Eight Terrorists Killed, Building Destroyed in Arab Jabour

Eight Terrorists Killed, Building Destroyed in Arab Jabour

Friday, 09 February 2007

MULTI-NATIONAL FORCE-IRAQ
COMBINED PRESS INFORMATION CENTER
BAGHDAD, Iraq
http://www.mnf-iraq.com
703.270.0320 / 0299

Feb 9, 2007
Release A070209a

EIGHT TERRORISTS KILLED, BUILDING DESTROYED IN ARAB JABOUR

BAGHDAD – Coalition Forces conducted an air strike Thursday evening after receiving heavy enemy fire during a raid targeting al-Qaida in Iraq terrorists and foreign fighter facilitators.

While receiving enemy fire from several directions, ground forces called in for air support. Eight terrorists barricaded themselves inside one of the buildings and continued to fire at the ground forces. Coalition aircraft dropped precision bombs on the building, resulting in its destruction and the deaths of the eight terrorists.

No Coalition Forces or innocent Iraqis were injured during the air strike.

The operation was part of ongoing efforts to eliminate terrorists and disrupt their operations in the Arab Jabour area.

Traffic accident leads Iraqi Army to massive weapons cache

Traffic accident leads Iraqi Army to massive weapons cache
Friday, 09 February 2007

Multi-National Corps – Iraq
Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory
APO AE 09342

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RELEASE No. 20070209-04
Feb. 9, 2007

Traffic accident leads Iraqi Army to massive weapons cache
Multi-National Division – North PAO

MOSUL, Iraq – At approximately 12:30 a.m., Feb. 6, soldiers from the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Iraqi Army Division were on a routine patrol when they accidentally collided with a civilian vehicle. The vehicle’s occupants immediately attempted to flee the scene, but were quickly apprehended by the IA soldiers. After tactical questioning, one of the two detainees told the IA where a huge weapons cache could be found.

Utilizing the newfound intelligence, the 2-2 IA conducted a raid on a house located behind a sheep market in the Nablis neighborhood of west Mosul. There they detained six suspected insurgents and, upon a thorough search, found a false wall in the house.

It was behind this wall that a large stockpile of weapons was found, to include eight AK-47s, four RPK machine guns, six rocket-propelled grenade launchers, one SVD, one SKS, three PKCs, nine load bearing vests, nine ski masks, 4,000 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition, 32 rocket-propelled grenade rounds, 10 fragmentation grenades, 130 mortar rounds (primarily 60, 81 and 82 mm), and a complex fully functional improvised explosive device.

Five of the detained suspects tested positive for plastic explosives and were remanded into custody with their confession statements from the IA questioning.

Additionally, the IA conducted a second raid the following night based on intelligence gained from the first, netting three more suspected anti-Iraqi forces.

The 2IA continues to aggressively patrol the neighborhoods of Mosul.

Iraqi Army, Cavalry take fight to the enemy…again

Iraqi Army, Cavalry take fight to the enemy…again

Friday, 09 February 2007

Multi-National Corps – Iraq
Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory
APO AE 09342

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RELEASE No. 20070209-03
Feb. 9, 2007

Iraqi Army, Cavalry take fight to the enemy…again
Multi-National Division – North PAO

MOSUL, Iraq – Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 7th (2-7) Cavalry Regiment conducted a raid
on several houses in the Al Wahda neighborhood in east Mosul Feb. 4, after receiving
intelligence about specific high-priority targets.

Upon reaching the area near the Sabrine mosque, the Thunder element Soldiers
dismounted and began searching their target area. As they reached the roof, they
began taking small-arms fire from a group ofinsurgents. The insurgents also began
lobbing grenades at the 2-7 Cavalry troops.

Regrouping back down the stairs, the “Garry Owen” troops encountered two near
misses. In one instance, a grenade bounced off of two Cavalry Soldiers before
exploding in the living room of the house. In a second incident, Sgt. Konyaku Kaili, an
infantryman with 2-7 Cavalry, was engaged by small-arms fire and received a round into
the front SAPI plate of his body armor. The armor stopped the round, and he was not
seriously injured.

During the engagement, one insurgent blew himself up with an explosive vest, and
another was shot and killed when quick-reaction reinforcement troops arrived from the
Iraqi army and 2-7 Cavalry, effectively sealing off the target area.

Simultaneously, five mortar rounds landed in the area and a large ammunition
cache, that was stored in the house, sympathetically detonated due to the fire created
by the insurgent attack.

Soldiers from the Iraqi Army swept in and cleared all of the remaining houses,
detaining five males in a car who were headed through the blockade, into the fight. The
detainees had individual weapons with them as well as rocket-propelled grenades and
launchers.

All evidence was collected and detainees processed by the Iraqi Security Forces
who were working on matching up the two killed insurgents with the descriptions of the
high-priority targets.

Building housing suspect terrorists hit in air strike near Arab Jabour

Building housing suspect terrorists hit in air strike near Arab Jabour

Thursday, 08 February 2007

MULTI-NATIONAL FORCE-IRAQ
COMBINED PRESS INFORMATION CENTER
BAGHDAD, Iraq
http://www.mnf-iraq.com
703.270.0320 / 0299

Feb. 8, 2007
Release A070208a

BUILDING HOUSING SUSPECTED TERRORISTS HIT IN AIR STRIKE NEAR ARAB JABOUR

BAGHDAD – Coalition Forces conducted an air strike Wednesday targeting an al-Qaida in Iraq-related vehicle-borne improvised explosives devices network near Arab Jabour.

Intelligence reports indicated that this network is responsible for a large and devastating number of VBIED attacks in the Baghdad area. They are also responsible for IED and sniper attacks conducted against the Iraqi people and Iraqi and Coalition Forces.

As Coalition Forces approached the targeted building they came under intense enemy fire. Ground forces assessed seven suspected terrorists were in the targeted building. Coalition Forces determined the targets too hostile for ground troops and called for air support. Two precision guided munitions were dropped destroying the targeted building and an associated structure.

Coalition Forces continue to tear apart the al-Qaida leadership inside Iraq. This operation significantly reduces this VBIED terrorist network’s ability to operate, and increases the safety of all Iraqi citizens, Iraqi forces, and Iraq’s Multi-National partners.

13 Terrorists killed in air strike northeast of Amiriyah

13 Terrorists killed in air strike northeast of Amiriyah
Thursday, 08 February 2007

MULTI-NATIONAL FORCE-IRAQ
COMBINED PRESS INFORMATION CENTER
BAGHDAD, Iraq
http://www.mnf-iraq.com
703.270.0320 / 0299

Feb 8, 2007
Release A070208b
13 TERRORISTS KILLED IN AIR STRIKE NORTHEAST OF AMIRIYAH

BAGHDAD– Coalition Forces killed an estimated 13 terrorists during an air strike Thursday morning targeting a senior foreign fighter facilitator northeast of Amiriya.

Intelligence reports indicated an individual associated with foreign fighter facilitation was in the targeted area.

During the operation, Coalition Forces detained five suspected terrorists and found a cache including armor piercing ammunition.

Information gained from the target area led Coalition Forces to two suspected foreign fighter safe houses where suspected terrorists were assembled.

Coalition Forces observed the structures to confirm intelligence reports and engaged with precision guided munitions and rotary wing close air support, killing an estimated 13 terrorists.

Coalition Forces continue to dismantle the foreign fighter networks.

This operation significantly reduces foreign fighter facilitators’ ability to operate inside Iraq.

News from Iraq

Since Anna Nicole Smith has died, no news will be seen from Iraq, even if it is good shit. So I will post a few here.


