Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks during a conference on Oct. 26, in Tehran entitled 'The World without Zionism.' Ahmadinejad said on Israel should be 'wiped off the map'. (AP Photo / ISNA)
Posted on 10/31/2005 9:08:03 PM PST by Gucho
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Friday, July 15, 2005
President George Bush said the survival of Israel would be threatened if the United States surrenders to terrorism.
In a wide-ranging speech to U.S. troops on Oct. 28, Bush cited Israel as a major target of Al Qaida and outlined the likely ramifications of a perceived U.S. loss in the War on Terror.
"With the greater economic, military and political power they seek, the terrorists would be able to advance their stated agenda: to develop weapons of mass destruction, to destroy Israel, to intimidate Europe, to assault the American people, and to blackmail our government into isolation," the president said.
Bush did not refer to repeated statements last week by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Israel should be "wiped off the map." But administration officials said the Iranian statements could not be dismissed. "I think it has to be taken seriously," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Saturday. "When the president of one country says that another country should be wiped off the face of the map in violation of all of the norms of the United Nations where they sit together as members, it has to be taken seriously."
Bush referred to attacks in Israel and other Middle East states since 2001. The president cited Al Qaida strikes against Israeli tourists in the Sinai in 2004 as well a Hamas suicide bombing in the Israeli city of Netanya.
The president dismissed arguments that Israel's presence in the West Bank has fueled terrorism. He said this was one of many pretexts used to justify Islamic attacks against the West and its supporters.
"Over the years these extremists have used a litany of excuses for violence — the Israeli presence on the West Bank, or the U.S. presence in Saudi Arabia, or the defeat of the Taliban, or the Crusades of a thousand years ago," Bush said.
For his part, Bush said the United States requires partners in the war against Al Qaida and its aligned groups. He cited the need for allies in the Middle East and other areas.
"Defeating a broad and adaptive network requires patience and constant pressure and strong partners in Europe, in the Middle East, and North Africa, and Asia and beyond," Bush said. "Working with these partners, we are disrupting militant conspiracies, destroying their ability to make war, and are working to give millions in a troubled region of the world a hopeful alternative to resentment and violence."
The U.S. counter-terror strategy has sought to prevent attacks and the acquisition of weapons of mass destruction by Islamic insurgency groups, Bush said. Citing Iran and Syria, the president said the United States has worked to deny sanctuary to insurgents and prevent them from gaining control of any nation.
Bush cited the Proliferation Security Initiative as a major tool in the war against terrorism. He said PSI halted more than a dozen shipments of suspected weapons technology — including equipment for Iran's ballistic missile program. The president did not elaborate.
"State sponsors like Syria and Iran have a long history of collaboration with terrorists — and they deserve no patience from the victims of terror," Bush said. "The United States makes no distinction between those who commit acts of terror and those who support and those who support and harbor them — because they are equally guilty of murder."
Millions of pounds of unused weapons of mass destruction were dumped in oceans before Congress banned the practice in 1972. The threat is still out there, and may be growing.
October 30, 2005
By John Bull - Special to The Morning Call (6 Pages)
First of a two-day series
A clam dredging operation off the coast of Atlantic City, N.J., in 2004 pulled up an old artillery shell.
The long-submerged, World War I-era explosive was filled with a black, tar-like substance.
Bomb disposal technicians from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware were brought in to dismantle it. Three of them were injured, one hospitalized with large, pus-filled blisters on his arm and hand.
The shell was filled with mustard gas in solid form.
What was long-feared by the few military officials in the know had come to pass: Chemical weapons that the Army dumped at sea decades ago had finally ended up on shore in the United States.
While it has long been known that some chemical weapons went into the ocean, records obtained by the Daily Press of Newport News, Va., show that the previously classified weapons-dumping program was far more extensive than has ever been suspected.
The Army now admits in reports never before released that it secretly dumped 64 million pounds of nerve and mustard gas agent into the sea, along with 400,000 chemical-filled bombs, land mines and rockets and more than 500 tons of radioactive waste either tossed overboard or packed into the holds of scuttled vessels. more...
