Proof of a Positive Impact in Gode, Ethiopa

November 20, 2006
Story by SSgt Anne O’Neill
Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa.

GODE, Ethiopia – One man’s return to Gode is positive proof of Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa success in eastern Ethiopia. The story began when U.S. Navy Master Chief Andrew Smith spent four months in the sometimes-austere Ogaden region from April to the end of July this year.

During his time at Contingency Operating Location Gode, he served as the noncommissioned officer in charge. Smith oversaw the support for humanitarian missions in the region.

U.S. Navy Master Chief Petty Officer Andrew Smith greets old friends at the former COL Gode, Ethiopia. U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Philip A. Fortnam.

U.S. Navy Master Chief Petty Officer Andrew Smith greets old friends at the former COL Gode, Ethiopia. Master Chief Smith participated in a humanitarian mission airlifting flood relief supplies to Gode when he had the opportunity meet old friends from COL Gode. An Air Force C-130H Hercules aircraft assigned to Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) delivered humanitarian aid to flood victims in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia. U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Philip A. Fortnam.

Some of these projects included building improvements on clinics, schools, dormitories, medical civic affairs projects and veterinary civic affairs projects. Work also included a new irrigation system, a new clinic in Kunka Village and two new school buildings in Badal Segal. People of CJTF-HOA also provided employment to surrounding villagers and boosted the local economy, providing people a much-needed source of income.

So it was a welcome-home party of sorts when Smith participated in relief flight support for the Gode region Nov. 10. This time, an U.S. Air Force C-130 cargo plane delivered food and relief supplies to flood victims there. Smith served as the assistant commander and oversaw the logistics of moving a lot of materials in a short time.

The people of CJTF-HOA made several deliveries in a two-day operation and delivered 23 pallets of supplies such as food, high energy biscuits, rice, water containers, plastic sheeting, bedding and water purification materials.

The supplies were donated by Ethiopia’s Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Agency, and U.S. Agency for International Development. The DPPA representative in Gode is in charge of disbursing the supplies from the Airfield to the affected areas.

For Smith, returning to Gode was quite a unique experience.

“Going back there was sort of a small homecoming,” Smith said. “I had wondered if we had a positive impact on their lives. When we landed there we were pleasantly surprised. People who remembered me came from all over to shake my hand, some came from miles away.”

“Flying in the C-130 and getting to look out and see the amount of flooding, it was easy to see why they were in need,” he said. “They were extremely displaced from food and water.”

Ethiopia’s DPPA said the flooding had killed at least 80 people and left more than 217,000 homeless in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia. In total, more than 360,000 people were affected.

“It was a great mission to be on for two reasons,” Smith concluded. “The first part was delivering supplies to people in need. The second best part of the mission was being thanked [by local citizens] for the work we did there from April to the end of July.”

Chad: State of Emergency Extended

Chad State of Emergency Extended

Ndjamena
The Chadian government has extended a state of emergency to six months from an initial 12 days in the midst of continuing violence that has displaced tens of thousands of people.

“There is a kind of crisis of confidence between the communities in the areas and, in one way or another, between the communities and the administration,” Prime Minister Pascal Yoadimnadji told parliament on Thursday when requesting that it authorise the extension.

“More time is needed to restore the administration, to sensitise the population, to reconcile populations and create confidence,” he said.

The prime minister also said that the government would have the power disarm civilians and put in place more civilian and military authorities.

The state of emergency would affect the capital, N’djamena, and several areas in the east w[h]ere various armed groups have forced at least 75,000 people to flee their villages in the past year – 12,000 of them this month alone, according to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR).

Armed men on horseback have attacked at least 23 villages in southeastern Chad since the beginning of November, UNHCR said, and people have fled 20 other villages in fear of more attacks. At least 200 people have been killed and dozens others wounded. Some have had their eyes gouged out, while others have been burned after being trapped when their homes were set on fire.

Last week some 10,000 other people were displaced by an attack on villages around the town of Koloy in the southeast. One aid worker from Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) was also killed and the whereabouts of three others remain unknown.

