Posted on 07/02/2005 4:50:43 PM PDT by Gucho
By Sgt. Sara Wood, USA - American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, July 2, 2005 – The Fourth of July should be a time for all Americans to reflect on our freedoms and remember the men and women who have preserved those freedoms, President Bush said in his weekly radio address today.
"We live in freedom because Americans prevailed in the hard-fought struggles of the 20th century, from the Marne and Normandy to Iwo Jima and Inchon Bay," Bush said. "America is home to 25 million military veterans -- and we will always be grateful for their unselfish courage."
A new generation is now defending America's freedom, Bush said, and they and their families should be remembered and thanked.
"On this Fourth of July weekend, I ask every American to find a way to thank men and women defending our freedom -- by flying the flag, sending letters to our troops in the field, and helping the military family down the street," he said. "At this time when we celebrate our freedom, we will stand with the men and women who defend us all."
A good way for people to support the troops is to visit the Defense Department's "America Supports You" Web site, Bush said. This site lists local activities around the country and offers ways to show support, he noted.
Servicemembers are fighting terrorists overseas so they won't have to face them in the United States, Bush said. The lives lost in Afghanistan and Iraq strengthen the resolve to stay until the mission is complete, he added.
"The best way to honor the lives that have been given in this struggle is to complete the mission, so we will stay in the fight until the fight is won," he said.
The Fourth of July is a day for Americans to be proud of their heritage, Bush said, and to be confident in the future, knowing U.S. military operations are securing freedom for others.
"By freeing millions from oppression, our armed forces are redeeming a universal principle of the declaration that all are created equal, and all are meant to be free," he said. "Those who serve today are taking their rightful place among the greatest generations that have worn our nation's uniform."
Sat Jul 2, 2:59 PM ET
KABUL (AFP) - US warplanes bombed militants in eastern Afghanistan, the US military said, as the search continued for a special forces team that disappeared five days ago during a rescue attempt in which a US helicopter was shot down.
"We had an air strike target an enemy compound on Kunar, which in our assessment we had to hit immediately," spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jerry O'Hara said.
"The bombardment was done using precision guided munitions," he added.
It was still unclear whether there were any casualties in the attack, which was carried out at 17:30 (1400 GMT) Friday, O'Hara said.
Kunar governor Asadullah Wafa said there had been an air strike on Chichal village in Kunar but he could not confirm Taliban claims of civilian casualties.
Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi told AFP Saturday that the air strike killed 25 civilians, including children, though it was not possible to independently verify his statements.
"Air missions are carefully planned, and all possible efforts are taken to prevent non-combatant injuries and deaths. We take every precaution in our targeting process and do not target non-combatants," Colonel James Yonts told AFP in an emailed statement.
He added that in some cases, operations were "dramatically altered to prevent any risk to non-combatants".
The strike came amid a search for a small US reconnaissance team that disappeared during a rescue attempt by a US helicopter that was subsequently shot down.
The MH-47 Chinook chopper was downed Tuesday by what is believed to be a rocket propelled grenade, killing 16 military personnel, including eight elite US Navy SEALs.
The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack.
On Friday Hakimi said the rebels had captured a US serviceman and that they had killed seven American "spies" in the area. Earlier this week the militia said the dead men were Afghans.
"Our mujahedin arrested one American soldier alive in the area," he told AFP by satellite telephone from an undisclosed location.
Hakimi said the Taliban had footage of an exchange of gunfire with the so-called spies and of the captured American, which would be displayed on the rebels' website www.alemarah.com "tomorrow or the day after".
Kunar, which borders Pakistan, is a known hub of Taliban rebels who have stepped up attacks on the US-led coalition and government security forces nearly four years after the hardline Islamic regime was toppled.
About 500 people, mostly militants, have been killed in fighting this summer.
Governor Wafa nominally rules the region from the provincial capital Asadabad but the government's grip on power has been shaken by a dramatic surge in suspected Taliban attacks ahead of Afghanistan's landmark parliamentary and legislative elections in September.
In southern Uruzgan province 47 people have died during a week of militant violence, including 31 killed Friday.
Six policemen and 25 suspected Taliban died in Tagab village in Friday's fighting, Uruzgan governor Jan Mohammed Khan said.
The village in Uruzgan's Charchino district has been the scene of bloody clashes between police and the ousted militia over the past week.
Separately, US and Afghan troops patrolling Saturday near Kandahar, which is south of Uruzgan, killed two "enemies", wounded another and captured two more after being attacked with small arms and rocket-propelled grenades, a US military statement said.
The incident followed another firefight near Kandahar which left a rebel dead on Thursday, it said.
Also Saturday, four Afghan security personnel were killed and a senior police official wounded when a roadside bomb tore through their 20-vehicle convoy in southeastern Paktika province, provincial governor Gulab Mangal told AFP.
