Operation Phantom Fury--Day 121 - Now Operation River Blitz--Day 16

Various Media Outlets | 3/8/05

[TexKat]

Demonstrators shout anti America slogans as they wave Lebanese flags and hold portraits of Syrian President Bashar Assad, right, Lebanese president Emile Lahoud and slain former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in a central Beirut square, Lebanon, Tuesday March 8, 2005. Tens of thousands of pro-Syrian protesters gathered, answering a nationwide call by the militant Shiite Muslim Hezbollah group to demonstrate against foreign intervention and counter weeks of massive anti-Syrian rallies. (AP Photo/str)

Thousands Answer Hezbollah Call in Beirut

By TANALEE SMITH, Associated Press Writer

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Nearly 500,000 pro-Syrian protesters waved flags and chanted anti-American slogans in a central Beirut square Tuesday, answering a nationwide call by the militant Shiite Muslim Hezbollah group for a demonstration to counter weeks of massive rallies demanding Syrian forces leave Lebanon.

Organizers handed out Lebanese flags and directed the men and women to separate sections of Riad Solh Square. Loudspeakers blared militant songs urging resistance to foreign interference. Demonstrators held up pictures of Syrian President Bashar Assad and signs saying, "Syria & Lebanon brothers forever."

Other placards read: "America is the source of terrorism"; "All our disasters are from America"; "No to American-Zionist intervention; Yes to Lebanese-Syrian brotherhood."

Black-clad Hezbollah guards handled security, lining the perimeter of the square and taking position on rooftops. Trained dogs sniffed for bombs.

Large cranes hoisted two giant red-and-white flags bearing Lebanon's cedar tree. On one, the words, "Thank you Syria," were written in English; on the other, "No to foreign interference."

Participants stressed that the foreign influence they referred to was from the United States, France and other countries, not Syria, which they welcomed.

"Syria should not leave. We are one hand and one people," said 16-year-old Esraa Awarki, who traveled by bus from Sharkiya in southern Lebanon. "Why do they want us to split now?"

The demonstration was in front of U.N. offices. Hezbollah opposes the U.N. resolution drafted by the United States and France last year calling for Syria to withdraw its 14,000 troops from Lebanon.

In Washington, President Bush demanded again that Syria pull its troops out of Lebanon and allow free elections. "All Syrian military forces and intelligence personnel must withdraw before the Lebanese elections for these elections to be free and fair," he said Tuesday.

The demonstration came a day after Syrian and Lebanese leaders announced that Syrian forces would transfer to eastern Lebanon before the nations discuss a full withdrawal.

On Tuesday, two senior Lebanese officials said a major redeployment of the Syrian army from central and northern Lebanon would begin late in the day and be completed by March 23.

Lebanese Defense Minister Abdul-Rahim Murad told The Associated Press that "all the force in the (central) mountains and north will move to the Bekaa (Valley) as of 10 p.m." He said that included the main Syrian intelligence offices in Beirut.

Deputy Prime Minister Issam Fares, speaking to LBC television, said the full withdrawal to the eastern valley will be complete before the end of March, "or in other words before the (Arab) summit, which falls March 23."

Most of the Syrian troops were still in position Tuesday, with AP reporters in the mountains overlooking Beirut seeing only scattered movement of military trucks heading toward the Bekaa Valley.

A truck carrying 11 soldiers and supplies headed east at midmorning but most of the military traffic was moving in the other direction — empty trucks and buses traveling west apparently to collect soldiers and equipment.

Fares said he believes the next phase, the full withdrawal from Lebanon, will be "speedy."

"The army's movements are unannounced. They are secrets. But in my view it will be fast," he said, without giving a date.

Riad Solh Square in Beirut is just a few blocks from another downtown square where opposition protesters have been rallying for days, demanding that Syria withdraw its troops.

Tuesday's rally was far bigger than the more than 70,000 anti-Syrian protesters who filled nearby Martyrs' Square on Monday. That was the biggest rally yet of anti-Syrian furor, as demonstrators waved Lebanon's cedar-tree flag and thundered, "Syria out!"

There were no independent estimates of Tuesday's crowd, but at least 500,000 people crowded Riad Solh Square and nearby streets. The Lebanese army blocked the road between the two squares with an armored carrier.

"I ask our partners in the country or those looking at us from abroad: Are all these hundreds of thousands of people puppets? Is all this crowd agents for the Syrians and intelligence agencies?" Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said to cheers from the crowd.

At least one opposition leader said the pro-Syrian government pressured people to turn out Tuesday and some reports said Syria bused in people from across the border.

Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim group, has been mobilizing its followers from across the country for the protest, also meant to denounce the U.N. resolution that also called for dismantling militias — a point Hezbollah sees as aimed at its well-armed military wing.

Hezbollah is widely admired both within Lebanon and across the Arab world for driving Israeli forces out of the country's south. It also has the organizational capability and party discipline to mobilize massive street protests, drawing its strength from the Shiite Muslim community, Lebanon's largest religious sect with 1.2 million people.

In the outlying heavily Shiite regions of the Bekaa and the south, loudspeakers had urged followers to travel to Beirut for the protest.

Opposition leaders, who have been courting Hezbollah's support to oust Syrian troops, accused Lebanese intelligence agents of exercising pressure on municipalities, public schools and institutions to drive up the number of demonstrators.

Hezbollah officials denied the charges, saying it is part of a campaign to make the demonstration seem "imposed and involuntary."

Hezbollah, funded by Iran and backed in part by Syria, has emerged as a key player in the latest political instability, capable of tilting the balance either in favor of the government or the opposition.

Cabinet Minister Talal Erslan drew cheers Tuesday when he said the crowd came from all over Lebanon "to affirm our gratitude to Syrian president Bashar Assad."

"We have come here to affirm Lebanon's independence, sovereignty and unity ... and say no to the flagrant foreign interference in our affairs," he said.

At one point, the crowd observed a moment of silence for former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, whose assassination in a Feb. 14 bombing triggered the weeks of anti-Syrian demonstrations. Many Lebanese accuse Syria and Lebanon's government of responsibility for Hariri's death; both deny any involvement.

Faced with incessant international pressure and raging Lebanese opposition, Assad on Saturday announced his troops would withdraw after nearly three decades in Lebanon. On Monday, he met with President Emile Lahoud in Damascus and jointly announced a plan.

But the plan set no deadline for the complete withdrawal of Syrian troops and intelligence agents from Lebanon, and Washington rejected the pullback as insufficient. The plan also was unlikely to satisfy the Lebanese opposition and the rest of the international community.

Syria has had troops here since 1976, when they were sent as peacekeepers during Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war. When the war ended, the troops remained and Syria has dominated Lebanon's politics ever since.

[anonymoussierra]

"Before history is written in books, it is written in courage: the courage of honorable soldiers, the courage of oppressed peoples, the courage of free nations in difficult tasks. Our generation is fortunate to live in a time of courage, and we are proud to serve in freedom's cause. May God bless you all."

This is what I do feel America good friend!!!!BE STRONG!!Thank you America Thank you all!!!

[TexKat]

A general view of hundreds of thousands of protesters taking part in a demonstration organized by pro-Damascus movements led by the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah group in downtown Beirut.(AFP/Anwar Amro)

Hassan Nasrallah (C), the secertary general of the Lebanese Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah, is flanked by his bodyguards as he addresses the crowd during a demonstration organized by pro-Damascus groups in downtown Beirut.(AFP/Ramzi Haidar)

Lebanese protesters take part in a demonstration organized by pro-Damascus movements led by Lebanon's Shiite Muslim Hezbollah group in central Beirut.(AFP/Patrick Baz)

A banner against the United States, France and UN Security Council resolution 1559 which calls for Syria to remove its troops from Lebanon is seen during a pro-Damascus demonstration led by the Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah in Beirut.(AFP/Ramzi Haidar)

Syrian soldiers ride on the back a truck, packed with personal belongings, in the Dahr al-Baydar area in the mountains east of Beirut as Syrian troops dismantled military posts in Lebanon ahead of a pullback.(AFP/Ramzi Haidar)

Lebanese police officer sits on a top roof watches the crowd of pro-Syrian protesters gather near the U.N building during a pro-Syrian demonstration in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday March 8, 2005. The protest, organized by the Shiite Muslim militant Hezbollah, is meant to counter the almost daily anti-Syrian protests staged by the Lebanese opposition that had drawn tens of thousands. Around half a million pro-Syrian protesters gathered in a central Beirut square Tuesday, chanting anti-American slogans and wildly waving Lebanon's flag in answer to a nationwide call by the militant Shiite Muslim Hezbollah group to demonstrate against foreign intervention and counter weeks of massive anti-Syrian rallies.(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

[Gucho]

"Before history is written in books, it is written in courage: the courage of honorable soldiers, the courage of oppressed peoples, the courage of free nations in difficult tasks. Our generation is fortunate to live in a time of courage, and we are proud to serve in freedom's cause. May God bless you all."


Bump - Thank you.

