Posted on 01/12/2005 6:24:06 AM PST by TexKat
Salal Mahmod Abdullah, 40, a taxi driver, recieves aid after being shot in the arm by U.S. forces as he drove his taxi in Mosul, Iraq, Monday, Jan. 10, 2005. Unwittingly, Abdullah approached a foot patrol and U.S. soldiers responded with a five shot volly at his taxi. In recent days, troops from Bravo Company, Task Force 1/14 Infantry patrol the streets in an effort to provide security to its people in preparation for the Jan. 30 elections.
U.S. troops post flyers concerning the Jan. 30, elections in Mosul, Iraq, Monday, Jan. 10, 2005. Troops from Bravo Company, Task Force 1/14 Infantry patrol the streets in an effort to provide security to its people in preparation for the elections.
Troops from Bravo Company, Task Force 1/14 Infantry patrol the streets in an effort to provide security to its people in preparation for the Jan. 30 elections, Mosul, Iraq, Monday, Jan. 10, 2005.
Troops from Bravo Company, Task Force 1/14 Infantry patrol the streets in an effort to provide security to its people in preparation for the Jan. 30 elections, Mosul, Iraq, Monday, Jan. 10, 2005.
Troops from Bravo Company, Task Force 1/14 Infantry patrol the streets in an effort to provide security to its people in preparation for the Jan. 30 elections, Mosul, Iraq, Monday, Jan. 10, 2005.
By Matt Spetalnick BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. troops have arrested six suspects in the assassination of Baghdad's provincial governor, the highest-ranking official hit so far in attacks to sabotage a Jan. 30 election, the U.S. military said on Wednesday.
Acting on a tip from residents, soldiers seized the suspected insurgents on Tuesday in a house in western Baghdad, officials said.
The capture of gunmen who carried out the Jan. 4 killing of Gov. Ali al-Haidri would mark a rare U.S. intelligence success against insurgents whose loosely knit cells have proved difficult to penetrate and have shown the ability to strike almost at will.
"We were able to act on this intelligence and detain these guys without firing a shot," said Maj. Web Wright, an army spokesman. The military said the men were being held for questioning.
A group led by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, behind some of the bloodiest attacks since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, claimed responsibility for Haidri's assassination, saying its fighters had struck down a "tyrant and American agent."
The shooting underscored the vulnerability of Iraq's new governing class and raised fresh doubts over whether fledgling security forces would be able to protect politicians and voters as the election draws near.
Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi acknowledged for the first time on Tuesday that "pockets" of Iraq would be too dangerous to cast ballots but insisted such areas would be limited in number.
In the latest attack, insurgents detonated a roadside bomb and opened fire on a U.S.-Iraqi convoy in the volatile northern city of Mosul, killing three Iraqi National Guards, the military said. It said troops were delivering heaters and other supplies to a school.
BREMER: DISBANDING SADDAM'S ARMY WAS CORRECT
Paul Bremer, former U.S. administrator in Iraq, defended the controversial decision by U.S.-led forces to disband Saddam Hussein's army and bar senior Baathists from government jobs after what he called the "liberation" of the country.
The move has been criticized for pushing out-of-work military men and armed Saddam supporters into the ranks of the insurgency.
In an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, Bremer said the decision "served an important strategic purpose and recognized realities on the ground after the war."
Bremer said the objectives in Iraq went beyond "regime change" and President Bush made clear U.S. led forces were going to help Iraqis create "a New Iraq."
He said that for more than 30 years, Saddam used the army and intelligence services "to inflict misery, torture and death on Iraqis and their neighbors. The Baath Party was another important instrument of Saddam's tyranny."
"The fact that Iraq's new security forces are still not performing well enough to take full responsibility for Iraq's security underscores that creating a well-equipped, professional army cannot be done overnight," he wrote.
The article came after Allawi said the country would spend $2 billion to boost and train its security forces this year.
Iraqi forces are supposed to take security over when U.S.-led forces leave the country, but they are struggling even to protect themselves. Hundreds have been killed in bombings and ambushes by insurgents who brand them collaborators with foreign occupiers.
Security forces will face their biggest test when Iraq holds elections that have raised fears of a bloodbath.
Bush spoke to Allawi by telephone and both men agreed the election should go ahead as planned despite growing calls for a delay, U.S. officials said.
Leading Sunni Arab parties say they will boycott the poll because violence in the Sunni heartland will scare away voters and skew results to favor Iraq's majority Shi'ites, who expect to emerge dominant after years of oppression under Saddam.
But a low Sunni turnout could undermine the ballot's credibility. (Additional reporting by Lin Noueihed in Baghdad)
U.S. Army forces arrive to secure the scene of a roadside bomb attack in the northern city of Mosul, January 12, 2005. The bomb charred at least one Iraqi security vehicle and damaged another. The U.S. forces and Iraqi authorities had no immediate confirmation about casualties. REUTERS/Namir Noor-Eldeen
Convoy of U.S. and Iraqi Troops Ambushed
By JASON KEYSER, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents ambushed a convoy of American and Iraqi forces in the northern city of Mosul, detonating a roadside bomb and firing from a mosque in an attack that killed three Iraqi National Guardsmen, the U.S. military said Wednesday.
In Baghdad, U.S. forces detained six suspects in the Jan. 4 slaying of the governor of Baghdad province, Ali al-Haidari, the military said Wednesday. The suspects were detained Tuesday during a raid on a house in northern Hurriyah neighborhood.
Brig. Gen. Jeffery Hammond, assistant commander of the 1st Cavalry Division, which controls Baghdad, said he believed two of those detained were directly involved in the slaying.
Al-Haidari was the highest-ranking Iraqi official killed since the former president of the now defunct Governing Council, Abdel-Zahraa Othman, was assassinated in May.
In Mosul, the troops were bringing heaters and other supplies to a school when they came under attack on Tuesday, a military statement said. The convoy was first hit with a roadside bomb and then sprayed with gunfire from a nearby mosque. Three Iraqi troops were killed and six were wounded. No Americans were reported hurt.
Violence has surged in the run-up to Iraq's Jan. 30 election, and Mosul has been a major trouble spot in recent weeks. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Ayad Allawi acknowledged that parts of Iraq probably won't be safe enough for people to vote and said he plans to boost the size of the country's army from 100,000 to 150,000 men by year's end.
In an editorial published in the Wall Street Journal Wednesday, former Iraq administrator L. Paul Bremer defended the coalition's decision to disband Saddam Hussein's military after the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003 and bar senior members of the Baath Party from government jobs.
Some have criticized the move, saying it helped push out-of-work military men into the ranks of the insurgency. But Bremer cited past abuses against Iraq's Kurds and repressed Shiite communities as "monuments to Saddam's army's brutality toward Iraq's citizens."
He wrote that disbanding the army reassured Iraq's Kurds and was a decisive factor in convincing them to remain in a united Iraq.
"This decision ... signaled to the Iraqi people the birth of a new Iraq," Bremer wrote.
Allawi discussed preparations for this month's election by telephone with President Bush on Tuesday, and both leaders underscored the importance of going ahead with the vote as planned, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.
The prime minister said at a news conference that "hostile forces are trying to hamper this event."
Also Tuesday, gunmen stopped three trucks carrying new Iraqi coins south of Baghdad and killed the drivers, stole the money and set the trucks on fire, a police official said.
The attack occurred near the town of Salman Pak, some 12 miles southeast of Baghdad. The trucks were carrying the money from the southern port city of Basra to the Central Bank of Iraq in Baghdad, the official said on condition of anonymity.
Police searching the area found the three burnt trucks a few miles from the scene before discovering the three burnt bodies of the drivers, he said. The official refused to say how much money was in the trucks.
The Central Bank announced Jan. 1 that it would start circulating coins for the first time since Saddam's regime abolished them in the aftermath of the 1990 Gulf War. Coins were scrapped in 1991, when the international embargo sent Iraq's annual inflation rate soaring upward of 1,000 percent.
Meanwhile, a U.S. soldier was killed in action in Iraq's volatile western Anbar province, a military statement said Wednesday. The statement said only that the soldier, assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, was killed Tuesday. The unit is based at Camp Fallujah west of Baghdad.
The death brought to 1,356 the number of American troops killed in Iraq since the invasion in March 2003. At least 1,069 died as a result of hostile action, the Defense Department said. The figures include three military civilians.