In his speech, Prime Minister Yoadimnadji blamed the government of Sudan for igniting violence between local communities in the east. He said Sudan is seeking to destabilise Chad by exporting its conflict from neighbouring Dafur.

Sudan denies the accusation. MSF issued a statement on Friday saying that the recently displaced people are victims of incursions from armed men from Sudan but also of fighting between the Chadian army and Chadian rebels.

NGAUS Legislative Update: 11/24/2006

What’s Happening In Congress?
Congress will be in recess for two weeks during the Thanksgiving holiday. The Senate will return on December 4 and the House on December 5. The Senate Armed Services Committee will conduct a confirmation hearing Defense Secretary nominee Robert Gates – Dec. 5. The short term stop-gap fiscal 2007 spending measure will expire on Dec. 8.

New Leaders in the House:
Last week LEGIT reported the results of the Senate leadership elections for both the Democrats and the Republicans. The House caucused late last week with most Democrat races uncontested. Here are the official results from the House of Representatives:

Speaker of the House: Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Democrats:
Majority Leader: Steny Hoyer, Md.
Majority Whip: James E. Clyburn, S.C.
Caucus Chairman: Rahm Emanuel, Ill.
Caucus Vice Chairman: John B. Larson, Conn.

Republicans:
Minority Leader: John A. Boehner, Ohio
Minority Whip: Roy Blunt, Mo.
Conference Chairman: Adam H. Putnam, Fla.
Conference Vice Chairman: Kay Granger, Texas
Conference Secretary: John Carter, Texas
Policy Committee Chairman: Thaddeus McCotter, Mich.
Chairman, National Republican Congressional Committee: Tom Cole, Okla.
Chief Deputy Minority Whip: Eric Cantor, Va.

The Duties of a House Party Leader:
The U.S. Constitution establishes the Speaker of the House as the most senior official of the House of Representatives and the third most senior in the federal government. House rules invest broad-ranging powers to the Speaker, including: presiding over debate in the House, recognizing members for the purpose of speaking or making motions, setting the agenda by determining what and when legislation comes before the House, and deciding points of order. The Speaker of the House also serves as the primary spokesperson for the House of Representatives, and often times the party. The Speaker normally takes the leading role in negotiating with the Senate and the President.

The Majority Leader is the second most senior official in the House. The majority leader’s role has been defined through history and tradition as the day-to-day manager of House business and is responsible for scheduling legislation for floor consideration. The Majority Leader helps plan daily, weekly, and annual legislative goals and works to advance the agenda of the majority party.

The Minority Leader serves as the most senior official in the minority party and the floor leader of the “loyal opposition.” The Minority leader works with the party caucus to set agenda and strategy.

Both the majority and minority party elect whips. The title “whip” comes from a fox hunting expression – “whipper-in” – which refers to the individual responsible for keeping the dogs from straying during a chase. The Party Whips are responsible for counting votes and persuading members to vote along party lines.

For the last 12 years the Republicans have held all of the majority positions and the Democrats all of the minority positions. Beginning in January the positions will be reversed with the Democrats in control. The remaining leadership positions are unique to their respective party.

What’s Happening At NGAUS?

A Weekend at NGAUS.
This past weekend the Board of Directors met in Washington for their annual Winter Meeting. The Board received an extensive legislative update from legislative director, Brig. Gen. (ret) Richard Green, and was asked by the NGAUS Chairman, Maj. Gen. R. Martin Umbarger, to assist in identifying qualified individuals to serve on committees and task forces for NGAUS. The next Board of Directors meeting will be in March 2007.

