Free Republic

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistani forces are zeroing in on two major Taliban bases in South Waziristan region as their offensive pushes deeper into militant bastion on the Afghan border, the military said on Sunday. The army launched a major assault in South Waziristan on September 17 to seize control of the lawless land after a string of attacks by militants, including a stunning assault on the army headquarters that killed more than 150 people. The offensive is a major test for the Pakistani government and the military to stem the rising tide of Islamist militancy and is being closely followed...

BOGOTA – In a private, low-key ceremony, the U.S. ambassador and three Colombian ministers on Friday signed a pact giving American personnel expanded access to military bases in this drug-producing country, a deal that Venezuela's Hugo Chavez has called a threat to the region's security. Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez said the 10-year deal takes effect immediately and restricts U.S. military operations to Colombian territory — alluding to fears expressed by leftist leaders in the region that it would make Colombia a base for asserting U.S. power in South America. Details of the pact, which aims to boost drug and counterinsurgency...

WARSAW — The United States aims to establish missile bases in Poland, after having scrapped plans fiercely opposed by Russia to deploy a missile shield in the country, a Polish newspaper reported Friday. Citing Polish diplomatic sources who spoke on condition of anonymity, Gazeta Wyborcza said Washington aimed to set up a permanent short- and medium-range missile base as well as deploy mobile missile batteries. The plan is set to take shape within days, said Gazeta Wyborcza, a leading daily that is considered well informed on the issue. It said Andrzej Kremer, Poland's deputy foreign minister, was due to travel...

The reason for it to have such a strange look is because it was used later by Russian army to test the influence of Russian alternative to napalm inside of the brick houses. Due to very high temperature of napalm the bricks started melting just like ice melts in the spring forming the icicles, but those icicles are of red brick.

Rep. Alcee L. Hastings, D-Fla., has introduced to the House of Representatives a new bill, H.R. 645, calling for the secretary of homeland security to establish no fewer than six national emergency centers for corralling civilians on military installations. The proposed bill, which has received little mainstream media attention, appears designed to create the type of detention center that those concerned about use of the military in domestic affairs fear could be used as concentration camps for political dissidents, such as occurred in Nazi Germany. The bill also appears to expand the president's emergency power, much as the executive order...

Scientists working in secret got serious about cloning in the early 1960's. Abortions began to be performed wholesale at this time to provide fetal tissue for their cloning work. The young generation of Americans are asking, When will cloning of people take place. The answer is that it already has long ago. An article written by Andrew Kimbrell that was placed in many leading daily papers across the U.S. is quite revealing. He comes right up to almost telling people what has been going on.

President Bush urged Moscow to abandon two Soviet-era military bases in Georgia as he met on Wednesday with the newly elected leader of the strategically placed Caucasus state. Sitting with President Mikhail Saakashvili in the Oval Office, Bush told reporters he would help build good relations between Georgia and Russia. He said Russia should honor a promise to remove the bases, which it made during the 1999 Istanbul summit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. "The Istanbul commitment made it very clear that Russia would leave those bases," Bush said after a closed-door meeting with Saakashvili, whose...

WASHINGTON, June 5, 2008 – The United States is not seeking permanent military bases in Iraq as it negotiates legal and military agreements with the Iraqi government, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan C. Crocker said here today. Speaking at the State Department, Crocker called published reports that the United States is trying to set up permanent bases “flatly untrue.” “There clearly is going to be a need” for a U.S. and coalition military presence in Iraq beyond the end of the year, Crocker said. But the status of forces agreement, when adopted, “is not going to be forever, particularly as...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates denied on Thursday that the country is vying to establish permanent bases in Iraq. "I think it is pretty clear that such an agreement would not talk about force levels. It would not involve -- we have no interest in permanent bases," he told reporters. Gates made the remarks as President George W. Bush's administration pushes for negotiation on a long-term agreement with Iraq on the U.S. forces presence. However, State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters on Thursday that the plan would be just a "status of forces agreement"...

