Posted on 05/27/2005 6:27:26 PM PDT by TexKat
Coalition soldiers of the Combined Joint Task Force 76 search a village near Kandahar City in Afghanistan, May 21, 2005. The soldiers were in the area to participate in a Coalition Medical Assistance Program but it was cancelled when their convoy came under attack by small arms fire. U.S. Army soldiers and the Afghan National Army participated in the search for weapons that could be used against Coalition forces. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Jerry T. Combes
"I'm back in the saddle again until this donkey (computer) decides it wants to give me trouble again. I'll be here as long as it wants to act right."
Perhaps a short description on what is going wrong, may lead someone to offer a solution to the ailment. Of course if you decided to posts a request for help you should provide a hardware description, operating system, firewall and anti virus programs you use. If you are using a windoze based ops, and have hard drives that are almost full, not enough ram, the system must use swap space, to even stay running etc., perhaps you simply are taxing the system to much and it just gets locked up. Help can be difficult to provide in a concice way depending on what the symptoms consist of, but perhaps there is a solution to your problem.
A TV grab taken from Dubai-based al-Arabiya channel shows an image posted on the website of a militant Sunni Muslim group of the bloodied body of a man it said was Japanese Akihiko Saito. Relatives and officials confirmed that a man shown in a video released by Islamic militants in Iraq was a missing Japanese security contractor, but could not verify the fighters' claim he was dead.(AFP/Al-Arabiya
34-year-old Hironobu Saito, brother of Akihiko Saito, speaks in a press conference in Chiba, 28 May 2005. Saito confirmed an image of the body released by Islamic militant Sunni group was his brother, Akihiko. Relatives and officials confirmed that a man shown in a video released by Islamic militants in Iraq was a missing Japanese security contractor, but could not verify the fighters' claim he was dead.(AFP/Toshifumi Kitamura)
I have had to service techs out, but just like a child that you take to the doctor, it is back up and doing well at those particular times. I thought that one of my neighbors cable thief had something to do with it. However the tech disconnected the neighbors self installed connection but I am still having intermittent problems. I am operating with Windows XP, Surfboard 4100 cable modem.
(AP)
28 May 2005
RAMALLAH - In the absence of a plan to coordinate on Israel’s Gaza Strip withdrawal, the Palestinian Authority said on Saturday that it has begun to recruit an additional 5,000 men to its security forces to safeguard the area during and after the pullout.
Their mission will be weakened because they won’t be armed, owing to Israeli restrictions on the number of weapons Palestinian security forces can carry, Interior Ministry spokesman Tawfiq Abu Khousa acknowledged. Abu Khousa urged Israel to let other countries supply the Palestinian Authority with additional weapons, as they have offered to do, if it wants maximum security in the coastal strip.
An Israeli Defense Ministry spokeswoman did not return a call seeking comment.
Both Israel and the Palestinian Authority are afraid Palestinian militants might open fire on Jewish settlers and soldiers during the evacaution, scheduled to begin in mid-August, and that any homes and businesses left standing would be looted.
A high-level meeting Monday between the two sides on coordinating the withdrawal ended without agreement. But last week, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon urged the Palestinians to work with Israel on the pullout, and a senior Israeli military official said he expects the two sides to start coordinating soon.
Israeli radio stations reported Saturday that US President George W. Bush wants his security envoy to the Mideast, Army Lt.-Gen. William Ward, to work on coordinating Israel’s pullout with the Palestinians. Israel Army Radio said Ward, who is due to visit the region again, would also discuss Israel’s refusal to let the Palestinian Authority acquire more weapons.
Abu Khousa said Palestinians would secure the area with or without a coordination plan.
The new recruits, aged 18 to 22, will undergo a 45-day training course that will begin as early as next month, he said. The Palestinian Authority is looking for young men because it needs recruits capable of carrying out physically demanding missions, he added.
Some 16,000 Palestinian security personnel already operate in Gaza.
Abu Khousa also said a Palestinian man killed in an explosion in the northern Gaza Strip died while handling explosives. Residents identified the man as a 21-year-old member of the militant group Hamas.
In other news, the Israeli Cabinet is to vote Sunday on releasing an additional 400 Palestinian prisoners, a senior government official said Saturday.
A ministerial committee will later compile the list of prisoners to be freed, the official said. No one directly involved in deadly attacks on Israeli targets will be released, but Israel might be more flexible than in the past and free prisoners who haven’t yet completed two-thirds of their terms, he said.
Sharon promised last week to seek approval of the release, which was part of a truce agreement he and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas concluded in Feburary.
Israel freed 500 prisoners shortly after the truce, and had promised to release 400 more. But that and other gestures toward the Palestinians stalled as Israel demanded that Abbas do more to rein in militants.
The fate of prisoners has been a source of friction between Israelis and Palestinians.
(Reuters)
28 May 2005
GAZA - A Palestinian militant was killed and two others were wounded when explosives they were handling blew up prematurely in the Gaza Strip early on Saturday, Palestinian medical and security sources said.
A Palestinian security source said a militant from the Hamas group was killed in what he described as a “work accident”, when an explosive device blew up prematurely outdoors in the northern Gaza Strip.
The Islamic militant group Hamas identified the man who died as a 21-year-old field commander and said he was killed doing his “jihadic duty”.
It said he had been manning a Hamas position near the Jewish Elei Sinai settlement but gave no further details.