A U.S. Army soldier arrives at the scene of a roadside bomb attack in the northern city of Mosul, January 12, 2005. The bomb charred at least one Iraqi security vehicle and damaged another. The U.S. forces and Iraqi authorities had no immediate confirmation about casualties. REUTERS/Namir Noor-Eldeen
U.S. troops have arrested six suspects in the assassination of Baghdad's provincial governor, the highest-ranking official hit so far in attacks to sabotage a Jan. 30 election, the U.S. military said on January 12, 2005. Acting on a tip from residents, soldiers seized the suspected insurgents on Tuesday in a house in western Baghdad, officials said. In this photo, a U.S. Army Bradley armored vehicle arrives at the scene of a roadside bomb attack in the northern city of Mosul on January 12, 2005. Photo by Namir Noor-Eldeen/Reuters
Bump
Mouwafak Al-Rubaie
Iraqi Insurgents Worried About Bin Laden
By SALAH NASRAWI, Associated Press Writer
CAIRO, Egypt - Osama bin Laden has vowed to turn Iraq into the front line of his war against the United States, but Iraqi insurgents seem worried that he's out to hijack their rebellion.
At times, the Iraqis and foreign Muslim militants seem to be competing. Media reports and Web statements have speculated that a Saudi carried out the Dec. 21 suicide bombing of a U.S. mess tent in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul that killed 22 people. But Ansar al-Sunnah, the homegrown group that took responsibility for that deadliest of attacks on a U.S. target in Iraq, named the bomber as Abu Omar of Mosul, a nom de guerre that pointedly claims him as an Iraqi.
Earlier this month, a posting on Ansar al-Sunnah's Web site told foreign militants to stop coming. The group, which defines itself as both nationalist and Islamic, said it needed money, not more recruits.
"We have concrete information that a sharp division is now broiling between" Iraqis waging a nationalist war and foreign Arabs spurred by militant Islam, said Mouwafak al-Rubaie, the Iraqi government's national security adviser. "They are more divided than ever."
Al-Rubaie said one reason was the perception among Iraqis that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant whom bin Laden endorsed as his deputy in Iraq, was of little help during the American onslaught on the Iraqi insurgent hotbed of Fallujah in November.
"Al-Zarqawi and his group fled Fallujah and let the Iraqis face the attack alone," al-Rubaie said in a telephone interview.
Some Iraqis may have drawn parallels between the debacle in Fallujah and what happened to Afghanistan after it became bin Laden's headquarters.
Since Saddam Hussein's regime was overthrown by the American-led war in April 2003, insurgents including foreign fighters have waged a guerrilla war aimed at forcing out U.S. troops. The Iraqi interim government says it has detained more than 300 foreign fighters, among them men from almost every Arab country.
Some streamed into Iraq shortly before the war, invited by a desperate Saddam. Muslim militants are believed to be behind some of the deadliest attacks against U.S. and Iraqi forces.
In a 33-page address last month, bin Laden, the Saudi-born millionaire-turned-terrorist, called for turning Iraq into an Islamic state that would eventually be part of a worldwide Islamic empire.
In the same message, though, he may have angered insurgents loyal to Saddam by calling the toppled president "a butcher" and "a tyrant." And naming a Jordanian as his deputy in Iraq would not have sat well even among Iraqis who share bin Laden's militant vision of Islam.
Bin Laden's message also scoffed at plans for Iraqi elections, saying democracy was un-Islamic. But Iraqi groups including Sunni clergy that had earlier called for boycotting the Jan. 30 vote now say they want to participate if a timetable is set for U.S. withdrawal.
"Bin Laden's problem is that he is far away from reality, he is a daydreamer. He is even blind," said Shadi Abdel Aziz, a Cairo University professor and author of "Continuity and Change in bin Laden's Thought."
Abdel Aziz said bin Laden's key mistake is to ignore that "people always put their national and personal interests first."
"In this part of the world people have several identities, Islam is only one of them and it does not necessarily come first," he said.
Bin Laden's problem in Iraq seems similar to what he faced in Afghanistan after the defeat of Soviet troops. While bin Laden wanted to follow up with a worldwide war on those he saw as Islam's enemies, some of the warlords who became Afghanistan's new rulers wanted the Arab fighters out.
Al-Rubaie, the Iraqi national security adviser, was an Islamic activist in his youth, but believes bin Laden-style Islam will fail to take hold in Iraq.
"They failed in Egypt, which is a more homogenous society, and they failed in Afghanistan when they had a state," he said. "How can they win here with all this religious and sectarian diversity?"
30th Brigade, 4th Iraqi Army Division, headquarters opens
Story by Spc. Sherree Casper, 196th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
TIKRIT Iraq - The new headquarters for the 30th Brigade, 4th Iraqi Army Division was opened here on Jan. 9.
Lt. Gen. Abdul Azziz Abdul Rahman Al Mufti, commander of the newly established 4th Iraqi Army Division, and Gov. Hamad Hamood, governor of the Salah Ad Din province, marked the milestone with a ribbon cutting ceremony.
The headquarters’ grand opening came only days after all of the Iraqi National Guard units in the country were absorbed into the sovereign nation’s new army.
“The assistance and good conduct toward the people by all of us and the Provincial Joint Coordination Center have made this province more secure and calm than the other provinces,” Azziz told Iraqi soldiers and Maj. Gen. John R.S. Batiste, 1st Infantry Division commander, during the event.
Azziz helped to uncase the colors of the newly established 4th Iraqi Army Division on Jan. 6. The event marked the 84th anniversary of the founding of the Iraqi Army, originally established on Jan. 6, 1921. Azziz said the Iraqi Army was a symbol of determination and independence.
Maj. Eric Frutchey, Iraqi Security Force officer for the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, noted the opening of the headquarters signified a historic day for the 30th Brigade, Iraqi Army.
Frutchey said the headquarters was “suitable for such a good and professional organization as a brigade headquarters in the Iraqi Army. You now have a headquarters building that is professional and very secure.”
The new headquarters is slated to receive new furniture, and 2nd BCT Soldiers are designing a new motor pool and parade ground for the facility.
“While these are little things, they will continue to make you a better and more professional organization,” Frutchey said.
“This is the most secure site for an Iraqi headquarters,” said Sgt. 1st Class Raleigh A. Koch, 30th Brigade, 4th Iraqi Army Division liaison for the 2nd BCT.
By Staff Sgt. Rebekah-mae Bruns, 39th Brigade Combat Team Public Affairs
TAJI, Iraq – The National Guard Bureau released its new policy on re-enlistment bonuses that took effect Dec. 14, 2004. The Army National Guard tripled its bonuses for possible returning Soldiers in an effort to keep the ranks filled.
Sgt. 1st Class Chris Burks, a retention officer currently stationed in Iraq with Arkansas’ 39th Brigade Combat Team, saw two to three Soldiers a month who were willing to raise their right hand for another stint in an organization increasingly relied upon for oversees duty. But since the new policy took effect, he has signed up 16 Soldiers within his brigade in just nine days.
“Money talks,” stated Burks bluntly.
The new policy raises six-year re-enlistment benefits from its original $5,000 to an unprecedented $15,000. Soldiers may also elect for a three-year extension to accept $7,500 rather than commit to a lengthy six-year obligation.
Over the past year, the National Guard has seen a large increase in the number of deployments and its growing need to retain Soldiers, Burks said. This need prompted officials at the National Guard Bureau to create bonuses proportional to the Active Army’s.
“These dollar amounts are unheard of,” Burks said.
The impressive sum of greenbacks isn’t for everyone, though. They are tied to critical job shortages throughout the Guard and select high action units. Each state identifies units that are critical, or are critically short in personnel and makes them eligible for the incentive, Burks said.
Jobs seen most crucial at this time generally include those combat related, such as the infantrymen, mortar men, and combat engineers. Others include vital military intelligence positions needed for the war on terror, such as analysts and linguists.
Soldiers like Spc. Melvin Wright, 34, of Conway, Ark., are lining up to sign re-enlistment papers in Iraq because if they re-enlist overseas, their lump sum bonuses are tax-free. Still, Wright, a 15-year veteran said he planned to re-enlist despite the attractive lure of money.
“You’ve got to like what you do first, because no amount of money is worth what you go through,” Wright said. “The job is very valuable and I don’t know how you could put a price tag on it. The money is just icing on the cake. Your real reward is protecting your fellow Americans.”
The National Guard has also doubled its initial enlistment bonuses trying to catch the attention of those coming into the force structure from high school and college.
“They have seen the dramatic drops in enlistments over the past year and saw the need to increase the amount of enlistment bonuses to attract young Soldiers,” Burks said.
National Guard and Army Reserve forces currently make up 40 percent of nearly 150,000 now serving in Iraq. Guard officials estimate the number of Army Reserves and National Guard troops serving on active duty will remain at upwards of 100,000 over the next two years.
HEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND
IRAQI, U.S. SOLDIERS ATTACKED BY INSURGENTS FIRING FROM MOSQUE
January 12, 2005 Release Number: 05-01-51 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MOSUL, Iraq – Soldiers of the Iraqi National Guard and Multi-National Forces came under attack while on a mission to deliver much needed supplies to a school in northern Iraq, Jan.11.
