Dawn Patrol

Welcome to the Dawn Patrol, our daily roundup of information on the War on Terror and other topics - from the MilBlogs, other blogs, and the mainstream media. If you're a blogger, you can join the conversation. If you link to any of these stories, add a link to the Dawn Patrol too and your trackback will be added to the list. (We have a daily "Open Post" too, if you have something on another topic you can link there.)

IRAQ

Notes on the Ride Back to the Sandbox --[Firepower Forward - in Iraq]
I know that the sadness will not overwhelm me tonight as those onslaughts did years ago, leaving me to repress sobs while a shower before bed hid my tears; today I gratefully fear that I am much too callous for such emotions. It serves to remind me though of the youth that surrounds me, and the obligations that I hold. It reminds me of the pain that Pam must feel without benefit of the years of emotional conditioning. I know it is incumbent of me to ease the suffering around me and push forward to those better days that are now just around the corner.

What?s happened here ? --[A Free Writer - an Iraqi in Iraq]
A suicide attack was committed against three civilian American Vans guarded by US armored vehicles, the attack was very heavy in a way that destroyed at least one Van completely ,from the news later we knew that four American diplomatic were killed in this explosion . The place for this attack was only 300 meters away from Mosul university in a public road passing across residential area.

A New Five-Star Hotel in Baghdad !! --[Treasure of Baghdad - an Iraqi in Iraq]
While I was going over the local newspapers this morning, I read a shocking headline: "A 23-floor, 5-star hotel to be built inside the Green Zone". I read the whole article and I wished I did not.

On Iraq's political scene... --[Iraq the Model - an Iraqi in Iraq]
The political scene in Iraq these days is full of events with the parties feeling that time for starting campaigning is approaching. However these campaigns took the form of exchanged attacks and accusations without presenting programs or platforms for development and reform which are much needed.

Action and Reaction in Iraq --[Austin Bay Blog]
?It?s never easy when the price of experience is lives lost.? In last week?s Creators column I looked at the hard process of overcoming mistakes and defeating enemy innovations in combat.

Recent Iraq Operations - A Flash Presentation --[The Fourth Rail]
The pace and tempo of operations in western Iraq have been increasing over the past month, indicating the Anbar Campaign is moving forward. The disclosure of Operation Sayaid signals the Coalition is now prepared to move on the towns and cities along the western branch of the Euphrates River. The following presentation highlights the significant operations in Ninawa and Anbar provinces from August 27 through September 17, 2005.

MSM REPORTS ON IRAQ

Iraqi Forces Show Signs Of Progress In Offensive --[Washington Post]
What happened next, commanders here said, suggested significant progress toward the goal of shifting security functions to Iraqi forces so that the United States can begin withdrawing troops from Iraq. When the clashes grew intense, the Iraqi soldiers did not shrink, American officers said.

Anger Grows in Basra After British Raid --[NY Times]
Iraqi police officers and politicians demanded an apology from Britain after British forces raided a police station.

NATO Reports All 26 Nations Are Aiding Iraq With Training --NY Times]
European countries have overcome their differences with the United States over Iraq, and all 26 members of NATO now provide training and equipment to Baghdad, the secretary general of the group said this week.

AFGHANISTAN

Big Media Ignores Afghan Election --[Austin Bay Blog]
Ralph Peters weighs in with a blast at Big Media?s failure to cover the Afghan election.

Apparently success and progress aren?t stories that appeal to producers and editors.

Afghan election blogging and counterinsurgency --[TigerHawk]
If there were, in fact, almost 30 prevented attacks on election day -- far more than the reported number of successful attacks -- then it is good news for several reasons.

MSM REPORTS ON AFGHANISTAN

Afghan Count Reveals Kabul Indifference --[AP]
Nearly two-thirds of registered voters in Kabul apparently stayed away from Afghanistan's landmark legislative polls, an election official said Thursday as workers counted ballots under the close watch of candidates' representatives.

OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

Iran's bare-faced lie --[TigerHawk]
Iran celebrated the anniversary of the start of the Iran-Iraq war (itself a weird occasion for a celebration) today with a huge military parade. The propaganda should give us all pause.

Osan Lieutenant Gets 2 Years --[GI Korea Blog]
The site Military Corruption.com brings up some good points worth sharing. First of all that the court martial was executed during Chusok to avoid Korean press coverage was slick. Secondly, the fact that the Korean girl that Davis had a romantic relationship with that exposed his activities to begin with didn't testify I also found interesting.