Hamas, a militant group sworn to Israel’s destruction, says it remains committed to a de facto truce declared by President Mahmoud Abbas in February.
On Friday, Palestinian militants detonated a roadside bomb against an Israeli armoured personnel carrier near the Erez Crossing in northern Gaza.
Nobody was wounded in the incident, a rare such attack against Israeli forces since Abbas declared the de facto truce.
Israel plans to remove all 21 settlements from the occupied Gaza Strip and four of 120 in the West Bank. It has urged the Palestinian Authority to ensure there are no attacks on troops or settlers during the pullout, which begins in mid-August.
Israeli military sources said the army had not been operating in the area of the Gaza Strip where the blast occurred.
The mother (L) and wife of assassinated Sheikh Nayef Sabaane al-Juburi cry at their home during his funeral in the northern city of Kirkuk, 225 kms from Baghdad. The sheikh was shot dead outside his home by unknown gunmen.(AFP/Marwan Ibrahim)
Arab leader shot dead in Kirkuk
28/05/2005 Reuters
KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) - Gunmen have shot dead a former member of Kirkuk’s city council, Iraqi police said on Saturday, the latest killing of a local official in a city where tensions between Kurds and Arabs run high.
Naif Sabhan al-Jibouri, an Arab tribal leader and former council member, was shot dead outside his home late on Friday, police colonel Adil Zain al-Abdein said.
Jibouri was said to have developed good ties with Kurdish officials on the council, which Kirkuk’s deputy mayor suggested might have been a reason for the killing.
Over the past two years, more than a dozen local leaders -- including Kurds, Arabs and Turkish-speaking Turkmen -- have been killed in Kirkuk, a city that draws wealth from huge nearby oil resources and which is claimed by all three groups.
The city lies about 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad.
There are fears any explosion of tensions in Kirkuk could provide a spark for a larger ethnic conflict in the country, but so far local animosities have largely been held in check.
Kurds make up about 20 percent of Iraq’s population and live mostly in three northern provinces, where they have their own regional government and enjoy a high degree of autonomy.
Ultimately, Kurdish leaders would like to see Kirkuk assumed into the Kurdish region and made its capital, goals that Arab leaders would staunchly resist.
Well I'm glad to hear the problem is not with your system.
My older brother had a similiar problem for a few months. The techs replaced his outside cable more then once, check in door wire, DLS modem etc.. to no avail. Turns out it was a bad connection at a local box where the neighborhoods DSL cables terminated. If this problem persists which it appear it will, perhaps you can ask your service provider to make sure no one tampered with the DSL local hub, where ever that may be located. This type problem seems to be not at all uncommon. I used to have constant problems with dial up modem services when phone people would add new wire sets for new homes in my area. Sloppy installations by phone techs must be always considered, especially in areas where new homes are going up. At least you know your inside wiring is ok, at this point, assuming they tested it. Bottom line is my bro had identical problem, and the problem was a bad connection in a box many miles from his home.
Blackanthem.com, WASHINGTON, D.C., May 28, 2005
Current operations in Iraq are serving two important purposes, the Joint Staff's deputy director for regional operations said today during a Pentagon press briefing.
Recent and ongoing operations such as Matador, Squeezeplay, Hudson and New Market, Brig. Gen. Carter F. Ham pointed out, "have focused on disrupting enemy activities."
"And they've also provided opportunity for the Iraqi security forces to gain valuable experience," he said.
Before coming to the Joint Staff, Ham commanded Task Force Olympia based in Mosul.
He said that the Iraqi defense minister's announcement today about a massive security sweep to begin in Baghdad conveys the growing confidence and capability of Iraqi security forces.
Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita agreed. "We are gaining confidence in the security forces. This operation in Baghdad made people feel pretty good about ... how at least in Baghdad the capability of the Iraqi security force is developing."
Ham said there has been no decision whether U.S. troop levels, currently at about 139,000, will increase or decrease. He added that there will be a temporary small increase because units will overlap as they are rotated in and out of Iraq.
Though the focus is often on Iraq and Afghanistan, it's important not to forget that the war on terrorism is a global war, the general said.
He noted that Pacific exercise SEACAT, currently under way, involves six Southeast Asian nations. "This is training that is designed to enhance the capability to track and board vessels that are suspected of transporting suspicious persons - terrorists - or material that may support those terrorists."
On another issue, Di Rita warned against believing that the Syria-Iraq border was secure just because the Syrian ambassador reported that arrests had been made.
"The fact that there may have been some people picked up on the Syrian side of the boarder may be such as the Syrian ambassador described it," he said. "But it should by no means persuade anybody that that border is a secure border. It is a highly porous border."
Ham said he wished he could be definitive on the reported whereabouts of and injuries to terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
"I'd love to be able to confirm or deny that. We do not have independent corroboration of the statements from the Iraqi government officials," he said. "I would also note though that it's important to put this in context. While Zarqawi certainly is an important character, his organization is bigger than just one guy."
Al Qaeda in Iraq will not collapse with Zarqawi's demise, whether he be captured, which would be preferable, or if he's killed or wounded, Ham said. The Zarqawi network has cells throughout Iraq and "I would expect that if he were incapacitated, killed or captured, that there would be some decision-making as to who would step up and take his place. But I don't know who that individual's name is."
