such systems may be expensive, but by making possible the remote monitoring of much of the pipeline network, governments can eliminate the need for large numbers of troops and instead rely on smaller numbers of rapid-response teams.
Such systems can also be complemented by air surveillance. As a result of progress in high-resolution remote sensing and image processing technology, it is now possible to deploy small and medium-size unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned helicopters for pipeline inspection purposes. These UAVs can stay in the air up to 30 hours at medium-to-low altitudes, and can send images to a central control station where they can be reviewed by security teams. Some defense contractors are developing UAVs mounted with automatic weapons to be used against saboteurs.
Unfortunately, many of the countries where such technologies would be most effective are too poor to afford them. Under such circumstances governments and pipeline operators that cannot prevent attacks altogether should invest in mechanisms to minimize the damage attacks can cause. The cheapest and most effective way to protect an existing pipeline is to prevent easy access by surrounding it by walls and fences. New pipelines should be buried. While this may substantially increase construction cost, in areas where saboteurs are known to operate the investment will quickly pay for itself. This is the reason the BTC has been completely covered from the outset.
New technologies can fortify pipes with external carbon fiber wrap that can mitigate the affects of explosive devices. Equally important is to shorten the lead time between the attack and the repair. The quicker it takes to repair the damage, the lower the cost of the disruption. Pipeline saboteurs often target pipelines at critical junctions or hit custom-made parts that take longer to replace. To reduce the lead time, pipeline operators should be equipped with sufficient inventories of spare parts.
It is important to realize that none of the approaches discussed here is likely to put an end to the problem. As long as oil and gas continue to be essential to the functioning of the world’s economy, pipeline sabotage is likely to remain one of the industry’s risks. No matter what remedy is applied, it will add a surcharge to the price of a barrel, which is already unusually high.
Gal Luft is executive director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS). This article was originally published in Pipeline & Gas Journal.
Palestinian Authority Smuggles Soviet Missiles From Egypt To Gaza Strip:
Source: Worldtribune.com
JERUSALEM - Israel's military has learned that the Palestinian Authority has smuggled surface-to-air missiles from Egypt.
Israeli officials said Soviet-origin SA-7 missiles were smuggled from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula to the Gaza Strip over the last few days. They said the missiles were ordered by PA officials and their delivery to the Gaza Strip was facilitated by elements within the PA and Egyptian security forces.
On Sunday, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said the SA-7 Strella was transferred from Egypt to the Gaza Strip through any one of 18 tunnels that connect the divided city of Rafah, Middle East Newsline reported. Mofaz said PA intelligence helped relay the missiles, but did not elaborate.
"Last week, several Strellas were smuggled in by Palestinian military intelligence," Mofaz told the Cabinet. "If the Palestinians don't seize the Strellas, we will."
[On Monday, Israeli authorities announced the capture of an Iranian-sponsored Islamic Jihad cell that sought to manufacture rockets in the West Bank city of Jenin. In February, Israeli troops captured a Hamas cell that tested Kassam-class short-range missiles in the northern West Bank.]
The Israeli military has often asserted that PA security agencies were facilitating the smuggling of weapons from Egypt to the Gaza Strip. But Mofaz's assertion was the first that accused the PA of direct involvement in the smuggling of anti-aircraft missiles. PA military intelligence has been headed by Mussa Arafat, the nephew of the late PA Chairman Yasser Arafat and an interlocutor of Israel's military.
Officials said Israeli authorities were not certain how many SA-7s were brought into the Gaza Strip. They said the PA or elements within the authority have been ordering the missiles from Egyptian smugglers.
In February, the Israeli military disclosed that at least five SA-7 missiles were smuggled into the Gaza Strip from the neighboring Sinai Peninsula. The military said the missiles were transferred to insurgency groups under the protection of the PA.
In his briefing to the Cabinet, Mofaz also reported increased violations of the ceasefire declared by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in February. The violations were said to have included mortar and rocket attacks on Israeli communities in the Gaza Strip.
"Recently there has been a sharp increase in the number of mortar attacks in the Gaza Strip," a Cabinet statement said. "Thus, the PA must act with greater vigor against the terrorist organizations. The defense minister has passed sharp messages to this effect to senior PA officials on more than one occasion, including in recent days."
