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Spc. Sarah Scully prepares to receive the Rising Star Print Journalist of the Year award from the Secretary of the Army Francis Harvey and Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, Chief of Army Public Affairs. by Eric Cramer

Army honors top journalists

By Joanna P. Hawkins

ARLINGTON, Va. (Army News Service May 24, 2005) - - The Army honored its best journalists at the Maj. Gen Keith L. Ware journalism awards ceremony May 24 at the Pentagon.

Secretary of the Army Francis J. Harvey and Brig. Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, Chief of Army Public Affairs, played host to the awards ceremony.

Sgt. Lorie Jewell, with the 107th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment, received the Paul. D. Savanuck Print Journalist of the Year award, which recognizes outstanding military journalists. In an earlier ceremony, she also received the Thomas Jefferson Award as the top print journalist in the Department of Defense.

“There are so many people who deserve these awards,” said Jewell. “I’m happy and honored they selected me.”

Jewell gave credit to all the Soldiers who willingly opened up and shared their personal stories with her.

A Florida National Guard Soldier, Jewell is currently deployed as part of Multi-National Security Transition Command – Iraq. Before volunteering for her current assignment, she worked as a daily print journalist for the Tampa Tribune.

Sgt. 1st Class Mike Lavigne, with Soldiers Radio and Television in Alexandria, earned the John T. Anderson Military Broadcast Journalist of the Year award.

“This means more to me than any professional recognition I’ve ever gotten,” said Lavigne. He added that having his family at the ceremony made the recognition even more rewarding.

Lavigne is the senior correspondent for SRTV. He was a member of the Army’s Old Guard at Fort Myer, Va., before becoming a broadcaster in 1999.

Ali Leone received the Moss-Holland Civilian Print Journalist of the Year award for her work at the Fort Bragg "Paraglide." Leone admitted that she was shocked to receive the award and felt it was a great honor.

Spc. Sarah Scully, of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Corps at Fort Lewis, Wash., received the Rising Star Print Journalist of the Year honor for outstanding new writer. She said her award was for the Soldiers whose stories she had the opportunity to tell.

Spc. Chris Higginbotham, 21st Theater Support Command in Kaiserslautern, Germany, earned the Rising Star Broadcast Journalist of the Year for outstanding new broadcaster.

Higginbotham said receiving this honor is a reflection of the good leadership in his command.

The Rising Star awards recognize excellence in military journalism from the newest members of the career field.

Jewell received the Army Meritorious Service Medal in recognition of her achievements. Lavigne, Scully and Higginbotham each received the Army Commendation Medal.

Award recipients also received gifts from the Association of the United States Army, the Army Times and the Non-Commissioned Officers Association.

Harvey met informally with the honorees before the ceremony, congratulating them on their achievements and soliciting their comments.

He thanked the honorees for their outstanding work and commitment to excellence.

“These outstanding Army journalists have made significant contributions and the Army is better for their contributions,” Harvey said.

Editor's Note: Images of all winners are available at the Army Images Web site: http://www4.army.mil/armyimages/index.php?search=&btn=Search+Army+Images&range=all

The Al-Qaeda network is actively seeking to destablize west Africa, partly through its links with ex-Liberian president Charles Taylor, pictured in 2003, who has given sanctuary to the network's operatives, a UN-backed court said.(AFP/File/Georges Gobet)

Al-Qaeda and Liberia's Taylor working to destabilize West Africa: UN

Tue May 24, 6:38 PM ET

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The Al-Qaeda terror network is active in West Africa and seeks to destabilize the region through its links with Liberian former president Charles Taylor, members of a UN appointed tribunal said.

Taylor faces a 17-count indictment by the Special Court for Sierra Leone. He is accused of arming and training rebels in exchange for so-called "blood diamonds."

The main target is Guinea, where Taylor has been linked to the January 19 assassination attempt on President Lansana Conte, the tribunal's main researcher said at a press conference here.

Chief investigator Al White emphasized that the researchers have been "receiving credible, reliable information" on the destabilization plans "from sources and witnesses we've been dealing with for three years in the region."

The sources report that Taylor "is actively involved in trying to destabilize the region and there will be another threat and another attempt very, very soon," White said.

Until Taylor is brought to justice "he will be an immediate, clear and present danger to peace and security not only in Liberia but in the entire West African region," White added.

White also said that Taylor was linked to unrest in nearby Ivory Coast.

Taylor, the former president of Liberia, is charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity by the Special Tribunal for his role in that neighboring country's 1991-2001 civil war.

Nigeria granted him asylum in August 2003 believing that, despite an international arrest warrant, the move would help facilitate peace in Liberia.

Within a month of arriving in Sierra Leone in May 2002 members of the tribunal "ran smack dab in the middle of Al-Qaeda," said tribunal prosecutor David Crane.

"Al-Qaeda has been in West Africa. It continues to be in West Africa and Charles Taylor has been harboring members of Al-Qaeda," Crane said.

Taylor harbored Al-Qaeda members, including those who participated in the 1998 US embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya, said Crane. "We also have activities as late as 6 April 2005," he said.

In late February Taylor flew to Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, where he met with one Francis Kalawalo, who later announced a bid for president in the October 2005 Liberian elections.

Taylor gave Kalawo money to support his presidential bid, Crane said.

"The key is that the money that was passed, we expect to be money that was sent from a bank in Dubai to Charles Taylor through a courier named Mohamed Mustafa Fahil who is an Al Qaeda operative," Crane said.

The money was delivered to Taylor in Calabar, the southwestern Nigerian town where he is spending his time in exile, Crane said.

Fadil "was known to many people as Mohamed Fattal, and they knew him as a Middle Eastern businessman since 1997" and was a frequent Taylor visitor, White added.

According to the investigator's information Taylor is "looking to leave and leave soon, particularly if in fact Guinea does fall and falls soon -- and you heard it from us," White said.

On May 4 the US House of Representatives passed a measure calling on Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo to cancel Taylor's political asylum.

Australia's AWB sees Iraq wheat shipments resolved soon

Wednesday May 25, 2005, 12:42 pm

SYDNEY, May 25 (Reuters) - AWB Ltd. (ASX: AWB.ax) , Australia's monopoly wheat exporter, said on Wednesday it expected the fate of disputed wheat shipments stuck in an Iraqi port to be settled in several days.

Iraq has refused to unload the last three wheat shipments under a one-million-tonne supply contract from Australia, its biggest supplier, because it says they are contaminated with iron dust.

Australia has said its own tests on the cargoes, currently at anchor off the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr, show no contamination.

"We hope it will be resolved in the next several days," Managing Director Andrew Lindberg told Reuters.