SOUDA BAY, Crete (Aug. 22, 2008) The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Dallas (WHEC 716) heads to sea with a load of supplies.
The supplies are part of the humanitarian assistance for the Republic of Georgia following the conflict between Russian and Georgian forces.
The assistance will aid in alleviating human suffering in the Republic of Georgia.
Trainees set off flares during night training on the firing range near Creech Air Force Base, Nev., Aug. 11, 2008.
Members of the 99th Ground Combat Training Squadron train security forces and chaplains who will be embedded with the U.S. Army on Joint Base Balad, Iraq.
U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Larry E. Reid Jr.
Fact Sheet: Homeland Security Agencies Protect Political Conventions
Release Date: August 22, 2008
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
Contact: 202-282-8010
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) designates certain major events – including the national conventions and the presidential inauguration – as National Special Security Events (NSSEs).
The U.S. Secret Service is designated as the lead agency with unified command representation from participating federal, state, and local agencies with NSSE responsibilities.
Federal resources are deployed to an NSSE to maintain the level of security needed for the event and area.
A number of factors are taken into consideration when designating an event as an NSSE, including anticipated attendance by dignitaries and the size and significance of the event.
The upcoming Democratic and Republican National Conventions, taking place in Denver from August 25-28 and in Saint Paul, Minn., from Sept. 1-4, respectively, are examples of how the many agencies of DHS work together with local authorities toward the common goal of homeland security. [...]
Read the rest here.
U.S. Army Capt. John Rasmussen, left, and Lt. Col. Eric Johnson, right, and an interpreter, rear left, discuss economics with local shop owners at a steel supply industrial park in East Al Sinaa, Mosul, Iraq, Aug. 17, 2008.
Rasmussen is assigned to Company D, 1st Battaltion, 8th Infantry Regiment; Johnson is assigned to 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment.
U.S. Army soldiers use a Hercules armored vehicle, in rear, to pull out another vehicle from a deep mud puddle during recovery training on Fort Hood, Texas, Aug. 14, 2008.
U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Kap Kim
More photos here.
U.S. servicemembers from the 21st Theater Sustainment Command arrive on the flight line in Tbilisi, Georgia, Aug. 18, 2008.
The 21st is part of European Command’s Joint Humanitarian Assistance Assessment Team which works closely with other elements of the federal government, international governments, aid agencies and Georgia to alleviate the suffering of the Georgian people affected by the conflict.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-georgia-russia,0,1867681.story
POTI, Georgia (AP) _ Russian forces blocked the only land entrance to Georgia’s main port city on Thursday, a day before Russia promised to complete a troop pullout from its ex-Soviet neighbor.
Armored personnel carriers and troop trucks blocked the bridge to the Black Sea port city of Poti, and Russian forces excavated trenches and set up mortars facing the city.
Another group of APCs and trucks were positioned in a nearby wooded area.
Although Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has promised that his forces would pull back by Friday, Russian troops appear to be digging in, raising concern about whether Moscow is aiming for a lengthy occupation of its small, pro-Western neighbor.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili told The Associated Press that Russia was thinning out its presence in some occupied towns but was seizing other strategic spots.
He called the Russian moves “some kind of deception game.”
Read more here.
And here.
U.S. Army Spc. Patrick Hall looks on as Staff Sgt. David Graham scans the countryside for suspicious activity during a clearing mission near a canal outside of Tamuz, Iraq, on Aug. 9, 2008.
The soldiers are assigned to the 1st Armored Division’s 1st Battalion, 35th Regiment.
U.S. Army photo by Spc. David J. Marshall
U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Devin Chesbro conducts a preflight check on the main rotor of an HH-60G Pave Hawk on Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, Aug. 2, 2008.
Chesbro is assigned to the 33rd Expeditionary Rescue Squadron.
U.S. Air Force 1st Lt. Adam Lazar discusses the construction of a new fire station with a resident in Qalat, Afghanistan, Aug. 10, 2008.
Lazar, an engineer with the Zabul Provincial Reconstruction Team, oversees more than 20 construction projects contracted out to local firms.
(U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Keith Brown/Released)
MARINETTE, Wis. (Aug. 19, 2008) The littoral combat ship USS Freedom (LCS 1), the first ship in the Navy’s new Littoral Combat Ship class, prepares to go to sea to begin acceptance trials, conducted by the Navy’s Board of Inspection and Survey team, in Lake Michigan.
Freedom is a fast, agile, focused-mission ship designed to defeat threats such as mines, quiet diesel submarines and fast surface craft.
Freedom is scheduled to be delivered later this year and will be homeported in San Diego, Calif.
(U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jhi L. Scott/Released)
U.S. Army Capt. Ashley Payne, a chaplain, conducts a group prayer before soldiers from the 41st Fires Brigade, 598th Battalion, Headquarters Company depart to resupply a security station in Wasit, Iraq, Aug. 13, 2008.
Payne is assigned to 589th Brigade Support Battalion.
U.S. Army photo by Spc. Tiffany Dusterhoft
1998 Missile Strikes on Bin Laden May Have Backfired
Extensive
1999 Report on Al-Qaeda Threat Released by U.S. Dept of Energy
Taliban Told U.S. They Wanted to Bomb Washington
For more information contact:
Barbara Elias – 202/994-7000 – belias@gwu.edu
http://www.nsarchive.org
Washington, DC, August 20, 2008 – On the tenth anniversary of U.S. cruise missile strikes against al-Qaeda in response to deadly terrorist attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, newly-declassified government documents posted today by the National Security Archive (www.nsarchive.org) suggest the strikes not only failed to hurt Osama bin Laden but ultimately may have brought al-Qaeda and the Taliban closer politically and ideologically.
A 400-page Sandia National Laboratories report on bin Ladin, compiled in 1999, includes a warning about political damage for the U.S. from bombing two impoverished states without regard for international agreement, since such action “mirror imag[ed] aspects of al-Qaeda’s own attacks.” A State Department cable argues that although the August missile strikes were designed to provide the Taliban with overwhelming reason to surrender bin Laden, the military action may have sharpened Afghan animosity towards Washington and even strengthened the Taliban-al-Qaeda alliance.
Following the August 20 U.S. air attacks, Taliban spokesman Wakil Ahmed told U.S. Department of State officials “If Kandahar could have retaliated with similar strikes against Washington, it would have.” Such an attack, although unfeasible at the time, was at least in part actualized by al-Qaeda on 9/11.
Visit the Web site of the National Security Archive for more information about today’s posting.
Related news here.
PACIFIC OCEAN (Aug. 15, 2008) The aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) and the Military Sealift Command fast combat support ship USNS Bridge (T-AOE 10) maneuver together during a replenishment at sea.
The Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group is on a scheduled deployment in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of responsibility, operating in the western Pacific and Indian oceans.
(U.S. Navy photo by Senior Chief Mass Communication Specialist Spike Call/Released)