Soldiers of the 106th ING and the U.S.1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment came under attack during delivery of heaters and supplies to a school in Al Monsur. The troops were hit by a roadside bomb, and then were shot at by anti-Iraqi insurgents firing from the Saddam Mosque.
Three ING soldiers were killed and six others were wounded in the attack. The driver of the truck that was hit by the roadside bomb was killed, and according to a civilian reporter at the scene was the father of 10. The wounded were taken to a local hospital for treatment.
Firing from the mosque is a violation of the laws of war. Iraqi authorities have stated that those insurgents using a religious center as their headquarters or as a place to attack Iraqi Security Forces or Multi-National Forces will not be safe.
Iraqi Security Forces continue to work together with leaders and citizens of Iraq to make it a safe, prosperous, and democratic nation.
HEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES CENTRAL COMMAND
IRAQI POLICE COLONEL RESCUED BY CAVALRY UNIT
January 12, 2005 Release Number: 05-01-50 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The Soldiers of Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 9th Cavalry Regiment, rescued an Iraqi police colonel and his wife Jan. 8 after anti-Iraqi insurgents attacked the two on Baghdad’s notorious Haifa Street.
The colonel and his wife had returned to their recently-vacated apartment on Haifa Street that evening to fetch a few remaining items when two Iraqi police (IP) officers, serving as the colonel’s personal bodyguards, were attacked and killed outside the building.
According to the colonel, there were two vehicles carrying up to 14 insurgents. Six insurgents were seen entering the building after killing the two IP officers, but when the 1-9 Cavalry troops arrived at the scene 30 minutes later, the insurgents had already left the building.
Two suspicious individuals were detained outside the apartment building for further questioning. Both individuals were carrying the exact same ID card and one was in possession of a pistol.
After they cleared the apartment building and its two adjacent buildings, the Soldiers escorted the IP colonel and his wife in Bradley Fighting Vehicles to the nearest IP station.
Neither the colonel nor his wife was harmed in the incident.
[Pakistan News]: Islamabad: The plotter who escaped from military detention after being convicted of involvement in an attempt to assassinate Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf held a junior rank in the air force, a spokesman said on Wednesday.
According to foreign news agency, Mushtaq Ahmed broke out of a bathroom at the air force detention centre in the garrison city of Rawalpindi late last month after being sentenced to death for his role in an attempt to kill Musharraf in the city that adjoins Islamabad on Dec. 14, 2003. "He was a junior-level non- commissioned employee," said Air Commodore Sarfraz Ahmed, spokesmen for the Pakistan Air Force.
"Efforts have been launched to catch him." Ahmed declined to provide further details. Intelligence officials said Ahmed, who was convicted and sentenced in late November, escaped by smashing a bathroom window at the detention centre. They said guards had been detained for questioning. The military says up to four low- ranking army personnel and six low-ranking air force personnel are still on trial in connection with the first attempt.(ANI)
You'll enjoy these threads RC, there's a new one each day....
U.S. Scraps Iraq Weapons Search
Last Update: 1/12/2005 7:59:45 AM
United Press International
With little fanfare, U.S. President George Bush's highly publicized search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq ended before Christmas.
Officials with the Iraq Survey Group told the Washington Post the man in charge of the search, Charles Duelfer, is back in Washington writing his final report that pretty much reiterates his report from September that said there was nothing found.
"There's no particular news in them, just some odds and ends," an intelligence official said of Duelfer's finishing touches. "The Government Printing Office will publish it in book form in the spring," the official said.
The ISG interviewed every person it could find connected to programs that ended more than 10 years ago, and every suspected site within Iraq was searched, or stripped bare by insurgents and thieves, people involved in the weapons hunt told the newspaper.
Bush and his administration officials asserted before the U.S. invasion in March 2003 Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear weapons program, had chemical and biological weapons, and maintained links to al-Qaida affiliates.
Search for Banned Arms In Iraq Ended Last Month - washingtonpost.com
Race car innovation to aid chopper pilots' vision in Iraq:
Associated Press
January 12, 2005:
KANNAPOLIS, N.C. -- A protective windshield coating that improves visibility for NASCAR drivers is getting a new application on the windshields of Army Blackhawk helicopters flying combat missions over Iraq.
The clear plastic film - used to keep flying debris from ruining the view for race drivers - was pioneered by tiny Pro-Tint Inc., a company with just 14 employees that came up with tear-away windshield film in the late 1990s. The multilayer product is now used by virtually all Nextel Cup teams.
Instead of replacing a scratched and pitted windshield, race teams merely peel off a layer of the protective film to reveal a new, clear layer of film underneath.
Recently, Pro-Tint teamed up with United Protective Technologies, another small firm, to produce a thicker and more complex Mylar protective film for military helicopters.
Starting this month, the companies will start shipping the coating, which is to be installed on hundreds of Blackhawks flying in war zones like Iraq and Afghanistan.
In normal use, Blackhawk windshields last about two years. But the harsh conditions of the Middle East - where choppers are pelted with gritty sand and other debris - have reduced the average durability to under a year, the military has told Pro-Tint.
The Army hopes to save millions of dollars with windshield films. Advanced Screen Saving Aviation Layered Tear-away kits, as the military calls them, aren't cheap - about $1,000 - but they're a bargain compared to replacing a windshield, said Pro-Tint vice president Steve Fricker.
``This will double the life of a Blackhawk's windshield,'' Fricker said of the technology, which resulted from a three-year development effort with United Protective Technologies, based in the Charlotte suburb of Mint Hill.
Too small to be able to finance the cost of developing and testing a product that would suit the military's needs, Pro-Tint got help from the government, including $500,000 from the Defense Logistics Agency.
United Protective's Brent Barbee said when the project began, the developers hoped to use essentially the same kind of technology used for the racing teams. But United Protective's engineers soon learned the film needed by the Blackhawks would be similar in appearance only.
``We thought we could use their (Pro-Tint's) technology, but we could not,'' said Barbee. ``There were a million things that needed to be changed.''
For example, the adhesive material that holds the film onto the windshield had to be much stronger because the Army did not want the film detaching in mid-flight and hitting the chopper's blades or being sucked into an engine.
And the film needed to work even when the pilots used night-vision goggles. Some plastic coatings can distort their vision.
``Any pits in the window really interferes with the pilot's ability to see'' with night-vision goggles, Barbee said.
The film also had to be considerably thicker than that used on race cars - 7 millimeters instead of the NASCAR-standard 4 millimeters. And to maintain a clear view through the windshield, the engineers determined that only one layer of film could be installed on helicopters at a time, instead of the multiple layers used in NASCAR.
Both Barbee and Fricker believe the films will soon become a staple for military pilots.
``We know how to make it and we have shown we can make it work,'' Fricker said. ``NASCAR racing teams tend to be perfectionists. And we also are perfectionists, just like our friends in the military.''
http://www.startribune.com/stories/535/5182257.html
Honolulu Police Chief Boisse Correa helps unload soft drinks from the KC-135 tanker aircraft that flew local employers and government executives to Fort Polk, La., as guests of Employer Support of the Guard and the Reserve. The group will visit with Hawai'i reservists training there.
Reservists' bosses get up close at Fort Polk
By William Cole Advertiser Military Writer
Posted on: Wednesday, January 12, 2005
ALEXANDRIA, La. — The National Guard yesterday flew 28 employers to Louisiana on a KC-135R tanker to see some of the final stateside training that the 29th Separate Infantry Brigade will receive before the unit heads to the Balad and Baghdad areas of Iraq next month.
The Employer Support for the Guard and Reserve "bosslift" is one of several held each year, paid for by either the national or Hawai'i chapters.
Among those on the four-day trip to Fort Polk, La., and the Joint Readiness Training Center are Honolulu Fire Chief Attilio Leonardi and Honolulu Police Chief Boisse Correa.
Leonardi has five helicopter pilots in his department. Four are in the Hawai'i National Guard or Army Reserve.
Three were activated for duty overseas — and then the Guard came calling for a fourth. If Leonardi had lost that pilot, the department's helicopter rescue services would have been seriously hampered, he said.
Leonardi, a Vietnam veteran who deployed in 1968 when the Reserve's 100th Battalion, 442nd Infantry was called up, sought a waiver for the pilot and got one.
"The Guard was very accommodating," Leonardi said. Maj. Gen. Robert G.F. Lee, head of the Hawai'i National Guard, was personally involved.
The case shows the trickle-down effect here of the biggest call-up of Hawai'i reservists since Vietnam.
