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

Task Force 145 kills al Qaeda military Emir -- [Security Watchtower]
On Friday, Task Force 145 recieved intelligence on a high level target and conducted a raid near the city of Balad. Upon arriving at the scene a firefight took place, leaving wanted al-Qaida terrorist Hasayn Ali Muzabir dead. A former intelligence officer under Saddam Hussein's regime, Mizabir recently operated as an al Qaeda military Emir in the area around Samarra, and was responsible for facilitating Iraqi and foreign terrorists and provided funding for kidnapping, assassinations and bombings against Iraqi citizens and Iraqi and Coalition forces.

Haditha: If Bush isn’t responsible then the terrorists have already won -- [Hot Air - Allah Pundit]
I wrote about this a few days ago so I won’t rehash the argument, but there is something in the Times’s editorial today that bears mentioning:
This affair cannot simply be dismissed as the spontaneous cruelty of a few bad men…
So far, nothing in President Bush’s repeated statements on the issue offers any real assurance that the White House and the Pentagon will not once again try to protect the most senior military and political ranks from proper accountability. This is the pattern that this administration has repeatedly followed in the past — in the torture scandal at Abu Ghraib, in the beating deaths of prisoners at Bagram air base in Afghanistan and in the serial abuses of justice and constitutional principle at Guantánamo Bay....
Neat trick, that. If the investigation doesn’t implicate anyone at the top of the food chain then it’s not a “serious inquiry.” So far most of the pre-judging has been limited to assuming the suspects did what they’re accused of doing; the Times takes it a step further and ...

Mad Max in Baghdad -- [Strategy Page]
June 5, 2006: The thousands of civilian security personnel in Iraq have equipped themselves with hundreds of armored SUVs and light trucks. These security contractors are frequently used as bodyguards for American and NGO officials, as well as Iraqi big-shots. In addition to armor kits (which some firms now specialize in) for the vehicles, improvised gun turrets are often added as well (mounting one or two 7.62mm machine-guns). All this isn't overkill.

Iraq Pictures - 02 June 2006 -- [Iraq Pictures - in Iraq]
An Iraqi boy takes a drink of water after a grand opening ceremony for a Reverse Osmosis Water Plant May 31 near Al Batha.

This is Iraq -- [The Will to Exist - in Iraq]
I’m sick of the bad news about Iraq. As often as possible, I’ll now be posting images that show the side of Iraq you don’t see or hear about from the pundits of failure. Without further ado here’s the image for today:...

CPX -- [Murphy Around the World - in Iraq]
VERY interesting day, they’ve been waiting for us…
This CPX was the culmination of months of training and was designed to show off the unit and staff for the incoming crew.
...The Iraqi’s do not want to be embarrassed in front of the Americans, so they put their strongest players into the key leadership positions: radioman, convoy commanders, operations officer are all used over and over, nobody else had gotten the chance to learn (or fail). This put soldiers who’ve never had the chance to be in charge…in charge.

Iraq Pictures - 02 June 2006 -- [Iraq Pictures - in Iraq]
Mohammed Al Thighe, Al Batha city council member, and Hardel Sabber, Al Batha water engineer oversee the offical opening of Al Fawaazi Reverse Osmosis Water Plant near An Nasariyah.

04 June 2006 -- [The Marching Camp - in Iraq]
...The AIF around here (IIRC, mostly native Sunni insurgents) use some more sophisticated stuff than we saw up in Tal Afar. Not the stuff that gets major attention, because the really fancy crap is in Baghdad. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Baghdad is where the reporters are, and the best of the Al-Qaeda in Iraq foreign fighters go there to try and get some headline time. Ramadi, however gets the second string varsity players. Up in Tal Afar we were up against the freshman team and it showed.

Power Outage -- [Just Another Thunderhorse Roughneck - in Iraq]
I do not know what is up with the power here. I heard that there’s a broken transformer but they have yet to replace it. Again, like yesterday, it’s been going out. But today, unlike yesterday, it’s been off for most of the day. It didn’t affect me too much since I took this morning at the gym and was out on missions this afternoon.
It’s really starting to cook here. The highs have been in the lower 110’s. The only thing now is that I’m not going from my A/C crib to my A/C Hummer since the power is out.

