Quote of the Day

"Americanism means the virtues of courage, honor, justice, truth, sincerity, and hardihood—the virtues that made America. The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living and the get-rich-quick theory of life.”
-- Theodore Roosevelt

Fox News
Radiation Check
Alito Backed Wiretap Protections
Daschle: Wiretaps Not Authorized
Iraqis Protest Election 'Cheating'
Rumsfeld Announces Troop Drawdown
Four Arrested in New Mexico Stolen Explosives Case
U.N. Reaches Budget Deal
Officials: 23 Dead in Azerbaijani Plane Crash
Bush Pardons Attorney With GOP Ties, 10 Others
New Home Sales Show Biggest Decline in 12 Years
Official: Vote Mistake Gave London 2012 Olympics
White House Issues National Tsunami Plan
Castro: Bush a 'Fool' over Baseball Tourney Snub
Authorities Investigate Body Parts Theft
University Fires South Korean Cloning Scientist
Warrants Issued for CIA Ops
Congress Extends Patriot Act
Rewind 2005
SPORTS NEWS AND SCORES

Reuters: Top News
China condemns US comments about Hong Kong
Canada denies bail to man accused of al Qaeda ties
Final body found from Miami seaplane crash
Scientist fabricated stem-cell data: panel
Christmas goodies arrive at orbiting space station
Warner subpoenaed in music download probe
Verizon-MCI deal clears final regulatory hurdle
Can they do that? Workplace horrors compiled
Bin Laden niece poses for sexy photo shoot

AP World News
Shiite Group Willing to Talk With Sunnis
Japan to Proceed With Joint Missile Program
French Tribunal Opens Rwanda Genocide Probe
Dutch Merchant Found Guilty of War Crimes
Spanish Radio Station Apologizes for Prank
Reports: Pope to Publish First Encyclical
Saddam's Iraqi Lawyer Echoes Abuse Charges
Uzbekistan Urged to Honor Judicial Rules
Poland Inaugurates Conservative Kaczynski
Holocaust Survivors Recall Revenge on Nazis
Earthquake Rattles Ecuador's Amazon Jungle
Doc: Woman Adjusting to Face Transplant
Survivors Prepare for Tsunami Anniversary
Irish Spy's Revelations Cause an Uproar
13 Sri Lankan Sailors Killed in Mine Blast
Tests to Prove Whether Hwang Cloned Cells
Uganda Children on the Run From Rebel Army

Military.com
Bush Cuts U.S. Troops in Iraq
As Budget Wraps Up, Some Fear Late Cuts
2006 Military Pay Charts
New Appeal to Release Kidnapped Activists

CENTCOM: News Releases
JOINT STATEMENT BY AMBASSADOR ZALMAY KHALILZAD AND GENERAL GEORGE CASEY
SECDEF ANNOUNCES PLANS FOR TROOP REDUCTIONS IN IRAQ
MOSUL MEDIA EMIR AND ADMINISTRATOR CAPTURED

Department of Defense
Rumsfeld Announces Troop Reduction - Story Video
Khalilzad, Casey Issue Joint Statement on Reduction
No Plans for Long-Term Bases, Rumsfeld Says - Story
Rumsfeld Sees Iraqi Special Ops Training in Jordan
Casey Explains Troop Reduction Rationale - Story

ON THE GROUND
U.S. Soldiers Bring Wheels to Disabled Iraqi Man - Story
Electrical Work Benefits Baghdad Residents - Story

IN IRAQ
Task Force Baghdad Destroys Weapons Photos

FACE OF DEFENSE
Sailor Enjoys Working with Marines - Story

AMERICA SUPPORTS YOU
Deployed Troops Get Phone Cards - Story
Wounded Get Super-Sized Chess Set
Babies 'R' Us, Kids Send Greetings


