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Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld joined other high-ranking officials in the Bush administration March 22 in disputing claims made by a former White House counterterrorism official. Former antiterrorism chief Richard Clarke alleges in a new book and has said in interviews that President Bush and his advisers were slow to recognize the threat posed by al Qaeda before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and were too preoccupied with attacking Iraq to respond appropriately after the attacks. "The (National Security Council) began the process of working through a plan to deal with al Qaeda from the early days of the administration,"...

Making a 'Smooth' TransitionSubmitted by: 13th MEUStory Identification Number: 2003123112712Story by Capt. Bill Pelletier ABOARD USS PELELIU(Dec. 3, 2002) -- It?s been a busy year for Maj. Barry Dowell and some of his comrades. In October 2002, Dowell, a Harrier pilot by trade, was doing refresher training at VMAT-203, a training squadron at MCAS Cherry Point, N.C., after serving as a flight instructor in Texas for two years. Fast forward to three weeks ago, and Dowell had completed more than a dozen combat missions, most of them north of Baghdad. "It's pretty wild," said the 34-year-old Lexington, Ky., native,...

6/5/2003 - BEALE AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AFPN) -- Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John P. Jumper will present Maj. Jeffrey Olesen, a U-2 Dragon Lady pilot, with the 2002 Koren Kolligian Jr. Trophy during a June 13 ceremony at the Pentagon. Olesen, assistant director of operations for the 1st Reconnaissance Squadron here, will receive the award for safely coping with an in-flight emergency during an October 2001 Operation Southern Watch mission over Iraq. Flying above 70,000 feet, U-2 pilots normally operate their aircraft at full power. However, three hours into his mission, Olesen's aircraft began to experience rollbacks,...

<p>CORONADO, Calif. — Thousands of war-weary sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln came home Friday after one of the longest deployments in U.S. history -- and were greeted by warm hugs and loud cheers from their loved ones on shore.</p>

Farewell to US arms in Saudi ArabiaBy Charles Recknagel PRAGUE - While announcing the decision to scale down the United States's military presence at the joint US-Saudi Prince Sultan air base, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, on a swing through the Middle East, commented, "We do intend to maintain a continuing and healthy relationship with the Saudis. We look forward to exercises and training and working with them on their military, but we will have the opportunity to move some [US] forces out." Saudi Defense Minister Prince Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz confirmed his government's agreement with the step at a joint press...

PRINCE SULTAN AIR BASE, Saudi Arabia, April 29 — The United States said today that it would withdraw all combat forces in Saudi Arabia by this summer, ending more than a decade of military operations in this strategic Middle East nation that is America's largest oil supplier. The American presence here began as a joint operation to contain Saddam Hussein after the 1991 Persian Gulf war, but increasingly became dangerous for the American troops involved because Osama bin Laden and fellow terrorists resented their presence in the land of Islam's two holiest sites, Mecca and Medina. Twenty-four American soldiers died...

The United States has said that virtually all its troops, except some training personnel, are to be pulled out of Saudi Arabia. The decision was confirmed by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld during a joint news conference with Saudi Defence Minister Prince Sultan. Both men stressed that there were no differences between their countries and their co-operation would continue. Ever since the 1991 Gulf war, the US has had about 5,000 troops stationed in Saudi Arabia - a figure that rose to 10,000 during the recent conflict in Iraq. The BBC's Middle East analyst Roger Hardy says this is a...

US says pulling virtually all military from Saudi PRINCE SULTAN AIRBASE, Saudi Arabia, April 29 (Reuters) - The United States said on Tuesday it was ending military operations in Saudi Arabia and removing virtually all of its forces from the kingdom by mutual agreement after the Iraq war. Asked if Saudi Arabia had requested the move, a senior U.S. official told reporters travelling with U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on his tour of the Gulf: "It was by very mutual agreement." "When you no longer have Southern Watch, then its self-evident that you no longer need bodies here," the official...

On Friday, March 14, at 7:20 a.m. MST — five days before the official start of the war — two B-1B bombers struck the H3 airfield complex about 250 miles west of Baghdad. The bombers also hit another airfield complex nearby, according to the Associated Press. The Air Force did not say where the B-1Bs were based. Ellsworth Air Force Base has two squadrons of B-1Bs — or 26 aircraft. The other 34 aircraft in the nation's B-1B fleet are based at Dyess AFB, Texas. Nearly 1,000 Ellsworth personnel and an undisclosed number of Ellsworth B-1Bs are deployed overseas for...

The Pentagon (CNSNews.com) - In a prelude to a possible U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, coalition warplanes are stepping up attacks on Saddam Hussein's air defense system and on his forces' ability to effectively defend themselves in an attack, analysts and officials said Monday. During the weekend, coalition aircraft fired precision-guided weapons at five unmanned, underground military communications sites located about 60 miles southeast of Baghdad. The coalition targeted the sites after Iraqi forces launched a surface-to-air missile Sunday at coalition aircraft supporting Operation Southern Watch, officials said. The facilities at An Numinayah were specifically tied into Iraq's air defense system,...

US warplanes bombed a mobile radar for a surface-to-air missile system in Iraq's western desert in the latest air strikes against Iraqi air defences, the US military has said. The US Central Command said the mobile radar was south of Ar Rutbah, the site of an Iraqi airfield that protected the western approaches to Baghdad. The area was used to launch Scud missiles against Israel and Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War, and was expected to be a major focus of activity by Scud-hunting US and British special operations forces in the event of war. "The coalition executed today's strike...

Troop Deployments Raise Questions on War Timing and StrategyMar 04, 2003 Summary While equipment for the U.S. 4th Infantry Division languishes off the coast of Turkey, the Pentagon has announced the deployment of the 1st Armored Division, 1st Cavalry Division and 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment. Other units already have been ordered to the region and are backed up in an increasingly congested pipeline. Though the White House and Pentagon have suggested that the failure to win Turkish approval for U.S. deployments could delay the war by a month or more -- corresponding with the arrival of the new deployments...

The U.S. military buildup in the Gulf now includes the biggest concentration of American aircraft carriers in the region since the 1991 Gulf War. The USS Abraham Lincoln, one of five aircraft carriers preparing for a possible military campaign in Iraq. For many of the 5,500 men and women aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, the Persian Gulf is familiar territory. For the past 12 years, the carrier and its 70 aircraft have participated in Operation Southern Watch, the name given to coalition patrols of the no-fly zone over southern Iraq. The no-fly zone was established after the 1991 Gulf War...