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1/11/2006 - ALI BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Reality is often at odds with expectations when Airmen deploy. This difference can be extreme when the mission is to provide military training to a recent enemy. But several Airmen near the end of six-month deployments as advisory support team instructors say they would rather stay here than go home after their experiences. During their deployment they have had a chance to directly shape the future of the world, learn about and gain respect for a different culture, meet men they now call brothers and solidify their instinctive belief that the U.S. Air...

TIKRIT, Iraq (Army News Service, Jan. 9, 2005) -- The 101st Airborne Division’s “Rakkasan” brigade assumed control of operations in the Salah Ad Din Province in a ceremony Jan. 5 at Forwarding Operating Base Speicher as Soldiers of the 3rd Infantry Division prepared to head home. Various Iraqi officials attended the ceremony, including Lt. Gen Abdel Aziz, Iraqi Army 4th division commander, and Humad Mumood Shugti governor of Salah Ad Din. The ceremony opened with the Iraqi national anthem and the United States national anthem played by the 101st Army Band. The ceremony passed authority at FOB Speicher to the...

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Army News Service, Jan. 5, 2006) -- Even for a city known by many as "military city USA," the welcome ceremony for the Soldier Heroes of the upcoming "All-American Bowl" football game stood out as one they'll very likely never to forget. Close to 80 Soldiers, who will represent the Army in this Saturday's premiere high school football contest, were honored with a fanfare celebration at the Sheraton Gunter Hotel in San Antonio. With the U.S. Army Field Band's "Brass Quintet" providing a musical background, each of the Soldier "heroes" were introduced to the cheering crowd outside...

What secrets did Japan's ancient emperors take to the grave? And will we ever know? 01/05/2006 By HIROSHI MATSUBARA, Staff Writer This is the fourth in a series on issues and topics facing Japan's imperial family. A new challenge is being mounted that may eventually put the Imperial Household Agency in something of a tight corner. Academics have long called on the agency to open imperial tombs to full inspection to resolve riddles of Japan's ancient past and put to rest lingering doubts about the authenticity of some of the final resting places of emperors. All this time, the agency,...

12/28/2005 - BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan (AFPN) -- A-10 Thunderbolt IIs continue taking the fight to the enemy by providing close air support to U.S. and coalition forces participating in Operation Enduring Freedom. Shortly after deploying in September to this base at the foot of the Hindu Kush mountains from Davis-Monthan Air Base, Ariz., the 354th Fighter Squadron “Bulldogs” began making history. “Our A-10s have provided non-stop presence and lethal firepower since we arrived,” said the squadron commander Lt. Col. Martha McSally. “From ensuring the success of Afghanistan’s first-ever provincial elections on Sept. 18 to the first seating of an...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 22, 2005 – As Iraqi security forces grow and develop increased combat capabilities, U.S. forces will shift from a focus on combat operations to a focus on supporting the Iraqis as they take the lead in operations, two Defense Department officials said at a Pentagon news briefing today. American units already are partnering with Iraqi units, helping them with training, logistics, and other combat support operations, said Marine Lt. Gen. James T. Conway, operations director on the Joint Staff. This partnering will continue, with an increased focus on developing the Iraqis' combat support capabilities so they eventually will...

FALLBROOK ---- "The Nutcracker" is a gently orchestrated, soft-stepping ballet, and this weekend, a few good men will trade their guns and combat boots for roles in the fanciful tale ---- despite some initial teasing from their comrades.

BAGHDAD (Army News Service, Dec. 16, 2005) -- Millions of Iraqi citizens flocked to the polls Dec. 15 to vote under the new Iraqi Constitution, giving birth to a Middle East democracy. Gen. George W. Casey, Multi National Force-Iraq commanding general, said Iraq's transition into democracy "has not come about by accident or coincidence, but by shear will power and the determination of the Iraqi people.” Even Saddam loyalists, who turned their backs on January's election, have done an about-face and encouraged fellow Sunnis to vote in the Parliamentary elections, according to news reports. Some Sunnis went so far as...

The United States does not want to remove Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf from power as Washington fears that the South Asian country would fall into the hands of extremists, according to a former consultant to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. "If Musharraf falls, mullahs will take over," the ex-FBI consultant, Paul L Williams, said at a seminar in New York, adding, "However, he will be gone by next year." The half-day seminar was organised by Indian American Intellectuals Forum headed by Hindu leader Narain Kataria. According to Dr Williams, Muslim extremism presented a huge threat to humanity. "The threat...

Should hip hop take the rap for rioting? (Filed: 08/12/2005) French politicians have called for legal action to be taken against hip hop musicians in the wake of the French riots. Joe Muggs reports The waves of riots that swept across France this year have had an unexpected consequence for the French music industry. Urban violence: hip hop has been blamed for the Paris riots Last week, 200 politicians backed a petition by MP François Grosdidier calling for legal action against several hip hop musicians for their aggressive lyrics. Although prime minister Dominique de Villepin immediately dismissed the idea, it...

ABOARD THE U.S.S. PELELIU (Dec. 6, 2005) -- One Marine sought the road less traveled while the other sought the path to self discovery. Both found that their road was one in the same, and it began at the yellow footprints. Lance Cpl. Ryan J. Heist, operations clerk, 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, Camp Pendleton, never set out to be a Marine. Heist grew up in affluence, a self-described privileged kid who had everything handed to him right up until he joined the Marine Corps. Lance Cpl. Christopher K. Morgan-Riess, tactical data network specialist, 11th MEU, came from an upper-middle class...

