CENTCOM NEWS RELEASE

August 14, 2003
Release Number: 03-08-34

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COALITION AND IRAQI PEOPLE WORK TO MAKE IRAQ SECURE

BAGHDAD, Iraq-Iraqi citizens continue to cooperate with Coalition forces, preventing attacks and breaking up a counterfeit operation.

Local citizens prevented two possible attacks by informing 1st Armored Division soldiers of the location of improvised explosive devices. In the first incident, a taxi driver reported the location of a possible IED to soldiers on patrol. An explosive ordnance team determined the IED was a 155 mm shell with a circuit board and wires. The EOD team disabled the device. The other IED location tip came from a walk in source. Upon arrival, the unit found a 105 mm round with wiring set to detonate in a white bag with two rocket-propelled grenade rounds beside it.

The 1st AD, acting on a tip from a local source regarding a possible counterfeit money operation raided a house in Baghdad on Aug 12. In the raid, 1st AD confiscated millions of uncut counterfeit Dinar, pictures of Saddam, copiers, computers and various weapons. In another house search, 1st AD seized more than 4 million Iraqi Dinar; an assortment of weapons and more than 500 hundred rounds of small arms ammunition.

In other operations, the 4th Infantry Division and elements from their task force, detained four suspected former regime loyalists, in a raid conducted near Tikrit on Aug. 12. In other operations, 4th ID detained four additional individuals. Confiscated weapons include 98 rocket-propelled grenades rounds, 33 rounds of 82 mm mortars, 12 AK-47s, one 60 mm mortar tube, 43 rounds of 60 mm mortar. Additionally, 4.6 million Iraqi Dinar and military uniforms and helmets were confiscated.

In the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force area of operation, Iraqi police turned in two SA-7 missiles, six anti-tank rockets, four 82 mm mortar tubes and two cans of .50 caliber ammunition they discovered in a warehouse in Al Hillah. In another weapons find, a local source turned in more than 50 rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

In the past 24 hours, coalition forces conducted 13 raids, 843 day patrols and 639 night patrols. The units also conducted 143 day patrols and 100 night patrols with Iraqi police.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 15th. The 96th day of CPT Patti's deployment.

They are mid-way through the so-called "furnace days" that run from 15 July to 15 September.

C'mon Autumn!

IRAQ 1 - IRAN 0

IRAQ returned to the international footballing (Soccer) fold in spectacular fashion last night, beating neighbours Iran in Tehran by a solitary goal.

YES, BUT DID ANYONE SEND A PUMP?

The U.S. administration in Iraq said corporate and private donors in the United States are sending more than 50,000 soccer balls to Iraqi children.

The first shipment of soccer balls arrived in Iraq this week. They will be distributed through the coalition forces in several Iraqi cities.

Initially, organizers hoped to collect 10,000 soccer balls to send to Iraqi children - who are obsessed with the sport. But the response of donors has far exceeded expectations and some 54,000 balls have been donated.

Ammar Showkat, the Iraqi Interim Deputy Director of Youth, said the gift is a wonderful gesture that will help rebuild Iraq's youth sports program.

SCHOOLS PROGRESS

The company had to work from scratch compiling school records as the education ministry was gutted and looted during the conflict and computer systems destroyed.

Three months later, the company has finished an inventory of more than 3,785 secondary schools across Iraq, excluding two areas which remained too dangerous. Japanese teams are focusing on elementary schools.

The inventory found schools in ''various states of disrepair,'' suffering from Saddam's neglect and some damage from the U.S.-led invasion and the mass looting that followed.

Girls accounted for just 38.4 percent of the student population and Creative hopes to boost enrollment with an accelerated learning program targeting girls in particular.

The inventory showed many schools, for example, lacked basic bathroom facilities. ''You can't expect young girls to go to school if you don't address that issue,'' said Bolivian-born Kruvant, who founded Creative in 1977.

SMALL GRANTS REAP DIVIDENDS

The company hopes to have all schools open by October and has bought 1.2 million ''back to school'' kits for the start of the new school year. Finding secure warehouses to store goods has been a headache.

Winning the trust of Iraqis, many of whom are suspicious of the U.S. invasion, is also a challenge. Handing out small grants to rebuild schools paid dividends in getting Iraqi support.

''These grants might appear very small, but $20,000 in a community that has been neglected for so long, brings the local leadership together,'' said Kruvant. More than 200 grants worth over $4 million will have been approved by the end of August.

Creative has distanced itself from the sensitive task of ''revising'' school textbooks and stripping them of Baathist language. That job went to U.N. agencies, who while removing pro-Saddam language are leaving a major rewrite of books to a new Iraqi education department.

The company says it will have enough teachers in place for October and is relieved it did not have to weed out hard-line Baathists. ''The local community has dealt with this and driven them out,'' said Dick McCall, director of Creative's Communities in Transition Division.

IT IS NOT ONE WORLD

Like Saddam Hussein, Yanar Mohammed tries not to sleep every night in the same place.

"For a different cause," she notes dryly, in the run-down barebones office she borrows from the Worker's Communist Party of Iraq.

Yanar, 42, left the safety and comfort of her life as an architect, wife and mother in Toronto to return to Baghdad to fight for Iraqi women's rights.

This is not an equal pay for equal work debate, or a campaign for a child-care subsidy. Her platform is elemental: Women must not be abducted, sold and raped. Those that eventually return to their families must not be murdered to restore the family's honor. Women must not be forced to wear an opaque veil over their faces and bodies...

Yanar is Norma Rae -- tiny -- just 5 feet, with thick black hair pulled into a ponytail and a snug denim shirt and khakis -- and cut from the same revolutionary cloth. She is the founder of the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq, a Baghdad-based follow up to the Defense of Iraqi Women's Rights organization she headed in Canada.

The dingy walls around her are roughly whitewashed. Mismatched chairs pulled to a single desk comprise her office and conference room.

It's a marked change from her life three months ago. When she left Canada with her husband, she was leading a design team to build a 50-story condominium in downtown Toronto for Burka Varacalli Architects.

Having lived through the 1991 war, she was an outspoken critic of the most recent one.

"Thank god Saddam was a paper puppet and not the power he was made out to be," she said, noting the low casualties in the city this time around.

Although she left a teenage son behind in Toronto parentless, she feels she is needed more here.

Up through the 1980s, women in Iraq, and especially the relatively cosmopolitan capital Baghdad, were free to wear what they chose and to work for themselves. Yanar earned both her bachelor's and master's degree from Baghdad University. She fled Iraq in 1993 and by 1995 had earned enough money in Lebanon to immigrate to Canada.

But in the years following the 1991 Persian Gulf War, there was a change in Iraq. Saddam Hussein, an avowedly secular leader who regularly persecuted the religious and assassinated influential ayatollahs, sensed his days were numbered. To maintain his hold in Iraq in the face of what was considered an inevitable second war with the United States, Saddam found religion. He built mosques. He touted his direct genetic link to the prophet Mohammed. And he rolled back women's rights to mollify the traditional Islamic tribes.

Three years ago, in a display of "piety," Saddam's henchmen organized the slaughter of 200 alleged prostitutes around the country. They were beheaded, stripped naked and hung upside down or tossed in front of their houses with signs that said, "The evil is out of society."

Yanar is afraid the same thing is happening again. She unfolds a handwritten note that has just been brought from her supporters in Basrah, the oil city deep in southern Iraq. Armed men went in to a house and shot four prostitutes on August 6, the note reads.

"Umm Alla was shot walking with her children on the street," she says. Umm Alla means "mother of Alla," a girl's name. It is customary to refer to women as the mother of their children rather than by name.

"This is human life and we need to defend it," she says, helpless to do anything but. "I see women abused and killed every day. It is not something to turn your back to."

GOOD

Iraq began pumping crude oil from its northern oil fields Wednesday for the first time since the U.S.-led war - a milestone in the restoration of the country's oil production that augurs well for thirsty world markets.

COWARDLY SHIELDS

Several hundred people calling themselves human shields camped at oil refineries, water treatment plants, electricity generating stations and similar sites during the war. Many were from Europe; about 20 were American. Several people involved in the effort said that none of the sites were attacked while human shields were present.

"That tells me we were successful," said Judith Karpova, a 58-year-old writer in Hoboken, N.J., who placed herself at an oil refinery near Baghdad. "We went there to protect innocent civilians, and I went there to protect my own country against further crimes against humanity and war crimes."

"That tell's me we were successful"???? What it tells me is you are an idiot.

Throughout the buildup and throughout the war the USA made it very clear that this was not to be a war against the Iraqi people....and it was WIDELY reported during the war that a stark difference betweeen this war and Gulf War I is that "the lights are still on in Baghdad".

Indeed, that was the point...we aren't here to punish the innocent Iraqi people.

How many times did GEN Franks make just that point on TV? Rumsfeld? Meyers?

The US military went to great pains to preserve the infrastructure that would help rebuild the peace after the war was over. Key among those pieces of infrastructure are oil refineries, water treatment plants, and electricity generating stations.

