26 February 2009

U.S. Marines stand at parade rest Feb. 20, 2009, during a Navy Cross ceremony in honor of two fallen Camp Lejeune Marines, Lance Cpl. Jordan Haerter, and Cpl. Jonathan Yale, in Quantico, Va. U.S. Secretary of the Navy Dr. Donald C. Winter presented the awards at a ceremony at the National Museum of the Marine Corps. Haerter and Yale posthumously received the Navy Cross for actions in April 2008. They are credited with saving the lives of many U.S. Marines and Iraqi police.

Early Bird summary
Thursday’s Early Bird leads with a story from the New York Times reporting that falling revenues are threatening stability and rebuilding in Iraq. According to the piece, last summer, with oil prices above $100 a barrel, Iraq was so flush with cash that many in the United States were arguing that a country so rich should be paying for its own reconstruction and possibly even reimbursing American taxpayers.Six months later, the question is whether a decline in Iraqi government revenues, which depend almost entirely on oil, could threaten the relative security and stability won here at the cost of so much American treasure and life. Indeed, political pressure is rising here, as more Iraqis demand precisely the services, like better electricity, water and education, that could now come more slowly.
The New York Times also reports that President Obama’s planned Iraq troop drawdown would leave the bulk of American forces in place until early next year while some combat units would remain in place in new roles even beyond a declared August 2010 target for withdrawal, administration officials said Wednesday.The plan would maintain relatively high troop levels through Iraq’s parliamentary elections, to be held in December, before beginning in earnest to meet the August 2010 target for removing combat forces, the officials said. Even after August 2010, as many as 50,000 of the 142,000 troops now in Iraq would remain, including some combat units reassigned as “Advisory Training Brigades” or “Advisory Assistance Brigades,” the administration and Pentagon officials said.
The Washington Post reports that about two-thirds of Americans support President Obama's decision to send approximately 17,000 additional U.S. military forces to Afghanistan, and, in stark contrast to the sour public reception of former president George W. Bush's "surge" of troops in Iraq, support for Obama's move crosses party lines, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.Support for the proposed influx of troops to Afghanistan, however, comes as Americans are about evenly divided about whether the war there has proved to be worth its costs. They also split 50 to 41 percent on whether it is essential to win in Afghanistan to succeed in broader efforts against terrorism.
The New York Times reports that, as part of its buildup in Afghanistan, the Pentagon plans to deploy billions of dollars in heavily armored vehicles, spy planes, jamming technology and even experimental ground-penetrating radar to defend troops from increasingly lethal roadside bombs.More than 175 American and allied troops were killed by roadside bombs in Afghanistan last year, more than twice as many as the year before, and American commanders say the 17,000 extra troops ordered to Afghanistan by President Obama last week will offer additional targets.While improvised roadside bombs have been a greater threat in Iraq, the Taliban-led insurgency has begun to use them on a wider scale in Afghanistan. Four American soldiers died Tuesday in an attack involving an improvised explosive device, or I.E.D., in southern Afghanistan, where most of the new American troops are headed. On Wednesday, three British soldiers patrolling in southern Afghanistan were killed by an explosive device.
The London Daily Telegraph reports that the governor of Helmand has called for more British and American troops to be sent to the Afghan province's poorly-defended southern border with Pakistan.Gulab Mangal said an increase in foreign soldiers in the violent south of Helmand would help to improve security in the lead-up to the the presidential elections due to be held in a few months' time.
Leon E. Panetta, the new director of the Central Intelligence Agency, said Wednesday that the agency’s campaign against militants in Pakistan’s tribal areas was the “most effective weapon” the Obama administration had to combat Al Qaeda’s top leadership, according to the New York Times.The C.I.A. in recent months has intensified its covert campaign of missile attacks in the tribal areas, carrying out more than 30 strikes against Qaeda and Taliban leaders from drone aircraft. Mr. Panetta stopped short of directly acknowledging the missile strikes, but he said that “operational efforts” focusing on Qaeda leaders had been successful.
USA Today says top Pentagon generals and admirals had to sign a letter promising to keep defense budget details secret if they wanted to work on the military's fiscal plan, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said Wednesday.Defense Secretary Robert Gates set the rule, requiring for the first time that each military and civilian official helping prepare the budget sign a non-disclosure statement.The entire Joint Chiefs of Staff signed, promising not to leak information while the budget was being put together. Gates also signed, as did all the high-ranking civilian defense officials working on the budget document, Morrell said.President Obama is set to submit his budget to Congress today.
President Barack Obama will sketch out a robust U.S. military budget for next year totaling $537 billion, a senior Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives said on Wednesday to Reuters.Obama is scheduled to release on Thursday an outline of his budget proposal for fiscal 2010, which begins on October 1.Representative John Murtha, the Pennsylvania Democrat who oversees defense spending in the House, told Reuters that "$537 billion will be the base budget" for the Pentagon.But he added that he was not sure whether the $537 billion would include any money the Pentagon is expected to need to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan next year.
Washington Times reports that Russia has intercepted an attempt by a group of naval officials to smuggle $18 million worth of anti-submarine missiles and aviation bombs from Russia to China, officials said Wednesday.Russia's chief military prosecutor, Sergei Fridinsky, said the navy officials and some businessmen brought 30 anti-submarine missiles and 200 aviation bombs into Tajikistan for onward sale to China. The ammunition was detained in Tajikistan.