MSM REPORTS ON OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

EU backs down on Iran --[Reuters]
The European Union's three main powers dropped a demand on Thursday that the U.N. nuclear agency immediately report Iran to the Security Council over its atomic programme, following opposition from Russia and China.

London bomb suspect held on return from Italy --[Reuters]
A man suspected of being one of four bombers who launched botched attacks on London's transport system on July 21 arrived in Britain from Italy on Thursday to face charges of plotting murder.

HURRICANE KATRINA AND RITA

Disappointed in President Bush --[Mostly Cajun]
I am really disappointed in President Bush.
First and foremost he failed to stop the hurricane Katrina before it hit the Gulf Coast. Even worse, he should have stopped it before it first hit Southern Florida. Since he failed to take this first action, one would have expected that he should have, as a second thought, moved the entire states of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana to central Texas before Katrina came ashore.

Irony Of The Chase --[Patriot Voices]
For the last few months I have watched the hurricanes come and go with my immediate family safely outside of the destructive paths of them all.
Hurricane Katrina displaced thousands of people; many were evacuated to Texas, and to our amazement, those folks may be displaced again by Hurricane Rita. We anxiously await the decided path.
Is this the test of all tests?

A politics-free hurricane? --[Riding Sun]
As Hurricane Rita bears down on Texas, Joe Malchow issues a plea: If the worst happens, could this one, please, not be political?...
Unfortunately, though, it looks like Bush is in a damned-if-he-does, damned-if-he-doesn't situation here.

Donations Found at La. Official's Home --[ROFASix]
After complaints that city workers were helping themselves to donations for hurricane victims, police officers searched Cedric Floyd's home and found cases of food, clothing and tools earmarked for hurricane victims. Floyd, who is a city manager for Kenner, LA was in charge of distributing the donations to hurricane victims.

A missed phone call and small town devastation --[Keep My Soldier Safe]
As I made my way through the back roads of Mississippi, I realized that a lot of the area that I was passing through still had no power. I saw power trucks everywhere. I was speechless as I saw most of the devastation. I don't think that I have ever in my life seen such. I stopped several times along the way to take several pictures, and even had the opportunity to speak with a lady, that seemed to be in her 70's. She was kind enough to let me take pictures of what was left of her beautiful yard, and even invited me in for a glass of luke warm water, as she put it. She was going on her 22 day without power and had just had her telephone restored on Monday. I just thought that we had it bad further north, but I was wrong.
I thought that I would share a few pictures of the oh so kind lady's yard.
MG NOTE: A must read post!

MSM REPORTS ON HURRICANE(S)

Texans flee as Rita approaches --[Reuters]
More than 1 million people along the Texas coast fled the approach of Hurricane Rita on Thursday as it developed into one of the most intense storms on record and threatened catastrophic damage.

Where Disorder Once Reigned, Efficient Evacuation Now Rules --[NY Times]
Catching a bus at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center to evacuate for Hurricane Rita is a breeze.

Six soldiers greet each evacuee who trickles into the processing tent across the street. Those arriving have food, water, medical assistance if they need it and, once they board one of the buses idling in the parking lot, air-conditioning and television.

Katrina's Death Toll Climbs Past 1,000 --[AP]
Searchers looking for bodies smashed into homes that had been locked or submerged under Hurricane Katrina's highest floodwaters, pushing the overall body count past 1,000 as another hurricane threatens to prolong the hunt for the dead.

TERRORISM

Tightening Up on Correspondent Accounts for Non-US Persons --[The Counterterrorism Blog]
Senator Shelby, Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, used the Nomination Hearing for new Assistant Treasury Secretary for Terrorism Financing Patrick O?Brien to express his concern that the US is still not doing enough to stem the flow of funds to Iraqi insurgents and terrorist groups overseas.

Recruitment in Iraq --[TigerHawk]
Yesterday I noted that there was evidence that suicide attackers in Iraq were being coerced, and what that might say about their ability to recruit new soldiers.

ABLE DANGER HEARINGS UPDATE --[Dr Sanity]
I spent several hours following the hearings today and will attempt to summarize some of the more interesting aspects. Here are my rough notes...

MSM REPORTS ON TERRORISM

Court set to rule in Europe's biggest al Qaeda trial --[Reuters]
Spain's High Court is due to deliver its verdicts on Monday on 24 people accused of al Qaeda membership, including three who face more than 70,000 years in jail each if convicted of helping the September 11 hijackers.

