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MANAMA, Bahrain, April 27, 2006 – Maritime operations in the Middle East are all about anti-terrorism activities, the deputy commander of coalition forces serving with Naval Forces Central Command said here. British Royal Navy Commodore Simon T. Williams said maritime operations have an active and passive deterrence role in what Americans call the Central Command area of operations. "The main effect is trying to change the risk calculus for terrorists," he said in an interview. The command, which has ships from 17 different nations, has task forces covering the seas from the southern border of Kenya to the Pakistan-India border....

BAGHDAD, April 11, 2006 – The 6th Iraqi Army Division's military police frequently patrol the streets of Baghdad in light-utility vehicles that offer no more protection than a standard pickup truck. But thanks to the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, MPs are getting a new, professional look this year. The 6th Iraqi Army Division's military police company received four Polish army vehicles in March as part of an initiative by the Iraqi Defense Ministry to provide updated equipment to soldiers. The Dzik-3s are a huge upgrade from the light utility vehicles the MPs have used since the start of the...

WASHINGTON, April 5, 2006 – Ultimate victory in the Long War requires the U.S. military to adopt more unconventional and indirect approaches in the way it fights, and the Defense Department is doing just that, the Pentagon's top special operations official told a Senate panel here today. In testimony prepared for delivery to the emerging threats and capabilities subcommittee of the Senate Armed Service's Committee, Thomas W. O'Connell said the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review sets a course for continued special operations transformation from a reactive force with regional capabilities to a pre-emptive global force. O'Connell is assistant secretary of...

B-52 Munitions Airmen Support Enduring Freedom Ops The airmen's goal is to provide 100 percent on-time deliveries using 100 percent reliable weapons, culminating in 100 percent bombs on target. By U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Scott King 40th Air Expeditionaly Group Public Affairs OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM, March 31, 2006 — A group of U.S. Air Force airmen supporting Operation Enduring Freedom attribute their unit's tight-knit camaraderie to their demanding work environment. These airmen build bombs for the B-52 Stratofortress aircraft providing close air support over Afghanistan. "I feel the mission here is vital. Our 'Buffs' flying above enemy territory...

BAGHDAD, March 26, 2006 – Iraqi special operations forces conducted a twilight raid today in the Adhamiyah neighborhood in northeast Baghdad to disrupt a terrorist cell responsible for attacks on Iraqi security and coalition forces and kidnapping Iraqi civilians in the local area. As elements of the 1st Iraqi Special Operations Forces Brigade entered their objective, they came under fire. In the ensuing exchange of fire, the Iraqi forces killed 16 insurgents. As they secured their objective, they detained 15 more individuals. Also, one individual being held hostage by the insurgents was freed. That person, a non-Westerner, whose identity was...

NORFOLK, Va., March 23, 2006 – The concept of a standing joint force headquarters core element is proving its value in Iraq and elsewhere around the world, senior officers at U.S. Joint Forces Command said. The standing joint force headquarters seemed revolutionary to many when Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld approved it five years ago. Since then, officials said, the concept has contributed to the military's speed in responding to disasters along the U.S. Gulf Coast and in Pakistan, and the nearly transparent transfer of authority from one Army corps to another in Multinational Force Iraq. The headquarters core elements...

WASHINGTON, March 18, 2006 – Iraqi security forces and U.S. servicemembers participating in Operation Swarmer and other combined operations continued to capture hidden terrorist weapons caches, while detaining and processing terrorist suspects yesterday, military officials in Iraq reported. Operation Swarmer, an ongoing, methodical search of a 10-mile-by-10-mile area in the Samarra region, has netted six weapons caches and roughly 50 terrorist suspects, officials said. The weapons caches included mortar rounds, rocket-propelled grenades, rockets, artillery rounds and a significant amount of other bomb-making materials for improvised explosive devices. Seventeen of the roughly 50 detainees were released after questioning and the others...

SUFFOLK, Va., March 7, 2006 – While participants in an international experiment taking place here and at 10 sites around the world are looking at ways to improve future coalition operations, their findings are already being applied to coalition efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. Joint Forces Command officials explained today. About 800 participants from seven nations and NATO, many of them at the command's Joint Futures Lab here and others overseas, are midway through an experiment designed to promote interagency and intergovernmental cooperation. Multinational Experiment 4, which kicked off in February, is part of a series of international experiments...