Media summary
1. Leading newspaper headlines: Everybody leads with President Obama's decision to put some money in a piggy bank. (Slate Magazine)
Leading newspaper headlines
Everybody leads with President Obama's decision to put some money in a piggy bank. In the budget proposal that will be released today, Obama will announce that he wants to start his promised overhaul of America's health care system by creating a $634 billion reserve fund over the next 10 years that will be paid for by increasing taxes on the wealthy and cutting government spending. At the center of the plan is a call to gradually reduce the value of itemized deductions that those in the highest tax brackets can take for things like mortgage interest and charitable contributions. Separately, Obama will also propose to extend his tax cuts for most Americans and pay for them with the revenue he would get from polluting industries. These two proposals, combined with Obama's stated goal of rolling back some of the Bush administration's tax cuts, add up to "a pronounced move to redistribute wealth by reimposing a larger share of the tax burden on corporations and the most affluent taxpayers," declares the New York Times.
USA Today calls the $634 billion reserve fund "a big step toward extending health coverage to 46 million uninsured and subsidizing premiums for others who have insurance." But the administration made it clear it was just the first step, and most papers cite an administration official who characterized it as a "very substantial down payment" on Obama's health care goal. The plan contains few details on how the money would be used. "Rather, the president's proposal to raise revenue is intended to signal his seriousness about moving the talks forward on Capitol Hill," notes the Los Angeles Times. The Washington Post points out that this "strategy is largely intended to avoid the mistakes of the Clinton administration, which crafted an extensive proposal in secret for many months before delivering the finished product to lawmakers, who quickly rejected it." The proposal to raise taxes is expected to create a huge ruckus in Congress, and one of the key questions will be "whether a change to the deductions formula would discourage charitable giving among the wealthy," says the Wall Street Journal.
The proposal to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans involves reducing the value of tax deductions by about 20 percent for families making more than $250,000 a year or thereabouts. For those of us who aren't used to getting big deductions, the NYT does the best job of explaining the logic behind it and what it means. The way the tax law is written, those in a higher tax bracket get a bigger deduction in their tax liability. So, for example, someone in the 35 percent bracket gets a bigger reduction for having $10,000 in itemized deductions than someone who is in the 28 percent bracket, which the White House says is unfair. Republicans obviously oppose this move, saying that it would hit many small businesses.
The change in itemized deductions would provide about half of the money for the reserve fund. Where's the rest coming from? The biggest chunk would come from a proposal to cut payments the government makes to insurance companies that provide care for those in Medicare under what is known as Medicare Advantage. Obama also wants to cut costs by reducing the amount that Medicare pays hospitals with high re-admission rates, a move that is part of a broad plan to improve care. In addition, wealthier Medicare beneficiaries would be asked to pay more to receive the program's prescription-drug coverage.
In the 10-year budget Obama will release tomorrow, he will also note that he wants to pay to extend the tax cuts for low and middle-income Americans with some of the billions the government will get from the "cap and trade" program that has been a centerpiece of the president's platform. The program would basically require companies to buy permits if they want to exceed limits on pollution emissions. "Cap-and-trade is code for increasing taxes and killing American jobs," said House Republican Leader John Boehner, "and that's the last thing we need to do during these troubled economic times." The program wouldn't be instituted until 2012, at which point the administration expects the recession to be over.
The WP is all over Obama's budget and dedicates three separate front-page stories to the issue. In one blunt piece, the WP declares that the president's budget not only assumes that lawmakers can resolve some issues that have been plaguing them for years but also "relies on a few well-worn budget tricks." In his big speech before Congress, Obama said his administration "already identified $2 trillion in savings," but the truth is that about half of those are really tax increases. And much of the rest "comes from measuring Obama's plans against an unrealistic scenario in which the Iraq war continues to suck up $170 billion a year forever," details the Post. Although everyone says that Obama has successfully eschewed some common budget tricks that previous administrations were fond of, the plan isn't quite free of what the paper calls "budgetary maneuvers."
Considering the numbers he's starting out with, many are saying that Obama's goal of halving the deficit by the end of his first term isn't very ambitious. The Congressional Budget Office recently said the deficit could be cut in half by 2013 simply by winding down the Iraq war and allowing some tax cuts to expire. Not everyone agrees. In an analysis piece inside, the LAT says that halving the deficit won't be an easy task and may end up costing Obama dearly. Some of the methods Obama said he will use to follow through "have fallen short in the past" and, perhaps more importantly, "Congress is not ready to mend its free-spending ways." The huge spending bill that the House passed yesterday increases expenditures by 8 percent and is full of earmarks from both sides of the aisle.
What is undoubtedly ambitious is Obama's agenda, which "amounts to a long work order for a legislature that has seen its productivity sag in recent years," notes the Post. The young president is basically asking Congress to pass one huge piece of legislation about once a month. Many Democrats are getting nervous that the huge expectations Obama is creating could result in a big defeat in the 2010 midterm elections if it turns out they can't follow through.
At least Democrats can take heart that one of the GOP's rising stars has lost some of his shine. Both the NYT and LAT go inside with the searing criticism that was heaped on Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal for his response to Obama's speech, much of it from members of his own party. Many said the 37-year-old governor, who is seen as a possible presidential contender in 2012, failed in both message and delivery. Still, many caution against writing him off just because of one speech. "It was a disaster," said Paul Begala, a former aide to President Bill Clinton, "but you can come back from disaster."
The LAT fronts, and everyone covers, a new study that concluded it doesn't matter what diet people choose to follow as long as they cut calories. In the largest study of its kind, researchers tested several popular weight-loss methods for two years and found that all the participants lost and regained the same amount of weight. The study's authors say it shows that people should choose whichever diet they can stick to the longest. "There isn't any one way," one expert said. "That is the nice thing about none of these diets in particular winning."
You know that plush and soft toilet paper you love so much? Well, hope you enjoy it, because you're killing lots of trees in the process, notes the NYT. It costs about the same to make toilet tissue from recycled material, but it's not as soft and so is much less popular in the United States. Environmental groups say they will begin a push to educate Americans on the effects of their love for the soft stuff.
The WP's David Broder writes that Obama's speech on Tuesday "was a dramatic reminder of the unbelievable stakes he has placed on the table in his first month in office." Veteran lawmakers know how difficult it is to get one ambitious piece of legislation through Congress, but on Tuesday they heard how Obama wants them to overhaul energy, health care, and education. Oh yeah, and there's that little problem with the economy and some wars being fought on foreign soil. "Is he naïve? Does he not understand the political challenge he is inviting?" writes Broder. "When we elected Obama, we didn't know what a gambler we were getting."

25 February 2009

Early Bird summary
Wednesday’s Early Bird leads with the New York Times reporting that President Obama is nearing a decision that would order American combat forces out of Iraq by August 2010 as he seeks to finally end a war that has consumed and polarized the United States for nearly six years, senior administration officials said Tuesday.The timetable would give the military three months more to withdraw than the 16-month pullout Mr. Obama promised last year on the campaign trail. Officials said he was prepared to make that shift because he agreed with the concerns of ground commanders who wanted more time to cement security gains, strengthen political institutions and make sure Iraq did not become more unstable again.
The Washington Post reports that President Barack Obama may have no choice but to spend billions of taxpayer dollars to buy a new fleet of White House helicopters, defense analysts say.The existing 19 helicopters built by United Technologies Corp.'s Sikorsky Aircraft are more than 30 years old, and several have broken down on presidential trips. But most worrisome is that the current fleet does not meet the communication and protection needs of the White House, according to military analysts.
National Journal's CongressDailyPM publication reports that Marine Maj. Gen. John Kelly, who just completed a yearlong assignment as the top commander in western Iraq, said today he believes the Iraqi people "have made a commitment to government over violence" and that President Obama's proposal to withdraw most combat forces in 16 months "is very doable" in most of the country. Kelly, who was commander of Multi-National Forces West and deputy commander of the I Marine Expeditionary Force, said the war in Iraq would go on, but as "a war to establish a lasting democracy."Kelly, who has done three tours in Iraq since 2003, conceded Iraq may never have an American-style democracy. But the general, speaking at a defense writers' breakfast, said he believes that even the Sunni leaders in Anbar province, once considered the heart of the anti-American insurgency, were committed to settling differences politically rather than resorting to violence. He said that the Iraqi army and police had assumed virtually total responsibility for security in the previously volatile region, describing the level of violence there as "meaningless."
The New York Times reports that American missile strikes have reduced Al Qaeda’s global reach but heightened the threat to Pakistan as the group disperses its cells and fights to maintain its sanctuaries, Pakistani intelligence officials said.The officials acknowledge that the strikes and raids by the Pakistani military are proving effective, having killed as many as 80 Qaeda fighters in the past year. But they express growing alarm that the drone strikes in particular are having an increasingly destabilizing effect on their country.
Rep. Michael McCaul called the moment chilling and eerie, according to the Houston Chronicle. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee said she froze in place. And Rep. Pete Olson stared through the one-way glass, thinking, “My God, that’s the man who planned the attacks.”There he was in a stark cell at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba, kneeling on a prayer rug, head bowed, wearing the white cap of faithful Muslim men worldwide.Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, 44, the mastermind of the Sept. 11 al-Qaida attacks on the United States, appeared thinner than in the photos taken the 2003 night of his capture in Pakistan.
The Pentagon’s weapons tester says he doesn’t have “high confidence” that the Boeing Co.-managed U.S. missile defense would be effective against even a rudimentary North Korean missile, according to an article at Bloomberg.com.Testing against the possible trajectories and altitudes of a North Korean missile has been limited and hasn’t generated enough data to run the thousands of computer simulations needed to predict performance, Charles McQueary wrote in his annual report to Congress.
North Korea on Tuesday dressed up its planned test of a long-range ballistic missile -- which may be able to reach Alaska -- as a benign research project, according to the Washington Post."Outer space is an asset common to mankind, and its use for peaceful purposes has become a global trend," said a spokesman for the North Korean Committee of Space Technology.North Korea's announcement comes amid warnings from the United States not to test the missile. A U.N. resolution, passed after North Korea exploded a nuclear device in 2006, bans the country from any ballistic missile activity.
The London Times reports that Iran moves a step closer to joining the nuclear club today by beginning a test run of its Russian-built atomic power plant. Officials in Tehran said that the Bushehr plant would undergo operational tests during a visit by Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of Russia’s state atomic energy corporation.Mr Kiriyenko is travelling to Iran to discuss completion of the $1 billion (£695 million) project, which is running almost three years behind schedule after repeated delays caused by disputes over payment. Iran’s atomic energy organisation said that the power station was now expected to start work in the first half of this year. Russia said that today’s test would not involve nuclear fuel.