With about 2,500 Hawai'i Army Guard and Reserve soldiers preparing for deployment to Iraq, businesses and government are having to make do while formerly weekend warriors fight, or prepare to fight, the nation's wars on two fronts.
Lee said such soldiers will account for 55 percent of U.S. forces in the region.
The state's Department of Education and fire and police departments are among those with the most employees heading to Iraq.
Correa said 200 of his 1,800 police officers are in the Guard or Reserve; 49 have been activated.
"So far, we've been doing OK," he said. "It hasn't made a major impact, but if it goes any farther, it will."
Officers are cross-trained, there are contingency plans, and gaps can be filled. But if more are called up, some changes would have to be made.
"Maybe instead of five-day classes, we have three-day classes for certain programs," Correa said. "Some people doing investigative work would maybe have to be moved over to patrol."
Leonardi has four members of his department at Fort Polk with the 29th and nine who are already in Iraq or Afghanistan. About 58 of 1,140 members of the Fire Department are in the Guard or Reserve.
"The problem is, we can't replace them (temporarily). It takes us seven months to train a recruit," Leonardi said.
Depending on the needs of a station, off-duty firefighters might have to be called back at time-and-a-half to round out rosters.
"It costs the city a few dollars, but we're also part of the effort to support what they (the soldiers) are doing," Leonardi said.
That extra pay is offset by the temporary elimination of salary as Uncle Sam picks up the tab.
Leonardi knows firsthand the hardship of making the switch from weekend to full-time warrior.
"I know what the families are going through. I know what we went through (in Vietnam). It's the same process," he said. "We feel for the troops and what they have to go through — all the paperwork and having all your affairs in order before going to a combat zone."
Among the employers on the bosslift trip, Clinical Laboratories of Hawai'i has four employees now at Fort Polk.
Mauna Kea Resort on the Big Island has six. Safeguard Services has nine.
Hawai'i Air Guard Lt. Col. Ann Greenlee, executive director of the Hawai'i Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve and executive officer for the 154th Wing, said the goal of the program is to provide a firsthand look at the professionalism of the citizen soldiers and increase employer support "so they want to hire us."
Some employers seek out reservists out of patriotism.
"We have some employers who call us and say, 'We're looking for workers. Do you have anybody who would be interested in the jobs?' " Greenlee said.
Gary Rockwood, director of human resources for Mauna Kea Resort, has six employees activated out of 1,200 workers. Four work in grounds maintenance, one is a pool attendant, and one is a steward.
Supervisors aren't thrilled that they will be gone for 18 months or longer, but Rockwood said: "They will have their jobs when they return. I've told every one of them."
Rockwood wants to check on the training and equipment of his people at Fort Polk and make sure they are OK.
"I'm very happy to do this. I'm looking forward to it," he said. "I'm a retired Army colonel. If I could, I'd volunteer myself. I know what these guys are going through. I spent two years in Vietnam."
The Guard selected those with the most employees for the Fort Polk trip. The "bosses" paid $375 for lodging and meals.
Lee, the head of the Hawai'i Guard, said that in about 10 days, 100 soldiers from the 29th will be heading to Kuwait as an advance party. Most of the soldiers will convoy to the Baghdad and Balad areas in February and officially start their mission, and a year in Iraq, in March.
By Michael Georgy BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Departing from fiery Islamic slogans, Iraqi guerrillas have launched a propaganda campaign with an English-language video urging U.S. troops to lay down their weapons and seek refuge in mosques and homes.
The video, narrated in fluent English by what sounded like an Iraqi educated in the United States or Britain, also mocked the U.S. president's challenge to rebels in the early days of the insurgency to 'bring it on'.
"George W. Bush; you have asked us to 'bring it on'. And so help me, (we will) like you never expected. Do you have another challenge?," asked the narrator before the video showed explosions around a U.S. military Humvee vehicle.
Threats intended to demoralise and frighten in the tense build up to elections at the end of the month were tempered with invitations to desert and escape retribution.
A masked guerrilla from an unknown group called the Islamic Jihad Army, eschewing past impassioned Arabic-language threats of holy war, told U.S. soldiers: "This is not your war, nor are you fighting for a true cause in Iraq."
"To the American soldiers we say you can also choose to fight tyranny with us. Lay down your weapons and seek refuge in our mosques, churches and homes. We will protect you," he said.
There was no way of verifying the authenticity of the video obtained by Reuters.
Previous insurgent videos have been dominated by grisly beheadings of foreign hostages who kneel beside radical Islamic banners before their deaths.
The Islamic Jihad Army video featured familiar scenes of guerrillas blowing up U.S. convoys but also highlighted some of the key issues of the Iraq war, from weapons of mass destruction to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
"We have not crossed the oceans and seas to occupy Britain or the U.S. nor are we responsible for 9/11. These are only a few of these lies that these criminals present to cover their true plans," said the narrator, apparently referring to the Bush administration's assertion of a link between Saddam Hussein and those attacks.
A masked speaker with a machine gun beside him delivered his message to triumphant music with the ring of U.S. military propaganda films during World War Two.
He said the enemy was on the run as the video showed guerrillas firing on U.S. convoys, standing beside the corpse of an American soldier, or loading a large shell for an attack.
The U.S. military has said it would stay in Iraq until the country is by its definition secure.
The rebels focused on political issues that divided the United States and its European allies over the war in Iraq while reminding troops of casualties with images of burning trucks.
"We also thank France, Germany and other states for their positions, which we need to say are considered wise and valid until now," said the narrator, who also urged economic warfare against Washington.
"Stop using the U.S. dollar. Use the Euro or a basket of currencies," he said on the video dated December 10, 2004.
At least 1,067 U.S. troops have died in combat since the start of the war that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.
ULM, Germany (Reuters) - Police have arrested 22 people in a series of pre-dawn raids across Germany in pursuit of Islamic extremists suspected of helping militant groups and recruiting fighters for "holy war".
The operation was one of the biggest of its kind in Germany, which has stepped up surveillance of suspected extremists among its Muslim population of more than three million since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
Police and prosecutors said nationals of six Arab countries, Bulgaria and Germany were among the 17 men and five women held.
They told a news conference in the southern city of Ulm that some of those detained had ties to extremist groups such as Ansar al-Islam, which is fighting U.S. forces in Iraq, and that one had undergone militant training in Pakistan.
The suspects were believed to be members of a criminal group that was providing logistical support to Islamist networks, for example by supplying them with false passports.
"They worked collaboratively, highly professionally and conspiratorially, misusing mosques and other Islamic establishments as cover," police and prosecutors said in a joint statement.
They said the suspects were also accused of "spreading their beliefs in a manner that incites racial hatred, and of recruiting people for Jihad (holy war)."
MAJOR SWOOP
Security sources are concerned about links between local Muslims and international militant groups, and the extent of recruitment taking place in Germany. Last month, a 30-year-old Iraqi man was formally accused of recruiting fighters and arranging for them to travel from Europe to Iraq and back.
In a separate case, police last month arrested three Iraqi men suspected of planning to assassinate Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi during a visit to Berlin.
The investigators said Wednesday's raids, launched at 6 a.m. local time by 700 policemen across five of Germany's 16 states, were aimed at disrupting the logistics of the alleged extremists and were not prompted by intelligence about an imminent attack.
Five of the suspects were dealing in false French, Belgian and Dutch identity documents. One, an illegal immigrant, was using no fewer than eight false identities, they said.
Items seized included blank passports, computers, document-forging equipment and propaganda material.
Police searched 57 premises in an operation focused mainly on the western states of Baden-Wuerttemberg and North Rhine-Westphalia. They raided apartments, mosques and telephone centres used by foreigners to place cheap calls abroad.
Those arrested were Egyptian, Tunisian, Algerian, Libyan, Palestinian, Moroccan, Bulgarian and German.
Middle East countries are frustrated by U.S. policy in Iraq and feel too little is being done to end violence there, U.S. Senator John Kerry has said on a visit to the region. Kerry is pictured leaving the office of Yasser Arafat's successor in Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, January 10, 2005. REUTERS/Jerry Lampen
CAIRO (Reuters) - Middle East countries are frustrated by U.S. policy in Iraq and feel too little is being done to end violence there, U.S. Senator John Kerry has said on a visit to the region.
Kerry repeatedly criticised the Bush administration's Iraq policy during his failed bid to win the U.S. presidency from George W. Bush, who led the invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.
"All of the countries of the region have a significant stake in the outcome and yet they are frustrated," Kerry said in Cairo, where he met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
"They are frustrated because they don't feel that the steps necessary to be able to advance the stability of Iraq are really being taken," he said.
Kerry, who also met officials in Syria, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq and Israel, said Washington should do more to build up Iraqi security forces, which are often attacked by rebels fighting U.S.-led forces and the interim Iraqi government.
