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 The Pentagon Early Bird 17 Feb 2008 C U R R E N T N E W S February 17, 2008 placeRandomImg() Use of these news items does not reflect official endorsement. Reproduction for private use or gain is subject to original copyright restrictions. Item numbers indicate order of appearance only. This is the single print version. Use the PRINT command in your browser to print the entire Early Bird as one document. (NOTE: This single file format is a long document and can use 50 or more pages of paper.) IRAQ
Washington Times February 17, 2008 Pg. 1 Insurgent Attacks In Baghdad Off 80% Iraq’s military credits “Operation Imposing Law” and 12-foot blast walls. By Aws Qusay, Reuters News Agency BAGHDAD — Attacks by insurgents and rival sectarian militias have fallen by up to 80 percent in Baghdad and concrete blast walls that divide the capital could soon be removed, a senior Iraqi military official said yesterday. Lt. Gen. Abboud Qanbar said the success of a yearlong clampdown called “Operation Imposing Law” had reined in the savage violence between majority Shi’ites and minority Sunni Arabs dominant under since-ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. “In a time when you could hear nothing but explosions, gunfire and the screams of mothers and fathers and sons, and see bodies that were burned and dismembered, the people of Baghdad were awaiting Operation Imposing Law,” Gen. Qanbar told reporters. He pointed to the number of dead bodies turning up on the capital’s streets as an indicator of success. In the six weeks to the end of 2006, an average of 43 bodies were found dumped in the city each day as fierce sectarian fighting threatened to turn into fullscale civil war. That figure fell to four a day in 2008, in the period up to Feb. 12, said Gen. Qanbar, who heads the Baghdad security operation. “Various enemy activities” had fallen by between 75 percent and 80 percent since the security plan was implemented, he said. To demonstrate how life had improved, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki toured parts of the city yesterday, visiting Iraqi forces and checkpoints. “He wanted . . . to send a message to the terrorists that security in Baghdad is prevailing now,” one official said. Central to the success has been the erection of 12-foot concrete walls that snake across the city. The walls were designed to stop car bombings blamed on al Qaeda that turned markets and open areas into killing fields. Gen. Qanbar said he hoped the walls could be taken down “in the coming months” and predicted the improved situation in Baghdad would translate to greater security elsewhere. The U.S. military says attacks have fallen across Iraq by 60 percent since June on the back of security clampdowns and the deployment of 30,000 extra American troops. Vital to the fall in violence was also a decision by Sunni Arab tribal leaders to turn against Sunni Islamist al Qaeda in late 2006 and form neighborhood security units, which man checkpoints and provide tips on militants’ hide-outs. However, their relationship with Iraqi authorities remains tense. The Shi’ite-led government is wary of the units, called “awakening councils” by the U.S. military and whose ranks include former Sunni Arab insurgents. “Everyone should know that the official security forces represent the country. And it is the one side that has the right to bear arms and impose security,” Gen. Qanbar said. In a sign of the tensions, one awakening council said it was suspending its activities after three members were killed in an incident near the town of Jurf alSukr, south of Baghdad. The unit blamed American soldiers for Friday’s deaths. The U.S. military said attack helicopters had responded with rockets after security forces came under small-arms fire. While Iraqi and U.S. officials laud the security gains, humanitarian groups say it is still too early to encourage around 2 million refugees who fled Iraq to return home. “The plight of Iraqi refugees will end with national reconciliation,” the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, told reporters during a visit to Baghdad. Mr. Guterres said he is sending a representative to Baghdad to help millions of displaced Iraqis return home, showing a strengthened U.N. commitment to deal with the crisis and confidence in recent security gains, the Associated Press reported. Mr. Guterres also pledged to increase his group’s staffing level in Baghdad from two to five persons. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080217580999.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1419646_AEX PjkQAAMHTR7h5VgxlSUdK454&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080217aaindex_concat.html&cred=erD3F.1pNNjIZp57 XJ11VnNDU7Einpd80j8f34pJhp57Y1qVtOBdANnbl3MuafV.#T OP">RETURN TO TOP New York Times February 17, 2008 Pg. 12 Iraqis Blame U.S. For Deaths Of 8 Backing American Effort By Alissa J. Rubin BAGHDAD — Leaders in two Iraqi villages denounced American troops on Saturday for what they described as the killings of an Iraqi family and three other people who were working with the Americans against the insurgents. In one of the villages, Zab, nearly 1,000 mourners flocked Saturday to the funeral of family members of a sheik who died in an attack there. T American military has denied having operations in the area at the time. At least five people were killed there Thursday night. In the other village, Jurf al Sukr, a number of Iraqi guardsmen quit Saturday to protest the killings. The America military said it was investigating, but indicated that its troops had been fired upon and returned fire. Three people were killed there early Friday. The killings were the latest in a series of claims of mistaken attacks by American forces on the informal Iraqi allies known as Awakening Councils. In some of these cases, it remains unclear precisely what happened. The American military has acknowledged the accidental killings of more than 25 people in Taji in November, and several members of an Awakening group near Iskandariya this month. In a disputed case, six men who were said to be Awakening Council members and two women were killed near Raween in Salahuddin Province early Thursday. The Iraqi police and the American military say the Americans were fired on first. The Awakening Councils are locally organized so it is often difficult to verify someone’s membership from a distance. There were varying accounts of the killings in Zab, which is in the rough mountainous area that stretches between Mosul, Kirkuk and Bayji in northern Iraq. However, a sheik who lived next door to the family who was attacked said five people had been killed there and 13 arrested. The sheik, Kudair al-Jubori, said that after dinner, his neighbor’s daughter “went out of her house and was shot by a sniper in the head, leg and stomach.” “She screamed, and her 11-year-old daughter heard her mother, and she ran to her and got shot, too,” Sheik Jubori said. “Then the woman’s brother-in-law, who was 40 years old, came out and he was killed.” Soon after, the woman’s uncle emerged carrying a gun and was killed. A fifth person was killed as well, Sheik Jubori said. The dead woman’s husband had been killed previously by insurgents, he said. He added, “They could have warned the locals with loudspeakers that they are Americans and came to chase terrorists and not treat locals as if they were terrorists or crooks.” Local leaders said that as the community gathered Saturday to mourn the dead, American officers came to apologize. “As the Americans approached the mourners, those who were grieving wore expressions of sadness and hatred,” said Sheik Muhammad Abdullah al-Jubori, a retired English teacher. “I was afraid that some of them might attack the coming force, or even refuse to receive them. But since we are antiterrorism warriors, and in order to prove our good intentions, we were patient and used dialogue and understanding, but in a hard, upset and angry language.” The villagers said the soldiers came from a base near Hawija, west of Kirkuk. Jurf al Sukr, where the three Awakening members were killed, is in Babil Province, about 30 miles south of Baghdad. The Americans said they had returned fire there; however, they seemed unaware that there had been an Awakening Council checkpoint there. Abu Abbas, a policeman in Mussayib, a nearby town, said the bodies from Jurf al Sukr were brought there early Saturday “riddled with bullets.” He said they were wearing clothing that identified them as Awakening Council members. In many places, Awakening members wear bright orange vests. Anwar J. Ali contributed reporting from Baghdad, and Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Kirkuk and Hilla. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080217581070.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1419646_AEX PjkQAAMHTR7h5VgxlSUdK454&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080217aaindex_concat.html&cred=erD3F.1pNNjIZp57 XJ11VnNDU7Einpd80j8f34pJhp57Y1qVtOBdANnbl3MuafV.#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Los Angeles Times February 17, 2008 Iraqi Guards Leave Posts Near Baghdad Members of the Sons of Iraq security corps stage a walkout to protest U.S. airstrikes they say have killed 12 civilians this month. By Tina Susman and Cesar Ahmed, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers BAGHDAD — U.S.-allied security forces said Saturday that they were abandoning their posts in a volatile area south of Baghdad to protest airstrikes by American forces that they say have killed at least 12 civilians this month. The walkout followed an airstrike Friday near the town of Jarf Sakhr that tribal leaders said killed three members of the civilian security volunteers credited with helping reduce violence across Iraq. The U.S. military said Friday that helicopters responding to gunfire near Jarf Sakhr fired rockets at a building, but it did not say whether there were casualties. On Feb. 2, nine Iraqis, including three members of the volunteer group, known as Sons of Iraq, were killed in the same area by an errant airstrike that the U.S. military has acknowledged. Majeed Janabi, a tribal leader in the area who worked with U.S. forces to establish checkpoints manned by the fighters there, said he did not believe the shootings were a mistake. He said that in Friday's attack, the helicopter landed and U.S. forces fired on the guards. "The U.S. forces stepped out of their choppers and killed our [forces]," he said. "That means they had time to look at them and their uniforms." The U.S. military pays the security volunteers, formerly known as concerned local citizens or Awakening Councils, about $10 a day and gives them vests to make them easy to identify. Previously, U.S. officials have said accidental shootings occurred when volunteers were not wearing their vests and were mistaken for insurgents. But some volunteers say there aren't enough vests to go around. "When we signed the contract with the U.S. forces, it was dependent on working jointly with them," Janabi said. "If they want us to come back, we will, but we need to make another contract that will guarantee our rights and prevent a repeat of such mistakes." Police in Babil province said about 2,000 of the volunteers had left their posts in Jarf Sakhr and nearby villages Saturday night. The corps has an estimated 80,000 members across the country, bolstering security in areas without adequate police protection. Also Saturday, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees said he would send a special representative to Iraq to help resettle people returning home after five years of war. The announcement was a sign of the United Nations' growing confidence in the country's security, but also an acknowledgment that an influx of returnees could spark new conflict if there is no one there to oversee it. The commissioner, Antonio Guterres, said at a news conference that in addition to naming a special representative, his office soon would increase its staff in Iraq from two to five. "It is here that the essential work needs to be done, in close cooperation with the government," Guterres said. A special correspondent in Hillah contributed to this report. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080217581064.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1419646_AEX PjkQAAMHTR7h5VgxlSUdK454&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080217aaindex_concat.html&cred=erD3F.1pNNjIZp57 XJ11VnNDU7Einpd80j8f34pJhp57Y1qVtOBdANnbl3MuafV.#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Miami Herald February 17, 2008 Arabs Seen As Outsiders In Parts Of Iraq In Iraqi Kurdistan, Arabs are required to carry special ID cards with them at all times and must be vouched for by a Kurd. By Leila Fadel, McClatchy News Service IRBIL, Iraq -- Every three months, Munawer Fayeq Rashid goes to the Asayech, an intelligence security agency in Irbil, and hands over his identification. The Shiite Muslim Arab never goes alone. He has to bring a Kurdish sponsor to vouch for him. Although Irbil is part of Iraq, Iraqi Arabs who move here or elsewhere in Iraqi Kurdistan have learned that they're not considered fellow Iraqis. ''They treat us like foreigners,'' Rashid said. When he moved to Irbil from Baghdad, worried about the safety of his Kurdish wife and his children, Rashid had to find a Kurd who'd swear that he was a good man. Then Kurdish authorities questioned him intensely before issuing him a residency permit that's good for only three months. He must carry it with him everywhere. Interrogation ''They asked every detail about me,'' Rashid said. ' `Where do you live? Who are your relatives? Who were your neighbors in Baghdad?' But the most nerve-wracking question was: 'Are you Sunni or Shiite?' '' Officials of the Kurdistan Regional Government say they have no choice but to vet people who want to move to the country's northern provinces, where violence has been far less common than it is in other parts of Iraq. If the government weren't so strict, it would run the risk of letting violent militants into the region, said Esmat Argoshi, the head of security in Irbil. ''We have to know who they are,'' he said. 'Kurdistan is part of Iraq, but at the same time we need someone from here to sponsor them, to say, `I know this person and I'm going to be responsible.' . . . It's to keep the security situation very strong and stop terrorists from coming to Kurdistan.'' More than 50,000 Iraqis from outside Kurdistan now live in Irbil, and each has registered with the Asayech, Argoshi said, including Kurds who were born and raised in mostly Arab provinces. After a battery of questions and the testimony of a Kurd to vouch for them, would-be residents are issued special ID cards that allow them to live in the city. The card must be renewed every three months. If a person wants to visit another city in the Kurdish region, he or she must have a Kurdish sponsor in that city, too. The rules have created tension between Kurds and Arabs, both of whom are citizens of Iraq but who speak different languages and have different histories. Most Kurds are Muslims, but they shudder at the thought of traveling to the dangers of Baghdad. On a recent drive from Irbil to Sulaimaniyah, soldiers pulled cars off the roads and checked IDs. When a soldier saw a Kurdish man and an American woman, he was painfully polite, but an Arab man was questioned aggressively. ''Do you have permission to go to Sulaimaniyah? Show me your ID!'' the Arab was ordered. He meekly pulled out his documents as the Kurd and the American were sent on their way. Sisters Hannah and Asraa Waleed moved to Irbil nearly two years ago. Hannah Waleed's husband worked as a merchant in the Baghdad market of Shorja, but the bombings became too frequent. A Kurdish friend offered to sponsor the family and they came to Irbil. They can't imagine moving back to Baghdad, but they know they don't belong in Irbil. ''You walk outside and you can't speak your own language,'' Hannah Waleed said. Police state Others complain that the restrictions give the Kurdish areas the air of a police state. Asaad Ismail, a Kurd who was born and raised in Baghdad, said he doesn't mind having to register with the Asayech. But his friend quickly butted in when the conversation turned to politics. ''There is freedom here,'' the friend said, ``but not when it comes to talking about politics.'' Another Arab woman from Baghdad was so fearful that she wouldn't give her name and would only whisper. She said she was worried people would overhear her and that her residency permit might not be renewed. It may be safer here, but life is still difficult, she said. Her relatives can't visit without a sponsor, and it hurts her pride to have to ask Kurds to go with her and her family to the Asayech. ''It's like Saddam's time,'' she said. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080217581067.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1419646_AEX PjkQAAMHTR7h5VgxlSUdK454&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080217aaindex_concat.html&cred=erD3F.1pNNjIZp57 XJ11VnNDU7Einpd80j8f34pJhp57Y1qVtOBdANnbl3MuafV.