Media summary
1. Leading newspaper headlines: President Obama told the American people last night that the country is in trouble, but he vowed that the United States would recover and emerge stronger than before. (Slate Magazine)
2. Change slow for isolated Afghans: A dirt road lined with crumbling stone walls weaves its way through Afghanistan's snowy Hindu Kush peaks. (BBC)
3. Fortress Technologies supports wireless reach-back project: Fortress Technologies, a leading provider of secure wireless solutions, today announced that it is supporting a Wireless Reach-Back (WRB) project for the United States Marine Corps (USMC) Program Manager for Training Systems (PMTRASYS), Orlando, Fla. (MSNBC)
Leading newspaper headlines
President Obama told the American people last night that the country is in trouble, but he vowed that the United States would recover and emerge stronger than before. In his first address to a joint session of Congress (don't call it a State of the Union), Obama gave a "sobering speech" but also "sought to spark optimism and confidence in his plan for recovery," notes USA Today. The Wall Street Journal declares that Obama "straddled the divide between fear and hope" throughout his speech, and the New York Times describes it as a mixture of acknowledging the seriousness of the economic problems "with a Reaganesque exhortation to American resilience." The Washington Post points out that Obama's optimistic tone had "been absent from his speeches in recent weeks," a fact that many, including former President Bill Clinton, had criticized. In what the Los Angeles Times calls "a significant departure from the George W. Bush years," Obama barely mentioned foreign policy and focused squarely on the economy and other domestic priorities.
In his 52-minute speech, Obama declared that the "day of reckoning has arrived" and called on Americans to "take responsibility for our future once more." He said it was time to bring an end to the era where people inside and outside Washington avoided making tough decisions in order to maximize short-term gains. He never implicated his predecessor by name, but the message was clear enough when he declared that his budget would reflect "the stark reality of what we've inherited." Obama pointedly noted that everyone in Washington, "and that includes me," will have to sacrifice some "worthy priorities" in order to deal with the burgeoning deficit. But he insisted that getting out of the current mess won't be possible unless the country starts to deal with some long-term issues, such as health care and energy policy.
Obama acknowledged the anger that many people feel over the costly bailouts of banks and automakers but warned that the "cost of inaction will be far greater." He also warned that more money would probably be needed but said that the U.S. economy won't recover until the country's financial system has stabilized. "It's not about helping banks," he said, "it's about helping people." Obama once again repeated that he plans to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term but made it clear that won't stop him from pursuing an ambitious agenda that was at the centerpiece of his campaign, and yesterday he spent lots of time talking about energy, education, and health care. But he mostly stuck to broad strokes and didn't reveal any significant details about his policy initiatives or how he plans to cut the deficit beyond repeating the tired mantra about how his administration is going "line by line" through the federal budget to find wasteful and ineffective programs.
Inside, the WSJ's Gerald Seib notes that Obama's address was directed more at regular Americans than at the lawmakers who were sitting in front of him. Ultimately, the president "faced a choice between making his big speech a Bill Clinton-like policy manifesto or a Franklin Roosevelt-like fireside chat," writes Seib. "He chose the latter." The LAT declares that Obama "tried to strike a balance that escaped" former Presidents Herbert Hoover, who was criticized for being too optimistic, and Jimmy Carter, who was panned for being too negative, "while also capturing some of the inspirational oratory typical of Ronald Reagan."
Some have warned that Obama runs the risk of not getting anything done by trying to do too much, but the president made it clear last night that he intends "to use the urgency of the moment and his considerable political capital to ... transform the way politics is done," says the WP in its front-page analysis. USAT notes that an already-difficult challenge "is all the greater because he's presiding over an incomplete government." Plus, it seems unlikely he'll get much support from the other side of the aisle. The NYT points out that "the vision he articulated was in some ways anything but unifying." Obama proposed "a more activist government than any other since Lyndon B. Johnson," and some of his most important ideas "represent a philosophical agenda that strikes at the heart of the other party's core beliefs."
Obama wasn't alone in dishing out hope yesterday. Earlier in the day, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told a Senate panel that the economy could end its contraction by the end of the year, and 2010 could be a "year of recovery." Of course, his "carefully hedged comments," as the WP puts it, made it clear that it all depends on whether the government succeeds in stabilizing the financial system. But that sliver of optimism was enough for investors. Markets soared even as new figures indicated that consumer confidence reached its lowest level in more than 41 years. Bernanke also helped the markets by playing down the prospect that the government is about to nationalize major banks, saying he doesn't see a particular need for that extreme course of action just yet. "We can work with them now to get them to do whatever is necessary to restructure," he said. "We don't have to take them over to do that."
The WSJ points out that the low consumer confidence is just one sign of how "the recession and financial crisis are feeding on each other in ways that worsen both." In what is being called an "adverse feedback loop," the recession is causing more companies and individuals to default on their loans, which is hurting banks in ways that are unrelated to the mortgage-related programs that began this national nightmare.
In a front-page piece, the WSJ takes a look at the anything-but-sunny relations between Citigroup and the government. At a time when the government is considering taking a larger stake in Citigroup, it seems clear that their relationship "is off to a very rocky start," declares the WSJ. Executives complain that they're trying to help Citigroup come back from the brink while also pleasing federal officials, but they're getting mixed messages. At times it seems the government wants to micromanage Citigroup's operations, but then ignores it for long periods. "In trying to be neither an active nor a passive investor, the U.S. is directing the business without a firm strategy or particular expertise," declares the WSJ. Privately, federal officials describe the banking giant as "unmanageable," while executives complain there's no one person or federal entity that is in charge of overseeing Citigroup that they can go to with questions or concerns. In a particularly poignant image, one "person close to the company compared the government's role to the sword of Damocles, an ever-present evil hanging over their heads," reports the WSJ.
The NYT fronts, and the LAT goes inside with, word that Obama will soon announce a 19-month withdrawal plan of American combat forces from Iraq. The plan would order combat forces out of Iraq by August 2010, which represents a three-month extension of the 16-month withdrawal timetable that Obama outlined during his campaign. The shift is being billed as a compromise between Obama and military leaders who wanted a 23-month time frame for withdrawal. Obama still plans on keeping a "residual force" in Iraq that the LAT says could consist of up to 50,000 soldiers, but the number is far from clear.










