Posted on 09/06/2006 3:36:48 PM PDT by Gucho
September 04, 2006 - 04:30 PM EST
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Sep. 4, 2006 – U.S. Marines from Regimental Combat Team 5 found hundreds of weapons recently during Operation Rubicon in Mushin, Iraq, west of Habbaniyah, U.S. officials reported.
The Marines, assigned to 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment and 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion, seized more than 500 mortar rounds, nearly 100 artillery rounds, more than 130 rocket-propelled grenades, an excess of 120 grenades, 22 mines, 10 mortar tubes, 20 rifles and machine guns, 18 sets of body armor and various other items including binoculars and bayonets.
"This area was definitely an insurgent stronghold," said Cpl. Brandon M. Stair, 25, a team leader assigned to 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion, who was among the group that discovered the cache sites.
The insurgents, Stair said, had stored "stuff for the long fight, and they had stuff for tomorrow."
One cache yielded 500 blasting caps, each one capable of detonating a single improvised explosive device. Another cache yielded mortars. Another was a stash of sniper rifles.
"Every cache was a separate set-up," explained 35-year-old Gunnery Sgt. Kenneth A. Westgate, assigned to 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion.
"We usually find just mortars or just guns. These had a mix of everything." Sgt. Joshua D. Cross, a 26-year-old reconnaissance team leader, said.
A local Iraqi thanked the Marines for helping to clear the area of insurgents, Cross said. "He was real grateful for what we were doing there," the Marine said.
(From a Multinational Corps Iraq news release.)
By Donna Miles - American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Sep. 6, 2006 – For the man who now serves as the senior enlisted advisor to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, watching the televised image of an airliner hitting the World Trade Center signaled the end of an era as the country was thrust into war.
Army Command Sgt. Maj. William J. Gainey, then regimental sergeant major for the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment at Fort Polk, La., said he remembers returning home after an early morning run Sept. 11, 2001, and flipping on the TV news as he cooled down.
Gainey was transfixed by shots of smoke pouring from the World Trade Center and remembered an incident in the 1930s when a military aircraft hit the Empire State Building. As he watched, a second jet careened into the second World Trade Center tower, and he realized that what he was watching was no accident, Gainey said.
He ran into the next room to awaken his wife, telling her, “Baby, we are now at war.”
Gainey, a career soldier who had served in every leadership position from command group gunner to regimental sergeant major, said the events of Sept. 11 shook him to the core. Gone was the sense of security he’d always felt came from being a superpower with the world’s best military.
“When I watched those buildings crumble, I got kind of scared and realized we might not be as hard as we think we are,” he said. “People can slip in on us. And it gave me a total sense of appreciation for what we need to do or what we might have to do.”
As Fort Polk went into a defensive position -- closing roads, putting troops in Humvees around housing areas and sending patrols through the post -- Gainey wondered how the United States would respond to the attacks. “And I was very pleased when the president said we are not going to tolerate it,” he said.
Nearly five years later, with the United States fully engaged in the war on terror, the tragic events of Sept. 11 have transformed the U.S. armed forces, said Gainey, now senior enlisted advisor to Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the nation’s highest-ranking military officer.
After traveling the globe, visiting troops at home and overseas and reporting his findings back to Pace, Gainey said the military has never been stronger.
“It made us more ready than ever before,” he said. “Our young men and women of all the services are better trained and have more combat experience than anyone in the last two generations.”
With better training, better equipment and more combat veterans within its ranks than ever before, the U.S. military has never been better, and its members have never been more serious about their mission, Gainey said.
“Talk to any young man and woman and ask them how they feel, and they will tell you, ‘We are focused, Sergeant Major,’” he said. “They are focused, and they believe in what they are doing.”
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By Maj. David Kurle, USAF - Special to American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Sep. 6, 2006 – The same global positioning technology that helps fighter and bomber pilots deliver smart bombs with pinpoint accuracy now allows bundles dropped from cargo planes to steer themselves to drop zones.
