Free Republic

WASHINGTON, May 10, 2006 – Every day, officials at the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency track the status of efforts to find 20 Americans believed to still be alive but "isolated" outside the United States. In personnel recovery terminology, isolated personnel are U.S. servicemembers, Defense Department civilians, or contractors separated from their unit who are or may be in a situation where they must survive, evade, resist or escape, a specialist in these "SERE" techniques said here yesterday. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Shawn E. Cross, a SERE specialist at the Joint Personnel Recovery Agency, Fort Belvoir, Va., described his unit's...

UDAIRI RANGE, Kuwait, May 3, 2006 – Training never stops in the push to ensure American soldiers and Marines are ready for duty in Iraq. As part of a training scenario at Udairi Range, Kuwait, actors playing an Iraqi policeman and drivers argue at a traffic accident while an American convoy waits to enter the village. The scenario gives a realistic look at what challenges lie ahead for the soldiers when they move north into Iraq. Photo by Jim Garamone  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Servicemembers polish their skills here just prior to deployment "up north." Earlier this...

a recent predawn roll call at the Los Angeles Police Department's 77th Street Division was emblematic of the profound changes that the LAPD has undergone in recent years. As two dozen officers were briefed on crime in their area, they were aided by computerized maps showing hot spots in the division's neighborhoods. Most telling, however, were the people themselves. Of the morning patrol officers who took their places on wooden benches — some things don't change — fewer than half were white. There were at least as many Hispanic officers as whites, and in the parking lot outside, an Asian...

Political offensive targets Bush By Rowan ScarboroughTHE WASHINGTON TIMESMarch 18, 2006 Senate Democrats have mapped a political battle plan for the March congressional recess that calls on lawmakers to stage press events with active duty military personnel, veterans and emergency responders to bash President Bush on virtually every one of his national security policies.

MARINE CORPS LOGISTICS BASE BARSTOW, Calif. (March 16, 2006) -- Service members and employees of Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow judged some exceptional science projects for the Barstow Unified School District Science Fair March 9 at Barstow Community College's gymnasium. The fair is an annual event that is participated in by students who attend all schools within the Barstow area, said Danielle King, Barstow district science fair coordinator. Following the judging at the district fair, the students who received a gold ranking for their outstanding scientific intelligence are able to participate in the regional science fair, said King. Not all...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 10, 2006 – Harsher punishments for Defense Department personnel who participate in human trafficking or support the industry by patronizing prostitutes are part of a bill signed into law today by President Bush. "Human trafficking is an offense against human dignity, a crime in which human beings, many of them teenagers and young children, are bought and sold and often sexually abused by violent criminals," Bush said at the White House before signing the bill. "Our nation is determined to fight and end this modern form of slavery." The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005 amends the...

GROVEPORT, Ohio (12/5/2005) — "This has been the longest year of my life. I finally get my life back...I finally get my baby back," said a tearful Nancy Marquez as she sat eagerly awaiting her Soldier’s entrance; her wait was just about over. Marquez’s son, Spc. Justin Marquez, as well as 29 other Soldiers from the Ohio Army National Guard’s 237th Personnel Services Battalion were celebrated as heroes during a welcome home ceremony Dec. 4 at Groveport Madison High School. Loud cheers and applause went up as the Soldiers filed in and took their place of honor at the front...

When pilots are in an aircraft, the Marines of Aviation Life Support Systems personnel watch over them like guardian angels, working behind the scenes of the flight line to maintain aircraft emergency gear at the station Parachute Loft. ALSS personnel are responsible for providing and maintaining aircraft emergency gear pilots may use as a last resort. They rarely make an appearance on the flight line, so their contributions to pilot safety are seldom recognized, said Staff Sgt. Ryan Schmidt, Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 13 ALSS flight equipment technician. “That's the strange thing about this job,” said Schmidt, a Schenectady, N.Y.,...