SCIENCE, we are repeatedly told, is the most reliable form of knowledge about the world because it is based on testable hypotheses. Religion, by contrast, is based on faith. The term “doubting Thomas” well illustrates the difference. In science, a healthy skepticism is a professional necessity, whereas in religion, having belief without evidence is regarded as a virtue. The problem with this neat separation into “non-overlapping magisteria,” as Stephen Jay Gould described science and religion, is that science has its own faith-based belief system. All science proceeds on the assumption that nature is ordered in a rational and intelligible way....

PAKTIKA PROVINCE, Afghanistan, Nov. 6, 2007 – U.S. Army engineers are building forward operating bases and roads in support of forces providing security to the people of Afghanistan. A soldier from Alpha Company, 864th Engineer Battalion, puts finishing touches on a B-Hut that will house Polish soldiers in the village of Kushamond in Afghanistan’s Paktika province. Photo by Capt. Ashley Dellavalle, USA  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Despite harsh conditions due to “moon-dust” -- very fine silt that permeates every crevice at Forward Operating Base Kushamond -- the soldiers of Company A, 864th Engineer Battalion, from Fort Lewis,...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 26, 2007 – New buildings constructed under the guidance of coalition forces are sparking prosperity for Iraqi citizens, a senior U.S. military engineer in Iraq said today. “It’s a concept of ownership,” Navy Capt. Joe Hedges told online journalists and “bloggers” during a conference call from Baghdad. “We’re using Iraqi funds to build Iraqi facilities.” Hedges is assistant chief of staff for the engineering directorate of Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq. His team is currently working to build military bases, barracks, airfields, schools and a hospital on 12 different sites in Iraq. “I’m excited,” Hedges said. “I think...

FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. - Army Spc. John Luckey and his wife, Kerry, already had five children and no plans for more when he came home from a year's duty in Iraq. But there was romance in the California air when the entire family went on a vacation to see the giant redwoods. Nine months later, Kerry Luckey gave birth to a daughter, EmLee Rae. Apparently many military couples at Fort Campbell celebrated like the Luckeys when about 20,000 soldiers with the 101st Airborne Division came home last fall, because the military hospital here is now seeing a baby boom. The...

Special trains and buses brought in protesters from across Italy Thousands of people have been arriving in the north-eastern Italian city of Vicenza for a march against a planned extension of the US army base there.Organisers say the majority of local people are opposed to US plans. They say Prime Minister Romano Prodi has ignored strong local objections. Thousands of extra police are on duty in Vicenza for what is planned as a peaceful march. There are fears that extremist fringe groups will try to cause violence. Vicenza's mayor fears the march will be infiltrated by left-wing extremists from...

HONOLULU - A Chinese military delegation will begin a five-day tour of U.S. military installations in Hawaii and California on Monday and meet with senior U.S. officers in the latest step to repair military ties between the two countries. About 30 midlevel military commanders in the People's Liberation Army, including division and brigade commanders, will visit U.S. Pacific Command headquarters in Hawaii, tour a guided missile destroyer in San Diego and observe a Marine training at Camp Pendleton, Calif. It is the third such visit by Chinese military officers since the countries agreed last October to increase military exchanges. U.S....

IRAQI President Jalal Talabani has called for a long-term US military presence in Iraq, saying his country will need two permanent US air bases to deter "foreign interference." He made the comments in an interview published today.

News blackout imposed on American arms flights refuelling at British bases By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent (Filed: 02/08/2006) The Government refused last night to give details of the flights entering Britain containing American arms destined for Israel. There was also a suggestion that all arms flights via Prestwick airport, near Glasgow, were suspended following pressure from Scottish Labour MPs afraid of the political impact in their constituencies. An Atlas Air Boeing 747 cargo jet at Prestwick Airport Although Government officials have admitted that two flights, carrying GBU28 bunker-busting bombs, arrived at Prestwick the weekend before last and several others came...