Upcoming Events at NGAUS:
Dec 5: Combat Support Task Force Meeting
Dec 5: Industry Day Mini-Workshop
Dec 6: Industry Day
Dec 6: OIF/OEF Exhibit Opening
Dec 7: Fire Support Task Force Meeting
Jan 16-17: Kentucky State Visit
Jan 21-25: NGEDA Conference
Feb 7-8: Arkansas State Visit
Feb 25 –Mar 1: AGAUS Conference
Mar 5-6: CACO Conference
Mar 9-11: Board of Directors Spring Meeting

NGAUS Notes: 11/24/2006

Board Approves ‘07 Budget, ‘09 Conference Location.
Association business dominated NGAUS board of directors meeting at The National Guard Memorial in Washington, D.C., last weekend.

Meeting for first time under Maj. Gen. R. Martin Umbarger, new chairman, the board approved an $11.9 million consolidated 2007 budget for the association, the NGAUS-Insurance Trust and the National Guard Educational Foundation.

The association’s portion of the budget includes operation of the memorial building, which has 175,000 square feet of fully leased office space in addition to the NGAUS headquarters, a library and a museum.

Projected revenues for 2007 fully cover expenditures in the spending plan. Building rent, membership dues and the proceeds from insurance, conference exhibit magazine advertising sales are the leading sources of income.

Board members also filled two board vacancies, electing Brig. Gen. Hugh Broomall of Delaware and Col. Deborah Ashenhurst of Ohio to serve as Air and Army representatives, respectively, for Area II.

General Broomall will fill the unexpired term of Col. Allyson R. Soloman of Maryland, who resigned, while Col. Ashenhurst replaces Brig. Gen. Norman E. Arflack of Kentucky, who was elected vice chair (Army) at the conference in September.

In addition, board members also approved a bid from Tennessee to host the 131st NGAUS General Conference and Exhibition in Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 11 to 13, 2009.

They also reaffirmed March 31 as the Early Bird membership rebate cutoff date and approved holding a new train-the-trainer membership workshop in Washington early next year.

The board continues to work on a NGAUS strategic plan and further develop the conference’s officer professional development program.

Guard, Reserve Troop Rotations Unchanged.
The National Guard and Reserves are still operating under the same rules for mobilization length, and no troops have been mobilized for longer than the allowed 24 cumulative months, the top Defense Department official for reserve affairs said Nov. 17.

The current law allows President Bush to mobilize up to a million Guardsmen and Reservists for 24 consecutive months, but Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld made the decision to make the rule 24 cumulative months, to relieve stress on the force, said Thomas F. Hall, assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs, in an interview.

Mr. Hall explained that the 24-consecutive-months rule, in the strictest sense, could actually see a Guardsman mobilized up until one day short of the two-year mark, and then remobilized after a one-day break.

Using the cumulative rule allows the Reservist or Guardsman to maintain balance among military service, family and employer, Mr. Hall said.

“We need to maintain that balance so that our employers will continue to support us, [and] our families will continue to support us,” he said. “As you would well understand, if you donÕt get that support as a Guardsman or Reservist, it’s very hard for you to serve.”

Currently no Guardsmen or Reservists have been involuntarily mobilized longer than 24 cumulative months, and DoD thinks this could be a sustainable arrangement, he said.

However, Pentagon officials are always looking at force requirements, and could switch to the consecutive rule, he said.

Recent media reports suggest that the likelihood of such a change will increase in the months ahead.

NBC: Youth ChalleNGe Story Now Set for Friday.
The NBC Nightly News story on the California National Guard’s Youth ChalleNGe program set to air Monday will now be part of the Friday newscast, according to NBC. The telecast airs at 6:30 or 7p.m Eastern Time depending on the market.

NORAD Ready for Santa Tracking on Christmas Eve.
In advance of the holiday season and its 51st season of tracking Santa Claus on his annual journey around the world, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) last Friday activated its “NORAD Tracks Santa” Web site (NORAD Santa) for 2006.

The program began in 1955 when an errant phone call was made to NORAD’s predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command Operations Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. A child had dialed a misprinted telephone number in a local newspaper and reached NORAD instead.

The commander who answered the phone gave the youngster Santa’s whereabouts, and the Santa tracking tradition began.

