DoD Identifies Marine Casualty

No. 0264-08 April 02, 2008
DoD Identifies Marine Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Maj. William G. Hall, 38 of Seattle, died March 30th from wounds he suffered while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq, on March 29th. He was assigned to 3rd Low Altitude Air Defense Battalion, Marine Air Control Group 38, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.
Media with questions about this Marine can contact the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing public affairs office at (858) 577-6000.

Israel: Hezbollah May Strike Israel via 3rd Party

HAARETZ.com brings us this troubling news this early Wednesday morning. It starts off like this...
Hezbollah may try to carry out an attack in the North with the help of another paramilitary organization, which can provide it with deniability, intelligence officers told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense committee yesterday... "We clearly identify a great deal of activity among Hezbollah," the intelligence officers said. "It is growing stronger on all levels, improving its systems, its units and is receiving a great deal of weapons and missiles for medium and long distances. Hezbollah is readying itself for an escalation that may break out in the North as a result of an operation against Israel. We are not discounting any possibility - there are assessments that they may carry out an operation in the North through another organization," the officers told the MKs...
Read the rest at link below...
Intelligence officers: Hezbollah may strike Israel via 3rd party

Israel Flag Image courtesy of CIA

Department of Homeland Security Waives Laws to Finish 670 miles of U.S.-Mexican Border Fence

Tuesday, April 01, 2008
USAToday.com brings us this good news today and it starts off like this... The Homeland Security Department used its legal authority Tuesday to waive environmental and land management laws, so it can complete 670 miles of fence along the U.S.-Mexican border...
Homeland Security waives laws to finish fence

DHS.gov website has a press release and lots of info at link below...
DHS Exercises Waiver Authority to Expedite Advancements in Border Security

File photo by DHS - National Operations Center

Iraq: Day Eight of Operation “Charge of the Knights”

Day Eight of Operation...
“Charge of the Knights”
Tuesday, April 01, 2008

I for one believe that the end result of all this fighting in Iraq... over the past week is... IRAN and their puppet the radical Shi'ite Cleric Moqtada al Sadr... WON.

Neither Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his fragile Government nor the U.S. came out of this one with any favorable... positive results. I don’t care how anyone spins this news either... the end result is we lost. I do pray however that there were lessons learned and that now the realization of just how much of Iraq... and the rest of that part of the world... is actually under the dangerous grip of Iran.

I furthermore cannot help but believe that if this bowing to Iranian influence continues over the near future... Iraq is going to turn into another Lebanon... which is just what I think is/has been happening to it right now.

Until America... Israel and our working allies in the world take out the political/military might and influence of Iran, Syria too... there will NEVER be no peace in that part of the world.

Choose wisely the next President of the United States and those you wish to lead in Congress... for all of us, we the American people... have only witnessed the beginning successes and mistakes of this long war put before of us.

AubreyJ.........

IRNA File Photo
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Let’s now see how the News on Iraq is being reported today...

..
Pope Air Force Base, N.C., Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Navy Adm. Mike Mullen spoke to servicemembers from Pope Air Force Base and neighboring Fort Bragg and took their questions, Monday, March 31st. He said their questions, comments and observations help him as he advises the President, the Defense Secretary and the rest of the National Security Council.

Mullen said, in part, that a week ago... Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered Iraqi forces to clamp down on illegal militias, criminals and thugs in the southern oil and port city of Basra. Shiia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Jaysh al-Mahdi organization contested the Iraqi security forces, and fighting spread north to Baghdad and other Shiia cities in the south.

Mullen said he did not know what Sadr's intentions were in battling the government, but he praised Maliki's decision to go into Basra.

"I think what happened in respect to Basra, where the prime minister is taking some significant steps, internal to his sovereign country, with his own forces have been positive," Mullen said to the troops. "This is their country, and taking steps in this direction is positive. Will we learn some lessons from this? Absolutely!"

He said one aspect that is very clear to him is that any solution must be political. "It's not going to happen militarily," the chairman said.

Mullen would not predict what Sadr will do in the future.