The fact these loonies are alive today is proves they haven't a clue about how the US fights wars these days. In WWII everyone of these idiots would be dead. Today, they are alive because we choose targets based on their military worth first.

Oh, and we don't avoid targets because some free-lance writer from Hoboken sits her ignorant ass in front of it. Hate to burst her bubble, but we don't care, and in most cases probably never knew she was there.

However, had she chosen to sit by an anti-aircraft missile site, or an FM communications node, she would be "the late free-lance writer from Hoboken".

PAY CUT COMING UNLESS CONGRESS ACTS!

Every soldier to lose $75 dollars per month in Imminent Danger Pay, married soldiers to lose additional $150 per month in Family Separation Pay.

The Pentagon wants to cut the pay of its 148,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, who are already contending with guerrilla-style attacks, homesickness and 120-degree-plus heat.

Unless Congress and President Bush take quick action when Congress returns after Labor Day, the uniformed Americans in Iraq and the 9,000 in Afghanistan will lose a pay increase approved last April of $75 a month in "imminent danger pay" and $150 a month in "family separation allowances."

The Defense Department supports the cuts, saying its budget can't sustain the higher payments amid a host of other priorities. But the proposed cuts have stirred anger among military families and veterans' groups and even prompted an editorial attack in the Army Times, a weekly newspaper for military personnel and their families that is seldom so outspoken.

Congress made the April pay increases retroactive to Oct. 1, 2002, but they are set to expire when the federal fiscal year ends Sept. 30 unless Congress votes to keep them as part of its annual defense appropriations legislation.

Imminent danger pay, given to Army, Navy, Marine and Air Force members in combat zones, was raised to $225 from $150 a month. The family separation allowance, which goes to help military families pay rent, child care or other expenses while soldiers are away, was raised from $100 a month to $250.

Last month, the Pentagon sent Congress an interim budget report saying the extra $225 monthly for the two pay categories was costing about $25 million more a month, or $300 million for a full year. In its "appeals package" laying out its requests for cuts in pending congressional spending legislation, Pentagon officials recommended returning to the old, lower rates of special pay and said military experts would study the question of combat pay in coming months...

It's rare for the independent Army Times, which is distributed widely among Army personnel, to blast the Pentagon, the White House and the Congress. But in this instance, the paper has said in recent editorials that Congress was wrong to make the pay raises temporary, and the Pentagon is wrong to call for a rollback.

"The bottom line: If the Bush administration felt in April that conditions in Iraq and Afghanistan warranted increases in danger pay and family separation allowances, it cannot plausibly argue that the higher rates are not still warranted today," the paper said in an editorial in its current edition.

On Capitol Hill, members say the issue will be taken up quickly after the summer recess when a conference committee meets to negotiate conflicting versions of the $369 billion defense appropriations bill.

"You can't put a price tag on their service and sacrifice, but one of the priorities of this bill has got to be ensuring our servicemen and women in imminent danger are compensated for it," said Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Calif., a member of the House Armed Services Committee.

"Since President Bush declared 'mission accomplished' on May 1, 126 American soldiers have died in Iraq, and we are losing more every day," Tauscher said. "If that's not imminent danger, I don't know what is."

Read the whole story here.

AN INTELLIGENT LOOK AT THE IRAQ OIL BUSINESS

As the smoke was billowing Tuesday from a fire at a pipeline near Baghdad, oil analysts were focusing on restoring security to ensure a steady growth in Iraq's severely disrupted energy production. The Tuesday fire was the fifth major incident since May.

Sabotage and fires are derailing the flow of Iraqi oil to global energy markets. The attacks on pipelines and power stations are aimed at impoverishing Iraqis and making their lives miserable. Those who do it follow the old Leninist adage, "the worse, the better."

Saddam's loyalists and foreign jihadis who come to Baghdad to fight the infidels believe that by escalating Iraqis' suffering they will drive the Americans out of Iraq and across the ocean.

Lack of security and the rickety infrastructure are among the factors which slow down the process of post-war reconstruction and contribute to Iraqis' misery.

FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

At the offices of "Habaz Booz" the printing presses are churning out the latest issue of Baghdad's only satirical magazine.

Under the former regime, the editor, Ishtar el Yassiri, would never have been allowed to print the publication.

"It is slightly strange for me, of course. I am writing freely. I am not used to this. Everyone is writing what they want. It's good."

She is right when she says "everyone" is writing. Baghdad used to have 15 different newspapers.

Now by all estimates it is well over 100.

And they look a lot different these days.

In the past the party controlled everything. Saddam Hussein's picture had to be on every front page.
Now there are images of American troops on the streets of Baghdad. How times have changed.

Out on the street, in the baking sun, Julie Khan is trying to sell subscriptions for her newspaper.

Even Julie, who left northern England and moved to Iraq 10 years ago, is finding it all a bit bewildering.

"This sudden new found freedom is something a bit hard to come to terms with. The idea of democracy is also something very difficult for us as a community to come to terms with."

Almost every sector of society now seems to have a voice.

That, though, comes with a price. Some see freedom as a chance to print anything.

There was for instance the recent report on the sunglasses US soldiers use to see through women's clothing!

Responsible journalists

But other reports are more dangerous.

The al-Mustiqilla newspaper went further, publishing an article calling for all those who collaborate with the US to be killed.

The Coalition Provisional Authority which runs Iraq shut it down.

Not censorship, says their chief spokesman, Charles Heatley.

"When there are clearly incitements we do have words with those concerned.

BOOK YOUR FLIGHT

The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) has given seven foreign airlines permission to fly into the southern city of Basra once that airport reopens, the New York Times reported.

The seven airlines are Emirates, Royal Jordanian, Gulf Air, Qatar Airways, SAS Scandinavian Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, and British Airways. All airlines, except British Airways (BA), will start flights to the airport when it opens. BA will not start the service immediately.

DOES IT ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY HAVE TO BE THERE OVERNIGHT?

FedEx has begun parcel service to Iraq for the first time.

The Memphis-based package delivery service is using its Middle East partner, Falcon Express.

Falcon began pickups and deliveries for business customers in Baghdad, Basra and Mosul last week, but waited until Monday to announce the new service.

The service is using local employees wearing FedEx uniforms.

Falcon Express is based in the United Arab Emirates.

Falcon also picks up and delivers for FedEx in Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar, Syria and Yemen.

STATE OF THE POLICE FORCE

Making progress.

Crucial to the rebuilding of the police is an ongoing assessment of how to instill democratic values here.

"If you took the capability of training right now, it would take you 5.9 years (to train police officers), we don't have 5.9 years ... We have to come up with a mechanism to train 31,000 people over the next two years."

He is also trying to root out corruption in a climate, where before, police officers would charge five dollars for taking a basic complaint from a citizen. Kerik said he saw officers still doing this in June as basic policy and he quickly reprimanded them.

"I said, look no one is going to charge anyone money to take a police report. You are serving the public ... You are going to take the complaint, and they are not going to pay you to do it. It's part of your job. That's the kind of stuff we have to deal with."

But Kerik credits the new police for starting to crackdown on corruption. He cited officers who arrested two of their comrades, who were spotted shoving money down their pants, during a raid a few weeks ago on a former Saddam bodyguard.

Kerik also denies the crime issue is as out of control as it sometimes appears.

"I think it's a perception versus reality issue and here's why. Prior to April 9, when we took Baghdad, prior to the war, the only thing anybody saw in this country is what Saddam wanted you to see." Kerik says.

Kerik says he hopes to set up a statistics program, within six to eight weeks, to gauge crime in Iraq. A similar syste used in New York City, called COMSTAT, led to a dramatic reduction in crime in the 1990s.

BUSINESS IS BOOMING

Good news along the shopkeepers front.

BAGHDAD, Iraq — These are bittersweet times for shopkeeper Mohammed Kassim.

The owner of Hazan CD Center, a movie and music shop in Baghdad's Karada shopping district, knows that Iraq's economy is reeling from unemployment, rampant crime and the collapse of many government-owned companies.

But down here on the lower rungs of Iraq's economic ladder, business is booming.

Sales of CDs and DVDs at Kassim's small shop are up 75 percent compared with last year.

Temporarily free from taxes, import tariffs and government regulations on what and how they sell, small-business owners like Kassim report that they are enjoying the fruits of a free-market economy. Although overall reform of Iraq's previous centrally planned system will be difficult, economists and bankers say the postwar surge in small merchants' sales bodes well for Iraq's long-term prospects.

Under the old regime, Kassim said, he paid a $5,000 annual business license tax plus a monthly government "street sanitation" fee (though he never saw any cleaning). Worst of all, Kassim endured daily visits from Ministry of Information officials who perused his selections to ensure that they didn't include racy Western movies or Shiite-themed music, which were illegal.

"I was quite afraid," said Kassim. "Now we can offer much more, and so people buy more."