MISSION UNACCOMPLISHED So with the exception of seeing Sen. John Kerry's middling grades at Yale, what was achieved by his signing of the SF-180 document? If it was about releasing his military record, that wasn't achieved. If it was about clarifying his reserve activities upon his return from his short stint in Vietnam, that wasn't achieved. If it was to perhaps further obscure the truth about his service and post-Vietnam activities, mission accomplished. It is unclear exactly what was released by the Navy late Monday to the Boston Globe. On its face it appears that aside from the Yale transcript...

BNP Paribas, Saddam Hussein’s favourite bank, is in the payday loan shark business, finding many of its customers from within the ranks of American military personal. Keeping it confidential which companies it is involved with on the new business front, the bank is operating with impunity. In its BNP-Paribas Watch, www.innercitypress.org reports that BNP is staying mum on which companies it is involved in on a flourishing new cottage industry in the U.S.: 7-11-style payday loan type operations. As prolific as dandelions in spring, payday loan storefront operations are thick around military bases. An underwear clad Saddam may be lingering...

We’ve all probably had experiences that made us wonder if we were the butt of a joke on Candid Camera. The last such event in my life occurred while waiting on a security line in a quasi-backwater Mexican airport a couple of years ago. While I expected a “maZana” attitude and cursory inspection, I found myself in a long queue waiting for security personnel who acted as if on an Easter egg hunt. These characters pulled vacationers’ luggage apart and did everything but don a Sherlock Holmes outfit and produce a magnifying glass. The piPce de résistance was when one...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

http://www.globalterroralert.com/zarqawi-apc.wmvhttp://www.globalterroralert.com Globalterroralert.com (10/13/04): Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's Tawheed wal-Jihad Movement in Iraq has released two new video clips, including video of a roadside bombing attack on a U.S. armored vehicle near the city of Mosul. The video features human body parts later retrieved from the scene of the ambush.

Coast Guard says 600-plus personnel to provide security during convention By Associated Press Tuesday, June 29, 2004 BOSTON - The U.S. Coast Guard will deploy more than 600 men and women in air, land and sea patrols around Boston Harbor during next month's Democratic National Convention, officials said Tuesday. Boats ranging from rigid-hulled inflatables to a 270-foot cutter will patrol the harbor and offshore areas, with the cutter's crew randomly boarding commercial ships for security checks. Officials would not say how many vessels would be on patrol, except to say it would be more than usual. Coast Guard helicopters will...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Despite increasing concern about terrorist threats to the United States, the FBI before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks was hampered by a culture resistant to change, inadequate resources and legal barriers, the national commission investigating the attacks said on Tuesday. "From the first World Trade Center attack in 1993, FBI and Department of Justice leadership in Washington and New York became increasingly concerned about the terrorist threat from Islamic extremists to U.S. interests both at home and abroad," said the report, presented at a commission hearing. Attorney General John Ashcroft, his predecessor, Janet Reno, former FBI Director...

MR. ZAKHEIM: Well, good afternoon, everybody. I don't know whether you may have more slides in your packets than I'll be showing up here. But in any event, I would like your indulgence, so that I can go through them all and then take questions afterwards. And I'll try to do that quickly and hopefully clearly. So, moving to the first slide; as you can see, this year we have a budget of something over $400 billion, which is approximately 26 billion (dollars) more than we had last year. You'll see that we have $6 billion worth of rescissions, and...

<p>While news from Iraq, Afghanistan and other fronts in the war on terror dominate the headlines, here at home progress is being made on another important front: the critical work of military transformation. Today, President Bush will sign into law landmark legislation that will help bring the Defense Department out of the industrial age, and into the information age.</p>

RUMSFELD'S GAY ADVISER Gay activist Stephen Herbits, who worked temporarily at the Pentagon on two occasions in 2001 and 2002, has settled in as a special adviser to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Herbits now has his name on the door and has been assigned a Pentagon e-mail address. A longtime friend and ally of Rumsfeld, he is clearing all major personnel choices in the Defense Department. In 2000, former Seagrams executive Herbits contributed $17,000 to Democratic causes, including $13,000 to the Democratic National Committee and $1,000 to the Gore-Lieberman Recount Fund. Federal records show no 2000 political contributions by Herbits...