But Ham noted that al-Zarqawi "is the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, and clearly his capture or removal from that position will have a significant effect on al Qaeda in Iraq."
Ham mentioned that the upcoming holiday is a time to remember those who sacrificed protecting the country and its freedoms.
"I think it's important as we look forward to Memorial Day ... to remember those who have fallen in the service of their nation and their families who have made such a great sacrifice. We really owe them more of a debt than we can ever repay."
By Samantha L. Quigley
American Forces Press Service
Thanks for that info Marine_Uncle. I will relay that info to the tech who is due out again on Wednesday.
WASHINGTON, May 27 (UPI) -- The U.S. military is developing miniature electronic sensors disguised as rocks.
The disguised sensors can be dropped from an aircraft and used to help detect the sound of approaching enemy combatants, the London Financial Times has reported.
The devices, which would be no larger than a golf ball, could be ready for use in about 18 months, the paper said. They use tiny silicon chips and radio frequency identification, or RFID, technology that is so sensitive that it can detect the sound of a human footfall at 20 feet to 30 feet. RFID technology uses radio signals that are sent from a silicon chip to a remote sensing device.
The project is being carried out by scientists at North Dakota State University, which has licensed nano-technology processes from Alien Technology, a California-based commercial manufacturer of RFID tags for supermarkets, the Financial Times said.
The new sensors would be made cheaply enough to be left on the ground without need for retrieval by soldiers.
Jessica Cawvey and her daughter, Sierra, in a photo taken at Cawvey’s graduation from boot camp at Fort Jackson, S.C., in May 2002. Jessica’s father, Kevin Cawvey, said, “She tried as best as she could to hide from us the fact that she was scared all of the time (in Iraq).” (FAMILY PHOTO )
By Mary Delach Leonard Of the Post-Dispatch 05/29/2005
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - For 6-year-old Sierra Cawvey, there have been many memorial days since her mom, Sgt. Jessica Cawvey of the Illinois Army National Guard, was killed in Iraq last October.
On this occasion - an Arbor Day tribute on a brisk April morning - Sierra stood beneath a young purple ash tree freshly planted in a memorial grove at Parkland College in honor of her mother, a dean's list student who earned an associate degree in business administration in 2003.
Sierra's grandparents, Kevin and Sandy Cawvey, both 44, watched proudly as her fellow first-graders from the Judah Christian School in Champaign crowded tightly around her in their matching purple T-shirts. All eyes were on Sierra, and although she stumbled a bit over the bigger words, she seemed to have little trouble reading a card promising that from this small start would grow a beautiful tree 50 to 60 feet tall, turning reddish purple in the fall.
The Arbor Day ceremony was an exciting event for Sierra, a blond and bright-eyed whirlwind of energy who had sat as quietly as she could manage while speakers acknowledged her mother's sacrifice. Among the other honorees that day was Parkland graduate Sgt. Shawna Morrison, who had died in Iraq in September.
"These young women believed in freedom and sacrificed themselves for their beliefs," said college president Zelema Harris.
Both soldiers belonged to the 1544th Transportation Company based in Paris, Ill., a unit that served nearly a year in Iraq and suffered the most casualties of any Guard unit of its size - 5 killed in action and 39 injuries, 32 of those caused by enemy action, said Lt. Col. Tim Franklin, a public affairs officer for the Illinois Guard. The company deployed from Paris on Dec. 7, 2003, with 148 soldiers, 34 of them women.
Morrison, 26, of Paris, was the first woman to die in service with the 1544th. Cawvey, 21, was the first military mother from Illinois to be killed in Iraq.
Among the family and friends who attended the tree dedication were two of Jessica Cawvey's Army buddies - Spc. Jodie Rund and Spc. Jolene Wright- who had bunked with her at their base outside Baghdad.
When the 1544th returned in February, the Cawveys took Sierra to the homecoming celebration in Paris, about an hour-and-a-half drive from their home in Mahomet, about 10 miles from Champaign. Along Main Street in Paris, the names of unit members still hang from lampposts, with black ribbons signifying the five who died in Iraq, including Jessica Cawvey.
"I was very happy for that unit to come back," said Sandy Cawvey. "Just the fact that they are safe. We didn't want anyone else to be dying."
They plan to attend an awards ceremony for the 1544th on June 11, even though she expects that it will be "another crying day."
There have been many such days for the Cawveys since their daughter died in a roadside explosion on Oct. 6 in Fallujah.
But on this day, Sandy and Kevin Cawvey said they tried - and nearly succeeded - to hold back their tears. Because Sierra doesn't like it when they cry.
Of the 1,644 U.S. troops who have died in Iraq, 35 were servicewomen. Three of those were from Illinois, none from Missouri. Nearly 300 servicewomen have been wounded.
Although Pentagon policy bars women from being assigned to direct ground combat units - infantry, armor, artillery and special forces - an estimated 10 percent of U.S. forces in Iraq are women, many assigned to support duties like those of the 1544th Transportation Company.
Because of the nature of the insurgency, where enemy forces are as likely to attack supply convoys as infantry, a proportionately larger number of U.S. servicewomen have fallen victim to hostile fire in Iraq than in any previous conflict.
That sparked a recent debate in the House Armed Services Committee and a move, led by chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., to limit the role of women in combat zones. But under pressure from the Pentagon and a bipartisan group of legislators, the plan was dropped in favor of a measure that continues to let the Pentagon decide staffing, as long as Congress is told in advance. Women make up 15 percent of the U.S. Armed Forces.