IA Captures foreign fighter facilitator
Wednesday, 07 February 2007

Multi-National Corps – Iraq
Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory
APO AE 09342

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RELEASE No. 20070207-01
Feb. 7, 2007

IA Captures foreign fighter facilitator
Multi-National Corps – Iraq PAO

BAGHDAD – Soldiers of the 7th Iraqi Army Division captured a suspected foreign fighter facilitator during operations with Coalition advisers Feb. 6 in the Al Qaim region, near the Syrian boarder.
The suspect is alleged to be gathering information about Iraqi Forces and Coalition Forces operations and providing it to foreign fighters. The man is also suspected of harboring foreign fighters in Iraq while they carry out insurgent activities in the area.
Minimal damage was done to the objective. No Iraqi civilian, Iraqi forces or Coalition Forces were casualties.

Eight Terrorists Killed, Building Destroyed in Arab Jabour

Friday, 09 February 2007

MULTI-NATIONAL FORCE-IRAQ
COMBINED PRESS INFORMATION CENTER
BAGHDAD, Iraq
http://www.mnf-iraq.com
703.270.0320 / 0299

Feb 9, 2007
Release A070209a

EIGHT TERRORISTS KILLED, BUILDING DESTROYED IN ARAB JABOUR

BAGHDAD – Coalition Forces conducted an air strike Thursday evening after receiving heavy enemy fire during a raid targeting al-Qaida in Iraq terrorists and foreign fighter facilitators.

While receiving enemy fire from several directions, ground forces called in for air support. Eight terrorists barricaded themselves inside one of the buildings and continued to fire at the ground forces. Coalition aircraft dropped precision bombs on the building, resulting in its destruction and the deaths of the eight terrorists.

No Coalition Forces or innocent Iraqis were injured during the air strike.

The operation was part of ongoing efforts to eliminate terrorists and disrupt their operations in the Arab Jabour area.

Body Count

This is from the Worldwide Standard:


Body Count

In the past, President Bush has expressed his concern about releasing the body count of enemy fighters killed or captured in Iraq. Late last year, the president sat down with a number of conservative journalists and talked about the absence of daily body counts in the Iraq war. “We have made a conscious effort not to be a body-count team . . . [which] gives you the impression that [U.S. troops] are just there--kind of moving around, directing traffic, and somebody takes a shot at them and they’re down.”

In fact, that is exactly the impression one gets watching the evening news. But that might be starting to change. On a day when twin car bombs killed more than a hundred people on the streets of Baghdad, and after a weekend that saw 27 American servicemen killed (13 of them in a helicopter crash and another five when gunmen posing as American soldiers slipped through security and attacked a provincial headquarters in Karbala), the U.S. military looks set, at long last, to report the number of enemy fighters killed. From Reuters:

The U.S. military said on Monday 93 rebels were killed and 57 captured in a 10-day operation against al Qaeda-linked insurgents northeast of Baghdad.

I've never understood the government's resistance to reporting numbers of enemy dead. Sure, there are all types of problems with putting an emphasis on body counts, not least of which is a tendency to overestimate the number killed and create a false sense of progress. Still, every day Americans turn on their TVs and see the number of Americans killed that day, the number of Iraqis slaughtered by terrorist attacks, and not a single bit of evidence that American troops and Iraqi forces are getting the bad guys, too. It won't change the facts on the ground, but the American people deserve to know what they're getting for more than $4 billion a month. Last week they got close to 100 dead insurgents and 57 captured.

Harry Reid and Iran

Harry Reid and Iran

As I have warned before, the Democrats will do anything in their imagination to ruin this country.
One way is by empowering our adversaries with their rhetoric.

Let's take a look at their latest blunder...

Today's New York Sun editorial:

"Since Washington's hostile and hawkish policies have always been against the Iranian nation, this defeat is actually an obvious victory for the Iranian nation."

—The supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, November 10, 2006.

Not since Dean Acheson helped provoke a North Korean invasion of the south on January 12, 1950, by stating publicly that Seoul was not part of America's defense perimeter has a Democrat so blundered. That's the appropriate way to describe Senator Reid's remarks Friday at the National Press Club.

"The president does not have the authority to launch military action in Iran without first seeking congressional authorization," the Senate majority leader said, standing next to Speaker Pelosi.

The present situation differs from the one 57 years ago in that the enemy, in this case Iran, is already in Iraq. The Iranians are manning outposts our GIs are raiding. The Iranians are infiltrating the Iraqi government and interior ministry. But the stakes for the American interest are similarly high. And there is enough ambiguity about America's intentions in Iraq in light of the Democratic victory in November that Mr. Reid's remarks could have the same devastating effects as Mr. Acheson's.

More.

Stealth Bunker-Buster

Stealth Bunker-Buster

Military and Aerospace Electronics reports that the Air Force is working to outfit the B-2 stealth bomber with a "30,000-pound bunker-busting 'super bomb.'" The bomb, known as the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP), is designed to destroy deeply buried and reinforced bunkers of the type North Korea and Iran have relied upon for their nuclear weapons programs.

You can read more about the MOP at globalsecurity.org, but most significant is its ability to penetrate more than 200 feet of earth and reinforced concrete. That is a significant improvement over the GBU-28, which is a 5,000-pound laser-guided bomb that was initially used to destroy Iraqi underground facilities in the first Gulf War. And while some experts have questioned how effective bunker-busters will be against hardened targets in Iran and elsewhere, John Pike told me last year that he believed the military had deliberately fostered such doubts in an attempt "to lull the mullahs into a false sense of security." He said the GBU-28 would cut through such facilities "like a hot knife through butter," which makes one wonder just what a bomb six-times heavier could do.

I actually beat Michelle Malkin to a story!

I actually beat Michelle Malkin to a story!

What? I gotta toot my horn when that happens!

I published this story on the 17th.

A Must Read From the Guardian UK

'If our troops pull out my son will have died in vain'

Kingsman Alex Green, of the 2nd Battalion the Duke of Lancashire's Regiment, died after was shot in the shoulder by small arms fire when returning to barracks following his task of escorting a convoy out of the city of Basra. He was 21 years old. He had a two-year-old son, Bradley. Here his father, Bill Stewardson, talks about the son he has lost.
My son, Al, was killed on Saturday morning. He was 21. His blood was spilled in the sand in Iraq and he joins the ranks of British servicemen who have laid down their lives for the betterment of that country.

He was a good bloke, Al. We used to laugh at him because he supported Arsenal in spite of coming from Warrington. He decided to like Arsenal at the age of five. I tried to get him out of that - but it didn't work. He'll be buried in his Arsenal shirt.

I am told that his body will be flown back next Tuesday. I don't know yet if I want to be at Brize Norton when he comes home. It's like torture lessons, where you have got to keep your face straight. I don't know if I can. We all have our weak spots.

One of the things that I have found hard to deal with is the people who have called me to pass their condolences then gone on to tell me that the war in Iraq is wrong and that we should pull the troops out.

Of course war is wrong, but they are also wrong: we should not pull the troops out. If we had pulled the troops out last week, my son would still be alive but that is not the right thing to do.

If you want to take them out, fine, no British soldiers will be killed, but who will go in? It's as if the British public are saying 'We know there are going to be deaths in that country to restore democracy but we don't want our boys dying - send somebody else's.'

More.

Iraqi special forces nab top aide to al-Sadr

Iraqi special forces nab top aide to al-Sadr

By Joseph Giordono, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Saturday, January 20, 2007

American-backed Iraqi special forces arrested a top aide to Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, another indication this week that the Iraqi government is — at least publicly — following its new commitment to security regardless of sectarian ties.