It’s HOT -- [Chris Whong - in Iraq]
It’s getting hot these days… well into the triple digits, especially in southern Kuwait. It’s so hot, 3 gatorades an hour isn’t enough. It’s so hot that you can’t put your bare hand on the handrails of a truck without getting 1st degree burns. It’s so hot you can heat spaghetti-o’s by setting the can in the sand for a few minutes. It’s so hot that at midday, the outer layer of rubber on our tires has begun to melt. My soldiers have said “it’s a few degrees cooler than hell,” and “god’s up there with a big magnifying glass, watching us squirm,” and “I saw the devil walking around with a slurpee the other day.”

Least It's Not 117 Today -- [Dave's Not Here - in Iraq]
Just 111 for the high today.
Over the past few days I've actually been feeling physically ill from the heat. That hasn't heppened in previous years and I think it is in large part due to the dramatic change in temperature. Summer began with a heat wave, a big one. Temperatures jumped from the high 90s to the low 100s straight up into the high teens, and I don't mean two digit teens either.

MSM REPORTS ON IRAQ

Corrections -- (Washington Post)...The Washington Post
A June 4 article misattributed a quotation about the reaction to a March briefing in the Office of the Secretary of Defense on the findings of a military inquiry into the killings of civilians in Haditha, Iraq. The person who said it was "really, really bad -- as bad or worse than Abu Ghraib" was not Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld but one of his aides, according to a Pentagon official.

Gunmen Seize at Least 50 at Iraq Bus Stop -- (AP)
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - Gunmen wearing police uniforms raided bus stations in central Baghdad, abducting at least 50 people, including drivers and passengers preparing to travel outside Iraq, an interior ministry official said. The attackers also seized people working in the area, where several travel agencies are based and buses pick up passengers traveling mostly to Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, Lt. Colonel Falah al-Mohamedawi said.

Wartime Adds Dimensions To Dilemmas Doctors Face -- (USA Today)...Gregg Zoroya
Ethical questions evolve at a military hospital in Iraq as staff attends to wounded — including the enemy.

Uncovering Iraq's Horrors In Desert Graves -- (New York Times)...John F. Burns
Among experts on the American-led team investigating Iraq's mass graves, the skeletal remains lying face-up at the rear of the tangled grave here have been given a name — the Blue Man — that speaks for a sorrowful familiarity developed by some of those who work with victims of mass murder.

Student Visiting Hometown Videotaped Haditha Horror -- (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)...Larry Kaplow
Seeing smoke coming from a neighbor's house, Tha'er Thabet al-Hadithi says he refused to answer when U.S. Marines came pounding on the gate of his family's home. Had they entered and arrested or killed him, as they are accused of doing to others that November day, the world might not have heard of the suspected massacre of men, women and children in the small town of Haditha.

Mother: Stress Drove Marine Son To Commit Crime -- (Boston Globe)...Associated Press
A Marine who followed orders to photograph corpses of Iraqis allegedly slain by members of his unit last fall claims post-traumatic stress drove him to commit felonies while on leave, his mother said.

Iraqis Accuse Marines In April Killing Of Civilian -- (Washington Post)...Ellen Knickmeyer
All parties to the case of Hashim Ibrahim Awad al-Zobaie agree that he was shot dead by Marines of the 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment on April 26 in the small central Iraqi village of Hamdaniyah. But there are differing accounts of his death, and they are at the heart of another investigation into the conduct of American forces in Iraq.

Haditha Lawyer Criticizes U.S. Payments -- (AP)
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- A lawyer who had several relatives among 24 Iraqis allegedly slain by U.S. Marines last fall and is representing kin of other victims complained in a videotape Saturday that American compensation paid to the families was inadequate.

Daily Attacks And Abuse--The New Reality For British Troops -- (London Times)...Ned Parker
IN A dirt alley strewn with trash and puddles of black sewage an Iraqi teenager smiled at me, slicing his throat with his fingers, as a gang of more than 30 sulky adolescents chanted “Down with Britain” and “Long live the Mehdi Army”.

Eskimo Troops Brace For Iraq -- (Los Angeles Times)...Sam Howe Verhovek
...But now, for the first time since World War II, Guard reserve troops in tiny Yupik Eskimo villages such as Kongiganak are being called up, and this time they are being sent halfway around the world — to Iraq.