#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Los Angeles Times February 17, 2008 Pg. 1 Disputes Over Vacant Homes In Iraq Often Turn Violent Tens of thousands of Iraqis displaced by the war have difficulty finding a safe place to live. U.S. forces aren't allowed to intervene. By Garrett Therolf, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer BAGHDAD — When Muhannid Halki's father was killed in sectarian fighting, the twentysomething car mechanic fled with his pregnant wife and young child to a vacant home in what he viewed as a safer neighborhood of the capital. But now, less than two years later, Halki is dead, a victim of the sometimes violent disputes that occur when squatters move into homes vacated in the turmoil since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Such real estate free-for-alls pit dweller against would-be dweller, with the most well-connected and best-armed often prevailing. Halki, a Sunni Arab, had moved in 2006 from the capital's Shiite-dominated district of Hurriya to a vacant home a few miles south in the mostly Sunni neighborhood of Adil. But with improved security in the capital, tens of thousands of displaced Iraqis are returning to their homes, and in some cases, new rounds of squatters are moving in, backed by the muscle of the Shiite-dominated security forces. Under official policies, neither American military nor Iraqi security forces in Baghdad are allowed to intervene in the subsequent disputes. But some Iraqi soldiers have disregarded the orders, helping Shiite families claim homes by falsely detaining Sunnis or escorting moving trucks into hostile neighborhoods. American officers say they are deeply worried about the development but are limited in what they can do. "We can't become the landlords of Baghdad," said Col. Edward Chesney, who commands an American battalion in west Baghdad. 'Iraq's Beverly Hills' Residents of Adil once proudly introduced the district to Americans as "Iraq's Beverly Hills" because of its large white-washed mansions. But the wealth also allowed residents to vacate in droves, and their flight to foreign countries made Adil a haven for displaced Sunnis. About 70% of occupied homes in Adil now have squatters, renters or guards as residents, but the lack of reliable documentation makes it almost impossible to draw lines among those groups, said U.S. Army Capt. Mark Battjes. "Any or all of them could intend to stay in the homes for the foreseeable future without any payment to the owner, and the law is on their side," said Battjes, who commands soldiers just south of Adil, citing a Baghdad local government policy not to remove displaced Iraqis until they have another home, to reclaim or resettle. For now, the issue of displaced Iraqis' property rights is largely in the hands of neighborhood advisory councils, low-level political bodies that serve the Baghdad City Council and were established during the early months after the American-led invasion. The councils attempt to keep records of homeowners, renters and squatters and to facilitate rent payments when possible. But because of jurisdictional boundaries, the councils are not able to play a substantial role in returning the displaced to their rightful homes. Human rights groups estimate that 1.2 million people have been displaced within Iraq over the last two years and that the need to peacefully resettle them swiftly is crucial. But nearly half of those displaced say they do not intend to return to their old homes and neighborhoods, and that number is expected to increase, according to a report by the International Organization for Migration. Even so, longtime residents consider the newcomers unwelcome guests. Many blame them for the violence in their neighborhoods, calling them criminals, religious extremists or shrugi, a pejorative implying low class or rural. "If we had known the problems that this has caused, we would have left them in the street so that the government would have dealt with the problem from the outset," said Basil Zaki Shaker, a 44-year-old electrical engineer and longtime resident of the nearby Jamia neighborhood. Shaker, a Sunni, said some newcomers had opened small vegetable stalls on the sidewalk, a sight unfamiliar on the residential streets in Adil before the war. "Of course, we would like to remove them, but the law does not allow this, and we would probably be killed," said Shaker, chairman of Jamia's neighborhood council. "If you are deprived of a home, a wife, a dog, you have nothing to lose." Neighborhood councils have such limited power that in some cases the leaders are themselves displaced. Ahmad Sabih Tawfeeq, a Sunni and council chairman in the mixed neighborhood of Mansour, three miles from the high-security Green Zone, fled to an undisclosed Baghdad district after members of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr's Mahdi Army militia killed his brother and put a $10,000 bounty on his head. "There is so much sadness in me," he said, "that I cannot concentrate on one thing. I don't smoke, I don't drink, but sometimes for no reason, I begin to cry." U.S. Army Capt. John Dixon, who is responsible for Adil, said, "About 70% of the violence here has the displacement issue at its core. It is the single biggest issue I deal with." Since October, American military officials and neighborhood council leaders have learned of cases in which Iraqi army personnel threatened Sunni residents with detention to clear the way for Shiite families. They are investigating many more. The neighborhood council chairman in Adil, Abu Hamsa, said he had repeatedly complained to commanders of the Iraqi army, which is largely Shiite. "I told the officers that they were threatening the families, and the officer said it was individual, unauthorized behavior," Abu Hamsa said. "In these cases, the soldiers on the street seem to be more powerful than the commanders telling them not intervene." Col. Chesney said he was deeply worried about the problem. "Worst-case scenario is that they eventually clear Sunnis out of Baghdad," he said. Violence everywhere In December 2006, months into the sectarian violence unleashed by the February bombing of the Shiite Golden Mosque in Samarra, Halki's father was killed by members of the Mahdi Army militia, Halki told people he met in Adil. By the time Halki arrived, the neighborhood had become a collection of faded remnants with exteriors stained brown from the dust, chipped marble staircases and rooms crammed with poverty-stricken families sleeping on floors. In December 2007, Iraqi soldiers and a Shiite man came calling. Although the man had no ownership papers for the two-story house with a large courtyard garden, Halki was told that he had just two days to leave, according to U.S. military personnel who informally investigated the case and to neighbors Abd Mahmood, 25, and Yaseen Mahmood, 24. The Mahmoods, who also were squatting, said Halki was deeply worried and asked them to hide his identification documents. "He was afraid. He started to gather his things. He was wondering where he would go," Yaseen Mahmood said. Halki left the house to the new Shiite occupant but approached soldiers at a U.S. military outpost at an abandoned mall, where he was told to go the neighborhood council, Dixon said. He never did, council chairman Abu Hamsa said. Instead, Halki, who had joined a so-called concerned local citizens security force formed by the U.S. military, returned to the house with two other off-duty officers. They all had their guns, including a Glock pistol, Dixon said. "Given what happened to his father, what do you expect, that he go out and sell flowers?" said Ali Jabo, a supervisor in the group, recently renamed Sons of Iraq, adding that what Halki did was wrong. The new Shiite occupant allegedly wrested Halki's gun away and shot him in the head. The Shiite man was shot in the side and hospitalized. Two days later, a grenade went off at the doorstep of a nearby Shiite family who had lived there for three decades, an act interpreted as possible retribution by Sunnis. The same day, the house once occupied by Halki was set ablaze, leaving the entire home in ashen blisters. "The message [to outsiders] was: Don't try to come back here," Dixon said. Times staff writer Usama Redha contributed to this report. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080217581051.