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If such a ban were to become law, the Obama administration would be hard-pressed to close the Guantanamo Bay prison by January as President Obama has promised. WASHINGTON -- The House went on record Thursday against allowing detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba to be transferred to the United States, even to face trial or to be jailed in maximum-security prisons. The 258-163 vote on a nonbinding recommendation put Democrats controlling the House in a difficult spot and prompted senior lawmakers to postpone unveiling a House-Senate agreement on a homeland security funding bill. If such a ban were...

YUSUFIYAH — In the farmland south of Baghdad, quality medical care is hard to find. Even if residents can afford it, Soldiers often bar them from the treacherous road to Baghdad. The dusty roads, once devoid of any security presence, are now lined with razor wire and punctuated with Iraqi army and Coalition checkpoints, making it as difficult for farmers to travel as it is for armed insurgents. In an attempt to raise the quality of life in Quarghulli village, Soldiers from Company C, 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, set up a clinic...

SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) -- The thunder of the C-130 Hercules engine vibrates through the cabin as the aircraft lifts off of the runway. Today’s mission is different than most. Today, Australians and Americans leave pallets and passengers behind, making room to gather the wounded and bring them back home. Affectionately called “the mercy channel,” this weekly mission pairs a Royal Australian Air Force C-130J and aircrew with a U.S. Air Force medical team. Moving more than 1,883 patients since August, these missions travel throughout Iraq and Kuwait, gathering injured servicemembers and delivering them to higher care facilities. “The patients we...

The Buzz: Trouble in Deanland The Kansas City Star Posted on Tue, Jan. 31, 2006 Roll Call reports that Democratic leaders are bristling at arty Chairman Howard Dean’s management. They’re especially upset because he has spent nearly all of the Democratic National Committee’s cash and has little left to support efforts to gain seats this cycle. Several sources said congressional leaders and especially Rep. Rahm Emanuel, head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, were furious when they learned the DNC has just $5.5 million in the bank versus the Republican National Committee’s $34 million. A Democratic source about Dean: “People...

MANAMA, Bahrain (NNS) -- USS Pearl Harbor (LSD 52) made a brief port stop in Bahrain Oct. 14, where Sailors loaded 13 pieces of heavy equipment bound for Pakistan. The machinery will be used to assist the victims of the worst earthquake in that country’s history. Pearl Harbor, a dock landing ship, usually transports Marines and their combat equipment to areas worldwide. The crew of approximately 425 is on a regularly-scheduled deployment to the North Persian Gulf as part of maritime security operations (MSO), and it received orders to change course in order to load dump trucks, front-end loaders, backhoes,...

Before the war in Iraq began, many policymakers and oil industry experts believed that Iraq's oil industry, with the second-largest proven reserves of light crude in the world, would recover and provide most of the funds needed for Iraq's reconstruction. On March 27, 2003, for example, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz said that Iraq's oil revenues could bring between US$50 and $100 billion within two or three years following the country's liberation. "We're dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon," he said.[1] Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmad Chalabi promised that American oil...

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