Kevin Cawvey says he thinks he knows what his daughter would say about the issue: She would want to be able to do her job.
"I, of course, would have liked to see her in a safer job, but I would have supported her in what she wanted to do," he said.
The insurgency was heating up when the 1544th reached Iraq in March 2004. Shortly after arriving, the unit suffered its first casualty, Sgt. Ivory Phipps of Chicago, who was killed by mortar fire. Spc. Jeremy Ridlen of Maroa died in May.
By June, when Jessica came home on leave, the Cawveys had noticed a change in their daughter, who had spent four months driving convoys in Iraq.
Then-Spc. Cawvey (she was promoted posthumously to sergeant) had already survived a close call in which she was thrown from her truck after the driver became impaired, Kevin Cawvey said.
"She sprained both her ankles, and once she hit the ditch they came under enemy fire," he said. "When she came home on leave her ankles were still swollen."
Her parents said she had matured while in Iraq, but they noticed something else, too.
"She tried as best as she could to hide from us the fact that she was scared all of the time over there," said her father, although she confided her fears to her older brother, Kevin, 23. The Cawveys also have a younger son, Josh, 18, who just graduated from high school.
"She was jumping at loud sounds, like fireworks," said her father. "A car backfired once, and she flinched."
"She went to the ground," added Sandy Cawvey.
"But they weren't trying to put her in harm's way," she said. "It's just if you're there, you're in harm's way."
Doing her duty
Those who knew her agree that Jessica Lynn Cawvey was energetic and fun.
"I always thought she was brilliant because it never looked like she did any homework and she always got straight A's," said her mother.
She was a "daddy's girl" who for a time referred to Kevin Cawvey as "Daddy better."
"Meaning 'Daddy better than Mom,'" said Sandy Cawvey. "She just so adored him."
After Jessica was killed, Sandy Cawvey found an unopened letter in Jessica's belongings, written in September after Sgt. Morrison and Spc. Charles Lamb of Martinsville were killed in a mortar attack on their base, Logistical Base Seitz, located west of Baghdad.
"She told us we were the best family ever, and that I was the best mom ever. And that we showed so much love and support and that she really appreciated that. It was a nice thing to get after she died."
The Cawveys have helped rear Sierra since her birth; her father is not in the picture, said Kevin Cawvey.
"Jessica was always a very good mother," said Sandy Cawvey. "She had a goal. She said, 'I'm going to finish school. I'm going to make good money. I'm going to support my daughter.'"
When her unit was deployed, Jessica had just transferred to Illinois State University in Normal; she planned to become a certified public accountant.
Because Jessica was just 17 and had a child when she enlisted in May 2001, the Cawveys had to give their permission.
"We thought, why not? She's being responsible. She was going to school full time and she also had a job," said Sandy Cawvey. "I just thought it was good for her to get a little extra money, and it would help her through college. Nobody ever thought that she would go to Iraq and die."
So in the summer before Sept. 11, Jessica joined the Guard, along with her friend, Jodie Rund, who Jessica met while attending Parkland.
"I don't think she would have enlisted if she knew she would get called to war," said Sandy Cawvey. "But when she got activated, she felt it was her duty. She signed up for it, and it was her responsibility. She didn't try to get out of it."
Rund, 26, who is resuming her education at the University of Illinois, laughed when asked why she and Jessica enlisted. "For the college money - and to get in shape," Rund said.
But after the terrorist attacks, they both became more patriotic and gung-ho about their role in the military, and if their unit was going to Iraq, they wanted to go, too, she said.
"We were excited to go - we'd never been anywhere. And this was something we could do that was fulfilling," Rund said. "You are actually doing something. You were helping people. For Jess and me, this was huge. We could be heroes."
In harm's way
At the homecoming celebration for the 1544th in February, the commanding officer proudly told the throngs of well-wishers that his company had completed more than 1,200 missions and driven more than a half-million miles during deployment in Iraq.
Jessica Cawvey did her share, performing such diverse duties as radio operator, driver and gunner, according to her platoon leader, 1st Lt. Jennifer Fallert.
"Spc. Cawvey had a knack for finding unique ways to stay positive, such as posing for funny pictures with her close friends and platoon members," Fallert wrote in an e-mail interview.
Rund and Wright, who shared quarters with Cawvey, say she was always in good spirits and making light of bad situations.
"I have never known anyone like her," said Rund. "Jessica was hilarious - the funniest person I ever met in my life."
Since returning home, Rund and her husband, Thaddeus, who live in Champaign, sometimes volunteer at Sierra's grade school.
Wright, 22, who also lives in Champaign, remembers Jessica playing recordings of Sierra for her bunkmates and giving them drawings her 6-year-old had made for them.
Sometimes, Sierra would read books like "Clifford" to her mom over the phone.
The friends found ways to pass the time when they weren't on the road, said Wright. They played volleyball, calling their team the "Pink Chicas" and wearing makeshift uniforms they had designed.
"We lost every game, but our outfits were really cute," Wright said.
Sometimes, she and Jessica would play music and weave beaded bracelets and necklaces; Jessica sent one home to Sierra. And when care packages arrived, they'd eat because you never knew when the next one would arrive - Easy Mac and popcorn were their favorites.
