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To: All

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=48268

“Army Funds Crunch Would Affect Installations Worldwide”

By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Nov. 29, 2007

#

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/11/20071129-6.html

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
November 29, 2007

“Just the Facts: 2007 War Funding by the Numbers”

“Congress Is Ignoring The Recommendations Of Our Military Commanders By Withholding Funding For Troops In The Field”

White House News
In Focus: Iraq
In Focus: National Security

#

Note: The following text is a quote:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/11/20071129-31.html

For Immediate Release
November 29, 2007

President Bush Receives Briefings at Department of Defense
Pentagon
Arlington, Virginia

3:59 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon. Thanks for coming. I just finished briefings with Secretary Gates, Deputy Secretary England, Admiral Mullen, and the Joint Chiefs. We discussed the long-term needs of our military services and the importance of progressing with modernization.

The men and women of this department, the Department of Defense, are helping to carry out the government’s most important duty: protecting the American people. Every day they confront America’s enemies. Every day they work to stop the spread of dangerous weapons. And every day they guard against those seeking to bring another day of destruction to our shores. The missions of this department are essential to saving American lives. And they are too important to be disrupted, or delayed, or put at risk.

Beginning in February, I submitted detailed funding requests to the United States Congress to fund operations in the war on terror. Our military has waited on these funds for months. The funds include money to carry out combat operations against the enemy in Afghanistan and Iraq. They include money to train the Afghan and Iraqi Security Forces to take on more responsibility for the defense of their countries. They include money for intelligence operations to protect our troops on the battlefield.

Pentagon officials have warned Congress that the continued delay in funding our troops will soon begin to have a damaging impact on the operations of this department. The warning has been laid out for the United States Congress to hear. Recently Secretary Gates sought to clear up any misperception that the department can fund our troops for an indefinite period simply by shifting money around. In fact, Congress limits how much money can be moved from one account to the other. Secretary Gates has already notified Congress that he will transfer money from accounts used to fund other activities of the military services to pay for current operations in Iraq and Afghanistan

— and no more money can be moved. So he has directed the Army and Marine Corps to develop a plan to lay off civilian employees, to terminate contracts, and to prepare our military bases across the country for reduced operations. These are contingency steps that a prudent manager must take.

Secretary Gates and America’s senior military officials have made a reasoned case to Congress for the funds they need to keep the military running. They have carefully explained the need to plan prudently should those funds not be forthcoming. Secretary Gates puts it this way: “The Defense Department is like the world’s biggest supertanker. It cannot turn on a dime and I cannot steer it like a skiff.”

The American people expect us to work together to support our troops. That’s what they want. They do not want the government to create needless uncertainty for those defending our country, and uncertainty for their families. They do not want disputes in Washington to undermine our troops in Iraq just as they’re seeing clear signs of success.

Here in Washington, leaders have a responsibility to send the right message to the rest of the world. Let us tell our enemies that America will do what it takes to defeat them. Let us tell Afghans and Iraqis that we will stand with them as they take the fight to our common enemies. Let us tell our men and women in uniform that we will give them what they need to succeed in their missions — without strings and without delay.

I ask Congress to provide this essential funding to our troops before the members leave on their Christmas vacation. And I thank the members of this department for their hard work, their sacrifice, their courage, and their dedication to peace.

God bless.

END 4:04 P.M. EST


1,383 posted on 11/29/2007 6:24:21 PM PST by Cindy
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To: Cindy; All

Update: pic at link

Fake bomb at ROM part of OCAD student’s project

An Ontario College of Art and Design student who created a video about a bomb going off at the Royal Ontario Museum for a class project was also behind the bomb hoax at the museum Wednesday night that forced its evacuation and disrupted a high profile AIDS fundraiser.

Thorarinn Jonsson, 24, said yesterday he never expected the final piece in his art project to result in such an “overreaction”, since he left a note on the suspicious package indicating it was not a bomb.

“I expected police to take it seriously, and then to quickly realize what they were dealing with,” Mr. Jonsson told City News.........

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2007/11/29/fake-bomb-at-rom-part-of-ocad-student-s-project.aspx


1,384 posted on 11/29/2007 7:31:54 PM PST by Velveeta (Duncan Hunter, 08' !!! The real conservative.)
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