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WASHINGTON, Feb. 25, 2008 – Based on debris analysis, officials are confident the Feb. 21 missile intercept and destruction of a nonfunctioning National Reconnaissance Office satellite was successful in destroying the fuel tank and reducing risk to people on Earth, the Defense Department announced today. The satellite’s fuel tank contained hydrazine, a hazardous chemical that could have posed a risk to humans if the satellite or its fuel tank had reentered the atmosphere intact. "By all accounts, this was a successful mission. From the debris analysis, we have a high degree of confidence the satellite's fuel tank was destroyed...

Lasting Impression: Does The Face Of A CEO Determine A Successful Company? ScienceDaily (Jan. 14, 2008) — It certainly takes more than a pretty face to run a leading national corporation. But according to a recent Tufts University study, the performance levels of America’s top companies could be related to the first impressions made by their chief executive officers (CEOs). Using photographs of the highest and lowest ranked Fortune 1000 companies’ CEOs, psychologists Nicholas Rule and Nalini Ambady quizzed ordinary college students to determine which of the pictured faces were characteristic of a leader. Without knowledge of the pictured individuals’...

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) - Customers in Germany and Britain lined up to buy the iPhone as it debuted there Friday, with Apple Inc. hoping to replicate the success that the combination cell phone, music player and Web browser has seen in the United States. Apple hopes to sell 10 million iPhones in 2008, helped by its launch in Asia next year. In Germany, the phone went on sale at more than 700 T-Mobile shops, including one in Cologne that opened just after midnight with some 350 customers already waiting outside...

AN NAJAF — A young boy from Hollendia underwent a final surgery to correct a severe colon condition at Al Sadr Hospital in An Najaf Oct. 9. The boy, Ahaip, had already undergone two surgeries to reintroduce his colon into his body. For Ahaip, this final surgery marked the end of a long road to recovery, made possible by U.S. Soldiers. Ahaip was born with an obstructed bowel at birth, which required emergency surgery. The surgery left Ahaip’s intestines outside his body until he was discovered by Soldiers from the 97th Civil Affairs Battalion, a Reserve unit from Fort Bragg,...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE Q-WEST— Soldiers from Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 5th Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, have been working side-by-side with the Iraqi Police (IP) since November in southern Ninevah province. During the 10 months of deployment, the 5-82 FA troops have seen the IP improve in their capabilities to conduct operations and ultimately secure Iraq. “A lot has changed since the beginning of the war and the beginning of our deployment,” said Sgt. Kurt Schroder, artillery surveyor and dismounted patrolman. “The IP are doing better on their own and they are doing...

WASHINGTON, July 29, 2007 – Afghan National Security Forces, supported by coalition partners, successfully conducted an operation against Taliban fighters in Helmand province this week, military officials reported. Several Taliban fighters were killed during a precise operation July 27, according to reports, and there were no reported civilian casualties or damage. “This operation follows a series of … blows against the Taliban command over the last few weeks,” said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Claudia Foss, International Security Assistance Force spokesman. “They are aimed at impacting the ability of the Taliban to plan and coordinate its attacks.” In other operations...

Source: University Of Edinburgh Date: July 10, 2007 Best Males Have Less Successful Daughters Science Daily — The strongest and fittest of a species might be expected to produce the best offspring, but this is not always the case, researchers at the University have found. Red deer stag. (Credit: iStockphoto/Roger Whiteway)Studies of red deer published recently in Nature suggest that the most successful males are more likely to produce less fertile daughters. Male and female deer need different attributes to succeed. Genes which prove to be an advantage in fathers don't necessarily prove beneficial in daughters. Males who win fights...

WASHINGTON, June 6, 2007 – Afghan and coalition forces detained 19 suspected militants, killed two dozen enemy fighters and discovered numerous enemy weapons during operations in Afghanistan over the past three days, military officials reported. In operations today, Afghan and coalition forces detained 10 militants in an operation against Taliban forces in the Qalat district of Zabul province. Coalition forces acted on credible intelligence that led them to the suspected Taliban hideout, officials said. As forces began the operation, two men fled the scene with a rocket-propelled-grenade launcher and three grenades. Coalition forces fired warning shots and apprehended the two...

CAMP ECHO — Iraqi Security Forces and Multi-National Division-Central South Brigade Combat Team conducted a successful military operation in the Al Izza district of Al Kut city Wednesday. ISF and Coalition troops dubbed the Operation Viper’s Bite. The operation, which involved close air support, resulted in the detainment of 13 people suspected of insurgent activities. Three of them are on the most wanted persons list in Wasit province. The rest of the detainees were handed over to the Iraqi Police. The joint forces seized machine guns, rocket propelled grenades, 122 mm artillery shells and approximately 1500 rounds of small caliber...

"...Last week, I attended a debate organised by Intelligence Squared, an organisation devoted to high-level public argument. The subject was so popular that, instead of the usual venue, the Methodist Central Hall in London had to be hired. More than 2,000 people crammed in. The motion was "We'd be better off without religion". ...By a curious reversal, it is now the atheists who thump the tub for their non-faith, as if it were they who were the preachers. ...I feel that atheism may be acquiring precisely those characteristics that atheists so dislike about religion - intolerance, dogmatism, righteousness, moral contempt...

