Dawn Patrol

Welcome to the Dawn Patrol, our daily roundup of information on the War on Terror and other topics - from the MilBlogs and other sources around the world. 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.

IRAQ

ON Point Exclusive: "An IED Attack" by Sgt Roy Batty -- [On Point]
..."Okay, guys, we're heading to the scene of an IED. When we get there, make sure to do a quick '5 and 25' around us. There may be secondaries in the area. N., if we dismount, grab the fire extinguisher. I'll grab the extraction tool and the fire blanket. C., make sure you're looking for a triggerman, and watching the houses for snipers."
The radios are full of chatter, urgent, clipped. Various units are vectoring towards the scene. C., my gunner, yells down to me that he can see Apache helicopters coming up behind us, and a second later I can feel the basal thumping in my chest as two of them roar over us, low and fast. It's a good feeling to have them overhead and leading the way, not to mention having the extra firepower in the skies above us.

In Baghdad, Troops and Thugs Cooperate -- [Iraq Slogger]
Disturbing Relation Between Guards and Kidnappers
A kidnapping at a Baghdad university reveals disturbing connections between Iraqi troops and sectarian criminals. Held for two days, a Shi'a student at a university in Baghdad learned that he had been fingered by the same troops who were supposed to protect him.
The student told Slogger that he was abducted on the way home one day from his university in the capital. Slogger is withholding the name of the university.

Featured Embedded Report: Chris Muir from Iraq -- [The Fourth Rail]
In mid-February, Chris Muir, the talented cartoonist behind day by day, a political comic strip prevalent in the blogosphere, embedded in Iraq for several weeks. Public Multimedia, Inc, my non-profit media company, was proud to sponsor Chris for this embed. Chris is the first of several embeds Public Multimedia will put into the field this year. Chris provides notes and photographs from his travels and time Iraq. His experiences will be shown in the strip this month.

More on Abu Omar al-Baghdadi's Alleged Identity (Updated) -- [Talisman Gate بـاب الطلــسم:]
...Both Iraq’s Vice President, Tariq al-Hashemi, and the Speaker of the Parliament, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, who are the leading Sunnis in the Iraqi government, belong to the Mashhadani tribe. I wonder how it would have passed their notice that one of their own is allegedly the head of the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Qaeda’s candidate caliph.
Now, it is not yet fully established that Abu Omar al-Baghdadi is indeed Khalid al-Mashhadani, but it would make much more sense than

Historical irony -- [From Statehouse to Bunkhouse: Calvey in Iraq]
You learn a lot of new things in a combat zone. Which holster to use. How to listen for "Incoming!" And how history has many odd ironies. Here is one such irony:
Much of the insurgency here in Iraq began in al-Anbar province, which stretches roughly from west of Baghdad to the Syrian and Jordanian borders. Fallujah and Ramadi are examples of some of the larger cities in al-Anbar.

Accused Terror Financier Boasted Of Access to U.S. Military Briefings in Iraq -- [Counterterrorism Blog]
A federal grand jury in Missouri has issued a formal indictment against five officials from the local offices of an Islamic charity, charging them with violating U.S. trade laws and also fraudulently diverting thousands of dollars from a U.S. government development grant into a lobbying campaign aimed at thwarting a Congressional investigation into its links to terrorism. The new indictment comes directly on the heels of another decision last month from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upholding the right of the U.S. Treasury Department to freeze the financial assets of the same charity, the Islamic African Relief Agency (IARA), for allegedly helping to finance terrorism.


The Failed Attack --- WARNING!! Extremly graphic.

IP draws big numbers in Al Anbar -- [MNF-I]
CAMP ELLIS — In an unprecedented move by local leaders in the town of Barwanah, a village of 20,000 citizens in the Anbar Province of Iraq, the largest number of Iraqi Police recruits ever recruited from the area were processed in a recruit screening this week.

Baghdad security efforts seem to yield results -- [MNF-I]
BAGHDAD — Although it’s too early to draw firm conclusions, the new combined Iraqi-U.S. security effort to reduce violence in Iraq’s capital city already seems to be bearing fruit, a senior U.S. military officer in Baghdad said.