The overnight raid was conducted in eastern Baghdad and resulted in the arrest of Sheik Abdul al-Hadi Darraji, the director of Sadr’s main office in Sadr City, Iraqi officials said, adding that the man was captured around 2 a.m. Friday in a mosque.

U.S. military officials did not confirm the man’s identity, but released a statement acknowledging the capture of “a high-level illegal armed group leader.”

The statement accused the man of leading a “punishment committee” that involved kidnappings, murders and torture.

“The suspect is also reportedly involved in the assassination of numerous Iraqi Security Forces members and government officials,” the statement read. “The suspect allegedly leads various illegal armed group operations and is affiliated with illegal armed group cells targeting Iraqi civilians for sectarian attacks and violence.”

More.

IA, CF shut down terrorist group ‘The Council’

IA, CF shut down terrorist group ‘The Council’

Thursday, 18 January 2007

Multi-National Corps – Iraq
Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory
APO AE 09342

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RELEASE No. 20070118-01
Jan. 18, 2007

IA, CF shut down terrorist group ‘The Council’
Multi-National Division – North PAO

BALAD RUZ, Iraq – After a nine-day operation in the Turki Village area, soldiers from 1st Brigade, 5th Iraqi Army, together with 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, defeated “The Council,” a known terrorist group which has historically targeted families and tribes with violence throughout the region. Coalition Forces continue to maintain a presence to further the peace and stability of the area.

“The group, made up of former Ba’ath Regime members, Al Qaeda and Sunni extremists, refused to participate in any political dialogue and preferred attacking innocent civilians in the Diyala province, killing as many as 39 civilians in one kidnapping and mass murder in November,” said Col. David W. Sutherland, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division commander, and senior U.S. Army officer in the Diyala province. More than 50 of the council’s terrorists responsible for the November murder of 39 civilian were captured during the recent operations.

“The fear of the people and the weapons used by these individuals are used to attack the core of Iraqi values and beliefs. They are interested in preventing individual human rights and freedoms that the people of this region want so much,” Sutherland said.

The families and tribes that form the basis of this society recognize this achievement, Sutherland added. Phone calls to report criminal activity to the Police Coordination Center has increased 131 percent since the beginning of the operation.

More.

IP Captures Leader Of AQI Cell in Samarra

IP Captures Leader Of AQI Cell in Samarra
Friday, 19 January 2007
Multi-National Corps – Iraq

Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory
APO AE 09342

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RELEASE No. 20070119-05
Jan. 19, 2007

IP Captures Leader Of AQI Cell in Samarra
Multi-National Corps – Iraq PAO

BAGHDAD – Iraqi Police Forces captured the suspected leader of several Al Qaeda in Iraq terror cells during operations with Coalition advisers Jan. 18 in Samarra. The suspect was detained on suspicion of directing several improvised explosive device and small arms attacks against Iraqi security and Coalition forces.

The insurgent and his followers are reportedly involved in the continuing, indiscriminate violence against civilians, and resulting economic and security instability, in the area.

Iraqi Police confiscated numerous assault rifles, ammunition and IED components during the operation. Iraqi forces also detained one additional person for questioning.

The increasing capability and determination of Iraqi Security Forces to provide for their own security was demonstrated by this successful operation to capture insurgents responsible for attacks, violence and criminal activity in the area.

There was minimal damage done to the objective. There were no Iraqi civilian, Iraqi forces or Coalition forces casualties.

IA captures high-level illegal armed group leader Multi-National Corps – Iraq PAO

IA captures high-level illegal armed group leader Multi-National Corps – Iraq PAO

Friday, 19 January 2007

Multi-National Corps – Iraq
Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory
APO AE 09342

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RELEASE No. 20070119-03
Jan. 19, 2007

IA captures high-level illegal armed group leader Multi-National Corps – Iraq PAO

BAGHDAD – In an Iraqi-led operation, Special Iraqi Army Forces captured a high-level, illegal armed group leader during operations with Coalition advisers Friday in eastern Baghdad.

Iraqi forces detained him based on credible intelligence that he is the leader of illegal armed group punishment committee activity, involving the organized kidnapping, torture and murder of Iraqi civilians.

The suspect is also reportedly involved in the assassination of numerous Iraqi Security Forces members and government officials.

The suspect allegedly leads various illegal armed group operations and is affiliated with illegal armed group cells targeting Iraqi civilians for sectarian attacks and violence.

He is believed to be affiliated with Abu Dura and other Baghdad death squad commanders.

The operation occurred in the Baladiat area of Baghdad.

Two additional suspects were detained by Iraqi forces for further questioning.

Anyone hearing this stuff in the MSM?

Iraqi Security Forces continue creating, maintaining capabilities

Iraqi Security Forces continue creating, maintaining capabilities
Thursday, 18 January 2007

BAGHDAD — A joint press conference was held at the Combined Press Information Center in the International Zone Wednesday to discuss security operations and training in Iraq.

Rear Adm. Mark Fox, acting Multi-National Force-Iraq spokesman, and Brig. Gen. Terry Wolff, commanding general Coalition Military Assistance and Training Team, both touched on how progress was being made on the new plan made by President Bush.

“This institutional training mission is a critical component of our strategy to assist the Iraqis in creating and maintaining a viable and professional military capability,” said Fox.

There have been improvements already made into the training and size of the Iraq security forces.

“In 2006, we made significant strides in force generation and all components of the Iraqi military,” said Wolff. “The Iraqi security force currently sits at 327,000 trained and equipped policemen and Iraqi military.”

Despite these advances, Iraqi forces are still going through a change so patience and diligence will be needed in the coming months.

“What we’re seeing here right now is, we’re in the midst of a transition from the initial training and equipping phase into a partnering phase and ultimately with the goal of the Iraqi Army’s capability to deploy and to conduct autonomous operations and control their own battle space,” said Fox.

The importance of a unified Iraqi military and police force is not just for security but for uniting the country as a whole.

“I don’t think you can overstate the importance of the institution of the army as a unifying institution in Iraq, when you have people who come from all over the nation and now put on a common uniform and serve together,” said Fox.

While Coalition training teams are still advising, Iraqis are showing the initiative by taking the lead when it comes to some of the training.

In most of the Iraqi owned training installations it is all being run by Iraqis, said Wolff. From the financing down to the cadre, it is all in their hands.

Despite the adversities that Iraqi security force has dealt with, both Fox and Wolff remain optimistic that the advances made show that Iraq is well on its way to a secure future.

(By U.S. Army Spc. Scott Kim, Combined Press Information Center)

Tip leads to hostage release, weapons cache

Tip leads to hostage release, weapons cache
Wednesday, 17 January 2007

Multi-National Corps – Iraq
Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory
APO AE 09342

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RELEASE No. 20070117-10
Jan. 17, 2007

Tip leads to hostage release, weapons cache
By Capt. David Levasseur 2nd BCT, 1st Inf. Div. PAO

BAGHDAD – An early morning tip phoned in to the Iraqi police led not only to the release of a kidnapping victim, but also to a sizeable weapons cache in western Baghdad Jan. 14.

The tip was called in by a concerned citizen stating they knew of a person who had been kidnapped and the kidnappers were driving a Hyandai Starek minivan. Iraqi police immediately put out a call to all units to look for the vehicle that had license plates matching those given over the phone.

About an hour later, the 1st Battalion, 7th Brigade, 2nd Iraqi National Police identified the vehicle and apprehended the driver. The driver refused to cooperate and would not reveal the location of the kidnapping victim.

A second tip, shortly after Iraqi police found the vehicle, provided the probable location of the home where the victim was being held.