Spc. Jessica Cawvey was killed when a large explosive device placed inside a vehicle by the side of the road was detonated as her convoy passed, according to Fallert. Cawvey had volunteered to go as an assistant driver and communications operator because another friend was going on her first mission, and she wanted to lend her support.
"It was devastating when we found out," Wright said. "It wasn't real to me until they held the memorial service."
Rund said that she went online to read what people were saying about her friend on Web sites.
"There was this radical group that was writing about this mother who was 21 and who didn't know what she was getting into," Rund said. "Because she was 21, female and single they decided the military had taken advantage of her, had lied to her. It wasn't any of those things. Jessica loved her daughter, but she had goals, too, and she wanted her daughter to have a better life, and the veterans benefits would help. Jessica wanted to help out."
The Cawveys keep the medals and ribbons their daughter earned during her military career in a special wooden box. Sierra recognizes many of the ribbons, and as she showed them to a visitor, she called them by name: "Good Conduct . . . Purple Heart . . . Bronze Star . . ."
"Why did she get that one?" asked her grandma, pausing. "Because she died."
"I still cry every day"
Among the pictures the Cawveys attached to posters for their daughter's funeral service are happy scenes from her childhood and teen years: Jessica all dressed up. A school dance. Getting ready for work at Dairy Queen.
There are also photos of Army life and an entire poster devoted to mother and daughter. A photo of Jessica holding a snake when the circus came to town delights Sierra.
"She was really tall, and she was tan," said Sierra when asked about her mom. "She was always fun to play with."
But the most powerful image was taken at Willard Airport in Champaign on July 7, the last day of Jessica's two-week leave that got her home in time for Sierra's birthday, on the Fourth of July.
Dressed in desert tan camouflage, Jessica had bent down to give her daughter a kiss before heading back to Iraq. Sierra was wrapped in a bright blue print blanket that Jessica had made for her birthday. Sierra still sleeps with that blanket and with a pillow her mom used in Iraq.
"This was the last time she ever saw her," said Sandy Cawvey. "It was her last kiss goodbye."
The night before, say the Cawveys, Sierra had pestered her mom to pinkie swear that she would come back home. Jessica was hesitant; they believe she knew she might not return.
Sandy Cawvey, who wears a silver cross that contains some of Jessica's ashes, says she never thought her daughter would die in Iraq.
"We just really thought that God was going to take care of her. She'd had so many close calls, our faith just got stronger."
When the knock came at 6 a.m., Kevin, who works for Aramark uniforms, had already left for work. Sandy, who works as a registered nurse at Provena Covenant Medical Center in Urbana, was still in her pajamas, and Sierra had come into her bedroom to watch cartoons.
"And then I saw them, and I knew," she said.
She paged Kevin, and Sierra hid in the kitchen.
"I didn't cry, but she did," said Sierra, pointing to her grandma.
"I'm just like a water fountain," Sandy Cawvey told her. "I still cry every day, but my doctor said it's normal. I just don't cry around you. I cry when I go to work and I cry when I come home because those are the only two times I'm by myself all day."
The Cawveys say they are grateful for the outpouring of support they received from their community and even from strangers after their daughter died. An organization based in Chicago paid for Sierra's tuition so she could attend the Judah Christian School; a fourth-grade class from Urbana raised donations for her trust fund, at Main Street Bank and Trust in Champaign.
As war continues in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Cawveys say it is important that Americans remember their troops.
"'Support Our Troops' means keeping in mind that they're still there," said Kevin Cawvey. "And they're there for this country, whether you believe in why the president sent them there or not."
Thu May 26, 5:17 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US government said it has placed the Islamic Jihad Group on its list of international terrorist organizations, saying the group had carried out several bombings in the central Asian republic of Uzbekistan.
"This is a group you might not be familiar with, but it's active in Central Asia. It broke away from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, and it is responsible for coordinated bombing attacks," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters.
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) is a "specially designated global terrorist organization" listed by the United Nations.
Boucher said the Islamic Jihad Group (IJG)) was behind the bombings of the US and Israeli embassies in Tashkent as well as the office of the Uzbek prosecutor general that killed at least two people and wounded nine in July 2004.
The IJG "claimed responsibility for these attacks and indicated that future attacks are planned," Boucher said later in a statement. The group "continues to target Americans and US facilities overseas and is a dangerous threat to US interests," he added.
In March and April 2004, IJG suicide bombers "attacked a popular bazaar and other locations in Tashkent," Boucher said, "resulting in the deaths of more than a dozen police officers and innocent bystanders and dozens of injuries."
The attackers, which included female suicide bombers, "targeted the local government offices of the Uzbekistani and Bukharo police, killing approximately 47 people, including 33 terrorists.
"These attacks marked the first use of female suicide bombers in Central Asia," Boucher said.
Suspects arrested in connection with the 2004 attack "have testified to the close ties between the IJG leaders and (Al-Qaeda terror network leader) Osama bin Laden and (Afghan former Taliban leader) Mullah Omar," Boucher said.
According to Kazakhstani officials "the IJG members were taught by Al-Qaeda instructors to handle explosives and to organize intelligence work and subversive activities," Boucher said.
Uzbek President Islam Karimov, in power since 1990, has repeatedly dismissed Western calls for an international investigation into a May 13 crackdown in the eastern city of Andijan in which witnesses, human rights groups and opposition activists claim as many as 1,000 people may have been killed.