Taken from part of a Jim Garamone news article – DoD, American Forces Press Service - DoD photo by Air Force Tech. Sgt. Adam M. Stump
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* Telegraph.co.uk put this report up this morning and it starts off like this... Iraq's prime minister today announced plans to recruit 10,000 security personnel for Basra even as he claimed that his widely criticized military assault on Shia militants in the southern city last week had been a “success”...
Read their report in full HERE
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* AP.Google.com reports...
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki claimed Tuesday that a week-old operation against Shiite militias has been a "success" despite a cease-fire that did not disarm the gunmen and left him politically battered... The Shiite leader stopped short of declaring an end to the offensive that began a week ago Tuesday in the southern city of Basra, sparking retaliatory clashes in Baghdad and other southern cities, and criticism that his government was unprepared for the fierce backlash... Militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr, meanwhile, thanked his fighters for "defending your people, your land and your honor."...
Read this report in full at link below...
Iraqi PM: Basra Operation a 'Success'
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* ABCNews.com... has their/Reuters typical take on things... I would like to note that we just came out of a week of some MAJOR fighting all through Iraq... thus... of course the death toll is going to be high...
Fighting between security forces and Shi'ite militiamen last month has driven civilian deaths in Iraq to their highest level in more than six months, government figures showed on Tuesday... Britain responded to renewed violence in the southern city of Basra by delaying plans to bring home 1,500 of its 4,000 troops in Iraq... A total of 923 civilians were killed in March, up 31 percent from February and the deadliest month since August 2007, according to data compiled by Iraq's interior, defense and health ministries and obtained by Reuters... The figures are a blow to the Iraqi government and the United States, which have pointed to reduced overall levels of violence in recent months as evidence that a major security offensive has made significant progress...
Read the rest at link below...
Iraqi casualties at highest level since August
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* DigTriad.com reports it this way...
The battle for Basra has not turned out to be the defining moment many had thought... Prime Minister Maliki's patchwork coalition of support remains fragile and while a shaky truce has calmed the violence, everyone's wondering how long it can last...
Read the rest below...
Fragile Truce In Iraq Holding

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* GulfNews.com put this news article out early Wednesday morning and it starts off like this...
The Iraqi government says it is fighting the Shiite militia known as the Mahdi Army in Basra. But Moqtada Al Sadr, the maverick mullah who founded the militia and is supposed to be its leader, says he has ordered his men to lay down their arms and go home. What is going on? ... One thing is certain; the fighting that started in the last week of March is still going on, albeit on a smaller scale. Outside that certainty, we enter the realm of probabilities. Chief among these is the probability that this fighting is, in fact, a mini-war, involving proxies, between new Iraq and Iran...
Read the rest at link below...
Iran's influence evident in Basra

DoD Identifies Army Casualties

No. 261-08 April 01, 2008
DoD Identifies Army Casualties

The Department of Defense announced today the death of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. They died March 29th in Baghdad from wounds suffered when they encountered an improvised explosive device and small arms fire. They were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kan.

Killed were:
Spc. Durrell L. Bennett, 22, of Spanaway, Wash.
Pfc. Patrick J. Miller, 23, of New Port Richey, Fla.

For more information related to this release, the media may contact the Fort Riley public affairs office at (785) 239-3410.

Taking a Moment to Honor Our Fallen Heroes

Some of our bravest gave their all these last few days...

Take a moment to read their names, (in the posts below/above this one,) and in your own way thank them for all they have done and were willing to do for you -- me and this great country of ours… May God bless each and every one of these fallen Heroes, their families, friends, loved ones and their comrades in arms who were at their side.
AubreyJ.........

DoD Identifies Army Casualty

No. 260-08 April 01, 2008
DoD Identifies Army Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Sgt. Terrell W. Gilmore, 38, of Baton Rouge, La., died March 30th in Baghdad, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. He was assigned to the 769th Engineer Battalion of the Louisiana Army National Guard in Baton Rouge.
For further information on this soldier, media may contact the Louisiana Army National Guard at 318-641-3864.

DoD Identifies Army Casualty

No. 259-08 April 01, 2008
DoD Identifies Army Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Cpl. Steven I. Candelo, 20, of Houston, died March 26th in Baghdad, when his vehicle was struck by a rocket propelled grenade. He was assigned to the 1st Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, Vilseck, Germany.
For further information on this soldier, media may contact the U.S. Army, Europe, public affairs office at 011-49-6221-57-5816/8694.