Shortly before 11 a.m., ements of the 1st National Police Battalion raided a home in the western Baghdad neighborhood of Bayaa. There they found the kidnap victim and a large weapons cache.

The victim was interviewed before being released to his family.

“This raid was planned and executed entirely by the Iraqi national police,” said Maj. Blaine Wales, the team chief for the 1st Battalion, 7th Brigade, 2nd Iraqi National Police Transition Team.

The weapons cache consisted of 31 mortar and artillery rounds, 12 rolls of detonation cord, one can of ball bearings, three blocks of C4 explosive, 100 blasting caps and fuses, two completed improvised explosive devices, multiple batteries of all types, four handheld radios, nine cellular phones and seven completed electronic circuit boards similar to those found in roadside bombs.

An explosive ordnance disposal team was brought to the site to examine the materials and destroy some of the munitions.

The van used in the kidnapping and another vehicle located at the cache site were confiscated by the Iraqi national police.

Way to go Big Red One!

My alma mater as it were.

Well done.

Muqtada Al-Sadr Aide Arrested in Baghdad

Muqtada Al-Sadr Aide Arrested in Baghdad

By KIM GAMEL
Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- U.S. and Iraqi forces arrested a top aide to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Friday in Baghdad, an official in his office said.

Sheik Abdul-Hadi al-Darraji, al-Sadr's media director in Baghdad, was captured in the eastern neighborhood of Baladiyat, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.

The U.S. military said special Iraqi army forces captured a high- level, illegal armed group leader during a raid in eastern Baghdad, but it did not identify the detainee.

28 alleged insurgents detained in Iraq raids

28 alleged insurgents detained in Iraq raids

Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Thursday, January 18, 2007

Twenty-eight suspected insurgents were captured by U.S. and coalition forces during a series of raids of safehouses throughout Iraq on Wednesday, a Multi-National Force-Iraq news release said.

No American or coalition servicemembers were killed or injured during the raids, officials said.

More.

Ford Class

Ford Class

Secretary of the Navy Donald C. Winter made it official yesterday; the Navy's next-generation aircraft carrier will bear the name of the late President Gerald R. Ford, making each subsequent carrier of that design part of the Ford class. The new carrier, on which construction has already begun, will be commissioned in 2009. The USS Gerald R. Ford will then replace the one of a kind USS Enterprise, which has been active for more than 50 years, and join the Navy's 9 other nuclear carriers, all of the Nimitz class. Also coming online in 2009 is the USS George W. Bush, the tenth and final Nimitz class carrier.

You can read all about the Ford class here.

Get the word out on Socialist Anti-War Lies

"65 people who are going to be able to get more press than the hundreds of thousands who have come back and said they're proud of their service." - White House Press Secretary Tony Snow, about Appeal for Redress

Spread the word about Appeal for Redress's false claims that they are a grassroots campaign. They are anything but a grass roots organization. They are a well-organized, orchestrated, and funded machine.

Send this link to everyone you know in and around the military, the media, op-ed columnists, etc.

http://www.mudvillegazette.com/archives/007574.html

Greyhawk at Mudville lays out the path that this group has taken in order to look like a legit grassroots movement. They are trying to cover up his discovery even as you are reading this.

If you do not think that it's important to spread the word, the false story about Appeal for Redress keeps getting distributed. Just GoogleNews "Appeal for Redress".

I copied all of the above from Blackfive.

Michelle Malkin is back from Iraq

Michelle Malkin is back from her embed at FOB Justice with the Big Red One.

Back from Baghdad

My HotAir.com colleague Bryan Preston and I are back from Iraq. Thanks to Allah and Ian for holding down the fort at HA and thanks much to guest-bloggers Mary Katharine Ham, See-Dubya, and the Big Lizards for filling in here during my absence. Be sure to bookmark their blogs.

Our first Hot Air in Baghdad video report is here.

Bryan's first post-trip essay, a thorough assessment of "mistakes, fumbles and ways forward to win--and what victory actually looks like," is here. He's also got video stills of our encounters with shady operators on both sides of the sectarian divide while on patrol with U.S. troops.

Nice to have her back from Iraq with a new perspective on things that if you've never been in combat, are likely not to know.
I just wish the MSM would get off their collective asses and go to Iraq and get the information first hand rather than through their stringers, which to me, are merely terrorist mouthpieces.

Afghans thwart suicide attack on U.S. base in Kabul

Afghans thwart suicide attack on U.S. base in Kabul

Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Thursday, January 18, 2007

Two Afghans thwarted a would-be suicide bomber from attacking a U.S. base in Kabul on Tuesday, according to a news release from Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan.

The incident happened when a driver tried to ram a vehicle filled with explosives through the front gate of Camp Phoenix, the news release says.
Realizing this was a terrorist attack, an Afghan security officer and an interpreter on the scene were able to stop the driver from detonating the explosives, said a Task Force Phoenix spokeswoman in the news release.

There's a success story. Can't wait to see it in the MSM.

Michael Yon in Iraq

Go check out this article!

Walking the Line 2007 Part One

Part One of Three
(A Photo Essay)

31 December 2006: Baghdad, Iraq

To enter Iraq with US forces, journalists normally travel through Kuwait. This time I flew from Singapore to Kuwait, where I toured military facilities critical to maintaining war-fighting equipment, then to Qatar to continue exploration of the same, and finally back to Kuwait to enter Iraq.

I plan to spend the entirety of 2007 with our troops at war, until sickness, wounds or worse send me home, or the military tires of my presence and catapults me over the wire. Having spent most of 2005 in Iraq, I know what this means. “Drive-by reporting,” as some commanders call it, is worse than no reporting at all. The only way to approach describing what our troops experience, and what is really happening in Iraq, is to go the distance.

Walking the Line 2007 Part 2 of 3

West of Baghdad, Al Anbar Province is a vast, lawless frontier stretching to the Syrian border. The population is almost exclusively Sunni Arab, leaving little cause for sectarian violence but plenty of room for other reasons to fight. (View the region on this map and see the breakdown of religious affiliations on this one.) Major cities in Anbar Province, such as Fallujah, are fantastically dangerous. Yet the Marines and Army, along with some Navy and Air Force personnel, are probably stretched as thin here as the Border Patrol between the U.S. and Mexico. No matter how they spread it, our fighters simply do not have enough paint to cover the barn called Anbar.

Marine posthumously awarded Medal of Honor

Marine posthumously awarded Medal of Honor

By Jeff Schogol and Leo Shane III, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Friday, January 12, 2007

See an audio slideshow of the presentation ceremony here.
WASHINGTON — Deb Dunham wished she could have seen her son receive the Medal of Honor, “but we know he’s watching us.”

Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham was posthumously awarded the nation’s highest honor for valor at a ceremony Thursday at the White House.

Dunham, who dived on a live grenade to shield his troops during an ambush in Iraq, is only the second U.S. servicemember to be given the top military honor for actions in that country, and the first Marine.

His mother wiped away tears as her son’s award citation was read. Later, as she accepted the Medal of Honor on behalf of her son, she gave President Bush a kiss on the cheek.

At the ceremony, Bush noted that more than half of the Medal of Honor recipients since World War II have died earning it.

“Cpl. Jason Dunham belongs to this select group,” Bush said. “On a dusty road in western Iraq, Cpl. Dunham gave his own life so that the men under his command might live.”

The citation:

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a Rifle Squad Leader, 4th Platoon, Company K, Third Battalion, Seventh Marines (Reinforced), Regimental Combat Team 7, First Marine Division (Reinforced), on 14 April 2004. Corporal Dunham's squad was conducting a reconnaissance mission in the town of Karabilah, Iraq, when they heard rocket-propelled grenade and small arms fire erupt approximately two kilometers to the west.