Top of the Document

Change slow for isolated Afghans
The village of Darbaw has seen few of the promised changes
By Bilal Sarwary BBC News, Takhar province, Afghanistan
A dirt road lined with crumbling stonewalls weaves its way through Afghanistan's snowy Hindu Kush peaks.
On one side of the rutted track runs a shallow river, on the other a natural pistachio forest is sprinkled across the craggy, rising slopes.
But at the end of the road there is a harsh counterpoint to the natural beauty of the Farkhar valley - a decaying, isolated Afghan village.
With little of the infrastructure long promised by the Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai, this village, like many others throughout Afghanistan, is on the verge of collapse.
Unseen by aid-workers, the village of Darbaw has been largely left to fend for itself in one of the world's most unforgiving landscapes.
Seven years after the fall of Taleban, this mountainous valley of 300 families still does not have access to clean drinking water and lacks even the crudest of medical clinics.
Villagers in Darbaw complain they hardly see any of the substantial profits made from the pistachio forest, let alone Takhar province's relatively lucrative salt and coal mine.
Chronic battle
In recent years, government aid work has introduced a small electrical power plant in Darbaw, allowing villagers to make the switch from kerosene lamps to electrical light bulbs.

Afghans in the Farkhar valley describe their plight
In pictures
But while the introduction of the light-bulb has certainly made a difference to the lives of the villagers, Darbaw's power supplies remain minimal at best, unable to provide enough electricity to sustain even one fridge.
There is here an unyielding determination to survive but there is a chronic battle with disease and hunger.
Darbaw is one of thousands of villages still waiting for the government and the international community to deliver on its promises of a better life.
The Afghan government points to its achievements - the northern highways have been asphalted, newly built bridges connect villages across valleys and hospitals and schools have been constructed.
"When the Taleban were removed, everything was destroyed. Today we have thousands of kilometres of asphalted road," says one senior Afghan official in Kabul.
"The Afghan police and army replaced the Taleban and warlords. Did Afghanistan get enough troops and money from America and the West?
Karzai made a lot of promises to us. We trusted him and his foreign friends about reconstruction and peace. Look what has happened since then
Sayed Abdul Rahman
"No, we didn't and now everyone blames it on the Afghan government."
For the most part, people's lives have not changed in post-Taleban Afghanistan, including in the north.
"Unemployment is very high, corruption is in the government and we live in poverty. I don't like this kind of democracy," says 72-year-old village elder Sayed Abdul Rahman.
Like in other parts of Afghanistan, most northerners are living below the poverty line, despite billions of dollars of foreign aid.
In northern Afghanistan, the danger is not posed by the Taleban but by a slew of warlords who maintain illegal militias.
Residents in Takhar province have reported a number of recent skirmishes between warlords that have resulted in the killing and displacement of residents.
"These commanders are still powerful. They don't like peace and stability - they want to take this country back to the war days," says 54-year-old Mohammad Ebrahim from the remote district of Rustaq.
"Some are in parliament, others have money and guns."
Taleban demise
When questioned on the lack of progress, provincial government officials point to the fact that a court in Takhar recently convicted a number of criminals for involvement in killings, abductions and armed robberies.
One Afghan security official in the provincial capital, Taloqan, said: "These warlords are powerful in districts and villages where we are not present in greater numbers.
"But we can arrest and jail anyone in Takhar province. The Afghan government is much more powerful than we were few years ago.''
Such assertions do not mean much to the villagers of Darbaw, who still crave the basic necessities of life and more often than not appear disaffected by government inaction.
"Karzai made a lot of promises to us. We trusted him and his foreign friends about reconstruction and peace. Look what has happened since then," says Mr Rahman.
"We voted for Hamid Karzai because he promised to put an end to the suffering of our people. But where is my road, my clinic and my clean drinking water?"
A local teacher from Khawaja Bahawodeen district listed the problems of the north.
"We may not have suicide attacks, but there is corruption, little reconstruction and we still have warlords who do terrible things."
But some in Darbaw do welcome the change that has been achieved and remember fondly the demise of the Taleban.
''Men and women, young and old went to vote. After so many years of war, we finally saw a chance for peace. We didn't get everything, but look we have electricity and a road from Taloqan to our district," says Haji Abdul, 65.
Mohammad Akram, 31, adds: "When the electricity arrived at our village from the Afghan government's National Solidarity Programme (NSP), villagers in Darbaw celebrated for days.
"I couldn't believe it that our village will someday get electricity. But we were promised a lot of other things also.''
The NSP is widely considered to be the most successful government programme in recent years but Afghanistan will need many more like it to achieve peace and stability.


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Fortress Technologies supports wireless reach-back project
Company supports range modernization and transformation efforts
LANSDOWNE, VA - Fortress Technologies, a leading provider of secure wireless solutions, today announced that it is supporting a Wireless Reach-Back (WRB) project for the United States Marine Corps (USMC) Program Manager for Training Systems (PMTRASYS), Orlando, Fla. WRB will provide wideband wireless capabilities in support of fixed and mobile users on USMC tactical training ranges, enabling them to pass critical information in a dynamic environment.
"The aim of the WRB project is to improve ground and air tracking capability on training ranges," said Don Gunnell, Lead Project Engineer for the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Corona Division. "This program provides voice, video and data communications to military personnel on the range -- whether on foot or in vehicles -- ensuring important information is being relayed during training exercises. WRB will make these exercises safer and more effective."
As part of the project, Fortress teamed with Luxul Wireless, a leading innovator of patented high-performance wireless signal technologies, to enable the wireless signals to transmit over the 4.4 GHz band, which is specifically authorized for federal government users and limits interference that could negatively affect network performance. Fortress' Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) validated ES520 Secure Wireless Bridges were combined with Luxul Shock-WAV(TM) Frequency Translating Amplifiers (FTAs) to provide the secure wireless capability over the alternative spectrum. The Fortress solution was selected because it was able to meet both the distance and AES security requirements for the project.
"ES520s will be placed in National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) enclosures on towers on five mountain tops and other fixed user locations across the first training range," said Dana Kuntz, Vice President, Federal Sales, Fortress. "Combined with the Luxul FTAs, the solution provides high bandwidth voice, video and data functionality across long distances. In addition, the Fortress/Luxul combination received operational J/F-12 spectrum certification from the Department of Defense (DoD) for this solution, which enables the use of the 4.4 GHz band. This allows us to potentially replicate WRB at other DoD ranges within the United States and Possessions (US&P)."
The ES520 is an "all-in-one" network access device that combines the features of a wireless access point, bridge, Ethernet switch and FIPS 140-2 validated AES encryption in a small, rugged, weatherized form factor. The Luxul Shock-WAV(TM) FTA converts commercial-off-the-shelf 5 GHz wireless LAN technologies to the 4.4 GHz government protected band by using its bi-directional frequency translator and amplifier.
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24 February 2009