Iraqi men prepare to fire their weapons in a traditional salute at the funeral for five Shi'ite men in the southern town of Diwaniya May 28, 2005. Insurgents killed 10 Iraqi Shi'ite pilgrims as they returned from Syria earlier this month, angry relatives said on Saturday, fuelling tensions after a series of apparently sectarian mass killings. REUTERS/Jafar Sadiq
Ten Shi'ite pilgrims killed in Iraq, relatives say
28 May 2005 11:23:37 GMT
Source: Reuters
DIWANIYA, Iraq, May 28 (Reuters) - Insurgents killed 10 Iraqi Shi'ite pilgrims as they returned from Syria earlier this month, angry relatives said on Saturday, fuelling tensions after a series of apparently sectarian mass killings.
Relatives of five of the dead in the Shi'ite town of Diwaniya said a convoy of pilgrims had been stopped and 10 people -- five from Diwaniya and five from Hilla -- taken away by gunmen who said they wanted to question them.
Days later, relatives of the missing men returned to look for them and were led to a grave where the 10 bodies were buried, Diwaniya residents said.
Tensions between Iraqi Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims have been inflamed over the past few months by the discovery of scores of bodies, killed execution-style and dumped.
Since the insurgency began, most victims of such mass killings have been Shi'ite, but recently many Sunnis have also been killed.
The Muslim Clerics Association, an influential Sunni Arab group, has openly accused a militia loyal to one of Iraq's main Shi'ite parties of being behind the killing of Sunnis.
Sunni and Shi'ite groups have held talks over the past few weeks to try to defuse the tension.
Invasion Compared To 9/11 Strikes
POSTED: 4:11 pm EDT May 26, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The CIA is conducting a secretive war game to practice defending against an electronic assault on the same scale as the 9/11 attacks.
Those taking part in Operation Silent Horizon said the three-day event is designed to test the ability of the government and others to respond to escalating Internet disruptions.
The simulated attacks are being carried out five years in the future by a fictional alliance of anti-American organizations.
The most serious pretend damage is expected to be inflicted in the war game's closing hours Thursday.
"Silent Horizon" and is meant to scope out the ability of government and industry to respond to a targeted Internet disruption that may last over several months.
Details of the exercise were provided by participants who spoke to The Associated Press on condition that they not be identified.
The event is being staged in Charlottesville, Va.
Pfc. Jurell Snyder of San Jose, Calif. searches a house in the Tamim section of Ramadi, 115 kilometers (70 miles) west of Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, May 19, 2005. Soldiers searched for weapons in this city, located on the principal highway connecting Syria, an alleged source for insurgents. (AP Photo/Jacob Silberberg)
Iraq-Soldiering On As Memorial Day approaches, some U.S. soldiers worry, others remain optimistic
(Ramadi, Iraq -AP, May 28, 2005 3:15 PM) _ Sgt. Shawn Biederman is simply trying to survive the next two months and make it home. His unit mate, Spc. Brent Short, has just signed up for a one-year extension.
As another summer of searing heat bears down on Iraq, many soldiers in this troubled Sunni-dominated region of central Iraq say they remain as committed as ever to winning the war, however long it takes. Others fret about missing newborns' first words or precious time with young wives.
Still others worry about the slow pace of creating an Iraqi force to relieve them, and say they aren't sure they are accomplishing anything real.
"We want to hand it over to them. But when it comes down to it, the (Iraqi police) we're hiring are all bad," said Army Sgt. Nicholas Radde, 21, of LaCrosse, Wis., as his soldiers took a break from the heat in the parking lot of an abandoned storage area.
Despite two interim Iraqi governments, a national election and the graduation of thousands of Iraqi soldiers, U.S. troops remain the ultimate security force in most of Iraq, more than two years after the U.S.-led invasion.
Earlier this month, when U.S. Marines led a major assault against insurgents near the Syrian border and lost nine troops, the Iraqi forces played a secondary role.
As the elected Iraqi government tries to coax a wary Sunni Arab population into joining the new political system, American soldiers continue to raid homes, patrol neighborhoods and hurriedly train Iraqi soldiers -- the faster the better if they are to get home soon.
But a resilient Sunni-led insurgency has effectively stalled progress, killing thousands of Iraqis.
In Shiite- and Kurdish-dominated areas, some Iraqi forces are starting to operate independently, but at a frustratingly slow pace. In Ramadi, capital of Iraq's most troubled province, Radde and his soldiers have seen a tougher fight.
Radde decided against re-enlisting in the Army, saying he has barely seen his wife since they exchanged vows. But even after deployments in Afghanistan, Korea and nearly a year in Iraq, he still clearly enjoys soldiering, quickly hopping out of his Humvee to set up a sniper position when a report comes in of suspicious people along a road.
Other soldiers are eagerly re-enlisting, and some are even asking to stay in Iraq longer. Short, 22, of Odessa, Texas, who has already served 10 months in Iraq, requested a one-year extension.
"I think it's going well here," said Short, dismounting from a gunner's turret atop a baking Humvee after his unit detained a man suspected of making fake Iraqi passports.
A fellow soldier called Short "insane" for asking to stay longer in Ramadi, but Short said he wanted to put his knowledge of the city of 350,000 to use -- and acknowledged that the death of his best friend influenced his decision.
