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Welcome to the Dawn Patrol, our daily roundup of information on the War on Terror and other topics - from the MilBlogs and various 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. Hat Tips to the Dawn Patrol are greatly appreciated.
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Yeoman in the 'Stan: Chapter II -- [CDR Salamander ]
I want to write this about what the people, environs and just plain existence is like around Kandahar Airfield...
The coup de grais to this place: TGI Friday's. And I don't mean a walk up window in a converted connex. I mean a whole building with all the crap on the wall, bar with near-beer, and waiters with stupid hats on: TGI Friday's. I got in touch with Michael Yon and got to sit down and talk with him.
Safety? Forgetaboutit -- [Mob 2009 Blog - in Afghanistan]
First off, early Friday morning, about 0630, an attack broke out at the Kabul City Center... Of course, yesterday I was at the site surveying the damage. (Note I was just at this place on Wednesday.) Here are two other pictures of the damage. Another thing to note, this is the very same place that I took photos of in this post about the "modern mall" in Kabul. Here is that link.
Then, when the Taliban isn't attacking us, we've got good old Mother Nature after us. Just before 0400 this morning, I was woken up with an earthquake!
The man with a black hat -- [30 Days Through Afghanistan]
We keep running into these extremely interesting civilians who can never talk to us officially, but teach us so much about counter insurgency and what's happening in Afghanistan...
Today's secret man was in his late 40's, wore a black 8-point hat, dressed professionally and was sitting quietly before I went outside to catch some fresh air. When I came back in, poor Ken was embroiled in conversation with him. I say poor because I could see how badly he wanted to capture it on film, but it just wasn't going to happen.
We found out later that this man works for the U.S. State Department. By design, it takes a lot of approvals for them to talk with anyone with a camera for good reason. I believe the relationship between media and government agencies in the United States have soured over the years because, one, the government can be hard to work with and may not relinquish information easily and two, media sometimes takes half of the information from the government and then makes a truthful, yet incomplete story from it. The lack of a seamless relationship between the two is resulting in our inability to get these incredible people on camera.
In winter snows, soldiers work to warm relations -- [Stars and Stripes]
Spring has come early to Wardak province, in the form of unseasonably warm weather and an early awakening of the Taliban from its annual hibernation.
And U.S. soldiers are preparing for what local residents are warning could be the bloodiest fighting season yet.
Soldiers from the 173rd Airborne Brigade's Company B, 1st Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment stationed at Combat Outpost Nerkh haven't fired a shot in their nearly 3-month-old mission.
Normalcy takes root in Marja after allied offensive -- [LA Times]
Just a few dozen yards from the bullet-riddled government building, Marine Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson found more proof Saturday that the battle for Marja was over.
"A popcorn vendor on the streets of Marja," Nicholson said in a gleeful voice as he found some coins in his pocket and bought a bag of freshly popped corn.
"None of those tourist prices now," Nicholson joked as the vendor, understanding not a word of English, nodded in agreement.
After Push in Marja, Marines Try to Win Trust -- [NY Times/CJ Chivers - with the troops in Afghanistan]
After the declaration this weekend that the battle for the Taliban enclave of Marja had been won, for the Marines standing behind sandbags and walking patrols, the more complicated work has begun. With it will be a test of the strategy selected by President Obama and the generals now running the Afghan war.
'Invincible' Taleban routed in raids on border camps -- [TimesOnline]
"The militant command and control centres and their caches have been dismantled or captured," said Major-General Tariq Khan, one of the country's most experienced commanders in the frontier war with the Taleban. "The kind of hits the leadership has taken, the casualties they have taken, the TTP [Pakistani Taleban] is no longer significant," he said. "It has ended as a cohesive force. It doesn't exist any more as an umbrella organisation that can influence militancy anywhere."
Video of Taliban commander leaves fate unclear -- [AP]
The Pakistani Taliban released a video of their militant chief, Hakimullah Mehsud, but his taped comments fail to prove he survived a U.S. missile strike earlier this year.
U.S. and Pakistani officials have become increasingly confident that the brash militant commander died of wounds from a drone-fired missile in mid-January, but the Pakistani Taliban have denied he was killed.
Blast Kills 11 Afghans in Mine-Clearance Showcase Area -- [Wall Street Journal]
NOW ZAD, Afghanistan--Eleven Afghan civilians were killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan Sunday in a hotly contested district where the U.S. is trying to showcase the benefits of mine-clearing efforts.
Officials said the dead were from one family riding on the bed of a truck when it hit a bomb on a road near the district capital. Two women and two children were among those killed, according to Daoud Ahmadi, spokesman for the Helmand provincial government.