Early Bird summary
Tuesday’s Early Bird leads with a story from the Washington Post reporting that prospects for building a new fleet of high-tech presidential helicopters darkened yesterday, after the new commander in chief called the costly Bush administration effort an example of military procurement "gone amok" and said he thinks the existing White House helicopter fleet "seems perfectly adequate."President Obama's remarks at the opening of a meeting with lawmakers on fiscal responsibility did not rule out finishing the program, now expected to cost more than $11.2 billion, or nearly twice the original estimate. He joked that he has not had a helicopter before, so perhaps "I've been deprived and I -- I didn't know it."
A similar story in the New York Times puts it this way: “President Obama and Senator McCain found themselves in agreement that a project to build 28 new helicopters for the White House has gone way off course.”
In a story filed from the aircraft carier USS Theodore Roosevelt, the New York Times also reports that the United States flew more than 19,000 combat missions in the country in 2008 — more than ever before, surpassing even the number in Iraq over the same period. But over all, American pilots dropped slightly fewer bombs and other munitions, perhaps as a result of more restrictive rules imposed in September after an uproar about civilian casualties.
USA Today reports that Americans by 2-1 approve of President Obama's decision to send 17,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan despite skepticism over whether they can succeed in stabilizing the security situation there within the next few years. A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday shows a reservoir of support for Obama's first major military decision as president. Two-thirds express approval of his order to expand the U.S. deployment to Afghanistan by 50%; one third disapprove.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that as the United States and NATO craft a new strategy for Afghanistan, they are likely to apply counterinsurgency lessons learned at great cost during the war in Iraq.Last week, President Obama ordered 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan, prompting comparisons to the "surge" strategy in Iraq.But there was more to the surge than just additional troops, and it is those elements - changing the troops' mission from offense to defense, increasing support for indigenous forces, and stepping up diplomacy within the nation and among its neighbors - that analysts say could be most relevant for Afghanistan.
The Christian Science Monitor reports that President Bush was hardly out of the White House before his European opponents to the invasion of Iraq began lining up for what are expected to be lucrative contracts to rebuild the oil-rich country.In recent weeks, France and Germany, which Donald Rumsfeld, former secretary of Defense, once chided as "Old Europe" for their opposition to the war, spearheaded Europe's forceful return to Baghdad. On separate visits with similar goals, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier swung through Baghdad. Their message was clear: As the danger subsides and the US scales back, Europe should move in quickly with money and know-how to rebuild everything from power stations, water systems, schools, and hospitals to roads and bridges.
USA Today states that the global economic crisis is making combustible countries such as Pakistan even more of a security risk to the United States and its troops abroad. The fear (in Pakistan), and in other parts of the Muslim world, is that unrest over soaring unemployment and food shortages could cause unpopular governments to collapse, resulting in more support for militant organizations such as al-Qaeda or the Taliban.
Washington Times reports that three major Pakistani Taliban commanders have joined forces, a development that poses a significant threat to Pakistan's stability and could hamper U.S. efforts to flush out al Qaeda from a safe haven in the country's lawless borderlands.People based in North and South Waziristan along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan told The Washington Times that the top Pakistani Taliban commander, Baitullah Mehsud, and two rival Taliban chiefs, Hafiz Gul Bahadur and Maulvi Nazeer, met at an undisclosed location recently and settled their differences to unite against U.S. and Pakistani government operations in the region.
The London Daily Telegraph reports that Vladimir Putin is facing an unprecedented military challenge to his authority as discontent grows over poor conditions and planned personnel cuts in the Russian armed forces.A growing number of disgruntled servicemen, including senior officers, are making contact with Russian opposition groups for the first time since Mr Putin came to power in 2000.
The final news item in today’s Early Bird comes from the New York Times, which reports that F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III said Monday that a Somali-American man who was one of several suicide bombers in a terrorist attack last October in Somalia had apparently been indoctrinated into his extremist beliefs while living in the United States.The man, Shirwa Ahmed, was the first known suicide bomber with American citizenship. He immigrated with his family to the Minneapolis area in the mid-1990s, Mr. Mueller said, but he returned to Somalia after he was recruited by a militant group.
Media summary
1. Leading newspaper headlines: The New York Times leads with a look at how the Obama administration is facing "mounting pressure" to put more money into troubled companies that have already received billions from Uncle Sam. (Slate Magazine)
2. Taliban Swat truce ‘indefinite’: Taleban insurgents in the troubled north-western Swat valley of Pakistan have announced an indefinite ceasefire. (BBC)
3. Iran in ‘backroom offers’ to West: Iran offered to stop attacking British troops in Iraq to try to get the West to drop objections to Tehran's uranium enrichment project, a UK official says. (BBC)
4. Arrests after protests in Tehran: A group of Iranian students are reported to have been arrested following a rare show of opposition to government policies. (BBC)
Leading newspaper headlines
The New York Times leads with a look at how the Obama administration is facing "mounting pressure" to put more money into troubled companies that have already received billions from Uncle Sam. American International Group, the insurance giant, is now saying its $150 billion rescue won't be enough and is asking for billions more. The requests, which have also come from two of Detroit's Big Three and Citigroup, "reflect just how hard it is to stanch the flow of losses as the economy deteriorates." The NYT also mentions, and the Washington Post devotes its lead story to, the White House making it clear that it's willing to acquire a controlling ownership stake in troubled banks that can't raise enough private capital. The move could "culminate with the government nationalizing some of the country's largest banks," declares the Post.
The Los Angeles Times leads with, and the Wall Street Journal gives big play to, yesterday's plunge in the U.S. stock market as major indexes fell to levels not seen since 1997. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 3.4 percent and the Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 3.5 percent as the losses spread to sectors that had been doing relatively well amid the ongoing turmoil. USA Today leads with a new poll that found a majority of Americans support plans to help struggling individuals but oppose bailouts for companies. Although a slim majority thinks the plan to help homeowners is "unfair," 59 percent say it is "necessary." The WSJ leads its world-wide newsbox with President Obama promising that his administration will move to tackle the country's growing deficit. After holding a "fiscal responsibility summit" with members of both parties, Obama said that "we cannot simply spend as we please and defer the consequences to the next budget." As the administration prepares to unveil its budget Thursday, the president also announced that the White House will host a summit on health care next week.
The WSJ devotes a front-page piece to AIG's attempts to get the government to overhaul its $150 billion bailout package. The discussions have been going on since December as AIG is seeking to repay up to $60 billion of the bailout cash with "a combination of debt, equity, cash and operating businesses, such as stakes in AIG's lucrative Asian life-insurance arms," details the WSJ. The move would ultimately convert the government from a creditor to a potential owner of AIG. An announcement is expected by Monday, when the company will release its fourth-quarter results that may end up being "one of the biggest year-end losses in American history," notes the NYT. The deal would help AIG avoid going through a credit rating downgrade, which would force it to make billions of dollars in payments to its partners.
The question of ownership is also at the heart of the discussions over what to do with the nation's ailing banks. In what the NYT calls an "unexpectedly assertive joint statement, the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve, and regulatory agencies directly stated that the government might demand a direct ownership stake from banks that can't raise enough private capital. Whether a bank needs extra capital will be determined by the so-called "stress tests" that the government will begin to perform this week to see whether banks could survive if the economy gets worse. The government still insists that nationalization of the banks would never be their preferred course of action but it seems officials are growing less allergic to the dreaded N-word with each passing day. Officials emphasized that just because the government has a majority stake in a company doesn't necessarily mean it would get involved in managing its daily operations, although no one is ruling anything out.
USAT's survey suggests that polls measuring the public's support for using government money to stabilize banks should be taken with a grain of salt because "attitudes vary depending on the language used." But there does seem to be strong support to helping individuals, and about 80 percent back new programs to create jobs. Many of USAT's findings are backed up by polls in the NYT and WP. The WP notes that "large majorities" of Americans support the stimulus package as well as the plan to help avoid more foreclosures while almost 70 percent of Americans oppose giving more money to Chrysler and General Motors.
As Obama prepares to address a joint session of Congress tonight, it is clear that Americans are worried but still have faith in their young president. The NYT reports that 55 percent of Americans say they're just scraping by, while more than 60 percent say they're worried that layoffs will directly affect someone in their household in the next year. Despite these concerns, Obama still has plenty of political capital. USAT puts Obama's approval rating at 62 percent, the NYT at 63 percent, and the WP at 68 percent. The WP highlights that support for Obama among Republicans has decreased and now stands at 37 percent. The NYT notes that the overwhelming majority of Americans think Obama is trying to work with Republicans, and 63 percent say Republicans opposed the stimulus plan for political reasons. A mere 26 percent of Americans trust Congressional Republicans more than Obama to deal with the economy.
In a front-page piece, the LAT becomes the latest paper to note that Obama's budget will include money for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as other expenditures that the previous administration often kept separate. The Bush administration was often criticized for failing to include certain costs in its budget to make the deficit seem smaller. While this new tactic follows Obama's pledge to make government more transparent, it could also make it easier for the new president to make good on his promise to cut the federal deficit in half during his first term. "By starting with a huge deficit now," explains the LAT, "he could slash spending in his fourth year."
When the "fiscal responsibility summit" ended, many Republicans complained Obama has yet to prove that he's serious about fighting the deficit. While the White House said that the president will make clear that he's "making hard choices" in his first budget, the NYT states that "early indications do not suggest bold action." Most of the savings will not come from budget cuts, but rather "from a combination of existing policies and economic assumptions."
In a front-page dispatch from Pakistan, USAT takes a look at how "the global economic crisis is making combustible countries ... even more of a security risk." Many fear that as Pakistan's economy deteriorates more will turn against the government and begin to back extremists. "If the economy goes down, the militants benefit," a Pakistani political analyst said.
Everyone reports that Obama has apparently settled on former Washington Gov. Gary Locke to lead the Commerce Department. Locke, an early supporter of Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries, would be Obama's third choice for the job, as well as the third Asian-American in the Cabinet.
The LAT notes that the average American now watches more than 151 hours of TV a month. Nielsen's report for the fourth quarter revealed the all-time high figure that translates into about five hours of TV watching a day.