An Iraq Army Sgt. Maj. (left) yells out final instructions to the troops of 4th Battalion, 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, prior to pass and review July 13. The 4/1-4 Iraqi Army conducted a turn-over of authority of Forwarding Operating Base O'Ryan and surrounding area south of Balad, Iraq, from the U.S. Army's 1-8 Combined Arms Battalion, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division. (Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Jeremy L. Wood) BAGHDAD – Because of the increasing abilities of Iraqi security forces, Coalition forces have been able to transfer to Iraqi control dozens of forward...

(AP) Dozens of people protested the arrival of U.S. and NATO military equipment on Ukraine's Crimean peninsula, accusing the military alliance of interfering in the ex-Soviet republic's internal affairs, a navy official said Monday. The Sunday night protest was sparked by the arrival at the port of Feodosiya of the USS Advantage, which was to take part in an NATO-sponsored exercises this summer, Ukrainian naval spokesman Volodymyr Bova said, speaking by telephone from the Black Sea port of Sevastopol. Russia's NTV television showed several dozen local residents trying to prevent cargo trucks from unloading equipment from a ship, while others...

WASHINGTON, April 20, 2006 – The NBA and Toyota announced April 18 the launch of a 2006 Finals Trophy Tour to five military bases in the heartland of the U.S. The 2006 Finals Trophy Tour will visit Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., May 13; Fort Leavenworth, Kan., May 19; Fort Bliss, Texas, June 1; Fort Riley, Kan., June 24; and Fort Carson, Colo., July 3, according to an NBA news release. The tour was developed by Toyota and the NBA, in conjunction with the United Service Organizations, to thank the U.S. armed forces for their dedication and service. The customized...

BALAD, Iraq (Army News Service, March 6, 2006) – A 4th Infantry Division brigade announced this weekend that it will turn over responsibility for Forward Operating Base O’Ryan, near Balad, Iraq, to the Iraqi Army March 10. This transition of responsibility is one of many ceremonies to come, officials said, as more Iraqi Army units prepare to take responsibility for the security of their country. Last week, the 10th Mountain Division transferred Forward Operating Base Constitution to the Iraqi Army. Along with the base, the Iraqi troops took over operations of western Baghdad and eastern Abu Ghraib. This transfer of...

Bulgaria’s Defense Minister Veselin Bliznakov said March 1 Sofia was now negotiating with the United States over the establishment of a third military base in the country. The talks concerned “the possible inclusion” of the Graf Ignatievo airport, near Plovdiv in southern Bulgaria, to the list of U.S. facilities. ”This possibility emerged in the last stage of negotiations,” Bliznakov told reporters in Sofia Wednesday but said he could not speculate about the outcome of the talks. The Graf Ignatievo airbase has been modernized to meet NATO standards.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 5, 2006 – Defense Department installations have begun implementing new cell phone restrictions for drivers on military bases. The new regulation, published in the Federal Register in April 2005, states that anyone driving a motor vehicle on a DoD installation cannot use a cell phone unless the vehicle is safely parked or the driver is using a hands-free device. Many installations already have implemented the new restrictions, and the rest will implement the rules on their own schedule, said John Seibert, assistant for safety, health and fire protection for DoD. There is no deadline for installations to implement...

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq, Dec. 23, 2005 – The United States has not discussed basing American troops in Iraq, and would do so only following negotiations with the new Iraqi government, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said here today. "At the moment, there are no plans for long-term bases in the country," Rumsfeld told a Marine during a question and answer session here today. The secretary said the subject has not been discussed because until the most recent election, there was no one to speak with. He said the United States has been working with successive transitional governments in Iraq about...

Romania and the United States have signed an agreement that would establish the first U.S. military bases in an Eastern European country from the former Soviet bloc. The United States already has the rights to a base in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan, and is in the process of vacating one in neighboring Uzbekistan. With the United States already possessing a military presence in much of the world, what does it want with even more foreign bases? Washington, 7 December 2005 (RFE/RL) -- Romanian President Traian Basescu seemed as pleased to be hosting the bases as the Americans are...