Corporal Dunham led his Combined Anti-Armor Team towards the engagement to provide fire support to their Battalion Commander's convoy, which had been ambushed as it was traveling to Camp Husaybah. As Corporal Dunham and his Marines advanced, they quickly began to receive enemy fire. Corporal Dunham ordered his squad to dismount their vehicles and led one of his fire teams on foot several blocks south of the ambushed convoy. Discovering seven Iraqi vehicles in a column attempting to depart, Corporal Dunham and his team stopped the vehicles to search them for weapons. As they approached the vehicles, an insurgent leaped out and attacked Corporal Dunham. Corporal Dunham wrestled the insurgent to the ground and in the ensuing struggle saw the insurgent release a grenade. Corporal Dunham immediately alerted his fellow Marines to the threat. Aware of the imminent danger and without hesitation, Corporal Dunham covered the grenade with his helmet and body, bearing the brunt of the explosion and shielding his Marines from the blast. In an ultimate and selfless act of bravery in which he was mortally wounded, he saved the lives of at least two fellow Marines. By his undaunted courage, intrepid fighting spirit, and unwavering devotion to duty, Corporal Dunham gallantly gave his life for his country, thereby reflecting great credit upon himself and upholding the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service.

Well done Marine. Rest in peace.

New Name

I changed the name to reflect what I intend to do and am doing in reference to military related news and issues.

New Veterans Affairs Chairman

Military Update: Veterans size up new House panel chairman

Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., the new chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, speaks with enthusiasm for any and all initiatives that might help veterans improve their quality of life.

But Filner is seen as such a partisan and his rhetoric can be so imprecise that some veterans’ advocates wonder what this firebrand will achieve as chairman.

In an interview on his priorities, Filner said he was “very excited” to take control “because a lot of things weren’t done in the last few years that should have been done for veterans.”

Under Republicans, “veterans had to fight like a special interest” for benefits. He said his predecessor, Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Ind., locked arms with the Bush administration and with Secretary of Veterans Affairs R. James Nicholson on an unspoken goal of downsizing the VA health system. Filner’s evidence: “When you have continued recommendations of new fees for enrollees, when you keep out the lower priority veterans, you are trying to downsize.”

In wartime, he said, troop morale depends on “knowing they are going to be treated well when they get home.” Bigger VA budgets and better benefits, he said, should be seen “as a cost of war.”

He supports the Democrats’ entire “GI Bill of Rights for the 21st Century,” which includes a $3 billion increase in VA health spending to cut wait times for patients and to expand access to more categories of veteran; an end to the ban on concurrent receipt of military retirement and VA disability compensation for the remaining 400,000 military retirees with disabilities; an end to the offset in survivor benefits for widows who also receive VA Dependency and Indemnity Compensation; and a boost in Montgomery GI Bill benefits to cover full college tuition, room and board.

“Most of these things have already been part of our platform, so it’s hard to backpedal,” Filner said. But he cautioned that Democrats also promised to restore budget discipline, so gains for veterans will have to be phased in over several years. His first priority is education benefit reform, he said. Yet after 14 years on the VA committee, Filner sounded surprisingly misinformed on the prized MGIB.

More.

Troops capture terror suspects in meat-packing plant

Troops capture terror suspects in meat-packing plant

Tuesday, 09 January 2007 Story by Spc. Chris McCann
2nd BCT, 10th Mtn. Div.

BAGHDAD — It’s the stuff war movies are made of — breaking in doors, Soldiers moving in, rifles at the ready. But this wasn’t a movie.

Soldiers of the 1st Squadron, 89th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (LI) conducted a nighttime raid on a Baghdad meat-packaging facility suspected of being a terrorist meeting place in the Al Rashid district Jan. 7.

The 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division concurrently assaulted the salt factory next door, also a suspected terrorist planning area. Joining the two U.S. units on the operation were members of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division. The two-pronged joint assault netted 32 detainees and more than 20 weapons, including 11 AK-47s, a Kalishnikov assault rifle, two Russian-made carbines, 15 60mm mortar rounds and a submachine gun.

The men detained, some of whom were guards at the building, were held on suspicion that they were allowing the buildings to be used as a terrorist rendezvous point, a suspicion strengthened by the weapons found in the area.

More.

50 Militants Said Killed in Iraq Battle

50 Militants Said Killed in Iraq Battle

an 9, 9:13 AM (ET)

By LAUREN FRAYER

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - U.S. and Iraqi soldiers, backed by American warplanes, battled suspected insurgents for hours Tuesday in central Baghdad, and 50 militant fighters were killed, the Defense Ministry said.

Elsewhere, a cargo plane carrying Turkish construction workers crashed during landing at an airport near Baghdad, killing 30 people and injuring two, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said. Initial reports indicated the plane crashed due to bad weather and heavy fog, a Foreign Ministry official said on condition of anonymity because an official announcement had not yet been authorized.

U.S. helicopters circled above the Haifa Street area where the battle took place, and witnesses said they had seen the aircraft firing into the combat zone. Explosions rang out across the area, just north of the heavily fortified Green Zone.

Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Shaker, a ministry spokesman, said 21 militants were captured, including seven foreign Arabs - including three Syrians - and one Sudanese.

More

Military News

Coalition forces find bomb-making items in western Baghdad

Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Monday, January 8, 2007

Coalition forces have destroyed a cache used for manufacturing and assembling explosive devices in the Ghazaliyah neighborhood in western Baghdad, officials said Saturday.

Soldiers from Company D, 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Division, attached to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, found about 200 pounds of explosives on Friday, dispersed between two houses near the Al-Shadra Mosque.

Civil affairs team aims to promote stability in Djibouti

By Monte Morin, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Monday, January 8, 2007

DJIBOUTI CITY, Djibouti — On the sun-blasted streets of this ramshackle port city, where narcotic “khat” leaves are sold by the bale and homeless families camp in back alleys, U.S. Army Capt. Jason Fleming and his civil affairs team stand out like sore thumbs in their pixelated combat uniforms.

But standing out in public, Fleming said, is what his job is all about.

Unit remembers dedicated soldier who was killed just before his son's birth

By Lisa Burgess, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Monday, January 8, 2007

FORWARD OPERATING BASE LOYALTY, Baghdad — On Saturday night, Sgt. John Michael Sullivan should have been busy packing his rucksack, getting ready to see his wife and newborn son back in the States.

Instead, Sullivan, 22, was already home. His body arrived in his hometown of Hixon, Tenn., on Friday, according to KKTV 11, a local news channel.

He was killed on Dec. 30 while on a mission with his platoon in Baghdad.

Back in Colorado Springs, the news of his death sent his wife, Michele, into labor the same night.

U.S.-Iraqi joint force operations

Military journalists report in Samarra.

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Myths About the US Military

I'll leave you with this from Victor Davis Hanson.

I have always enjoyed his columns. My guess is because of the historical references that he makes in comparisson to the current affairs.

Military Solutions?

Myths About the US Military

There is often voiced pessimism about our current military, to such a degree that it is termed broken or exhausted. But how true is that?

The traveler to Iraq is struck not by dearth, but opulence—everything imaginable from new SUVs to Eskimo Pies. Internet Service there was far faster than from my home in rural Fresno County.

So far recruitment levels are being met. No one in the military has warned that it is a bad idea to create more brigades of ground troops. Such a caveat about the current proposed expansion we would expect if we could not even meet our present manpower targets.