The program has grown since its first appearance on the Internet in 1998. Last year, the Web site received 912 million hits from 204 countries. On Christmas Eve, aided by 550 volunteers, the NORAD Tracks Santa Operations answered nearly 55,000 phone calls and nearly 98,000 e-mails from children around the world.

The Web site features the history of the program, information on how NORAD tracks Santa and games. On Dec. 24, beginning at 2 a.m. Mountain Time, the Web site will post a minute-by-minute update on Santa’s travels. All of this information is available English, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish.

Island Web Studios, America Online, Akami, Analytical Graphics, Globelink Language and Cultural Services, Qwest Communications, Verizon, and Microsoft Virtual Earth help to make the program possible, NORAD officials said.

Communications Dept. Seeks Seasoned Staff Writer.
The National Guard Association has an immediate opening for an experienced staff writer. Selected candidate will contribute to National Guard, the association’s monthly magazine, NGAUS Notes and the NGAUS Web site.

Duties include writing short news stories and covering a variety of hearings on Capitol Hill and elsewhere.

For the magazine, the successful candidate will contribute at least one substantial feature story each month and assist in editing and producing the final product. Some travel is required.

Candidates must have five years of reporting experience. Familiarity with the military and the National Guard is preferred.

Interest in writing about military/legislative topics a must. Car required. Salary: low- to mid-40s. Excellent benefits include health and dental coverage and a 401k plan. Convenient Capitol Hill location.

Please send cover letter, resume and three writing samples to:

Communications Department
National Guard Association of the United States
One Massachusetts Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20001

Fax: 202-682-9358
E-mail: Chris Prawdzik.

Please enter “Application” in the subject line if sending e-mail.

This Week in Guard History.
Nov. 22, 1970: Hensley Field, Texas – Second Lt. Constance Kries is welcomed back to the Texas Air National Guard’s 136th Air Refueling Wing, after completing her officer training school (OTS) course leading to her commission.

She becomes the first Air Guard woman to complete the course, opened to female Guard personnel in early 1970. She not only finishes the course but is the Class 70-04 Distinguished Graduate, ending the course as class leader.

Women were authorized to join the Guard starting in 1956 but the only positions available to them were for existing nurses or other college-educated specialties, such as law or administration. Military schools were not available to them until Congress changed regulations in 1969 to allow female candidates.

NGAUS History.
NGAUS influenced Guard transformation between World War I and II, when the National Defense Act of 1920 gave Guard leaders a listening post within the War Department. This was the Militia Bureau, which was charged with issuance of supplies, uniforms and equipment to the states for their Guard units.

The association’s objectives included a consolidation of footholds within the bureau and an increase in its freedom from the general staff’s uniformed bungling of routine Guard affairs.

The end result of the act had been a settlement of major issues and the plotting of the Guard’s future, but NGAUS was still unsatisfied with a few minor items.

Among them was the motorization of National Guard artillery regiments over Army opposition because of a professional belief in horses for the rugged southwest along the Mexican frontier.

Retired spies group claims scalps

Retired spies group claims scalps

LONDON, England (Reuters) — It says its members brought about the conviction of radical Egyptian-born cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, uncovered insurgent tactics in Iraq and are now working to provide intelligence from North Korea.

The organization is not the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency or Britain’s security agency MI6 but “Vigil”, a shadowy network of retired spies, senior military personnel, anti-terrorism specialists and banking experts.

The group’s director Dominic Whiteman said he set up Vigil with two other businessmen last year to act as an interface between retired spies who were still party to good, raw intelligence, and the police and security services.

“This evidence was just getting lost in the system,” Whiteman told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Vigil numbers more than 30 members and is spread across the globe from India to the United States, working with contacts ranging from a maid in Bangkok and a Mumbai train driver to senior intelligence figures.

“We just recruited a guy who’s a senior figure in police training in Iraq,” Whiteman said.

Sixty percent of Vigil’s work involves gaining information via the Internet, by infiltrating online chatrooms, while the remainder is face-to-face or telephone work.