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1419646_AEX PjkQAAMHTR7h5VgxlSUdK454&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080217aaindex_concat.html&cred=erD3F.1pNNjIZp57 XJ11VnNDU7Einpd80j8f34pJhp57Y1qVtOBdANnbl3MuafV.#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Arizona Republic (Phoenix) February 17, 2008 1st Business Expo In Iraq Since 2003 Draws Crowd By Bradley Brooks, Associated Press BAGHDAD - Nattily dressed Iraqi businessmen mingled Saturday with a few of their American counterparts at the first business exposition to be held in Baghdad since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. About 260 vendors - almost all Iraqi - set up booths on the ground floor of the Green Zone's al-Rashid Hotel, which still bears the scars of a 2003 rocket attack. Hundreds of visitors crammed the hallways, picking up brochures and free candies from the booths of businesses mostly reflecting the immediate needs of Iraq: construction, security, logistics and raw goods. "We've broken a barrier," said Raad Ommar, CEO of the Iraqi-American Chamber of Commerce, which along with the U.S. State Department's Baghdad provincial reconstruction team organized the event. "We wanted to show that there is normal life in Iraq, to help foreign investors see and feel that it is safe to come." Bassam Ayoub, a Lebanese businessman and purchasing manager for GLS, a logistical-support company that delivers goods to the U.S. military, has only been in Iraq three months. He said he considered the convention a key to breaking into the local business scene. "It's a great opportunity for me," Ayoub said. Ahmed Sadoon Yaseen, the director of the state-run Handmade Carpet Co., was hoping his display of silk and wool rugs would attract those who could afford them. One of Yaseen's large silk carpets fetches nearly $3,000 - out of reach for nearly all Iraqis, he said. "The security situation doesn't allow for any tourists in Iraq," he said. "I'm hoping some foreigners will be here and can get the word out about my carpets." Several state-run enterprises were also represented, while some American companies already working in Iraq, such as L-3 Communications, which provides translation services for the U.S. military and others, had booths as well. Cathy Moll, L-3 Communications' lead recruiter for local translators, said the convention was a rare opportunity to get the word out about what the company does and what kind of workers it needs. "We're helping lead the way for American companies to get into Iraq," she said, noting that L-3 employs about 7,000 Iraqi translators. "For American companies to come to Iraq would be a great thing for the people, it would create so many jobs." Many Iraqis are wary of working with or for American companies for fear of being targeted by extremist groups. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080217581055.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1419646_AEX PjkQAAMHTR7h5VgxlSUdK454&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080217aaindex_concat.html&cred=erD3F.1pNNjIZp57 XJ11VnNDU7Einpd80j8f34pJhp57Y1qVtOBdANnbl3MuafV.#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Philadelphia Inquirer February 17, 2008 U.N. Posts Refugee Official In Baghdad BAGHDAD - The United Nations refugee chief said yesterday he would send a representative to Baghdad to help millions of displaced Iraqis return home, showing a strengthened U.N. commitment to deal with the crisis and confidence in recent security gains. U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres also pledged to increase his group's staffing level in Baghdad from two to five people. "We are here because we are deeply committed to do more and to better," Guterres said at a joint news conference with Iraq Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari. "We have confidence in the future of Iraq." --AP http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080217581061.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1419646_AEX PjkQAAMHTR7h5VgxlSUdK454&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080217aaindex_concat.html&cred=erD3F.1pNNjIZp57 XJ11VnNDU7Einpd80j8f34pJhp57Y1qVtOBdANnbl3MuafV.#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Miami Herald February 17, 2008 Is War A Part Of A War Crime? Guantanamo's war court is struggling with defining the start day of the long war, an overarching issue in the military commissions case of Osama bin Laden's driver. By Carol Rosenberg GUANTANAMO BAY NAVY BASE, Cuba -- When did the war on terror begin? Is the globe really one big battlefield? Can one gunman's firefight be another man's terror? Or, is it like Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart's definition of pornography: People know it when they see it? At the military commissions here, the definition of the ongoing war on al Qaeda -- when it started, who is immune from prosecution -- is emerging as a core issue for military judges and eventually U.S. officers who will sit in judgment on alleged terrorists swept up in the Pentagon's global war on terrorism. Prosecutors say the war began long before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, and have charged captives here in conspiracies dating back to the mid-1990s. Defense lawyers argue that the Pentagon has fashioned a definition of a new kind of war to suit its military commissions and carry out offshore justice. That's because, says defense attorney Charlie Swift, a former U.S. Navy officer, ``There is no war crime outside of war.'' The issue is not new. Attorneys -- and politicians -- have been arguing the extent of President Bush's power since Congress passed its authorization for the use of military force a week after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The administration at first used it to launch its late 2001 assault on Afghanistan to topple the Taliban, hunt down Osama bin Laden and dismantle al Qaeda's training camps in reprisal for the 9/11 attacks. But White House lawyers have since cited it as justification for a range of activities -- from extending the military's reach beyond the Afghan theater to legalizing the intelligence community's eavesdropping, interrogation and detention powers. Now a test of the war powers is emerging in the al Qaeda co-conspirator case of Salim Hamdan, a Yemeni who admits he was a driver in Osama bin Laden's six-member motor pool in Afghanistan. Defense argument Ahead of a late May trial date, Hamdan's lawyers are asking a military judge, Navy Capt. Keith Allred, to throw out or at least reduce the charges against the father of two with a fourth-grade education who is among 275 detainees at this remote U.S. Navy base in southeast Cuba. They argue the charges are too broad, retroactive and in some instances redundant. Prosecutors say the driver was a trusted al Qaeda member who helped bin Laden elude capture, a sometime bodyguard and occasional arms courier who was an al Qaeda co-conspirator in everything from the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa to the October 2000 suicide bombing of the USS Cole to the Sept. 11 attacks. They do not say, however, that he actually helped plan the attacks. At pretrial arguments, Allred asked when the Pentagon is alleging that Hamdan joined the conspiracy. In Afghanistan After a brief huddle, Justice and Defense prosecutors announced Hamdan's start date: February 1996, when U.S. evidence suggests Hamdan stepped into Afghanistan on his first trip from his native Yemen. He has admitted in affidavits that he went to Afghanistan answering a call to jihad to fight with Muslims in Tajikistan, to defend Islam, but not from the United States. Once in Afghanistan, he met bin Laden, who arrived some months later -- and says took a job as a driver for an income, not ideology. Moreover, it was not until August 1996, four months after Hamdan arrived in Afghanistan, that bin Laden felt sufficiently entrenched there to issue a ``Declaration of Jihad against the Americans.'' The Pentagon's first round of charge sheets, withdrawn after the original commissions were ruled unconstitutional, mentioned the declaration prominently in all its war-crimes cases, perhaps suggesting that by then the United States and al Qaeda were already at war. But the current charge sheets neither name the war nor define the battlefield. Rather, they identify the 9/11 and embassy bombings and Cole attacks as among the war's hostilities. At a recent hearing, the judge seemed to be grappling with the overarching question. He asked lawyers on both sides: ``Which branch