RBC, 07.12.2005, Moscow 14:18:50.Russia sees no threat in the US-Romanian agreement concerning deployment of four military bases in Romania so far, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told journalists today. He added that the defense ministry insiders had been aware that the decision was upcoming. However, they know nothing about the size of the bases. Ivanov said that conclusions would only be made after Russia had learned about the size of the bases.

Rice signs US-Romania bases deal The deal marks a major shift in US strategy in Europe US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has signed a deal allowing the US to use military bases in Romania. It is the first such deal to be signed with a former communist country in eastern Europe. Ms Rice arrived in Romania from Germany, on the second leg of a European tour overshadowed by a controversy about CIA operations. She stressed that the US does not carry out or condone torture, but did not comment on alleged secret CIA prisons. She has defended the CIA...

RALEIGH, N.C. - Scores of illegal immigrants working as cooks, laborers, janitors, even foreign-language instructors have been seized at military bases around the country in the past year, raising concerns in some quarters about security and troop safety. The immigrants did not work directly for the military but for private contractors, as part of a large-scale effort by the Pentagon to outsource many routine rear-echelon jobs and free up the troops to concentrate on waging war. Some worry that this fast-growing practice could make U.S. military installations more vulnerable to security breaches. "We can't let down our guard," said Rep....

WASHINGTON, Sept. 29, 2005 – The National Endowment for the Arts launched its "Great American Voices Military Base Tour: Unforgettable Melodies from Opera and Broadway" during a special performance Sept. 28 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery here. The kick-off event featured a performance by soprano Harolyn Blackwell, and a preview performance by the Washington National Opera's "Domingo-Cafritz Young Artists Program," which will visit the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and Picatinny Arsenal in Wharton, N.J., as part of the tour. The Great American Voices Military Base Tour is presented in coordination with the Defense Department...

Iran has identified seven US bases in the region to attack in case there is the smallest sign of American mobilisation to its borders, and the military assets have been broadly identified to be in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Qatar, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, and Djibouti. Official sources said Iran has also threatened US warships and specific military assets in the Persian Gulf in case it moved for a naval blockade, and these decisions were taken by the Iranian national security council after president Mohammad Ahmadinejad’s combative speech in the UN General Assembly, where he said that in the face of U.S....

ECONOMIC QUESTIONS SURROUND RUSSIAN BASE WITHDRAWAL IN GEORGIA Theresa Freese 8/22/05 As Russia completes the first stage of its base withdrawal from Georgia, residents of Ajara are concerned about the economic implications of the departure of Russian troops. The parameters for Russia’s withdrawal from its last two remaining military bases in Georgia were set by a joint declaration singed in late May. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. While eager to see the Russian military leave, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has acknowledged that the withdrawal could exacerbate "social issues." Government officials recognize that Russia’s withdrawal will have a broad...

Once the pride of the Soviet navy, Russia's Black Sea Fleet can still put on an impressive display. But it could soon be fighting for its own survival, the BBC's Helen Fawkes reports from Sevastopol, in Crimea. Thousands of Ukrainians lined the harbour at Sevastopol to watch the powerful show of strength in a demonstration battle for the public by the fleet, which is based in Crimea. A fighter jet swooped low over the southern tip of Ukraine to attack a giant warship from the Russian navy. The vessel returned gunfire and green torpedoes cut through the water towards advancing...

Karshi-Khanabad air base in south-eastern Uzbekistan, which the US has been given six months to leave, has played a key role in supporting US operations in Afghanistan since 2001. Its location in a secure area, a short journey from the border with Afghanistan, makes it an ideal logistical centre outside the field of military operations. Known by US troops as K2, it is used as a landing base for humanitarian goods, which are then taken by road into often inaccessible areas of northern Afghanistan. Its long runway also makes it useful for refuelling large military aircraft. Flight curbs Uzbekistan's authoritarian...