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Taleban Swat truce 'indefinite'
The Taleban say they will release all prisoners they are holding
Taleban insurgents in the troubled north-western Swat valley of Pakistan have announced an indefinite ceasefire.
The announcement follows a deal struck last week between a radical cleric and authorities that brings Sharia law in return for an end to the insurgency.
The Taleban have been assessing that deal and Tuesday's move followed a meeting held by the group's leader in the region, Maulana Fazlullah.
The scenic valley of Swat has long been blighted by militant violence.
The latest truce announcement comes a day after militants in Bajaur district called a unilateral ceasefire with security forces there.
'Goodwill gesture'
"Today the shura [consultative council] met under Maulana Fazlullah and decided to hold a ceasefire for an indefinite period," Taleban spokesman in Swat, Muslim Khan, was quoted by the news agency AFP as saying.
"We are releasing all prisoners unconditionally. Today we released four paramilitary soldiers and we will release all security personnel in our custody as a goodwill gesture," he said.
A previous 10-day truce announced by the militants was set to expire on Wednesday.
Will Sharia law bring order?
Diary of Swat schoolgirl
The announcement comes a day after the army confirmed it was halting military operations in the region, although not leaving.
The cleric, Sufi Mohammad, who is also Maulana Fazlullah's father-in-law, has been mediating between the government and the militants.
On Monday, he urged the militants to end the patrolling of streets and to allow the government to set up the Islamic courts they have been fighting for.
Swat has been the scene of bloody clashes between militants and government forces since November 2007.
More than 1,000 civilians have died in shelling by the army or from beheadings sanctioned by the Taleban. Thousands more have been displaced.
The Taleban have also destroyed nearly 200 schools, most of them for girls, during a sustained campaign against secular education in Swat.
An earlier peace agreement broke down in mid-2008.
The BBC's Barbara Plett in Islamabad says there is concern that this peace deal will also not last, with some analysts believing the Taleban want to control territory, not just amend the legal system.
Earlier this month, the North West Frontier Province government signed an agreement with Sufi Mohammad's proscribed Tanzim-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi (TNSM) for the implementation of a Sharia justice system in Swat.
Sufi Mohammad, who opposes militancy, led thousands of TNSM workers into Swat to set up a peace camp there and to start talks with Maulana Fazlullah.
Preconditions
The BBC's M Ilyas Khan, who was recently in Swat, says the militants are now likely to close their checkpoints in the region as the first step towards the new justice system.
The Pakistan army's battle in Swat since 2007 has been bloody
On Monday, the TNSM announced 10 preconditions for its successful implementation.
These included the evacuation of all schools and hospital buildings by the army and an end to all security checks that hamper the movement of people.
The TNSM has called on the government to station troops away from civilian areas.
It urged the government to compensate families that suffered human and material losses and called on thousands of displaced people to return to their homes.
The ceasefire moves in Swat have been echoed in Bajaur.
However, the unilateral truce called by the Taleban there follows a series of strategic gains by the military.
Reuters news agency quoted military spokesman Maj-Gen Athar Abbas as saying the militants should approach the army to discuss the terms of laying down their arms.
Correspondents say the truce deals have caused disquiet in the US and the issue will be high on the agenda as Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and army chief Ashfaq Pervez Kayani meet US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and joint Pakistan-Afghan envoy Richard Hobrooke in Washington this week.





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Iran in 'backroom offers' to West
By Bridget Kendall BBC diplomatic correspondent
The revelation to the BBC was made by Sir John Sawers, Britain's UN envoy
Iran offered to stop attacking British troops in Iraq to try to get the West to drop objections to Tehran's uranium enrichment project, a UK official says.
The disclosure by UN ambassador Sir John Sawers in a BBC documentary throws new light on backroom discussions between Iran and the West.
Roadside bombing attacks on British and American soldiers in Iraq were at their height in 2005.
The extent of Iran's role in arming and training those militias was uncertain.
Tehran denied a role, while British officials tended to hedge their accusations with references to 'circumstantial evidence'.
Private talks
But now a senior British official has revealed that not only did the Iranians privately admit their involvement, they even made an astonishing offer to switch off the attacks in Iraq if in return the West would stop blocking Iran's controversial nuclear programme.
We stop killing you in Iraq... you allow us to carry on with our nuclear programme
Sir John Sawers on the Iranian offer
Sir John Sawers, currently Britain's ambassador to the United Nations, said Iranians raised the offer during informal private talks at a hotel in London.
"There were various Iranians who would come to London and suggest we had tea in some hotel or other. They'd do the same in Paris, they'd do the same in Berlin, and then we'd compare notes among the three of us," he told the BBC.
"The Iranians wanted to be able to strike a deal whereby they stopped killing our forces in Iraq in return for them being allowed to carry on with their nuclear programme: 'We stop killing you in Iraq, stop undermining the political process there, you allow us to carry on with our nuclear programme without let or hindrance.'"
The deal was dismissed by the British government and Iran's nuclear enrichment restarted shortly after.
Old pattern
It is just one incident in a revealing pattern of on-off backroom deals with the Iranians that appear to go back to 2001.
Former President Khatami offered to help oust Saddam, the report says
It emerges from interviews with both Iranian and American officials that after 11 September, 2001, Tehran collaborated so closely with the US in order to topple the Taleban and remove al-Qaeda from Afghanistan, that they even provided intelligence information to pinpoint military targets for bombing.
Hillary Mann, one of the US delegates, remembers how one Iranian military official pounded the table in his eagerness to get the Americans to change targets.
"He unfurled the map on the table and started to point to targets that the US needed to focus on, particularly in the north," she told the BBC.
"We took the map to Centcom, the US Central Command, and certainly that did become the US military strategy."
Over Iraq too, Iran's reformist President Mohammad Khatami offered to collaborate on ousting Saddam Hussein, arguing that the Iraqi leader was also Iran's enemy.
But relations deteriorated after former US President George W Bush accused Iran of being part of an "Axis of Evil".
Attempts at negotiations initiated by the Europeans in the end led nowhere.
Current prospects
According to Nick Burns, in charge of Iran policy at the State Department for the Bush administration until last year, the American policy of talking tough with Iran did not prove productive.