The information gleaned is passed on to authorities like the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, the New York Intelligence Unit and British police’s Counter Terrorism Command (CTC).

A CTC spokeswoman said the group was treated seriously.

“The CTC is working closely with Vigil and in particular its director and spokesman who has made officers aware of chatroom material,” she said.

Whiteman said: “We generally don’t drop stuff off until it’s pretty well formed and ready for them to use.

“It’s quite a faceless relationship. You can never really tell if some of the evidence you hand over is behind some of the arrests that have been security service-inspired.”

‘Miss Marple‘
One member of Vigil is credited with helping bring about the conviction of cleric Hamza, jailed in London in February for inciting racial hatred and soliciting murder, and wanted in the United States on terrorism charges.

Glen Jenvey said he tricked Hamza into handing over videos and audio tapes which were used by U.S. authorities in their case against James Ujaama who pleaded guilty in 2004 to trying to help al Qaeda militants.

Ujaama’s conviction led to an arrest warrant for Hamza and ultimately the discovery of the material that led to his trial.

Jenvey said he previously worked for Sri Lanka’s intelligence service infiltrating the London base of the Tamil Tigers. He describes himself as an amateur spy “like Miss Marple,” the elderly sleuth created by author Agatha Christie.

“It sounds more insulting to the terrorists,” he told Reuters.

His latest undercover work has involved another hardline Muslim cleric, Omar Bakri Mohammed, banned from Britain in August as part of a crackdown on so-called “preachers of hate”.

Jenvey’s revelation that Bakri had been delivering nightly sermons via an Internet chatroom from his exile in Lebanon was reported prominently in Britain’s media this week.

“What he wasn’t aware of is we recorded everything for the last six months and then handed it over to the anti-terrorist squad and MI5 (the UK domestic spy agency),” he said.

“When you listen to a whole lecture … it’s a pretty fair assessment he’s inciting terrorism, calling for terrorism, supporting terrorism and he’s Mr Terrorism himself.”

Jenvey said one of the chatroom’s regular participants, a man since convicted of inciting racist hatred, had also called for the killing of Queen Elizabeth. Others had targeted U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Anjem Choudary, a close friend of Bakri, denied there was anything sinister about the sermons and said the talks in “no way encourage or incite” British Muslims.

Muslim extremists.
London, where four British Islamists blew themselves up on the city’s transport network last year, remained a focal point, Whiteman said.

MI5’s chief Eliza Manningham-Buller said recently Muslim extremists were plotting at least 30 attacks and there were some 1,600 suspects being monitored.

Whiteman said a very trusted contact who had a “key security role in the UK” had revealed that 70 percent of information given in a daily briefing to President Bush by U.S. intelligence chief John Negroponte centred on the British capital.

Vigil has now turned its sights on two groups prominent in Britain: Tablighi Jamaat, a missionary organization that is planning to build Britain’s largest mosque in east London, and Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT), an organization Britain announced it would ban after the July 7, 2005 London bomb attacks.

Both groups say they do not have links to militants and say they promote peace. Media reports have often linked them to terrorism investigations.

“We wanted to find out more,” Whiteman said, adding that his group had already infiltrated the organizations. “There’s nothing to suggest that they will be banned, but there are definitely a few rotten apples that need to be looked at.”

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Egeland: ‘Meltdown’ in Darfur

Egeland: ‘Meltdown’ in Darfur

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) — Citing a “dramatic deterioration” of the situation in Darfur, the top U.N. humanitarian official said a crisis is approaching for the region in Sudan that could cost millions of lives.

“I was there in 2004 when there was 1 million people in need,” Jan Egeland, the U.N. emergency relief coordinator, told reporters. “2005, 2 million … in the spring, 3 million. And now there are 4 million in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.”

Egeland briefed the U.N. Security Council Wednesday on Darfur.

In a report from Reuters, Egeland also accused Sudan of deliberately hindering relief aid in Darfur, attacking villages and arming brutal militia to combat rebels and bandits.