HOT ENOUGH FOR YA?

See this story, and a few other short stories here.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any hotter in Iraq, welcome to Ab al-ahab el limor al bismar al hab, or the “August days that are so boiling, the pins melt out of the doorframe.” Friday’s peak temperature in Baghdad was over 135 degrees Fahrenheit, with some soldiers reporting temperatures of 148 degrees in the full sun.

And in the un-air-conditioned warehouse that passes for sleeping quarters for the 2nd Squadron, 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, the low temperature Thursday night was 120 degrees, according to 1st Lt. Jason Tolbert, a Woodville, Texas, native who is with the squadron.

After Aug. 15, “it starts getting cooler,” one Iraqi said. How much cooler? “More like 115 or 120 degrees.”

WIVES ENSURE ARMY KEEPS ITS WORD

I've never heard of anything like this...good for them.

Long after the rest of the newly formed unit won the war and came home, the “Ninja Squirrels” still are baking in the Iraqi desert. Dismayed to learn the soldiers’ commanders planned to keep the platoon past one year — some as long as 16 months — in the interest of unit cohesion, their wives got busy writing letters and buttonholing generals.

“We’ve already done one set of holidays alone, and now we [were] looking at another,” said Colleen Carroll, whose husband, Capt. Mike Carroll, is the 5/158th Aviation’s personnel officer. “It’s a bizarre situation. I don’t know how it happened.”

Their lobbying has apparently paid off.

After two months of being told their husbands would spend a second winter in the Middle East, the wives found out Sunday that the unit has agreed to send the “Ninja Squirrels” home in October.

“We fully expect that these guys will come home after one year,” said Col. Roger King, U.S. Army Europe spokesman. “We’re going to stick to it in every case possible.”

King said his command wasn’t aware of plans to keep the “Ninja Squirrels” downrange so long until he received a query from Stars and Stripes last week. The query followed USAREUR commander Gen. B.B. Bell’s Aug. 4 memo stating V Corps units and troops would not have to stay in the Middle East past one year.

“This thing is being discussed at a lot of different levels,” King said. “This is all evolving as we go. We haven’t been in a situation quite like this before.”

VIDEO TELE-CONFERENCES

Five minutes hardly seemed like enough time to get past the pleasantries and the awe of seeing their partner seated before them.

“I don’t know what to say,” Verena Klein said as she wiped away a tear during a video teleconferencing hookup between Hanau and Baghdad, Iraq.

“Me neither,” Spc. Jacob Baker said to his girlfriend. “Let me just look at you for a second.”

“I can’t believe you are so far away,” Klein said several silent seconds later.

Technology can be a wonderful thing, especially recent developments in the video realm that allow people at different locations to see and hear each other via a live camera. During the war, commanders used the technology to plot strategy. Now they are employing the same gizmo to give couples another way to stay connected and boost morale.

Some spouses say these video visits can be awkward, given the sometimes sterile and shaky feed. But they also said the chance to see their favorite soldier in living color is just too precious to pass up.

I had a five-minute Video-Teleconference (VTC) with CPT Patti on Monday. I didn't mention it here because after it was all done...well, I wasn't sure what to say.

I hope you've read the whole article. The article gives one the sense that while it is wonderful to see your loved-one's face, it does leave you somewhat hollow.

I think the idea that being able to see her but not being able to hold her is inherently unsatisfactory.

Plus, there is a delay of perhaps 6 to 8 seconds between the time one finishes speaking and hears the other begin to reply. So it is choppy and frustrating. Not an efficient means of communications for sure.

And five-minutes - hardly time to say a decent hello, much less any conversation and certainly not enough time to adequately say good-bye again.

But the thing that can't be replaced is her face looking back.

That much is priceless.

AND HOW DID YOU SPEND YOUR SUMMER VACATION?

In April, Jenessa, of White Bear Lake, Minn., made herself a bracelet in honor of Sgt. 1st Class Mike Chamorro, serving in Kirkuk. Her friends liked the idea and also had relatives deployed — an uncle here, a cousin there. So she made more bracelets.

The project “erupted like a volcano,” Jenessa said, and she’s sent out 36,987 bracelets. Her e-mail is jammed with orders for 20,000 more, many from troops serving in Iraq.

“Wow. That’s a lot. Let’s see, I started this in April and it’s taken me, April, May, June, July — 4½ months to make 36,000. It’s hard to say how long it’ll take to make 20,000 more, but we’re working hard.”

She has spent her summer vacation twisting and tying, beading and baking, folding and fretting — and sweet-talking her parents, two older brothers, one older sister and anyone else she can into helping out.

“She’s become our hero,” said mom Jennifer Largent. “It started out so small and we thought what a wonderful idea that she wanted to help a few kids and families. The longer it’s gone on, the bigger it’s gotten and she’s become more of a hero, and not just to us.”

RAIDS SOMETIME WITHOUT MERIT, BUT NOT WITHOUT DANGER

BAGHDAD, Iraq — It’s after midnight and many of the soldiers Velcro-wrapped in their bulky body armor are already dripping with sweat.

Rolling in Humvees with lights dimmed, they travel to the next house, smash open the door and yank an Iraqi doctor in his underwear out of bed.

They also bring out his two brothers and their sons.

The soldiers think the doctor is one of three men financing attacks against American troops. His name is similar to what an informant gave them. But the troops know they can never be sure on these smash-and-grab raids.

“Some of the names are misspelled in a lot of the translations that we get,” Cpl. James Westerfield said. “And you have to really verify once you get an ID to match it exactly to the person it is.”

Hours later, after some questioning, they let him go. They got the wrong guy.

CENTCOM NEWS RELEASES

August 13, 2003
Release Number: 03-08-30

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ONE KILLED, ONE INJURED IN TRAFFIC ACCIDENT

MOSUL, Iraq – A soldier from the 101st Airborne Division was killed and a civilian interpreter was injured August 12 when their vehicle was hit by a taxi.

The soldier was evacuated to a nearby medical facility.

The interpreter was evacuated to the 21st Combat Support Hospital.

The soldier’s name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.


August 13, 2003
Release Number: 03-08-32

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SOLDIER KILLED IN CONVOY ATTACK

BAGHDAD, Iraq – One 4th Infantry Division soldier was killed and two were wounded at approximately 6:15 p.m. Aug. 12 when their convoy was attacked by an improvised explosive device in the vicinity of Al Taji.

The wounded soldiers were evacuated to a nearby medical facility.

The soldiers’ names are being withheld pending notification of next of kin.


August 13, 2003
Release Number: 03-08-33

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

4ID SOLDIER KILLED

TIKRIT, Iraq – One 4th Infantry Division soldier was killed and one wounded when the M-113 armored personnel carrier they were riding in struck an explosive device near the town of Ad Dwar at approximately 6:30 a.m. on Aug. 13.

The wounded soldiers were evacuated to the 28th Combat Support Hospital. One soldier died of wounds received.

The soldiers’ names are being withheld pending notification of next-of-kin.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 14th. The 95th Day of CPT Patti's deployment.

STILL MORE R&R DISCUSSIONS

Sanchez also spoke of a proposal to give soldiers a "mid-tour break" to see their families.

"The intent would be that between your fifth and 10th month of deployment you'd get 14 days of leave and be able to go home," Sanchez said, adding that he hoped the plan would be approved "within a couple of weeks."

In Baghdad, some soldiers said life was slowly getting better. Sgt. 1st Class Charles Ragsdale, 34, of Atlanta, was guarding the Baghdad International Airport, which he said was becoming more livable.

"The Army is doing a lot of things every day, every week, to improve the morale of the soldiers out here," he said. "They're trying to get air conditioning. ... The chow's getting better. There's TV and movies. They're doing the best they can."

GOOD FOR OUR TEAM

US troops arrested a high ranking Iraqi officer who once served as a chief of staff of Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard, the military said today.

Thirteen other men, including a Saddam bodyguard, were also taken into custody during the raid on the outskirts of Tikrit, the former dictator’s home town.

All were members of a family that served as a pillar of support for Saddam’s regime, said US Lt Col Steve Russell. He declined to name the detainees.

“They were trying to support the remnants of the former regime by organising attacks, through funding and by trying to hide former regime members,” he said.

THE GOOD AND THE BAD

Its honest...read the whole thing here.

I tagged along the other day with Bernard Kerik, the dynamo former New York City police chief who is in Baghdad retraining the Iraqi cops. We sat in on a class where a U.S. police trainer and his translator were going through the basics of how to start an interrogation. The Iraqi policemen, who four months ago thought removing a suspect's fingernails was how to start an interrogation, dutifully took notes in their U.S.-provided notebooks.

What struck me most, though, was the new "mission statement" for the Iraqi police, posted next to the blackboard in English and Arabic. It said: "We the Iraqi Police Force protect human rights and uphold our laws by serving our citizens and community for the unity and freedom of Iraq."