AFGHANISTAN

The Taliban Have a Plan -- [Strategy Page]
June 5, 2006: Beginning in late March, the Taliban's "Spring Offensive" has seen an increase of 50-to 100-percent in the number of attacks in Afghanistan, depending upon the province. One reason for the increase is that weather conditions make operations in the mountainous regions of the country easier, and permit more effective movement of men, money, and munitions across the very mountainous frontier with Pakistan. Another is

Chora Police Station Retaken; Kabul Police Chief Sacked -- [Counterterrorism Blog - Bill Roggio - in Afghanistan]
Coalition and Afghan National Army (ANA) forces retook the Chora district police station in Uruzgan province which was attacked and seized Taliban earlier in the week. This was a joint air assault operation, and Chora received a reinforcement of Afghan National Army troops to bolster security in the region. “Insurgents may have attacked the police headquarters, but they never had the capability to control Chora, as evident of their immediate retreat in the face of Afghan and Coalition forces,” said Lt. Col. Paul Fitzpatrick, the spokesman for Combined Joint Task Force – 76.

Kabul accident changes ISAF driving rules; Suicide attacks in Kandahar -- [Counterterrorism Blog - Bill Roggio - in Afghanistan]
The fallout from last week's traffic accident and subsequent riots has reached the international troops. On last week's radio interview with Rob Breakenridge, I predicted Coalition forces would soon be forced to moderate their driving habits. Today, Lt. Gen. David Richards, the commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), indicated his troops' behavior on the roads is now an issue. "There are too many in the (U.S.-led) coalition, ISAF, international community who drive too quickly and in an inconsiderate way and we are all determined to improve that so the people here don't look on us as people who don't care about the Afghans," said Lt. Gen. Richards, who commands the 9,000 troops in ISAF, which is expected to increase to 15,000 by the end of the month. The 22,000 troops under U.S. command are likely to receive similar instructions in the near future

MSM REPORTS ON AFGHANISTAN

Foreign Troops In South Afghanistan Will Double -- (Boston Globe)...Kim Barker, Chicago Tribune
The number of foreign troops in troubled southern Afghanistan will double this summer, and these troops will focus more on rebuilding the country instead of just fighting insurgents, the head of the NATO mission here said yesterday.

Suicide Bomber Kills 4 In Afghanistan's South -- (New York Times)...Carlotta Gall
A suicide bomber exploded his car on the main street of this southern city on Sunday, narrowly missing the governor of Kandahar Province and a Canadian military convoy, but killing 4 civilians and wounding at least 12 others, officials said. The explosion was heard across town and stirred anger and fear once more in a city that has been shaken by violence for months.

U.S. AND OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

Iran's oil -- [Peace like a River]
Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei made some not so veiled threats today:

The Death of an Alliance, Part 41-- [The Korea Liberator - in S Korea]
...Clearly, these plans have been well underway for some time, and probably with some consultation with the Pentagon. And while I’ve long believed in euthenizing the U.S.-Korean alliance rather than letting it go on in prolonged agony, you have to wonder how the 60-odd percent of the Korean population that will likely oppose this is going to deal with such a profound change imposed by such an unpopular government.

MSM REPORTS ON U.S. AND OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

Ukraine Eyes Foreign Troops -- (Moscow Times)...Associated Press
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has asked the parliament to urgently endorse the presence of foreign troops on Ukrainian territory for a multinational military exercise, a request that came amid a week-long protest sparked by the arrival of a group of U.S. Marine reservists.

Canadian Border Proves Difficult to Secure -- (NY Times)
Tighter border controls between the United States and Canada are likely to be less useful than better domestic intelligence and information-sharing in detecting homegrown terrorist plots in North America, terrorism experts said yesterday.

'USFK Command To Be Dismantled' -- (Korea Times)...Jung Sung-ki
South Korea is considering dismantling the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command (CFC) by 2012 in tandem with the planned takeover of operational control of its military during wartime from the United States, the Defense Ministry said Monday.

Russian Official Vows Arms Sale -- (Miami Herald)...Unattributed
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says his country will sell arms to Venezuela, despite a U.S. arms embargo against the oil-rich South American nation.

WAR ON TERROR /TERRORISM

House Likely to Stumble into Cutting Counterterrorism Programs -- [Counterterrorism Blog]
This Thursday, if the tentative House schedule holds up and there are no unexpected amendments, members will vote to cut the Administration’s funding request for programs to counter terrorism overseas, despite all the speeches that it is better to fight the terrorists abroad than at home.