Secretary of Defense Holiday Message
Joint Chiefs Chairman Holiday Message

TOP NEWS
IRAQ
U.S. Soldier Killed on Patrol
IED Kills 2 U.S. Soldiers
Iraqi Soldiers Discover Weapons
Report: Strategy for Victory in Iraq
Iraq Daily Update
This Week in Iraq (pdf)
Multinational Force Iraq
Eye on Iraq Update (pdf)
State Dept. Weekly Iraq Report (pdf)
'Boots on the Ground' Audio Archive
Iraq Reconstruction
Maps

AFGHANISTAN
Ceremony Marks Bank Renovation
Afghanistan Daily Update
Maps

WAR ON TERRORISM
Fact Sheet: War on Terror
Fact Sheet: Terror Plots Disrupted
Waging and Winning the War on Terror
Terrorism Timeline
Terrorism Knowledge Base

MILITARY NEWS
Rumsfeld Cites Year's Successes
Rumsfeld Visits Bagram, Kandahar
Bush Thanks Caregivers at Hospital
National Guard, Reserve Update

Today in History
0640 - John IV begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1046 - Pope Clement II [Suitger] elected
1294 - Cardinal Benedetto Gaetani chosen as Pope Boniface VIII
1476 - 400 Burgundy soldiers freeze to death during siege of Nancy
1515 - Thomas Wolsey appointed English Lord Chancellor
1565 - Compromise of the Nobles closes against inquisition
1568 - Uprising of Morisco's in Granada
1715 - Swedish troops occupy Norway
1724 - Benjamin Franklin arrives in London
1798 - Russia & England sign Second anti-French Coalition
1799 - Jakobijns plot against Napoleon uncovered
1814 - Treaty of Ghent (end of the War of 1812) signed
1818 - "Silent Night" composed by Franz Joseph Gruber; sung for 1st time the next day
1832 - HMS Beagle anchors in Wigwam Bay at Cape Receiver
1851 - Fire devastates Library of Congress in Washington, destroys 35,000 volumes
1864 - Battle of Gordonsville, VA
1865 - Several Confederate veterans form the Ku Klux Klan in Pulaski, TN
1884 - Austria-Hungary admits King Leopold II's Congo Free State
1889 - Daniel Stover & William Hance patent bicycle with back pedal brake
1893 - Henry Ford completes his 1st useful gas motor
1904 - German SW Africa abolishes slavery of young children
1912 - Irving Fisher patents archiving system with index cards
1914 - German plane drops bombs on Dover England
1920 - Enrico Caruso gives his last public performance (New York NY)
1922 - London Coloseum opens
1924 - Albania becomes a republic (ex-premier Ahmed Zogoe's coup)
1932 - Arturo Alessandri wins presidental election in Chile
1933 - Paris express train derails & kills 160, injures 300 (France)
1936 - 1st radioactive isotope medicine administered, Berkeley CA
1937 - Dutch government recognizes Italian king Emanuel III as emperor of Abyssinia
1941 - 1st ships of Admiral Nagumo's Pearl Harbor-fleet return to Japan
1942 - 1st powered flight of V-1 buzz bomb, Peenemünde, Germany; Red army occupies German airports at Tasjinskaja & Morozowsk
1943 - FDR appoints General Eisenhower supreme commander of Allied forces
1946 - 4th French republic established; US General MacNarney gives 800,000 "minor nazis" amnesty
1948 - 1st US house completely sunheated is occupied (Dover MA); Greek government disbands due to state of war, press censorship
1951 - United Kingdom of Libya gains independence from Italy via the UN
1953 - 2 fast express trains crash head-on, killing 103 (Czechoslovakia); Wellington-Auckland (New Zealand) express train swept away in flood kills 166; René Coty elected President of France
1954 - Laos gains its independence
1956 - Ferdinand de Lesseps statue blown up in Port Said, Egypt
1963 - Greek & Turks riot in Cyprus
1966 - Luna 13 lands on Moon; USAF CL-44 military charter crashes near Binh Thai, Vietnam, killing 129
1968 - Apollo 8 astronauts' Christmas reading (Book of Genesis) while orbiting Moon
1970 - 9 Jews are convicted in Leningrad for hijacking a plane
1971 - Peruvian Airlines Electra crashes at headwaters of Amazon, killing all except Juliane Margaret Koepcke found 10 days later
1973 - Ferryboat capsized off coast of Ecuador, drowning 200
1979 - 1st Ariane-rocket launched
1980 - Americans remembered Iran hostages by shining lights for 417 seconds
1984 - Palace coup in Mauritania
1986 - French hostage Aurel Cornea, held in Lebanon for 9 months, released; Iran offensive against Iraqi islands of Shatt al-Arab
1989 - Panamá's dictator, Manual Noriega seeks asylum at the Vatican embassy; Charles Taylor enters Liberia to unseat President Samuel K Doe
1990 - Saddam says Israel will be Iraq's 1st target
1991 - Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of the Soviet Union
1992 - President Bush pardons Caspar Weinberger of Iran-contra affair
1994 - 4 Moslem fundamentalists capture Air France pilot in Algiers
1997 - 1st time a Channukah candle is officially lit in Vatican City

