U.S. Marines assigned to Golf Company, 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, dismount and prepare to patrol and search for weapons caches in a local village during an operation in Saqlawiyah, Iraq, Dec. 5, 2005.U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Mark E. Morrow


Local men stop working to watch U.S. Marines patrol through their village to search houses for weapons caches during an operation in Saqlawiyah, Iraq, Dec. 5, 2005. The Marines are assigned to Golf Company, 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Mark E. Morrow


U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. John Paul Schilling, a dog handler attached with Weapons Company, 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, uses his K-9, Bosco, to search for weapon caches during an operation in Saqlawiyah, Iraq, Dec. 5, 2005. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Mark E. Morrow


U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Shane Wimbles, a fire-team leader assigned to Golf Company, 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, questions a local man while conducting cordon and knock searches during an operation in Saqlawiyah, Iraq, Dec. 5, 2005. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Mark E. Morrow


U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Justin Witcomb, an engineer attached to Weapons Company, 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, uses a metal detector to search a local village for hidden weapons caches during an operation in Saqlawiyah, Iraq, Dec. 5, 2005. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Mark E. Morrow


U.S. Marines assigned to Golf Company, 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, patrol through a field during an operation to search for hidden weapons caches in Saqlawiyah, Iraq, Dec. 5, 2005. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Mark E. Morrow


U.S. Marine Corps 1st Lt. Albert Maas, the executive officer for 2nd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, and Sgt. Roy Archer search a boat for weapons while on patrol in Saqlawiyah, Iraq, Dec. 6, 2005. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Mark E. Morrow

ELECTION SECURITY — Iraqi Army soldiers provide security for one of the polling sites at Tall Afar, Iraq, Dec. 15, 2005, for the Parliamentary Election of the first 4-year Iraqi government. Iraqi Army Security Forces with assistance from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and 82nd Airborne Infantry Regiment unit are providing security for the region of Tall Afar in order to disrupt insurgent safe havens and to clear weapons cache. U.S. Navy Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Alan D. Monyelle

News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Leading Sunni Open to Multiethnic Gov't in Iraq
House GOP Forces Iraq Vote
Top Iraq General Advises Drop in Troop Levels
Sunni alliance hails Iraq election as success Video

Operation Enduring Freedom
Unit Uses Special Skills to Pursue Enemy

Homeland Security / War on Terror
Patriot Act Blocked
Raw Data: USA Patriot Act (Findlaw pdf)
Video: Patriot Act Debate in the Senate
No Comment (Bush quiet on secret NSA eavesdropping)
Video: Report from FNC's Carl Cameron
Mexico Condemns U.S. Immigration Bill

Oddities
The catch of a lifetime
Broken-hearted donor leaves diamond ring in car

Fox News
Deadly Storm Causes Southern Blackouts
Hong Kong Clashes
Congress Faces Long Weekend of Spending Cuts
Ecuadorean Woman, 116, is Oldest Living Person
Katrina Tax Breaks OK'd
Google Said to Buy $1Billion Stake in AOL
Final NYC Transit Offer Nixed?
Huge Child Prostitution Bust
Simpson Files for Divorce
SPORTS NEWS AND SCORES

Reuters: Top News
Dow's glide to 11,000 looks smooth
BANKING: Perelman lawyer criticizes Morgan Stanley appeal
HEALTH: Court rules for Pfizer in Lipitor patent case
CFOs too bogged down to focus on strategy: survey
Buy.com cuts IPO price
Clinic halts use of OraSure HIV test
Airline shares rally on drop in oil prices
Carnival profit rises on ship capacity
Protests rage as deadlocked WTO talks go to wire Video
Iran, Syria standoff with West focus of Gulf summit
US House nears vote on illegal immigration
US House, Senate OK Katrina bill, casinos get break
US Congress nears vote on detainee measures
S.Korean scientist claims proof he made stem cells
Green groups sue U.S. to protect polar bears
Flu season arrives in U.S.
Help for people with seasonal depression
John Spencer dies at 58

AP World News
WTO Delegates Fail to Lower Trade Barriers
Afghans Filled With Hope, Disillusionment
Baghdad Ayatollah Embodies Shiite Power
Polish Intelligence Base Focus of Probe
China Detains Electrician After Fire
Panel Pushes Probe of Oil-For-Food Program
European Union Leaders Agree on Spending
Chechnya Radioactive Waste Storage Probed
U.N. Deputy Secretary-General to Step Down
Colombia, Rebels Open Peace Talks in Cuba
China Official on Trial for Village Attack
Sinn Fein Expels Key Insider for Spying
Iran Could Be Sanctioned for Riling Israel
Hamas Celebrates Landslide Election Win
6.2-Magnitude Earthquake Rocks Japan
'Splash' of Metal at Russian Plant Kills 1
Turkey's Top Novelist on Trial

Military.com
Officer Accused of Damaging Pro-Bush Cars
Protecting Reemployment Rights of U.S. Troops
Budget Decision Targets Service Personnel
SLAMRAAM
The Muftis of Kurdistan
Election Day in Erbil
Early Roll-out for Battlefield Net?
Veteran Story: The Price for Freedom
A Letter About Hussein's Victims