Egeland told the Security Council that international relief operations were threatened by government obstruction and members needed to talk to Sudanese officials immediately as well as put pressure on those sending arms to rebels.

“The next weeks may be make or break for our lifeline to more than 3 million people,” Egeland said in the Reuters report. “This period may well be the last opportunity for this Council, the government of Sudan, the African Union, the rebels, and all of us to avert a humanitarian disaster of much larger proportions than even the one we so far have witnessed in Darfur.”

Part of the problem, Egeland said, is a “meltdown in security. The humanitarians are confined to the towns. We cannot even reach many of the camps.”

Meanwhile, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Wednesday that negotiations continue on whether Sudan will allow U.N. peacekeepers to be stationed in Darfur, and that he is waiting to hear from Sudanese President Omer Hassan Al-Bashir.

“I spoke to President Bashir today,” Annan said, “and he indicated that he will be writing to me shortly. And I think I should wait for his letter.” (Full story)

Last week, the United Nations said Sudan had agreed “in principle” to a plan that would station U.N. peacekeepers and African Union troops as a hybrid operation in Darfur. But Sudanese officials denied that, saying they would only accept technical and logistics support from the United Nations.

U.N. officials say at least 200,000 people have been slain in Darfur from fighting between government-backed troops, militias and rebels. Millions of others have been displaced.

The attacks by militias who support the Arab government against blacks in Darfur have been characterized as a genocide.

In late August, the U.N. Security Council adopted Resolution 1706, which expands the mandate of the U.N. mission in Sudan to include its deployment to Darfur.

“The failure is one of the government not being willing to protect its own citizens, rather fueling the conflict; of rebels not wanting to join the cease-fire; and of the international community, which is not living up to the responsibility to protect, which was solemnly sworn in this building one year ago,” Egeland said.

The 4 million he mentioned, Egeland said, “are dependent on international assistance to survive the future. There is no economy. There are no nomadic roots anymore. There is nothing to sustain them except the international lifeline.

“Up until August, we were able to — against all odds — to reach up to 3 million of these people,” he said. “Most of the people got assistance, and mortality decreased because of this — the best-funded operation on Earth … all of that is now at risk,” he said.

“Ninety-five percent of the roads in west Darfur are no-go at the moment. We cannot go by road, except with massive military escort, and there will be hundreds of thousands who are beyond our reach and where we seem to have little hope of resuming activities unless we see a dramatic change for the better. But the reality is that the change is for the worse.”

Reposted from CNN to prevent any continuity with my readers in case their URL moves or is no longer valid. It has happened before.
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U.S. moves to ‘Plan B’ on Sudan conflict

U.S. moves to ‘Plan B’ on Sudan conflict

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States may move to “Plan B” if the Sudanese government cannot reach an agreement on allowing peacekeepers in the region by January 1, U.S. presidential envoy Andrew Natsios said.

What exactly “Plan B” entails is unclear, however.

“We need to put a time limit on where this is going,” Natsios said Monday, declining to specify consequences for Sudan if the deadline is not met.

“Making threats is not a wise thing to do,” he added.

After years of low-level clashes over water and land in the vast, arid Darfur region, rebels from ethnic African tribes took up arms against Sudan’s Arab-dominated central government in 2003.

Khartoum is accused of unleashing the janjaweed pro-government militia force in return. The militiamen are accused of atrocities in a conflict that has killed some 200,000 people and forced 2.5 million from their homes.

The mandate for the 7,000-member African Union peacekeeping troops in Darfur expires January 1.

Natsios noted that U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, who has made peace in Darfur a top priority, is stepping down on the same day.

Optimism about a final settlement and approval to send in troops has risen somewhat since the Sudanese government joined with the United Nations and the African Union in a framework agreement last Thursday at a meeting in Ethiopia. The agreement included some concessions by the Sudanese, including support for U.N. assistance proposals.

Although the Sudanese government agreed in principle last week to allow U.N. peacekeepers into the region as part of a joint peacekeeping mission with the African Union, they immediately began backpedaling.