SUPPORTING THE TROOPS...OR NOT

A Tale of Two "Vigils" --[Andi's World]
On Wednesday, an intrepid FReeper alerted me to this collection of propaganda. I spent a lot of time reading the reports and comparing them to both my versions, and to the accounts of the FReepers. The CodePink representation is so full of falsehoods and innuendo that it was difficult to know where to begin with a rebuttal. So, rather than attack the reports point-by-point, as I began to do, I'm going to bring you some of the more outrageous elements of these reports. I'll also link to each version so that you can do a side-by-side comparison and draw your own conclusions.

Letter From the Wife of a Soldier --[Soldiers Angel - Holly Aho]
This letter was sent to an angel (Soldiers Angels) and I really think it highlights how not only are the soldiers thankful for support from home, but their families are grateful for that support as well.

"I am the wife of a soldier currently serving in Iraq. He has mentioned to me via satellite phone that he has received letters and support from your website. He just shared a story of how he was working with electrical wiring and was accidentally thrown by electrical current....

BLOGGING

Military Down On Soldier Blogger --[PebblePie]
SF (Sure Fire) over at "Pass The Brass" is in a sticky spot.... go there now if you can. Any soldier reading this, please stop and think when you blog, I don't want to lose anymore of you, nor do I want you to be in this kind of trouble.... Tell you true I can't figured out anything SF ever wrote that would get him into trouble... This is bad. You all please be careful.

MSM REPORTS ON BLOGGING

Guide Aims to Help Bloggers Beat Censors --[AP]
A Paris-based media watchdog has released an ABC guide of tips for bloggers and dissidents to sneak past Internet censors in countries from China to Iran.

US soldiers' Iraq books show humor, horror and anger --[Reuters]
Two books that will be published in October began as blogs -- Internet diaries of writers in Iraq that by their very immediacy can lack the perspective that comes with time.

"If I had to write this book today, from scratch, it would probably be a completely different book," said Jason Christopher Hartley, whose book "Just Another Soldier" (to be published on October 4 from HarperCollins) was built around a blog of the same name.

MILITARY

Army Recruiting High School Dropouts without GED --[Outside the Beltway]
The Army is now allowing its recruiters to sign up high school dropouts who do not have a GED for the first time in years...When I saw the headline and read that introduction, my heart sank. Thankfully, I kept reading.

Harvard Will Cooperate With U.S. Military --[Jack Army]
Harvard has reversed, at least for now, its policy of barring the Pentagon from using the law school's career services office for recruiting. Harvard, like many other law schools, contends the Pentagon's "don't ask don't tell" policy on gays violates the guidelines on nondiscrimination that the school requires of recruiters on campus.

POLITICS

Dick Morris - wrong again --[The Anchoress]
You would think he would always be right - given how well he supposedly knows her, but I can?t remember the last time Dick Morris was correct about anything pertaining to Hillary Clinton - he predicted she would NOT run for the Senate from NY and that if she did run, she?d lose.

MSM REPORTS ON POLITICS

Bush Compares Responses to Hurricane, Terrorism --[NY Times]
President Bush on Wednesday for the first time linked the American response to terrorism and its response to Hurricane Katrina, declaring that the United States is emerging a stronger nation from both challenges, and saying that terrorists look at the storm's devastation "and wish they had caused it."

Judiciary Panel to Vote on Roberts Today --[AP]
Approval by the committee seemed assured, with the panel's majority Republicans united and top Judiciary Democrat Patrick Leahy on board. Another committee Democrat, liberal stalwart Edward Kennedy, said he would vote against Roberts.

THE MEDIA

Patterns of Analysis --[Dadmanly -in Iraq]
I had a very lively discussion tonight with the estimable Buzz Patterson. (If you don't know him you should become acquainted.) We touched on this subject of media reporting, and it got me to thinking about perception, and the "patterns of analysis" that I think causes different perceptions of the same set of circumstances.

Rather Pathetic --[Baldilocks]
What is your automatic thought when you hear these words strung together?
?Speak truth to power.?
My first one is: ?pinhead.? ...And, from now on, my third thought will forever be: ?Dan Rather.?

What Media Bias? --[Little Green Footballs]
An absolutely amazing example of naked, unrestrained bias, in a photograph from the Vietnam War dug up and republished today by the Associated Press with this jaw-dropping caption...

(Need more? The previous Dawn Patrol is here.)