CENTCOM: News Releases
ARREST WARRANT ISSUED FOR IRAQI TERRORIST LEADER WITH TIES TO ZARQAWI
U.S. SEABEES TURNOVER OPERATIONS

Department of Defense
Iraqi Leaders to Have Say in Troop Levels - Story
Historic National Assembly to Convene - Story
Casey: Ops Review Yields No Wrongdoing - Story
Rumsfeld: Military Always Has Banned Abuse - Story

ON THE GROUND
'Head Fobbit' Works for Quality of Life - Story
Unit Uses Special Skills to Pursue Enemy - Story

IN IRAQ
Soldiers Build and Deliver School Desks
Soldiers Cook Up the 'Comforts of Home'

FACE OF DEFENSE
Infantryman Finds Home with Marine Corps - Story

AMERICA SUPPORTS YOU
Operation Gratitude Hits Milestone - Story
Californians Provide Holiday Spirit
New Yorkers Send Trees to Troops

TOP NEWS
IRAQ
Incident Shows Iraqis' Spirit
Secure Elections Set Milestone
Projects Change Minds
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
Afghanistan Daily Update
Maps

WAR ON TERRORISM
U.S. Troops Embody American Spirit
Iraqi-American Casts Vote
Review for Intel-Gathering System
Ship Awarded Combat Ribbon
Fact Sheet: War on Terror
Fact Sheet: Terror Plots Disrupted
Waging and Winning the War on Terror
Terrorism Timeline
Terrorism Knowledge Base

MILITARY NEWS
New Rules Reinforce Job Rights
Chairman Gives Holiday Message
Human Rights Expert to Visit Gitmo
National Guard, Reserve Update

Weather
Iraq
Al Azamiyah Al Basrah Al Hillah Al Karkh Al Kazimiyah Al Kut An Nasiriyah Baghdad Baqubah Mosul Najaf Nineveh Tall Kayf

Afghanistan
Bost/Laskar Ghurian Herat Kabul Qandahar

Gitmo

National Hurricane Center

Today in History
0283 - St. Gaius begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1526 - Ferdinand of Austria chosen as King of Bohemia; Pope Clemens VII publishes degree Cum ad zero - forms Inquisition
1538 - Pope Paul III excommunicated England's King Henry VIII
1572 - Spanish army begins fires in Haarlem Netherlands
1587 - Earl Leicesters army leaves Netherlands
1638 - French/Swedish troops occupy Breisach on the Rhine
1718 - England declares war on Spain
1745 - Bonnie Prince Charles army retreats to Scotland
1777 - France recognizes independence of English colonies in America; George Washington's army returns to Valley Forge PA
1788 - Russian army of Grigorij Potemkin occupies Ochárov
1790 - Aztec calendar stone discovered in México City
1791 - NYC traffic regulation creates 1st 1-way street
1792 - Opening of 1st legislative assembly of Lower Canada in Québec City
1798 - 1st impeachment trial against a US senator (William Blount, Tennessee) begins
1819 - Congress of Angostura establishes Colombia's independence from Spain
1821 - Kentucky abolishes debtors prisons
1832 - HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin sails in Strait Le Maire
1852 - 1st Hawaiian cavalry organized
1862 - General US Grant issues order #11, expelling Jews from Tennessee
1864 - Battle of Franklin, TN
1875 - Violent bread riots in Montréal
1885 - France declares Madagascar a protectorate
1895 - George Brownell patents a machine to make paper twine (Massachusetts)
1900 - 1st prize of 100,000 francs offered for communications with extraterrestrials. Martians excluded-considered too easy; New Ellis Island Immigration station completed costing $1.5 million
1903 - At 10:35 AM, 1st sustained motorized aircraft flight (Orville Wright)
1907 - Ugyen Wangchuck became 1st hereditary king of Bhutan
1909 - Leopold II, king of Belgium, buried in Brussels
1914 - Jews are expelled from Tel Aviv by Turkish authorities; Austrian troops beat Russians in Limanova Poland; Great Britain declares Egypt a protectorate
1920 - British Empire receives League of Nations mandate to Nauru; Japan receives League of Nations mandate over Pacific islands; South Africa receives League of Nations mandate over SW Africa
1922 - Last British troops leave Ireland Freestate
1923 - Greek king George II overthrown by army/republic
1925 - Colonel William "Billy" Mitchell court-martial for insubordination; Russia & Turkey sign non-aggresion pact
1926 - German Marx government falls due to cooperation with red army; Lithuanian military state under General Augustine Woldemaras
1927 - US sub 'S-4' sinks after collision kills all 34 aboard
1933 - Spain's 2nd Government of Lerroux forms
1939 - German pocket battleship Graf Spee scuttled by its crew off Uruguay
1940 - British troops occupies Sollum
1941 - German troops led by Rommel begin retreating in North Africa; Dutch & Australian troops lands on Portuguese-Timor; German submarine U-31 sunk
1942 - Allies in London sentence German war criminals
1943 - Transport 63 departs with French Jews to Nazi-Germany
1944 - US Army announces end of excluding Japanese-Americans from West Coast; Japanese-Americans are released from detention camps; US destroyers sink in storm off Philippines, 790 killed
1946 - US V-2 rocket reaches 183 km, White Sands Proving Grounds NM
1949 - Burma recognizes People's Republic of China
1951 - Dutch Communist Party members forbidden to be civil servants
1957 - US successfully test-fires Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile
1961 - Disgruntled employee set fire to a Niteroi Circus of Rio de Janeiro circus tent in Niteroi Brazil - 323 die; India seizes Goa & 2 other Portuguese colonies
1962 - Current constitution of Monaco promulgated
1963 - Tsjoi Doo Sun forms government in South Korea; West & East Berlin sign accord about travel rules
1965 - Largest newspaper-Sunday New York Times at 946 pages (50¢); British government proclaims end of oil-embargo against Rhodesia
1969 - USAF closes Project Blue Book, concluding no evidence of extraterrestrial spaceships behind thousands of UFO sightings
1971 - Cease-fire between India & Pakistan in Kashmir
1972 - New line of control agreed to in Kashmir between India & Pakistan
1973 - Arab terrorists shoot passengers on Boeing 737 to Kuwait
1975 - John Paul Stevens appointed to the Supreme Court; Lynette Fromme is sentenced to life for attempt on President Ford's life
1978 - Referendum approves new constitution of Rwanda; OPEC raises oil prices 18%
1979 - Budweiser rocket car reaches 1190 kph (record for wheeled vehicle)
1980 - Mauritania provisional constitution published
1981 - Members of the Red Brigades kidnap Brigadier-General James L Dozier
1983 - Bomb attack on Harrod's war house in London, 5 killed, 94 injured; Disco in Madrid catches fire; 83 die
1986 - Mrs Davina Thompson makes medical history by having the 1st heart, lung & liver transplant (Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, England); US Congress forms "Irangate" committee
1987 - Czechoslovak party leader Gustav Husák resigns
1988 - USS Tennessee, 1st sub to carry Trident 2 missiles, commissioned
1989 - Brazil elects conservative Fernando Collor de Mello president
1991 - Patrick Manning becomes premier of Trinidad & Tobago
1992 - General Suwa finds tooth of 4.4 million year old Australopithecus ramidus
1993 - Bangladesh moslems call for murder of feminist Taslima Nasrin
1994 - KLM's last DC-10 goes out of service