When historians get around to chronicling the first half of the 21st century, let's hope they don't write that America lost its war against terror by default. Any change of direction from Washington now will be taken as a concession, and will certainly be read by Hamas, Hezbollah and the Taliban as a signal that they are on the right track. But, what choice do we have? How can we achieve victory when we are fighting a war that has no specific goal? In our effort to bring peace and democracy to the world, we seem to have confused the...

A Soldier from Company D, 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, attached to 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, communicates with his squad leader while pulling security during Operation Beastmaster.BAGHDAD — Staring down at an empty lot, Spc. Craig McBaine wondered how such a tranquil neighborhood could be the scene of so much carnage. Nicknamed “IED Alley East,” this 700-meter stretch of barren earth has been the scene of many attacks against coalition and Iraqi security forces. On this day, the patch of land, bordered on three sides by once-beautiful three-story houses, is occupied by up-armored Humvees, Bradley Fighting Vehicles...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 6, 2006 -- Nearly five years after America “awoke to a nightmare attack” on Sept. 11, 2001, the nation is thankful that terrorists haven’t succeeded in launching another attack on U.S. soil, but recognizes that it’s not for the terrorists’ lack of trying, President Bush said at the White House today. “Nineteen men, armed with box cutters, took control of airplanes and turned them into missiles,” Bush said of the Sept. 11 attacks. “They used them to kill nearly 3,000 innocent people. We watched the Twin Towers collapse before our eyes -- and it became instantly clear that...

WASHINGTON, June 23, 2006 – The Missile Defense Agency and the Navy conducted a successful "hit to kill" missile defense test yesterday off the island of Kauai, Hawaii. The test involved the launch of a Standard Missile 3 from the Aegis-class cruiser USS Shiloh to hit a "separating" target, meaning that the target warhead separated from its booster rocket, officials said. "Hit to kill" technology uses direct collision of the interceptor missile with the target, destroying the target using only kinetic energy from the force of the collision. It was the seventh successful intercept test involving the sea-based component of...

6/14/2006 - VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AFPN) -- An unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from Launch Facility-04 on North Vandenberg at 1:22 a.m. today. The primary purpose of the launch was to assess and demonstrate the operational effectiveness of the Minuteman III weapon system. The missile’s three unarmed re-entry vehicles traveled approximately 4,800 miles in about 30 minutes, hitting pre-determined targets at the Kwajelin Missile Range in the western chain of the Marshall Islands. Col. Jack Weinstein, 30th Space Wing commander, was the spacelift commander. Lt. Col. S.L. Davis, 576th Flight Test Squadron commander, was the...

Lt. Col. Yashal Midhat Mohammed, the Iraqi Army's K1 executive officer, inspects each firing line. Lt. Col. Mohammed is in charge of the Iraqi Army's K1 training facility near Kirkuk, Iraq. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Cassandra Groce Iraqi Army Runs Successful Firing Range Iraqi Army soldiers receive personal weapons firing instruction. By Spc. Cassandra Groce133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment KIRKUK, Iraq, June 12, 2006 — The weapons range is an important part of any soldier’s basic training. The Iraqi Army is no exception. "The Iraqis had a good command of the range. Each Iraqi Army officer is expected...

HIT, Iraq, June 2, 2006 – U.S. soldiers here not only perform combat operations, but also are working to train the Iraqi army -- and they know what success would mean. "The Iraqi army is our ticket home," Army Lt. Col. Thomas C. Graves, commander of U.S. forces in this city on the Euphrates River, said yesterday. Graves' 1st Battalion, 36th Infantry Regiment, performs combat operations while helping train the Iraqi Army partner unit in the region. "Coalition forces in this area are still doing a lot of combat operations," Graves said. "But those (operations) are done with the idea...

WASHINGTON, May 25, 2006 – A U.S. Navy ship shot down a long-range ballistic missile in its final seconds of flight during a test yesterday. It was the first successful ship-launched intercept of a ballistic missile in its terminal phase, U.S. military officials said. During the Navy and Missile Defense Agency test, Aegis cruiser USS Lake Erie, equipped with technology to detect and track intercontinental ballistic missiles, launched a Standard Missile 2 to intercept a missile fired from the Pacific Missile Range facility on Kauai, Hawaii. "The test yesterday was an opportunity to see if a modified configuration of the...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE SPEICHER, Iraq, May 21, 2006 – Iraqi soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 5th Iraqi Army Division, and U.S. troops from 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, captured a small arsenal and detained several men yesterday in Muqdadiyah, military officials at this Tikrit base reported today. The soldiers worked together using numerous forms of information to compile a solid operation to capture enemy force cell members and recover whatever munitions they possessed. The large cache found included 19 mortar rounds, more than 4,000 small-arms rounds, 34 pounds of bulk explosives, hand grenades, various improvised explosive...

AL ASAD, Iraq (Apr. 10, 2006) -- PHOTO ESSAY: In the early hours April 3, Marines and sailors with the Incident Response Platoon prepared for an operation that would take them outside the wire and into the local town of Baghdadi, Iraq. The IRP is attached to Marine Wing Support Squadron 274, Marine Wing Support Group 37 (Reinforced), 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, and is responsible for providing security in support of response and pre-planned missions throughout the Al Anbar Province. Their scheduled task was to escort members of a Civil Affairs Group and Police Transition Team to a housing complex...