A new GPS-guided “Screamer” bundle from the Joint Precision Air Drop System falls out the back of a C-130 Hercules over Afghanistan Aug. 26. The drop was made from 17,500 feet above mean sea level and was the first joint Air Force-Army operational drop of JPADS in the Central Command area of responsibility. Four bundles were dropped from the Alaska Air National Guard C-130. The system is designed to provide precision airdrops from high altitudes, eliminating the threat of small-arms fire. All four bundles arrived less than 25 meters from the desired target. (Photo by Senior Airman Brian Ferguson, USAF)
A C-130 Hercules from the 774th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron here dropped supplies to a U.S. Army unit in Afghanistan Aug. 31, using the military's newest airdrop system for the first time in a combat zone.
An Air National Guard crew, deployed from Alaska's 144th Airlift Squadron, dropped bundles using the Joint Precision Airdrop System, or JPADS, which the Army and Air Force have been developing together since 1993.
"This was the first Air Force employment of the Joint Precision Airdrop System in an operational or combat airlift mission," said Maj. Neil Richardson, chief of the combat programs and policy branch at Air Mobility Command. He deployed here as part of the JPADS Mobile Training Team to oversee the first combat use of the system and to train C-130 crews how to use it.
"The system did exactly what it was designed for and delivered ammunition and water to ground troops here in Afghanistan," he said.
The JPADS is a family of systems designed to bring the same accuracy to the airlift community that strike pilots have enjoyed since the development of GPS-guided bombs, called joint direct attack munitions, or JDAMS. "It's the JDAMS of logistics," Richardson said.
The goal, when the system is fully developed, is to field four sizes of JPADS: extra light, light, medium and heavy. Though still in the concept-development phase, the heavy JPADS may be able to airdrop up to 60,000 pounds of cargo, more than enough to deliver the Army's eight-wheel Stryker combat vehicle.
"Soldiers in forward fighting positions will have a viable means of airdrop resupply, which is more accurate and increases survivability of critical supplies, like ammunition, fuel, food and water," said Chief Warrant Officer Cortez Frazier, aerial delivery chief for Combined Joint Task Force 76's Joint Logistics Command. “JPADS will ensure the warfighter can continue to combat and win against terrorism."
The JPADS loads have GPS receivers that are updated while traveling in the airplane through a repeater in the cargo bay that re-broadcasts the aircraft's GPS coordinates to electronics fastened to the cargo.
When dropped, the GPS receivers guide steering mechanisms that literally fly the cargo under a rectangular “parafoil,” to the desired point of impact.
"They are autonomously steered by GPS and electro-mechanical steering actuators," said Maj. Dan DeVoe, a command tactician at the Air Mobility Warfare Center, at McGuire Air Force Base, N.J., and also on the mobile training team. The actuators pull risers on a parachute -- turning it one direction or another -- to position the load over the desired point of impact.
Once the load is positioned over the drop zone, a second parachute deploys, and the cargo descends almost straight down to troops on the ground.
In Afghanistan, C-130 crews drop the light version of JPADS, dubbed the "screamer" because it falls at 100 mph. It can deliver container delivery system bundles containing food, water, ammunition and other supplies weighing 500 to 2,000 pounds to troops on the ground.
"We're resupplying small units, so we don't need a big volume of parachutes and equipment," said Army Lt. Col. Robert Gagnon, the deputy commander of the 10th Sustainment Brigade, whose job is resupplying aoldiers in Afghanistan. "It allows us to get into a small area from a stand-off distance, where the aircraft is out of harm's way."
Prior to dropping the screamer, a C-130 loadmaster will pitch a small transmitter called a “dropsonde” from the back of the aircraft. The dropsonde relays wind speeds and direction back to the navigator's laptop computer.
"It's a very accurate, very real-time wind picture of what's going on out there," Richardson said. "A lot of your error comes from wind, and we've taken a lot of the error out."