More Troops Deployed to Baghdad -- [Military.com]

VIDEO- Gates Approves More Troops for Baghdad
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon has approved a request by the new U.S. commander in Iraq for an extra 2,200 military police to help deal with an anticipated increase in detainees during the Baghdad security crackdown, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday.

Combat at Outpost Falcon - Mar 7 2007

The Countdown... -- [1016th - in Iraq]
...Much of our time here lately is spent fixing trucks and doing motorpool maintenance. We received all of our equipment in a “fixer upper” state (to put it mildly). Our command is determined to handover our stuff in much better shape then we got it and why not.... It wasn’t very cool fixing all those trucks when we first got here. The rest of our time is spent turning in gear, selling stuff we’re not going to take home and getting our affairs in order back home. Some people have bought toys, and some people have set plans up to go on vacation. Whatever we’ve done, it’s something to look forward to when we get back.

Petraeus: No Military Solution to Iraq War -- [Iraq Slogger]
Says Political Action and Reconcilation Essential to Achieving Peace, Stability
...-- There's no immediate need to request more US troops for Iraq beyond those in the pipeline.
-- US forces will reach peak strength in June and will remain at that number "well beyond summer."
-- "Military action is necessary... but it is not sufficient" because Iraqi political action and reconcilation are necessary to achieve peace and stability.
-- "sensational attacks" on US and Iraqi forces will continue, but "there have been a few encouraging signs" of progress -- notably a decrease in sectarian attacks in Baghdad.

U.S. Commander Calls for Talks With Militants -- (NYT)
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Military force alone is not sufficient to end the violence in Iraq and political talks must eventually include some militant groups now opposing the U.S.-backed government, the new commander of U.S. forces in Iraq said Thursday.

The Grunts - Daily Life Marked as: Featured

3rd batallion 4th marines daily life routines. Video showing our troops taking care of kids, disposing of weapons cache, training the Iraqi Army, etc.

Maliki Suspends Cooperation With UK Forces -- [Iraq Slogger]
Fallout From Sunday's Basra Raid Continues
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has announced he will suspend cooperation with British forces in southern Iraq until the completion of an investigation into the Sunday raid of Basra's police headquarters, according to Alsumaria TV.

AFGHANISTAN

A cross border raid into Waziristan; Achilles update -- [The Fourth Rail]
Deputy Taliban commander in Waziristan captured by Task Force 145; Taliban commander arrested in Kandahar; Tora Bora Front cell broken up; Achilles update

PAKISTAN: U.S. TROOPS ARREST DEPUTY HEAD OF TALIBAN IN WAZIRISTAN -- (AKI)
Islamabad, 8 March- American troops in Afghanistan arrested on Thursday the deputy head of the Taliban fighters active in the Pakistani tribal area of Waziristan, according to a report on the Arab satellite television channel Al Jazeera. A unit of US special forces penetrated the town of Loramani in Waziristan which border Afghanistan, capturing the Taliban leader Mullah Hakimallah Mansub.

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar Claims Split From Taliban, "Suggests" Peace Talks -- [Counterterrorism Blog]
The Associated Press has released an exclusive story in which Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, longtime Afghan tribal warlord who has allied with the Taliban for years, announced that he has ended his cooperation with them and "suggested" that he could reach a peace deal with the Afghan government.

AFGHANISTAN: HELMAND TRIBAL CHIEFS CALL ON TALIBAN TO FREE ITALIAN JOURNALIST -- (AKI)
Kabul, 8 March - Tribal leaders in the southern Afghan province of Helmand have asked the Taliban to release Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo, who was allegedly kidnapped by Taliban fighters together with two Afghan nationals, Ajmal and Ghulam Haidar, while on an assignment in Kandahar, in the volatile southern Afghan province of Helmand. According to the Pajhwok Afghan News agency, Haji Mirajan Adil, a senior tribal leader in the province's Gereshk district, said "kidnapping journalists was violation of freedom of expression".