[TexKat]

Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov has been killed by Russian troops fighting to quell a long rebellion in the mainly Muslim Caucasus region, the Russian army announced March 8, 2005. Maskhadovon salutes on the day of his presidential inauguration in Grozny, in this file photo from February 12, 1997 (Grigory Dukor/Reuters)

Chechen Leader Maskhadov Killed, Boost for Putin

By Richard Balmforth

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov was killed Tuesday by Russian security forces, authorities said, giving a boost to President Vladimir Putin's hard-line campaign to crush the separatist rebellion in Chechnya.

The 53-year-old Maskhadov, who had battled Russian troops in his North Caucasus homeland for more than a decade, was killed in a village just north of the regional capital Grozny, security chiefs said.

Russian television showed the gray-haired Maskhadov lying, bare-chested, on his back in a pool of blood, with his arms spread out on either side. There was what appeared to be a bullet mark in his left cheek.

Chechen rebels acknowledged his death was a great blow but would not halt the separatist cause. Maskhadov's envoy Akhmed Zakayev told Reuters in London the rebels would name a successor within days, but he gave no hint as to who this would be.

"A special operation was carried out by us in the village of Tolstoy-Yurt as a result of which the international terrorist and leader of the rebel group Aslan Maskhadov was killed," FSB Security Service chief Nikolai Patrushev told Putin.

Tolstoy-Yurt is 20 km (12 miles) north of Grozny.

The armed campaign led by Maskhadov brought bombings to the very heart of Russia. But many commentators viewed him as a moderate leader and a possible negotiator with the Kremlin though this view was rejected by Moscow.

The phlegmatic Putin, shown on television with Patrushev, appeared to take news of Maskhadov's death calmly, telling his security chief to double-check the identity of the body.

But the demise of Maskhadov, who had a $10 million bounty on his head after being linked by Russian forces to a string of deadly rebel attacks, was welcome news for the Kremlin chief who has suffered many setbacks in pursuing a tough line in Chechnya.

Ten months ago the Kremlin-backed president of the rebel region, Akhmad Kadyrov, was assassinated in a bomb attack and a low-level war continues to take Russian and Chechen lives daily.

Putin said once Maskhadov's death was confirmed FSB troops involved in the operation should receive a state award.

Authorities blamed Maskhadov for operations including an attack on a Moscow theater, a bombing near the Kremlin and a massacre last year at a school in the south Russian town of Beslan. At least 326 hostages -- half of them children -- died at the school in Beslan.

He himself however denied links to many of the high-profile Chechen operations, blaming Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev.

Maskhadov was elected president of Chechnya during a three-year period in the late 1990s when the region enjoyed de facto independence.

HUNT FOR BASAYEV

With the death of Maskhadov, Russian forces will be eager now to capture or kill Basayev, who claimed responsibility for Beslan and is regarded as Russia's Public Enemy No. 1.

Army spokesman Ilya Shabalkin told Russian news agencies that Maskhadov had been hiding in a reinforced cellar when he was killed.

Moscow has also linked Maskhadov and Basayev to groups that conducted attacks such as the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Maskhadov repeatedly called for talks with Moscow on Chechen demands for independence, but the Kremlin refused to negotiate.

Last month he ordered a three-week cease-fire by his men in what he said was a gesture to show his desire for peace. Observers said the fact the truce held showed he was in command of his forces.

Russian leaders, fearing a breakaway by Chechnya could trigger secession moves by other regions in the sprawling federation, have fought two wars in Chechnya.

Tens of thousands were killed on both sides in the first conflict from 1994-96, when Maskhadov was commander-in-chief of rebel forces. Putin sent troops back into the territory in late 1999 to cement his image as a strong leader ahead of his election as president in 2000.

[TexKat]

Moroccan Mounir el Motassadeq, who is accused of helping to plot the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, waits for the start of his retrial at a court in Hamburg, northern Germany, on Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2004. A U.S. investigator told the retrial of El Motassadeq on Tuesday, March 8, 2005 that Osama bin Laden personally approved the plot against the United States two years before the attacks. (AP Photo/Christof Stache, Pool)

Defense Wants Bush to Testify at German 9/11 Trial

HAMBURG, Germany (Reuters) - Lawyers for a Moroccan man accused in Germany of aiding and abetting the Sept. 11 attacks called Tuesday for President Bush to be summoned as a witness.

Lawyer Udo Jacob, defending accused Moroccan Mounir El Motassadeq, said Bush should be called to testify about accusations he granted the CIA powers to send terrorism suspects to foreign countries for interrogation.

The United States has already turned down a request for former CIA chief George Tenet to testify at Motassadeq's trial, and there is no prospect of Bush appearing in court.