Under traditional airdrop procedures, C-130 navigators guided pilots to a single point in space to take advantage of forecasted winds to blow unguided loads under a parachute to a drop zone on the ground. Forecasted winds may or may not have been the same by the time aircrafts actually arrived at drop zones.
With JPADS, navigators gather up-to-the-minute information about wind direction and speed, then, because the loads can steer themselves, can fly to an area over the drop zone to release the loads as opposed to a single point.
"As long as you are in that ‘launch acceptability’ region, you can call ‘green light’ and your loads are going to go to their intended targets," Richardson said.
In addition to accuracy, JPADS allows different bundles to steer themselves to more than one drop zone.
"You can basically fly to an area, drop the bundles, and they will steer where they need to go," DeVoe said. "With one green-light call, bundles can go to multiple locations."
The increased accuracy and ability to drop to more than one location at the same time means that soldiers on the ground recover the cargo quickly and know exactly where it will land.
"(JPADS) ensures the supplies are received in a timely manner," Gagnon said. "The soldiers get what they need, when they need it and how they need it. The drop zone is set up for a shorter period of time, the loads come in, the aircraft is gone and the Soldiers are gone before the enemy knows what's taken place."
The new system also allows aircrews to drop from higher altitudes, moving C-130s farther from the threat of enemy ground fire and still deliver cargo accurately by air drop. The higher an aircraft drops, the less accurate the loads become -- until now.
"JPADS takes the aircrew and the aircraft out of harm's way by being higher and further away from the drop zones and therefore, further away from the threats," Richardson said.
"On the ground side, the precision of the airdrop systems themselves allows the guys to pick up all the stuff right around the desired point of impact, as opposed to being dispersed or scattered across the entire drop zone," he said. "They're not risking their lives gathering the loads."
(Air Force Maj. David Kurle is assigned to the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing.)
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By Steven Donald Smith - American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Sep. 6, 2006 – When José Rojas went to pull a badly burned woman from a Pentagon window after Islamic extremists drove a commercial airliner headlong into the building, her skin came off in his hands.
“I had to actually take my fingernails and dig into her flesh with her crying and screaming to get her out of the window,” Rojas said, describing his efforts to help the victim of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.
Rojas, 43, a police officer with the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, the successor of the Defense Protective Service, was working that fateful morning at the Pentagon’s remote delivery facility, where packages get inspected before entering the building.
A driver making a delivery asked the officers on duty if they had heard that an airplane had hit the World Trade Center in New York City. Rojas, his supervisor and two other officers immediately went into an adjacent office and turned on the television. They watched in disbelief as they learned that a second plane had also crashed into the trade center. “We all just looked at each other and said, ‘We’re next,’” Rojas recalled.
As he was about to exit the office to start spreading the word of what had happened in New York, the ground shook beneath his feet. “When I stepped out of the door, all I could see was a big mushroom ball of flames going up into the air,” he said.
Rojas immediately ran toward the flames.
What he witnessed when arrived near the crash site will haunt him for the rest of his life, he said. “This one guy was just holding his eye in his hand,” he said.
The scene was chaotic. People were clamoring to get out of the building as fast as possible, many through windows. “I said to a bunch of people standing there, ‘Let’s see if we can get some of these people out,” Rojas said.
He went to a ground-floor window and began yelling for people to come toward his voice. “People just started appearing out of the thick, black smoke,” he said.
The first person he encountered at the window was the lady whose skin came off in his hands. Rojas, who had once been a fireman in his native U.S. Virgin Islands, said the severity of her burns surprised him. “I’ve seen burnt bodies,” he said, “but this was bad.”
He carried the woman away from the building and then ran back to the window, where he started pulling others to safety. “I was just trying get out as many as I could,” he said.
Everything that followed the crash seemed to happen in slow motion, Rojas said, yet the details about the people he encountered throughout the day are lost to his memory. “I can’t really remember any faces,” he said.
When the fire department arrived, Rojas explained to them that he had been a fireman and asked if they wanted him to suit up. “I think they knew the building was getting ready to collapse, so they told us to get everybody back,” he said.