We have a tripartite military—air, sea, and ground. While the Marines and Army have rough going in Iraq, there have been very few Air Force and Navy material or human losses. Surely our air wings and ships are not “worn out” from patrolling in Iraq. There might be thousands of trashed humvees and worn out Bradleys, but not frigates, F-16s, or carriers. This is not 1943 when the US military was fighting in Sicily, as B-17s fell from the sky, as our merchant marine was under U-boat attack.

After Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia, and Afghanistan, the mantra was that the Army and Marines were not getting their fair share of service in Rumsfeld’ revolution in military affairs that envisioned Special Forces on donkeys zeroing in GPS bombs from 20,000 feet onto clueless Taliban. But suddenly after a little more three years in Iraq, we are supposed to believe that a few thousand insurgents have “ruined” what until 2003 was an underused force? It would be interesting to trace the origins of this pessimism that now appears in the columns of op-ed pages: does it arise from tired and demoralized officers, or anti-war critics eager to see something again like the 1976 American military?

Does Experience Count for Anything?

But more importantly, few have asked more existential questions: are our ground forces better or worse prepared to fight jihadists than they were on September 11? At some point, the millions of hours of experience fighting Islamists from the Hindu Kush to Anbar Province must count for something. William Tecumseh Sherman’s frightening Army of the West that tramped through Washington DC in April 1865 made any Union force of 1861 seem pathetic by comparison—despite he tragic losses of thousands during the war.

There's more at his site: Work and Days.

Switching Blog Settings

I am switching my Blog over to the new version.
This may take me a bit to get it straightened out.
The Blog roll will take a while to get back up to speed.

Where's the Beef?

Global warming and other nutty issues...

January 02, 2007
Where`s the Beef?
By Timothy Birdnow

In the mid 1980`s the
Wendy's Hamburger chain ran a very successful advertising campaign in
which an octogenarian (who sounded amazingly like Helen Thomas)
bellyached about the stingy amount of meat on her sandwich; "where`s the beef?"
became a nationally known slogan, and embodied the prosperity of our
nation. We were red blooded Americans, by God, proud and vigorous,
hearty appetites for red blooded all American beef!

In
many ways, this advertising campaign embodied part of what it means to
be an American; beef lies at the heart of our cuisine, and was the
staple of the cowboy, the cavalrymen, the settlers on the Great Plains.
The Texas Longhorn wandering the dusty backcountry of the Lone Star
State was the symbol of American grit, American independence and
cussedness. The dairy farms with their quaint barns and quiet pastoral
scenes in Wisconsin or Iowa were a part of Americana as were the great
open ranches of Montana, or the boxcars transporting cattle across the
width and breadth of these United States.

Oh so true...

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Gerald Ford, RIP

RIP Gerald Ford.

Statement from Betty Ford: "My family joins me in sharing the difficult
news that Gerald Ford, our beloved husband, father, and grandfather,
has passed away..."

President Ford was 93. Here's his official White House bio. Here's the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum page.

A CNN commentator says President Ford will be buried at the Ford
library and museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan after funeral/memorial
services in California, D.C., and lying in state in the Capitol Rotunda.

Here's President Bush's statement.

Paul Mirengoff:
"My favorite Ford moment came in his 1975 state of the union address
when he declared, "the state of the union is not good." Do you think
we'll ever hear another president make a statement like that when his
party has controlled the White House for an extended period?"

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Interview with Captain Coulson

Very good.

Thanks for your service Captain. God Speed to you and your Soldiers.

An Interview with Captain Coulson

CPT Coulson is the commanding officer of Alpha Company, Task Force 321 Engineers (Task Force Pathfinder)

FALLUJAH, IRAQ: One of the best sources of
news on the situation in Iraq is from the officers and enlisted serving
in the theater who maintain military blogs. While at Camp Fallujah, I
met up with one such Milblogger. Captain Eric Coulson is the commanding
officer of Alpha Company, Task Force 321 Engineers (Task Force
Pathfinder), and the author of Badgers Forward,
one of the finest Milblogs out there. Captain Coulson's battalion
replaced the 54th Engineers, a unit I embedded with last year to go on an IED hunt in Ramadi.

At his blog, Captain Coulson provides insight on the the fight
against the insurgency in Anbar province and the hunt for roadside
bombs [IEDs], as well as a look at the the daily life of a soldier
serving in Iraq. Road Work, Night Moves and So what does an IED look like? are essential reading for understanding the fight in Anbar province. A Cold Wind Blows and Battle Update Brief
provide insight into camp life and the challenges of command. Captain
Coulson also has a blogger in the ranks. The Teflon Don runs Acute Politics, another fine military blog that should be on your reading list.

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Air strike kills top Taliban tactician

By Jason Straziuso

ASSOCIATED PRESS


December 24, 2006

/> The Washington Times

KABUL, Afghanistan -- A U.S. air strike near the Pakistan border killed
the Taliban's southern military commander, an associate of Osama bin
Laden and heir to Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, U.S. and Afghan
officials said yesterday.

Akhtar Mohammed Osmani's vehicle was hit by a U.S. air strike
Tuesday as he traveled in a deserted area in the southern province of
Helmand, the spokesman said. Two of his associates also were killed.

U.S. and Afghan officials said the strike was a major victory.

Rashid, a leading author on the Taliban, said Osmani's
death could disrupt planning for a Taliban offensive early next year,
designed to extend the recent surge of violence across Afghanistan.

Osmani played an instrumental role in some of the Taliban's
most notorious excesses -- including the demolition of the ancient
Buddha statues in Bamiyan and the trial of Christian aid workers in
2001, Mr. Rashid said.

He also was one of three top associates of Mullah Omar, and
among the first supporters of bin Laden within the militant Islamic
militia's top ranks, Mr. Rashid said.

A Taliban spokesman denied that Osmani was dead, but a
provincial police chief and Afghanistan's Interior Ministry confirmed
the killing. Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary called it "a
big achievement."

A U.S. spokesman said the death was confirmed through multiple sources.

Merry Christmas Osama.

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U.S. Airstrike Kills Top Taliban Commander in Afghanistan

From Fox News

Saturday, December 23, 2006

KABUL, Afghanistan A top Taliban military commander described as a close associate of Usama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar
was killed in an airstrike this week close to the border with Pakistan,
the U.S. military said Saturday. A Taliban spokesman denied the claim.

Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani was killed Tuesday by a U.S. airstrike while traveling by vehicle in a deserted area in the southern province of Helmand, the U.S. military said. Two associates also were killed, it said.

There was no immediate confirmation from Afghan officials or visual proof
offered to support the claim. A U.S. spokesman said "various sources"
were used to confirm Osmani's identity.

Keep up the good work fellas!

Don't forget the troops are still doing their duty on Christmas.

Thank you to all Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines.

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Link Test

Link Test 2

Notes From a War Diary

Notes From a War Diary (Fourth in a Series)

by Oliver North

Posted Dec 22, 2006



TQ AIRBASE, Iraq -- Our Fox News team is aboard a U.S. Marine C-130
aircraft, departing Iraq, headed for Kuwait -- the eighth time we have
left war-torn Mesopotamia this way. It's exactly 45 months since I
first entered Iraq on the night that Operation Iraqi Freedom began.
Then, I was aboard a Marine CH-46, and the bird to our left,
transporting a squad of Royal Marine Commandos, went down, killing all
aboard.



Today's flight, call sign "Midas 10," is designated as an "Angel
Flight." It carries the flag-draped metal coffin containing the body of
a young Marine captain killed yesterday by enemy fire. Usually aircraft
headed out of country are crammed with dirty, tired, armor-clad
warriors celebrating their departure. Today, it's just the flight crew
and us, and all aboard are somber. Everyone is painfully aware that
back home, an American family is going to grieve for Christmas.

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Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all and may God Bless you and yours.