"We could be and we should be doing a very significant amount more military training," he said.
U.S. and Iraqi officials should take full advantage of an Egyptian offer to help train Iraqi security forces, he added. Egypt was currently training 146 Iraqi officers, but had offered to train 500 or more, he said.
"They offered to do so. It isn't happening and in the insecurity of Iraq I think it's critical to use every possible avenue of creation of stability forces as fast as possible," Kerry said.
"I think it's an excellent offer by Egypt. I think it's a welcome offer and I think it should be taken up, fast," he said.
Egypt has said it would not send troops to Iraq, but would help train Iraqi security forces in Egypt.
A young Iraqi boy gives Marines the thumbs up while visiting a small market on Michigan Street on Jan 8, 2005. Civilians have set up the market inside the city of Fallujah, Iraq, so the community can purchase fresh food and enjoy each other's fellowship.
United States Marines work to process Iraqi citizens entering Fallujah using the Biometric Automated Toolset (BAT), an identification system that involves taking thumbprints, a photograph of the face and a retinal scan, at Entry Control Point (ECP) 5 on the outskirts of Fallujah, Iraq on December 28, 2004. The Marines working in the room are part of Lima Platoon, 414 Military Police Company, an augmented reserve company.
USMC Lance Corporal Stephanie Ullman conducts a search on an amused Iraqi woman at Entry Control Point (ECP) 5 on the outskirts of Fallujah, Iraq. Lance Corporal Ullman is attached to the Females Searching Females (FSF) detachment for current operations. The FSF detachment is an augmented platoon made up entirely of female Marines who search the Iraqi women whose traditions would prohibit being searched by a male Marine. Utilizing the FSF detachment ensures that all entering Iraqis are properly searched while maintaining favorable relations with locals by respecting cultural differences.
U.S. Marines and Iraqi civilians hand out humanitarian items at the Humanitarian Assistance site in the Jolan district of the city of Al Fallujah during Operation Iraqi Freedom on January 4, 2005. The 1st Marine Division is currently engaged in Security and Stabilization Operations (SASO) in the Al Anbar province of Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
A young Iraqi girl smiles after U.S. Marines and Iraqi civilians gave her food, water, a coloring book and crayons at the Humanitarian Assistance site in the Jolan district of the city of Al Fallujah during Operation Iraqi Freedom on January 4, 2005. The 1st Marine Division is currently engaged in Security and Stabilization Operations (SASO) in the Al Anbar province of Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
A young Iraqi girl smiles after receiving a coloring book and crayons at the Humanitarian Assistance site in the Jolan district of the city of Al Fallujah during Operation Iraqi Freedom on January 4, 2005. The 1st Marine Division is currently engaged in Security and Stabilization Operations (SASO) in the Al Anbar province of Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
German police arrest 22 suspected Islamists
Hello!!
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli court has jailed five senior Islamists for passing money to Palestinian security prisoners and for contacts with the Hamas militant group committed to destroying the Jewish state.
The five men, including Islamic Movement founder Sheikh Raed Salah, were arrested nearly two years ago. All admitted helping prisoners, while two also admitted "contacts with a foreign agent". They were sentenced to between 2-1/2 and 4-1/2 years.
The case fuelled suspicion among Jewish Israelis about the loyalty of Arab citizens who make up about 20 percent of the population. Arabs have long complained of discrimination but have not been deeply involved in a Palestinian uprising.
Hamas has been at the forefront of a suicide bombing campaign that killed hundreds of Israelis since 2000.
Raed Salah was given a 3-1/2-year jail term, but is likely to be released in about six months for good behaviour. Some of the others are likely to be freed shortly because they had served most of their sentences since being arrested.
The court dropped charges of criminal conspiracy, passing information to the enemy and belonging to a terrorist organisation.
Israeli Arabs complain of official discrimination, a paucity of government funds for their schools and towns and high unemployment.
Volunteers paste election posters of independent candidate Mohammed Azzybaydi on wall in Baghdad
Militant Iraqi Cleric Challenging Mainstream Party for Shiite Votes
By Alisha Ryu Baghdad 12-January-2005
As Iraq's majority Shiite Muslim community prepares for elections at the end of the month, the voters face a choice between two distinct factions within the Shiite religious circle.
Inside an Internet café in the desperately poor Baghdad district called Sadr City, 37-year-old conservative Shiite politician Fatah al-Sheikh warmly greets his American visitors.
The internet café serves as the operations center for Mr. Sheikh's new political party called the National Independent Cadres and Elites, better known by its English acronym, NICE.
Smartly dressed in a western suit, it is hard to believe that only a few months ago, Mr. Sheikh was the press officer for radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, which fought pitched street battles with U.S. troops here in Sadr City and in the southern holy city of Najaf.
Fatah al-Sheikh, who also edits a local newspaper called Sadr Rising, says he now represents the side of Mr. Sadr's movement that seeks progress through politics. As head of a slate of candidates for the new Iraqi National Assembly, he says he wants to empower the impoverished people of his community through political legitimacy, not armed rebellions.
"Let me be clear about what we are," Mr. Sheikh says. "We believe we represent the foundation of Iraq's future. We are the true Iraqi patriots and we know what is good and right for our people."
Mr. Sheikh is careful to say that his party is not directly representing Moqtada al-Sadr in the elections. In Shiite Islam, it is considered improper for senior religious figures to involve themselves in the affairs of government.
But Mr. Sheikh and his running mates openly discuss their devotion to the cleric, who, many observers say, has been quietly encouraging his senior followers to put down their guns and to enter Iraqi politics.
This vast, ethnically insulated slum of nearly three million mostly-Shiite Muslims is fertile ground for the Sadr movement as it builds its political base.
Moqtada al-Sadr is the son of Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq Sadr, for whom the neighborhood was re-named after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Ayatollah Sadr was assassinated in 1999 and many people believe he was killed by Saddam Hussein's agents because of his frequent public criticisms of the dictator's brutal regime.
But the elder Sadr was also known for his strong public disagreements with Iraq's most senior Shiite spiritual leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who preached against openly provoking Saddam. In 1993, Grand Ayatollah Sadr broke away from Mr. Sistani's inner circle to begin his own, more militant movement, urging Shiites to actively resist anyone who tries to oppress them.
The bad blood between the Sadr faction and the Sistani faction grew worse following the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Mr. Sistani's decision to cooperate with the Americans in formulating a political future for Iraqi Shiites drew the wrath of Sadr followers, who accused Mr. Sistani of appeasing to occupiers.
While Mr. Sistani pushed for elections, the young Moqtada al-Sadr called on Shiite men to take up arms and fight the occupation. Thousands died in fighting with U.S. troops.
Now the Sadr branch is competing in the elections too, with a Western-style campaign that would have been suicidal under Saddam's regime.
Like a veteran politician, the Sadr City candidate, Fatah al-Sheikh, visits different areas of the slum daily, meeting residents and encouraging them to speak out about their problems.
After listening to a man complain about the city's chronic gasoline shortage, Mr. Sheikh promises that he will work to bring greater economic benefits to this long-neglected neighborhood.
The politician also emphasizes that Sadr City is where he grew up and that Mr. Sistani could never speak for the people in this community. He says the followers of the elder Sadr and his son should not forget that Ayatollah Sistani has refused to condemn the American occupation.
Who will the millions of people in Sadr City vote for? Mr. Sheikh asks. I tell you confidently that they will give their votes to me, to my party, and to Moqtada al-Sadr, he says.
Despite Mr. Sheikh's prediction, there are many residents in Sadr City, like construction worker Sabah Jaseem Alwan, who say they are not ready to abandon the revered Grand Ayatollah Sistani.
Mr. Alwan says he will support Ayatollah Sistani in the elections because he is a wise religious scholar. He says he believes Moqtada al-Sadr does not yet have the credentials to lead the Shiite people.
Ayatollah Sistani's followers have put together a powerful slate of candidates that Shiites in Sadr City are finding hard to ignore.
Known as the United Iraqi Alliance, the party represents Iraq's two largest Shiite religious parties. The leading names on the slate are well known followers of the ayatollah and although Mr. Sistani himself does not make endorsements, he has indirectly offered support and has issued a holy decree, telling Shiites that it is their religious duty to go to the polls on election day.
Seats on the 275-seat Iraqi National Assembly will be apportioned according to the number of votes received by each candidate list. So it is likely that both Shiite wings will be represented and will carry forward their differences into meetings halls in downtown Baghdad.
Powell Sees Troops Returning This Year:
Posted on Wed, Jan. 12, 2005:
BARRY SCHWEID
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - American troops will begin leaving Iraq this year as the Iraqi army, national guard and police force take on a larger security role, says Secretary of State Colin Powell.