Birthdays:
1734 - William Floyd, US soldier/signer of the Declaration of Independence
1778 - Sir Humphrey Davy, discovered several chemical elements
1797 - Joseph Henry, scientist/inventor/pioneer of electromagnetism
1801 - Johan, king of Saxon (1854-73) (translated Divina Commedia)
1819 - Samuel Jones, Major General
1820 - Frederick Tracy Dent, Union Brigadier-General
1821 - Frederick West Lander, Union Brigadier-General
1824 - Manning Ferguson Force, Union Brevet Major General
1833 - James Thadeus Holtzclaw, Confederate Brigadier-General
1894 - Arthur Fiedler, conductor (Boston Pops); Willem Schermerhorn, Netherlands premier (1945-46)
1909 - Ferdinand H. Aus der Fünten, German war criminal (Breda 4)
1930 - Robert (C.J. Edward) Guccione, adult magazine publisher
1970 - Benedictine (St. Bernard) becomes heaviest known dog (137 kg)


Passings:
1187 - Gregory VIII (Alberto de Morra), Italian Pope (1187)
1195 - Boudouin V, count of Hainault/Flanders (Boudouin VIII)
1471 - Isabella of Portugal, duchess of Burgundy
1830 - Simon Bolivar, President of Colombia, dies at 47 in Colombia
1891 - Msiri, king of Garanganja (Katanga), dies in battle; Omer Bodson Belgian captain, dies in battle
1893 - Levinus T. Keuchenius, Dutch Minister of Colonies (1888-90), dies at 71
1909 - Leopold II, king of Belgium dies
1967 - Harold Holt, Australian premier (1966-67), drowns at 59
1969 - Arturo da Costa e Silva President of Brazil (1967-69), dies at 67
1991 - John Blatnik (Representative-MN, 1947-75), dies at 80
1996 - Stanko Todorov. PM of Bulgaria (1971-81)

Reported Missing in Action
1967
Boyer, Terry L., USAF (CA); F4D shot down (w/Fleenor), released by DRV March, 1973 - retired as a Lt. Colonel - alive as of 1998

Ellis, Jeffrey T., USAF (NJ); F105 shot down, released by DRV March, 1973 - retired as a Brigadier General - alive as of 1998

Fleenor, Kenneth R., USAF (KY); F4D shot down (w/Boyer), released by DRV March, 1973 - retired as a Brigadier General - alive and well as of 1998