October 31, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A Saudi-born member of al Qaeda involved in smuggling foreign fighters into Iraq was killed Oct. 29 as he attempted to flee Coalition Forces.
Multiple intelligence sources and tips from concerned citizens led Coalition Forces to a location near Ubaydi where a senior Saudi al Qaeda foreign fighter facilitator known as Sa’ud (aka Abu Sa’ud) would be located. Upon arrival at the location, Coalition Forces attempted to secure the vehicle containing Sa’ud and other terrorists when the driver tried to escape. Coalition Forces shot at the vehicle, killing Abu Sa’ud and three unknown terrorists.
Abu Sa’ud, a Saudi extremist, was a senior al Qaeda terrorist who funneled foreign fighters and suicide bombers into Iraq. Intelligence sources believe that Sa’ud recently arrived from Saudi Arabia to shore up the leadership of al Qaeda in Iraq foreign fighter and terrorists cells whose previous leaders have been captured or killed in recent months.
Coalition Forces were informed that an alleged meeting was being arranged in the coming days in which Sa’ud was to take control of foreign fighter facilitation in the al Qaim and Husaybah region. It was also believed that Sa’ud would take on a more active role in the planning and execution of operations against Coalition Forces.
Source : CPIC - Iraq
October 30, 2005
CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq -- The last time 5th Battalion, 14th Marines, 4th Marine Division, was deployed to a combat zone Franklin D. Roosevelt was president and the United States was in a world war against the Japanese in the South Pacific.
Arriving here late September after more than 60 years of readiness, the battalion is back in the fight.
Various elements of 5th Bn., 14th Marines, served in support of Operation Desert Storm in the early 1990s, however this marks the first time the whole battalion was deployed to a combat zone since World War II.
Although 5th Bn., 14th Marines, is an artillery unit by trade, they deployed as a provisional military police battalion with Marines coming from various active duty and reserve units throughout the Marine Corps.
"Five-Fourteen is a combination of units," said Chief Warrant Officer Thomas Tomka, force protection and mobile training team commander, Headquarters Company, Military Police Battalion, 5th Bn., 14th Marines, II Marine Expeditionary Force (FWD). "We have Marines from 1st Battalion, 14th Marines, an active duty MP Company from Camp Pendleton, a TOW Company from 25th Regiment, MP’s from Louisiana and Minnesota, and Marines from 4th Force Reconnaissance from Hawaii and [Reno, Nev.,]."
Prior to deploying in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the unit came together at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms, Calif., for security and stability operations training and a revised combined arms exercise.
"We spent from June, when we got activated, to September at Twentynine Palms training for this," said Tomka, a Vietnam and Gulf War veteran. "We got acclimated and trained for this mission and we are motivated."
The battalion is tasked with four main missions while serving in Iraq: area security, convoy security, law enforcement and operating five detention facilities throughout Al Anbar province, to include the detention facility here.
The battalion is not the first reserve unit to deploy and support a mission with a different military occupational specialty other than their own, however they have laid the ground work for the training of future reserve units with the same mission.
"We met the needs of the Marine Corps by overcoming and adapting our MOS qualifications to meet the mission requirements," said 1st Sgt. Ronnie Freeman, first sergeant, Headquarters Company, MP Bn., 5th Bn., 14th Marines, II MEF (FWD). "Even though we are all infantry trained, there were still training requirements which needed to be instituted to ensure the success of the mission. We analyzed these deficiencies, developed a training plan and executed the plan with as much realism as training allowed."
For these Marines, transitioning from an artillery unit to a provisional military police battalion was not as difficult a task as it may have been for other units.
Stacked with civilian law enforcement personnel from various state and federal departments, the battalion was more than ready to accept its new role.
"The mission pulls very heavily from our civilian skills," said Tomka. "We have law enforcement people and we also have Marines who work for state and federal corrections. This isn’t your normal reserve unit; it’s a very experienced unit."