"But I cannot give you a timeline when they will all be home," Powell told National Public Radio in an interview released Wednesday by the State Department.
There are some 150,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, many of them under fire, and casualties have been mounting.
Powell also ruled out any U.S. move to postpone elections scheduled Jan. 30 in Iraq to choose an interim legislative assembly.
The interim government in Baghdad and the Iraqi election commission want to move ahead with the election and so do the people, Powell said in the interview, which was conducted on Tuesday.
"We cannot delay the election because there are terrorists and murderers and former regime elements who are trying to keep that election from happening, to delay it," he said.
Taking a pessimistic view, a senior Jordanian diplomat on Tuesday had questioned the validity of the elections that Iraq is due to hold at the end of the month if many Iraqis do not vote.
More than 40 percent of Iraqis will be unable to participate in electing an interim assembly, said Karim Kawar, Jordan's ambassador to the United States, adding, "This raises questions about the authenticity of the elections."
The Arab diplomat said some of the Iraqis would be prevented from voting by threat of insurgents while others lack the will to vote.
"We are in a kind of bind," Kawar said during a discussion at the Nixon Center. "I am not as optimistic about the Iraqi election as I was about the Palestinian election."
Jordan, which borders Iraq and has had a long and profitable economic and strategic relationship with its much larger, oil-rich neighbor, has trained more than 35,000 Iraqi police in the past year, but refuses to be part of the U.S.-led military coalition that is fighting insurgents.
Jordan also has given haven to more than 300,000 Iraqis.
"Iraqis are best situated to protect themselves," Kawar said of dealing with the insurgency. He said Jordan cannot afford a failure in Iraq. "A failure would bring instability to the whole region," the envoy said.
In Baghdad, meanwhile, Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi said some areas of the country probably would be unsafe for voting. It was his first public acknowledgment that the interim government could not gain control of key areas controlled by insurgents.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher, responding to the assertion, said, "There may be some various locations where it is difficult for people to vote."
But he said the goal of Iraq's election commission is to give all Iraqis a chance to cast ballots. Boucher said there were nearly 15 million registered voters and 6,000 polling places. "So there is ample opportunity, I think, for everybody in Iraq to try to express their viewpoint," he said.
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/breaking_news/10627147.htm
Iraq Pipeline Watch:
Attacks on Iraqi pipelines, oil installations, and oil personnel:
http://www.iags.org/iraqpipelinewatch.htm
Thank you Good Afternoon America friend
Good Afternoon :)
Be strong America good country good good strong good come again :}}}} Be strong!!!!Thank you
al Sabah news page (english):
http://www.alsabaah.com/iframe.php?file=http://www.alsabaah.com/English.html
Thank you, anonymoussierra!
Former militia chief vows Baathist purge:
Ned Parker
January 13, 2005:
A former militia chief who is now on Iraq's front-running Shiite coalition electoral list vowed mass purges of ex-Baathists from the security forces if the powerhouse political alliance sweeps the January 30 national polls.
Hadi al-Amri, the head of the erstwhile military wing of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri), warned that Iraq's security forces had been penetrated by allies of the old Baath party regime.
And he criticized United States-backed interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's strategy of rehabilitating Saddam Hussein's security agents.
His remarks highlighted the growing possibility of a power struggle between religious Shiite parties and secular political elements after the January 30 elections.
The sweeping policy of government purges and dissolving Saddam's army in the early days of the US-led occupation helped fuel the 21-month-old insurgency in Iraq's Sunni community, which enjoyed prestige under the old regime.
Allawi's tenure has been marked by efforts to bring the Sunni community back into the fold despite objections among the country's Shiite religious majority over the extent of outreach to those associated with Saddam's regime.
That a political fight could ensue was clear after the latest comments by Amri, whose political grouping is poised to dominate the 275-member parliament due to be elected at the end of the month.
``Not all the Baathists are criminals, but some have committed crimes against the Iraqi people and they should not be allowed back,'' said Amri, the head of Sciri's Badr Organization and a member of the interim parliament.
He called the policy a colossal mistake and said the return of Baathists to the interior ministry, intelligence services and army would come back to haunt Iraq. ``You'll regret it,'' he said. ``The Baathists are known for stabbing people in the back. Unfortunately, the [US Central Intelligence Agency] is supporting them and they'll regret it.''
Amri proposed instead that his Badr Organization's militia men join the security forces en-masse in a model similar to the incorporation of Kurdish peshmerga militia fighters in the north.
The idea has been championed by Sciri leader Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, who is the top candidate on the Shiite candidate list, the Unified Iraqi Alliance. ``We can bring security in the nine southern states just like the Peshmerga has done in the north and we can help in Baghdad,'' Amri said.
He guaranteed that the Badr Organization would no longer take orders from Sciri, but would instead take its direction from the government.AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/stdn/std/World/GA13Wd04.html
Good pix ~ thanks!
Bump - Great pics - Thank you :)
|
|
 |
||
|
A man and woman, guarded by Iraqi soldiers, erect a banner showing support for the upcoming Iraqi national elections, in the southern city of Basra on January 12, 2005. Iraq (news - web sites)'s Jan. 30 elections are likely to be 'less than perfect' due to violence but the United States is working with Iraq to encourage the broadest possible participation, the White House said. The United States has cautioned that guerrilla action in four of 18 Iraqi provinces could disrupt voting in Iraq, but has rejected appeals from Sunni politicians that the elections be postponed because of attacks from Sunni Arab insurgents who are escalating bombings and assassinations to sabotage the national ballot. (Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters) |
|||
|
|
 |
||
|
Soldiers march past the coffins of perished Ukrainian servicemen during a mourning ceremony at the military ground of Boryspil airport near Kiev, January 12, 2005. The Ukrainian military on Wednesday paid last respects to eight soldiers of Ukraine's peacekeeping contingent who were killed in an explosion on January 9 in Iraq (news - web sites). REUTERS/Gleb Garanich
|
|||
|
|
|
||
|
Soldiers stand at attention next to the coffins of perished Ukrainian servicemen during a mourning ceremony at the military ground of Boryspil airport near Kiev, January 12, 2005. The Ukrainian military on Wednesday paid last respects to eight soldiers of Ukraine's peacekeeping contingent who were killed in an explosion on January 9 in Iraq (news - web sites). REUTERS/Gleb Garanich |
|||
:}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}Thank you
January 12, 8:15 PM:
Rocket shot into Japanese camp in Iraq; no injuries:
A rocket was fired into the Japanese troops' camp in southern Iraq Wednesday but did not explode, the Defense Agency said. There were no injuries or damage, it said.
A large explosion was heard in the early hours of Wednesday. An inspection after daybreak found an unexploded 107-millimeter rocket with its fuse still attached in an open area within the camp, said an agency spokeswoman on customary condition of anonymity. An agency spokesman had earlier described the projectile as a rocket-propelled grenade.
Wednesday's attack follows an unidentified explosion heard the previous day and comes amid concerns that an escalating insurgency across Iraq is threatening Japan's troops.
The defense agency spokesman said it was the third time that a projectile had breached the Japanese camp in the southern city of Samawah. Other attacks appearing to target the camp have also been reported on several occasions.
Some 500 ground troops were deployed to Samawah in early 2004 to supply clean water, rebuild infrastructure and provide medical supplies.
Many Japanese are deeply opposed to the mission, fearing the troops will get caught up in fighting or make Japan a terrorist target.
The pro-U.S. Japanese government argues that the dispatch is needed to help stabilize Iraq, secure vital Middle East oil flows to Japan, and insists Samawah is stable. Last month, it extended the troops' one-year mission in Samawah for another 12 months.
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/050112/ap/d87ih9uo0.html
America strong persons ping Thank you
You're welcome!
I do want write this again I do read what America news information write, I do read what my country news informations write, many many that what that persons do not know is not truth what that persons write. I do know truth! America strong persons Iraq,Afganistan that persons is strong that is what is good!!! I will remember you America strong persons I will remember I will remember that you are good strong persons!!!! Thank you!!! Big big big strong good come again:}}}}}}}}Thank you
Thanks, anonymoussierra!
Interview on NPR With Juan Williams
Secretary Colin L. Powell Washington, DC January 11, 2005
MR. WILLIAMS: Mr. Secretary, thanks for giving us this time.
SECRETARY POWELL: My pleasure, Juan.
MR. WILLIAMS: Mr. Secretary, Iraq will hold elections on January 30th. Are you giving any consideration, is the Administration giving any consideration to a delay of those elections, given the ongoing violence, the threats against voters, as well as the military saying they can't assure that there will be adequate security in 4 of the 17 provinces in Iraq?