PAKISTAN: 'FATHER OF TALIBAN' CALLS FOR ITALIAN JOURNALIST'S RELEASE -- (AKI)
Karachi, 8 March - (by Syed Saleem Shahzad) - The leader of Pakistan's six-party Islamist alliance, Maulana Samiul Haq, on Thursday appealed to the Taliban to release Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo, who the militants have accused of spying for Britain. "International journalists have the right to interact with all groups including the Taliban," Samiul Haq said in an interview with Adnkronos International (AKI).The Pakistani political leader has been...

Kapisa Province. کاپيسا -- [Miserable Donuts]
CSM Bones and I would travel there - particularly to the capital, Mahmud-i-Raqi. One learned three things about the province right away - the Tagab was a smuggling route (drugs, guns, anything), it was a very small province (the smallest in Afghanistan) and the governor was a venal, thieving, and ineffectual bum.

Brits Bring Guided Rockets to Afghanistan -- [Strategy Page]
March 8, 2007: The British army is finally sending some heavy artillery to Afghanistan. Not big (155mm) guns, but big rockets. Several MLRS launchers are being sent, equipped with GPS guided rockets (MLRS). Despite requests from the troops for heavier artillery, the British have only sent a few 105mm howitzers. Finally, the commanders convinced the brass back home that some heavier stuff was needed. The American GMLRS (officially the "GMLRS Unitary rocket") rockets has been a great success.

History Lesson Part 1-- [Afghanistan Without a Clue - in Afghainstan]
Han has really been opening up to me lately. In fairness, I haven’t worked a whole lot with him, but recently we’ve had some really great discussions. He downloaded a ton of photos from the internet and proceeded to give me a history lesson, along with photos of events from the last 15 years. It is pretty amazing stuff, and now you can be amazed too. Han is passionate about getting the truth out about Afghanistan, and I’ve told him I will be happy to relate his story to all of you.

AP exclusive: Top Afghan warlord splits from Taliban? -- [Allahpundit - Hot Air]
Send to a Friend | printer-friendly It’s Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the former Afghan prime minister who’s been waging freelance jihad on U.S. forces since 2001 and in conjunction with the Taliban since 2003. He’s an “evil sod” whose handiwork inspired an almost singular hatred in our pal Major John Tammes during his tour of duty in Afghanistan. He’s also the guy who bragged in December about having cost the GOP the midterm elections.

U.S. AND OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD

U.S. Opens Door To Bilateral Talks with Iran on Iraq -- [Defense News]
The United States left open the possibility on March 7 that U.S. diplomats could meet one-on-one with Iranian officials on the sidelines of a conference of Iraq’s neighbors in Baghdad this weekend.

Iranian influence soaring in Iraq -- (Chicago Tribune)
Shiites, Sunnis say Tehran is winner of U.S. invasion
By Liz Sly, Tribune foreign correspondent; Hassan Jarrah in Najaf and Nadeem Majeed contributed to this report
BAGHDAD -- In the cafeteria of Iraq's parliament, Shiite legislators slip into Persian when they don't want their conversations overheard. In the holy city of Najaf, an Iranian charity helps newlyweds buy furniture. Iranian weapons, freshly manufactured, are turning up in arms caches seized from insurgents in and around Baghdad.

Iranian general 'seeking asylum in US' -- [The Austrailian]
A RETIRED Iranian general who went missing in Turkey last month has defected and sought asylum in the US, according to a well-connected Arabic newspaper published in London.

Souresrafil Responds to Prospect of US-Iranian Talks
...If there are two nations left in the world that may have a hope of saving themselves and through whom there may at some unknown time in the future be a hope of saving the people of the world, those two nations are America and to a lesser extent, Australia.
Today, in my view another Yalta has taken shape. Just in the last few days, after some diplomatic deal-making, both at the table and behind the scenes, unfortunately the American government, the only nation left that holds out hope for supporting the people of Iran, has given in to the leader of Islamic Fascism, meaning Iran and today's Islamic Republic.
Fifth column elements from the Islamic Republic, but not just them, have been able to convince the American government that there is no use, it must abandon this fight and surrender to the circumstances. We do not know more than this and it is not clear what will happen.

Increasing Accompanied Tours in Korea -- [GI Korea]
The top U.S. commander in South Korea on Wednesday proposed immediately doubling the number of troops on accompanied tours in that country, and eventually shifting most troops with families to three-year tours there.