Israel has approved a plan for the introduction of 750 Egyptian police commandos along the eight-kilometer Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip. In his Cabinet briefing, Mofaz said the smuggling of the missiles would not torpedo the plan for an increased Egyptian security presence.
http://www.texaspanhandleplains.com/newspaper/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1095&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
March 29, 2005
CUMBERLAND, R.I. -- Police are offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of an oversized American flag stolen from the front yard of a soldier who recently returned from Iraq.
Maj. Christian Neary, of the Rhode Island Army National Guard, said when he awoke early Easter Sunday, he found that his flag was gone. It had been hanging from an oak tree in his yard.
"It just broke my heart," said Amy Neary, Christian's wife. "He put his life on the line for that flag."
Maj. Neary said he doesn't suspect the flag was taken as any kind of anti-war protest. "It was probably just some knucklehead kids."
Lt. Stephen Duda said the Cumberland Crime Stoppers are offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the flag's recovery.
The 12-by-17 flag accompanied Neary on part of his tour in Iraq. He said it was given to him years ago by a friend, and every Fourth of July he raises it on an oak tree in his front yard. It's so big that people on their way to Cumberland's Fourth of July parade would stop their cars and take a picture in front of it, he said.
"It is the kind of flag you hang in the civic center," Neary said.
When Neary went to Iraq with the 103rd Field Artillery's 1st Battalion, he brought the flag with him, displaying it in an occupied Iraqi army barracks in Taji, 18 miles north of Baghdad. He sent it home after eight months.
His wife raised it in the yard last week, along with yellow ribbons and signs, in anticipation of Neary's homecoming last Wednesday.
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Information from: The Providence Journal, http://www.projo.com/
12:35pm 29th March 2005:
The lawyers who are to defend deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein at his forthcoming trial claimed today they have been denied access to him and do not even know where he is. Now this "scandal" is to be raised in Parliament next week by veteran Labour MP Tam Dalyell, Father of the House of Commons.
'Scandal'
M Matthew Fautin, a lawyer from Rheims, speaking on behalf of his colleague Emmanuel Ludot, said: "We have no access to Saddam nor the other Iraqi leaders who are in captivity and awaiting trial. We do not even know where they are, or even which country they are in. Nor do we know when or where the trial might be.
"We have been trying so far without success to put pressure on relevant officials so that we can see our clients and be briefed by them."
Mr Dalyell, MP for Linlithgow, said: "This is hardly a good example of Western justice. It is scandalous that their lawyers cannot talk to them."
EDMUND P. GIAMBASTIANI, JR. Supreme Allied Commander Transformation and Commander, U.S. Joint Forces Command
Though he is charged with helping to lead the Defense Department’s transformation efforts into the 21st century, the commander of U.S. Joint Forces Command believes the word “transformation” can be a misleading term.
i-Newswire, 2005-03-29 - “It indicates a beginning and an end,” Navy Adm. Edmund P. Giambastiani Jr. said. “This is a constant process, and that’s why the word ‘transforming’ is actually a better word.”
Giambastiani, who also serves as NATO’s supreme allied commander for transformation, said that in the past 24 months alone the Defense Department has seen continuing change in the way it does business. And that change has been “significant,” he said during a recent interview at his command’s headquarters in Norfolk, Va., for the Pentagon Channel’s documentary “Facing the Future.”
“Inside the Defense Department we are now trying to transform ourselves, institutionalize the process and the product of change … to make us faster, to make us capable, to make us more operationally available, to make us more expeditionary, to make us adaptable and flexible,” he said.
All of this encompasses the mission he is charged with at Joint Forces Command, often called DoD’s “transformation laboratory.”
There, a staff of military people, civilians and defense contractors devise ways to enhance commanders’ capabilities by developing battlefield concepts, training joint forces, and making recommendations on how the services can better integrate their warfighting capabilities.
And, according to the admiral, integrating the joint warfighting capabilities of the military has defined DoD transformation efforts.
“The process and product of change we’re trying to bring here is to make our forces more integrated, more coherently integrated, so they can operate across a broad range of mission sets: peacekeeping, peacemaking, contingency operations, peace support, major combat operations, small-scale contingencies -- you name it,” he said.