For Cpl. Jose Orantes, 26, battalion supply chief, Headquarters Company, MP Bn., 5th Bn., 14th Marines, II MEF (FWD), their mission has been according to plan.
"We have been very effective," said the Highland Park, Calif., native. "We’re an artillery unit turned MP battalion and were doing great. We’re doing the things we need to do to make sure everything goes smooth. I’m up at all hours of the night making sure our guys have the gear they need to effectively carry out all missions."
Although many units have come together to support 5th Bn., 14th Marines, MP Bn., the Marines have built strong relationships with each other.
"We’re doing everything we need to do to get the mission accomplished," said Cpl. Lucio Bernabe, 26, the battalion Marine Corps Integrated Maintenance Management System specialist, Headquarters Company, MP Bn., 5 th Bn., 14th Marines, II MEF (FWD). "The Marines are very supportive and close knit. We are a very tight knit family."
Story by Cpl. Evan M. Eagan - II Marine Expeditionary Force (FWD)
ADDITIONAL PHOTO:
Corporal Joshua Zambrano, 23, a mechanic attached to Headquarters Company, 5th Battalion, 14th Marines, II Marine Expeditionary Force (FWD), from 4th Force Reconnaissance, 4th Marine Division, based in Reno, Nev., works on a humvee at the battalion motor pool. Although 5th Bn., 14th Marines, is an artillery unit by trade, they deployed as a provisional military police battalion with Marines coming from various active duty and reserve units throughout the Marine Corps. (Photo by: Cpl. Evan M. Eagan)
By Joseph Giordono - Stars and Stripes Mideast edition
Tuesday, November 1, 2005
Military engineers have completed expansion work on one of three U.S. military prisons in Iraq that will replace the notorious Abu Ghraib complex this spring, officials said Sunday.
Fort Suse, near Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq, is capable of housing some 1,700 “security detainees” and opened for operation with the delivery of the first 50 detainees on Oct. 24, the military said in a release from Baghdad.
“The opening of Fort Suse is a big step in the transition of detention operations to the Iraqis. It will be the first facility to be completely turned over to Iraqi control. This complete transition of operations will take place after extensive training of Iraqi guards and only after they are completely confident in their ability to run this facility,” Maj. Gen. William Brandenburg, commanding general of Detainee Operations, said in the release.
Some 150 Iraqi guards are now working with U.S. soldiers of Task Force 33 at the facility, officials said. Another 350 Iraqi guards will be added to the staff as the transition moves forward.
“We’re not putting a drop-dead timeline on this,” Brandenburg said. “We will transition detention operations at Fort Suse to the Iraqis when they are completely confident and ready. The Iraqis are committed to doing this right and we will not set an arbitrary deadline.”
Fort Suse was formerly a Russian-built military training facility, officials said. The renovation into a detention facility cost around $8 million, with the construction work being completed by the 20th Engineer Brigade and Iraqi construction company workers.
Detainees will also be moved to an expanded facility at Camp Cropper and the existing facility at Camp Bucca, in southern Iraq. The headquarters for the U.S. military’s detention operations would also move from Abu Ghraib to Camp Cropper.
“We are building a new Camp Cropper — and when it is completed in the Feb ’06 timeframe — our plan is to transfer operations from Abu Ghraib and close Abu,” Lt. Col. Guy Rudisill, spokesman for Multi-National Force-Iraq’s detainee operations, told Stripes in an August e-mail interview.
The plans call for U.S. forces to move an unspecified number of “prisoners of interest” now detained at Abu Ghraib to Camp Cropper, a U.S. detention facility near Baghdad, where they would remain under U.S. control, said a civilian member of U.S. Army Europe headquarters, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The civilian said the plan called for the transfer of prisoners in February or March. The Camp Cropper expansion will increase its holding ability from 163 prisoners to 2,000, said Lt. Col. Stan Heath, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Gulf Region Division in Baghdad. The corps is heading up the $23 million project, which began in June.
