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BAGHDAD, Iraq (NNS) -- The 354th Civil Affairs Brigade (CAB), the first civil affairs brigade in Iraq made up primarily of Sailors, completed its first four months here, Aug. 16, as the primary administrative controlling manager for civil affairs units throughout Iraq. During the first months of its year-long deployment to Baghdad, the 354 CAB coordinated and ensured the successful completion of numerous community-oriented projects. Among the active-duty individual augmentees and Reservists called upon to deploy with the unit, more than 75 percent of the brigade headquarters is Navy. Army Col. Vernon Harris, 354th CAB's commander, said working in a...

The formation of Overwatch Battlegroup – West has opened a new chapter in the Australian army’s long and distinguished history of military operations in the Middle East. Formerly known as Al Muthanna Task Group 3, the 450-strong Australian unit is tasked with providing operational supervision in support of Provincial Iraqi Control in Al Muthanna province, southern Iraq. Al Muthanna on July 13 became the first province in Iraq to achieve PIC. It gives Iraqi security forces the lead role in maintaining a secure environment for their people. Following Iraqi control, Multi-National Forces in the province began handing over their bases,...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's activation of the California National Guard to bolster airline security began seamlessly at some airports on Friday, appeared haphazard at others and was rejected at Oakland International - one of three airports the governor said was most important to protect. With 640 activated troops, the Guard's first airport deployment since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was to begin costing about $128,000 a day in anti-terror funding. The scattershot nature of the deployment was evident throughout the state, with troops helping ease long lines at security checkpoints in Southern California but being relegated to distant fields in San...

WASHINGTON, July 27, 2006 – Soldiers of the 4th Infantry Division's 4th Brigade Combat Team are working to set conditions for the Iraqi government to take charge of essential services and public works within Baghdad. Army Lt. Col. Joe Gandara, commander of Special Troops Battalion, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, meets with neighborhood representatives in the Doura Baladiya, in southwestern Baghdad. Local representatives often detail the most pressing needs of their neighborhoods and communities. Photo by Staff Sgt. Brent Williams, USA  '(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The brigade's Special Troops Battalion has taken the lead in...

SOUTHWEST ASIA, July 19, 2006 – A U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter, providing nontraditional intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support to coalition ground forces, killed a member of an improvised explosive device cell and identified an IED emplacement yesterday near Baqubah, Iraq, U.S. Central Command Air Forces officials reported today. The F-16 identified three possible IED emplacers and passed the information to ground forces. Ground unit personnel positively identified the terrorists and requested the F-16 engage the hostile forces. The F-16 strafed the terrorists, killing one and ending the engagement. Coalition aircraft, operationally controlled by U.S. Central Command Air Forces from...

Scientists debate role climate change plays in creating civilizations Tuesday, July 04, 2006 BRADLEY T . LEPPER One of archaeology’s "big questions" is explaining the origins of civilization. In anthropology, "civilization" has a technical definition. To qualify as a civilization, a society must have all or most of the following characteristics: cities with large populations; a hierarchical social organization, with a king, pharaoh or president at the top of the organizational chart; an economy based on agriculture; monumental architecture; and a system of record-keeping. The earliest civilizations arose in Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley and northern China. Based on this...

(WCCO) Minneapolis On March 30, Minnesota Timberwolves center Eddie Griffin was drunk and masturbating when he crashed his luxury SUV into a parked Suburban outside a store in Minneapolis, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday by the man whose Suburban was hit in the crash. The WCCO-TV I-TEAM obtained copies of 911 calls and store surveillance video of the incident, along with an accident report the police submitted to the state. Several of the 911 callers that night said Griffin was drunk. One witness said Griffin told him he was watching pornography in a DVD player mounted on the dashboard...

DAMASCUS, Syria - Khaled Mashaal's aides praised the capture of an Israeli soldier as a daring operation but claimed Wednesday that the Damascus-based Hamas leader played no role in it. Israel sees him as the brains behind the abduction and threatened to try to assassinate him. The accusations have placed Mashaal at the center of a debate over who runs Hamas, which has power centers in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and the Syrian capital — where its leadership is seen by some as the most hard-line. Mashaal has not spoken in public since Sunday's kidnapping of Cpl. Gilad...

WASHINGTON, May 26, 2006 – More and more Iraqi national police are working alongside U.S. soldiers in securing southern Baghdad, a U.S. Army colonel working there said today. Terrorists would like the American public to believe violent groups are winning the fight in Baghdad, Army Col. Michael Beech, commander of 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, said from Forward Operating Base Prosperity in central Baghdad. "But, of course, that's not what's happening here," he said. Beech's brigade includes 4,400 U.S. troops, a battalion of soldiers from the former Soviet republic of Georgia, and about 2,000 Iraq soldiers and police....

Reid’s role in Nevada House race seen as 2010 political playBy Alexander Bolton Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is active behind the scenes trying to help defeat Rep. Jon Porter (R-Nev.) in what Nevada political observers interpret as an effort to protect himself from a future challenge. Reid’s prominent role as Democratic Party leader and spokesman is seen as politically risky in a red state that President Bush carried in 2000 and 2004 and Ronald Reagan won twice with over 60 percent of the vote. A recent poll showing that Reid’s approval rating has declined in Nevada raises the...

CHAPEL HILL - A man charged with trying to kill students at the University of North Carolina by driving through a popular campus gathering spot says in a series of letters he does not deserve punishment. He also talks about his youth in Charlotte, referring at one point to a school fight he said he started at Myers Park Traditional Elementary School. And he refers to Mohammed Atta, ringleader of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States, aqs "one of my role models." Mohammed Taheri-azar is accused of driving a Jeep Cherokee into a crowd of students gathered at...

One of my readers is an underemployed 59-year-old man from among us here in the South Suburbs. Call him Harry. He works in information technology. Slowly and wearily, he says: "Once you get past 50, I swear, it gets tough, it gets really tough." For instance, Harry applied for a job with a city of Chicago department that operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. He got an offer for some contract work. There were no benefits, but it was a paying job. A woman from the city called him one Monday morning and wanted to know if...

My husband jokes that I should have been an electrician. In this age of outsourcing and job insecurity, the trades seem to us to be the best professions of the future. To be sure, most aren't glamorous and are often physically demanding. But a number seem to have financial security and stability, and their job portability doesn't hurt, either. Many of us white-collar employees don't get to choose where we will live; we must go wherever our employer requires us. Many folks in the trades can command a good income, choose their own hours, and put down roots in a...

WASHINGTON, March 24, 2006 – As Iraqi forces assume more responsibility for security duties, they're receiving backup and other kinds of support from the U.S. military, a senior Defense Department spokesman said here today. "U.S. military forces remain in supporting roles with the ability to offer a surge capability to Iraqi security forces," Bryan Whitman told Pentagon reporters. U.S. forces in Iraq also provide logistical support to fledgling Iraqi security forces, Whitman said. Whitman agreed with Army Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey's assessment during a briefing from Iraq earlier today that Iraqi forces are rapidly moving toward taking over border- control...

WASHINGTON - A government report released Thursday does not recommend giving the Environmental Protection Agency the power to stop states from adopting tough vehicle-emission standards similar to those in California. In a setback for automakers, the National Academies' National Research Council said California's role in setting emission standards has been scientifically valid and necessary because of persistent pollution in parts of the nation's most populous state. The study, eagerly anticipated by the auto industry and environmentalists, examined emissions standards for mobile sources such as cars, light trucks and construction vehicles. The panel found that substantial progress has been made in...

WASHINGTON, March 8, 2006 – Multiservice U.S. special operations forces are at the tip of the spear in the war against global terrorism, a senior DoD official said on Capitol Hill today. America's special operators continue "to play a leading role in our nation's current campaigns" against international terrorists at far-flung battlefields in Afghanistan, Iraq and other locales, Thomas W. O'Connell said in remarks prepared for delivery to the House Armed Services Committee. Terrorists in these places are being given a drubbing by U.S. military and allied forces, said O'Connell, assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity...

Peru, Mexico Finds Hint At Women's RolesBy CARL HARTMAN Associated Press Writer March 3, 2006, 2:33 PM EST (In a March 2 story about an archaeological exhibit on pre-Columbian women, The Associated Press erroneously reported where it's on view. The exhibit is at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, not the Smithsonian Institution's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. A corrected version of the story appears below.) WASHINGTON (AP) -- Archaeological finds from Mexico and Peru show that, long before Europeans arrived, women served as warriors, governors and priestesses. An exhibit at the National Museum of Women in the Arts...

Military to plan for larger role in disaster relief: Pentagon WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US military will plan to assume a larger role in domestic disaster relief, including taking the lead in major catastrophes like Hurricane Katrina, a Pentagon spokesman said. A White House report on the lessons of Katrina said the military and the coast guard proved to be the only federal entities capable of turning the president's orders into prompt action on the ground. A key recommendation of the report was for the Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security to plan for "those extraordinary circumstances when it is...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE HIT, Iraq (Jan. 25, 2006) -- Rolling through treacherous terrain, convoys or combat logistics patrols of the Marine Expeditionary Unit Service Support Group 22 are constantly on the move delivering supplies and transporting Iraqi soldiers and U.S. Marines throughout the Al Anbar province of Iraq. Aboard the convoys leaving Forward Operating Base Hit, every Marine and sailor knows their role. Some are prepared to counter small arms fire from insurgents and all are vigilant of the improvised explosive device threat. “On convoys, everyone has a job to do,” said Capt. Troy M. Pugh, the Baltimore native and...

MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO (Jan. 13, 2006) -- The Department of Defense authorized the retirement of Jaco, a military working dog for 10 years, and his adoption by former handler Sgt. Jerrod M. Glass, Jan. 8. Jaco was a member of one of seven military working dog teams stationed here as a first line of defense in the protection of depot personnel and resources through explosive and narcotic detection in support of the depot's anti-terrorism efforts. In correlation with the recent retirement of the explosives detecting canine, Jaco, and Hertha, a narcotics detecting military working dog, the K-9...