BISHKEK (Reuters) - Kyrgyzstan assured the United States on Tuesday that it could keep its base in the former Soviet Central Asian state to support American military operations in Afghanistan. But remarks by the Kyrgyz leadership, under pressure on the issue from old ally Russia, fell short of providing the United States with an open-ended right to stay for as long as it wished. "I wouldn't pack your bags," visiting Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told U.S. troops at the base at Manas international airport, 30 km (17 miles) east of the capital Bishkek, in an upbeat comment after talks with...

U.S. and Romanian officials are drawing closer to a deal that could give the U.S. military wide access to as many as five bases here, Romania’s defense minister said during a visit Sunday to an army training base. An arrangement could be reached as soon as September, Defense Minister Teodor Atanasiu said in an interview with Stars and Stripes. Atanasiu said he offered the United States five bases in a proposal that the Romanian government supports. He said U.S. officials are considering three of them, including Babadag, where 1,500 U.S. and Romanian soldiers are training this month. Also being discussed...

For the past several years, the United States has stationed forces in the central Asian countries of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Marshall Goldman, a long time-expert on Russia and the former Soviet Union, says the United States planned to send troops there following the September 11th, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. "After September 11th and the United States' decision to go after the Taleban and Osama bin Laden, who was then in Afghanistan, the United States was looking for places to establish air bases, so that it could supply what became the invasion force in Afghanistan," said Mr....

WASHINGTON – The base-closing commission voted Tuesday to add two military facilities, in California and Maine, to the list of hundreds of domestic bases that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has proposed closing and shrinking. The Navy Broadway Complex in San Diego and the Naval Air Station in Brunswick, Maine, were added to the list of facilities to be closed. The commission also was voting on whether to add bases in nine other states and Washington, D.C. In a reprieve for California, the commission voted against putting the Marine Corps Recruit Depot on the closure list even though several commissioners...

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is a relatively new regional entity. It started in 1996, and was first known as the Shanghai Five, bringing together Russia, China and three central Asian states: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Those three countries share borders with either Russia or China - or both. Martha Brill Olcott Martha Brill Olcott is central Asian expert with the Washington D.C.-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She says, originally, the organization was formed to try to resolve disputed border issues between member nations. "Once it got through that first threshold, the member states decided that they saw a need...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday urged a federal panel to shield nearly a dozen state military installations slated for closure, saying "the bases that are here should stay here." But despite the potential loss of about 2,000 jobs, the Republican governor acknowledged that the state escaped largely unscathed in the latest round of base closings proposed in May by the Defense Department. The government's list is "good news for California and the country," Schwarzenegger told members of the Base Closure and Realignment Commission, which is reviewing the proposed changes. "It shows that Washington understands what we...

During a press conference following the meetings, Ms. Rice rejected a call by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a regional security grouping led by China and Russia, for the United States to set a deadline for leaving Central Asian states, including Afghanistan. "It is our understanding that the people of Afghanistan want and need the help of U.S. armed forces," she said.

An alliance of former Soviet states and China has urged the US-led coalition in Afghanistan to set a timetable for withdrawing troops from member states. The Shanghai Co-operation Organisation said it continued to support the anti-terror coalition in Afghanistan, which had stabilised the situation. But in a joint statement the group said the active military phase of the Afghan operation was nearing completion. Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan host US bases used to back troops in Afghanistan. About 18,000 coalition forces are in Afghanistan tracking al-Qaeda and Taleban militants. SHANGHAI CO-OPERATION ORGANISATION China Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Russia Tajikistan Uzbekistan At talks in Kazakhstan,...

Saturday, May 14, 2005 Maine takes big hit By BART JANSEN, Washington Correspondent Copyright © 2005 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. E-mail this story to a friend Staff photo by Shawn Patrick Ouellette Maine Sen. Susan Collins rips into the base-closure recommendations at a Friday press conference in Brunswick. With her, from left, are U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud, Gov. John Baldacci, U.S. Rep. Tom Allen and U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe. With Maine bearing the brunt of a plan to restructure the nation's military, lawmakers and community leaders vowed Friday to fight plans to close Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery and halve...