A picture released by the US Marines shows a US Marine posting security down a street in the city of Ramadi, 100kms west of Baghdad(AFP/USMC/HO)
"If I leave here, I think it'll be unresolved," he said in hushed tones.
Short and Radde belong to the Army's 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry, 2nd Infantry Division, which served in Korea for nine months before being sent straight to Iraq.
That means most have been home only about a month since autumn 2003.
The soldiers have about two months left in Iraq -- barring an extension -- before they hand off to the Pennsylvania National Guard.
"A lot of us are just trying to survive and make it through the next two months," said Biederman, 27, of Philadelphia, riding in the back of a Bradley Fighting Vehicle. He has an infant daughter back home.
To some soldiers in the 1st Battalion, the mission in Iraq is critically important to the United States.
"Every day that we're here it makes the region safer and it makes the U.S. safer," said Sgt. 1st Class Jefferson Pridgen, a career Army soldier from Lakeland, Fla.
But other soldiers in the same unit express unease about the state of Iraq, particularly around Ramadi, where many Iraqis are either sympathetic to the insurgency or too afraid of retribution to tip off the military to the presence of fighters.
Residents look through the holes of a U.S. armoured vehicle which was hit Sunday night by a roadside bomb in the al-Tamim area of Ramadi, about 113 kilometers (70 miles) west of Baghdad in Iraq Monday, May 23, 2005 wounding three U.S. soldiers. (AP Photo/Omar Aboud)
A stable city council has yet to be formed in Ramadi and U.S. soldiers suspect insurgents have infiltrated the police department.
"I really don't think that we can finish this anytime soon," said Spc. Matthew Reba, 24, of Venice, Fla., bouncing in the back of a Bradley on the hunt for insurgents who had just fired at a U.S. base. Reba lost his best friend in Iraq and has decided against reenlisting.
Other 1st Battalion soldiers said they just focus on their assigned tasks, look forward to returning home and hope Iraqis will soon turn against the insurgency.
"There's a lot of bad things happening, but our platoon is pretty good at keeping our head in the game," said Sgt. Chris Lambert, 25, of Cincinnati, guarding the front of an apartment building while U.S. and Iraqi solders searched inside.
"I like to think we're doing some good," Lambert said. "But it's hard to tell."
Syria and the Iraqi Insurgency
AUDIO -->http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4670939
Weekend Edition - Saturday, May 28, 2005 · The Bush administration has accused Syrian leaders of doing little to stop the flow of money and fighters across the Syrian border into Iraq. Flynt Leverett, a former Middle East specialist on the National Security Council, talks about Syria's role in the Iraqi insurgency.
By PATRICK QUINN, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two of Iraq's most influential Shiite and Sunni organizations agreed Saturday to try to ease sectarian tensions pushing the country toward civil war as the government prepared to take its battle against the insurgency to Baghdad's streets.
The new effort to make peace came as attacks killed a U.S. soldier and at least 45 Iraqis over the past two days — including three suicide bombers and three men killed when a roadside bomb they planted exploded prematurely.
An al-Qaida affiliate in Iraq, the Ansar al-Sunnah Army, also announced the death of a Japanese contractor it abducted earlier this month. Another group, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq, purportedly claimed responsibility on the Internet for twin suicide car bombings in Sinjar. The attacks, 75 miles northwest of Mosul city, killed seven Iraqis and injured another 38 at the entrance to an Iraqi military base, according to hospital officials.
In another Internet message, Al-Qaida in Iraq on Saturday launched a tirade against Shiites, accusing them of targeting Islam and especially Sunni Muslims in what appeared to be an attempt to stoke hatreds and sectarian violence.
"There's no mosque or honor that has been violated or Muslim who has been insulted in Iraq without the help of the (Shiites)," the statement, posted on an Islamic Web site, said.
It accused Iraq's majority Shiites of aiding "the Jews," apparently referring to U.S. troops and officials in Iraq. The mocking statement was allegedly posted by Abu Maysara al-Iraqi, a spokesman for the group. Its authenticity could not be verified.
Meanwhile, Iraqi police and army units prepared to launch a crackdown Sunday in Baghdad that will include helping cordon off the city and erecting hundreds of checkpoints in and around the capital, according to defense and security officials. More than 40,000 Iraqi soldiers and policemen, supported by U.S. troops, will deploy to the new checkpoints and later begin street-to-street sweeps.
They hope to catch or flush out the insurgents responsible for a wave of violence that has left more than 690 people dead since the country's new Shiite-led government was announced April 28, according to an Associated Press count.
In an effort to mitigate escalating sectarian tensions, officials from the Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars, considered close to some insurgent groups, met with representatives from the Badr Brigades — the military wing of Iraq's largest Shiite party, the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
Organized by the anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the gathering aimed to smother accusations that began earlier this month when the association's leader, Harith al-Dhari, accused the Badr Brigades of killing Sunnis and executing their clerics. A number of Shiite clerics were also killed.
The brigades not only denied the charges, they accused the Sunni association of failing to condemn the insurgency and of trying to "push Iraq into a sectarian conflict."
"We are all Muslims, and usually problems happen between one family. We want to solve them on the basis of Islamic brotherhood," said one association official, Isam Al Rawi.
Large portraits of the burly, black-bearded cleric al-Sadr adorned the walls inside the building, located in a narrow back alley in northern Baghdad's suburb of Kazimiyah, a Shiite stronghold.