Camp Cropper currently houses around 150 detainees, officials said. The plan would sever the U.S. association with Abu Ghraib, where photographs released worldwide in April 2004 showed U.S. soldiers and others abusing and humiliating prisoners.
Last Updated: Tuesday, 1 November 2005 - 07:17 GMT
A military truck carrying missile parts has been caught up in an explosion inside a South Korean highway tunnel, according to TV reports.
The truck was in a four-vehicle convoy travelling through the highway tunnel between the southern cities of Taegu and Masan, YTN television said.
Reports say a tire on one of the trucks caught fire.
YTN said two trucks and 80 cars were trapped in the tunnel, but one witness said he thought everyone escaped.
"All of the motorists escaped the tunnel, leaving their cars behind," Kim Tae-Soo told YTN.
A defence military spokesman told the French news agency AFP the ministry was still trying to verify the reported incident.
Pretrial opens in `fragging' deaths of two officers
By Diana Elias - The Associated Press
Posted November 1 2005
CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait · A pretrial investigation opened Monday for a U.S. Army sergeant charged with killing two superior officers in Iraq, with a witness testifying that the defendant told him he wanted to kill one of the victims.
Staff Sgt. Alberto Martinez, 37, of Troy, N.Y., faces murder charges in the June 7 killing of Capt. Philip Esposito and Lt. Louis E. Allen in an explosion at Forward Operating Base Danger, near the central Iraqi city of Tikrit, the hometown of the deposed Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, 80 miles north of Baghdad.
It is thought to be first case of a U.S. soldier in Iraq accused of "fragging" his superiors. Fragging is a Vietnam War-era term used to refer to soldiers killing their superiors.
The prosecutor, Capt. Adam Siple, asked for a recommendation to continue to a court-martial.
Martinez's defense counsel countered that there was no real evidence presented against their client.
"Their argument is much more persuasive than any evidence that was presented," Maj. Marc Cipriano said.
After nine witnesses testified, the hearing adjourned until today, when investigating officer Col. Patrick Reinert will decide whether to recommend that a court-martial take place.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-ainvestigation01nov01,0,5361736.story?coll=sfla-news-nationworld
By THOMAS WAGNER - Associated Press Writer
November 1 2005, 4:33 AM EST
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- A day after releasing new casualty figures showing that October was the fourth deadliest month for U.S. forces in the Iraq war, the military issued a report Tuesday showing how hard it can be to prevent the deadliest form of attack: roadside bombs.
The report, summarizing combat operations in and around Baghdad over a five-day period, said U.S. forces had found several powerful roadside bombs hidden in two vehicles on Saturday.
The day before, soldiers caught three suspected insurgents planting a bomb along a street and defused it before it could be used in an attack. On Thursday, a roadside bomb exploded, damaging a U.S. patrol, and when its soldiers chased three Iraqi men into a nearby home, they found it contained more bomb-making materials, the military said.
On Monday, the U.S. command reported that seven American service members were killed, six on Monday and one on Sunday. All of them were victims of increasingly sophisticated roadside bombs that have become the deadliest weapon in the insurgents' arsenal.
The new deaths made October the fourth deadliest month for troops here since the war began. A powerful roadside bomb also exploded on Monday among civilians in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city and the major metropolis of the Shiite-dominated south, which has witnessed less violence than Sunni areas.
On Tuesday, Basra police raised the casualty figures to 20 dead and 71 wounded. The attack occurred along a bustling street packed with shops and restaurants as people were enjoying an evening out after the daily Ramadan fast.
In new attacks on Tuesday, two roadside bombs exploded, one in Baghdad and one south of the capital, killing a police officer and wounding three Iraqis, officials said.
On a road near Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, a suicide attacker with explosives hidden beneath his clothes lunged at a police patrol that had been slowed by traffic, wounding the city's police commander, Col. Khatab Rash, and his driver, police said.
Military commanders have warned that Sunni insurgents will step up their attacks in the run-up to the Dec. 15 election, when Iraqis will choose their first full-term parliament since the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003.