SECRETARY POWELL: No, and the reason is because the Iraqi Interim Government and the Iraqi Election Commission wants to move forward with these elections and all the polling that we have seen and that we have been able to do makes it clear that the Iraqi people want to have an election. And we can't delay the election because there are terrorists and murderers and former regime elements who are trying to keep that election from happening; to delay it, it means they win.
Now, there are security problems and we've been in almost nonstop meetings for the last couple of days reviewing those problems, and the coalition forces are adjusting their tactics and strategy and deployments to try to deal with these security problems, as are Iraqi forces. And we hope that the Iraqi people will come out in resounding strength, not only in the 14 provinces that are secure, but in the others as well, to make a clear demonstration to the murderers that they will not succeed.
We faced the same situation in Afghanistan a few months ago, where people said, it's too insecure. Folks will not come out. And they did. They came out, and they faced danger, and they had a successful election. Fourteen million Iraqis are now registered.
MR. WILLIAMS: Now, once the elections take place is that enough for the U.S. then to begin considering the pullout of military forces?
SECRETARY POWELL: The U.S. deployment there is related to the security environment and our deployment will start to drawdown as the security environment improves, and we hope that with the continuing buildup of Iraqi forces they can take on a greater proportion of the burden, and thereby, we can start pulling back.
But also, if there is an elected government that really reflects the will of the Iraqi people and it is not a government that's been put in place by the coalition or by UN resolution, that should serve to also improve the security situation because the Iraqi people know it's their government that's being assaulted not an appointed government, appointed by either the U.S. coalition or the United Nations. And so, our size and our deployment will be a function of the security situation, and as I say, that will be a function of how quickly we improve the capability and grow the size of the Iraqi forces.
MR. WILLIAMS: Are there concrete benchmarks that you have in mind, in terms of the progress of that Iraqi government, that will signal when the U.S. can begin to pull down its level of troops, as well as its level of involvement in Iraq?
SECRETARY POWELL: Well, I would like to see our troops come out as quickly as possible. The Iraqis would like to see our troops come out as quickly as possible. But it's not possible right now to say that by the end of 2005, we'll be down to such and such a number. It really is dependent upon the situation. But with the money we're putting into the growth of the new Iraqi army and national guard and police force, I believe that during 2005 they will be able to assume a greater burden and with the assumption of that greater burden, the burden on our troops should go down and we should start to see our numbers going in the other direction. But I cannot give you a timeline as to when they'll all be home.
MR. WILLIAMS: Do you have any concern about troop levels, at this point, to achieve a secure environment?
SECRETARY POWELL: Well, our troop level is fixed by our commanders. They are satisfied with the troop level as it is now. The issue now is not more American troops or coalition troops for the long haul, but more Iraqi troops for the long haul, and that's where all of our resources and energy are now going.
MR. WILLIAMS: You've just returned from looking over the disaster caused by the tsunami. You have a piece in Foreign Policy magazine on long-term foreign aid, and economic development is key now to U.S. foreign policy. Is the tsunami a part of that story, and is it sure to continue given that you won't be here shortly?
SECRETARY POWELL: Yeah. The President over the past four years, and I'm pleased to have been the Secretary of State, to be his agent, to make this happen, has doubled development assistance to the developing world. You tell that to people and they can't believe it. They think, well, you guys are not doing what you should be doing in the developing world. We are. We have doubled the amount of development money going. We have created a new program called Millennium Challenge Account. You know, it started off with a billion dollars a year, and it's going to be growing in the years ahead, focusing on developing countries that are committed to democracy and human rights and the rule of law and economic freedom.
*We're also putting $15 million into HIV/AIDS, the greatest weapon of mass destruction. Now, why do I link these two together, development aid and HIV/AIDS? Because it all relates to poverty alleviation. It all relates to helping these developing countries create functioning economies and a healthy population so that this healthy population can be educated using this development assistance and they can create conditions within the country that will then attract trade and allow them to participate in an open trading system.
All of this is designed to break countries out of the pattern of just receiving aid and never really improving the lives of the citizens of that country. Along comes something like the tsunami, an unprecedented natural disaster that affected roughly, you know, about 12 countries, over thousands of miles and a couple of continents, and development is immediately set back, especially in a place like Banda Aceh. Conflict is underway there and Banda Aceh and northern Sumatra and Indonesia looks like a small atomic bomb went off, scraped clean homes, mosques, bridges, cars, people, just gone; the same thing in Phuket, a resort area in Thailand, or in parts of Sri Lanka, and that sets them back economically and development-wise.
So that's why it's so important that this massive outpouring of aid we have seen from the international community be used to reestablish these communities, rebuild the infrastructure so that they can get about the business of economic development and helping their people to a better life.
MR. WILLIAMS: Now, when I asked the question, I was thinking in terms of economic development, foreign aid, as part of a way of dealing with anti-American sentiment and making sure that there isn't a ground that would hold anti-American sentiment. Do you think in those terms?
SECRETARY POWELL: Yeah, I certainly do. If, such as we have seen in the last couple of days, Americans are seen as people who come in time of need to help a people in need, and we are seen as compassionate, and we are compassionate, we are seen as generous, and we have always been generous, then I think that not only goes a long way toward helping these people out of the difficulties they find themselves in, but also in creating a better impression about the United States Government.
I've made it clear in all of the speeches I have given recently that what we are doing in South Asia is not being done because there are Muslims in need, but because there are humans in need, most of them, many of them happen to be Muslims, not all of them, some are Buddhists. And that's what America is all about. That's what our value system is about.
Sometimes our value system is mistaken and not looked upon properly by people around the world. They think that all we're interested in is preemption; all we're interested in is counterterrorism. But if you look at what we have done over the past four years, we have been interested in poverty alleviation, economic development, the rule of law, democracy, HIV/AIDS, measles, going after these root causes of distress throughout the world that keep people down, in order to deal with these root causes and allow people to rise up. And I think that is as much an impression of America as any of the negative impressions that are out there.
MR. WILLIAMS: Well, do you worry with your departure that this emphasis on aid and the message it sends to the world will be in decline and that instead other centers of power operating in the U.S. Government will instead focus solely on anti-terrorists measures?
SECRETARY POWELL: No, because everything that we have done in the areas that I've just discussed were done at the initiative of the President. This was the President's foreign policy not Colin Powell's foreign -- Colin Powell doesn't have a foreign policy. The Secretary of State or Secretary of Defense, they do not have foreign policies. It's the President's foreign policy which he creates and formulates and executes in the name of the American people, and this President with, I must say, with a little modesty, [inaudible] he has been in the forefront of these kinds of issues because he believes in these issues. So it was not a hard sell with President Bush. And Dr. Rice, who is replacing me, has a commitment to these kinds of issues as well, so I'm not concerned about that.
MR. WILLIAMS: Palestinian elections, Mr. Secretary, what is the U.S. role in advancing talks now between Israel and the Palestinians in the aftermath of Mr. Abbas' election?
SECRETARY POWELL: We're very pleased at the outcome of the election. A couple of reasons: One, there was an election and it went well and went peacefully and it was fair. That was a major accomplishment. We know Mr. Abbas quite well. He was the prime minister last year and we invested in him at that time, and it didn't work out the way we would have liked because of Mr. Arafat's barriers that he put up by his presence, and now that he is gone Mr. Abbas is President of the Authority and he has already reached out to the Israelis. The Israelis have reached out to him, and so they now can be partners for peace.
The United States is a member of the group called the Quartet, which developed this roadmap for both sides to follow, stands ready to engage fully. President Bush has spoken to Mr. Abu Mazen and he invited him to come to the United States when he's ready to come to the United States, and we are going to do everything we can to help both sides reach out to each other and to get into the roadmap. The roadmap is the path to peace. It's the way to reach that goal that we have all, and that's a Palestinian state for the Palestinian people, a state that is living side by side in peace with Israel.
MR. WILLIAMS: Given the elections in Afghanistan, Iraq, now Palestine, do you see democracy as moving apace in the Middle East and is the route to Middle Eastern peace?
SECRETARY POWELL: It's a very complicated question but it's interesting that U.S. presence in Afghanistan has produced a democratic election and the U.S. presence in Iraq is going to help the Iraqi people do the same thing at the end of January. So there are these elements of democracy in terms of open, free, fair elections, and the same thing in the Palestinian part of the Middle East and people are being able for the first -- are able for the first time to choose their own leadership.
This is a new feature in the Middle East, and I think it's a good feature, but there are a lot of other things going on in the Middle East and we have been supporting it. We were one of the co-chairs of something called the Forum for the Future, which deals about reform in each of the Middle East countries. Now, what we have to be careful in discussing this is not to say America knows a right way for each of these Middle East countries to reform and you all just listen to us.