I'll pick up posting on the other side of Christmas.

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American Al Qaeda Captured in Belize...

American Al Qaeda Captured in Belize...

The Belize Police Department has bagged another U.S. fugitive. This
time, however, instead of a tax dodger, bigamist or sex offender they
hit the jackpot, nabbing a suspect with ties to the world of terrorism.
Forty-one year old Ernest James Thompson, also known as James Ujaama
and Bilal Ahmed, violated parole in the United States by leaving the
country and a wanted poster was circulated through Interpol by U.S. law
enforcement authorities. According to Assistant Police Commissioner
Eduardo Wade, that's when our cops started looking.



A.P.C. Eduardo Wade, Belize Police Department

“As a result of this request the police conducted an investigation
and some time around midnight last night or earlier this morning this
fugitive was apprehended here in Belize City. He has since been taken
out of the country. He entered Belize about ten days or so ago using a
Mexican passport. During the operation Inspector Grinage, who headed
the operation, received some injuries he was treated and released as
this fellow attempted to escape during his apprehension.”



Leonard Hill, Deputy Chief of Mission, U.S. Embassy

“He was initially arrested in 2003 in connection with plots in the
United States to poison water supplies and to do a number of other
things. He subsequently pleaded guilty to charges dealing with Al Qaeda
in Afghanistan and providing various types of material support to the
Taliban as well in Afghanistan.”



Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy, Leonard Hill, indicated
that although Thompson's immediate crime was a parole violation, he may
in fact face additional charges and is also a material witness in other
terror related cases. One indication of his status may be that federal
officials sent down a private plane to bring him back to the States.
Two Belizean police officers went along for the ride and presumably the
traditional night on the town as a guest of the U.S. Department of
Justice.

Interpol played a hand on this one.

Way to go Belize!

Take note, he was already sent back to the US.

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Support the Gitmo troops this Christmas

Send the troops at Gitmo a card. Thank them for their service to this nation and for the abuses that they must take from both the prisoners and the media.

If I were running Gitmo, those Islamic pieces of shit would be put in their proper place. The Koran would be a flushing on a daily basis.



From Democracy Project

Lt.
Col. Gordon Cucullu, U.S. Army (Ret.), is a sometime blogger here at
Democracy Project and a personal friend. Gordon writes frequently and
passionately about American forces serving around the world, and the
email below, sent from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, tells of a neglected band
of brothers who receive fewer Christmas cards from the American people
than those stationed at other locales: the guards at Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba. Worse, they receive more abuse from the press, in spite of the
documented fact that they are subject to constant abuse from the
terrorists they guard.

As if that isn't enough, last Christmas the terrorists held there
received no fewer than 14,000 pieces of mail at Christmas, and they're
expected to receive 16,000 this year. All while our troops there are,
for the most part, overlooked even by those of us here at home who
support their mission.

Gordon gives the address to which you may send cards at the end of his essay, but here it is again:

"Any Trooper, JTF GTMO, APO AE 09360"

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DoD Honors Rumsfeld, Bids Farewell

By Sgt. Sara Wood, USA

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON,

Dec. 15, 2006 – The Defense Department bid farewell to the 21st secretary of
defense, Donald H. Rumsfeld, in a full honors parade at the Pentagon today.

PresidentBush; Vice President Richard B. Cheney; Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the

Joint Chiefs of Staff; and many other DoD leaders joined employees and servicemembers to honor Rumsfeld, who has led the department for six years.

“Because of Don Rumsfeld’s determination and leadership, America has the best equipped, the best trained, and the most experienced armed forces in the history of the world,” Bush said during the ceremony. “This man knows how to lead, and he did, and the country is better off for it.”Bush praised Rumsfeld for preparing the military for the threats of the 21st centuryand for his determined leadership after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11,2001. When the Pentagon was hit, Rumsfeld’s first instinct was to run toward dangerand help the wounded, and afterwards he launched one of the most innovativecampaigns in history going after al Qaeda in Afghanistan, Bush said. Rumsfeld then led Operation Iraqi Freedom, driving Saddam Hussein from power in 21 days and helping the Iraqi government form a free democracy in the heart of the Middle East.

So long Don. It's been interesting.

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Panned in Baghdad

James Baker and company are idiots.

Iraqis reject the Baker-Hamilton report.

Friday, December 15, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST

Iraq
Study Group Chairmen Jim Baker and Lee Hamilton have spent the past
week defending their report against withering criticism here in the
U.S. But the more revealing reaction has been from Iraq itself:
"Unrealistic," "inappropriate" and "very dangerous" are among the
kinder words used by Iraq's leaders to describe the ISG's work.

Consider
Jalal Talabani. A secular-minded Kurd who has probably done more than
any other leader to reach out across the country's sectarian divides,
Iraq's President is no doubt sympathetic to the report's calls for
"national reconciliation." But he reacted strongly to the ISG's
suggestion that American support for his democratically elected
government be conditioned on its meeting U.S.-determined "milestones"
toward that goal. That, he said, was an "insult to the people of Iraq."

Mr.
Talabani was also critical of the ISG's specific ideas for achieving
reconciliation. Having helped bring such Sunni leaders as Adnan Dulaimi
into the political process, he clearly understands the importance of
giving the Sunnis a fair deal. But he bristled at the report's idea
that reconciliation should be achieved through concessions to members
of Saddam's Baath Party and other Sunni rejectionists. Fellow Kurdish
leader Massoud Barzani echoed that criticism, saying the ISG wanted to
reward "those who are against the political process and have conducted
acts of violence."

Finish the job.

Let the troops kill the fucking insurgents and let them restore order to that fucking hell hole and be done with it.

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All active branches met or surpassed November recruiting goals

Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Wednesday, December 13, 2006

ARLINGTON, Va. — All active branches of the service met or surpassed their November recruiting goals, the Defense Department announced Tuesday.

The Army topped the list with 6,485 new recruits, or 105 percent of its recruiting goal, a Defense Department news release says. Of the other services: The Marine Corps achieved 104 percent of its goal with 2,095 recruits; the Navy met 100 percent of its goal with 2,887 recruits; and the Air Force hit 100 percent of its goal with 1,877 recruits.

The Army National Guard led reserve components with 5,094 recruits, or 113 percent of its November goal, the news release says. The Air National Guard made 115 percent of its goal with 752 recruits; the Marine Corps Reserve achieved 102 percent of its goal with 547 recruits; and the Air Force Reserve met 100 percent of its goal with 436 recruits.

The Navy Reserve fell short of its November recruiting goal with 687 recruits, or 91 percent of its goal; and the Army Reserve made only 79 percent of its goal with 1,888 recruits, the news release says.

The Army Reserve expects to make up this shortfall in January, said Army spokesman Lt. Col. Brian Hilferty in a Monday e-mail to Stars and Stripes.

On the retention side, the Army National guard met 137 percent of its goal with 5,930 retentions, and the Air National Guard got 101 percent of its goal with 1,607 retentions, a Defense Department official said on Tuesday.

No retention information was available on the other reserve components, the official said.

Soldier who died smothering enemy grenade to be recommended for Medal of Honor

Here is a fine example of Soldiering and needs to be recognized.


By Mark St.Clair, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Thursday, December 14, 2006

A Schweinfurt, Germany-based infantryman who jumped on a grenade to save other troops is being recommended for the Medal of Honor.

The 1st Infantry Division soldier, Spc. Ross Andrew McGinnis, 19, was killed Dec. 4 while on a combat patrol in Baghdad.

Soldiers in his unit said he used his body to cover a grenade that had been thrown into his Humvee by an enemy fighter on a nearby rooftop.

