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U.S. Relief Supplies Airlifted To Iran
Rescuers, Surgeons Head to Quake Site
By Charles Lane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 28, 2003; Page A22

A U.S. military aircraft bearing the first 15 tons of a planned 75 tons of American earthquake relief supplies for Iran lifted off from an airfield in Kuwait yesterday, as the Bush administration pledged to work with Iranian and international officials to speed the distribution of aid.

In addition to the materiel, which includes blood, food and other humanitarian supplies, the Bush administration is dispatching surgeons and disaster relief experts from the State Department, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Agency for International Development, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

Also, two teams of search-and-rescue specialists from fire departments in Fairfax County and Los Angeles are en route to Iran, where they will look for any people who may still be alive under the rubble. The U.S. teams' equipment includes special cameras that can fit in tight crevices to search for survivors. The Pentagon has offered six military cargo planes to the relief effort.

A senior administration official said humanitarian supplies from the United States will be sent on a C-5 from Dover, Del., and a C-5 from March Joint Air Reserve Base in California. A C-17 will leave from Westover Joint Air Reserve Base in Massachusetts.

"The United States will continue to work with Iranian authorities and international relief organizations to help the people of Iran during this challenging time," McClellan said.

Mutual concern for victims of what may be the worst natural disaster in Iran's history has, for the moment, trumped the deep political differences between Washington and Tehran. But U.S. officials told the Associated Press yesterday that the U.S. relief effort does not imply any change in policy toward Iran, which the Bush administration has labeled a part of "the axis of evil" for its support of terrorism and alleged secret efforts to develop a nuclear weapons program.

"There is a humanitarian catastrophe in Iran, and our only mission is to alleviate the human suffering associated with yesterday's earthquake," State Department spokesman Lou Fintor said. "These efforts will not alter the tone or intensity of our dialogue with the Iranians on other matters of grave concern."

[the rest of this article is Washington COMPOST about how evil we are how terrible we are...so I canned it]