No. America has experience, America has resources, so do the other nations of the industrialized world, and we want to help the nations of the Greater Middle East and North Africa decide how to move forward with their reform. But they have to decide it. We'll help them. We'll give them guidance. We'll give them counsel. We'll give them support. But each one of these nations is so unique with its own history, culture, background and desires and aspirations that we have to help them as they decide how they wish to reform, and my experience with them over the last four years is every one of these nations know that they must reform. They have young people who want jobs and there are not enough jobs.
The greatest crisis in the Middle East today is not just the crisis between Israel and the Palestinians, the greatest crisis is unemployment, and the only way you solve unemployment is with economic development. In a 21st century globalizing world, the only way you get economic development is if you have a reformed society, resting on the rule of law, and if you have educated young people and you are creating jobs for these educated young people, and all that means is you have -- all that means you have to reform your societies to keep up with the rest of the world.
And this is not something the Americans came upon. The Arab Development Report says this. Arab experts analyzed their situation and said, we must reform, and now the United States and its partners in the industrialized world want to help the nations of the Greater Middle East and North Africa region reform.
MR. WILLIAMS: Speaking of Africa, you just came back from signing a treaty in Africa, in Sudan, but the conflict and what we have heard you refer to as genocide in Darfur continue. What is the prospect there?
SECRETARY POWELL: Well, let me start with the agreement you made reference to. I was one of the witnesses of the agreement. It was a comprehensive peace agreement signed between the Government in Khartoum, Sudanese Government, and the SPLM, the southern movement led by Dr. John Garang, bringing to an end 20 years of conflict between the north and the south. This is very good and we should celebrate this. But it doesn't deal with the conflict out in the west in Darfur, which is causing such distress. But at least this conflict is on its way to resolution, and therefore we can now focus our attention on the problem in Darfur.
I am deeply concerned about Darfur. I did characterize it as genocide last September, when I made that determination. It seemed to us to meet the qualifications or the criteria for genocide and we so called it. Now, we're waiting to see if the UN agrees with that judgment. They sent a commission in, based on the United States' determination.
But whether you call it genocide or not is not the issue. People are suffering. People are still being forced off their lands, out of their villages into these camps, and we have to work to get the Sudanese Government to stop what they are doing in supporting the Jingaweit militia and we also have to get the rebels on the other side to stop what they are doing so that we don't have, you know, a response and a counter response and then a counter response.
And so, we're working with the UN and our partners in the Security Council to put additional pressure and even the threat of sanctions against the Sudanese Government to stop what they are doing and using a political process that is being sponsored by the African Union and the UN to get political reconciliation between the rebels and the Government in Khartoum.
MR. WILLIAMS: Two last questions, Mr. Secretary: One, do you have three bits of advice for your successor, Dr. Condoleezza Rice?
SECRETARY POWELL: Oh, yeah, more than three, but because they are bits of advice, I think I'll wait and give them to her privately.
MR. WILLIAMS: Do you have any concerns about her coming into this job? And people have questioned whether or not she is simply loyal to the President and doesn't have the sufficiently large [inaudible] worldview.
SECRETARY POWELL: Well, she is very loyal to the President and I've been very loyal to the President. It's one of the preconditions for being a cabinet officer. You're expected to be loyal to the President.
But I've known Dr. Rice for many, many years. She is a gifted foreign policy expert. She speaks Russian. She has great experience in European affairs. And over the last four years, as National Security Advisor, she has had -- she has gained great experience in all parts of the international portfolio. And so, I'm confident that she will be a terrific Secretary of State, and we have worked very closely over the last month and a half in the transition. And I will look forward to her arrival. And I will step offstage at that time.
MR. WILLIAMS: Do you think she's sufficiently respected in councils of the highest levels of American Government to act as a counterweight to ideas that may come from Defense, from other elements, where you were considered a man who had different ideas and were able to counter some of those [inaudible].
SECRETARY POWELL: Condi Rice has been National Security Advisor to the President of the United States sort of coordinating all of us within the National Security community for the last four years. So the answer to the question is: Yes, she's very well known in the capitals of the world and she certainly brings the toughness and experience necessary to deal with strong and different points of view. But now her challenge is not to just deal with strong and different points of view and coordinate them, she is now one of them.
MR. WILLIAMS: Really. Now, finally, you have spent your entire career in public service and many people wonder what's next. Will you continue to perform some kind of public service?
SECRETARY POWELL: Well, I'm still figuring that out. I have served in government for 40 years; 35 years as a soldier, more than 35 years now, 4 years as Secretary of State. I have also served in the Department of Energy. I have served in the Office of Management and Budget. I have served in lots of places in government, and I think public service in some capacity will always be a part of my life, whether I'm in government or not.
I think the volunteer work that I have done in the past, and I may be involved in the future, is a form of public service. As long as you're making a living and also using your time and talent to make that living, but also give something back to your community and the society that you're a part of, then you are performing public service. And I will always perform public service in some manner.
MR. WILLIAMS: When you look back now over that public service, you think back to other administrations that you served in -- you were even a White House Fellow, I believe.
SECRETARY POWELL: I have been in federal government at a senior level in every administration since Richard Nixon.
MR. WILLIAMS: When you look back -- I was thinking about --
SECRETARY POWELL: It's pretty scary, Juan, I know. That's a long time.
MR. WILLIAMS: (Laughter.) Well, you look back and you think of the relationship, I was thinking, between George Schultz, Casper Weinberger, and then the people who say, oh, well, look at the relationship between Secretary of State Colin Powell, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, are there any parallels there in the tensions and disputes?
SECRETARY POWELL: A President is well-served when he has cabinet officers who have different points of view and who are secure enough in who they are, and who are secure enough in their relationship with the President that you can argue out these points of view. A President is not well served when he has people in his cabinet who have points of view but are not prepared to argue those points of view forcefully for fear that it might leak or it looks like members of the cabinet are squabbling. [Inaudible].
It's the way our founding fathers designed the system. What makes it work is that the founding fathers also told us who was in charge. And that was the individual who was elected by the United States citizenry to be the President of the United States. And all that we do and all of the disagreements we have -- and we are mostly in agreement rather than disagreement -- but you and your colleagues never find anything interesting to write about our agreements. But notwithstanding the disagreements we may have, there is a judge. There is a refugee. He's called the President. And it's his foreign policy that we're formulating, not ours.
MR. WILLIAMS: Is there one legacy that you would like people to identify as your legacy as Secretary of State?
SECRETARY POWELL: You guys are the ones who deal with legacy formulation. I just hope that as you do it, you'll say this is a guy who really loved his country and worked hard for it.
MR. WILLIAMS: Mr. Secretary, thank you for your time. You're very gracious. Thank you, sir.
SECRETARY POWELL: Thank you, Juan.
MR. WILLIAMS: Good luck to you.
SECRETARY POWELL: Take care. 2005/54
Thanks anonymoussierra, great pics.
Iraq News]: Although no decision was made regarding a military operation against the terrorist organization Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) taking shelter in northern Iraq, at a "three-way security meeting" attended by Turkey, Iraq, and the US in Ankara, a consensus was reached to cooperate on three issues.
The three countries agreed to share all types of intelligence, obstructing the financial resources of the terrorist organization, and the holding of technical expert meetings to evaluate precautions to be taken. Turkey put the possibility of a military operation aimed at the terrorist organization on the table and asked that the PKK's efforts to politicize in Iraq be prevented. The US expressed its opinion on the matter to the Turkish side by saying: "It will be done, but the timing is important."
The possibility that the two political parties formed by the PKK might participate in the Iraqi elections was also raised during the meeting. Ankara conveyed its demand that these parties be excluded from the elections. Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Hamid Al-Bayati, the head of Iraqi delegation, responded positively to the demand: "They want to participate illegally in the elections, this cannot be accepted." One of the two parties that was included on a list of parties planning to participate in the Iraqi elections and examined because of its situation, is the Kurdistan Democratic Solution Party (PCDK) formed by Osman Ocalan. The meeting was attended by Ambassador Osman Koruturk, leading the Turkish delegation, US Department of State Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Ambassador Laura Kennedy, leading the US delegation, and lasted about five hours. The US and Iraq emphasized that the priority is "providing internal security in Iraq and holding the Iraqi presidential election on January 30th in a healthy way;" they asked that a military operation against the PKK be postponement to a later date. Bayati said: "Military precautions, as well, will be made in the end, but our priority is the continuation of negotiations and exchange of information." Following the meeting, Bayati announced that a general "amnesty" was discussed and that the members of the terrorist organization who have not committed any crimes so far may benefit from it. Bayati said: "I suppose the Turkish side will notice this." Turkish sources, meanwhile say the issue was related to the situation of those who have been at the Mahmur Camp since the early 1990s.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