Were Canadian Jihadists Targeting Pickering Nuclear Plant? -- [Counterterrorism Blog]
"A terror attack potentially three times more devastating than the Oklahoma City bombing has been averted," according to the latest report from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Seventeen people have been arrested to date, and you can see a picture (below) of some of the items seized, as displayed in a news conference today.

MSM REPORTS ON WAR ON TERROR /TERRORISM

Multinational Inquiry Led to Canada Terror Arrests -- (LA Times)
Authorities are looking for connections between those jailed in raids over the weekend and suspects held in at least six other countries.
WASHINGTON — The arrest of 17 terrorism suspects in Canada is part of a continuing, multinational inquiry into suspected terrorist cells in at least seven countries, a U.S. counter-terrorism official confirmed Sunday.

SUPPORTING THE TROOPS...OR NOT

A Function of Loyalty -- [Soldiers' Angels Germany]
Marine Lt. Gen. James F. Amos:
"When we send them off to do the nation's bidding in a place like Afghanistan or Iraq and they're wounded, we're not returning the same individual," Amos said. "When we send them back wounded there is a piece of me that says I haven't kept my bargain. What's left for me to do is to continue taking care of them."
It starts with a visit - to as many as he can.
"It's a function of loyalty,"
Unlike the General, we are often asked by the soldiers at Kleber outpatient barracks who we are and why we are there. We normally reply that we're just volunteers. During a recent visit there with Mrs. G, one Soldier kept pressing us for a more complete answer.
I always find that question difficult to answer, because ...

MILITARY

Army Manual To Skip Geneva Detainee Rule -- (Los Angeles Times)...Julian E. Barnes
The Pentagon has decided to omit from new detainee policies a key tenet of the Geneva Convention that explicitly bans "humiliating and degrading treatment," according to knowledgeable military officials, a step that would mark a further, potentially permanent, shift away from strict adherence to international human rights standards.

Who Wants To Join The Army? They Do. -- (Chicago Tribune)...Jason George
Karen Dandridge, Richard Forrest Jr. and Rolando Medina all graduated from high school last week and live only a couple of miles apart, but they never ran with the same crowd until now.

MSM REPORTS ON MILITARY

Army Changes Tack In Treating Combat Stress -- (San Diego Union-Tribune)...Ryan Lenz, Associated Press
Doctors call the treatment “three hots and a cot.” Soldiers and commanders see it as a much-needed lifeline in the middle of a relentless and bloody war.

POLITICS

What happened to the aliens legalized in 1986? -- [TigerHawk]
The Los Angeles Times has an interesting article that touches on something I have been wondering: what actually happened to the illegal aliens who received amnesty in 1986? It seems to me that the answer to this question is extremely relevant to the current political argument, at least insofar as it would confirm or refute the consequential claims made for and against the pending amnesty proposal.

MSM REPORTS ON POLITICS

Senate to Tackle Gay Marriage Ban -- (AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush and congressional Republicans are aiming the political spotlight this week on efforts to ban gay marriage, with events at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue - all for a constitutional amendment with scant chance of passage but wide appeal among social conservatives. "Ages of experience have taught us that the commitment of a husband and wife to love and to serve one another promotes the welfare of children and the stability of society," Bush said in his weekly radio address. "Government, by recognizing and protecting marriage, serves the interests of all."

Gore Says Don't Count on a 2008 Run -- (AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Al Gore, the Democrats' nominee for the White House in 2000, says he has all but ruled out running for president in 2008, saying the best use of his time is to educate people about global warming....

THE MEDIA

A Brief Comparison of Haditha and St. Lo -- [Newsbuster]
Everyone has heard of the "killings at Haditha," even though the military investigation of what happened there is still underway. Has anyone heard of the "killings at St. Lo" in July, 1944? A comparison of the New York Times coverage of those two events is instructive.
A Google News search of Haditha + killings + New York Times yields 891 hits as of Sunday noon. The articles on this subject in the Times are driving the national and international news in all media on this subject. The Times and its reporters are cited in most of these articles.