There has been no final agreement on the proposed “hybrid” force of 20,000 U.N. and African Union peacekeepers and police officers.

But Natsios remains resolute, saying of the Sudanese, “You frequently will take two steps forward and one step back.”

“Our goal here is to get the Sudanese government to negotiate an agreement that they will then carry out with the United Nations that will result in a force, a hybrid force, going to Darfur,” Natsios said.

One issue not subject to negotiation is alleged Sudanese government participation in atrocities in Darfur, Natsios said.

“Human rights abuses are not negotiable,” he said. “There is no compromise on that.”

Susan Rice, a top Africa aide in former President Bill Clinton’s administration, has assailed the U.N.-AU plan as a “colossal sellout.”

“We have a fig leaf here that won’t solve the problem,” Rice said in comments last week. She added that it was unseemly for the international community to be “negotiating with the perpetrators of genocide.”

Sudanese refusal to accept a “robust” international force should be met with a U.S.- and European-led bombing campaign against Sudanese airfields and other targets, Rice said.

Natsios said he was especially pleased by the “very helpful” role played by Chinese Ambassador Wang Guangya in Ethiopia. Since the United Nations first became involved in the Darfur crisis in 2004, China has been widely seen as an advocate for the Sudanese government position on Darfur because of commercial ties.

Natsios, who attended the meeting in Ethiopia, also said Arab League delegates and Egyptian Foreign minister Abul Geit made positive contributions.

A former chief of the U.S. foreign aid program, Natsios has remained relatively silent about his Darfur duties since his appointment by President Bush in September.

On Monday, however, he was very much in the spotlight, appearing at a two-hour think tank forum in the morning, meeting with reporters in the afternoon and presiding at the official opening of an exhibit at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in the evening.

The museum planned to project wall-sized images of what it described as the “escalating genocide.”

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Pierre Gemayel’s assasination

Pierre Gemayel’s assasination

Written by Daily Star Online edition staff

Prominent Christian politician Pierre Gemayel was assassinated in a suburb of Beirut on Tuesday his death will heighten the political tension in Lebanon, where Hezbollah has threatened to topple the government if it does not get a bigger say in Cabinet decision making.

Witnesses said Gemayel was shot in his car in Jdeideh. The witnesses said a car rammed Gemayel’s car from behind and then an assassin stepped out and shot him at point blank range.

Gemayel was rushed to a nearby hospital seriously wounded he was later confirmed as dead.

Gemayel, the minister of industry and son of former President Amin Gemayel, was a member of the Kataeb party and supporter of parliamentary majority, which is locked in a power struggle with different parties led by Hezbollah.

Gemayel is the fifth figure to be assassinated in the past two years in Lebanon. Former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed in a massive car bombing in February 2005. The journalist and activist Samir Kassir and former Communist Party leader George Hawi were killed in separate car bombings in June last year in addition to lawmaker and newspaper manager Gibran Tueni was killed in a car bombing in December.

Saad Hariri, leader of the anti-Syrian parliamentary majority, broke off a televised news conference after hearing that Gemayel had been shot. In an interview with CNN later, Hariri hailed Gemayel as “a friend, a brother to all of us” and appeared to break down after saying: “we will bring justice to all those who killed him.”

Gemayel was first elected to parliament in 2005 and was believed to be the youngest legislator in the legislature, where anti-Syrian groups dominate.

He came from a prominent family of politicians. His father, Amin, served as president between 1982 and 1988 and his grandfather, the late Pierre Gemayel, led the right-wing Christian Kataeb Party that fielded the largest Christian militia during the 1975-90 civil war between Christians and Muslims.

Kirkut is fighting back

Kirkut is fighting back

By LAUREN FRAYER
Associated Press Writer

KIRKUK, Iraq (AP) — A voice crackles through a two-way radio as U.S. soldiers patrol the dusty streets of this northern Iraqi city: A roadside bomb has exploded downtown, and there are casualties.