More than 18,000 coalition forces, a majority of them American, are deployed in Afghanistan to hunt down Taliban militants and their allies.
7/2/2005 4:01 PM
By: Allison Toepperwein | Williamson & Bell County Bureau Chief
For as long as soldiers have been going to war, they've been telling their stories through letters home.
And that's how Phil Kiver's book began.
"It started out just being an open letter to everyone in my life, something I could show to my wife or my cousins or whoever upon my return," Specialist Phil Kiver said.
On July 18, 2004, Kiver went to Iraq as a soldier and reporter for the U.S. Army. Now in his book, simply named 182 Days in Iraq, Kiver is sharing his experiences there.
"It's very introspective, but I know the themes and the things that happen in that book are very common to any armed conflict,” Kiver said. “You can pick up letters from the Civil War and read them and get the same sense and feelings from those soldiers, from World War II, Vietnam and now.”
In the book, Kiver describes a little boy who handed him a AA battery and an electrical motor -- two components that can make a bomb.
"He showed such courage in doing the right thing,” Kiver said. “He put himself in jeopardy and his family in such jeopardy to reach out to an American soldier."
Kiver's not shy about his political viewpoints. "Deeply held convictions you can't mask. You either believe or you don't believe," Kiver said.
He recalled a fellow U.S. soldier who was against the war. "He said it was the wrong war, and that Saddam really wasn't that bad of a guy to begin with. When he said that, I almost came unglued."
Kiver said it was important for him to have expressed his opinions in the book and hopes his views open some eyes.
"I get tired of people saying, 'We support the troops, but we don't support the war.' Well, soldiers are soldiers. You can't support me but not what I do," Kiver said.
He knows those ideas may turn people away from buying his book, but that's okay.
182 Days in Iraq is set to be released Monday, a date the author said is appropriate. To him, the Independence Day release of his book symbolizes the freedom of Iraq's repressed people.
U.S. Army Specialist Phil Kiver.
02 Jul 2005 19:23:56 GMT
Source: Reuters
BAGHDAD, July 2 (Reuters) - Following are security incidents reported in Iraq on Saturday as of 1900 GMT. U.S. and Iraqi forces are battling an insurgency by Sunni Arabs against the Shi'ite- and Kurdish-led government in Baghdad.
New or updated entries are marked with an asterisk.
BAGHDAD - A suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest killed up to 20 people, most of them hoping for police jobs, outside a base in western Baghdad, a senior Interior Ministry source said. Twelve bodies lay at a nearby hospital, where doctors said they were treating 21 wounded. The base, near an entrance to the Green Zone government compound, has been hit by attacks before.
* HILLA - Two bombers wearing explosive suicide vests killed five people and wounded 20 among busy evening crowds in the centre of Hilla, south of Baghdad, police and medics said.
MAHMUDIYA - A suicide car bomber attacked a police checkpoint, killing five people and wounding 12 in Mahmudiya, a suburb south of Baghdad, a senior police officer said. He said police and civilians were among the casualties.
KIRKUK - Gunmen opened fire on a police car, killing two policeman and two civilians in the divided northern oil city of Kirkuk, a police source said.
BAGHDAD - A remote control bomb attack on a police patrol in the neighbourhood of New Baghdad wounded eight including three policemen police sources said.
BAGHDAD - Thousands of Shi'ites in Baghdad marched in the streets for the funeral of senior cleric Kamal al-Din al- Ghoureify, slain by gunmen as he drove to his mosque for prayers on Friday.
AL MUSAIB - Gunmen shot dead a colonel in the Iraqi police, Ahmed Jaffat, in al-Musaib 85 km (53 miles) south of Baghdad, opening fire after blocking his car, a police spokesman in the town said. Jaffat was also the head of a political party in the area.
MOSUL - Gunmen shot dead a senior policeman, Colonel Anwar Sheikh Kebir al-Sorchi, as he was driving to work in the northern city of Mosul, police and hospital officials said.
HADITHA - U.S. Marines said late on Friday they were investigating an accusation by Iraq's ambassador to the United Nations that marines had shot dead an unarmed, 21-year-old cousin of the envoy in "cold blood" near Haditha last Saturday.
Samir Sumaidaie said Marines killed his first cousin's son, Mohammed al-Sumaidaie, an engineering student, during a June 25 raid on his home. "The Marines were smiling at each other as they were leaving," he said in a statement.
HADITHA/HIT - A 1,000-strong force led by U.S. Marines was pursuing the five-day-old Operation Sword, along the Euphrates river between Haditha and Hit, the U.S. military said in a statement. Focused on clearing insurgents and foreign fighters from Hit, the military described resistance in the city as light. "There have been no reported fatalities among Iraqi or American forces," it added.
