Free Republic

Reports that operatives from Cuba and Venezuela had possibly infiltrated protests in Miami first surfaced Monday on Primer Informe, a blog run by former El Nuevo Herald reporter Casto Ocando. According to the blog post by Ocando, FBI counter-terrorism agents had detained and questioned people in Miami and other cities who admitted to having been paid by activists to participate in the protests, and were investigating possible ties to Venezuela and Cuba..... And a woman participating in Sunday's march, identified by the Miami-based En Vivo TV as Hellen Pena, acknowledged when pressed that she was a supporter of the late-Venezuelan...

BAGHDAD -- Soldiers of the 1st Brigade, 9th Mechanized Iraqi Army Division were returning from a patrol in the pre-dawn hours of Sept. 11 when they were attacked by terrorists using a roadside bomb. The Iraqi Soldiers noticed suspicious visual signals coming from a nearby house. Soldiers of 1st Battalion, 13th Armored Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division were dispatched to help cordon the area and search the house. The Iraqi and U.S. Soldiers questioned several military-aged men in the home and found three AK-47 rifles, 200 rounds of ammunition, Anti-Iraqi Forces propaganda and a possible bomb-triggering device. The 13...

BAGHDAD – Tips from Iraqi citizens led to the discovery by U.S. Soldiers of a weapons cache Aug. 23. Soldiers of D Company, 172nd Infantry Regiment, Task Force 1-118th Field Artillery, 3rd Brigade heard small-arms fire near their position while conducting security operations north of Baghdad. The Soldiers moved toward the sound of the gunfire but found a deserted fighting position that contained two mortar rounds, 12 mortar fuses, and a 155-millimeter artillery shell. While the Soldiers searched the area, Iraqi civilians approached and said they knew where to find more weapons. The men of D Co. found two 203-millimeter...

BAGHDAD – A Task Force Baghdad patrol was attacked with a roadside bomb in the late evening hours of Aug. 20 and later detained a suspect in the attack. In the wake of the explosion, the Soldiers from B Company, 1st Battalion, 13th Armored Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 1st Armored Division did a hasty search of nearby houses and found a man in one of the homes. The Iraqi man denied having any weapons. However, a search of his residence produced an AK-47 assault rifle, a sniper rifle, 40-50 circuit boards and 10 magazines of ammunition. He also had a pair...

Soldiers from 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division -- Stryker Brigade Combat Team -- detained people suspected of anti-coalition activities and recovered weapons and other explosives in northern Iraq Feb. 1. The unit is under the operational control of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). Soldiers of 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment, conducted a cordon-and-knock operation in Mosul and detained four people associated with anti-coalition activities, including one target suspected of involvement in planning attacks on coalition forces. Members of the Coalition for Iraqi Unity, a concerned group of citizens in northwestern Iraq, turned in 13 rocket-propelled grenade rounds, seven boosters,...

A change made to the Stryker infantry vehicle has proven itself in combat. The 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division – also called Task Force Olympia after its Fort Lewis, Wash., home -- is replacing the 101st Airborne Division in this city. The Stryker, an eight-wheeled infantry transporter, is an armored vehicle designed to stop 124.5 mm rounds. Critics said the main threat in Iraq is rocket-propelled grenades, and that the vehicle would not provide protection from them. Army officials outfitted the Strykers with what the soldiers call a "cage." The slat armor put on the vehicles in Kuwait does look...

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has approved the 120-day deployment to Iraq of units of 1st Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, senior military officials announced Dec. 18. He also approved a 60-day extension for the division's 3rd Brigade. Officials said the 3,500-strong brigade deployed to Iraq six months ago. About 2,000 members of 1st Brigade's 3,500 soldiers will deploy the first week of January to provide essential capabilities during the transition between Operation Iraqi Freedom 1 and 2, officials said. The deployment is based on the combatant commander's assessment of what capabilities he needs during the transition. Officials said 3rd Brigade...

Reported rape stuns Stryker unit MICHAEL GILBERT; The News Tribune CAMP UDAIRI, Kuwait - A female Stryker brigade soldier reported she was raped, brigade officials said Saturday. The sexual assault apparently occurred late Friday or early Saturday outside a women's shower trailer in one of the tent cities where brigade soldiers are living before they move up to Iraq. Detectives from the Army's Criminal Investigation Division on Saturday taped off an area around a cargo container next to the shower trailer. The CID agents from Camp Arifjan, another Army post near Kuwait City, are handling the investigation. The brigade's public...