A renovation project had recently been completed near the crash site, and numerous propane cylinders used for the project were still sitting in a fenced-in area, he said. When flames reached the tanks they began to explode. “These tanks were just shooting off up in the air. Poof! They were landing all over the place,” he said.
Rojas stayed at the Pentagon until 2 a.m. Sept. 12. When he finally did go home, he said, he took a quick shower, briefly chatted with his wife and kids, and then went back to work.
“I was angry. Angry is being mild,” he said. “My thing was, ‘How dare they hit our house?’ When we’re on duty this is what we swore to protect.”
His seething anger began to dissipate over time as he was heartened to see the country pull together. “I feel 9/11 brought the country a lot closer together,” he said, “especially people.”
Rojas said he and his fellow officers were not well prepared to respond to this type of terrorist attack. “That was something never conceived,” he said.
He said the force’s procedures and training have improved drastically, and the agency has grown by several hundred officers since the attack. “Our officers are better prepared to deal with a major catastrophe. Training is 100 percent better now,” he said.
Pentagon police officers now receive various specialty training, including counter-weapons of mass destruction training. “When the anthrax scare started, I was part of a three-man team that actually started (our) chemical, radiological, biological and nuclear unit,” Rojas said. “We started the hazmat team where we’d actually go around sampling.”
In addition, Rojas said PFPA’s interaction with other federal agencies, like the FBI, is also now much better.
“It’s tremendous the amount of respect the Pentagon police department and the agency as a whole gets now with other agencies. We didn’t have this before,” he said. “It makes me very proud.”
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U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Albert Sleek, from the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment, 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, holds AK-47 ammunition rounds found in a mosque during a joint cordon and search in the Adhamiyah neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq, Aug. 31, 2006. The Iraqi army soldiers were the only soldiers allowed to search the mosque in an effort to rid the city from contraband items. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Adrian Cadiz)
September 6, 2006
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf (L) shakes hands with his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai in Kabul September 6, 2006. Pakistan, criticized by some Afghan leaders over cross-border infiltration by the Taliban, vowed on Wednesday to help its neighbour fight terrorism as Afghanistan battles its worst violence in five years. (REUTERS/Ahmad Masood) (AFGHANISTAN)
Wednesday, 06 September 2006
By 2nd Lt. Lawton King - 1st Marine Division
CAMP FALLUJAH — Soldiers from the 1st Iraqi Army Division enlisted 293 Iraqi males from the greater Fallujah and Habbaniyah area recently as part of an al-Anbar province-wide recruiting drive - a sign, Coalition officials say, that Iraqis are looking to take charge of their country's future.
“They looked enthusiastic about doing this, and that’s a good sign,” said Maj. William Gerst, a Regimental Combat Team 5 assistant operations officer who aided the Iraqis in the coordination of the campaign. “It’s a sign that they notice we’re here to help them and they are taking control of their own destiny.”
The enlistees offered similar explanations for signing up.
“I want to serve our country and defend Iraq,” said one recruit.
“Patriotism ... I want to defend my country,” offered another.
After undergoing literacy tests, medical examinations, physical fitness evaluations and security screenings, eligible applicants signed contracts adorned with the Arabic header, “In the Name of God.”
The recruits were then transported by Marines from RCT-5 to a month-long boot camp in Habbaniyah staffed solely by Iraqi personnel drawn from the 1st Iraqi Army Division.
Upon graduation from basic training, the Iraqi Soldiers will report to the division of their choice and receive a period of leave.
“This is very important,” said Hassanian Mussa, a 32-year-old interpreter from Kut, attached to 2nd Brigade, 1st IAD. “This is a good step for these guys. The new government gives these guys the opportunity to show their loyalty to their country.”
Cpl. Clayton Busenga, assigned to a 2nd Brigade Military Transition Team, shared similar sentiments.
“It shows that we are working on leaving Iraq pretty strongly,” he said.
The courage of the Iraqi enlistees elicited applause from Marines and Iraqis alike present at the recruiting drive.