“We found that the sum of all of the individual components within the Defense Department … when you integrate all of these in a coherent way, the sum is far greater than what each of the individual parts would add up to. That’s what we call integration.”
That equation seems to have added up, as Giambastiani emphasized integration efforts among services has been successful during joint operations in Iraq.
The admiral used the November 2004 battle to take back control of Fallujah as an example. He pointed out that the fighting there consisted of Marine expeditionary forces, two Army brigade combat teams, and five battalions of Iraq army and security forces, as well as Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps aviation units.
“This was a very close-packed area, an urban area, and they were conducting joint operations down to the absolute lowest level,” he noted. “If you’re a soldier, sailor, airman or Marine, and you are conducting an operation, and let’s say you need a target taken out, you don’t much care who takes out that target as long as the mission gets accomplished. That is the definition, in my view, of jointness.”
That definition has an important meaning within DoD, particularly from an operational standpoint, where in the past two years the Pentagon created more joint task force headquarters than it did in the previous 10 years combined.
“And we are creating more of these JTF headquarters each and every year,” he added. The admiral pointed out that military training also has undergone important change.
“Before in the Defense Department, war games were essentially just done by services, and they would sprinkle in joint entities,” Giambastiani explained. Now, he said, fundamentally the services are cooperating and co-hosting war games with Joint Forces Command. “I am co-hosting with the chief of a service, a joint war game which the Army and the Joint Forces Command come together to play,” he said. “Primarily, the majority of people in it are actually joint.
“We do it with the Navy, we do it with the Marine Corps, we’ve done it with the Air Force, we’re doing it with agencies such as a National Reconnaissance Office, we’ve done it with other combatant commanders,” he said. “It’s pretty darn significant.”
More jointness and integration is only part of the transformation process within DoD -- a beginning and not an end to the constant process of change for the 21st century, the admiral said.
“I see us moving in the future to this coherently integrated force that is mutually interdependent, that allows us to collaborate in a way that we just haven’t been able to describe the power of to date,” Giambastiani said. “To allow us to achieve what we call ‘outcomes on the battlefield,’ or outcomes in the case of contingency operations, or post-major combat, allow us to achieve outcomes which create success for the United States and our coalition and allied partners.”
Still, he added, there is “a lot of work to do yet, a long way to go.”
“But the process, in my view of transformation, has accelerated here over the last couple of years, and it’s been significant,” he said.
By Sgt. 1st Class Doug Sample, USA American Forces Press Service
If you have questions regarding information in these press release contact the company listed below. Please do not contact us as we are unable to assist you with your inquiry. We disclaim any content contained in this press release.
He's arrested and charged with conspiracy to support militants
March 29, 2005
BY DAVID ASHENFELTER and CHASTITY PRATT FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
A former Detroit schools official has been charged with conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.
A criminal complaint unsealed Monday in Miami said Kifah Wael Jayyousi, 43, formerly of Detroit, conspired with Kassem Daher of Broward County, Fla., in the mid- and late 1990s to raise money and recruit Muslim extremists to fight in Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya and Somalia. The complaint was issued in December.
Authorities said Jayyousi, a former assistant superintendent, was arrested around 12:30 p.m. Sunday at Detroit Metro Airport after stepping off a flight from Amsterdam. U.S. Customs agents detained him after conducting a routine computer check that showed Jayyousi was wanted on a federal terrorism warrant out of Miami. It's unclear whether he was traveling alone. Authorities said he had flown to Amsterdam from Qatar.
Jayyousi made a brief appearance Monday in U.S. District Court in Detroit, where the U.S. Attorney's Office requested that he be sent to Miami to answer to the charges.
U.S. Magistrate Steven Whelan ordered him held until a detention hearing Wednesday, when his lawyer, Jon Posner, could be present. Posner is in the hospital, according to his law firm.
Jayyousi and Daher are charged with conspiring to provide material support and resources for terrorism and conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim or injure people or damage property in a foreign country. The first charge carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The second carries a maximum penalty of 35 years to life in prison.