Iraqis poke fun at their election candidates' posturing -- [McClatchy/Stars and Stripes]
Some grin; others scowl. They point accusingly at unseen enemies or extend open arms in a show of unity. Men appear in tailored suits to suggest cosmopolitanism, in tribal robes to appeal to more traditional Iraqis and in clerical turbans as a reminder to the devout. Thanks to a government quota, one in four candidates is female, and they reflect the broad spectrum of Iraqi womanhood, from lipstick and highlighted hair to bare faces framed by flowing black cloaks.
"If votes were counted according to the amount of time spent staring at the posters, she would definitely win," said Bilal Nouri, a supermarket worker in Fallujah who gazed longingly at a poster of an attractive female candidate.
Iraqi politician's star rising again -- [LA Times]
Chalabi, a secular Shiite, doesn't downplay the significance of his estranged American allies' failure to get the disbarments, mainly of Sunni Arab and secular candidates, overturned.
"It's a watershed," he says, citing the intense U.S. diplomatic efforts aimed at persuading Iraqis to allow the barred candidates to run, including an intervention by Vice President Joe Biden. "It became evident to the people that on a critical issue the will of the Iraqis prevailed over the desire of the Americans."
In Iraq, Americans Struggle to Relinquish Control -- [Wall Street Journal]
For American commanders, a smooth election in March could speed up this year's scheduled U.S. troop withdrawal. But if the polls are viewed as illegitimate and bring violence, commanders say they are prepared to keep combat troops here longer.
Chile Seeks Aid, Team Rubicon Poised to Help -- [Team Rubicon]
Team Rubicon's advance element, now assembled in Los Angeles, continues to prepare for travel into Chile. Signals from the Chilean government are mixed. This morning's charter flight from LA into southern Chile was refused clearance to fly into the country, with yesterday evening's official position of the US State Department being that Chilean authorities "have the situation under control." At the same time, AP reports a statement this morning by Chile's President Michelle Bachelet that "we face a catastrophe of such unthinkable magnitude that it will require a giant effort" to recover.
Soured Over Policy, Latin American Leaders Await Sessions With Clinton -- [NY Times]
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's five-nation Latin American tour, which begins Monday and is meant in part to address regional tensions, is instead likely to be overshadowed by the response to Chile's earthquake and efforts to line up support for the American campaign to isolate Iran.
Mrs. Clinton is expected to stop in Santiago, Chile, on Tuesday to meet with President Michelle Bachelet and President-elect Sebastián Piñera, the first conservative politician to rise to power there since the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
Navy Cancels Tsunami Warning in Hawaii; Ships Return to Pearl Harbor -- [Navy.mil]
The commander of Navy Region Hawaii and Naval Surface Group Middle Pacific ordered the return of Pearl Harbor-based ships that sortied today.
USS Crommelin, USS O'Kane, USS Chafee and USS Chung-Hoon departed Pearl Harbor this morning in response to a tsunami warning for the Hawaii Islands issued in the wake of an 8.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Chile today. No injuries or damage have been reported in Hawaii.
Obama signs Patriot Act extensions -- [AP/Washington Times]
President Obama has signed a one-year extension of several provisions in the main U.S. counterterrorism law, the Patriot Act.
Provisions in the measure would have expired on Sunday without Obama's signature Saturday.
You can take a Marine out of the fight, but you can't take the fight out of a Marine -- [Soldiers' Angels Germany]
A Punxsutawney woman says Taliban forces might have taken her son out of the fight -- but they didn't take the fight out of her son.
Marine Sgt. Shane Hanley, 21, a squad leader from Easy Company, 2-2 Marines, suffered shrapnel injuries to the left side of his body when an improvised explosive device detonated Feb. 9 in Afghanistan, said Diane Hanley...
Army chief: Soldiers home more between deployments -- [AP/Stars and Stripes]
Soldiers are currently getting an average of 14 to 15 months at home between deployments, and more are getting 17 to 18 months.
That's more than the year that had been the norm until recently. It's still short of the Army's two-year goal, but an improvement over 12 months, Casey said.
...A few years ago Casey had said the deployment demands were putting the Army "out of balance." Now he says the service was closer to getting back to normal.
Red Line -- [Rajiv Srinivasan - on leave from Afghanistan]
FLASH! My eyes closed as I braced myself for the shockwave. I brought my hands to my ears, hoping to only feel the reverberation of a distant blast. But nothing came. I saw the flash in my peripheral vision. I know it was there. I turned around to see the couple taking pictures of themselves in the dim light. The flash was quick and eye-grabbing, like an IED blast at night. Wait, didn't I just see that guy on the cell phone? A radio controlled IED? I'm going to kill that guy. The rhythm of the train tracks patted my eardrums like the rotors of a medevac bird hovering overhead...I have got to get off this train.