But Jacob raised the issue to draw attention to the circumstances in which two al Qaeda leaders, whose evidence is central to the case, were captured and interrogated by the United States.

Washington has declined to allow the Hamburg court to question the two men, Ramzi bin al-Shaibah and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, but has made available summaries of information they revealed under questioning at unknown locations.

The defense alleges both key witnesses were probably tortured and the case against Motassadeq should therefore be dropped. "There is concern about torture during the questioning," Jacob said.

RETRIAL

Dietrich Snell, senior counsel with the U.S. commission that investigated the hijacked plane attacks in which nearly 3,000 people died on Sept. 11, 2001, said it had not been able to meet Mohammed or bin al-Shaibah directly.

He told the court the commission had submitted questions to be put to the men, but had no control over whether and how the questions were asked.

Snell also cast doubt on the reliability of bin al-Shaibah's comments which would seem to exonerate Motassadeq.

"There were definitely attempts by bin al-Shaibah to exonerate people, including Motassadeq," he said, adding the commission did not consider these comments credible.

Motassadeq was one of a circle of Arab students living in Hamburg, where he knew bin al-Shaibah and others including Mohamed Atta, the man who crashed the first plane into the World Trade Center.

Mohammed told interrogators he had met Motassadeq in Karachi, Pakistan, when the Moroccan was on his way to an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan.

Motassadeq attracted worldwide attention in February 2003 when he became the first person anywhere to be convicted as an accessory in the Sept. 11 attacks. He was sentenced to 15 years in jail.

But he appealed and won a retrial last year after a higher court ruled that potentially important evidence from al Qaeda captives had not been made available by the United States.

[Gucho]

Law lets terrorism suspects buy guns

Tuesday, March 8, 2005:

Being on federal watch list doesn't disqualify buyers.

By ERIC LICHTBLAU - THE NEW YORK TIMES

WASHINGTON -- Dozens of terrorist suspects on federal watch lists were allowed to buy firearms legally in the United States last year, according to a congressional investigation that points up major vulnerabilities in federal gun laws.

People suspected of being members of terrorist groups are not automatically barred from legally buying a gun, and the new investigation, conducted by congressional officials at the Government Accountability Office, indicated that people with clear links to terrorist groups had taken advantage of this gap on a regular basis.

Since Sept. 11, 2001, law enforcement officials and gun control groups have voiced increasing concern about the prospect of having a terrorist walk into a gun shop, legally buying an assault rifle or other type of weapon and using it in an attack.

The GAO study offers the first full-scale examination of the possible dangers posed by gaps in the law, congressional officials said, and it concludes that the FBI could do a better job of matching gun background checks against lists of suspected terrorists.

At least 44 times between February and June of 2004, people regarded by the FBI as known or suspected members of terrorist groups sought permission to buy or carry guns, the GAO found.

In all but nine cases, the FBI or state authorities who handled the requests allowed the gun applications to proceed because a check of the would-be buyer found no automatic disqualification, such as being a felon, an illegal immigrant or a person deemed "mentally defective," the report found.

In the four months after the formal study ended, authorities received an additional 14 gun applications from terror suspects, and all but two of those were cleared to proceed, the investigation found. In all, officials approved 47 of 58 gun applications from terror suspects over a nine-month period last year, the GAO found.

The gun buyers came up as positive matches on a classified internal FBI watch list that includes thousands of high-risk terrorist suspects, many of them being monitored, trailed or sought for questioning as part of continuing terrorism investigations, officials said.

GAO investigators were not given access to the identities or histories of the gun buyers because of the sensitivity of those terrorism investigations.

The report is to be released today, and an advance copy was provided to The New York Times.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., who requested the GAO study, plans to introduce legislation to address the problem in part by requiring federal officials to keep records of gun purchases by terror suspects for a minimum of 10 years.

Such records must now be destroyed within 24 hours as a result of a change ordered by Congress last year, but Lautenberg maintains that the new policy has hindered terrorism investigations by eliminating the paper trail on gun purchases.

"Destroying these records in 24 hours is senseless and will only help terrorists cover their tracks," Lautenberg said. "It's an absurd policy."

Lautenberg blamed the problem on what he called the Bush administration's "twisted allegiances" to the National Rifle Association.

The NRA and gun rights supporters in Congress have fought -- successfully, for the most part -- to limit the use of the FBI's national gun-purchasing database in West Virginia as a tool for law enforcement investigators, saying the database would amount to an illegal registry of gun owners nationwide.

The legal debate over how gun records are used became particularly contentious months after the Sept. 11 attacks, when it was disclosed that the Justice Department and Attorney General John Ashcroft, a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, had blocked the FBI from using the gun-purchasing records to match against about 1,200 suspects who were detained as part of the investigation.