McGinnis’ actions probably saved the lives of the four other soldiers in the vehicle, his company commander and other officials said during a Tuesday memorial ceremony.

As the U.S.’s highest award for wartime valor, the Medal of Honor is approved sparingly, and only one has been given out since Sept. 11, 2001, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

That award, to Sgt. 1st Class Paul Ray Smith of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, was presented to Smith’s widow and two children by President Bush on April 4, 2005 — two years to the day after Smith’s death.

Smith was honored posthumously for his actions during the battle for the Baghdad airport in 2003, when he killed as many as 50 enemy fighters while helping wounded comrades to safety.

On Nov. 10, while speaking at the opening of the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Virginia, Bush announced that a second Medal of Honor would be awarded to Marine Cpl. Jason L. Dunham, who also used his body to smother a grenade and protect two of his fellow Marines.

Bush’s announcement came on what would have been Dunham’s 25th birthday, more than 2½ years after his death on April 14, 2004.

A date for the presentation ceremony has not yet been given.

According to the Army’s official Web site, “because of the need for accuracy the (Medal of Honor) recommendation process can take in excess of 18 months with intense scrutiny every step of the way.”

In McGinnis’ case, the recommendation has started with his company commander in 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, Capt. Michael Baka.

If approved, it would end with Congress.

Because of this, the award is often erroneously referred to as the Congressional Medal of Honor.

A Silver Star already has been awarded to McGinnis for his bravery, and even if he is eventually awarded the Medal of Honor, the Silver Star will stay on his record.

“In essence, he could receive two awards,” said Maj. Sean Ryan, public affairs officer for 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, which McGinnis’ unit currently falls under while deployed.

Ryan also said that if the Medal of Honor is not approved, it could be downgraded to the Distinguished Service Cross.

Academe Shortchanges Conservatives

Most people already realize this, but it seems that no one really cares in the halls of Academe.

Professor Bauerlein brings it home.



Mark Bauerlein, a professor of English at Emory University, has an interesting article in The Chronicle of Higher Education: "How Academe Shortchanges Conservative Thinking:"

The absence of conservative minds from the liberal-arts curriculum and
the off-campus ignorance of them — or worse, treatment of them as hired
hands — are standard features of intellectual life, and they are not
unrelated. When it comes to ideas and values, campuses remain the
foremost site of study, and the curriculum has a certifying effect. It
bears the duty of imparting ideas and writings essential to the
formation of thoughtful, informed individuals. The campus provides a
space in which that can happen, an occasion for learning — not for
advocating or using knowledge, but for acquiring and reflecting upon
it. The ideas included are deemed suitable for academic study, which is
to say they possess enough autonomy to be handled as part of an
intellectual tradition.

The division of campus discourse from public discourse has a
discrediting result. If a set of ideas and writings are missing in the
classroom but present in the marketplace or government, we tend to
explain them by their instrumental value. They owe their clout to their
usefulness to business or politics, the reasoning goes, not to
intellectual substance. If the university doesn't put those works and
ideas on the syllabus, they aren't subject to the free analysis and
contemplation that respectable works and ideas merit. When they crop up
off campus, then, they seem to have no independent validity, no import
separate from the interests they satisfy.

This is a disabling situation for conservative intellectuals. When a
distinctive intellectual identity emerged 100 years ago in France, it
did so as an adversarial one. People qualified as intellectuals by
acquiring knowledge through education and extending their expertise
into protest, rising above the blandishments of money and position to
represent higher things. What kept them honest and credible was,
precisely, their independence. What kept them authoritative was the
fact that they had developed their opinions in a disinterested setting.

Herein lies the plight of conservative intellectuals. They seek to
reflect upon the events of the day, but the ideas they draw upon are
ignored by professors and cheapened by liberal intellectuals. Count the
names Hayek, Russell Kirk, Irving Kristol, etc., on syllabi in courses
on "Culture Society." Tally how often, in left-of-center
periodicals, those names are linked to moneyed interests. The framing
is complete. Heralds of conservatism start and finish in the messy
realm of politics and finance, never rising into the temple of
reflection...

...The denial of legitimacy creates a distorted intellectual
environment, and everyone suffers. American society, not to mention
students, is poorly served when ideas in the public sphere don't
undergo conceptual, historical, and political analysis in the
classroom. Unfortunately, the curricular attention that conservative
minds and ideas actually gather is reflexive and shallow. It's not even
an adversarial relationship. It's barely any relationship at all.

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Another Cop Killer, Another Idiot University

Students 'Love' Cop Killer Honored at New York College

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

By Sara Bonisteel

NEW YORK — New York City college students who share a community room named for an escaped cop killer called the fugitive their hero Tuesday as the school's officials demanded the removal of the honor.



A handful of campus groups at the City College of New York commended the school for allowing them to work in the name of domestic "terrorist" Assata Shakur, now believed to be hiding in Cuba.



"We know that many Black people that fought for better conditions in the 70's were framed," the groups said in a statement released to FOXNews.com. "We consider Assata Shakur to be one of the people who were wrongfully and purposefully framed for her activities.



"And we consider her a hero and role model for standing up for our people and putting her life on the line."

The chancellor of City University of New York, meanwhile, demanded the "unauthorized and inappropriate signage" be removed.

Why did it take so long for the Chancellor to decide that this needed to be removed?

What is the university system teaching the young people of this nation?

University's should be for academics and not political BS.

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Katherine Kersten: Suspicion about imams grows as terror links pile up

The "flying imams" are linked to terrorism.

Who'd have thunk it?



Katherine Kersten, Star Tribune

Last update: December 11, 2006 – 10:00 AM

The grounded imams incident at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International
Airport has been a public relations coup for the imams, their
supporters and their claims that the group's only suspicious activity
was saying evening prayers.

US
Airways continues to defend its crew's decision to pull the imams off a
plane last month, saying they took the seating configuration used by
9/11 hijackers, requested seat-belt extensions that could be used as
weapons and otherwise raised concerns.

Who are the parties involved here, who seem so interested in linking airport security with racial bigotry?

The
Council on American-Islamic Relations, the imams' legal representative,
is an organization that "we know has ties to terrorism," Sen. Charles
Schumer, D-N.Y., said in 2003. And the Muslim American Society, which
is also supporting the imams? It's the American arm of the Muslim
Brotherhood, according to the Chicago Tribune, which called it "the
world's most influential Islamic fundamentalist group."

How
about Omar Shahin, the imams' spokesman and also president of the North
American Imams Federation? He is a native of Jordan, who says he became
a U.S. citizen in 2003. From 2000 to 2003, Shahin served as president
of Islamic Center of Tucson (ICT), that city's largest mosque.

Yep, racial profiling.

I like US Airways. The anti-terrorist airline!

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Iraq Appease Squeeze

The New York Post slams the Iraq panel.

WASHINGTON - The Iraq Study Group report delivered to President Bush

yesterday contains 79 separate recommendations - but not one that

explains how American forces can defeat the terrorist insurgents, only

ways to bring the troops home.

Declaring the situation "grave and deteriorating," the

high-powered commission proposed the United States talk directly to

terror abettors Iran and Syria to get their cooperation, and commit to

removing U.S. combat troops in early 2008.

I think the Iraq panel is a joke as well.



What the fuck are they thinking? James Baker? That fuckin' nazi needs to go back under the rock he crawled out from under.

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New Blog

Here's my new blog.

I'll be bouncing between the two.

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Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving.

Please remember the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guard during the holidays.

If it weren't for them, you wouldn't be celebrating anything.

God Bless you all.

I am back.

Can't seem to find a blog that I like.
So until I do find one that I like as a host, then I will keep it up here.