That statement exemplifies just how radical and revolutionary the U.S. nation-building project in Iraq is. Half the words in that statement were meaningless here four months ago. Human rights? Laws? Citizens? They still have no meaning, but the intent to endow them with some is what is radically new. For 50 years, Iraq, and the Arab world generally, has seen only the status quo side of U.S. power: American power used to buttress the old authoritarian order. Iraqis and other Arabs are now being treated to something radically new: our ideas, the revolutionary side of American power. They still don't quite believe it.

"ONE OF THE HOTTEST CITIES IN THE WORLD"

US soldiers on duty in Baghdad have been feeling the heat in the past few days quite literally.

Baghdad has been one of the hottest cities in the world over the past few days. Temperatures have reached at least 50 degrees Celsius [122 degrees Farenheit] and the fact that American soldiers have to work in heavy jackets and patrol the streets of Baghdad in armored tanks isn't making it easy for them.

Iraqi citizens have had to keep cool by swimming in the Tigris river. It's normally considered too dirty to swim in but the heat hasn't left them too much of a choice.

REASON FOR HOPE

The Herald Tribune found two reasonable clerics in Iraq. Wish them well.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have no idea whether these are the only two liberal Shiite clerics in Iraq. People tell me they definitely are not. Either way, their willingness to express their ideas publicly is hugely important. It is, for my money, the most important reason we fought this war: If the West is going to avoid a war of armies with Islam, there has to be a war of ideas within Islam. The progressives have to take on both the religious totalitarians, like Osama bin Laden, and the secular totalitarians who exploit Islam as a cover, like Saddam Hussein. We cannot defeat their extremists, only they can. This war of ideas needs two things: a secure space for people to tell the truth and people with the courage to tell it. That's what these two young clerics represent, at least in potential.

Jamaleddine, age 42, grew up in Iraq, sought exile in Iran after one of Saddam's anti-Shiite crackdowns, tasted the harshness of the Iranian Islamic revolution firsthand, moved to Dubai, and then returned to Iraq as soon as Saddam fell. Here is a brief sampler of what he has been advocating:

On religion and state: "We want a secular constitution. That is the most important point. If we write a secular constitution and separate religion from state, that would be the end of despotism and it would liberate religion as well as the human being. … The Islamic religion has been hijacked for 14 centuries by the hands of the state. The state dominated religion, not the other way around. It used religion for its own ends. Tyrants ruled this nation for 14 centuries and they covered their tyranny with the cloak of religion. …

"Secularism is not blasphemy. I am a Muslim. I am devoted to my religion. I want to get it back from the state and that is why I want a secular state. … When young people come to religion, not because the state orders them to but because they feel it themselves in their hearts, it actually increases religious devotion. … The problem of the Middle East cannot be solved unless all the states in the area become secular. … I call for opening the door for Ijtihad /[reinterpretation of the Quran in light of changing circumstances/]. The Quran is a book to be interpreted /[by/] each age. Each epoch should not be tied to interpretations from 1,000 years ago. We should be open to interpretations based on new and changing times."

How will he deal with opposition to such ideas from Iraq's neighbors?

"The neighboring countries are all tyrannical countries and they are wary of a modern, liberal Iraq. … That is why they work to foil the U.S. presence. … If the U.S. wants to help Iraqis, it must help them the way it helped Germany and Japan, because to help Iraq is really to help 1.3 billion Muslims. Iraq will teach these values to the entire Islamic world. Because Iraq has both Sunnis and Shiites, and it has Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen. … If it succeeds here it can succeed elsewhere.

But to succeed you also need to satisfy people's basic needs: jobs and electricity. If people are hungry, they will be easily recruited by the extremists. If they are well fed and employed, they will be receptive to good ideas. … The failure of this experiment in Iraq would mean success for all despots in the Arab and Islamic world. /[That is why/] this is a challenge that America must accept and take all the way."

You really ought to read the whole thing here.

SHOULD?

If you read this site frequently you know that I am an optimist about what we are doing in Iraq.

But I can't help but note that discussions of how the Iraqis "should" feel just aren't going cut it.

As COL Tucker told us back in July, the Iraqis respect action.

I'd suggest the Provisional Authority figure that out.

Iraqis should measure their progress by the freedoms they enjoy, not the services they don't have, the top U.S. civilian administrator for Iraq said Tuesday.

L. Paul Bremer told a news conference that while Iraqis complain of unsafe streets and shortages of power, they must also realize that the fall of Saddam Hussein has made their lives better.

''Freedom matters,'' Bremer said. ''I think it's important to ... look beyond the shootouts and blackouts and remind ourselves of a range of rights that Iraqis enjoy today because of the coalition's military victory.''

Iraqi frustration over power outages and fuel shortages has boiled over in recent days. Summer temperatures creeping above 120 have exacerbated the problems.

ANOTHER CENTCOM NEWS RELEASE

This one one the outcome of the investigation into the Palestine Hotel incident during the war in which a journalist was killed.

Reminds us that, well, it was a war zone and the enemy had chosen to conduct combat activities from civilian areas in Baghdad.

This ain't a video game folks, and a press pass doesn't make you bulletproof.

August 12, 2003
Release Number: 03-08-29


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


PALESTINE HOTEL INVESTIGATION CONCLUDES

MACDILL AFB, Tampa: The investigation of the incident at the Palestine Hotel, Baghdad, Iraq on April 8th, 2003 is complete. The investigation was directed by the Land Component Commander, U.S. Central Command, and concludes that a tank from A Company, 4-64 Armor properly fired upon a suspected enemy hunter/killer team in a proportionate and justifiably measured response. The action was fully in accordance with the Rules of Engagement.

The following summary provides background and details of the event.

By 7 April, Coalition forces had begun to encircle Baghdad and had initiated thrusts into the city. On 8 April, Coalition forces were pushing into Baghdad and being met with fierce enemy resistance. The enemy was operating throughout the civilian areas of the city, firing a
spectrum of weapons at Coalition forces from the roofs and windows of surrounding buildings. The enemy was fighting without any regard to civilians or civilian structures. Coalition forces continued to fight their way toward the Tigris River, just across from the Palestine Hotel, an area of significant enemy contact.

The eighth of April was a day of very intense fighting for A Company, 4-64 Armor. Their immediate mission was to secure an intersection and deny the enemy the use of the Jamurohora Bridge. On A Company's first attempt to secure the intersection they were met with heavy enemy direct and indirect fire from Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPGs), mortars and small arms originating from prepared defensive positions (bunkers) and from within and atop surrounding buildings. As they approached the intersection, they suffered two Wounded in Action (WIA). The intersection was defended by almost a battalion of Iraqi Republican Guards. Fire was so intense that A Company pulled back and requested Close Air Support (CAS) and additional fire support. An A-1O aircraft dropped a Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) and strafed the enemy. A Company reattacked. The enemy continued to resist with much of their fire coming from the opposite bank of the Tigris River.

Spot reports were continually arriving at A Company concerning increasing enemy movements and activities along the opposite side of the Tigris River. Additional reports disclosed the discovery of potent Anti-Tank missiles. At this point, A Company had been in heavy fighting for several hours. The Company Commander was then advised by his Task Force Headquarters that an enemy radio had been recovered and that enemy transmissions were being monitored. Those transmissions indicated that A Company was being observed by an enemy spotter who was located across the Tigris River and was directing enemy forces and fires in their direction. While still under heavy mortar, RPG, and missile fire, the A Company Commander directed his people to scan the surrounding buildings to try to find the enemy observer. A Company personnel observed what they believed to be a enemy hunter/killer team on the balcony of a room on the upper floors of a large tan colored building. They also witnessed flashes of light, consistent with enemy fire, coming from the same general location as the building.

One 120mm tank round was fired at the suspected enemy observer position. Immediately following that, monitored transmissions indicated that the enemy observer was taking fire and coordinated enemy fire directed at A Company ceased. It was only some time after the incident that A Company became aware of the fact that the building they fired on was the Palestine Hotel and that journalists at the hotel had been killed or injured as a result. However, intelligence reports also indicated that the enemy used portions of the hotel as a base of operations and that heavy enemy activity was occurring in those areas in and immediately around the hotel.

Conclusions: A Company was under heavy enemy attack. The company had positive intelligence that they were under direct observation from
an enemy hunter/killer team. The activities on the balcony of the Palestine Hotel were consistent with that of an enemy combatant. They fired a single round in self-defense in full accordance with the Rules of Engagement. The enemy had repeatedly chosen to conduct its combat activities from throughout the civilian areas of Baghdad.

These actions included utilizing the Palestine Hotel and the areas immediately around it as a platform for military operations. Baghdad was a high intensity combat area and some journalists had elected to remain there despite repeated warnings of the extreme danger of doing so. The journalists’ death at the Palestine Hotel was a tragedy and the United States has the deepest sympathies for the families of those who were killed.