"We overcame many obstacles. The two parties agreed to serving Iraq and to preserve its unity," al-Sadr official Abdul Hadi Al Daraji said. "The brothers from the Sunni scholars received proposals from the Badr Brigades and the Badr Brigades also received proposals from the Sunni scholars."
He said another meeting would be held during the week and a national gathering would be called once the crisis between the two organizations was resolved.
Akihiko Saito, 44, a Japanese contractor, was among a group of five foreign workers — four of them earlier confirmed dead — who were ambushed in the Anbar province west of Baghdad.
Iraqi confirmation of Saito's death followed Friday's Internet release of a video showing the bloodied body of an Asian man, apparently Saito. An Ansar statement said he died after being wounded during clashes after the ambush.
More than 200 foreigners have been abducted in Iraq, and at least 30 killed.
A U.S. soldier died from wounds from a homemade bomb near Diyara, west of Baghdad, the military said Saturday. The soldier, who died Friday, was assigned to the 155th Brigade Combat Team, II Marine Expeditionary Force.
As of Saturday, at least 1,655 U.S. military members have died since the Iraq war began in March 2003, according to an AP count.
The Iraqi army captured two Iraqis on Saturday they suspect shot down an American helicopter and killed its two-man crew on Thursday near Buhriz, north of Baghdad, said Maj. Steven Warren of the 3rd Brigade Combat Team.
In Syria, the Arab League's secretary general, Amr Moussa, said the league was "ready to send advisers to help and offer assistance" to the 55-member Iraqi commission charged with drafting the new constitution.
___
Associated Press reporter Sinan Salaheddin contributed to this story.
May 29, 2005 - 10:24AM
Douglas Wood's captors have moved the Australian hostage to a safer location in Iraq, says Australia's top Muslim cleric.
Sheikh Taj Aldin Alhilali spoke with SBS reporter Majida Abboud-Saab, who said the Mufti of Australia remains confident Mr Wood's release is imminent.
"A very important development is that he was told that he (Wood) was moved from one place to another to ensure his safety away from the fighting," Ms Abboud-Saab told AAP.
"That was done overnight."
Mr Wood, an Australian citizen who had been living in the US, was kidnapped in Baghdad four weeks ago by a rebel group calling itself the Shura Council of the Mujahideen of Iraq.
The Mufti has since made a video appeal to Mr Wood's captors, saying he was willing to take the 63-year-old engineer's place.
Ms Abboud-Saab said the sheikh, who was in an undisclosed capital city near Iraq, was ready to return to Iraq as soon as needed.
"The tribal leaders have asked him to return immediately to Iraq," Ms Abboud-Saab said.
"The return means the release is imminent because the kidnappers have said they would hand Douglas Wood to the sheikh personally."
But the sheikh, who also says there are now thousands of Iraqi troops looking for Mr Wood, has asked the engineer's captors to prove he is alive and well first.
He has asked they send him a video with Mr Wood holding a newspaper showing the date or a cassette recording with answers to specific questions from his family that only Mr Wood would know how to respond to.
"The sheikh said he's confident what he hears from Iraq but he's doing this for the Wood family and Canberra," Ms Abboud-Saab said.
The sheikh also responded to news a Japanese hostage had been killed in Iraq.
A four-minute hostage video from the extremist Army of Ansar al-Sunna showed a man's back covered in blood and a picture of his passport. It said he had died from gunshot wounds received in an ambush.
Japanese officials confirmed the man was 44-year-old Japanese security contractor Akihiko Saito, who was seized in Iraq about 20 days ago.
"He said while he is very concerned and upset about that he is confident about Douglas Wood because this just confirms that these kidnappers they have nothing to fear ... and if they had killed their hostage they would say so," Ms Abboud-Saab said.
© 2005 AAP
DoD Identifies Army Casualties No. 532-05 IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 28, 2005
The Department of Defense announced today the death of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. They died on May 27 from injuries sustained on May 26 in Buhriz, Iraq, when their OH-58 (Kiowa Warrior) came under small arms attack and crashed. Both soldiers were assigned to the Army's 1st Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.
The soldiers are:
CW4 Matthew Scott Lourey, 40, of East Bethel, Minn.
CW2 Joshua Michael Scott, 28, of Sun Prairie, Wis.
DoD Identifies Army Casualty No. 531-05 IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 28, 2005
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Sgt. Mark A. Maida, 22, of Madison, Wis., died May 27 in Baghdad, Iraq, of injuries sustained in Diyarah, Iraq, May 26 when an improvised explosive device detonated near his HMMWV. Maida was assigned to the Army's 2nd Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, Fort Irwin, Calif.
DoD Identifies Army Casualty No. 530-05 IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 28, 2005
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Sgt. Alfred B. Siler, 33, of Duff, Tenn., died May 25 in Tuz, Iraq, when his HMMWV hit another vehicle. Siler was assigned to the Army National Guard's Support Squadron, 278th Regimental Combat Team, Knoxville, Tenn.
DoD Identifies Marine Casualty No. 527-05 IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 28, 2005
The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Maj. Ricardo A. Crocker, 39, of Mission Viejo, Calif., died May 26 from a rocket propelled grenade explosion while conducting combat operations in Hadithah, Iraq. Crocker was assigned to the Marine Forces Reserve’s 5th Civil Affairs Group, Camp Lejeune, N.C. During Operation Iraqi Freedom his unit was attached to II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward).
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