Free Republic

4/22/2010 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFNS) -- Under the charge of 379th Air Expeditionary Wing Top 3 organization affiliates, base members here helped ease the stress of other servicemembers while recuperating from injury or passing through on their way home to an emergency situation. During a two-week clothing drive, organization members collected more than $8,200 in money and clothing to support wounded warriors and servicemembers on emergency leave orders. "I couldn't be more pleased with the outcome of this project," said Master Sgt. Michelle McMeekin, the 379th Expeditionary Force Support Airman Readiness Center NCO and Top 3 lead on the clothing...

3/10/2010 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFNS) -- The first and last men to walk on the moon, the commander of Apollo 13, the last Air Force pilot "Ace" and the SR-71 chief test pilot, all "Legends of Aerospace," were the honored guests of the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing March 8 at an air base in Southwest Asia. Hundreds of servicemembers flocked to the base theater to hear the stories of Neil Armstrong, retired Navy Capt. Gene Cernan, retired Navy Capt. Jim Lovell, retired Brig. Gen. Steve Ritchie and Bob Gilliland as they made a special appearance while visiting military installations throughout...

SOUTHWEST ASIA, March 5, 2010 – After Sept. 11, 2001, Air Force Staff Sgt. Sparkle Reid was a different person. She was in one of the 2,973 families who grieved after losing a family member in the tragedy. Air Force Staff Sgt. Sparkle Reid is deployed to an air base in Southwest Asia from the 48th Force Support Squadron at Lakenheath, England. U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Scott T. Sturkol  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Reid lost her uncle, Louie A. Williams, when the World Trade Center towers came down. He worked on the 66th floor in...

2/1/2010 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFNS) -- Airmen from the 37th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron validated their capabilities and those of the B-1B Lancer during a deployment that concluded Jan. 27, here. 37th EBS Airmen generated 556 sorties, flew more than 6,980 hours, and dropped more than 240 munitions for more than 550 missions during their deployment to Southwest Asia. "We are very proud of what we have been able to accomplish during this deployment," said Lt. Col. Steven Biggs, the 37th EBS commander. "The achievements of our Airmen during this rotation are reflective of the rich heritage of the B-1B." "We...

1/27/2010 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFNS) -- On Sept. 11, 2001, the world changed for most Americans and among the hardest hit were Capt. Hillary Wykes. Captain Wykes, a KC-10 Extender pilot with the 908th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron at an air base in Southwest Asia, was a flight attendant for United Airlines before entering the Air Force. "I was working for United on Sept. 11 when the airplanes hit the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon and crashed in the field in Pennsylvania," said Captain Wykes, who is deployed from the 9th Air Refueling Squadron at Travis Air Force Base,...

SOUTHWEST ASIA, Dec. 30, 2009 – A civilian administrator working for the Air Force here transforms worn out computer parts into unique works of art. Miguel Rivera, with the 386th Expeditionary Communications Squadron in Southwest Asia, stands behind the sculptures he built from old hard drives and other computer parts Dec. 19, 2009. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Tony Tolley  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. When computer hard drives go bad, airmen from the 386th Expeditionary Communications Squadron here typically remove all of the pertinent data and send them to the local disposal unit for destruction. However,...

SOUTHWEST ASIA, Aug. 25, 2009 – An airman assigned here witnessed the birth of his third child, and he did so without leaving his post. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Rafael Garcia talks via webcam with his wife, Monica, and daughter, Carmella Fe, Aug. 18, 2009. Garcia experienced the birth of his daughter via webcam from Southwest Asia. He is deployed from Ramstein Air Base, Germany. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Jason W. Edwards  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Instead, Air Force Tech. Sgt. Rafael Garcia of the 379th Expeditionary Mission Support Group saw the birth live via...

12/29/2008 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFNS) -- With precision-guided instrumentation and steady hands, a surgical team here is returning injured warfighters to the fight. Dr. (Maj.) Daniel Todd Rose, orthopedic surgeon, and Dr. (Maj.) Craig Kolasch, general surgeon, both with the 379th Expeditionary Medical Group, handle most of the minor surgeries and injuries in the area of responsibility. "What we do here is very important," said Doctor Rose, deployed from Luke Air Force Base, Ariz. "Almost every servicemember who doesn't receive care here would most likely be going back to the U.S. or Landstuhl. Once they are in the U.S. they're...

ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey and Iran have been carrying out coordinated strikes on Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq, a top Turkish general said Thursday in the first military confirmation of Iranian-Turkish cooperation in the fight against separatists there. Gen. Ilker Basbug, Turkey's land forces commander, said the two countries have been sharing intelligence and planned more coordinated attacks in the future against the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, and PEJAK, the group's Iranian wing.

PRESIDENTIAL NEWS OF THE DAY: President Bush returned to the White House today after spending most of the weekend at Camp David. While there, he underwent a routine colonoscopy exam, which doctors recommend be done at least every five years. The First Lady was in Texas celebrating her mother's birthday. President Bush has 5 polyps removed during colonoscopy BY Deb Riechmann Associated Press July 22, 2007 CAMP DAVID, Md. -- Doctors removed five small growths from President Bush's colon Saturday after he temporarily transferred the powers of his office to Vice President Dick Cheney under the rarely invoked 25th Amendment....

Stratfor Geopolitical Intelligence ReportPublished 14 Dec 06Reprinted with permission from Strategic Forecasting, Inc., www.stratfor.com. The Iranian PositionBy Reva Bhalla The Iraq Study Group (ISG) has issued its long-awaited -- and by now, much-criticized -- report to the White House, and has met with a lukewarm reception. President George W. Bush is now seeking input from a cadre of other agencies and officials as he attempts to formulate a new Iraq strategy, which will be announced in January 2007. Presumably, the perspectives and ideas being gathered from the Pentagon, the State Department and others will be placed alongside the ISG's...

Islamabad: Dismissing reports that Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was hiding in its northwestern province, Pakistan has said there was no threat of US-led coalition forces launching attacks to hunt the fugitive. "There is no such threat," Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao told reporters in Peshawar while ruling out the chances of coalition forces resorting to attacks to apprehend Osama. He said reports that Osama was spotted in Upper Dir in the NWFP province was mere speculation.

There may be a lot to regret about the past policy of the United States in the Middle East, but the removal of Saddam Hussein and the effort to birth democracy in his place is surely not one of them. And we should remember that this Memorial Day. Whatever our righteous anger at Khomeinist Iran, it was wrong, well aside from the arms-for-hostages scandal, to provide even a modicum of aid to Saddam Hussein, the great butcher of his own, during the Iran-Iraq war. Inviting the fascist Baathist government of Syria into the allied coalition of the first Gulf War...

Why Iran wants War? --- Ahmadinejad & Co. starring in Armageddon "The Iranian nation will wipe the strain of regret on the foreheads of those who want to bring about injustice", President Ahmadinejad scorned at a recent rally in the province of Zanjan. Iran "will cut off the hands of any aggressor", any attack would be met with a response that is double-fold including suicide attacks across Europe and the United States, he warned. "Israel should be wiped off the map", the predominately Jewish nation "cannot survive" and is headed "towards extinction" quipped the fanatical President. If one were to...

TO most Americans, Afghanistan has been a war of great clarity, the opposite of the war in Iraq with all its troubles and cloudy origins. Attacking in a moment of unified anger, with global allies beside it, the United States had a clear mission: respond to an assault on American soil by driving Al Qaeda fighters from their bases in a country undeniably tied to the terrorism of Sept. 11, 2001. Victory over the Taliban government was swift, and the aftermath gratifying: Afghans welcomed American troops and aid workers, and seemed to settle into a pattern, however fitful and difficult,...

* Interior minister rules out operation in Upper Dir * Asks Afghan leaders to mind their own business, put own house in order PESHAWAR: Federal Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao on Sunday ruled out Upper Dir becoming the next battleground in the search for Osama Bin Laden and his associates following a report by an American television channel claiming the Al Qaeda chief’s presence in Pakistan. “There is no iota of truth in the news report depicting the presence of Bin Laden in NWFP. The residents of the area need not to be worried by such baseless reports,” the interior minister...

The chief of Russia's security council said Sunday that Russia opposes any use of force against Iran over its controversial nuclear program, the Iranian state-run television reported. "Unlike the U.S., Russia believes Iran's nuclear program needs to be resolved only through dialogue. Any use of force will further complicate the issue and will cause tension in the region," Igor Ivanov was quoted as saying by the station. Ivanov made the comments during a meeting with Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani. Ivanov arrived in Tehran late Saturday to discuss Iran's contentious nuclear program, including incentives to be offered as a...

Subtitle: Andre Pitts Finds Success With An Iranian Basketball Team TEHRAN, (CBS) Sitting on a black leather sofa in his sparsely furnished North Tehran apartment, Andre Pitts speaks with a yearning for home. "I'm from America and I love my country." he says. "I miss my friends." Most of all, Pitts misses his wife and young daughter. "I'm scared of one thing: That I go home and she doesn’t recognize me," he says. "That would kill me. I am doing all this basically for her — to help better her life." Pitts is the American star of a champion Iranian...

IT is easy to label Iran's quest for nuclear energy a dangerous adventure with grave regional and international repercussions. It is also comforting to heap scorn on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his earlier denial of the Holocaust and his odious call for the obliteration of the state of Israel. The rambling intransigence expressed in his recent letter to President Bush offers ample insight into this twisted mindset. Yet there is something deeper in Iran's story than the extremist utterances of a messianic president and the calculated maneuvering of the hard-line clerical leadership that stands behind him. We tend to forget...

After all, the European Union has shown no willingness to get tough with Iran's rogue leaders. Last week, after meetings of the "six world powers," the EU offered, in the words of a Reuters dispatch, to "drop the automatic threat of military action if Iran remains defiant." Ponder that for a moment. The EU says it will, in essence, do nothing, no matter what — other than, perhaps, put some feeble sanctions in place.