Daher, a former resident of Leduc, Canada, is a fugitive living in Lebanon.
A court affidavit signed by FBI agent John Kavanaugh Jr. said an investigation that began in late 1993 found that Jayyousi, Daher and two other men -- Mohamed Zaky and Adham Amin Hassoun -- were involved in a North American network to raise money and recruit fighters to wage violent jihad around the globe.
Money initially was raised through charitable organizations known as Save Bosnia Now and American Worldwide Relief, the affidavit said. They were founded by Zaky of San Diego, who was killed in Afghanistan while fighting Russians in May 1995.
Hassoun, a Palestinian national who was born in Lebanon, came to the United States in 1989 and has been in U.S. custody since June 2002, is awaiting trial in Miami on similar terrorism charges. He lived in Broward County, Fla.
The affidavit said Jayyousi is a Jordanian national and naturalized U.S. citizen who has lived in San Diego, Los Angeles, Detroit and Baltimore. It said he moved to Egypt in 2003.
After Zaky's death, Jayyousi allegedly took over American Worldwide Relief. He also founded the American Islamic Group. Although that group touted itself as a nonprofit, religious service to protect the rights of Muslims and provide economic aid to needy people, it actually promoted terrorism, the affidavit said.
The affidavit said Jayyousi used the group's monthly newsletter, Islam Report, to raise money and recruit fighters for jihad and to disseminate the accomplishments of terrorists worldwide. The affidavit said the newsletter described murders, executions and massacres committed by terrorists.
The affidavit said all four men were followers of Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, an Egyptian cleric who was sentenced to prison in 1995 for plotting to blow up New York landmarks.
From 1994 through late 1995, Jayyousi allegedly called Rahman in prison to update him about terrorist developments. Much of the information contained in the complaint came from court-authorized electronic surveillance.
Jayyousi worked as a senior engineer at the University of California-Irvine before he was hired in 1997 as assistant superintendent for physical facilities and capital improvement at Detroit Public Schools.
In Detroit, he was responsible for overseeing the early stages of spending of the $1.5-billion school bond. During his tenure, the bond program was mired in two controversies: skepticism about the costs associated with a construction program led by then-Wayne County prosecutor candidate Mike Duggan and the firing of a minority company that managed the bond program, which led to a lawsuit against the district.
Jayyousi also is listed as an adjunct engineering professor at Wayne State University on the college's Web site.
Jayyousi left Detroit Public Schools in 1999 and was hired to run the Washington, D.C., public schools facilities department.
JPost.com » Middle East » Article-By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Mar. 29, 2005 3:22 | Updated Mar. 29, 2005 6:54
A thorough analysis of the Koran reveals that the US will cease to exist in the year 2007, according to research published by Palestinian scholar Ziad Silwadi.
The study, which has caught the attention of millions of Muslims worldwide, is based on in-depth interpretations of various verses in the Koran. It predicts that the US will be hit by a tsunami larger than that which recently struck southeast Asia.
"The tsunami waves are a minor rehearsal in comparison with what awaits the US in 2007," the researcher concluded in his study. "The Holy Koran warns against the Omnipotent Allah's force. A great sin will cause a huge flood in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans."
Silwadi, who is from the village of Silwad near Ramallah – the home of Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal – is not a world-renowned scholar. He said he decided to publish the findings of his research "out of a sense of responsibility because what is about to happen is extremely shocking and frightening."
His fear, he said, is that the world economy, which relies heavily on the US dollar, would be deeply affected by the collapse of the US.
"It would be fair to say that the world would be better off with a US that is not a superpower and that does not take advantage of weak nations than a world where this country does not exist at all," he added."The world will certainly lose a lot if and when this disaster occurs because of the great services that American society has rendered to the economy, industry and science."
Silwadi said his study of the Koran showed that the US would perish mainly because of its great sins against mankind, including the Native Americans and blacks.
"As soon as the Europeans started arriving in the new world discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492, they declared a war on the so-called Red Indians, the legitimate owners of the land," he wrote. "Then they began enslaving and humiliating Africans after kidnapping them from their countries and bringing them to America. Millions of blacks were brought to the US and treated with unprecedented harshness. Those who became ill during the journey were thrown overboard to feed the fish."