(Reporting by Waleed Ibrahim, Peter Graff and Alastair Macdonald in Baghdad, Maher al-Thanoon in Mosul, Sami al-Jumaili in Kerbala and Aref Mohammed in Kirkuk)
AlertNet News
By Russell Skelton - The Sun-Herald
July 3, 2005
Douglas Wood has revealed he was working on a multimillion-dollar project to provide accommodation for 600 United States and Iraqi military personnel at the time he was taken hostage.
Speaking for the first time about his business career in Baghdad, Wood said his work involved contracting, tenders and hiring subcontractors.
In an interview to be aired tonight on the ABC Radio program Sunday Profile, he said one project was to renovate Saddam Hussein's "CIA" headquarters.
It was not clear whether he was directly employed by US authorities or private firms.
Wood also admitted that he had a falling out with business partner John Watkinson prior to his abduction. "He [Watkinson] wanted to run it and I'd been running it so that was an ego problem," he said.
The 63-year-old engineer was criticised last week by the families of two Iraq colleagues kidnapped with him and later executed. Haider Shakir, the 28-year-old son of Wood's colleague Faris Shakir, said his father was killed because he could identify the kidnappers.
Earlier this week Wood said: "I was rescued by the Iraqi military who were on a sweep of the area, so it had nothing to do ... with anything that the Mufti or ... federal people were doing."
His brother Vernon said of Wood's account: "I guess he didn't know what went on."
Thanks Gucho.
Post #1. "U.S. and Iraqi forces announced Saturday they will establish bases in the city and maintain a constant presence."
This is very good news. Hit is positioned some 20 miles north of Ar Ramada (the provincial capital), and some 70 miles south of Al Hadithah, all three being of course on the western bank of the Euphrates, on the major northern road that leads up to Al Quam. So now we will have Marines in three large cities in this AO. HUMIT showing foreign and or local yokels moving about the neighboring towns in this stretch can be quickly encountered and destroyed. We always have to bear in mind that the 2MEF forces operating along the Euphrates has almost instant access to air support if needed. F18s, Blackhawks, Apaches, are based at Al Asad airbase some twenty five miles northwest of the city of Hit.
So this tells me, I could be very wrong, that we have reached a point where more cities known in the past to harbor foreign terrorist and local insurgents have been perhaps cleared out,and now can act as a quick reaction FOB.
It is good to see the Iraqi Army is participating. It sure seems like we continue to hear they are participating in more of what was once only US operations. Sort of give less ammo to the rabid L/MSM that have up to recently been able to complain that the Iraqi's are doing nothing usefull.
Post #4.
"Hakimi said the Taliban had footage of an exchange of gunfire with the so-called spies and of the captured American, which would be displayed on the rebels' website www.alemarah.com "tomorrow or the day after".
Sure hope this is a bunch a bullshit. Guess we shall know soon enough if there is any truth in it. I cannot help but wonder if the ground commanders in Afghanistan have been asking for additional troops of various types, whether SF, regular Airborne, and or Marines. If we only have some 12,000 men,perhaps another few units, battallion sized could make a lot of difference in some of the areas. But then I keep coming back to the realization many areas are covered due to the adequate air support. One just doesn't fly around in a Humvee in those mountain areas like one can do in most of say Iraq. It requires a lot of foot work and air support recon and air ground attacks to take out small groups of goons as their whereabouts are made known. This is truly guerilla warfare in the strick sense of the term.
At least thats my take on it. Not that I was asked for comments.
Post #7.
Good Lord. No wonder A...rabs are nuts. Imagine having to play in that place! Your eyes would go around in circles and spin out of their sockets.
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Friday, July 1, 2005
North Korea slammed President Bush's recent meeting with a North Korean defector as a "cheap charade," warning Bush's raising of human rights issues may jeopardize the nuclear disarmament talks.
The North's state-run Korean Central News Agency also smeared North Korean defector Kang Chol-Hwan as "human trash."
Bush's meeting with Kang last week in the White House is a sign that the president might change his policy of diplomacy in dealing with the North Korean nuclear program to one that favors regime change in Pyongyang, defectors and analysts say.
North Korea's angry reaction to the Bush-Kang meeting reflects Pyongyang's fear that the United States will step up efforts to improve human rights conditions in the North, according to the current editions of Geostrategy-Direct.com and East-Asia-Intel.com.
"North Korea has been concerned that international pressure over human rights issue may cause more North Koreans to resist the totalitarian regime," Kang said upon returning to Seoul.
Bush invited Kang, who endured 10 years in North Korea prison camps, to the White House on June 13 to discuss human right abuses in the communist country.
Bush's concern about human rights violations in North Korea was reportedly fueled by Kang's testimony about the North's gulag. Kang, 37, who was born in Pyongyang, was imprisoned in Yodok concentration camp in the communist nation when he was only nine years old.
Kang escaped to South Korea in 1992 and is now working for South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper. He is the author of "The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years In The North Korean Gulag."