Iran insists on its right to pursue a nuclear programme
"We had advocated regime change," said Mr Burns. "We had a very threatening posture towards Iran for a number of years. It didn't produce any movement whatsoever."
The glimpses in this TV documentary of a whole series of backroom talks over several years that on occasion yielded real collaboration would appear to be encouraging.
But the impressive collection of interviews does not address what prospects now lie ahead for a possible improvement in relations.
And the essential gap remains: without exception all Iranian policy makers, even the reformist Mr Khatami who may well stand again for the post of president this summer, insist on Iran's legal right to pursue its nuclear programme without impediment.
But the West remains deeply suspicious and alarmed at what it fears is subterfuge and deliberate procrastination to conceal Iranian plans to be able to make weapons from its uranium stocks, and therefore the Western demand remains that Iran must suspend nuclear enrichment.
President Obama's promise to "extend a hand" if Iran "unclenches its fist" may not be enough to break the logjam.

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Arrests after protest in Tehran
Student protests have become rarer under President Ahmadinejad
A group of Iranian students are reported to have been arrested following a rare show of opposition to government policies.
The arrests, of up to 70 students, followed a protest at the Amir Kabir university in Tehran.
Some students are angry at moves to re-bury war dead from the Iran-Iraq War in the grounds of the university.
A group of them carried banners, complaining that their campus was being turned into a cemetery.
The students also said the Evin prison in Tehran was being turned into a university - because of the number of students being held there.
During the re-burial ceremony, witnesses said there were clashes between the protesting students, members of the security forces and other students loyal to the government.
This kind of protest has become increasingly rare since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took power, because of the harsh response of the authorities to public displays of dissent.
The BBC's Jon Leyne in Tehran says that, in the past, students have been expelled for taking part in protests. Some have had to hand over the deeds of their parents' homes as a guarantee of good behaviour.


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23 February 2009

Early Bird summary
Monday’s Early Bird leads with an article from the New York Times reporting that more than 70 United States military advisers and technical specialists are secretly working in Pakistan to help its armed forces battle Al Qaeda and the Taliban in the country’s lawless tribal areas, American military officials said.The Americans are mostly Army Special Forces soldiers who are training Pakistani Army and paramilitary troops, providing them with intelligence and advising on combat tactics, the officials said. They do not conduct combat operations, the officials added.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Taliban gunmen abducted and briefly held a government official in Pakistan's Swat Valley Sunday afternoon, as the group's local faction said it would agree to a truce with the government only when Islamic law is established there.Khushal Khan, chief administrative officer of Mingora, the main town in Swat, and his six security guards were abducted by the insurgents as they drove through the valley toward its main town.All were later released, said a Taliban spokesman, according to the Associated Press.
The Washington Post reports that a battle just outside southern Afghanistan's largest city has killed at least six Taliban fighters, and an airstrike against insurgents elsewhere in the south killed eight, officials said Sunday.The battle in the Panjwayi district -- 15 miles west of Kandahar city -- began late Saturday after Taliban fighters ambushed a police patrol, wounding two officers, said Abdullah Khan, the province's deputy police chief. NATO and Afghan forces responded, unleashing bombs that could be heard by residents of Kandahar city.
The Associated Press reports that North Korea recently deployed a new type of medium-range ballistic missile capable of reaching Australia and the U.S. territory of Guam, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said Monday.The report comes amid speculation that the isolated regime is also preparing to test-fire another, long-range missile able to hit Alaska.
The Washington Post reports that Iran's first nuclear power plant will undergo a critical series of tests starting Wednesday before full-scale operation begins later this year, Iranian state radio reported Sunday.The plant is a highly symbolic facet of Iran's controversial nuclear program. Iranian leaders insist the country's nuclear ambitions are peaceful, but the United States, Israel and some European nations have charged that Iran is trying to produce nuclear weapons.
Media summary
1. Leading newspaper headlines: The Wall Street Journal leads its business newsbox with word that Citigroup is in talks with federal officials about the government possibly taking a larger ownership stake in the ailing bank. (Slate Magazine)
2. CLB-2 makes long haul to remote region of Iraq: The sun had barely peaked over the horizon as a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle, affectionately known as the Battle Wagon, and more than 30 other vehicles carrying Marines, civilian contractors, and one interpreter, rolled out of Al Asad early Sunday morning, Feb. 8, 2009. (marines.mil)
3. Marines focus on international partnerships to enhance logistical capabilities: More than 30 officers and civilians from 15 different Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) countries became the first students to graduate from a new logistics course given at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center (KAIPTC) here Feb. 2-13. (marines.mil)
Leading newspaper headlines
The Wall Street Journal leads its business newsbox with word that Citigroup is in talks with federal officials about the government possibly taking a larger ownership stake in the ailing bank. Nothing has been decided, and it's not even clear whether the White House supports the plan, but the government could end up with as much as 40 percent of Citigroup's common stock, although bank officials hope the number is closer to 25 percent. The New York Times mentions the ongoing talks in its lead story, which takes a look at how the White House will begin to carry out the much-talked-about "stress tests" of the nation's 20 biggest banks this week to try to figure out whether they could stay afloat if the economic situation gets worse.
USA Today leads with word that the Pentagon has not started to pay bonuses to soldiers who have been forced to stay on active duty past their enlistment period. The bonuses of up to $500 were mandated by law, but the Pentagon has yet to institute a plan to distribute the cash. The Los Angeles Times leads with a comparison between the New Deal and the recently approved economic stimulus package. While Franklin D. Rossevelt's plan gave the country a number of memorable public works, the new package focuses more on repairing and maintaining existing projects rather than creating new ones in order to make it easier to spend the money as quickly as possible. The Washington Post leads with a look at how the success of the stimulus package will be determined by whether officials in all levels of government can disburse the money quickly and efficiently. Many agencies and offices will have more money than ever before to carry out their missions and are trying to figure out the best way to distribute the cash. The package is "the ultimate test of government's ability to deliver," declares the Post.
If the White House does go through with the plans being put forward by Citigroup, it would "give the government its biggest ownership of a financial-services company since the September bailout of insurer American International Group Inc.," notes the WSJ. Under the plan, a substantial amount of the $45 billion in preferred shares that the government currently holds would be converted into common stock. This wouldn't involve any more taxpayer money, but it would dilute the value of existing shares and raise fears among investors that other banks could be next.
The NYT points out that by issuing more common shares, Citigroup would be "closer to the mix of equity that the government is likely to demand when it introduces the stress test." In carrying out its stress tests, the government will be presenting hypothetical events and examining how each of the nation's large banks would fare under "Depression-like conditions." While administration officials have long insisted that they don't want to nationalize banks, these stress tests could end up making the case for nationalization stronger by illustrating how some financial institutions wouldn't be able to stay afloat without more capital.
The NYT fronts word that a secret task force consisting of more than 70 American "military advisers and technical specialists" are working in Pakistan to help the country's armed forces fight against militants in the lawless tribal regions. The group mostly consists of Army Special Forces soldiers who not only train Pakistani forces but also provide intelligence and advice on combat tactics. Their work began last summer and "is a much larger and more ambitious effort than either country has acknowledged," notes the NYT. Officials apparently agreed to talk to the paper in order to counter the commonly held view that the continuing American missile strikes in the tribal areas have been preventing the two countries from cooperating in the fight against militants.
The LAT fronts a look at a "miracle liquid" that is slowly growing in popularity in the United States because it can do everything from clean a dirty counter to treat athlete's foot. Oh, and it's drinkable, too. The "simple mixture of table salt and tap water whose ions have been scrambled with an electric current" that is commonly referred to as electrolyzed water can kill anthrax spores and salmonella without the need for toxic chemicals. The main disadvantages of the product is that it can't be stored for long, and the machines to make the water are pricey, so it's unlikely to make its way into homes anytime soon. Many are skeptical, but those who have tried it swear by the results. "This sounds too good to be true, which is really the biggest problem," says a food scientist who found that the water killed a number of pathogens and could also be used on her children's skin. "But it's only a matter of time before this becomes mainstream."