"Entering Harvard Square, doors will open on the left." This was ridiculous. I needed to come back to earth. I stormed out of the train...panting.
Former guardsman leads U.S. to bobsled gold -- [AP/Military Times]
Holcomb, a former Utah guardsman, drove USA-1 to the gold medal in four-man bobsledding Saturday, the first American pilot to do so since Francis Tyler at St. Moritz in 1948. By winning, he cemented the status of his famed "Night Train" sled and push team of Justin Olsen, Steve Mesler and Curt Tomasevicz as sliding's best.
"This will take a while for it to sink in," Holcomb said. "You work so hard and when you finally get there it's like, 'Well, now what? I don't know what to do.' We've worked so hard and gone through so much in the last four years. To end on a high note like this is huge."
The high note came four hours later.
They jumped atop the medal podium together, each arm raised skyward, before each man bowed to have Olympic gold placed around their necks, none of them able to stop smiling. Then they put their right hands over the hearts, and as the national anthem blared and the U.S. flag was raised, Holcomb seemed to hold back tears.
New Policy Authorizes Social Media Access, With Caveats -- [American Forces Press Service]
Attention all Facebookers, Twitter tweeters and YouTubers: a new Defense Department policy authorizes you to access these and other Web 2.0 platforms from nonclassified government computers, as long as it doesn't compromise operational security or involve prohibited activities or Web sites.
Defense Department officials issued the long-awaited policy today, establishing consistent rules for all military members and employers.
Social Media Rule Change--Better for Bloggers? -- [Home From Iraq]
Today the military opened up the rules on social media--Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and the others will be authorized unless temporarily blocked by local commanders. But the authority of local commanders, especially in a war zone, is hard for a civilian to imagine. In November last year, I was accused of an OPSEC violation on my blog.
'Bourne' Team Takes a Chance With Iraq War -- [NY Times]
NO one doubts that "Green Zone" comes with what Adam Fogelson, the chairman of Universal Pictures, calls an action movie "pedigree." The film, which opens across the country on March 12, stars Matt Damon and reunites him with Paul Greengrass, the director who brought a propulsive visual style to "The Bourne Supremacy" and "The Bourne Ultimatum." And television ads and trailers promise plenty of suspense, firepower and, of course, fighting in close quarters...
"This hugely difficult process by which we ended up going to war there, only then to find that the reason that we went to war was not true, left a huge legacy I think -- a legacy of fear, paranoia and mistrust. And so that really was where I wanted to put 'Green Zone.' Can I create a thriller with the ride, and the drive and the urgency and the economic clarity of Bourne-type storytelling -- can Matt and I do that -- and invite the Bourne audience back to the sort of inciting moment of what begat Bourne world?"
The Hurt -- [Greyhawk]
Well then, perhaps we can all look forward to this upcoming bit of non-ridiculous totally realistic hard-corps MATT DAMON badassery!!!!!
Breaking ranks on gays in military -- [Washington Times]
Conservative groups have begun to mobilize to stop President Obama plan's to open the military to acknowledged gays, as some prominent right-leaning Washington figures are breaking with the movement and siding with the White House.
The British PoW who broke into Auschwitz -- and survived -- [TimesOnline]
Denis Avey, even at the age of 91, cuts a formidable figure. More than 6ft tall, with a severe short back and sides and a piercing glare, he combines the pan-ache of Errol Flynn with the dignity of age. This is the former Desert Rat, who, in 1944, broke into -- yes, into -- Auschwitz, and he looks exactly as I expected. He removes his monocle for the camera, and one of his pupils slips sideways before realigning. It is a glass eye. I ask him about it. He tells me that in 1944, he cursed an SS officer who was beating a Jew in the camp. He received a blow with a pistol butt and his eye was knocked in...
In 1939 he volunteered for the Army -- because he was too impatient to wait a week for the RAF. "I ended up in the 7th Armoured Division, the original Desert Rats," he says. "We operated behind enemy lines in Egypt. In 1942 we were ambushed. I was wounded and taken prisoner by the Germans."
Avey was a troublesome prisoner. In the summer of 1943 he was deported to Auschwitz, in Poland, and interned in a small PoW camp on the periphery of the IG Farben factory. The main Jewish camps were several miles to the west. "I'd lost my liberty, but none of my spirit," he says. "I was still determined to give as good as I got."
Have you forgotten? World Trade Center bombing, 17 years later -- [Michelle Malkin]
Did you remember? It has now been 17 years since the first World Trade Center bombing. The jihadi truck bomb exploded at 12:18pm, Feb. 26, 1993.
(Need more? Dawn Patrols Archives are here.)