of government is charged with determining when hostilities began?'' Swift replied that in the absence of a declaration of war by Congress, the courts must decide. Justice Department lawyer Jordan Goldstein replied that the law governing war crimes trials said it would cover the period, before, on or after the Sept. 11 attacks, adding ``9/11 was not the start of hostilities. It was in fact the point where it was hard to ignore that we were at war.'' Two theaters Amnesty International rejects the notion of a global war on terror entirely. Rather, it sees U.S. wars limited to two specific theaters -- in Iraq and in Afghanistan, where the United States had previously armed and trained mujahadeen fighters resisting the Soviet invasion. Amnesty attorney Jumana Musa, who has been tracking the military commissions from the start, says the government cases don't offer a specific start date for the war. Instead, she said, based on various evolving commissions cases, the war began ``sometime after they stopped funding the mujahadeen and before the Sept. 11 attacks. You can't be funding the guys you are at war with.'' An outspoken critic of the system, Musa said the open-ended war theory allows the United States to hold the 275 detainees here indefinitely without charges, as enemy combatants, while arguing that because of the ongoing war they can't disclose interrogation techniques nor charge them in civilian courts. Own definition? Defense lawyers for Guantánamo captives accused the prosecution of, in a sense, shaping the war to fit each detainee's circumstance. In the case of Omar Khadr, accused of throwing a grenade at age 15 that killed an American soldier in a firefight in Afghanistan, his case alleges a war crimes conspiracy dating back to 1997, when his father moved the family from Toronto to Afghanistan. 'According to a recent government filing, Omar allegedly began `conspiring' with al Qaeda to commit 'war crimes' as a 10-year-old child,'' Khadr's defense lawyer, U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler, said in an e-mail. Ridiculing the government's case, he added: 'Omar's `war' has consisted of being shot in the back, while wounded, after a four-hour bombardment, followed by years of illegal detention, coercive interrogation, and a planned trial for war crimes, which will likely result in a life sentence for little more than surviving the firefight in which he was shot.'' http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080217581097.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1419646_AEX PjkQAAMHTR7h5VgxlSUdK454&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080217aaindex_concat.html&cred=erD3F.1pNNjIZp57 XJ11VnNDU7Einpd80j8f34pJhp57Y1qVtOBdANnbl3MuafV.#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Arizona Republic (Phoenix) February 17, 2008 Interrogator Stands By Methods Rapport-building techniques used at Guantanamo to gain intelligence By Andrew O. Selsky, Associated Press GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - Interrogators got intelligence from detainees that helped U.S. troops in Afghanistan attack Taliban fighters last summer, and they did it through casual questioning and not torture, the military's chief interrogator here said. In a rare interview with the Associated Press, veteran interrogator Paul Rester complained that his profession has gotten a bad reputation due to accounts of waterboarding and other rough interrogation tactics used by the CIA at "black sites." Lawyers for Guantanamo detainees, however, allege their clients have been subjected to temperature extremes, sleep deprivation and threats at this U.S. military base in southeast Cuba. Looking more like a harried executive than a top interrogator, Rester groused that his line of work is "a business that is fundamentally thankless." He sat hunched over a table in a snack room inside the building where the top commanders keep their offices. In an attempt to keep personnel from blabbing about intelligence gathering, a poster showed a picture of a hooded gunman and the words: "Keep talking. We're listening" - today's version of the World War II-era admonishment that "Loose lips sink ships." "Everybody in the world believes that they know how we do what we do, and I have to endure it every time I turn around and somebody is making reference to waterboarding," Rester said. He insisted that Guantanamo interrogators have had many successes using rapport building and said that technique was the norm here. For security reasons, he would only discuss one of the successes, and that was only because his boss, Rear Adm. Mark Buzby, already had described it in a speech last month. Buzby said several detainees, using poster board paper and crayons, drew detailed maps of the Tora Bora area in eastern Afghanistan. Rester indicated the interrogators casually asked the detainees about their knowledge of Tora Bora, not letting on that it was tactically important for a pending military strike. "And it may in fact, since it was five years old, have seemed totally innocuous to the persons we were talking to," Rester said. Joshua Colangelo-Bryan, a lawyer who represents several detainees, scoffed at Rester's contention that rough treatment at Guantanamo was restricted to just two men. "There are so many accounts by FBI agents ... and others who personally saw non-rapport-building techniques that Rester's statement is just not credible," he said. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080217580932.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1419646_AEX PjkQAAMHTR7h5VgxlSUdK454&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080217aaindex_concat.html&cred=erD3F.1pNNjIZp57 XJ11VnNDU7Einpd80j8f34pJhp57Y1qVtOBdANnbl3MuafV.#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Defense News February 18, 2008 Pg. 1 U.S. May Armor Most Vehicles Add-on Protection Would Be Standard for Army and Marines By Kris Osborn The U.S. Army intends to equip its entire fleet of trucks, Humvees and other tactical vehicles with racks for removable armor and other troop-protection gear, while the Marine Corps plans a near-total upgrade of its own fleet, according to draft versions of the services’ Tactical Wheeled Vehicles strategies. The services are responding to a Nov. 19 memo from Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, who asked them to update their multibillion-dollar vehicle plans in light of wartime operations and fast-moving new programs such as the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) and Joint Light Tactical Vehicle. The plans, due to England in July, will be evaluated in August by the Joint Staff, including DoD’s Program Analysis and Evaluation office, the England memo said. Army and Marine Corps officials declined to say how much adding the armor would cost, calling the plans “strategic and preliminary.” Dean Lockwood, a military vehicles and defense industry analyst with Forecast International, a Connecticut-based think tank, said scalable armor can increase the cost of a new vehicle by $25,000 to $50,000. Since the Army plans to buy some 40,000 vehicles over the next five years, that would mean spending up to $2 billion on added protection. Army Plan The Army defines “tactical wheeled vehicles” as Humvees, MRAP, Route Clearance or Medium Mine Protected Vehicles, M1117 Armored Security Vehicles, Fox Reconnaissance vehicles, the Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck (HEMTT), Heavy Equipment Truck, Palletized Load System and the emerging Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV). The Stryker, which runs on tracks, is also included. The Army wants to equip all of these with A-kits, which is irremovable armor that surrounds a driver’s cab, and B-kits, which are add-on armor. The plan also calls for equipping the vehicles with fire-suppression kits, shock-absorbing seats and four-point seat belts, according to February documents that describe the draft plan. Defense News obtained a copy of the documents. Some Army vehicles, such as the latest Humvee M1152, are already equipped with panels that accommodate add-on armor plates, allowing the vehicles to add protection or lose weight as needed. This also allows the vehicles to take on new kinds of armor as technology evolves. “Each vehicle must have scalable protection: armor that can be installed and removed as dictated by operations. Today’s vehicles must have armor that relies on current technology. Each vehicle must have removable AoA,” or add-on armor, the documents say. “The mandate is that nothing leaves a FOB [forward operating base] without being protected by armor,” said one Army official who is helping to put his service’s plan together. That’s a smart move, Lockwood said. “Almost every tactical vehicle, other than the M1152 Humvee, which has a bolt-on kit, is built with either no armor or armor welded on that cannot be removed,” he said. “Scalable armor is one step further than bolt-on armor. You can have multiple sets of armor for a given vehicle, giving the commanders’ different options.” That also saves money, because a given vehicle can handle more kinds of jobs. “Scalable armor may be the only viable option we have right now. If you do something permanent, you are limiting a vehicle, so scalable armor is a viable option. They [the Army] hope to have base vehicles, such as the JLTV, which can adapt to whatever the tactical situation may be,” Lockwood said. The Army’s plan also calls for upgrading the armor carried by some Humvees and MRAPs. Some of the add-on armor on MRAPs in Iraq and Afghanistan has been too heavy and has restricted the vehicles’ mobility in cities, an Army official said. “You can armor up to a point where the vehicle cannot move. With some of our vehicles, we’ve added so much weight that it stresses the drive chain, so the only thing that will work is improved technology,” the Army official said. But adding add-on armor to the entire fleet will not be simple, Army and industry officials say. Building new vehicles, such as the JLTV or new versions of the existing fleet, would, in some cases, likely be easier and more cost-effective than trying to retrofit existing vehicles, Lockwood said. Even putting scalable armor on new trucks requires design and manufacturing changes, said John Stoddart, president of Oshkosh’s defense division. “It is difficult to armor a vehicle by just hanging stuff on it, so what we are trying to do is build into the system the ability to accept extra armor,” he said. Already in Works The Army is already building some new vehicles with add-on armor as part of its long-term armor strategy. This summer, Oshkosh will begin production of its upgraded HEMTT A4, a 19-ton logistics truck protected by an armored cab, which can accept add-on armor. “For many years, the strategy was not to armor logistics vehicles because they were not coming into the fighting front,” Stoddart said. “That dynamic changed a little when people started using gun trucks for protecting convoys, but we never got into armoring logistics vehicles because there is a penalty in payload.” Land mines and roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan changed that. If England approves the wheeled-vehicle plan, Oshkosh will build all its tactical trucks with scalable armor, including the Army’s Heavy Equipment Truck and Palletized Load System, he said. The vehicle plan also calls for reducing the number of MRAP variants in the field to streamline logistics and maintenance. The Army has MRAPs by at least five manufacturers, including BAE and Armor Holdings, Force Protection, General Dynamics and Navistar. To help determine which ones to keep, field commanders have been asked to report on their preferred MRAP variants soon, the Army official said. The plan calls for more thought about what roles the MRAPs will ultimately play in the fleet, but stops short of a long-term purchasing commitment. The Marines’ Plan The Marines intend to add scalable armor to their entire tactical-vehicle fleet as well, except for the already armored Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle (EFV), a next-generation amphibious assault vehicle that must be able to swim 25 miles to shore, PEO Land Systems spokesman Dave Branham said. The Marines’ fleet includes the Humvee JLTV, Medium Personnel Carrier, EFV, Logistics Vehicle System Replacement (LVSR), Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement (MTVR) and Internally Transportable Vehicle. The decision to armor the entire fleet emerged from the success of armored MTVRs, which survived hits from roadside bombs in Iraq, said Tom Miller, Marine Corps program manger for the LVSR and MTVR. The Corps is already adding Israeli-made Plusan armor to three-fifths of its 7,700 MTVRs, the 19-ton trucks that move people and supplies through combat zones, and may uparmor the entire fleet. But the extra protection lowers the MTVR’s payload — nominally 15 tons on roads or 7.1 tons off-road. And the uparmored truck received heavier axles to accommodate the load. Yet the MTVR is going to need all its capacity if it is to handle the many roles the Marines envision. “The MTVR will need to push mine rollers [arms that extend in front of trucks], transport troops and fill a lot of gaps with certain things the Humvee can’t do,” Miller said. So the Corps is preparing to test lighter armor plates made of composites at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., in coming weeks. The Marines are crafting their 2010-15 Program Objective Memorandum (POM) and preliminary Quadrennial Defense Review input to adjust vehicle-buying plans as necessary, Corps officials said. Last year, they reduced the number of planned EFVs from 1,013 to 573, anticipating less need for heavy armor. “We know the future is unpredictable. Four years from now, we do not know if we will be in Iraq,” said Chris Yonker, Marine Corps Combat Development Command mobility section head. The two services are coordinating their plans; for example, both intend to use the JTLV, Branham said. The services also plan to present their strategies together. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080217581048.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1419646_AEX PjkQAAMHTR7h5VgxlSUdK454&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080217aaindex_concat.html&cred=erD3F.1pNNjIZp57 XJ11VnNDU7Einpd80j8f34pJhp57Y1qVtOBdANnbl3MuafV.#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Arizona Daily Star (Tucson) February 17, 2008 Russia Doubts Motive In U.S. Satellite Shot By Associated Press MOSCOW — Russia said Saturday that U.S. military plans to shoot down a damaged spy satellite may be a veiled test of America's missile defense system. The Pentagon failed to provide "enough arguments" to back its plan to smash the satellite with a missile in the next several days, Russia's Defense Ministry said in a statement. "There is an impression that the United States is trying to use the accident with its satellite to test its national anti-missile defense system's capability to destroy other countries' satellites," the ministry said. The Bush administration says the operation is not a test of a program to kill other nations' orbiting communications and intelligence capabilities. U.S. diplomats around the world have been instructed to inform governments that it is meant to protect people from 1,000 pounds of toxic fuel on the bus-sized satellite hurtling toward the Earth. The diplomats were told to distinguish the upcoming attempt from last year's test by China of a missile specifically designed to take out satellites, a test that was criticized by the United States and other countries. Known by its military designation US 193, the satellite was launched in December 2006. It lost power, and its central computer failed almost immediately afterward, leaving it uncontrollable. It carried a sophisticated and secret imaging sensor. Left alone, the satellite would likely hit the Earth during the first week of March. About half of the 5,000-pound spacecraft probably would survive its blazing descent through the atmosphere and would scatter debris over several hundred miles. Military and administration officials said the satellite is carrying fuel called hydrazine that could injure or kill people who are near it when it hits the ground. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080217581088.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1419646_AEX PjkQAAMHTR7h5VgxlSUdK454&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080217aaindex_concat.html&cred=erD3F.1pNNjIZp57 XJ11VnNDU7Einpd80j8f34pJhp57Y1qVtOBdANnbl3MuafV.#T OP">RETURN TO TOP San Diego Union-Tribune February 17, 2008 Astronauts Not In Danger Of Missile HOUSTON – Military plans to shoot down a damaged U.S. spy satellite carrying toxic fuel won't concern the crew aboard the International Space Station, commander Peggy Whitson said yesterday. The military hopes to smash the satellite as soon as next week – just before it enters Earth's atmosphere – with a single missile fired from a Navy cruiser in the Pacific Ocean. Whitson, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and French astronaut Leopold Eyharts will be in orbit 215 miles above Earth when the satellite is targeted. The satellite will be about 150 miles up when the shot is fired. --Associated Press http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080217580937.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1419646_AEX PjkQAAMHTR7h5VgxlSUdK454&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080217aaindex_concat.html&cred=erD3F.1pNNjIZp57 XJ11VnNDU7Einpd80j8f34pJhp57Y1qVtOBdANnbl3MuafV.#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Mideast Stars and Stripes February 16, 2008 Military Leaders Promising Progress On Disability Claims By Leo Shane III, Stars and Stripes WASHINGTON — Pentagon officials acknowledged this week that massive overhauls are still needed to make the military’s disability claims system easier to navigate and less confrontational. “I can tell you one of the most difficult aspects of being at Walter Reed this last year … was standing in front of patients and families and feeling I was the enemy,” Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, head of Army Medical Command, told House lawmakers on Friday. “That is a direct outflow of what a divisive and antagonistic system our disability process has become.” Commissions studying the current system last year criticized the process for creating long waits for patients, repetitive exams and paperwork, and inconsistencies in evaluations of injuries. Defense officials responded in November with a pilot program consolidating all of the medical checks into a single evaluation performed by Department of Veterans Affairs personnel, with the goal of giving patients quicker answers to whether they can stay in the service and for which veterans’ benefits they will be eligible. That pilot, which involves five military medical facilities in the Washington area, is scheduled to run until November. But earlier this week David Chu, undersecretary of Defense for personnel and readiness, told a Senate committee he sees the interdepartmental process as a likely future for the system. “I think the solution is some single exam system (for troops), and we’re already working towards that goal,” he said. On Friday, Schoomaker called the pilot “a good start, but we want to continue to pursue more changes in the system as aggressively as possible.” Lawmakers in both chambers noted that the services have made marked improvements in the last year in helping injured troops — new warrior transition units, better access to physicians, more resources for families of patients — but said the disability process continues to be a common complaint. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said while he supports the pilot program, waiting until November to expand it is unfair to the wounded troops trapped in the old evaluation process. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080217581049.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1419646_AEX PjkQAAMHTR7h5VgxlSUdK454&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080217aaindex_concat.html&cred=erD3F.1pNNjIZp57 XJ11VnNDU7Einpd80j8f34pJhp57Y1qVtOBdANnbl3MuafV.#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Arizona Daily Star (Tucson) February 17, 2008 Military Jet Flyovers Thrilling But Very Expensive '08 Super Bowl flyby cost $36K for 4-second event By Orlando Sentinel ORLANDO, Fla. — A flyby at a sports event can inspire a crowd like nothing else. But is it the best use of military time and money? The noise inside University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale grew deafening as Jordin Sparks finished the national anthem before the start of this year's Super Bowl. It was time for that newly minted American sports tradition that puts an exclamation point on the pregame ceremonies: a military flyover. Only this time, no one at the game noticed. The stadium's roof was closed. No one could see the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels overhead. And it was so loud inside that no one could even hear the jets. But the almost 100 million watching on TV did get to see them for about four seconds. A spokesman estimated the cost of sending the six F/A-18A Hornets from their training home in El Centro, Calif., to Arizona and back at $36,000. Flybys fairly easy to get Flyovers, once unexpected moments at major sporting events, are now almost the norm, expected parts of pregame festivities. But an Orlando Sentinel investigation has found that you don't have to reach a very high bar to get one. At a time when the United States is fighting a war, flybys provide feel-good moments for fans, for sports leagues and even for athletes themselves — a spectacle that gives any sporting event added prestige and excitement. But are flyovers worth it, or are they a high-priced folly? "For the publicity aspect of it, I'd say it's definitely well worth it when you consider the cost to advertise during the Super Bowl," Blue Angels press officer Capt. Tyson Dunkelberger said. "The more people see our blue jets and recognize the Navy, the better it is for us." The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds will perform a similar fly-by today before the Daytona 500. An Air Force spokeswoman said eight F-16 Fighting Falcon jets will fly from Nellis Air Force Base outside Las Vegas to Daytona Beach and back at a cost of $80,000. For the flyover itself, six jets will be in the air for 40 minutes, at an approximate fuel cost of $6,000. "We have this mission to bring the story of the Air Force to people who may not have an Air Force base near them," Thunderbirds press officer Capt. Elizabeth Kreft said. "We're going to reach an untold number of homes with the Air Force message, and that's why we were given permission to do it." Military officials say the fly-bys boost recruiting efforts and give Americans an opportunity to see their aircraft in action. Officials also insist that flyovers don't cost taxpayers any additional money, because each flyover counts as a training flight and comes out of already existing training budgets and schedules. "Baloney," said Winslow Wheeler, an analyst with the Center for Defense Information in Washington, D.C. "It's atrocious training. They're flying from Point A to Point B. They're doing a couple of sort of low-altitude passes over the events and they go home. That's what pilots call 'converting gas to noise.' " The Orlando Sentinel investigation shows the Air Force, the Army, the Marine Corps and the Navy receive about 850 requests for flyovers or parachute jumps at sporting events each year, and the vast majority of those requests are deemed eligible for aerial support — even if they're opening ceremonies for local Little League games or international tennis matches or minor-league baseball games. Once an event is deemed eligible, usually it's up to individual teams or leagues to find available squadrons to perform the flyby. Department of Defense Form 2535, the three-page application that must be filled out for every flyby request, makes no mention of sporting events. Its instructions state that "requests for flyovers will be considered only for aviation-oriented events . . . or for patriotic observances (one day only) held in conjunction with Armed Forces Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, POW/MIA Recognition Day or Veterans Day." http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080217580943.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1419646_AEX PjkQAAMHTR7h5VgxlSUdK454&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080217aaindex_concat.html&cred=erD3F.1pNNjIZp57 XJ11VnNDU7Einpd80j8f34pJhp57Y1qVtOBdANnbl3MuafV.#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Honolulu Advertiser February 16, 2008 Army EIS Picks Hawaii As Stryker First Choice By William Cole, Advertiser Military Writer The Army moved closer to a permanent basing of the Stryker brigade in Hawai'i yesterday, saying an environmental analysis concludes that Schofield Barracks is the preferred location for the armored vehicle unit. The completion of the environmental impact statement, or EIS, is a significant milestone in the Army's four-year legal battle with environmentalists and Native Hawaiians over the impact of the 19-ton Stryker vehicles. The Army was ordered by a federal appeals court in 2006 to look at alternative locations as a follow up to an initial EIS. The Army looked at Hawai'i, Alaska and Colorado. The Army originally selected Hawai'i in 2001 as a location for one of the fast-strike units, and the Army's EIS now confirms that choice. U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Akaka, D-Hawai'i, said he was pleased the Army recommended Schofield Barracks as the preferred location for the Stryker brigade. "I am confident that in this supplemental EIS, the Army has carefully considered the strengths and weaknesses of each alternative location," Akaka said in a release. "It is my understanding that the Army's recommendation to permanently base the (Stryker brigade) in Hawai'i supports their efforts to ensure strategic deployment capabilities in the (Pacific) region, provide optimal training opportunities ... and offers the highest quality of life for our soldiers and their families." But the legal wrangling may not be over yet. In an unusual move, the Army announced the conclusion of the Environmental Impact Statement a week before it is published and explained in the Federal Register, a requirement under federal law. That means the rationale for the decision might not be known until Friday. That left the plaintiffs yesterday seeking the answers that will come next week. "The Army has some serious explaining to do to the people of Hawai'i as to why it's proceeding the way it is (with Hawai'i as the preferred location)," said David Henkin, an Earthjustice attorney representing three plaintiff groups. More questions Henkin said he'll be examining the EIS carefully when it comes out to see why a separate Army environmental study said new Stryker brigades could be located at Fort Bliss in Texas, the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, or the Yakima Training Center and Fort Lewis, both in Washington state. The EIS for Hawai'i's Stryker brigade only looked at Schofield Barracks, Fort Carson in Colorado, and Fort Richardson in Alaska, Henkin said. Henkin said in particular, he questions why the Army did not look at Fort Lewis — a base that the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said should be examined as an alternative for the Hawai'i brigade. "I don't know what we're going to do," Henkin said. "It's going to depend on a lot of things, including what the final EIS looks like." The EIS was completed after three groups — 'Ilio'ulaokalani Coalition, Na 'Imi Pono and Kipuka — sued in 2004 to halt the Hawai'i Stryker project. The lawsuit charged that the Stryker project would damage Native Hawaiian cultural sites and harm endangered species and their habitats. In October 2006, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the Army violated the law by not adequately considering alternative locations outside Hawai'i for the $1.5 billion Stryker brigade. The court ordered the Army to complete a supplemental EIS. The outcome will determine whether the 4,000 Stryker brigade soldiers now deployed to Iraq with 328 of the eight-wheeled vehicles will return late this year or early in 2009 to Schofield Barracks, Fort Richardson or Fort Carson. What's at stake The Army said it initially considered "the full spectrum of Army installations" elsewhere as potential sites before concluding that the bases in Alaska and Colorado were the most viable as alternatives to Hawai'i. U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i, said he'd been briefed on the details of the Army's EIS. Its completion is an important step in determining if Schofield will be the final location for the Stryker brigade, he said. But Abercrombie, who advocates the Army giving up efforts to train in Makua Valley, a place of importance to some Hawaiians, said the Stryker EIS also is part of a long-running controversy. "We want our military forces in Hawai'i to have the most productive use of their bases and training facilities. The men and women of the 25th Infantry's Stryker Brigade Combat Team now deployed in Iraq certainly deserve a welcome place to come home to," Abercrombie said in a release. "We certainly want the Army to remain valued and respected citizens of Hawai'i who value and respect the people and culture of our state." Also at stake in the Stryker decision are nearly $700 million in construction projects for the brigade on O'ahu and the Big Island. Some of those projects were completed, but others were halted with the lawsuit. Officials said if the decision is made to keep the Stryker brigade in Hawai'i, as expected, previous contracts will remain in effect, rather than having to rebid the work. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080217580948.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1419646_AEX PjkQAAMHTR7h5VgxlSUdK454&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080217aaindex_concat.html&cred=erD3F.1pNNjIZp57 XJ11VnNDU7Einpd80j8f34pJhp57Y1qVtOBdANnbl3MuafV.#T OP">RETURN TO TOP San Francisco Chronicle February 16, 2008 Pg. 1 War Hero Awarded Silver Star After His Death By John Koopman, Chronicle Staff Writer The worst moment in Gary Stokes' life was not the day a couple of Marines in dress uniform showed up at his door to tell him his son had been killed in Iraq. That was bad, no doubt. He had spent two years wondering whether he would receive those unwelcome visitors. The worst moment came later, after the tears and the grief. The worst moment came slowly. It was the horrible realization that Sean was gone forever. He would never see his son again. Never again go fishing or camping, or watch him get married and have children of his own. "It's lifelong; it's permanent," Stokes said. "That's what's hellish about it. "But we're not here for sadness and morbidity," he said. Instead, Stokes now is trying to find a way to honor Sean's memory. "We're here to ask, 'What can we do about it?' " It sounds like a cliche, but Sean Stokes lived the life of an all-American boy of the late 20th century. He was born in Fremont in 1983. His parents divorced when he was 9 years old, and he and his younger brother went to live with their father on the outskirts of Auburn. Lake of the Pines is an idyllic setting, and Sean loved to fish and camp. He played baseball and football and golf. They had a sweet and gentle golden retriever named Morea. "He was a great kid, a sweet kid, very intuitive," his father said. Stokes worked in real estate and home construction. His father had served on the front lines during the Korean War, but Stokes, soft-spoken and funny, never had the warrior spirit in him. He never considered putting on a uniform or picking up a gun. Sean was different. He decided while in high school that he wanted to join the Marines. The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon motivated him further, his dad said. "He wanted to go take out some terrorists," Stokes said. After the attacks, Sean asked his father to sign the papers that would allow him to join at age 17. Gary refused. "When you're 18, you can do what you want," he told Sean. "But don't ask me to make it happen for you." Sean joined the Marines when he turned 18 in February 2002, and went to Marine Corps boot camp in San Diego. He didn't like the Marines at first. Life in the Marine Corps is hard, and the people who are in charge are tough and demanding. Not like Sean's father. Sean stuck it out, though, and eventually was promoted to private first class. In early 2004, Sean went AWOL, for personal reasons, his dad said, and when he returned, he tested positive for marijuana. He was busted down to private, the lowest rank in the Marine Corps. But somehow, his father said, the experience changed him. He resolved to become a better Marine and a better person. That summer, he went with his unit - 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment - to Iraq. Destination: Fallujah. Six Marine and Army battalions swept through Fallujah that November and engaged in some of the toughest urban combat since World War II. It was bloody, sometimes hand-to-hand combat, in which thousands of insurgents and other Iraqis died, as well as about 100 Marines and soldiers. In Fallujah, Sean became something of a legend. He insisted on being "point man" for his squad as they went door to door looking for a fight. That means he was the one to kick in the door and charge in first. If someone was inside with a gun, chances are they'd try to shoot the first American through the door. That was Sean. He was in some wild and hairy fights. The History Channel profiled one of the firefights on its show "Shootout." In that fight, Sean's unit stumbled upon a group of well-trained and hardcore fighters inside a house. The rest of the Marin |