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Cpl. Corey D. Stewart, a vehicle commander with 4th squad, Security Company, Combat Logistics Battalion 2, provides security during a seven-day long convoy from Al Asad, to Sahl Sinjar and Al Taqaddum, Iraq, Feb. 8-15, 2009. This was the longest convoy accomplished by the battalion since they arrived in country Sept. 2008.

CLB-2 makes long haul to remote location of Iraq
2/22/2009 By Cpl. M. M. Bravo, 2nd Marine Logistics Group
SAHL SINJAR AIRFIELD, Iraq —
SAHL SINJAR AIRFIELD, Iraq — The sun had barely peaked over the horizon as a Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle, affectionately known as the Battle Wagon, and more than 30 other vehicles carrying Marines, civilian contractors, and one interpreter, rolled out of Al Asad early Sunday morning, Feb. 8, 2009.
The Marines of 4th squad, Security Company, Combat Logistics Battalion 2, were headed north through the sands of Iraq to Sahl Sinjar on a seven-day convoy to deliver supplies to Marines operating on the isolated region of Iraq’s Ninewa province. This was the longest convoy 4th squad has conducted since they arrived in country in Sept. 2008.
Sahl Sinjar Airfield is tucked away in a remote corner of Iraq near the Iraqi border of Syria. After dropping off supplies in Sahl Sinjar, they continued to escort the civilian truck drivers back to Al Asad and immediately headed further south to Camp Al Taqaddum to continue the mission.
Sgt. Roger D. Rice, the 4th squad convoy commander, said that since August 2008 when they arrived in Al Asad, Security Company has made the convoy to Sahl Sinjar five times, but this was the longest in both distance and time spent in the Iraqi countryside.
“The overall length of the trip is unusual,” Rice explained. “For seven days [we] retrograded tanks from [Al Asad to] here, to TQ. It’s the longest run the battalion has done. Assets were needed to be brought up [to Sahl Sinjar] that weren’t available in AO [Area of Operation] North, only in the West and East.”
“They had a need up here and CLB-2 had the assets to deliver and were still able to carry on their mission back in Al Asad,” Rice continued.
Master Sgt. Todd S. Chamberlin, the staff noncommissioned officer-in-charge of CLB-2 in Sahl Sinjar, explained the logistics unit’s current role in the area.
“Our mission is to provide support for surrounding units,” Chamberlin said.
The majority of units CLB-2 supports are infantry units who work hand-in-hand with the Iraqi Army and Iraqi Police forces. Their support includes convoy operations, security, and providing logistical support to various command operating posts nearby.
“The ultimate goal is turning the control of Iraq over to the Iraqi Police and Iraqi Army,” said Chamberlin.
Chamberlin discussed the positive outcome of the significant decrease in insurgent attacks.
“The quiet state we’re in shows how far we’ve come and how far the Iraqi Army has come,” he said.
Sgt. Daniel L. Moore, a squad leader for Military Police Company, CLB-2, said his team provides security for the entire airfield, which includes going into surrounding villages to conduct foot patrols.
“The fact that we can reach out to the villages shows presence to the local population,” he said. “It’s been quiet for a while but we are 100 percent ready if anything were to go wrong.”
The trip to Sahl Sinjar was a successful operation due to the consistency of the Marines of Security Company. Rice said his Marines prepared well for the trip and did an excellent job despite the hardships and stress of a long convoy through a combat environment.
“It’s really hard on the Marines, spending eight to 10 hours a day in the truck,” Rice said. “It’s hard on your body and after seven days, you’re exhausted. [But] they know it’s going to be a long run.”
Rice said traveling into a different AO is a huge deal. The atmosphere and the terrain are different, which causes the Marines to be extra alert and constantly aware of their surroundings.
“You’re not completely in the dark but you don’t know what to expect,” he said. “There’s always a higher risk traveling into unknown areas.”
Rice explained that by running convoys so much in their own AO, they learn the terrain, the traffic, the people, and even where garbage cans might be placed.
“They trust us to travel a lot of miles with millions of dollars in assets, to go into an AO we’ve only been in once. I think CLB-2 puts a lot of trust in us.”
For more information on the ongoing mission in Iraq’s Al Anbar province, visit www.iimefpublic.usmc.mil/iimeffwd.



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Marine Brig. Gen. Tracy L. Garrett (left), commander of Marine Corps Forces Africa, discusses the Partnership for Integrated Logistics Operations and Tactics (PILOT) program with Ghanaian Army Maj. Gen. J.K. Attipoe, commandant of the Koffi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center (KAIPTC). The PILOT course is a joint U.S. Africa Command and Canadian Pearson Peacekeeping Center venture, hosted by the KAIPTC and attended by field grade officers from various nations throughout the ECOWAS region of Africa.,
Marines focus on international partnerships to enhance logistical capabilities
2/23/2009 By Sgt. Rocco DeFilippis, Marine Forces Africa
ACCRA, Ghana —
ACCRA, Ghana — More than 30 officers and civilians from 15 different Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) countries became the first students to graduate from a new logistics course given at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center (KAIPTC) here Feb. 2-13.
As a joint Canadian Pearson Peacekeeping Center and U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) venture, hosted by the KAIPTC, the two-week Partnership for Integrated Logistics Operations and Tactics (PILOT) course focused on the planning, coordination and conduct of logistics in peace support operations.
The KAIPTC is one of three peacekeeping training centers of excellence in the ECOWAS region and focuses on operational level education for field grade officers.
Marine Brig. Gen. Tracy L. Garrett, commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Africa (MFA), traveled here to represent AFRICOM’s commitment to building partnerships with African and international partners, participate in a panel discussion with the course facilitators and students, and to provide the keynote speech at the graduation.
In her speech, Brig. Gen. Garrett highlighted the importance of civilian and military logisticians’ integrated efforts to achieve success in today’s complex peace support operation planning.
Marine Lt. Col. Matthew Seipt, MFA assistant chief of staff for logistics, has been working with KAIPTC, U.S. Army Africa and AFRICOM for more than a year to bring the PILOT program together. He said this first iteration of the course focused on a mixture of lectures, practical application exercise, and group discussions to encourage the development of knowledge and skills through interaction among participants.
“[The PILOT course] is a component of our overall strategy to improve the logistics capacity of our African partner nations,” said Seipt. “The overarching theme is that by MFA partnering with U.S. Army Africa, KAIPTC and other international partners, AFRICOM is better able to work with our African partner nations as they develop and strengthen their logistical capacities.”
Marine Lt. Col. Jerome A.M. Jackson, AFRICOM’s liaison officer to the KAIPTC and PILOT course director, said that although the PILOT course comes from a network of partnerships between the KAIPTC, AFRICOM, and the Government of Canada, who provided substantial funding for course, both Marines and soldiers worked in concert with representatives from the region to make the PILOT course a reality.
“The goal is to create a multi-national officer core with an awareness and preparedness to be able to assume logistical staff roles in a United Nations or African Union peacekeeping mission,” Seipt said.
Jackson said the course focused on a train-the-trainer concept, so that upon completion of the course, the officers and civilians would be able to return to their respective organizations to share the information in order to enhance the logistics support capacity of the ECOWAS Standby Force.
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