WAR ON TERROR /TERRORISM

“The Hunters of Minesweepers” – A Video from al-Furqan Foundation of the Islamic State of Iraq -- [SITE Institute]
Al-Furqan Foundation of the Islamic State of Iraq issued to jihadist forums a twenty-six minute video titled: “The Hunters of Minesweepers”, on Monday, March 5, 2007. The video, within the Furqan series, “Hell for the Romans and Apostates in the Land of Two Rivers [Iraq/Mesopotamia]” does not merely show a compilation of attack footage, but places the bombing operations within a larger context and provides information about minesweepers employed by the American military in Iraq.

Al Qaeda Builds Its Brand -- [Strategy Page]
March 8, 2007: Al Qaeda has become a good example of "upward failure." The more defeats the terrorist organization suffers, the more it recasts those events into seeming victories. For example, the inability to launch another attack on the United States is simply ignored. Having shifted its efforts to Europe, and failing to carry out even one attack a year since September 11, 2001, that failure is pitched as giving the Europeans time to reflect and surrender.

Former US Sailor, Hassan Abujihaad, Arrested on Terror Charges -- [Gateway Pundit]
A former US sailor was arrested today for giving secrets to Al Qaeda.

Al Qaeda Builds Its Brand -- [Strategy Page]
March 8, 2007: Al Qaeda has become a good example of "upward failure." The more defeats the terrorist organization suffers, the more it recasts those events into seeming victories. For example, the inability to launch another attack on the United States is simply ignored. Having shifted its efforts to Europe, and failing to carry out even one attack a year since September 11, 2001, that failure is pitched as giving the Europeans time to reflect and surrender. The continuing violence in Iraq and Afghanistan has been a PR disaster for al Qaeda within the Islamic world. All those dead Moslems has caused al Qaedas popularity to plummet in Moslem countries. At the same time,

Why Terrorists Are Above Criticism -- [Strategy Page]
March 8, 2007: The need for Moslems to criticize Moslems, for crimes against Moslems, is a critical aspect in the war on terror. Unfortunately, it's highly unusual for Moslems to criticize their co-religionists, no matter how outrageous their actions. Moslems terrorists regularly blow up mosques, murder imams, and even violate oaths taken on the Koran, such as when the Taliban captured the Afghan village of Qala Mussa a few weeks ago, after having sworn on the Koran to engage in negotiations with the local elders. Yet ...

SUPPORTING THE TROOPS...OR NOT

Landstuhl Commander interviewed in "Around the Services" -- [Soldiers' Angels Germany]
Yesterday's "Around the Services" show from the Pentagon Channel has coverage of the hearings on Walter Reed and other military medical facilities.
There's also a short interview with COL Gamble, Commander of Landstuhl Regional Medical Center here in Germany, in which ...

Can I question his patriotism and support for the troops without being sent to rehab? -- [Wizbang!]
Dr. Camillo Mac Bica is a professor of philosophy at New York City's School for Visual Arts. He is also a "recovering" Viet Nam veteran of the Marine Corps. He's apparently transmogrified himself from a gung-ho Marine into a full-blown moonbat.
Dr. Mac Bica's latest endeavor is a little program called "counter recruitment."

MILITARY

Navy rejects pair who had offer of reduced sentences to enlist -- [Stars and Stripes]
ARLINGTON, Va. — The Navy has turned down two 19-year-old men who pleaded guilty to animal cruelty charges after a Pennsylvania judge offered to drop probation from their sentence to help them enlist.

Adultery - a crime in the Navy? -- [ROFA Six]
When Astronaut Lisa Norwak sent email to her lover, Bill Oefelein while he was space, she forgot the golden rule of email, "Never write anything you don't want to see again in the newspaper". Today, it is all there.

POLITICS

Steve Simon Outlines Bush Choices on Pullout -- [Iraq Slogger]
Advises Withdrawal Before Move Becomes Matter of Necessity
Steve Simon, CFR senior fellow and Middle East security expert, in an interview posted today perfectly articulates the dilemma faced by the Bush Administration in timing the military withdrawal from Iraq...