To guard against such attacks, the military has raised the number of American troops in Iraq to 157,000 -- among the highest levels of the Iraq conflict.
Most of the combat deaths and injuries in recent months have been a result of the increasing use by insurgents of sophisticated homemade bombs. The military refers to those bombs as "improvised explosive devices," or IEDs.
Last Friday, an IED killed Col. William W. Wood, 44, of Panama City, Fla. an infantry battalion commander. He was promoted posthumously, making him the highest-ranking soldier killed in action in the Iraq conflict, according to the Pentagon.
"We see an adversary that continues to develop some sophistication on very deadly and increasingly precise stand-off type weapons -- IEDs, in particular," Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita told reporters Monday.
The insurgents continually search for new and more effective ways to use IEDs, Di Rita said, while U.S. forces look for new ways to counter the threat.
"We're getting more intelligence that's allowing us to stop more of these things, find more of them. So we're learning from them and the enemy is learning from us, and it's going to be that way for as long as there is an insurgency," he said.
Monday's deadliest attack against U.S. service members came in an area known as the "triangle of death." Four soldiers from the U.S. Army's Task Force Baghdad died when their patrol struck a roadside bomb in Youssifiyah, 12 miles south of Baghdad.
Two other soldiers from the Army's 29th Brigade Combat Team were also killed in a bombing Monday near Balad, 50 miles north of the capital. The U.S. military also reported that a Marine died the day before in a roadside bombing near Amiriyah, an insurgent hotspot 25 miles west of Baghdad.
The U.S. military death toll for October is now at least 92, the highest monthly total since January, when 106 American service members died -- more than 30 of them in a helicopter crash that was ruled an accident. Only during two other months since the war began has the U.S. military seen a higher toll: in November 2004, when 137 Americans died, and in April 2004, when 135 died. The latest deaths brought to 2,025 the number of U.S. service members who have died since the Iraq war began in March 2003. The number includes five military civilians.
The ongoing violence has killed a far greater number of Iraqis.
THE TIMES OF INDIA
Tuesday, November 01, 2005 - 10:14:15 am
(5 Pages)
From C-Span Radio Archives.
that is scary about the chemicals in the sea. I believe the earth has a great ability to rejuvinate but we should not have such outrageous amounts/types put in the mix..thanks for your continual scampering around to find us good news Gucho!!!
The Associated Press
November 1, 2005 at 09:47 AM
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AP) - A mock airport, library, gas station and bank are opening at this base Wednesday to help U.S. troops learn how to deal with the roadside bombs that have taken such a high toll in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The new Advanced Improvised Explosive Device Training Facility will consist of six urban structures. It will be part of the Naval Explosive Ordnance Disposal School at Eglin, which trains bomb squad members for all services.
Groups of about 25 troops each, mostly experienced bomb squad members, will receive classroom instruction on improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, and will then face scenarios at the training sites that mimic what they are likely to see in the real world. The course will take about three weeks.
"We're trying to take out the simulation and be as realistic as possible," said Air Force Tech. Sgt. Matthew Gebstadt, an instructor.
The training structures include a drive-through ATM at a bank called Big Money Savings & Loan. There are actually books on the library's shelves.
Students will also get instruction on using sensors and electronic countermeasures to handle homemade bombs and learn techniques for dealing with chemical weapons and radioactive "dirty bombs."
Kirkuk bombing targets police commander
1 November 2005
A suicide attack in Kirkuk in northern Iraq has wounded the city's police commander. Witnesses say the assailant may have been as young as 13. It is reported he lunged at a police patrol and detonated explosives hidden under his clothes. Colonel Khatab Rashis is a senior member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party, which is led by the Iraqi president.
Kirkuk lies around 300 kilometres north of Baghdad and has seen an increasing overspill of violence from areas further south wracked by a Sunni-led insurgency. In other developments, US authorities have released 500 prisoners from the Abu Ghraib jail to coincide with the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fit which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan. October was one of the bloodiest months for American troops in Iraq - 94 were killed.
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