Birthdays
3 BC- Servius Sulpicius Galba. 6th Roman emperor (68-69)
1167 - John "without a land," King of England (1199-1216)
1745 - Benjamin Rush, physician/general (Continental Army, signed Declaration of Independence)
1761 - SelŒm III, poet/composer/sultan of Turkey (1789-1808)
1809 - Christopher "Kit" Carson, Union Brigadier-General/Indian fighter
1837 - Sissi, Emperor of Austria
1894 - Georges Guynemer, French WWI pilot
1904 - Herbert D. Riley, US vice-admiral (WWII, Guadalcanal, Okinawa)
1905 - Anna "Ans" van Dike ("the Young"), Jewish nazi collaborator
1909 - Adam Rapacki, Polish minister of Foreign Affairs (1956-68)
1918 - Anwar El Sadat, President of Egypt (1970-81)
1923 - Wilton S. Mkwayi, South African ANC leader
1927 - Mary Higgins Clark, author (A Cry in the Night, Stillwatch)
1940 - Paul Tagliabue. NFL commissioner; Anthony Fauci. US health official
1943 - Tatton Sykes, English baron/large landowner

Passings
1069 - Godfried II with the Beard, duke of Neder-Lutherans
1380 - John von Neumarkt, German bishop/Chancellor Karel IV
1524 - Vasco da Gama, Portuguese explorer/viceroy of Cochin India, dies at about 55
1548 - Maximilian of Egmond, Dutch count/stadholder of Frisia
1660 - Mary I. princess of England, dies at 29
1869 - Edwin M. Stanton, US Secretary of War (1861-65), dies at 55
1942 - Admiral Jean Darlan French naval officer, murdered by gaullists
1972 - Charles Atlas [Angelo Siciliano], body builder, dies at 79
1975 - Otto A.P. Fürst von Bismarck-Schönhausen, German diplomat, dies at 78
1979 - Dirk Uipko Stikker, Dutch CEO (Heineken)/Secretary-General NATO, dies at 82
1980 - Karl Dönitz, German great admiral/Führer (1945), dies at 89
1987 - John M "Joop" de Uyl, Dutch social-democratic premier (1973-77), dies at 68
1992 - Abdulkadir Widjojoatmodjo, Java diplomat; Pierre Culliford [Peyo], Belgian cartoonist (Smurfs), dies at 64
1993 - Yen Chia-kan, PM/President of Taiwan (1963-72, 75-78), dies
1994 - John Keith Wright, English Assistant Secretary of State (1971-84), dies at 66; Rossano Brazzi, Italian resistance fight/actor (Final Justice), dies at 78
1995 - Harry McLevy trade unionist, dies at 59
1996 - Edward Leadbitter politician, dies at 77; Nguyen Huu Tho President of Vietnam (1980-81)

Reported Missing in Action
1965
The following USAF personnel reported missing when their AC47D was shot down: