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 The Pentagon Eaerly Bird 29 Nov 2007 Please scroll down to read news headline, then scroll down to read the entire News Article (Links do not work) Use of these news articles does not reflect official endorsement. Reproduction for private use or gain is subject to original copyright restrictions. Story 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.) CHINA
Washington Times November 29, 2007 Pg. 1 Pentagon Protests China's Navy Block Airs 'displeasure' with incident By Bill Gertz, Washington Times The Pentagon issued a formal protest to China's military yesterday over its refusal to allow a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group to dock in Hong Kong over the Thanksgiving holiday. President Bush, meanwhile, was told by China's foreign minister that the incident was the result of a misunderstanding. The Pentagon's Asia policy official, David Sedney, an assistant deputy defense secretary, yesterday notified Chinese Embassy defense attache Maj. Gen. Zhao Ning of the protest for turning away the Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier strike group on Nov. 22, and two Navy minesweepers in a separate incident days before. Pentagon press spokesman Geoff Morrell told reporters the meeting was requested to "issue a formal protest, an official protest, complaint, about the incident." "We are expressing officially our displeasure with the incident," he said. The communication was not a diplomatic protest note, but issued as part of U.S.-China military exchanges, Mr. Morrell said later. At the White House, Mr. Bush met with visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and asked him to explain the Chinese government's refusal to permit Navy ships to make recent port calls. During talks that focused on Iran and North Korea, Mr. Bush brought up the Kitty Hawk issue, said White House press secretary Dana Perino. "The president raised the issue about the recent aborted port call by the USS Kitty Hawk," Mrs. Perino said. "Foreign Minister Yang announced that, assured the president that it was a misunderstanding." It was the first official response explaining China's action in turning away the carrier and later inviting it back. China's government made no public statement on the incident, which angered U.S. military officials because hundreds of family members of the strike group's 8,000 sailors had traveled to Hong Kong to spend Thanksgiving with relatives. Military officials also criticized China for blocking a port visit days earlier by the two minesweepers that had sought to avoid a storm, but were turned away in violation of long-standing naval tradition. After being blocked, the Kitty Hawk strike group, which includes two missile cruisers and six guided missile destroyers, changed course and headed for its home port of Yokosuka, Japan, because of bad weather, rather than turn back to Hong Kong. A senior Pentagon official said later that the Kitty Hawk and its warships transited through the Taiwan Strait on the way back to Japan, in a deliberate statement to China, which in the past opposed U.S. warships traveling through the strait where Chinese and Taiwanese forces are faced off. Other officials said the Chinese anti-Navy action was carried out to protest U.S. sales of upgraded Patriot missile systems equipment to Taiwan. Mr. Morrell said that if the Chinese objected to the Patriot missile upgrades, as first reported in The Washington Times yesterday, the protest is misguided because the missile-equipment sale was planned for months. As for Chinese complaints that the sale was not mentioned during Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates' recent visit to Beijing, Mr. Morrell said that it is not Mr. Gates' role to "relay that information" to the Chinese. "What I believe took place there is that the State Department, as is their responsibility, has to update Congress as to foreign military sales of this nature, and it was sort of the normal reporting process to the Hill," he said. Mr. Morrell said he did not know whether the Kitty Hawk battle group was monitoring Chinese naval exercises near Taiwan prior to the its transit to Hong Kong. Defense officials said the Kitty Hawk did not monitor the large-scale Chinese naval exercises that took place in the South China Sea, about 700 miles to the south, about the time the Kitty Hawk and other warships approached Hong Kong. Mr. Morrell said of China's explanation of the incident as a misunderstanding: "I don't know that that's a satisfactory explanation." "But the explanation is really due to the families of those sailors who, at great personal cost, had made arrangements to go visit their loved ones over Thanksgiving and in Hong Kong expecting the Kitty Hawk to port there as planned," he said. The Chinese exercises near Hainan island included new Chinese guided missile warships and warplanes that are an intelligence target of the U.S. military, defense officials said. Jon Ward contributed to this report. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071129564124.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_3794652_AKj OjkQAAMLQR072igsV3QqcVN0&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20071129aaindex_concat.html&cred=yyYX9Ig6Oy4jvjtk zviIEBHSHr7B4UzD.Nyrd44KQW13B_prrFyI0UYzggIELHfD#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Washington Post November 29, 2007 Pg. 21 U.S. Protests China's Denial Of Navy Ship By Ann Scott Tyson, Washington Post Staff Writer The Pentagon issued a formal protest to China yesterday over Beijing's refusal to allow the USS Kitty Hawk or any of the aircraft carrier's accompanying ships into the port of Hong Kong last week. David Sedney, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, summoned Maj. Gen. Zhao Ning, the Chinese defense attache in Washington, to the Pentagon for half an hour to make the complaint. The protest expressed "deep regret and concerns with China's denial of diplomatic clearances" for the Kitty Hawk carrier strike group and two U.S. mine sweepers, the Patriot and Guardian, which were denied safe harbor days earlier as a storm approached and were forced to refuel using a tanker at sea. "The denial of the USS Patriot and USS Guardian requests to refuel and avoid severe weather is contrary to commonly accepted international maritime safety protocols," the protest stated. "Such cancellations run counter to our joint interest in positively developing our military-to-military relations." The Chinese government has provided no "satisfactory explanation" for the denial of access to Hong Kong, where many sailors' families had traveled in anticipation of a Thanksgiving reunion, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said yesterday at a news conference. The Chinese attache agreed to relay the message to Beijing but offered no further response, he said. "It's baffling to the extent that these port calls into Hong Kong have been taking place . . . for decades," Morrell said, adding that in the past such denials occurred during tense relations between the two nations. Port calls were suspended, for example, after a U.S. bomber struck the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade in 1999 and in the wake of the mid-air collision in 2001 between a Chinese fighter and U.S. Navy EP-3 surveillance plane, whose crew was detained by Chinese authorities after a harrowing landing on Hainan Island. Asked whether Beijing had acted in response to a recent U.S. upgrading of Patriot missiles in Taiwan, and to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates not notifying Chinese leaders about the move during a visit to China this month, Morrell said he had heard no such explanation. "It wasn't . . . incumbent upon Secretary Gates to relay that information," he said. During the Gates trip, leaders discussed stepping up military cooperation and exchanges, and agreed to establish a defense hotline between Beijing and Washington. Morrell said he had "no indication" that such programs would be disrupted by the Kitty Hawk incident. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071129564200.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_3794652_AKj OjkQAAMLQR072igsV3QqcVN0&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20071129aaindex_concat.html&cred=yyYX9Ig6Oy4jvjtk zviIEBHSHr7B4UzD.Nyrd44KQW13B_prrFyI0UYzggIELHfD#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Los Angeles Times November 29, 2007 U.S. Lodges Formal Protest With China Bush questions a visiting official about Beijing's refusal to permit naval vessels access to Hong Kong. By Julian E. Barnes, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer WASHINGTON —Tensions between the U.S. and China rose slightly Wednesday as the Pentagon lodged a formal protest over Beijing's refusal to permit American naval vessels access to Hong Kong and President Bush questioned the visiting Chinese foreign minister about last week's snub. White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said that China's foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, told Bush the issue was a "misunderstanding." Perino said Bush first raised the issue in a White House meeting, but said she could not detail the nature of the misunderstanding. Some experts on U.S.-Asian military relations saw the matter as an outgrowth of discomfort among hard-liners in China with the Bush administration's open-armed welcome last month of the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Chinese-held Tibet. "There is a lot of deep anxiety about the Dalai Lama, and you see a host of signals being sent about that discomfort," said Kurt Campbell, a former deputy assistant secretary of Defense responsible for Asia. "The Kitty Hawk was meant to send a signal of profound displeasure." The Pentagon's formal protest was lodged by a senior Defense official, David Sedney, who called Beijing's defense attache in Washington to the Pentagon to accept the objection. The complaint focused on the Chinese refusal to allow the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk and several accompanying vessels to make a scheduled stop in Hong Kong on Thanksgiving. Two top Navy admirals on Tuesday sharply criticized the Chinese refusal to accommodate the Kitty Hawk as well as, earlier, two minesweepers, the Patriot and the Guardian, which had sought refuge in Hong Kong on Nov. 20 to refuel and to escape an approaching storm. Navy officials said refusing any ship safe harbor in a storm is a breach of maritime traditions. Relations between the U.S. military and the People's Liberation Army of China are complex. Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates visited Beijing on Nov. 5, hoping to help improve relations and increase the number of contacts between the two forces. "I'm aware of no hiccups at all in our efforts to increase military-to-military cooperation, exchanges with the Chinese," said Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell. "I think that's why this incident is so baffling to us, because there was no indication at all prior to the Kitty Hawk being refused entry to the port of Hong Kong that there was any reason or any cause for concern." China's leaders may be upset over U.S. acceptance of the Dalai Lama, considered a secessionist threat by Beijing. But Campbell, now chief executive of a Washington think tank, the Center for a New American Security, said other Chinese leaders are anxious to avoid increased U.S. attention so they can further build their influence in the region. "Its essential strategy is to do nothing that would cause the United States to refocus on Asia," Campbell said. "That means sometimes eating some humble pie." Derek Mitchell, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former Pentagon China expert, said Beijing's refusal to give safe harbor to the minesweepers was more distressing than the Kitty Hawk incident because it showed disregard for international law. "It shows extreme bad faith if they are going to judge things on their own sense of pique," Mitchell said. U.S. military officials were under pressure to criticize China from military families who had flown to Hong Kong at personal expense to meet the sailors for Thanksgiving. "The explanation is really due to the families of those sailors who, at great personal cost, had made arrangements to go visit their loved ones over Thanksgiving" in Hong Kong, expecting the Kitty Hawk to port there as planned, Morrell said. Yang, the Chinese foreign minister, was visiting the White House on Wednesday for talks on North Korea and Iran. Navy officials had said the destroyer Curtis Wilbur was the last ship to be denied access to Hong Kong, in 2002. But Navy Cmdr. Pamela Kunze later added that another U.S. vessel, the U.S. submarine City of Corpus Christi, was denied access to Hong Kong in 2004. In both cases, the Chinese government offered no reason for the refusals. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071129564125.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_3794652_AKj OjkQAAMLQR072igsV3QqcVN0&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20071129aaindex_concat.html&cred=yyYX9Ig6Oy4jvjtk zviIEBHSHr7B4UzD.Nyrd44KQW13B_prrFyI0UYzggIELHfD#T OP">RETURN TO TOP New York Times November 29, 2007 U.S. Military Plans To Bolster Iraqi Sentry Forces By 10,000 By Cara Buckley BAGHDAD, Nov. 28 — The American military expects to add roughly 10,000 Iraqis to its roster of unofficial security guards who act as paid neighborhood sentries here, and will then cap the program, a military official said Wednesday. The guards were hired by the tens of thousands earlier this year, when American forces offered tribal sheiks money in exchange for information about terrorist and criminal activities. About 77,000 people, who are alternately called volunteers, concerned local citizens, or members of awakening councils, have joined, the vast majority of them Sunnis. The program has been credited with helping to drive violence down sharply nationwide, but also stirred concerns among Shiites that the Sunnis would use the money and training to re-form militias. About 60,000 of the guards are paid $300 a month, while the rest are still being enrolled, said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a spokesman for the multinational forces. “Our intent was not to send the message that this was a job creation program,” Admiral Smith said Wednesday. The program was expected to grow by another 10 percent to 15 percent at the most, he said. The military said it wanted to keep the number below 100,000. Earlier this week the Iraqi government announced that it would take over from the Americans next year the obligation of paying the guards’ salaries. “It is an Iraqi responsibility, this is the right thing to do, it is not an American responsibility,” said Ali al-Dabbagh, a government spokesman, said Monday. “And at the same time, the loyalty of these people should be to Iraq.” The American military also wants the program to act as a bridge to funnel people into jobs with the Iraqi Army or the police. About a third of current enlistees have expressed interest in doing so, said Admiral Smith, though just 2,000 have so far. Also on Wednesday, 20 busloads of returning Iraqi refugees arrived in Baghdad from Syria, though the exact number of the refugees was not clear. Mr. Dabbagh, the government spokesman, put the figure at 800 people; the Baghdad City Council said the number was closer to 200. The International Organization for Migration said about 300 people had returned on the buses. There have been varying reports about the number of displaced people who are returning to Iraq or to their homes within Iraq. Earlier this month, an Iraqi official said roughly 46,000 people returned from other countries in October, evidence, he said, of improved security conditions here. But that figure included all Iraqis who crossed the borders, not just the displaced who were returning. There are also concerns about how smoothly the resettlement is going. Roughly a third of the people who have come to Iraq have discovered squatters living in their homes, said Dana Graber Ladek, the International Organization for Migration’s Iraqi displacement specialist. “Property claims could be a tremendous issue that the government of Iraq will need to address,” Ms. Ladek wrote in an e-mail message. In another development, Unicef warned that Baghdad might be facing a cholera outbreak, with 101 new cases reported in recent weeks. Cholera is a waterborne disease that often appears when sanitary conditions are poor, and the capital, where raw sewage flows into many waterways, accounts for nearly 80 percent of the country’s new cases, the agency said. The increase is of particular concern because the rainy season is approaching, and, according to agency figures, Iraq’s sewage treatment plants are working at less than one-fifth of their capacity. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071129564091.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_3794652_AKj OjkQAAMLQR072igsV3QqcVN0&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20071129aaindex_concat.html&cred=yyYX9Ig6Oy4jvjtk zviIEBHSHr7B4UzD.Nyrd44KQW13B_prrFyI0UYzggIELHfD#T OP">RETURN TO TOP USA Today November 29, 2007 Pg. 6 U.S. Signs Up Nearly 6,000 Sunnis To Help Man Checkpoints By Associated Press BAGHDAD — Nearly 6,000 Sunni Arab residents joined a security pact with American forces Wednesday in what the U.S. military called the single largest mobilization of volunteers since the start of the war. For about $275 a month — approximately the salary of the typical Iraqi policeman — the tribesmen will man about 200 security checkpoints beginning Dec. 7, supplementing hundreds of Iraqi forces already in the area. About 77,000 Iraqis nationwide, mostly Sunnis, have broken with the insurgents and joined U.S.-backed self-defense groups. The United States has credited the groups with a major role in the recent lull in violence in Iraq. The ceremony to incorporate the new fighters was presided over by a dozen sheiks at a small U.S. outpost in north-central Iraq. U.S. commanders have tried to build a ring around insurgents who fled military offensives launched earlier this year in western Anbar province and later into Baghdad and surrounding areas. With the help of the new Sunni allies, such areas "will be an obstacle to militants, rather than a pathway for them," said Maj. Sean Wilson, with the Army's 1st Brigade, 10th Mountain Division. "They're another set of eyes that we needed in this critical area." Also Wednesday: • A woman wearing an explosive-rigged belt blew herself up near an American patrol near Baqouba, about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, the military announced Wednesday. The blast on Tuesday — a rare attack by a female suicide bomber — wounded seven U.S. troops and five Iraqis, the statement said. •The commander of U.S. prison camps in Iraq said in an interview published Wednesday that he wants to cut the number of Iraqis in his custody by around two-thirds by the end of next year. Maj. Gen. Douglas Stone, head of U.S. detention facilities in Iraq, told Reuters he was looking to cut the number of detainees to around 8,000, which he said would leave "real difficult, challenged guys" behind bars. "The rest of them we think we can work through and get out," Stone said. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071129564157.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_3794652_AKj OjkQAAMLQR072igsV3QqcVN0&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20071129aaindex_concat.html&cred=yyYX9Ig6Oy4jvjtk zviIEBHSHr7B4UzD.Nyrd44KQW13B_prrFyI0UYzggIELHfD#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Washington Post November 29, 2007 Pg. 20 Female Bomber Wounds 7 GIs In Iraq Refugees Continue Returning to Capital By Associated Press BAGHDAD, Nov. 28 -- A woman wearing an explosives belt blew herself up near a U.S. patrol about 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, wounding seven U.S. troops and five Iraqis, the U.S. military said Wednesday. The attack Tuesday near Baqubah, in Diyala province, was a rare example of a female suicide bombing. Meanwhile Wednesday, more Iraqi refugees, heartened by reports of the lull in violence in the capital, were beginning to return, and a convoy carrying hundreds of people arrived in Baghdad after an overnight bus ride from Damascus, Syria. A government spokesman said that 60,000 Iraqis had returned in the past month and that officials were expecting a similar number in coming weeks. "The Iraqi government will do its best to protect these families," the spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, said at a news conference Wednesday. Also Wednesday, Iraqi lawmakers briefly boycotted the start of a legislative session, demanding that U.S. forces ease checkpoint searches for entry to the fortified Green Zone, where the parliament building is located. Firyad Rwandzi, spokesman for the Kurdish bloc, said the boycott came in response to "the insulting behavior of the American soldiers toward parliament members" as they tried to reach the building. The U.S. military says attacks across Iraq have fallen to their lowest level since February 2006, attributing this partly to a buildup of about 30,000 troops earlier this year. Sectarian violence rose sharply after an attack on a Shiite shrine in February 2006. In Hawijah, in northern Iraq, nearly 6,000 Sunni Arabs joined a security pact with U.S. forces in what U.S. officers described as a critical step in plugging the remaining escape routes for extremists flushed from former strongholds. The new alliance -- called the single largest volunteer mobilization since the war began -- covers the last gateway for groups such as al-Qaeda in Iraq seeking new havens in the north, military officials said. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071129564161.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_3794652_AKj OjkQAAMLQR072igsV3QqcVN0&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20071129aaindex_concat.html&cred=yyYX9Ig6Oy4jvjtk zviIEBHSHr7B4UzD.Nyrd44KQW13B_prrFyI0UYzggIELHfD#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Los Angeles Times November 29, 2007 Iraqi Lawmakers Protest U.S. Guards Legislators walk out of parliament, complaining that troops at Green Zone entry points are overly aggressive and humiliate them. By Ann M. Simmons, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer BAGHDAD — Dozens of Iraqi lawmakers walked out of parliament Wednesday to protest what they view as overly aggressive and humiliating treatment by U.S. soldiers as representatives enter Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, where the legislature is located. "I and many of my colleagues who live outside the Green Zone face a lot of problems," said Feryad Rawandozi, a high-ranking official with the Kurdish parliamentary bloc. U.S. soldiers "are very arrogant and impolite when they talk to us, especially with those who don't speak English." Legislators, like everyone else entering the Green Zone, must submit to a gauntlet of physical searches, and allow their vehicles to be inspected by bomb-sniffing dogs. They must line up with the throngs of other residents and employees seeking to enter the area, which is also headquarters to U.S. operations in Iraq. The process can take up to two hours. "This is unacceptable," Rawandozi said. Though U.S. officials in recent months have reported significant progress reducing violence in Baghdad, it has not been enough to warrant a relaxation of stringent security checks. In April, a suicide attack in the parliament building killed one lawmaker. Army Maj. Anton Alston, a spokesman for Multi-National Force-Iraq, acknowledged that U.S. soldiers guarding checkpoints might be misconstrued as hostile, but said the troops were simply trying to ensure security. "They don't know who's who. They do a thorough search and give stern instructions to ensure that these individuals coming into the checkpoint are not the bad guys," Alston said. "Their intent is to make sure the environment is safe for themselves and for the folks they are trying to protect." "If we come off as aggressive, it might be a cultural thing," Alston added. Rawandozi and other legislators said they were not opposed to thorough security checks, but felt there should be a better system in place to facilitate the entry of busy lawmakers trying to get to work at parliament. He said it was impractical for legislators to wait two hours to be cleared for entry. He said he often brings a novel with him and manages to read two or three chapters during the delay. On Wednesday, the issue was raised in parliament, and many lawmakers vented their anger. The parliament speaker stopped the proceeding for half an hour to protest the behavior of U.S. troops, and as many as 100 lawmakers left the hall. Most returned, but the Kurdish bloc boycotted the remainder of the session, attendees said. Rawandozi said he had mentioned the concerns over treatment of Iraqi lawmakers to U.S. officials, including Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker and Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of coalition forces in Iraq, but said nothing had been done to address the issue. Some legislators have suggested that they be issued a special sticker on their badge that would distinguish them from civilians entering the Green Zone, and permit quicker access and less-harsh treatment. "We have to stand for our dignity as representatives of the Iraqi people," said legislator Safia Suhail. Times staff writers Wail Alhafith and Saif Hameed and a special correspondent in Baghdad contributed to this report. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071129564190.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_3794652_AKj OjkQAAMLQR072igsV3QqcVN0&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20071129aaindex_concat.html&cred=yyYX9Ig6Oy4jvjtk zviIEBHSHr7B4UzD.Nyrd44KQW13B_prrFyI0UYzggIELHfD#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Baltimore Sun November 29, 2007 UB, Iraq University Sign Deal Partnership allows law schools to offer exchange programs By Gadi Dechter, Sun reporter The University of Baltimore's School of Law and a university in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, Iraq, have signed the first formal partnership between law schools in the two countries, officials announced yesterday. Under the agreement, UB law students might one day study in Iraq - where the rule of law was enshrined in the Code of Hammurabi more than 4,000 years ago. However, for security reasons, the first step will more likely be to bring Iraqis here for graduate legal study and research, said the law school's dean, Phillip J. Closius. "We think it has a strong symbolic importance in the effort to stabilize what's going on in Iraq," Closius said. "It also helps us to enrich our programs in Baltimore." The partnership is with the University of Tikrit School of Law, the only law school in the mostly-Sunni Salah ad Din province in north-central Iraq. It has about 700 students, who complete a four-year legal undergraduate curriculum. The law school deans and university presidents signed a memorandum of understanding Tuesday morning, during a videoconference attended by senior U.S. and Iraqi officials in Tikrit, including the provincial governor and the head of the regional council of sheiks. Tikrit law dean Amer Ayash described the partnership as "a step apart and away from violence, to build institutions, which is the beginning of a true, lawful situation in Iraq." Allan E. Goodman, president of the Institute of International Education, which administers foreign education programs, hailed the partnership. "Education exchange is the quickest, most direct way to make the world less dangerous," he said. UB officials say they hope that Iraqis who have completed basic legal training will soon begin enrolling in the Master's of Law program at the school's Center for International and Comparative Law. The one-year LLM program is designed for foreign lawyers who want an education in U.S. law. Morad Eghbal, director of the master's program, said UB had received "oral assurances" from State Department officials that Tikrit students would be granted student visas. The downtown campus has study-abroad programs in Scotland and Israel. During the Bosnian conflict of the 1990s, UB established a similar agreement with the University of Sarajevo. The international law center's focus is strengthening independent judicial systems, said its director, Mortimer Sellers. An exchange with Iraq - where judges have been kidnapped and assassinated over years of occupation - would seem to be a natural fit for UB's rule-of-law focus. But it was an accident of circumstance that brought the two to the videoconference table. The impetus came from Andrew Norman, a 1978 UB law graduate from Frederick County who is an assistant U.S. attorney in Baltimore. Norman is on assignment as a legal adviser to the U.S. Provincial Reconstruction Team in Salah ad Din. After he arrived in Tikrit in September 2006, Norman was assigned to help the provincial government set up a court system to prosecute terrorist cases. "The legal system here is functioning," he said by phone yesterday from a U.S. military base near Tikrit. But prosecutions of those accused of terrorism by Iraqi authorities "were not being heard because the judges were afraid for their safety and the safety of their families." Since August 2006, three judges in the province have been kidnapped and two killed, he said. Norman helped local authorities establish a "major crimes court" in a fortified compound where the presiding judges could be safely housed. Since then, he said, about 17 trials have been held, resulting in 11 convictions and four death penalty verdicts. As part of Norman's networking with Tikrit's judicial community, he said, "it made sense to me to hook up with a law school." Over time, Norman developed a collegial relationship with the law faculty, and in May he delivered a lecture at the University of Tikrit. In the summer, Tikrit law dean Ayash and Norman discussed the possibility of pairing with an American counterpart. "Part of my particular mission is to help the Iraqis improve their legal system," Norman said, "and one way is to open up channels between Iraqi law schools and American law schools to exchange ideas, faculty and students." He suggested his alma mater and helped facilitate discussions. Though Norman still can't leave his military base without an armored military convoy, he said security in the province is improving. "Once things calm down, this place will be a booming agricultural center. It's the breadbasket of Iraq, one of the most fertile farming regions in the Middle East." UB officials say they hope the agreement lays the groundwork for study-abroad opportunities for U.S. students who want to learn Iraqi law, which is influenced by the British and French legal systems. "At some point there will be a massive rebuilding job, and American corporations will be there and ... need American lawyers," Closius said. However, Baghdad native and recent UB graduate Rhian Atta said friends and family in Iraq say that security is not improving. But the Baltimore resident, who left Iraq in 2004, said she is heartened by the prospect that students from Tikrit might soon have the opportunity to study in the U.S. "It's a small city," she said of Tikrit. "Students there don't even get the same opportunities as students who are living in Baghdad." http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071129564138.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_3794652_AKj OjkQAAMLQR072igsV3QqcVN0&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20071129aaindex_concat.html&cred=yyYX9Ig6Oy4jvjtk zviIEBHSHr7B4UzD.Nyrd44KQW13B_prrFyI0UYzggIELHfD#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Washington Times November 29, 2007 Pg. 5 More Americans Optimistic About Iraq Effort Poll finds Republicans, Democrats feel better about war By Jennifer Harper, Washington Times Public opinion about Iraq is steadily improving. "For the first time in a long time, nearly half of Americans express positive opinions about the situation in Iraq," said a Pew Research Center poll released yesterday. Indeed, 48 percent of the respondents said the military effort is going well — up from 30 percent in a February survey, and the most positive finding in 14 months. Improvements are evident in both political parties as well. Previously, 51 percent of Republicans said the war was going well. The figure is now 74 percent. Among Democrats, the figure once languished at 16 percent; it has since doubled to 33 percent. The overall public has noted other improvements, meanwhile. About 43 percent said the effort has reduced the number of civilian casualties, up 23 points in the past nine months, while 32 percent said troops have made progress preventing civil war, a gain of 14 points in the same time period. Another 43 percent said insurgents are being defeated, a gain of 13 points. More than half — 51 percent — said troops are preventing terrorists from establishing more base camps, half say they have made progress training Iraqi security forces, 46 percent say the U.S. is succeeding in rebuilding the Iraq's infrastructure and 43 percent say Iraq is establishing democracy. All of the numbers are improvements from earlier research. While respondents still used such words as "bad" and "terrible" to describe their impression of the war in Iraq, emotionally charged references have changed. In September, the most frequently cited descriptive term for the situation was "mess." This time around, it is "improving." The public appears to have reached such conclusions without much help from the press. The New York Times published an uncharacteristic story on Nov. 21 citing improvements in Iraq, but broadcasters virtually ignored the progress, according to an analysis by the Media Research Center. "The media have such a hatred for George Bush and all things George Bush, they simply do not want to give him credit for anything in Iraq," spokesman Brent Bozell told Fox News. Americans still want their troops to come home, according to the Pew findings. Overall, 54 percent want troops to leave Iraq, an opinion unchanged since February. More Republicans agree. Less than a quarter wanted troops to leave Iraq in the previous poll; the number now has risen to 30 percent. Among Democrats, the sentiment has remained steady at 75 percent. "The war in Iraq continues to be viewed as the most important problem facing the nation, though it is not nearly as dominant a concern as it was early this year," the poll said. In January, 42 percent cited the war as the top concern; the number has now fallen to 32 percent. Fears about the economy have risen from 5 percent to 14 percent. The poll of 1,399 adults was conducted Nov. 20 through Monday and had a margin of error of three percentage points. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071129564068.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_3794652_AKj OjkQAAMLQR072igsV3QqcVN0&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20071129aaindex_concat.html&cred=yyYX9Ig6Oy4jvjtk zviIEBHSHr7B4UzD.Nyrd44KQW13B_prrFyI0UYzggIELHfD#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Christian Science Monitor November 29, 2007 Pg. 1 A 'Surge' For Afghanistan? A Marine proposal under discussion this week would redeploy troops from Iraq. By Gordon Lubold, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor KABUL, AFGHANISTAN -- The top general of the Marine Corps is pushing hard to deploy marines to Afghanistan as he looks to draw down his forces in Iraq, but his proposal, which is under discussion at the Pentagon this week, faces deep resistance from other military leaders. Commandant Gen. James Conway's plan, if approved, would deploy a large contingent of marines to Afghanistan, perhaps as early as next year. The reinforcements would be used to fight the Taliban, which US officials concede is now defending its territory more effectively against allied and Afghan forces. Within the Pentagon, General Conway's proposal has led to speculation about which, if any, American forces would be best suited to provide reinforcements for a mission that, most agree, has far more political appeal than the one in Iraq. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has already recommended against the proposal, at least for now, a military official said Tuesday. That leaves the decision up to Defense Secretary Robert Gates. "It came down to an issue of timing," says the official, who didn't want to be named because of the sensitivity of the recommendation. "The chairman didn't feel that this was the right time." Conway says that marines, who have been largely responsible for calming Anbar Province in Iraq, can either return home or "stay plugged into the fight" by essentially redeploying to Afghanistan. The general returned Monday from a trip to Iraq and Afghanistan, where he visited with marines and stressed that the Corps is not out to snatch a senior command billet in Afghanistan, nor is it trying to get out of Iraq "while the getting is good." Critics of the plan worry that it would leave too much risk for the Army in Iraq, but Conway argues that the Corps would assume more risk in Afghanistan than it has now in Anbar Province, where violence has abated considerably. "The trend lines tell us that it may be time to increase the force posture in Afghanistan," Conway says, in his first public comments on the matter since the proposal was leaked to the press last month. Ideally, he says, the international community would provide more help for the roughly 50,000 coalition forces there now – about half of them American troops, mostly from the Army. About 300 marines are currently stationed in Afghanistan. "But if it requires additional US forces," Conway says, "then it goes back to our suggestion that maybe we need more marines in there with a more kinetic bent." Adm. William Fallon, head of US Central Command, which oversees operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan, is said to be "very strong" on the Conway option, says another senior military official, who asked not to be named, adding that the whole mix of forces must be looked at before a decision can be made. "We're at the taking-a-hard-look-at-it stage," says this official. "The positive side of the Marines looking at this for a deployment is it would be a good mix of combat power and training and equip missions." Secretary Gates's focus so far has been to seek more help from the international community to provide trainers and other forces to combat the resurgent Taliban. Top Army and Air Force officials have expressed concern about the Conway plan, even as US officials on the ground in Afghanistan appear to welcome the idea. The Corps would probably deploy a Marine Air Ground Task Force, a self-contained unit that brings with it its own headquarters, ground elements, logistics, and air-assault capabilities that may be especially suited to the scale of operations in Afghanistan, Conway says. Gates has appeared to shoot down the idea in remarks over the past month. But sources say the Defense secretary hasn't yet been fully briefed on the matter. Less secure in Afghanistan Two years ago, the Pentagon was set to proclaim military success in Afghanistan and tie it up with a bow. But this year the security mission in Afghanistan has suffered from the US focus on Iraq and a heavy reliance on an international force. NATO's command in Afghanistan, the International Security Assistance Force, has had some victories on the ground there, working with the nascent Afghan Army and police force. But the US considers some allied nations to be "casualty averse," not expecting to be engaged in heavy combat operations back when they signed up for what they considered a training-and-peacekeeping mission. Suicide attacks in Afghanistan are on the rise, and US casualties, though relatively few compared with those in Iraq, have increased as well, according to American military officials on the ground there. Conway, for one, is convinced that Afghanistan's security needs inevitably will require more American forces – and that the Corps, with its "expeditionary" focus, is well suited to the mission. Already, he has sent two Marine battalions to mountain warfare training in California to prepare for the missions in Afghanistan should the request come. The Corps is already beginning to plan the drawdown of its forces in Anbar in Iraq, where the bulk of Marine forces are deployed. So far, the calm in Anbar, which began before the surge of US forces this spring, has continued, and Marine officials believe the strategy there has worked. It seems unlikely that a large contingent of marines would stay in Anbar much longer if that peace continues. Unless marines are sent elsewhere in Iraq, that would leave Conway an opening to redeploy them to Afghanistan. Such a deployment would also ease the Corps' deployment tempo, a goal Gates established for both the Army and Marine Corps upon taking office in January. The decision about which forces, if any, to send to Afghanistan has a political subtext. If the White House were to send more US forces into a country most Americans thought was already secure, Democrats would be sure to exploit the security retrogression during an election year. Such a decision, too, would have reverberations within the Pentagon, since the US force that would return to Afghanistan would carry with it a political prize. While much of the American public wants US forces out of Iraq, many see Afghanistan as the more righteous mission, because the origins of the 9/11 attacks can be traced there. "Marines may be jockeying for the longer-term and maybe more popular role," says Anthony Cordesman, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington. If more American forces are needed in Afghanistan, then the Pentagon must look at the "entire pool" of forces before it decides that what is best for the Marine Corps is also best for its policy in Afghanistan, says Mr. Cordesman. Institutional memory lost? Michael O'Hanlon, a senior analyst at the Brookings Institution, another think tank in Washington, is not necessarily opposed to Conway's idea, but he worries that taking marines out of Anbar, where they have been effective, could rob the US of vital knowledge about the province. "The Marines know more about that province than the Army does," he says. Marines are already being asked to help with the fight in Afghanistan. Last month, Corps officials announced that AV-8B Harrier jump jets – attached to the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit deployed aboard an amphibious assault ship – flew more than a dozen sorties over Afghanistan. The jets conducted reconnaissance, escorted ground convoys, and dropped precision-guided munitions on enemy targets, according to Corps officials. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071129564100.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_3794652_AKj OjkQAAMLQR072igsV3QqcVN0&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20071129aaindex_concat.html&cred=yyYX9Ig6Oy4jvjtk zviIEBHSHr7B4UzD.Nyrd44KQW13B_prrFyI0UYzggIELHfD#T OP">RETURN TO TOP New York Times November 29, 2007 NATO Strike Is Said To Kill 14 Civilians In Afghanistan By Abdul Waheed Wafa KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 28 — A NATO airstrike killed 14 workers for an Afghan company that had been contracted by the United States Army Corps of Engineers to build a road in Nuristan, a mountainous province in eastern Afghanistan, officials said Wednesday. The strike occurred Monday night in the Norgram district of Nuristan when the Afghan workers for the Amerifa Construction Company were sleeping after a day’s work. “Fourteen of our mechanics and laborers were killed as they were asleep in their tents,” said Nurullah Jalali, the executive director of Amerifa. “We just collected pieces of flesh from our tired workers and put them in 14 coffins.” Gov. Tamim Nuristani of Nuristan said he could confirm that 13 workers had been “mistakenly” killed when NATO forces bombed the area based on what he said was an intelligence report of insurgent infiltration. “All these victims are civilians and they were from nearby provinces,” he said. Maj. Charles Anthony, a NATO spokesman, said its forces had struck what it believed were Taliban insurgents but could not confirm that the workers had been killed. Mr. Jalali said that in the year his company had worked in the region, his workers had not come across any militants. “We have not seen any evidence of insurgency in that specific area, and we don’t know why and who attacked our laborers,” he said. The 37-mile project is the first in Nuristan to build roads to connect mountainous districts. The project is financed by the United States military, and the road has been under construction for a year through areas that the Afghan government barely controls. Major Anthony confirmed that the airstrike had been a mission by NATO’s International Security Assistance Force and said that Taliban insurgents had been the intended target. “I can confirm that at this time, we, ISAF, believe that we were able to successfully target a Taliban leader in that area and at that time,” he said. “As far as the allegation of civilian casualties goes, that is under investigation.” Civilian deaths have touched a nerve in Afghanistan after six years of American and NATO- led operations and have become a major issue for the government of President Hamid Karzai, who has repeatedly pleaded with international forces to use extreme care. The victims of the episode on Monday night were all Afghans who were working for $5 a day, Mr. Jalali said. His company has been contracted to build 273 miles of road in 10 Afghan provinces, and the major contracts are with the American military. Mr. Jalali said he thought the accident happened because the foreign military either lacked information or had incorrect information. “Our advice is for those who have air forces in Afghanistan to confirm their information first and then act; otherwise Afghanistan will go back to atrocities,” he said. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071129564205.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_3794652_AKj OjkQAAMLQR072igsV3QqcVN0&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20071129aaindex_concat.html&cred=yyYX9Ig6Oy4jvjtk zviIEBHSHr7B4UzD.Nyrd44KQW13B_prrFyI0UYzggIELHfD#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Wall Street Journal (wsj.com) November 28, 2007 Pentagon Defends Afghanistan Attack That Killed Workers WASHINGTON (AFP) -- The Pentagon Tuesday defended an air attack in Afghanistan that was reported to have killed 14 road workers as based on "credible and multiple" intelligence that the targets were insurgents. The head of an Afghan-Korean construction company building a road in remote Nuristan province said the warplanes mistakenly bombed a road construction camp, killing its workers. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said there was "credible and multiple intelligence indicating that the targets were insurgents." He said there was a construction site a kilometer (half mile) away, but the site hit had no construction vehicles or other signs of roadbuilding activity. The head of the Amerifa Construction Co., Sayed Nurrullah Jalili, told AFP that a tent camp housing workers came under attack late Monday by jet fighters and helicopters. "Helicopters and jet fighters bombed our camp in western Nuristan province, killing 14 of our roadworkers," he said. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071129564101.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_3794652_AKj OjkQAAMLQR072igsV3QqcVN0&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20071129aaindex_concat.html&cred=yyYX9Ig6Oy4jvjtk zviIEBHSHr7B4UzD.Nyrd44KQW13B_prrFyI0UYzggIELHfD#T OP">RETURN TO TOP New York Times November 29, 2007 An Afghanistan War-Crimes Case Tests Poland’s Commitment To Foreign Missions By Nicholas Kulish WARSAW, Nov. 28 — Poland is facing a rare war-crimes prosecution at a crucial juncture for both the newly elected government’s commitment to overseas military engagements and the effort to overhaul the nation’s armed forces. Seven Polish soldiers sit in a military jail in Poznan, accused of killing six Afghan civilians, including women and children, in the village of Nangarkhel in August. Whether the mortar rounds that killed the Afghans were a result of bad aim, bad orders or bad intentions remains to be determined. The charges against the soldiers have led the country into uncharted legal, moral and political territory. The case has become a test of the public’s stomach for sending soldiers into faraway battle in support of allies. The issue is especially troubling to a country with a strong attachment to its military, a result of centuries of division and domination by foreign powers. Poland also tends to view itself as an underdog fighting on the side of right, typified by the mythic charge of Polish cavalry against Nazi tanks in World War II. “We were convinced that our contribution was not only stable and militarily significant, but also that we stand for international law and humanitarian needs,” said Bogdan Klich, the defense minister. “From that point of view, what happened in Afghanistan is a shock for Polish public opinion.” The timing is particularly difficult, he said, because “we are in the critical phase of reshaping our involvement in the military missions,” including plans to withdraw from Iraq. The headline on the cover of the Polish edition of Newsweek after the soldiers were arrested on Nov. 13 said bluntly, “Blood on the Uniform.” On the cover of Polityka, a respected weekly newsmagazine, the larger question rang out: “Afghanistan: What Are We Doing There?” The country has 1,200 soldiers in the NATO operation in Afghanistan. Poland has also been a significant ally for the United States in Iraq, and it still has 900 troops there. It has been a consistent contributor to international missions. Western military experts have held up Poland as a success story among former Warsaw Pact countries that have joined NATO. The new government has also declared its intention to phase out conscription completely by 2010, as Poland continues its effort over many years to transform its army from a lumbering institution of the Communist era to a nimble modern force geared toward distant missions like Afghanistan and Iraq. But the war in Iraq was unpopular with the Polish public even before the invasion in 2003. The opposition Civic Platform party ran in parliamentary elections this fall in part on the promise to bring troops home. In his inaugural address last week, the new prime minister from that party, Donald Tusk, said Polish troops would be out of Iraq by the end of next year. But Mr. Tusk renewed the country’s commitment to keeping troops in Afghanistan. Public opinion is opposed to that mission as well, according to one recent survey here conducted for the newspaper Gazeta Polska. “Our soldiers’ blood being spilled is pointless,” Agnieszka Kwiatkowska, 32, said Monday as she waited for a train at the main station in Poznan. Wladyslaw Czysz, 80, a former soldier living in Poznan, said, “The ones who should be charged are those who arrested them.” He was referring to newspaper photographs here showing the arrests of the soldiers by officers wearing ski masks, images that inflamed public opinion. Many civilians here either say the soldiers are innocent, or at least give them the benefit of the doubt, saying that