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WASHINGTON, Sept. 30, 2005 – Soldiers from Task Force Baghdad's 2nd Brigade Combat Team and the 448th Civil Affairs Battalion conducted a humanitarian aid drop in the Nissan district of Iraq's capital Sept. 28. The supplies dropped included pens, pencils, notebooks, backpacks, shoes, toys, personal-hygiene items, antibiotics, and other medical aids. The recipients of the supplies were all special-needs children. "Some of the children suffered from injuries, and some were born with handicaps and other medical conditions," Army Capt. Todd R. Olsen, 448th CA team leader, said. "(They) seemed very happy and enjoyed receiving gifts from coalition forces." Following the...

CAMP MABRY, Texas (Army News Service, Sept. 27, 2005) – Task Force Search and Rescue of the Texas National Guard helped move 87 residents of an assisted-living facility to safety Sept. 24 after Hurricane Rita passed through the area. Task Force Bowie in Beaumont had received word earlier that day that the residents of Pine Forest Senior Center were in a school in Fred, Texas, without electricity or running water. A four-Soldier Humvee reconnaissance team was dispatched to check out the story. “We were en-route to Beaumont when we received the word,” said Sgt. Maj. Robert Strzelczek, who was part...

BATON ROUGE, La. (Army News Service, Sept. 5, 2005) – Units from across the nation have descended on Louisiana and Mississippi in response to Hurricane Katrina as part of the unprecedented call-up of National Guard and other military forces for a natural disaster. “It’s state helping state and neighbor helping neighbor,” said Florida Army National Guard Brig. Gen. Michael Fleming. Fleming, who is in Louisiana because of his extensive experience from the four hurricanes which struck Florida last year, said the National Guard’s primary focus is to save lives, provide security, and evacuate residents. Approximately 38,000 Guardsmen operating in the...

Bush faulted on postwar planning REUTERS WASHINGTON - An independent assessment of the tumult in Iraq led by two top former presidential advisers found that the Bush administration was unprepared for postwar Iraq and underestimated the number of troops needed in a miscalculation that helped fuel the insurgency. The report by a Council on Foreign Relations task force, released Wednesday, concluded that the failure to prepare properly for the period after the war had given "early impetus for the insurgency" now gripping the country. The task force was headed by two former national security advisers, Democrat Samuel "Sandy" Berger and...

OTTAWA -- Canada's elite JTF2 soldiers are heading to Afghanistan as part of a 2,000-troop deployment that will target the "detestable murderers and scumbags" behind the rise in international terrorism, General Rick Hillier said yesterday. In a blunt briefing that signalled a new aggressiveness at the top of the Canadian Forces, the Chief of the Defence Staff said the impending operations are risky but necessary in light of last week's bombings in the British public-transit system. "The London attack actually tells us once more: We can't let up," Gen. Hillier told reporters. He said terrorists are ready to target Canada...

At a press conference and Congressional briefing on Wednesday, May 25th, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) will introduce federal legislation that could cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in federal law enforcement grants to local anti-drug task forces. The legislation, which is being co-sponsored by Representatives John Conyers (D-MI), Charles Rangel (D-NY), Donald Payne (D-NJ), and Ed Towns (D-NY), would prohibit states from spending federal Byrne grants on regional narcotics task forces unless they adopt laws preventing people from being convicted of drug offenses when the only evidence against them is the uncorroborated testimony of a law enforcement officer...

OAKLAND — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ramped up the star-power quotient at the annual benefit dinner for the Neighborhood Law Corps Foundation in downtown Oakland. It didn't matter that his fiery and sometimes funny keynote speech Thursday night had little to do with Oakland and everything to do with bashing President Bush, the president's environmental policies and the president's penchant for installing polluting industry donors to lead sensitive federal environmental agencies. Oh, and the press for ignoring it all. Still, what came through in Kennedy's speech was loud and clear: Get involved, speak up and make a difference in your...

SAN DIEGO (AP) - Thirteen government agents pile into unmarked sport utility vehicles and dark sedans in the basement garage of downtown's federal building. Their assignment: Crash the homes of 16 illegal immigrants and deport them. It is an increasingly common scene across the nation. The federal government wants to catch the nearly half-million immigrants who either have ducked deportation orders or are targets for removal because they were convicted of a crime. The size and complexity of the mission is staggering. Even as the government pours millions into enforcement, each year the number of new fugitives far exceeds the...

BOSTON - As a U.S. senator for nearly two decades, John Kerry will be a familiar figure to the 4,300 Democrats who gather in his hometown this week to make him their party's presidential nominee. Kerry's challenge at the Democratic National Convention opening Monday is to introduce himself in a more personal way to the millions of Americans who say they still don't know him - and to many more who, having heard or seen him, aren't yet sold on his candidacy. Despite months of intense campaigning and a burst of primary wins over Democratic rivals, Kerry, 60, remains something...

<p>SACRAMENTO - Gray Davis finds himself embroiled in a crisis like that of no other modern-day California governor.</p> <p>Closing the state's projected record $38.2 billion deficit would be daunting enough. But Davis also is a lame duck whose support within his own party, never strong, is even shakier. Plus, he faces the threat of being ousted from office in a recall.</p>

Pentagon vetoes new task force to take control of Baghdad By Rupert Cornwell in Washington 02 April 2003 The parallel internal war in Washington over Iraq flared again yesterday when the Pentagon vetoed a list of senior officials proposed by the State Department to help to run the country once Saddam Hussein has been overthrown. The proposed team is understood to have included several present and former high-level diplomats, including ambassadors to Arab states, who would have joined what amounts to a cabinet under the retired General Jay Garner, named by the Pentagon to head an interim administration. But Donald...

UK task force to head for Iraq in four weeks By Kim Sengupta 18 December 2002 A massive British task force will be heading for Iraq within four weeks even if there is no proof that Saddam Hussein's government is in material breach of the UN resolution on weapons of mass destruction. More than 40,000 Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force personnel, as well as about 100 tanks, will contribute to a US-led coalition army of more than 250,000, which could go into action as early as the end of next month. Senior defence officials disclosed yesterday that the...

WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal judge on Wednesday blocked the Bush administration's attempt to take a lawsuit against Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force to a federal appeals court. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan let stand his order requiring the White House by Dec. 9 to produce task force documents it considers not to be privileged and make available a list of documents it believes should continue to be withheld. Sullivan said Wednesday that the Justice Department had not shown adequate reason why he should turn the case over the appeals court before a final judgment....