Silwadi pointed out that the US continued to commit war crimes and "ethnic cleansing" against humanity by becoming the first country to use nuclear weapons during World War II.
"International law penalizes such crimes," he said. "If these laws were not applied then, they are certainly implemented in heaven. If no one on earth is capable of punishing [the US], Allah was and remains able to do so. All these actions have been documented by Allah in a big archive called the Koran."
Silwadi said he reached the conclusion that several suras (chapters) in the Koran that talk about punishment for those who perpetrate heinous sins actually refer to the US.
As an example, he quotes in his study verse 40 of the Spider Sura, which states: "So each We [God] punished for his sin; of them was he on whom We sent down a violent storm, and of them was he whom the rumbling overtook, and of them was he whom We made to be swallowed up by the earth, and of them he whom We drowned; and it did not beseem Allah that He should be unjust to them, but they were unjust to their own souls."
Drawing parallels between Pharaoh and the US, who share the same "sin" of arrogance and excessive pride, Silwadi noted that the Koran mentions at least 12 times the fact that Pharaoh was punished by drowning for his evil deeds.
The Narrative Sura, he noted, clearly suggests that the US will drown in the sea: "And Firon [Pharaoh] said: O chiefs! I do not know of any god for you besides myself; therefore kindle a fire for me And he was unjustly proud in the land, he and his hosts, and they deemed that they would not be brought back to Us. So We caught hold of him and his hosts, then We cast them into the sea, and see how was the end of the unjust [verses 38-40]."
Explaining his theory about the approaching extinction of the US, the scholar went on to analyze many numbers and letters mentioned in the Koran. He said a careful reading and analysis of words appearing in the Opening and Yusuf suras show that the US will exist for only 231 years.
How did he reach that number? Silwadi said that by combing a number of suras hinting at US sins he reached the numbers 1776 (the year the US achieved independence) and 231. He added the two numbers and the result was 2007, the year when the US is expected to disappear.
In his lengthy study, which is being circulated in many Muslim countries, Silwadi noted that the US has often been compared to a tree that grows very quickly and bears fruit, but has no roots.
In an attempt to find a reference to this metaphor in the Koran, Silwadi said he counted 1776 verses from the beginning of the Koran until he reached verse 26 of the Ibrahim Sura, which states: "And the parable of an evil word is as an evil tree pulled up from the earth's surface; it has no stability."
Updated Mar. 29, 2005 4:29
By MARGOT DUDKEVITCH
In predawn raids conducted in and around Jenin on Monday morning, soldiers arrested eight Islamic Jihad fugitives, who were involved in attempts to build homemade Kassam-like rockets to fire into Israel.
It is the second raid in less than one month in which terrorists were caught attempting to build such rockets.
During Monday's raids conducted by the Maglan and Golani Egoz units, a soldier was lightly wounded when a bomb was detonated near troops. He was taken to Ha'emek Hospital in Afula.
According to security officials, the cell members had conducted several failed attempts to launch the rockets. The fugitives' arrests do not necessarily signify an increase in attempts by terror groups in Samaria to arm themselves with rockets, a security official said. "We are aware of their existence just as we are aware of the rockets in Gaza," an official said.
The officials were unable to confirm Palestinian reports that among the eight arrested were two family members, one of whom was freed in the recent release of 500 Palestinian security prisoners.
The other was said to have been part of a group of Palestinians permitted to return to the West Bank last month from the Gaza Strip, where they had been banished several years ago because of their involvement in terror activities.
In the previous raid, on March 5, security forces raided a bomb factory in Al-Yamun, west of Jenin, where Hamas members were building Kassam rockets. During the raid, soldiers discovered at least one completed Kassam rocket and estimated that two others had been test-fired. Security officials said at the time that Hamas cells were intensifying efforts to manufacture the rockets to threaten nearby communities like Afula, which is located 10 kilometers away.
Elsewhere on Monday, a Palestinian was lightly wounded when he did not stop to be inspected and was shot by a security guard, near the security fence close to Shekef, west of Hebron. He was taken to hospital in Hebron and Judea and Samaria police detained the guard for questioning.