that the deaths were probably accidental. The military prosecutor’s office said that on the morning of the mortar attack, separate Polish and American patrols left a shared base. They were attacked with improvised explosive devices. Several hours later, another group of Polish soldiers was sent to reinforce the patrols that were waiting with their damaged vehicles. The reinforcements opened fire with their mortar, killing the civilians. Up to this point there has been no suggestion of American involvement in the civilian deaths. At first, the soldiers said they had been returning fire. But Lt. Col. Zbigniew Rzepa, on the prosecution team, said Monday, “We already know that this is not true,” although he did not explain why. The trial is unlikely to begin before February, and may start much later, Colonel Rzepa said. The timing of the attack, two days after the first Polish soldier was killed in Afghanistan, fueled speculation in the news media that the killings may have been an act of revenge, though such suggestions have died down. “Nobody thinks that this was an intentional act of vengeance by Polish soldiers,” said Jacek Relewicz, the lawyer for one of the privates in custody. Marek Sterlingow, a reporter for Gazeta Wyborcza, a leading daily newspaper, said, “I think that it is very unlikely that they did it on purpose.” Mr. Sterlingow was at the base the day after the attack and has written several articles about it. “It is most likely that this was an accident, maybe an accident caused by a not-very-good tactic,” he said. He added, “I think that the Polish military got into such a bad situation because of the instinct of covering up.” Despite the controversy, the new government says it is committed to the Afghanistan mission. “We have to contribute to the missions of NATO,” said Mr. Klich, the defense minister, “even in such an exotic place for Polish public opinion as Afghanistan.” http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071129564192.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_3794652_AKj OjkQAAMLQR072igsV3QqcVN0&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20071129aaindex_concat.html&cred=yyYX9Ig6Oy4jvjtk zviIEBHSHr7B4UzD.Nyrd44KQW13B_prrFyI0UYzggIELHfD#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Harrisburg (PA) Patriot-News November 29, 2007 Global Role Won't End, Military Chief Says By Matt Miller, Cumberland County Bureau CARLISLE -- The world is so unsettled and dangerous that the U.S. shouldn’t expect a huge “peace dividend” when the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan end, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told the Army War College’s class of 2008 on Wednesday. The nation will have to continue making a “significant investment” to maintain a military capable of meeting America’s wide-ranging and unpredictable global commitments, including the battle against terrorism, Navy Adm. Mike Mullen said. “I worry about taking the peace dividend as we move beyond Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Mullen, the principal military adviser to President Bush. “The U.S. is going to continue to be globally engaged. “When we come back from wars, we have a tendency to contract” the armed forces, he said. “I believe in this world that would be an incredibly dangerous thing to do.” Mullen, who became head of the Joint Chiefs last month, wouldn’t predict when the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan will end. But he insisted America has an obligation to provide perpetual care to service men and women injured physically and psychologically in those wars. “We need to take care of them and their families for the rest of their lives,” he said. “The least we can do as a country is to make sure they’re OK.” Most in his audience, composed largely of Army colonels and lieutenant colonels and officers of the other services, have been in harm’s way. “An incredibly large percentage of you have been in Iraq and Afghanistan,” the admiral noted. The War College’s 340-member class also includes civilian government employees and 43 foreign military officers, including two from Iraq and Afghanistan. Mullen addressed the students without referring to notes. His dark Class B uniform lacked medals. Only the four stars on each of his shoulders glistened in the auditorium lights. He told the sea of green, blue and khaki that the post-Iraq and post-Afghanistan world will be as unpredictable as this one. China’s rapid emergence as a major economic power could be a positive, provided it is peaceful, he said, while the implications of Russia’s resurgence as a world power remain to be seen. Iran, with its vows to develop nuclear weapons, is worrisome, Mullen said, but the solution might not be military. “I’m a big believer in dealing with [Iran] from a diplomatic standpoint, a financial standpoint,” he said. “The international community needs to come together and address that in every possible way.” Mullen said persistence and vigilance have resulted in victories, mostly quiet ones, in the war against terror since the Sept. 11 attacks. “One of the great successes in the last six years is that we haven’t been attacked again,” he said. “That wasn’t just luck.” The admiral’s stop in Carlisle was the latest he’s made to military bases to gauge attitudes and morale during what he termed an “incredibly challenging” time for recruiting and retention. Keeping battle-seasoned young officers and enlisted personnel in the ranks must be priority for all the services, Mullen said. Those soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen, especially those who have families, have told him they are under heavy pressure as they endure repeated deployments to combat zones, he said. Yet, Mullen said, “they’re dedicated to what they do. They know they’re making a difference.” http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20071129564191.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_3794652_AKj OjkQAAMLQR072igsV3QqcVN0&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20071129aaindex_concat.html&cred=yyYX9Ig6Oy4jvjtk zviIEBHSHr7B4UzD.Nyrd44KQW13B_prrFyI0UYzggIELHfD#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Carlisle (PA) Sentinel November 29, 2007 Chairman Of Joint Chiefs Addresses War College Class By Joseph Cress, Sentinel Reporter Strategic leaders of tomorrow need to reach out and support the ordinary soldier and his family as pressure mounts on a smaller U.S. military to counter the growing pace of global change. That was the message Wednesday from Adm. Mike Mullen speaking to the Army War College Class of 2008 as the newly appointed chairman of the joint chiefs of staff -- the principal military advisor to the President and top government officials. The Los Angeles native offered up comment on topics ranging from the war in Iraq to the upcoming change in administration to the challenge of retaining veteran servicemen. “You have my gratitude serving your country at this time,” Mullen told the students. “The mission is getting more complex and every service is being pressed to do more and not less.” Since taking charge Oct. 1, Mullen has toured the country gathering input on the concerns of enlisted personnel and young officers. He said it is part of his leadership style to go out and talk directly to people rather than draw conclusions from written reports. “They are proud of serving and feel they are maki |