AMMAN, Jordan (Army News Service, Feb. 28, 2006) – The seventh and final group of soldiers graduated from an elite counterterrorism course in Jordan last week, bringing to an end a special operations training partnership among Iraq, Jordan and the U.S. that taught more than 500 Iraqi troops since 2003. During the Feb. 23 graduation ceremony, 77 new Iraqi special operators – among them Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds – completed the three-month Operator Training Course which will now move to a permanent training base in Iraq. With graduation, the Iraqi soldiers became the newest members of the Iraqi Counterterrorism Force,...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 26, 2006 – The Marine Corps Special Operations Command, the newest addition to the special operations community, will be a complementary force that will ease the strain on other services' elite units and will contribute to the nation's readiness in the global war on terror, the new unit's commander said here today. "I firmly believe that this is the right thing to do for the country at this time," said Marine Brig. Gen. Dennis J. Hejlik, commander of Marine Corps Special Operations Command. "This irregular warfare is here to stay. If we don't start to go that way,...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 18, 2005 – As Iraq progresses militarily and democratically, citizens there are stepping forward to inform indigenous and coalition forces of terrorist operations and covert weapons caches, Multinational Force Iraq officials reported today. Iraqi citizens sometimes even are apprehending suspected terrorists themselves, officials noted. For example, on Dec. 17, a group of Iraqi citizens near Kirkuk, in northern Iraq, captured two suspected terrorists who were observed digging up a weapons cache. The citizens reportedly subdued the suspects and called the Kirkuk Joint Coordination Center, which then relayed the information to a nearby patrol. The combined Iraqi and U.S....

WASHINGTON, Dec. 16, 2005 – A preliminary investigation of alleged improprieties conducted by U.S. military information operations activities in Iraq hasn't found any wrongdoing, the top U.S. officer in Iraq said today. "We concluded that we were operating within our authorities and the appropriate legal procedures," Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr. said from his headquarters in Iraq during a satellite news conference with Pentagon reporters. Casey, commander of Multinational Force Iraq, was responding to a reporter's question on the status of the two-week-old review Navy Rear Adm. Scott R. Van Buskirk is conducting into U.S. information operations practices in...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 5, 2005 – A Task Force Baghdad soldier was killed Dec. 4 when his patrol struck an improvised explosive device in eastern Baghdad, officials reported today. The soldier's name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin. In other news, five suspected terrorists were detained Dec. 4 after Iraqi police and U.S. troops found an IED near Bayji and a cache of IEDs near Kirkuk, officials said. A joint patrol of Iraqi police and soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team discovered the IED cache waiting to be emplaced near Kirkuk. The roadside bombs...

CAMP BLUE DIAMOND, AR RAMADI, Iraq – Approximately 2,500 Marines, Sailors and Soldiers with Regimental Combat Team-2 and 1,000 Iraqi Army Soldiers began Operation Al Hajip Elfulathi (Steel Curtain) in western Al Anbar Nov. 5. The objectives of Operation Steel Curtain are to restore security along the Iraqi-Syrian border and destroy the al Qaeda in Iraq's terror network operating throughout Husaybah. The operation follows on the heels of Operations Iron Fist and River Gate. During Operation Steel Curtain, elements of the 1st Brigade, 1st Iraqi Army Division and specially trained scout platoons recruited from the Al Qaim region will take...

PERSIAN GULF (NNS) -- Air and surface forces of the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group ended dedicated search and rescue (SAR) operations Sept. 17 in the Persian Gulf after a five-day search for a Sailor discovered missing from the guided-missile cruiser USS Princeton (CG 59) Sept. 13. Strike group assets will continue search efforts while conducting routine operations in the area. After the Sailor did not report as scheduled for a watch that morning, the crew began an immediate and thorough search on board Princeton. Once all spaces on the ship had been searched, U.S. and coalition SAR operations began from...

Looking back on 2004, much was heard about the alleged desecration of Muslim holy sites by American troops fighting in Iraq. Protests against American troops were held around the world and Arab governments issued statements of condemnation. What goes largely unreported is the fact that Muslims have been attacking, desecrating, and destroying their own mosques, shrines and holy sites. One case involves turning the Prophet Mohammed's childhood home into a public restroom. The Wahhabi form of Islam regards these religious buildings, structures and relics as idols to be destroyed. The general media blackout is surprising given the worldwide coverage of...

NEWS May 19 - 25, 2004 www.bigbrother.govThe feds want to know who?s been visiting the Web site of voting watchdog Bev Harris, and they?re likely to get what they want.by George Howland Jr. Bev Harris of Renton runs a Web site that is a clearinghouse in the fight against electronic voting.(Rick Dahms) RELATED ARTICLE Black Box Backlash    In the past 20 months, Harris has become America?s leading critic of electronic voting (see ?Black Box Backlash, March 10). Her reporting on the problems with new computer voting machines has been a key component in a national, grassroots movement to...

<p>More than a month into the school year, Queens seventh-grader Angela Batista doesn't have a regular math teacher. Or an English teacher. Or a social-studies teacher. Or even a science teacher.</p> <p>Batista and her classmates at IS 61 in Corona are eager and ready to learn, but all they've seen is an endless parade of substitute teachers.</p>