At the Hawara checkpoint outside of Nablus, a Palestinian man was arrested after he refused to submit his identity papers for inspection and attempted to snatch a soldier's weapon. The IDF officer fired warning shots in the air and the suspect was arrested.
Earlier in the day, a firebomb was thrown at an Israeli bus near Ofra; no one was wounded in the attack.
In the Gaza Strip, shots were fired at an IDF post near Gadid; no one was wounded and no damage was reported.
On Monday evening, soldiers arrested an unarmed Palestinian who was spotted attempting to cross the Gaza security fence, north of the Kissufim crossing. He was handed over to security officials for questioning.
Tue, Mar 29, 2005:
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Before the Terminator, the US military is looking to hire the Operator, a top-notch battlefield surgeon. But those made of flesh and blood need not apply.
A contract awarded by the Pentagon to a consortium of universities and high-tech firms on Monday calls for creating a versatile robot able to perform life-saving surgery on wounded soldiers right on the battlefield.
"The result will be a major step forward in saving lives on the battlefield," said Scott Seaton, an executive director with SRI International, a company that will be the lead contractor on the 12-million-dollar, two-year project.
He said his Silicon Valley-based firm has a long history of meeting America's defense needs, "and this program continues in that tradition."
The request comes amid mounting military casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, where US troops are trying to hunt down Islamic militants.
The two wars have already claimed the lives of 1,686 US servicemen and left a total 11,877 others wounded, according to the latest Defense Department figures.
The wounds of more than half of those hurt turn out to be serious enough that they require extended treatment.
If everything works according to plan, the "trauma pod," as the robotic surgical system is called, will be able to stabilize injured soldiers within minutes and administer medical and surgical care prior to or during evacuation.
The concept is a step up from the Da Vinci surgical system approved by the US government five years ago and already used in dozens of hospitals, officials said.
When using it, the surgeon is seated comfortably at a console away from the operating table.
Viewing a three-dimensional image of his target, the doctor relies on master controls to operate robotic arms that respond to every movement of his hands, wrists and fingers and wield surgical instruments inside the patient according to his wishes.
The Da Vinci system has proven to be successful for some of the most complicated types of surgery because it often allows doctors to minimize incisions, reducing post-operative trauma.
Scientists believe this surgery by remote control could now be transferred to the battlefield.
When fully developed, the "trauma pod" will dramatically reduce the need for human medical personnel on the battlefield, officials said.
It will be small enough to be carried by most army vehicles or a helicopter. A doctor will use a system of surgical manipulators to operate from a remote location via video link.
One of the major challenges, according to scientists, will be to make these video links stable and reliable enough and to teach the robot to change instruments without the help of a nurse.
The contractors on the project also include General Dynamics, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the Universities of Texas, Maryland and Washington.
Thank you all
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Tuesday, March 29, 2005:
BAGHDAD – Iraq has expanded its security responsibility to the worst areas of the Sunni Triangle as successful coalition raids have devastated insurgency bases and dispelled the atmosphere of fear that stymied cooperation by the local population.
So far, about 100 insurgents have been captured in Samara in March, officials said. They said many of them were arrested based on tips from Samara residents.
"The people of Samara used to be afraid of the anti-Iraqi forces," Iraqi Gen. Rashid Adnan, commander of the 1st Brigade police commandos, said. "They couldn't tell us any information. Now their fear is gone."
Iraqi officials said army and police forces have been given a larger role in operations in the Anbar province near the Syrian border. Al Anbar has been deemed the largest stronghold of the Sunni insurgency, Middle East Newsline reported.
"Hopefully, within 18 months at the most we will be capable of securing Iraq," Iraqi Interior Minister Falah Naqib said on Monday. "We hope that next summer, there will be a huge reduction in the numbers of multinational patrols. In some cities, there will be no foreign troops at all."
Over the last week, Iraqi and U.S. forces have captured two Sunni insurgency bases around Baghdad. More than 85 insurgents were killed and about 100 others were captured. At the same time, Iraqi forces have launched operations in Samara, which has resisted stabilization efforts for nearly two years. More than 1,500 members of the Iraqi police, including special operations forces and commandos, have been conducting search operations for insurgents.