An Iraqi police officer (right) prepares to hand out supplies to local Iraqi schoolchildren during a humanitarian aid mission to their school in Baghdad, Iraq, Nov. 20, 2005. U.S. soldiers from the 108th Military Police Company, 16th Military Police Brigade, Fort Bragg, N.C., assisted with the delivery of the material. U.S. Army photo by Pfc. Matthew Clifton Iraqi Police Take Lead in Neighborhood Visit U.S. soldiers assist Iraqi police to establish improved community relations between the Iraqi police and the Iraqi civilians they protect. By U.S. Army Pfc. Matthew Clifton Multinational Corps-Iraq BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 5, 2005 — U.S. soldiers...

Rice will take tough line with Europe on 'prison plane' flights By Philip Sherwell and Kim Willsher in Paris (Filed: 04/12/2005) Condoleezza Rice, the United States Secretary of State, will urge European governments to back off in the continuing row over alleged secret terrorist detention camps in Eastern Europe and clandestine CIA "prison plane" flights. Dr Rice, who begins a four-country European tour tomorrow, is preparing a "robust" defence of American treatment of terror suspects, as Washington belatedly comes out fighting on the controversy, senior European diplomats told the Sunday Telegraph. Condoleezza Rice: No apologies for tactics Although Dr Rice...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30, 2005 – Troops from the Iraqi army's 3rd Battalion, 1st Brigade, 7th Division, killed a man Nov. 29 after he tried to take a soldier's weapon near Ramadi, Iraq, military officials reported. Soldiers fired on the military-aged man after he refused to open his trunk during a vehicle search and went for a soldier's weapon. Iraqi and coalition forces detained several insurgents and seized weapons caches Nov. 29 during operations throughout Iraq. Iraqi police detained three men fleeing the scene of a rocket attack on a high school near Musayyib. Near Rawah, an ineffective would-be suicide car...

OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea — With the debate over a military pullout growing increasingly bitter back home, President Bush said Saturday that he is determined to keep troops in Iraq until the mission is complete. "We will never back down and we will never give in and we will never expect less than complete victory," Bush said during a quick layover at this military installation that is home to the primary U.S. Air Force unit in Korea. "We will defeat the enemy in Iraq." The president, wearing a brown leather bomber jacket with a patch that said "Commander in...

WANTED SAMUEL "MACHINE GUN SAMMY" ALITO is WANTED for: -Voting to strike down the 1986 federal machine gun ban. In the 1996 case U.S. v. Rybar, Judge Alito was the lone dissenter in the decision upholding the conviction of a gun dealer who sold illegal machine guns at a Pennsylvania gun show. Possession of an unusual and extremely restrictive view of Congressional regulatory power. Alito (also called "Scalito" by his associates because of his similarity to conservative Judge Antonin Scalia) is known to possess views that could imperil virtually every federal law that regulates firearms, ammunitions, and explosives. Known consortion...

State may take over New Orleans' schools NEW ORLEANS, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- Budget woes, poor test scores and the effect of Hurricane Katrina have Louisiana officials talking about taking New Orleans schools under the state's wing. Gov. Kathleen Blanco gave her support to legislation Tuesday to put schools that don't meet the state average on scores under state control, The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports. Blanco said the state should take "responsibility for that city's failing schools," and recommended a charter school model as one way of doing so. The Orleans Parish School Board voted Friday to set up some...

MOSUL, Iraq (Army News Service, Nov. 1, 2005) – Multi-National Forces from Task Force Freedom killed two terrorists, wounded three, detained 11 suspected terrorists, and seized weapons caches in northern Iraq Oct. 28-31. Soldiers from Task Force Freedom were engaged with rocket-propelled-grenade and small-arms fire before returning fire and killing two terrorists. The Soldiers searched a vehicle, discovering AK-47s, a machine gun, hand grenades, and ammunition. Soldiers seize three caches Soldiers from the 503rd Military Police seized a cache consisting of rolls of detonation cord, numerous rounds of rocket-propelled grenade and mortar rounds, a mortar tube, an improvised rocket launching...

PRETORIA, South Africa - South Africa's government is for the first time moving to seize land from a white farmer, saying Thursday that negotiations to buy the property to hand over to black claimants were taking too long. Blessing Mphela, a land restitution commissioner, said at a news conference that the seizure was a last resort, but he added that land transfers to redress the abuses of the apartheid era must speed up. The government has repeatedly said it would rely on negotiated sales to shift agricultural land ownership rather than emulate Zimbabwe's seizures of white-owned farms, which many experts...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — With much of the city emptied by Hurricane Katrina, some opportunists took advantage of the situation by looting stores. snip... Denise Bollinger, a tourist from Philadelphia, stood outside and snapped pictures in amazement. "It's downtown Baghdad," the housewife said. "It's insane. I've wanted to come here for 10 years. I thought this was a sophisticated city. I guess not." snip... Around the corner on Canal Street, the main thoroughfare in the central business district, people sloshed headlong through hip-deep water as looters ripped open the steel gates on the front of several clothing and jewelry stores....