Sunni Murder of Shia Not a Massacre? -- [Strategic Outlook Institute - Weblog] HT: HH
We’ll see if the legacy media holds true to form, giving a pass to terrorists in Iraq - maybe killing unarmed Shia by the Sunni is so normal, that it does not rate comment. But 26 men were pulled from three mini-buses and executed.
The Marines were accused of killing 24 after an IED exploded (undisputed) and small arms fire (disputed in accounts). Of the 24, five were in a taxi and refused to stop when confronted by the Marines - they ran and were killed. So we’re down to 19 questionable deaths. 26 is more than 19 and they were truly executed - the accounts do not seem to dispute this and by the way, they were executed to calls that it was being done in Allah’s name. So the religion of peace only recognizes Sunni? Ask Iran’s Ahmadinejad about that one, I think you may get a dissenting opinion.

Demonizing those who defend your freedoms -- [The Will to Exist - in Iraq]
Ted Rall is at it again. His latest tripe, The 10,000th Haditha, is a misanthropic collection of rambling smears against the U.S. military.

I’m Responsible for Haditha -- [Daily Dispatch]
Let me be the first to say that I am responsible for Haditha and it is likely you are too.
The New York Times in its lead editorial makes the case to which I plead guilty:...

The Truth, John Kerry, and The New York Times -- [Real Clear Politics]
Kate Zernike's story on the front page of the Memorial Day Sunday New York Times, "Kerry Pressing Swift Boat Case Long After Loss," is an unfortunate reminder of the Times's embarrassingly poor coverage of Kerry in the face of the Swift Boat Veterans' for Truth charges in the 2004 election. Now as then, the Times acts as if the issues involved were between Kerry's latest representations of his record and the "unsubstantiated" charges of the Swift Boat group. The Times used the term "unsubstantiated" more than twenty times during its election coverage and continues to make no discernable effort to examine any of the charges in detail.

Random Thoughts 4-June-2006 -- [Midnight in Iraq - in Iraq]
I am unsubscribing from my RSS feed from Yahoo News: Iraq. The stories it posts are so incredibly anti-war slanted that I just can’t take it anymore. I would expect this from CNN, but I thought Yahoo might be different. I suppose not. On a related note…
I have also discovered a large leftward slant to Time magazine. After reading a multitude of semi-biased articles the coffin was nailed shut when they proclaimed Ted Kennedy one of America’s ten best senators. It is also sad that in their recent article profiling 100 of the world’s most influential people they subtitled GWB’s entry as “Salvaging an Administration.” I also thought it snide that they treated Condoleezza Rice objectively until the last couple lines where they threw in their jabs.

Dishonor - [Michael Yon]
They are certainly filling voids with a lot of something, but there is little dazzling about how SHOCK used one of my most important photographs, without my knowledge or consent, as the centerpiece of the first course of that “visual feast with attitude.” The most prominent image on the cover is my photograph of Major Mark Bieger cradling a young Iraqi girl Farah, who was mortally wounded in an insurgent car bomb attack that brutally targeted a group of children who had run out to greet the soldiers on patrol. But smeared across the photograph was the sensational headline claiming:

MILBLOGGING / BLOGGING

Matt from Blackfive and Bill Roggio Live from Kabul Afghanistan discuss the global war on terrorism -- [Pundit Review]
We had the pleasure of interviewing two of the leading milbloggers about the global war on terrorism last evening. Matt from Blackfive and Bill Roggio from Counterrorism Blog who joined us live from Kabul Afghanistan.

CONGRATS

Here's Amy -- [The Pattriette]
Thus ends my pregnancy and Baby Watch 2006:
Dad is in Iraq, but he was able to be on the phone with us within 5 minutes of her birth. He'll be meeting her when he comes home on leave this fall.

WELCOME HOME

GOODBYE AFGHANISTAN. HELLO AMERICA. -- [Andi's World]
HE'S HOME!

IN MEMORY OF...

Heroes Call - [One Marine's View]
...A Marine who was a freshman at Columbine High School when two students killed 13 people there was killed in action in Iraq, his family said. Lance Cpl. Greg Rund, 21, was on his second tour of duty in Iraq when he was killed Saturday, his family said in a statement released Monday. He had talked about joining the Marines throughout high school and enlisted shortly after graduating in 2002. The Marines confirmed Rund's death Wednesday, saying he died in combat in Al Anbar Province.