Ashcroft maintained that using the gun records in a criminal investigation would have violated the congressional law that created the system for instant background gun checks, but Justice Department lawyers who reviewed the issue said they saw no such prohibition.

In response to the GAO report, Lautenberg also plans to ask Alberto Gonzales, Ashcroft's successor, to assess whether people on the FBI's terror watch list should be automatically banned from buying guns. Such a policy would require a change in federal law, since being a member of a terrorist group is not a banned category.

[TexKat]

General: U.S. had no sign of notice from Italians

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The top U.S. general in Iraq said today he has no indication that Italian officials gave advance notice of the route of a vehicle U.S. soldiers fired on last Friday, killing an Italian intelligence officer and wounding a rescued Italian journalist.

"I personally do not have any indication of that, even on a preliminary basis," Army Gen. George Casey told reporters at the Pentagon. He stressed that another officer, Brig. Gen. Peter Vangjel, is heading the investigation, which is expected to be carried out jointly with Italian officials.

Casey, who was in Washington for meetings at the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill, said the investigation could be completed in three to four weeks.

One of the key unanswered questions is what, if anything, the Italians told the Americans beforehand about the convoy's movement to Baghdad International Airport.

Casey said he is not personally familiar with all the details of what may have led to the shooting. When asked if he would expect to be told if there were indications the Italians had informed U.S. forces in advance of the convoy's route, he replied, "I would hope so."

Italian intelligence officer Nicola Calipari was killed Friday when U.S. troops at a checkpoint fired at the car carrying him and freed Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena to the airport after Sgrena's release from a month in captivity.

Casey declined to say what kind of charges might be brought against any U.S. troops involved.

"We are working closely with the Italians on their participation in the investigation," Casey said.

At another point, in response to questions about whether he had known the Italians were negotiating for Sgrena's release, Casey said, "I don't have any information about the Italians coming in here to do something with respect to the hostage."

In a statement released last Friday after the shooting, the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division, which controls Baghdad, said the vehicle was "traveling at high speeds" and "refused to stop at a checkpoint."

A U.S. patrol "attempted to warn the driver to stop by hand and arm signals, flashing white lights, and firing warning shots in front of the car," it said. "When the driver didn't stop, the soldiers shot into the engine block which stopped the vehicle, killing one and wounding two others."

Italian officials have disputed the U.S. assertion that the vehicle was traveling quickly, and they have challenged other aspects of the official U.S. explanation of what happened.

Casey also said he was concerned by the fact that in addition to the killing of the Italian intelligence officer, a Bulgarian soldier slain last week in Iraq also may have been hit by U.S. gunfire.

"It's another unfortunate incident," he said. "Again, both the Bulgarians and us are looking into exactly what happened up during that period, and we'll get to the bottom of it."

[Gucho]

Tuesday, March 8, 2005:

Navy deploys N.C. civilians to repair aircraft in Iraq:


the associated press

HAVELOCK, N.C.
The Navy has sent its first large deployment of civilian employees from the Naval Air Depot to Iraq this month to maintain Marine aircraft squadrons in the desert.

The 15 employees were send March 5-6 in transport aircraft along with more than 61 tons of equipment. The employees will set up a maintenance unit to perform depot-level repair work on Marine H-46 and H-53 helicopters.

Members of the initial all-volunteer group are scheduled to spend up to 179 days in the Middle East, with replacements and supplemental teams sent over as needed until the mission is no longer required by the Marine Corps.

Prior to this deployment, an average of four to six NADEP employees were in Iraq at any given time, said depot official Randy Gay. The depot is located at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point.

The civilians' primary mission will include battle-damage repair and basic service repair, including repair of the aircraft's surface skin, clean up and airframe corrosion repair.

"They will add a very good service to the fleet," says Maj. Allen L. Gilbert, the depot's H-46 Programs officer. "These are artisans with multiple trades who can take care of many things while they are there working as a team with the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing."