CENTCOM NEWS RELEASES

August 12, 2003
Release Number: 03-08-27

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ONE KILLED, TWO WOUNDED IN CONVOY AMBUSH

AR RAMADI, Iraq – One 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment soldier was killed and two others were wounded at approximately 10:30 a.m. Aug. 12 when their convoy hit three improvised explosive devices as they were traveling north of Highway 1 in the vicinity of Ar Ramadi.

The wounded soldiers were evacuated to the 28th Combat Support Hospital. One of the soldiers has since been returned to duty.

The names of the soldiers are being withheld pending notification of next-of-kin.

The incident is under investigation.


August 12, 2003
Release Number: 03-08-28

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SOLDIER DIES IN SLEEP

AR RAMADI, Iraq – A soldier attached to the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment died while sleeping at a base camp in Ar Ramadi on Aug. 12.

The soldier’s name is being withheld pending notification of next-of-kin.

The incident is under investigation.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13th. The 94th day of CPT Patti's deployment.

CONSTITUTIONAL PROGRESS

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 11 — In one of its first major decisions, Iraq's interim government appointed a 25-member team today to draw up a procedure to produce a new constitution. Ibrahim Jafari, president of the Iraqi Governing Council, said at a news conference that the committee would not write the constitution itself, but rather devise the mechanism by which it would be drafted.

"The task of the constitutional committee is to move with all segments of society to decide on the best mechanism for writing the draft of the constitution," Mr. Jafari said.

A new constitution is seen as a cornerstone of the democratic Iraq that American leaders overseeing the occupation here are trying to bring about. The process, ultimately expected to lead to democratic elections, is part of the effort under way here to erase a history of dictatorship and misrule and begin a tradition of representative government.

A WORD ABOUT WATER

The myth of water rationing is repeated in the story below. And it simply isn't the whole story.

Yes, there are limits to the number of bottles of this water that soldiers can have daily.

But, as CPT Patti told me last week, there is unlimited water available from the "water dogs" who operate the ROWPU (On-site water purification) systems. The five water dogs attached to CPT Patti's company had purified and distributed over a million gallons of water to the troops by the 1st of August.

CPT Patti told me that the ROWPU water has a slight chlorine taste...but is often better than the mineral-heavy bottled water they get that comes from various points in the mid-east. According to CPT Patti, some of that bottled water tastes "like dirt".

Add a dash of Gatorade, or Kool-Aid or Crystal-light powder, and the chlorine taste is gone.

Don't believe the troops are suffering heat casualties due to water rationing. But you may believe that some troops criticize anything that the Army gives them so much they won't even try it...hence the resistance to ROWPU water.

RUN AN ARMY ON THE CHEAP, YOU GET A CHEAP ARMY

The U.S. military has always had superb logistics. What happened? The answer is a mix of penny-pinching and privatization — which makes our soldiers' discomfort a symptom of something more general.

Colonel Hackworth blames "dilettantes in the Pentagon" who "thought they could run a war and an occupation on the cheap." But the cheapness isn't restricted to Iraq. In general, the "support our troops" crowd draws the line when that support might actually cost something.

The usually conservative Army Times has run blistering editorials on this subject. Its June 30 blast, titled "Nothing but Lip Service," begins: "In recent months, President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress have missed no opportunity to heap richly deserved praise on the military. But talk is cheap — and getting cheaper by the day, judging from the nickel-and-dime treatment the troops are getting lately." The article goes on to detail a series of promises broken and benefits cut.

Military corner-cutting is part of a broader picture of penny-wise-pound-foolish government. When it comes to tax cuts or subsidies to powerful interest groups, money is no object. But elsewhere, including homeland security, small-government ideology reigns. The Bush administration has been unwilling to spend enough on any aspect of homeland security, whether it's providing firefighters and police officers with radios or protecting the nation's ports. The decision to pull air marshals off some flights to save on hotel bills — reversed when the public heard about it — was simply a sound-bite-worthy example. (Air marshals have told MSNBC.com that a "witch hunt" is now under way at the Transportation Security Administration, and that those who reveal cost-cutting measures to the media are being threatened with the Patriot Act.)

There's also another element in the Iraq logistical snafu: privatization. The U.S. military has shifted many tasks traditionally performed by soldiers into the hands of such private contractors as Kellogg Brown & Root, the Halliburton subsidiary. The Iraq war and its aftermath gave this privatized system its first major test in combat — and the system failed.

WELCOME HOME

The 3rd Infantry Division soldiers who stormed Baghdad flew home Monday, completing a nine-month deployment to the Persian Gulf.

The last of the division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team landed at Hunter Army Airfield to turn in their weapons and the rest of their combat gear before being reunited with their families.

Only the division's 1st Brigade remains in Iraq, and it is scheduled to begin heading home in the next few weeks.

The division's soldiers were the first to cross into Baghdad on April 7, then held the city until they were reinforced by Marines three days later.

The unit's A Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment was on the next-to-last flight carrying the brigade home. When those soldiers stepped off the plane, many broke into tears.

Spc. Deandrea Harris of Ozark, Ala., dropped to the tarmac in full combat gear and hugged the ground.

"It's so good to be home," the 23-year-old said.

Staff Sgt. Thomas Slago, a Bradley fighting vehicle commander with the company, codenamed Attack, called out for his former driver who was wounded in a firefight south of Baghdad.

"Sciria, Sciria!" he called. When Pvt. 1st Class Robert Sciria of Buffalo, N.Y., came jogging up, Slago hugged him and both men began crying.

"That's my buddy right there, he saved my life," said Slago, of Los Angeles. "He's my hero."

The infantrymen flew home on a chartered Delta Airlines flight decorated with red, white and blue streamers, U.S. flags and yellow ribbons. After months in the desert, surrounded by camouflage and olive drab, the soldiers smiled broadly at the flight attendants as they boarded the plane...

"The cycle of life is complete," said Tom Slago, himself wounded in the battle for Baghdad. "We left here, and now we're back here."

BUT THEN, IF YOU CAN BELIEVE ARAB MEDIA, YOU MIGHT AS WELL BELIEVE THIS TOO

A man who says he was Sadddam Hussein’s sorcerer predicts the Iraqi dictator will be found dead.

The 62-year-old sprays perfume around the sparse, dingy room – “it smells nicer than incense” – then holds out his hands and feet for a visitor to bind, instructing him to knot the cloth three times and blow on it.

The lights go out, and small red flashes appear beneath the black cloak that covers a bowl of magic powders and water. Something pokes at the visitors - “birds,” the wizard says – and water splashes from the bowl.

The genies have arrived, and the questions begin.

Will Saddam be found? A genie answers in the old man’s voice: “Yes.”

Dead or alive? “Dead.”

And the 25 million question: Where is he? ”Dhuluaiyah,” he says, a village 55 miles north of Baghdad.

Coming from this man, the words carry special meaning. This isn’t just one of the thousands of magicians, fortune tellers and faith healers that are part of the forbidden fabric of Iraq. This is Saddam’s own wizard...

According to the magician and several others interviewed in Baghdad, Saddam was a firm believer in magic, and even applied himself, with modest success, to “studying the sands” and summoning genies.

He consulted frequently with two magicians from Iraq, one from Turkey, one from India, a French Arab and a beautiful Jewish witch from Morocco, the wizard says.

Saddam is still protected, he says, by a pair of golden statues imbued with magic. The deposed president speaks daily with the king and queen of genies - the same ones who provided the information on his whereabouts.

Other magicians also talk about Saddam, some describing fleeting meetings in which the president measured them up. Several said he has a powerful stone – a few described it as the bone of a parrot – implanted under the skin of his right arm to protect him against bullets and to make people love him.

Uh - believe that "make people love you" part has run its course...

YOUR CHANCE TO STARE PARANOIA IN THE FACE

Read what the Iranians are claiming to have heard on Saudi sponsored radio. It isn't true, of course, but that has never stopped an Arab broadcaster yet if he can spread hatred toward Israel and the USA.

Sheesh.

The Saudi-based Voice of Iraq (VOI), monitored here in Iran's Ilam Province, revealed in its Monday night news that
Israel has secretly launched a routine weekly Baghdad-Tel Aviv flight.

VOI added, "The main objective in launching the said weekly flight between Iraq and Israel is forwarding cheap weapons and munitions for the US forces in occupied Iraq."

The VOI claimed that based on a clandestine arms deal contracts signed between the US army and Israeli military industries, Tel Aviv has been commissioned to provide for the major part of the US forces' arms demands during their unlimited stay in Iraq.

MORE ON THE DOCS

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The staff at the 28th Combat Support Hospital will do anything to keep their patients comfortable, even if that means manually fanning a small, sick Iraqi child when the air conditioning breaks down.

But when it comes to their own comforts, the 300 doctors, nurses, medics and support soldiers at Camp Dogwood have it just about as rough as any servicemember in Iraq.

Regardless of rank, the soldiers all live in tents set up in the sand and without air conditioning. Bottled water is rationed, and telephones are rarely available, staffers said.