“The individual Iraqis know they are going to get targeted ... so I give them credit for that,” Busenga said.
“These guys are very brave,” agreed Hassanian.
An Iraqi recruit rests in the shade while the others are processed during a recent Iraqi Army recruiting drive. (Department of Defense photo by 2nd Lt. Lawton King)
Local contractors disregarded terrorist threats to repair roads and allow Iraqis to travel uninhibited.
An Iraqi sweeps away loose gravel Aug. 26, after filling one of many holes left by roadside bomb attacks in Rasheed. Local contractors repaired the area roads, enabling locals to once again use the often-traveled route. (U.S. Army photo)
U.S. Army Cpl. Michael Molinaro
FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq. Sept. 6, 2006 — “Iraqis helping Iraqis” was the theme in the Rasheed district Aug. 25-28 as locals helped patch together a road that had been blown apart by terrorists. Local contractors disregarded terrorist threats and ventured out to repair the roads and allow Iraqis to travel uninhibited.
“The workers did a great job and worked very hard for two days to complete this monumental task,” said Staff Sgt. Micah Greene, noncommissioned officer-in-charge, Company B, 412th Civil Affairs Battalion, attached to Multi-National Division – Baghdad. “This road repair demonstrates the local contractor’s patriotism and courage by standing up to the cowardly terrorists and working hard to fix this road.”
Numerous roadside bombs have detonated between Adwaniyah and Hawr Rajab, which left huge craters and made the roads impassable. Soldiers from Troop A, 1st Squadron, 10th Calvary Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, provided security while the contractors worked on the roads.
Many projects have been started in the Rasheed area because of the willingness of the local populace to end terrorism in their backyard, said Greene. The trash cleanup project not only beautifies the area but also gives terrorists less places to hide bombs on the side of roads.
Projects like road repairs make it easier for local civilians to get to work and makes it more difficult for the terrorists to find another hiding spot for their bombs. Road repairs hamper the terrorists’ efforts to repeat emplacing the bombs in areas they have established safe escape routes.
The repairs to the road also eased travel in the area, which has allowed the local economy to slowly recover, said Capt.Jon Bodenhamer, commander, Troop A, 1st Sqdn., 10th Cav. Regt. Prior to the repairs, shops on the damaged roads shut down for extended periods of time.
“Business has greatly improved because of this road repair,” said one Iraqi citizen. “It is easier to get Benzene from the local Benzene station because more fuel trucks can get there faster.”
Iraqis in the region continue to gather their own information on the actions of suspected terrorists in the area and turn that information over to Iraqi army soldiers and Coalition Forces, Bodenhamer said. This allows the IA and CF to stop any terrorists before innocent people are harmed or killed. Rewards are often given to those who help assist getting terrorists off of the street.
“More and more Iraqis are stepping up to the challenge every day and standing up to the terrorists,” Bodenhamer remarked. “They are beginning to realize that if they stand together, the terrorists cannot win.”
By Megan McCloskey - Stars and Stripes Pacific edition
Thursday, September 7, 2006
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — The super typhoon that pummeled Wake Island last week with up to 155 mph winds caused less damage than was expected, military officials said Tuesday after reviewing an aerial assessment of the atoll.
“It didn’t look as bad as we thought it was going to be,” said Capt. Brandon Maroon, division chief of the 36th Contingency Response Group at Andersen Air Force Base on Guam.
Officials had feared Ioke would cover the runway in debris, level buildings and take above-ground fuel tanks out to sea when it hit Thursday, he said.
The peak elevation on the island is about 20 feet, and forecasters had predicted a storm surge of 50 feet.
Forecasters feared that anything not made of concrete would be destroyed on the 2.5-square-mile island, which is home to a small U.S. military detachment and airfield.
Nearly 200 people — all of them servicemembers, Defense Department civilian employees or military contractors — live on the island and were evacuated to Hawaii last week.