Gilbert said the mission isn't risk-free, but the team will be located on a secure air base.

http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ/MGArticle/WSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031781450750

[TexKat]

In this photo released Tuesday March 8, 2005 by the Italian RAI TG1 national television, network military personnel are seen near a car said to be that n which Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena was travelling with deceased secret service operative Nicola Calipari, during her release in Baghdad, Iraq, last Friday March 4, 2005. Sgrena returned to Italy but Calipari was killed in what appears to be a friendly fire incident by U.S. troops. (AP Photo/TG1, Rai)

In this photo released Tuesday March 8, 2005 by the Italian RAI TG1 national television, network military personnel are seen near a car said to be that n which Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena was travelling with deceased secret service operative Nicola Calipari, during her release in Baghdad, Iraq, last Friday March 4, 2005. Sgrena returned to Italy but Calipari was killed in what appears to be a friendly fire incident by U.S. troops. (AP Photo/TG1, Rai)

US General George Casey, commander of multinational forces in Iraq, seen here January 2005 in Baghdad, said that 140,000 Iraqi troops are ready to secure their country.(AFP/File/Hrvoje Polan)

US soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment inspect vehicles and driver's identification cards during a joint traffic checkpoint with Iraqi soldiers and US Marines on the road linking Syrian border and the city of Mosul.(AFP/Mauricio Lima)

[LadyPilgrim]

More photo blessings from you! Hey girl!
Thanks for the photos!
Looks like you've been a bit busy today!

God Bless you anonymoussierra and God bless Poland and God bless America!
Together we fight the fight for freedom in the world!!!

Thank you Poland for standing with the United States Military!!! May you be Blessed by The Lord!!!

[Gucho]

HORNET APPROCH — An F/A-18 Hornet soars over the churning wake of the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman during its approach to make an arrested recovery aboard Truman's flight deck in the Persian Gulf, Feb. 24, 2005. The Truman Carrier Strike Group is on a regularly scheduled deployment in support of the war on terror. U.S. Navy photo by Airman Kristopher Wilson

[anonymoussierra]

Thank you all

[TexKat]

FYI

This picture, released by the Egyptian antiquities authority, shows an image from the computed tomography scan done in January 2005 on King Tutankhamun's 3,300-year-old mummy. The computerised X-ray has shown the boy king was not murdered.(AFP/HO-SCA)

Just thought yall might like to see and know this tidbit of info.

[Gucho]

Marines tell tale of narrow escape in Iraq

One day's battle in Ramadi highlights daily threat facing forces.

Sgt. Sam Pennock and Cpl. David Kammerer, of the U.S. Marines, and HM2 Nathan McDonell, of the U.S. Navy. (NBC News)

By Gene Choo

3:19 p.m. ET March 8, 2005:

RAMADI, Iraq - For the young men of the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, the Iraqi national elections in January marked a high point in their tour of duty. “I hope [the Iraqis] make the most of this opportunity,” said one young leatherneck. “The fate of their country is in their hands now.”

The Marines were vital to providing a secure environment in Ramadi for Iraqis to participate in the historic election process and have continued to work toward eliminating insurgent forces in the area.

On a recent Sunday, the Marines began yet another offensive to crack down on insurgents — enforcing a curfew, setting up checkpoints, searching cars and sealing off sections of the city to prevent people from entering or leaving as they carried out raids.

Just after the elections, the Marines of Golf Company took advantage of momentary breather to explain to NBC News what it feels like to come under attack and survive in one of the most dangerous places on earth.

The recalled one of their fiercest battles in Iraq last November in Ramadi, a tale of bravery and tragedy that underscored the daily threat facing the coalition forces.

'Gotta get shootin'

“I gotta get shootin’ —I gotta keep shootin’. Cuz if I stop shootin’ they’re gonna hit us again,” recalled Sgt. Sam Pennock, a Humvee machine-gunner with Golf Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment. “The only thing I could think about was tryin’ to kill the bastards that were shootin’ at us.”

Pennock recalled how on Nov. 8 -- months ago now but a recent memory for him -- his unit was called in to help fellow Marines trapped in an ambush. They didn’t know much more than the fact their comrades were under ferocious attack and taking casualties in the center of Ramadi. “We just rushed to our trucks and punched out,” said Pennock, 25, of Osawatomie, Kan.

“Everybody mentions Fallujah, but it was pretty intense here, too,” said Navy Corpsman Nathan McDonell, 27, of Daytona Beach, Fla. Traditionally, Navy combat medics have accompanied their Marine brothers into combat. Hospitalman-2nd Class McDonell, known as “Doc” to his fellow grunts, was the medic on board Pennock’s Humvee. “Almost every time we went out, we got hit. It was unreal,” McDonnell said.

But that day in November was especially bad. As the Golf Co. Marines reached their colleagues who were under attack, they quickly realized that this was not just a minor skirmish.

“I could see Mark 19 [grenade] casings and all kinds of small arms casings all over the ground,” said Pennock, who usually has the best vantage point sitting up in the gun cupola, manning the massive .50 caliber machinegun mounted on top of his Humvee.

But the great view comes with a price and also leaves Pennock exposed, riding with half his body outside the Humvee. “The sound of automatic weapons fire was deafening. At that point, we could tell it was a fairly large fight we were getting into.”