Harry Reid Gets Mitchslapped -- [RedState]
Mitch McConnell has just dropped a bomb on Senator Reid.
...Senator McConnell just lumped all the separate amendments into one amendment and filed for cloture. So now all those Democrats who were complaining about the GOP continuing to debate the war in Iraq at the expense of the troops will have to defend continuing to debate the 9/11 Commission report at the expense of the safety of the American people.

The VA system of health care -- [Qand O]
As is obvious, the Walter Reed debacle is now spreading into an examination of the VA health care system. And the system which the left loves to hold up as the shining example of what government health care can be seems to be severely troubled.
As one might imagine, it is very bureaucratic, and in terms of administrative technology, abysmally backward.

Democrats Plan Neighborhood Gitmo Project -- [Gateway Pundit]
Democrats want to move the Gitmo detainees closer to home...
TO YOUR HOME! Democrats want Gitmo detainees set free or held in camps on the East Coast.

Why Terrorists Are Too Dangerous For U.S. Prisons -- [RedState]
Yesterday's news that Congressional Democrats, led by Virginia Congressman Jim Moran, plan to close the Guantanamo Bay prison and bring the terrorists held there to be held in the U.S., is a terrible idea for several reasons, but for one of them, you need look no further than to ask Louis Pepe, the former prison guard at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan who was attacked on November 1, 2000 by Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, a high-ranking Al Qaeda terrorist who was awaiting trial for the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania:

THE MEDIA

Creative Newswriting -- [Fuzzilicious Thinking]
Too much positive news coming out of Iraq for certain people's tastes? That's okay, just make up your own headlines. Do it right, and no one will read the article because the headline says it all:
There is absolutely no discussion of the intensity of insurgent attacks --positive or negative--in the article. And with a headline like that, you don't have to read any further to know what's going on in Iraq, right?
Considering the habit the AP has of editing on the fly, I've done screen shots of the entire article, and reproduced the text

Ignorance is as ignorance does -- [QandO]
If you're going to call someone, or a group or a nation ignorant, it's usually good advice to try to not come off as abysmally ignorant yourself. Unfortunately, as you'll see, an Al-Jazeera TV host wasn't quite able to pull that off.
First Faysal Al-Qassem's claim that Americans are woefully ignorant:

Time Magazine's Aparisim is lying, by Ghosh! -- [Michael Fumento]
In my article on the Baghdad Press Corps and its perceived need to display faux bravado because it has no real bravado, I noted one way they did this was by grossly exaggerating the "terrors" of landing at Baghdad International Airport. This included Time Magazine's Baghdad bureau chief Aparism Ghosh. I wrote:
"In an August 2006 cover story, [Ghosh] devotes five long paragraphs to the alleged horror of landing there [in a Fokker F28 from Amman, Jordan].

Outrageous Associated Press headline of the morning -- [TigerHawk]
Underneath the headline "House Democrats to unveil Iraq war plan" the first sentence reads "In a direct challenge to President Bush, House Democrats are advancing legislation requiring the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the fall of next year."

France Makes Effort to Criminalize Bloggers, Internet News Sites -- [NewsBusters]
In a warning to the sanctity of free speech in a democratic nation, France is about to show us what happens when the state is allowed to legally determine who is allowed to be a "journalist", or who is a "legitimate" source of news: You get the criminalization of speech.

France bans citizen journalists from reporting violence -- [NewsBusters]
The French Constitutional Council has approved a law that criminalizes the filming or broadcasting of acts of violence by people other than professional journalists. The law could lead to the imprisonment of eyewitnesses who film acts of police violence, or operators of Web sites publishing the images, one French civil liberties group warned on Tuesday.

HUMOR / SATIRE

Gates Warns of Geek Shortage, Offers Border Firewall -- [ScrappleFace]
(2007-03-08) — Microsoft founder Bill Gates, alarmed that immigration curbs sparked by terrorism threats limit access to talented tech workers from overseas, today said his firm will work with the U.S. government to install “a virtual firewall at the borders that would let the good geeks in and keep the malicious geeks out.”

Day By Day

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