An aerial assessment done by the U.S. Coast Guard over the weekend found the runway to be clear, with fuel tanks and vehicles still in position and buildings mostly intact, though some sustained considerable roof damage, Maroon said.
There also were no observable oil or other hazardous material spills, according to a statement from the Coast Guard. About 3 million gallons of aircraft fuel is housed on the island.
Andersen sent a small group from the 36th Contingency Response Group and the 36th Civil Engineer Squadron by sea Monday to further assess the damage on the ground. Members from the Coast Guard Pacific Strike Team also will be on the island.
Both were expected to arrive Thursday.
Maroon said a preliminary assessment of the integrity of the airfield runway will be the Air Force’s first priority. A team will drill holes in the runway to see if any water seeped underneath and changed its structure.
“Then we can give a thumbs up or thumbs down for contingency landings,” he said.
The response teams also will check out facility damage and the availability of electricity.
A Navy helicopter will be shuttling the team and equipment between the island and the ship, where people will stay during what is expected to be a weeklong process, Maroon said.
It remained unclear Tuesday what will happen to the base. Maroon said officials with Gen. George C. Kenney Headquarters at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, will decide “the need and urgency of making it an operational base again.”
Ioke has been downgraded to a tropical storm, and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center is forecasting that the storm will move northward and won’t hit Japan, a change from what was projected earlier.
Thread BUMP.
Thank you Gucho.
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Sept. 6, 2006 – The Afghan government is implementing a new national security system designed to strengthen the country’s security apparatus, U.S. officials reported.
The entire National Security Coordination System is to be fully operational by the end of 2008, officials said. The system will improve coordination among Afghan military and law enforcement agencies and enhance regional stability.
The system will consist of a National Coordination Center, five Joint Regional Coordination Centers and 34 Joint Provincial Coordination Centers. The centers will provide Afghan army and police leaders with operational information they can use to better-allocate security forces.
Current and planned regional and provincial Afghan National Police headquarters are to provide the foundation for the new coordination centers, with representation from the Afghan army and police forces and the National Directorate of Security, officials said.
In other news, Afghan and coalition forces yesterday captured two terrorists during a raid on a compound near the village of Pelankhel, in the Khowst province, U.S. officials reported.
The compound was part of a local terror network and a refuge for al Qaeda-linked operatives, officials said. The operation led to the detention of two terrorists suspected of plotting improvised-explosive-device attacks.
Several women and children were present at the compound, but none were harmed in the raid. Weapons, night vision equipment, and various devices suitable for making IEDs were confiscated during a search of the compound.
Elsewhere, Afghan National Police found and confiscated 13 mortar rounds in a pile of grass in the Khost district of Khost province on Sept. 4. The officers transported the munitions to their headquarters.
Also, in a separate incident in Paktika province on Sept. 4, coalition troops discovered an unattended mortar round near a coalition base in the Bermel district. Coalition forces disarmed and destroyed the mortar round at the discovery site.
“Recovering and disposing of these weapons increases the safety and security of Afghans and reduces the danger in the area posed by criminals and extremists who might use those munitions indiscriminately to cause harm on the Afghan people, Afghan security forces or coalition forces,” U.S. Army Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick, a Combined Joint Task Force 76 spokesman, said.
(Compiled from Combined Forces Command Afghanistan news releases.)
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By Lance Cpl. Ray Lewis - 1st Marine Division
CAMP HABBANIYAH, Iraq (Sept. 1, 2006) -- The “Betio Bastards” are taking a bite out of insurgents with the help of some four-legged friends.
Marines with 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment aren’t patrolling alone; they’re taking along man’s best friend, military-working dogs, to assist in combat operations. The canines are running, crawling and even braving insurgent fire right alongside their Marine handlers.
“The dogs patrol, clear houses and insert on boats with Marines,” said Cpl. Eric R. Snipes, a military working dog handler assigned to the battalion.
The 21-year-old from Albuquerque, N.M, said sometimes the dogs enter insurgent strongholds first. Their keen sense of hearing, smell and high-level of discipline assists Marines in finding and fixing insurgents in this area west of Habbaniyah.