It’s a routine call across Iraq, but one thing is different in Kirkuk: The voice on the radio is Iraqi, not American.

Iraqi forces are gradually taking the lead in policing Kirkuk, where sectarian violence is scant compared to places like Baghdad 156 miles south. The transition gives the American troops training them hope that they are closer to going home.

U.S. soldiers transferred authority to one Iraqi unit in Kirkuk in early autumn, and two others are scheduled for mid-January. By the time the Army’s 2nd Battalion, 35th Infantry heads home to Hawaii next summer, about half the Iraqi forces in Kirkuk – army and police – will be under Iraqi command, said Lt. Col. Michael Browder, a 45-year-old Clarksville, Tenn., native in charge of training the units.

“They’re in the lead, but they still have on their training wheels,” Browder said with a wry smile. He left this week to lead a mission organized and executed by Iraqi forces, going after a suspected terrorist group south of Kirkuk.

The city’s ethnic diversity – a mix of Kurds, Sunni Arabs, Christians and Turkomen – helps insulate it from the Sunni-Shiite conflict battering other Iraqi cities, the capital especially.

But Kirkuk is not without violence. In the past three months, the city has seen about 20 car bombs that have killed or wounded 300 people – mostly Iraqi police and civilians, said Col. Khattab Omar Aref, commander of the Kirkuk police’s best-trained group, the Emergency Services Unit.

Aref, 50, has survived six assassination attempts – including one in which a suicide bomber jumped onto the windshield of his car and exploded himself

“Kirkuk is my life, and I hope the rest of Iraq can use our example. We’re the only ones who do attacks on the terrorists and not the other way around.”

The Iraqi army is made up mostly of Shiites, so ethnic and sectarian balance is a concern in places like Kirkuk.

“I organized my men so that when we go out, we make sure there are Kurds, Christians, Arabs and Turkmen on each patrol,” said Col. Samir Taher Rashid, 43, who commands Iraqi police on Kirkuk’s north side. “I support federalism in Iraq, and in my units too.”

He is referring to the potential division of the country into three mostly autonomous regions – Kurds in the north, Sunnis in the center and west and Shiites in their homeland south of Baghdad.

U.S. officials say Kurds, who claim they are majority in Kirkuk, are more comfortable with the ways of democracy after 15 years of self-rule in the north since the first Gulf War.

“They’ve had a 10-year head start in getting themselves organized and looking at how a democratic type system can work. They’ve had the ability to see beyond what the Iraqis right now are facing – the violence. They’ve seen that there can be a better way of life,” Gen. Benjamin R. Mixon, commander of the Army’s 25th Infantry Division, said in an interview this week.

But U.S. and Iraqi officials say the key to their success in Kirkuk is that citizens here see themselves as Iraqis first, and members of ethnic or tribal groups second.

“All the people came under my command – Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen. I told them they must work together as brothers,” said Aref.

“We are all policemen, and the reason we became police is to save our city,” he said in an interview at his office, where ornate gold-embroidered curtains hide sandbagged windows. A photo of him shaking hands with outgoing Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld hangs prominently under a crystal chandelier.

Wind whips across Kirkuk’s dusty plains, crisscrossed by verdant riverbeds, and it carries the acrid smell of oil byproducts burning at facilities on the horizon. It’s a reminder of what could make this city prosper once violence recedes.

“It’s not the time for retribution or payback – there’s too much to lose,” Browder said.

U.S. and Iraqi officials have established a telephone hot line for Kirkuk’s residents to report insurgent activity or government corruption.

“They’re not able to mount large scale terror operations because someone would tell on them here,” said Capt. Rob Wolfe, a 37-year-old company commander from Amarillo, Texas.

Wolfe logs time every day sipping tea with Iraqi police commanders, going over training plans and listening to their concerns. He believes such “soft” training pays off.

“These guys are heroes to their people. Some of them came from Kurdish peshmerga militias and they’ve been fighting all their lives for their country,” he said. “They’re certainly not going to stop now.”

Hat tip: AP.