Cpl. David Kammerer, a soft-spoken 23-year-old from Cherry Tree, Pa., was the driver of Pennock’s Humvee. “Once we noticed the daisy-chained IEDs [Improvised Explosive Devices], we knew we couldn’t go any further,” said Kammerer. “That’s when all hell broke loose.”

‘Sensory overload’

Daisy-chained Improvised Explosive Devices are an infantryman’s worst nightmare and arguably the most deadly weapon used by the insurgency.

“Essentially, they wire up a line of 155-mm artillery shells all connected to one fuse. They lay them along a road and wait for us to come by,” Pennock said. “Then, they detonate one and it sets off a chain reaction. When that happens, you got nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.”

The series of explosions rocked the 2-ton armored Humvee. The IEDs peppered the vehicle with shrapnel, gouging chunks out of the armor plating and blowing holes through the rear fenders.

“We were the lead vehicle so we took the brunt of it recalled McDonell. “The company commander’s vehicle was also hit. Small arms fire was coming in at us from three sides.”

With their vehicle crippled by the IEDs, the Marines had to get out and defend themselves. All three quickly dismounted and began laying down suppressive fire with their M-16A4 assault rifles.

“You go on auto pilot. Your brain just shuts down and you just search and destroy,” said Pennock. “I was shooting at the muzzle flashes coming from the surrounding buildings. Rounds were zipping all around me, pinging off the Humvee.”

“It’s sensory overload. You can’t believe it’s happening. You train for something like this, but until it happens, you can’t prepare for it,” said McDonell. “What goes through your head? Keep fightin’, don’t quit.”

According to the Marines, the insurgents who had attacked them were well trained and well disciplined. Far from being just a rag-tag band of hoodlums and thugs, this particular group of insurgents was well-schooled in the tactics of guerilla warfare.

“They had laid out the ambush pretty well,” Pennock said. “Essentially, they lured us in by using Echo [Company] as bait, and then let us have it, first with the IEDs followed by small arms.”

“These guys were good,” said McDonell. “They didn’t just spray and run. I was engaging them from about 50 meters laying down some pretty heavy fire and they didn’t blink.”

From bad to worse

But just when things couldn’t possibly get worse, the Marines heard a noise that they had come to dread while operating in Iraq: A jet-like whoosh that cut through the chatter of automatic weapons fire.

“The first four RPGs [Rocket Propelled Grenades] came by and just completely missed us,” said Kammerer.

“One of the warheads whizzed right by my head,” Pennock said. “At this point, we were basically trading punches for a good two to three hours.”

It was only a matter of time before one of the insurgent's punches connected with the Marine Humvee. “Finally, that one from the side hit us,” said Kammerer. We didn’t even see it coming. I just felt like I was hit by a train."

An RPG warhead had found its mark on the front section of the Humvee exploding on impact. “It knocked me cold,” said Pennock. “I felt a flash of heat and everything went black.”

The impact was so great that it had disabled Pennock’s machinegun. “I knew I had to get that gun working if we were gonna survive.”

But the RPG had taken out more than just the sergeant’s gun. “I was the first one to see O’Brien hit,” said Kammerer, referring to Cpl. Mark O’Brien, a 22-year-old from Buffalo, N.Y., who had been sitting in the right rear seat shooting out of the Humvee’s open door. “He had been hit pretty bad and was screaming. I yelled to Doc that O’Brien’s been hit.”

The RPG warhead turned out to be a HEAT [High Explosive Anti-Tank] round designed to pierce through armor plating. Upon impact, a steel rod punches into the armor and melts its way through. The results can be devastating.

Recovering Marine

“The rocket blew right through the door and basically went right through O’Brien,” said Pennock. “It severed his arm and leg.”

“Doc” McDonell had avoided being hit by the RPG himself by mere seconds. “I had moved from the right front of the vehicle to the left rear to get a better shooting angle,” said McDonell. “As I passed O’Brien, I yelled something to him and then I was knocked down. The last thing I remember was the sound of something that sounded like a dial tone. I don’t know if lost I consciousness, but when I came to, I heard Kam yelling that O’Brien’s been hit.”

“I could hear him screaming through the thick, grayish black smoke,” continued McDonell. “At that point, I ran around the vehicle, grabbed him and just did what I could do to help my friend. I must say that out of the casualties I’ve seen so far, he’s been the worst.”

“What people sometimes forget is that Doc ran around under fire to pull him out,” said Pennock. “There was so much heavy machinegun fire coming I don’t know how he didn’t get hit.”