“The battalion keeps us busy with combat missions,” said Cpl. Vincent Acevedo, also a military working dog handler with the unit. That’s good for our dogs because it keeps them sharp.”
The 20-year-old from New York City said the dogs are not only saving Marines lives but also the lives of innocent Iraqi civilians who walk the streets on a daily basis.
Acevedo named his dog CAR, the shortened version of Combat Action Ribbon Marines earn in combat under fire. CAR earned his name, several times over. He’s been right there when Marines dug up buried weapons caches, and he’s even braved enemy rocket-propelled grenade attacks.
When Acevedo, CAR and other Marines were headed to a firm base, they started receiving RPG and machine-gun fire from a chicken coop.
Marines, CAR included, took it all in stride.
“They took care of the situation,” Acevedo said. “They sent a squad out and moved into the next house. That night we stayed in that house.”
When all seemed well, the unit was attacked again.
CAR alerted Acevedo and other Marines when they started receiving a barrage of enemy mortar fire.
“A round landed about 10 meters away from me and my dog,” Acevedo said.
The blast was deafening. Acevedo said with all the commotion, explosions and Marines scrambling for cover and mount security, he couldn’t hear a thing. Still, CAR was there by his side.
“I just saw the dog barking, but there was no audible sound,” he said.
It was CAR who led the squad to safety. Acevedo and the other Marines moved out of the area before the enemy could pinpoint the unit’s position.
It’s not just Acevedo who’s convinced of CAR’s abilities and his performance in combat. Marines walking the beat alongside him rest easier knowing he’s there.
“It’s good to have the dogs around,” said Pfc. Malik J. Staggers, a 19-year-old rifleman from Bronx, N.Y., assigned to K Company. “They save a lot of lives.”
Lance Cpl. Charles E. Byerly, a 20-year-old dog handler, shows his dog Danny, 10, some love at Camp Habbaniyah, Iraq, Sept. 1. He wanted to care for his four-legged companion before they head back for Danny's retirement in Camp Lejeune, N.C. Danny has deloyed three times in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and one to Djibouti, Africa as a military working dog fighting insurgents with Marines. After the dog's retirement Byerly will adopt his battle buddy. Byerly is from Mars, Pa., and is currently serving a seven-month deployment with 3rd Battallion, 2nd Marine Regiment in the Habbaniyah area under Regimental Combat Team 5. (Photo by: Lance Cpl. Ray Lewis)
Lance Cpl. Charles E. Byerly is a 20-year-old military working dog handler serving with 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment. He and his dog Danny have been working side-by-side with other Marines to fight insurgency in the Habbaniyah area. Now after several combat operations they are preparing to redeploy to the United States for Danny's retirement in Camp Lejeune, N.C. Danny has deloyed three times in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and one to Djibouti, Africa as a military working dog. After the dog's retirement Byerly will adopt his battle buddy. Byerly is from Mars, Pa., and is currently serving a seven-month deployment in the Habbaniyah area under Regimental Combat Team 5. (Photo by: Lance Cpl. Ray Lewis)
9/6/2006
BAGHDAD - Iraqi authorities hanged 27 convicted "terrorists" on Wednesday, the interior ministry announced.
"Twenty-seven terrorists were hanged today in Baghdad. Most of them were Iraqis," interior ministry spokesman Abdul Karim Khalaf told AFP.
He said they were convicted for attacks on Iraqi civilians and sentenced to death, in an execution order signed by an Iraqi vice president.
Iraq in September 2005 hanged three convicted murderers in the first executions since the toppling of former dictator Saddam Hussein.
The authorities reinstated the death penalty which was abolished after the US-led invasion of March 2003.
09/06/2006 - 19:30 GMT
chinaview.cn
9/6/2006 - 03:42:56
WARSAW, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Polish Defense Minister Radoslaw Sikorski and his Iraqi counterpart Abed Al Kader Muhammad Jass discussed their possible future military cooperation and Iraq's proposed purchase of Polish military equipment on Wednesday.