Off-hours entertainment is limited to impromptu volleyball tournaments, reading well-thumbed paperbacks, and searching out air-conditioned nooks and crannies in the hospital tents to snatch a couple of hours of sweat-free sleep.

The duty hours are either frantically busy or killingly dull.

SOMETIMES IT DOES TAKE A BRAIN SURGEON...

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The drab warren of tents set up in the middle of the desert is an unlikely place for a team of brain surgeons.

But Army doctors here are performing procedures they say have never been performed outside a major hospital, including one surgery that saved a U.S. soldier’s life by removing a section of his brain.

The 207th Neurosurgical Team includes physicians who are normally stationed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., the service’s most technologically advanced hospital facility.

Now, the same doctors who are considered pioneers in their field of neurology — the treatment of the brain and spine — have donned combat fatigues to work at the 28th Combat Support Hospital at Camp Dogwood, a remote base southwest of Baghdad.

DISCUSSING R&R FOR REAL

But read it carefully...it is possible it won't apply to your particular soldier.

The Pentagon hopes to have completed in roughly two weeks detailed plans on how to compensate troops deployed to Iraq.

Proposals include the leave, possible extra money for those units tagged to take on the yearlong deployment, and other “R&R,” said Navy Cmdr. Chris Pendleton, the military assistant for the Deputy Undersecretary for Military Personnel Policy.

Details have yet to be finalized and would ultimately be approved by David Chu, the Defense Department’s undersecretary for Personnel and Readiness.

“We’re in the final stages of articulating a plan that would cover everything from leave for all the troops there to R&R and compensation,” Pendleton said. “It’s really quite intricate. But we think in two weeks, it’ll be ready

CENTCOM NEWS RELEASE

August 11, 2003
Release Number: 03-08-23

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ONE KILLED, TWO WOUNDED IN IED ATTACK

TIKRIT, Iraq – One 4th Infantry Division soldier was killed and two were wounded in an improvised explosive attack near the Ba’qubah police station Aug. 10 at approximately 9:45 p.m.

The soldiers were evacuated to the 21st Combat Support Hospital for treatment where one soldier subsequently died of wounds received.

The soldiers’ names are being withheld pending notification of next-of-kin.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 12th. The 93d day of CPT Patti's deployment.

A NAVY SEABEE (CONSTRUCTION ENGINEER) SENDS HIS VIEW

In a letter to his local VFW post.

I caught wind of and read the recent news articles being circulated back there in the states. I figured I could clarify some things for you.

As usual the news media has blown some things way out of proportion. The countryside is getting more safe by the day despite all the attacks you are hearing about. Imagine every shooting incident or robbery committed in LA or Portland being blown way out of proportion.

This is a country where most of the Saddam Hussein thugs are being chased around like scared rabbits by Coalition forces. It is literally open season on them! We hunt them down like animals.

There were about a million soldiers in the Iraqi army at the beginning of hostilities and most of them took off before we attacked. There are some that were very loyal to Saddam that are trying to sneak around and take potshots at us. We are cleaning them up pretty fast.

There are also thugs from other countries running around, like Iran and Syria. Well, the Iraqis hate these thugs as much as we do. So the Iraqi people are hunting them down too! I can honestly say 98% of the population of Iraq love us and they do not want us to leave...ever! They say as long as we are here they feel safe.

There is more - you will want to read the whole thing.

(Via Instapundit)

LETTER FROM THE FIRST SERGEANT

Quite unexpectedly today I received a letter from the Gator's 1SG from downtown Baghdad.

Let me share with you some of what he says.

"Greetings from Baghdad! The soldiers of A Company are working very hard and establishing an incredible reputation across the 1st Brigade Combat Team.

During the last month (the month of July) our soldiers logged over 3000 miles on over 200 convoys. We have issued over a quarter-million gallons of fuel and our warehouse has filled over 58,000 separate requests for repair parts for the vehicles of the 1st Brigade Combat Team.

Our number one priority is and always will be force protection: we have hired 30 Iraqi workers to fortify our perimeter. The XO and a NCO are tasked to put them to work. We have built six bunkers with steel fortified overhead protection.

CPT Patti has seen a lot of destruction and seen the Iraqi people and children up close. Saddam Hussein oppressed the people of Iraq for decades. The Iraqis are glad that Americans have brought them freedom. CPT Patti i sa part of history and responsible for bringing them that freedom. She is very proud to be a soldier and an American. The experience of Operation Iraqi Freedom will change her life forever. She is a busy soldier and I'm very proud to have her by my side.

Our quality of life is improving daily. We have hired plumbers, electricians and carpenters to renovate our living areas. Local contractors have installed new doors and windows and they have wired every room with light fixtures and switches. Our Command Sergeant Major is working a contract to get us 125 Kilowatt generators so we can power more electrical appliances. The generators should be here at the end of the month [Note by Tim: the generators did get there about the 1st of August]. We also contracted chemical latrine services, we have a total of 10 port-a-potties and they are cleaned daily by the contractor. The days of burning human waste are over, at least for now :-)

A small PX has been established in our camp. Soldiers can buy items such as snacks, sodas and personal hygiene items. The selection is small, but we think it is better than nothing. The PX also sells a limited supply of Army brown t-shirts, towels, and underwear..

All the rooms are equipped with either air conditioning or swamp coolers and every soldier has his own electric oscillating fan. We have a laundry and bath company from Fort Hood, Texas that provides shower and laundry services, however some soldiers have opted to buy their own washing machine for convenience. Additionally we have a total of 4 shower rooms fully operational. And we have access to a satellite telephone.

Moreover, we have an additional contract with an ice company. Alpha company gets 60 bags of ice daily, used solely for refrigeration since the ice is non-potable. We have 5 soldiers attached to us who specialize in water purification. Our "water dogs", as they are commonly known, have remarkably issued nearly 1 Million gallons of water to thirsty soldiers throughout our Brigade sector.

He closes with an admonition that we should all keep sending soldiers packages and mail...and thanks us for our support.

First Sergeant - it is the nation that needs to thank you.

MORE HOT

BAGHDAD - An oft-repeated bit of local wisdom replaces the weather forecast this time of year in Iraq:

The first 10 days of August melt doorknobs, the saying goes. The second 10 days brown the dates on palm trees. The third 10 days, finally, open the door to winter.

''Well, that third 10 days needs to hurry up and come,'' said U.S. Army Sgt. Frederick Wilson, his face shiny with sweat at a checkpoint in Baghdad on Sunday. ``It seemed like on the first of August, someone hit a switch.''

Temperatures rose to a scorching 135 degrees across Iraq last week, causing a U.S. soldier's death Saturday and sending dozens more to seek emergency treatment for dehydration, heat exhaustion and heatstroke, military officials said.

ARMY TOO SMALL? SO IS THE CARRIER FLEET.

The United States might have scored an overwhelming victory in Iraq, but some people think it still needs more aircraft carriers.

Five of these massive cities on the waves were called to duty in Operation Iraqi Freedom — but that left only three others deployable elsewhere.

The worry is that as the sole remaining superpower, the United States might not have enough carriers if too many of the world's simmering hotspots boiled over.

Policymakers feared a conflict in North Korea could have erupted at the same time as the Iraq War, but crises surrounding Taiwan, Pakistan or Israel might have also called for an American presence. The United States military is increasingly being drawn into smaller conflicts as well, like the one currently unfolding in Liberia.

But John Birkler, a military analyst for Santa Monica think tank RAND, says the current United States carrier fleet may not be enough. There's a saying in the Navy, he said: "In national security matters having too much capability is a misdemeanor, but too little is a felony."...

The United States' involvement in global affairs is only one reason for the increased interest in carriers.

Several of America's most recent conflicts have taught Washington it may have problems projecting power in the future — in part, due to rising anti-American sentiment...

The United States used to have more than 100 land bases on foreign soil, Birkler said. "Now it's something like 20-plus and will probably continue to decline." Plus, he added, much of the areas where the United States is focusing now hardly have the infrastructure to support land-based aircraft.

HELP?

German defence minister Peter Struck has said that he supports the idea of a NATO operation in Iraq.

Speaking to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Mr Struck said that so long as there is a UN resolution asking for NATO's help, then there would be no reason to oppose the Alliance in Iraq.

The defence minister also did not exclude that German troops could take part in such an operation - a significant admission given Berlin's strong opposition to the American-led war in Iraq.

Friends again?

This is being seen as the second signal for a diplomatic reconciliation between Berlin and Washington after the US President George W. Bush surprised Germany on Friday with warm words of praise about German troops in Afghanistan.

"Not only is Germany's participation [in Afghanistan] important, it's robust, more robust than we would have anticipated," said President Bush at a press conference. "I look forward to thanking Chancellor Schröder for that".

The German government replied that "it is clear that there is interest to further develop and in the future strengthen the good and friendly relations that have developed over the last decades".

TRAFFIC WOES

“There is no way to go,” my driver, Annas Mazin, says, raising his hands off the wheel in the commuter’s universal gesture of futility.