The United States has been encouraging Iraqi forces to assume greater responsibility for security to prepare for a series of major political events over the next few months. They included the holding of a constitutional referendum as well as elections -- both regarded as potential insurgency targets.
"By the end of 2005, provided the political process continues to be successful, you will see the Iraqis more and more in charge, and in some areas completely in charge," U.S. Central Command chief Gen. John Abizaid said.
The Iraqi forces have not operated on their own in Samara. U.S. Army troops maintain perimeter security for Iraqi raids against suspected insurgency strongholds.
Much of the information provided by Samara residents to Iraqi authorities has been helpful in capturing insurgents. Officials said more than 40 percent of the suspects arrested were identified as insurgents aligned with the former Saddam Hussein regime.
Three of the suspects were identified as leaders of an insurgency cell in Samara responsible for the killing of 11 Iraqi police officers, seven Iraqi soldiers, three interpreters and two contractors, officials said. Two other insurgents were said to have assembled bombs in attacks on U.S. main battle tanks and other armored vehicles.
Officials said Samara could be used as a model for other cities in Al Anbar. They said the U.S.-led coalition has been trying to improve the performance of Iraqi police, which has lagged behind that of the military.
"This process is already begun, even in the toughest areas in Baghdad and the Sunni Triangle," Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, commander of Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq, said. "Iraqi forces are conducting operations and hanging tough in the face of difficult challenges."
U.S. Navy Ship Makes Port Call in Former Saigon Just Before 30th Anniversary of Vietnam War's End:
By Margie Mason Associated Press Writer
Published: Mar 29, 2005:
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam (AP) - An American warship made a rare visit to Vietnam on Tuesday, a sign the two countries are looking to improve military ties 30 years after the Vietnam War.
Sailors dressed in white lined the decks of the USS Gary as the frigate docked in Saigon Port, where it is to remain for five days. The warship was just the third Navy vessel to make a port call in the communist country since the war ended on April 30, 1975.
The Stars and Stripes flew alongside the Vietnamese flag as the ship eased up the muddy Saigon River. Many of the more than 200 sailors aboard snapped pictures or videotaped its arrival.
Most were too young to remember when Ho Chi Minh City was called Saigon, but U.S. Lt. Cmdr. Quoc Bao Tran remembers fleeing the country by boat when he was 7, just before South Vietnam fell to the communist North. This was his first trip back.
"I'm overwhelmed, overjoyed and of course excited," he said. "I'm looking forward to seeing the place where I was born."
The visit marked the 10th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations. More importantly, it signaled a warmup in military relations between the former foes, officials in both countries said.
The two sides signed a landmark bilateral trade agreement in 2001, and business has exploded in recent years. But work in the sensitive area of military cooperation has only just begun.
As the United States and Vietnam find common ground on issues of counterterrorism and regional stability, future military ties will likely include more ship visits and high-level exchanges such as Vietnamese Defense Minister Pham Van Tra's historic trip to Washington in 2003.
"The most important thing for both of our nations and peoples to do is to continue to look forward, not backward," U.S. Ambassador Michael Marine said.
Some in Vietnam believe the U.S. military may be looking to their country as a future strategic area to establish a base to counter growing Chinese influence in Southeast Asia. But Marine said that was not the case.
A Vietnamese military official said the visit showed how far the two countries have come in the past 30 years. Col. Bui Van Nga, the highest-ranking Vietnamese navy officer to greet the ship, said he remembers when the two countries were enemies. "Now we must put aside the past, and I think we should look forward to the future."
The USS Gary is attached to the Seventh Fleet based in Japan. Two other ships in the fleet, the USS Vandegrift and USS Curtis Wilbur, made port calls to Ho Chi Minh City and Danang in 2003 and 2004, respectively.
http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/redir.php?jid=3c37ab7224e45fd7&cat=187cf2a69985adcf
Tue, Mar 29, 2005:
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A U.S. soldier was killed in a non-hostile incident in Iraq, the military said Tuesday.
The soldier, assigned to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force, died March 28 in a "non-hostile incident," the military said in a statement from Camp Fallujah.
The statement said the soldier died "in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom."
The name of the soldier was being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
As of Tuesday, at least 1,527 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
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