The Iraqi defence minister said the visit of his delegation was "an expression of gratitude to the Polish people and authorities," expressing his thanks for Poland's actions and efforts toward ensuring Iraq's security and freedom, the Polish News Agency (PAP)reported.
Sikorski said that Poland would like to sell military equipment to Iraq.
Jass visited the Kielce Defense Fair held in the southern Polish city and indicated his interest in their offer, according to Sikorski.
Asked about the Polish mission in Iraq, Sikorski said no decisions had been taken yet. "We do not want to stay in Iraq a day longer than it is requested by the Iraqi government and a day longer than necessary," he stressed.
Poland has been a strong ally of the United States in the Iraq war with about 900 troops now stationed there. In February, Polish President Lech Kaczynski said their troops would be likely to stay in Iraq until 2007.
By Olivier Knox
September 6, 2006
WASHINGTON (AFP) -- US President George W. Bush said that the suspected architect of the September 11, 2001 terrorist strikes had been moved from secret CIA custody to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for trial.
Bush, confirming for the first time that the US Central Intelligence Agency covertly held prisoners overseas, defended that program as well as "tough" interrogation procedures that some critics have denounced as torture.
"It has been necessary to move these individuals to an environment where they can be held in secret, questioned by experts and, when appropriate, prosecuted for terrorist acts," he said in a speech at the White House.
"I cannot describe the specific methods used," because that might help terrorists learn how to resist, said the US president. "But I can say the procedures were tough, and they were safe, and lawful, and necessary."
Bush said he had moved Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed architect of the September 11 attacks, and 13 other top Al-Qaeda suspects to Guantanamo to be tried by military commissions that must be approved by the US Congress.
"As soon as Congress acts to authorize the military commissions I have proposed, the men our intelligence officials believe orchestrated the deaths of nearly 3,000 Americans on September 11, 2001 can face justice," Bush said.
The 14 suspects included Mohammed; Abu Zubaydah, thought to be a top aide to Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden; and presumed September 11 conspirator Ramzi bin al-Shibh.
Also among them was Hambali, allegedly a key member of the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) extremist network blamed for numerous Indonesian bomb attacks, including the October 2002 Bali bombings which killed 202 people.
Bush said that the International Committee of the Red Cross will have access to them, and the detainees, in turn, will have access to legal counsel. He stressed that "they will be presumed innocent."
At no point, however, did he suggest that any detainees, either in the CIA prisons or at Guantanamo, had been swept up by mistake and stressed instead that "they are in our custody so that they cannot murder our people."
With the transfer of the 14 suspects, Bush said the secret CIA program now holds no prisoners but will be kept operational in order to continue to detain and interrogate suspected extremists captured in the global war on terrorism.
The US president acknowledged that the CIA prisons, the detentions at Guantanamo, and aggressive interrogation tactics branded torture by human rights groups, had in some cases soured US relations with key allies.
"I want to be absolutely clear with our people and the world: The United States does not torture. It's against our laws and it's against our values. I have not authorized it and I will not authorize it," he stressed.
He also rejected calls to shut down the Guantanamo detention center, which holds roughly 445 prisoners plus the 14 transferred from CIA custody.
Bush was giving the third of a series of speeches on the war on terrorism ahead of critical November US legislative elections, which some in his party fear will be dominated by the unpopular war in Iraq.
The president's speech appeared to be an effort to respond to court rulings that have sharply undermined or flatly rejected his assertions of virtually limitless executive power in times of war.
The US Supreme Court ruled in June that Bush had overstepped his authority in forming military commissions to try detainees, saying it lacked congressional approval and failed to meet US and international standards.
The court held that the commissions and the special rules created for them violated the Geneva Conventions and the US Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), the body of law under which military cases are tried.
Bush asked the US Congress to approve military commissions and to pass legislation clarifying "vague and undefined" standards in the Geneva Conventions in order to allow his programs to continue.
You're welcome Gucho.
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