After a moment, he changes his mind, steers his Olds Cutlass up over a stone median, and reverses direction, angling toward an alley. “This is a new way,” he says as we bump over the median.

Traffic has become one of Baghdad residents’ prime irritations, following somewhere behind blackouts, cooking gas prices and crime. You might think a city that has survived deprivation and bombing runs wouldn’t care about crowded streets. But with phone service still spotty, business has to be done in person, and that means driving.

By midday, traffic turns into a rugby scrum. Crossing an intersection requires playing chicken with oncoming Brazilis (cheap Volkswagens made in Brazil) or wading through a line of waiting cars. Picture Los Angeles without working stoplights.

Police control traffic at some of the larger intersections. If it’s too hot, however, they sometimes take a breather in a spot of roadside shade and let drivers fend for themselves. Many Baghdad residents swear traffic is getting worse, and they may be right. Unlike in Basra, where gasoline shortages touched off a stone-throwing demonstration today, residents of the capital can almost always find gas, either from regular stations or the black market. The price and the quality may vary, but it’s there.

In addition, there may be more people on the streets here than there were before the war. Baghdad residents suspect that Iraqis from the countryside are flocking into the city in search of work, swelling a population that most people peg at 5 million.

Whatever the cause, the worsening traffic jams have awakened in drivers a reckless creativity that has become the norm. Mazin merely makes an annoyed “tsk” noise when drivers head the wrong way on a street, aiming straight at our car. “They should not do that,” he says.

THE ARTS

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 9 — Morning rehearsals were under way on a recent day at the Nasir Theater on Sadoon Street when a dwarf unexpectedly leapt onstage. Affecting a dictator's sneer, he gazed out at the empty seats and unleashed an all-too-familiar refrain: "Our blood and souls we sacrifice for you, Saddam!"

The other actors burst out laughing at the slogan, a reaction that might have landed them in prison six months ago. Then the power went out, leaving the actors to whistle and applaud in the sweltering dark.

These are giddy times for Iraqi performers. Shorn of the police state that censored and stupefied them, many are struggling to revive the cosmopolitan theater scene that once made Baghdad a magnet for performers throughout the Middle East.

But with scant electricity, an 11 p.m. curfew and rampant street crime, it is hard to lure audiences for matinees, much less at night. Some fear that hard-line Islamists, angered by what they see as Western decadence, will create their own new form of censorship. In June, an actress at the Nasir was shot to death. Apparently, no charges have been brought in this chaotic period, but her fellow actors contend that she was killed by a relative, a woman, who is a militant Shiite.

Several Baghdad movie theaters have been attacked by Islamists over the past month, and some artists say they worry that they have become targets. "Now we have freedom in all ways," said Abdul Rahman al-Murshidi, a well-known comic actor. "But the freedom has its own limits."

The play being rehearsed at the Nasir, a five-year-old comedy, "I Saw It With My Own Eyes," contains scenes that were removed in the previous era at the insistence of Saddam Hussein's security agents, including one in which security officers insult and spit on a man.

Some actors and directors say that what was worse than censorship was the way Mr. Hussein imposed his own tastes on the nation, subsidizing belly dancing and cheap cabaret theater while shutting out serious dramatic performers through neglect or intimidation.

LIFE IN THE ER...BAGHDAD STYLE

He had been hit by the what the doctors call an "indirect" bullet, fired off by somebody in some distant part of the city, zinging through the hot and humid air, before choosing, by some cruel twist of fate, to barrel its way into his leg. His friend Kanaan Tofeeh had bundled him into a car and driven him to the emergency room of Yarmuk hospital in the centre of the city.

He had arrived just before 9pm, as the night shift was beginning, but the register on the counter in the trauma room already listed six others admitted for "bulleting" [sic] injuries that day.

And this, according to the surgeon, now was digging around deep inside the hole with a pair of small forceps, is a quiet one.

"Before the war, people with this sort of injury we would put them to sleep, but now we do not bother - there are too many," he says before finally, with a flourish, holding up a small copper pistol bullet and dropping it with a clunk into a kidney shaped metal bowl.

He sews up Mr Fahd's wound, and the guard limps out of the hospital clutching a little glass vial filled with antiseptic and the bullet wrapped in a cotton swab.

The trauma ward at Yarmuk is a brutal place in every sense of the word.

There are no sheets on the trolleys, or pillows on which patients can rest their heads. There is no room for sentiment here, no caring bedside manner from the doctors, no kindly nurses to mop a brow in the suffocating heat.

It had risen to 52C (126F) during the day and by 10pm is still in the high 40s; the electric fans mounted on the ceiling do little to take the edge off the temperature.

The doctors who are not tending to patients huddle around a single, small air conditioning unit, the only one that is working in the entire room.

Sobering....read it all.

UN OPERATING AT "THE WORKING LEVEL"

Iraq's neighbours, he added, "see the UN playing a supportive role in political terms but also in the reconstruction of democratic institutions respectful of the human rights of the Iraqi people," who currently face widespread lawlessness.

Insecurity, he pointed out, was "further aggravated by the decision Saddam Hussein took in October of last year of emptying his prisons - obviously not of political prisoners - of common law criminals, so what you have is tens of thousands of criminals on the loose in Iraq and particularly in large urban areas." Those people, he noted, "are responsible for attacks against women, for robbery, for assassinations."

"It will take time to resolve this problem," he stressed, "because you know as I do that the Iraqi police has collapsed - it was ineffective anyway - and a new security force needs to be created and this does not happen in a matter of weeks."

HOT!

If you think it's hot in Britain, try Iraq.

The thermometer in The Independent's car hit 54C (129 Farenheit) in central Baghdad yesterday. That was when the air conditioning gave up and blew hot air in our faces.

In these temperaturesthe sun hits the back of your head like a sledgehammer. You can drink a litre and a half of water in five minutes and still feel thirsty.

Cars overheat from the sun here. When Iraqis park, they leave the bonnet (hood) open to cool the engine. It's perfectly natural to pull up at someone's door and ask them to spray the hosepipe over your engine.

American soldiers sometimes ask locals to spray them down as well. They are in full battledress - bullet-proof vests and helmets. "All I'm fighting here is this heat," one American told me.

Some locals are convinced the vests are air conditioned -the only reason anyone would wear them in such heat.

But for Iraqis, life goes on. Everybody goes to work and the streets are busy. Air conditioning is not a luxury - even dirt-poor farmers have rusty units.

CENTCOM NEWS RELEASES

August 10, 2003
Release Number: 03-08-20

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

1ST ARMORED DIVISION SOLDIER FOUND DEAD

BAGHDAD, Iraq– A soldier with the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment was found
dead in troop living quarters at approximately 5:00 pm. Aug. 9.

The soldier was taken to the unit medical facilities, but could not be resuscitated.

The name of the deceased is being withheld pending next-of-kin notification.

The cause of the soldier's death is unknown. The incident is currently under investigation.



August 10, 2003
Release Number: 03-08-21

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SOLDIER DIES FROM APPARENT HEAT STRESS

BAGHDAD, Iraq – A 3rd Corps Support Command soldier died from apparent heat stress on Aug. 9, while riding in a convoy north of Ad Diwaniyah.

The soldier was evacuated to a nearby medical facility, where he was pronounced dead.

The soldier’s name is being withheld pending notification of next-of-kin.

The incident is under investigation.


August 10, 2003
Release Number: 03-08-22

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

COALITION EFFORTS AID IN REBUILDING IRAQ

BAGHDAD, IRAQ – Coalition forces improved Iraqis’ lives by renovating an Olympic swimming pool in Mosul and refurbishing the Agriculture Ministry Building in Tikrit.

With the help of soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) the Olympic Pool in Mosul opened to the public on Aug. 8. Prior to the war, the two-million gallon pool was a training facility for the Mosul Dive and Swim team.

When engineers attached to the 101st AAD first saw the pool it was surrounded by piles of trash and debris and had only four feet of water in it. A heavy equipment platoon and a construction platoon worked with local contractors to level the ground and make the needed renovations to the pool and its main pool house. Soldiers from the 101st AAD brought in close to 100 truckloads of dirt to level off the ground around the pool. The crews also fixed the pipes, filters and tanks.

In Tikrit, soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division working together with local Iraqis completed renovation of the Agriculture Ministry Building. On Aug. 8 workers returned to work in their new office space. The facility was run down after years of neglect and was looted during the war. Repairs included cleaning and painting of the building’s exterior, replacement of window glass and rewiring of old electrical systems. In addition, the soldiers and contractors worked together to install desks, copy machines, computers and fans. Approximately 50 Iraqis work in the Agriculture Ministry Building.

The renovation project cost approximately $85,000, which was provided by commander’s discretionary funds. An additional $10,000 of those funds went to purchase office furniture for the building. The project employed 100 local Iraqi workers.

MONDAY, AUGUST 11th. The 92nd day of CPT Patti's deployment.