North Korea said Bush's meeting with Kang was an "act of throwing a wet blanket on the efforts to resume" the nuclear talks.
South Korea's ruling lawmaker Kim Won-Ung also blasted Bush's meeting with the defector, saying it would disrupt the prospect of reopening the six-nation nuclear talks. "The United States is also responsible for the famine in the North," Kim told a parliamentary session.
"What matters here is: why they are making such painstaking efforts and spending precious time for such a cheap charade?" the KCNA said in a commentary on June 23.
"The U.S. oft-repeated 'human rights' issue is quite contrary to the purport and the agenda of the [six-nation nuclear] talks," the commentary said.
"The United States should clearly understand that bringing such issues to the negotiating table will only result in confusing the talks."
Referring to Kang as "human trash," the KCNA said "the human rights piffle again let loose by the U.S. high echelon suggests that Washington is not firm in its stand to recognize [North Korea] as its dialogue partner and respect it."
Returning to Seoul after meeting Bush, Kang said North Koreans need freedom, not food, to escape from the daily agony and suppression by the dictatorship under which they live.
"North Koreans are poor and starving. It is not because South Korea is not helping them, but because they don't have freedom," he told a forum.
The United States has already enacted the North Korean Human Rights Act aimed at promoting freedom in that country. It allows North Koreans to seek refugee status in the United States and provides $4 millions to expand American radio broadcasts into the North to promote democracy and human rights.
I think they are simply part of the side structure, ribbed for added strength. My nephew (a Marine) told me that there are some six different weapon configs they can use on these vehicles. 50 cals, rocket launcher on back, and quite frankly forgot the others.
" They sure do look like RPG deflectors." Makes sense.
July 02, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The training started more than eight weeks ago for the "Defenders of Baghdad." In those eight weeks they learned new tactics and strategies so they can defend their country against any threat.
The 5th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division’s training culminated with an activation ceremony at Muthana Airfield June 29.
"This is an important day for the people of Iraq," said Maj. Gen. William G. Webster Jr., Task Force Baghdad commander during the ceremony. "These men before you are all volunteers and have sworn to defend Baghdad."
"All of the TV stations are here so that the people can see the ceremony," said Iraqi Army Col. Mohamed Hashim Al-Musawy, Iraqi Army Brig. Gen. Fouad Hani Faris’ aide. "As our training goes on, the citizens, houses and the streets of Iraq will be safe. If the U.S. forces keep helping us in our training, we will control the Iraqi streets and we’ll protect the citizens from the explosions the terrorists make against the Iraqis."
The newest Iraqi Army brigade will be responsible for defending the Green Zone and surrounding areas in Baghdad.
"I think they will play a vital role in the freedom of Iraq and Baghdad. With these Soldiers, they will show the American and Iraqi people that they are up to the task and can handle the job," said Command Sgt. Maj. Robert Taylor, 6th Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment command sergeant major.
The brigade, made up of more than 2,500 Iraqi Soldiers, began training April 18 at Muthana Airfield. Soldiers from 6th Squadron, 8th Cavalry Regiment and Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 4th Battalion, 64th Armor Regt. worked with the fledgling Iraqi Soldiers.
"They have trained hard and worked hard to get where they are at today. The activation ceremony was a turning point for the brigade from training to actually doing patrols and securing the Green Zone," Taylor said.
Soldiers were trained on a variety of tasks that they will use on the streets of Baghdad, such as reflexive fire, basic marksmanship and clearing rooms.
"I feel proud that the Iraqi soldiers can defend the country of Iraq. I hope God will make them brave and keep them safe," Mohamed said. "We have soldiers that are very young, and we thought that they might fail, but because of the Americans that gave us good training … they made it."
He added that the Iraqi Soldiers now feel proud to be a part of the Iraqi Army.
"In the past they were scared to be one of the Iraqi Army Soldiers so no one from the terrorists would kill them, but now, there are many volunteers," Mohamed said.
He continued, "I learned from our training … that they have high feeling (morale) about their training and they’ve proved it during the operations that they’ve had in Dora and Haifa Street, Abu Dasheer and Karada.
Taylor said, "They may not be as good as American Soldiers today, but one day they will be just as good. They put their lives on the line every day, either at checkpoints or on patrols, and they are right beside us doing the same things we’re doing."
Mohamed said that the Iraqi troops have been successful in these areas because of the U.S. Soldiers training and they will continue to get better.
He added, "I hope the same unit will train the next brigade so the new soldiers will receive the highest level of training."
By Staff Sgt. Raymond Piper - 4th Brigade Combat Team PAO
An Iraqi girl throws confetti as Iraqi Soldiers from 5th Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division pass in review during a June 29 activation ceremony at Muthana Airfield. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Raymond Piper, 4th BCT PAO)
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