“It’s scary because we’re all exposed to fire,” McDonell said. “But when you see your friend, just like that, You’re in shock but you do what has to be done.”

McDonell did the best he could to stabilize O’Brien until the Marines were able to get him on an ambulance. “He’s recovering – he’s doing well,” McDonell said recently.

All four Marines involved in the attack will be decorated for valor. But the only thought on their minds now is to just get through the rest of their deployment and for all the Marines in their unit to return home safely.

“I just want to do ordinary things like go to the mall or walk to the bathroom on carpet and have a flushing toilet,” said McDonell. “Just go somewhere where I don’t have to put on 50 pounds of gear and carry a weapon.”

Gene Choo is an NBC News producer. He was recently embedded with the U.S. Marines in Ramadi.

[Gucho]

The computerised X-ray has shown the boy king was not murdered.(AFP/HO-SCA)


Yes, heard on news today he died of leg infection.

[MEG33]

Thank you!

AMERICA~ HOME OF THE FREE BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE!

[Gucho]

Bush: Tsunami response improves U.S. image:

08 Mar 2005 21:29:35 GMT

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON, March 8 (Reuters) - The U.S. response to last year's devastating tsunami in Asia had changed opinions of America in parts of the Muslim world, President George W. Bush said on Tuesday.

"I think that the world is beginning to see a different impression of America," Bush said during a White House meeting with his father -- former President George Bush -- and former President Bill Clinton, who are leading the push for private donations for tsunami relief.

The Bush administration has been struggling to turn a tide of anti-U.S. hostility, particularly among Muslims, that was spurred by the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and a perceived anti-Palestinian bias in Washington's Middle East policy.

It has viewed the U.S. response to the tsunami as an opportunity to showcase a charitable side.

The disaster left about 300,000 people dead or missing in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Maldives, Bangladesh and east Africa. Hundreds of thousands lost their homes.

Bush has pledged $950 million for humanitarian relief and reconstruction in Asian nations devastated by December's tsunami, a $600 million increase from money already allocated for the region.

The former presidents, back from a trip to the region, reported to Bush that almost $1 billion of private-sector money had gone to help the victims and cited a recent poll in Indonesia that showed "a dramatic change" in attitude toward the United States.

"I'm heartened that the good folks of Indonesia, for example, see a different America now," Bush said.

"They see a country which of course will defend our security, but a country which also cares deeply about suffering people, regardless of their religion, that when we find a Muslim child suffering we weep just as equally as when we find another child that suffers."

Clinton said a lot of work remained to be done and that the United States should "see it through to the end."

"When you relate to people on a human basis, you send a message that our common humanity matters more than our differences," he said. "And when people believe that, America wins."

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N08199035.htm

[Gucho]

Violence in Ramadi kills at least two:

Published Tuesday, March 8, 2005:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Clashes erupted between U.S. troops and insurgents today in the troubled city of Ramadi, west of the capital, leaving at least two people dead, officials said.

In Baghdad, gunmen assassinated the deputy chief of the Interior Ministry’s immigration office, Gen. Ghazi Mohammed Issa, in a drive-by shooting in the western suburb of Ghazaliya, a top ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

In an Internet statement, al-Qaida in Iraq purportedly claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Interior Ministry official said gunmen also attacked a convoy of trucks carrying food for the Trade Ministry in Salman Pak, southeast of the capital. Three civilians were killed in the assault, and at least one of the trucks was set on fire.

Unidentified gunmen also shot dead the deputy head of Hay Alfurat Hospital in western Baghdad, officials said.

The clashes in Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, lasted for more than an hour. City shops were closed and streets were deserted as U.S. troops took up sniper positions on rooftops. At least one dead body could be seen in the street, witnesses said.

Salah al-Ani of Ramadi’s main hospital said at least two Iraqis were killed and two others wounded.

Elsewhere, U.S. troops killed two men overnight they identified as terrorists who launched an attack in Ad Duja, about 30 miles of the capital. Six people were detained by U.S. forces - one of the wounded attackers and five others.

Today’s violence came a day after insurgents launched a wave of attacks yesterday that killed 33 people and wounded dozens.

The terror group Al-Qaida in Iraq, led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for much of yesterday’s bloodshed - including violence that killed 15 people in and around Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad.

Amid the violence, negotiations to form Iraq’s first democratically elected government have persisted. Iraqi Kurds said they were close to a deal with the Shiite clergy-backed United Iraqi Alliance to secure many of their territorial demands and ensure the country’s secular character after its National Assembly convenes March 16.

http://www.columbiatribune.com/2005/Mar/20050308News021.asp

[anonymoussierra]

this is for you

Thank you all