UNDERSTANDING HOW THEY THINK

One key finding is the deep skepticism Iraqis have regarding all sources of information. Though scores of publications and broadcasters are appearing, many Iraqis told us with pride that they rely on "friends and neighbors" for their news. The rumor mill is very powerful indeed.

Iraqis tend to be unenthusiastic about political leaders -- whether newly emerging insiders or those recently returned from exile. Cynicism is especially acute regarding those who were the objects of vilification campaigns by the previous regime.

Moreover, Iraqis' frame of reference for interpreting current events is grounded in a past where facts and critical analysis were seldom available through the media. Though we found nearly universal satisfaction that Saddam Hussein is gone, a quarter-century of his propaganda lives on in the minds of Iraqis.

Anti-American and anti-Jewish vitriol is thoroughly embedded, shaping the ways Iraqis interpret events. President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair are doing the bidding of "Zionist" interests, some believe, and Israelis are buying houses and land in Iraq. One woman in Najaf says that a majority of the foreign soldiers are Jewish -- further evidence of a plot to keep Iraq down while the coalition, in cahoots with Israel, steals Iraq's natural resources.

Even more troubling is a broadly shared belief that the postwar chaos is actually part of the U.S. plan. What critics in the West see as poor planning for the postwar situation is interpreted by Iraqis as deliberate. They presume a country as obviously powerful as the United States does what it wants, in precisely the way it wants. A middle-aged Shiite woman in one focus group in Karbala said, "We think that they absolutely know and understand the total situation. They know about everything. They enjoy watching this. We don't know why they do this."

Few participants in our groups believe the United States is motivated by a desire to do what is best for Iraq. Rather, they think the United States invaded "for its own interests." By this, they do not mean the United States acted for reasons of national security but to boost the American economy and steal Iraq's oil. The United States has thus made a rapid transition from enemy in war to liberator to occupier, all in the span of five short months.

THE BOOK PROBABLY WON'T MENTION THIS

The author of a book on rebuilding Iraq was arrested at Kennedy International Airport for allegedly smuggling stolen 4,000-year-old Mesopotamian artifacts out of Baghdad, authorities said yesterday.

Joseph Braude, author of The New Iraq, was released on a $100,000 bail after a preliminary appearance yesterday in federal court.

Braude, 28, brought the priceless artifacts into the U. S. on June 11, U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf said. He was arrested Friday night after arriving at the airport on a flight from London, she said.

Braude bought the three cylindrical stone seals, made of marble and alabaster, for $200 US during a visit to Baghdad in June, authorities said.

Braude faces up to five years in prison if convicted of smuggling the artifacts. He did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.

A Columbia University professor called in to examine the seals determined they were of the Akkadian period, dating back to 2340-2180 BC.

They were apparently swiped from the national museum, authorities said.

"MOST IRAQIS DON'T KNOW WHAT TO THINK"

My guess is he's right.

"I can honestly say that now I'm proud to be an Iraqi," said Khalid Nemah, 45, a taxi driver who pored over Azzaman newspaper. "Because of what has happened, because there is freedom here like I have not known before. Now I can talk - to you, to people I could never talk to before. I am a simple man. I am just a worker. But even these simple things - talking - give me hope."

"I haven't had electricity, and I can't read at night," said printer Qaisi Yassin, as he sipped a tumbler of piping hot tea, defying another sweltering Baghdad morning. "And now, my child is like a bat. It's so hot he can only come out at night.

"But am I mad at the Americans? What does that mean? Were they supposed to come with a magic wand?"...

Booksellers grin when asked about their new reality. Poster salesman Laith Abdel Rahem said his register is flush with cash from Iraqis eager to practice democracy at home by papering walls with the likes of Gen. Abdel Karim Kassem, a rebel who led a coup against Iraq's monarchy in 1958 only to die in another rebellion in 1963.

Those who cannot afford the 100 dinars - about 6 cents a poster - still stop by to gawk, he said. "All kinds of people come and look at the posters. Some buy. Some salute. And some come up and even kiss them," Rahem said.

Wamid Nadhmi, a political science professor at Baghdad University, tries to gauge Iraqi sentiments by riffling through the 100-plus newspapers sold on the capital's street corners and by channel surfing.

Can anyone really know the depth or breadth of Iraqi support or ire, he asked aloud.

"Some people in Iraq were so marginalized, so tortured, that they considered the invasion of a foreign power as legitimate," he said. "Some Iraqis see the invasion as it was - and the Arab world betrayed them. Others say the Arab world betrayed them in another way by not speaking openly about what was going on in Iraq.

"What I think now is, most Iraqis don't know what to think. Iraqis don't have an accurate view of who is doing what."

BENZES IN BAGHDAD

Carjacking has become Baghdad's number one crime problem in the last two months. Police say hundreds of late-model or luxury vehicles are being stolen each week by gunmen who surprise drivers at busy traffic stops, on lonely stretches of road, or just outside homes and garages.

The carjackings are less spectacular and less deadly than the recurring terrorist attacks on U.S. troops and other foreign targets in the metropolitan area, but are far more frequent and unnerving to residents of a capital whose sprawling size and modern freeway system make it an ideal city for cars.

Police attribute the epidemic of armed car theft to a combination of causes: the high urban unemployment rate that has soared since Baghdad fell in April, the wide availability of guns, the large number of used luxury cars that have poured into Iraq, and the relative ease of committing quick, opportunistic crimes in a huge city with a newly trained and overstretched police force.

"It's a disease that is spreading fast, and we don't have the means to stop it," said Maj. Ehsam Salman, a veteran police officer in central Baghdad. "There are too many idle men with nothing to do, and too many cars coming with no controls. It's happening every day, all over the city, and we don't even have a working emergency number people can call."

Since mid-June, city police backed by U.S. troops have been conducting random roadside vehicle checks, in which they pull over new or expensive-looking cars, ask to see the driver's documents and search the trunk and interior for weapons.

One morning this week, Lt. Ali Hussain, a thin, serious-looking man of 23, waved down dozens of luxury sedans on a busy commuter bridge, many with no license plates and new import stickers on their windshields. In most cases, the owners were middle-class Iraqis who said they had recently purchased the vehicles here for between $3,000 and $7,000.

$3000-$7000 for Benzes and Beemers? Sounds to me like they were stolen to begin with.

US TO SHIP RUSSIAN ARMS TO IRAQ?

To some, it might sound like shipping oil to an OPEC member or ice to Antarctica but, as the Pentagon says there are good reasons why it's planning to send AK-47 firearms to Iraq.

In Iraq, hardly a day goes by that the U.S. military doesn't report finding AK-47s - sometimes just handfuls, sometimes dozens, sometimes hundreds. There is no total, but Pentagon officials say the numbers are in the thousands, perhaps the tens of thousands.

Despite this, the Baghdad-based, U.S. run Coalition Provisional Authority has been soliciting bids from arms dealers to supply 34,000 of the Russian-design assault rifles for Iraq's new security forces.

A Pentagon spokesman says the reason for looking to buy new AK-47s is simple - the weapons seized so far in Iraq are not sufficient in either quantity or quality for a new Army or the police. The spokesman says the U.S. military does not want to give Iraqis unserviceable, hand-me-downs. It also doesn't want to force U.S. made assault rifles on Iraq because these would be unfamiliar and could run into servicing and maintenance complications.

One potential beneficiary could be Poland, a close U.S. ally whose troops took part in the war in Iraq. Its arms industry is hoping to win the bid.

TRAINED TERRORISTS

More on those who may be behind the Embassy bombing.

BAGHDAD - The U.S. administration in Iraq has received intelligence reports that hundreds of Islamic militants who fled Iraq during the war have returned and are planning major terrorist attacks.

L. Paul Bremer, the top civilian administrator in Iraq, said in an interview Friday that fighters from Ansar al-Islam, a militant organization the United States had sought to destroy during the war, had escaped to Iran and then slipped back across the border into Iraq.

"The intelligence suggests that Ansar al-Islam is planning large-scale terrorist attacks," he said.

"We have seen here a new technique for Iraq that we have never seen before," Bremer said, referring to the car bomb that ripped the Jordanian Embassy in central Baghdad, killing 17 people and wounding scores more.

"My initial instinct was to believe that this had to be done from somebody from outside," he said. "But I have been told . . . that there was part of the Mukhabarat (the Iraqi intelligence service) that specialized in sophisticated bombing and it is possible that this kind of technique did exist."

CENTCOM NEWS RELEASE

August 9, 2003
Release Number: 03-08-19

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ANOTHER MEMBER OF "IRAQI TOP 55" IN COALITION CUSTODY

MACDILL AFB, FL - Mahmud Dhiyab al-Ahmad, #29 on the coalition's list of most wanted government officials, is now under custody of coalition forces. The former Iraqi Minister of Interior surrendered to coalition forces yesterday.

Coalition Forces will continue to work at apprehending former members of the Saddam Hussein regime.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 10th. The 91st day of CPT Patt's deployment.