Koreans protest possible job cuts at U.S. bases By T.D. Flack and Seth Robson, Stars and Stripes Pacific edition, Saturday, May 14, 2005 T.D. Flack / S&S South Koreans riot police watch South Koreans who work on U.S. military bases in the Seoul area stage a protest Thursday near Yongsan Garrison. Seth Robson / S&S South Korean base workers protest near Uijongbu train station on Thursday. T.D. Flack / S&S South Koreans who work on U.S. military bases gather near Yongsan Garrison to protest U.S. Forces Korea's announcement that it might cut up to 1,000 jobs. T.D. Flack / S&S...

A panel chartered by Congress to advise on redeployments of U.S. forces abroad is questioning the wisdom of reducing the number of troops on Japan's Okinawa island at a time of strategic uncertainties in the region. In a report released Monday, the Overseas Basing Commission recommended that U.S. Marines at one Okinawan base, the Futenma Marine Corps Air Station, should be moved -- either to another U.S. base on the island, or to one located on Honshu, Japan's main island. Apart from Futenma, however, all other Marine Corps assets on Okinawa should remain there. "Okinawa is the strategic linchpin to...

One of the Pentagon's best-kept secrets will be let out of the bag this week, and thousands of Southern Arizonans are holding their breath to see what happens. The Defense Department is expected to announce by Friday which military bases it plans to shut down in a major round of base closings that could eliminate dozens of the country's 425 defense installations. Arizona's major installations, including Tucson's Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and Sierra Vista's Fort Huachuca, are expected to dodge the base-closing bullet. They could even grow, absorbing troops and missions from facilities that close in the Base Realignment and...

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey said Wednesday it would extend for another year an agreement allowing the United States to use its Incirlik airbase for planes supplying U.S. and allied forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. But the U.S. embassy in Ankara said it was still awaiting notification and said it remained unclear whether Turkey would grant its request for a widening of the terms of the existing deal, including blanket clearance for all flights. The current deal expires in June and U.S. diplomats have expressed frustration that Turkey has so far not replied to its request, lodged some 10 months ago,...

WASHINGTON - A longtime Republican foe of this year's planned closing of military bases is trying to derail the process by blocking Senate confirmation of the head of the commission that helps pick which facilities will be shuttered, congressional aides and lobbyists said Thursday. Most GOP leaders support closing bases and this latest round likely will go forward. But Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., a staunch defender of military facilities in his state, has pledged to do whatever it takes to block the closures. Two weeks ago, the Senate Armed Services Committee approved President Bush's nomination of Anthony Principi, Bush's former...

Tuesday is a big day in the BRAC process. Fort Huachuca, like every other military base in the United States, is now in the stretch run. The naming of the commission member is a step toward making the BRAC process a reality. The commission members take the list that will be issued by the Department of Defense on May 16 and will review the military's decisions. What do we hope for from the BRAC commission? First, we hope its members are fair in their review of what bases should be reduced or closed. By this, we hope that the commission...

WASHINGTON - Safe for a decade, military bases in the United States face an uncertain future. The Pentagon (news - web sites) plans to shut down or scale back some of the 425 facilities, the first such effort to save money in 10 years. The downsizing is part of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's long-term transformation of the Cold War-era military. The Pentagon chief argues that closing or consolidating stateside facilities could save $7 billion annually and that the money would be better spent improving fighting capabilities amid threats from terrorists. "The department continues to maintain more military bases and...

This is where F-16 fighter pilots train for war. The sleek, pointy-nosed "Fighting Falcons" take off and land 150 times a day. They zoom off to the Barry M. Goldwater Range to practice air-to-air combat and drop real bombs on simulated targets. The Sonoran Desert seems like an ideal, out-of-the-way spot for such noisy and dangerous war exercises. And it was - 60 years ago. "We were out in the boonies," says Col. Robin Rand, Luke's commander. "For many years, we didn't have to worry about community relations." Now, they do. The boonies are fast disappearing, and combat training and...