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The last troop movement out of Iraq, which included more than 100 vehicles and 500 Soldiers, began in darkness, as the convoy left Contingency Operating Base Adder, near the southern city of Nasiriya, heading toward the border. As dawn approached, the last trucks crossed the border into Kuwait at Khabari Crossing. Dec. 2011.

A Cayman Islands resident captured this Cayman Racer snake in the South Sound area, devouring a Green Iguana. Cayman Racer snakes are endemic to the Cayman Islands and aren't found anywhere else in the world. Adults have been known to reach the 4-5ft length. In fact, no Cayman snakes pose any threat to people, cats or dogs however these non-venomous snakes should be avoided by the average Green Iguana!

Jack Lew, who has been nominated as the next treasury secretary, oversaw up as many as a hundred Cayman Island investments when he worked at Citi Bank as chief operating officer of the alternative investment services unit, SEC disclosures reveal. It has previously been reported that Lew himself had been invested in a fund that was based in the Cayman Islands. "To meet your complex hedge fund, fund of hedge funds and private equity fund needs, Citi is your single provider with market-leading experience, global reachand state-of-the-art technology. Our unmatched worldwide presence, economies of scale and comprehensive portfolio of solutions...

In the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama called Cayman Island investments "the biggest tax scam on record." Now, in 2013, President Obama has nominated Jack Lew, who had $56,000 in Cayman Island investments, to be the next secretary of Treasury. Here's Obama making the claim in 2008:

There are myriad reasons for conservatives to oppose Jack Lew’s nomination for Treasury Secretary. The fact that Lew recently held a substantial, and entirely legal, investment based in the Cayman Islands is not one of them. But shouldn’t liberals be livid? Last year, the Obama campaign and its surrogates furiously accused Mitt Romney of “betting against America” through his financial portfolio, which included foreign holdings — including some in the Cayman Islands. This ad painting the Republican nominee as an unpatriotic hypocrite was memorably unsparing in its demagoguery:

Mitt Romney seems to have reflexively winced with embarrassment at the questions about his perfectly logical finance and tax decisions. Understandable. Of course, the subject of his wealth precedes not-so-veiled attacks coming from an unfriendly press corps and a vicious opponent who will use any means to paint him as a real-life Gordon Gekko. But he is missing a fantastic opportunity. "Yes, I have many offshore accounts. Yes, I take advantage of legal deductions and tax incentives in compliance with the tax code. I am a wealthy, successful man who didn't get that way by being a fool. Furthermore, one...

Get familiar with the names BCIP Associates III Cayman and Sankaty High Yield Asset Investors Ltd. If Romney is the Republican nominee they will become a household names. Why? Let me explain. BCIP Associates III Cayman and Sankaty High Yield Asset Investors Ltd are basically nothing more then P.O. boxes in Bermuda and the Grand Cayman Island. The number of words in the names of these companies is greater then the total sum of employees on the payroll. No secretaries, no janitors, no interns. Just a few lawyers working out of their own offices with a plaque on the...

Cayman is rich, and Belize is poor. Why? Both are small Caribbean countries with the same climate and roughly the same mixed racial heritage, and both were English-speaking British colonies. Belize (the former British Honduras) received its independence in 1981, while Cayman is still not fully independent but is self-governing at the local level, with its own currency, laws and regulations. Belize should be richer: It has a larger population than Cayman (345,000 as contrasted with Cayman’s 54,000). Belize has a much larger and more varied land area with many more natural resources, including gas and oil, and some rich...

Two years ago, former senator John Edwards of North Carolina, gearing up for his second run at the Democratic presidential nomination, gave a speech decrying the "two different economies in this country: one for wealthy insiders and then one for everybody else." Four months later, he began working for the kind of firm that to many Wall Street critics embodies the economy of wealthy insiders -- a hedge fund. Edwards became a consultant for Fortress Investment Group, a New York-based firm known mainly for its hedge funds, just as the funds were gaining prominence in the financial world ... run...

http://www.caymannetnews.com/cgi-script/csArticles/articles/000128/012864.htm Cayman's financial services offerings enhanced Tuesday, March 20, 2007 (Financial Services) The General Registry of the Cayman Islands Government earlier this month introduced an Arabic language facility to enable registration and other certificates to be issued bearing a company's name in both Arabic and English. The announcement of this latest development came in the form of a press release from the Portfolio of Finances & Economics. "This customization of our Registry service for a market of growing importance to us is an indication of our commitment to innovation and quality, and we look forward to expertly catering to Islamic...

Cayman Islands Braces for Tropical Storm October 16, 2005 12:51 PM EDT GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands - A tropical storm warning was in effect Sunday for the Cayman Islands and residents began preparing for the worst. The U.S. Gulf Coast could be affected later in the week, forecasters said. The system could become Tropical Storm Wilma, which would make it the 21st named storm of the season, tying the record for the most storms in an Atlantic season, the National Hurricane Center in Miami said. The only other time so many storms have formed since record-keeping began 154 years ago...

GEORGE TOWN, Cayman Islands -- An American Airlines Boeing 757 carrying nearly 200 people made an emergency landing in Grand Cayman Sunday after stopping in Miami, and two passengers suffered minor injuries, officials said. "The pilot declared an emergency after a problem with the de-icing equipment,'' airlines spokesman John Hotard said. ``As the plane was clearing 28,000 feet on its descent into Grand Cayman, the aircraft experienced moderate turbulence.''

<p>Grand Cayman -- Some of you reading this maybe thinking, "Ah Cayman, isn't that the place with all the illegal financial activity?"</p> <p>It is true Cayman is the world's largest offshore financial center, and the world's fifth-biggest financial center, even though it is in the middle of the Caribbean on a small, pleasant island with only 40,000 people.</p>

Tropical storm Claudette formed today in the eastern Caribbean. It is moving very rapidly and is expected to make landfall between the northern tip of Nicaragua and Houma, Louisiana, including western Cuba, the Cayman Islands, and Jamaica sometime within the next week or so. The official forecast has it becoming a hurricane on Thursday before moving over the Yucatan Peninsula. Previous tropical storm live threads, for Ana and Bill, were posted in the News/Activism forum, and did not garner significant attention because they got buried. Being stupid, I didn't notice that the "weather" topic is in this forum. Post news...