News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Life After Saddam
Iraqis celebrate, protest Hussein's execution
PHOTO ESSAY
Purported Video of Saddam's Hanging in Entirety Surfaces
Video: Saddam Enters Gallows, Utters Last Words
U.S. tolerated, then villified Saddam
Families Weigh Execution - Video
Report: Saddam Buried in Hometown Near Tikrit
Attacks Claim 80 Lives Across Iraq in Post-Saddam Execution Violence
Videotape Shows Saddam's Men Torturing Iraqis

Homeland Security / War on Terror / Hamas-Hezbollah Happenings
Car Bomb Explodes Outside Madrid Airport
Spain suspends plan for talks with ETA
Al-Qaida's No. 2 decries moderate Arabs

Other Military News
No. 23 BC stuns Navy in Meineke Bowl
Airless tire being developed for Humvees

Religion of Peace??
Somalia Set for Gov't, Islamic Militia Showdown
Ethiopian tanks roll on Somali Islamist call to arms - Video

Worldwide Wackos
Castro sends New Year's message to Cubans
Castro message says he could recover

Politics / Government
Former President Gerald Ford Lies in State in D.C.
Casket to remain in U.S. Capitol until Tuesday - VIDEO
Cheney hails Nixon pardon at Ford's state funeral
Mourning a Husband - VIDEO
Elder statesmen pay respects to Ford
Ex-congressman collapses at Ford funeral
Thousands Pay Respects to Ford - Video
Op-Ed: Ford's Finest Legacy
Atlantic City Delays Casino Smoking Ban Vote
Will Democratic-led Congress deliver, or dispute?
New Rep. promises integrity in House
Schwarzenegger released after surgery

In the Courts / Crime and Punishment
15 Skulls Found at Alleged Child-Killer's Home
Cops: Woman Castrated Man With Hands (YIKES!)

Immigration / Border Control
Border crackdown fuels smugglers' boom

Media in the Media / Bloggers in the News / Watching the Web
CNN wrongful death suit in U.S. court

Science / Nature
Storms Ease Grip on Denver Area Ahead of Holiday Weekend - VIDEO - PHOTOS
Hundreds of drivers rescued in blizzard
Antarctic Scientists Spend Holiday Working on 'Map' That May Show Global-Warming Effects
Roughly 500 Feared Dead After Violent Storm Sinks Crowded Indonesian Ferry
Mickey's cousins unwelcome guests in Florida town

Oddities
Michael Jackson Ends Year Homeless and in Isolation
New twins makes Spaniard world's oldest mum at 67

Fox News
Missing N.C. Twins Found in Canada
Hangover 101: How to Deal the Next Day
FCC OKs AT&T's BellSouth Buyout
Death Toll Rises to 19 in Brazil Violence

Reuters: Top News
Stars, fans pack arena for James Brown funeral - Video
Haj pilgrims start stoning ritual
China urges officials to show holiday restraint
Untangle the World Wide Web with RSS
Media, tech firms probe possible high-def DVD hack
Players welcomes back old ball with reservations
Woman infected with HIV at Libyan hospital dies
Chicago jazz mecca closes doors, perhaps forever
As 2007 starts, mild jobs may lift stocks
Stock rally of 2006 smiled on all sectors
Gold hits 3-week high, palladium jumps 3 percent
Indexes dip for the day, but surge in 2006 - Video
Stocks finish year strong, but bonds fall
Midwestern puzzle
New book tackles question: What makes an idea stick?
Shanghai wresting lead from Hong Kong
Belarus says nears Russian gas deal, Gazprom denies
LSE beats record for IPO fund raising
Wal-Mart sees December same-store sales up
AT&T closes $86 billion BellSouth deal
Apple posts options expenses, stands by CEO Jobs
Stock rally of 2006 smiled on all sectors

AP World News
Jay Mohr reportedly marries Nikki Cox
Barber runs for 234 as Giants beat Skins
McCoy rallies Longhorns in Alamo Bowl
AP poll: Americans optimistic for 2007
Tiger Woods reveals wife is pregnant
Guilt haunts some surviving Sago miners
Report: Rai bodyguard accused in rampage
Obituaries in the news
Ohio priest accused of abuse reinstated

Military.com
2006 Year in Review
Gearing Up on Railways

CENTCOM: News Releases
PAKISTAN SHARES INFORMATION WITH AFGHAN, U.S. NCOS

IP CAPTURES TWO INSURGENT LEADERS DURING RAID NEAR AL ISKANDARIYAH

COALITION FORCES CAPTURE AQI TERRORIST IN SOUTHERN BAGHDAD

IA CONDUCTS OPERATIONS TO CAPTURE ILLEGAL ARMED GROUP LEADER, FINDS WEAPONS CACHE IN SALMAN PAK

ONE INSURGENT KILLED WHILE EMPLACING IED

TWO TERRORISTS KILLED DURING EARLY MORNING RAID IN BAGHDAD

FOUR TERRORISTS KILLED; TWO IED BUILDINGS DESTROYED

USJFCOM
2006 -- The Year in Review
USJFCOM gets approval to connect U.S., Australian networks - podcast
USJFCOM’s new super computer to enhance joint experimentation, training - podcast

Department of Defense
NEWS UPDATES
Saddam Executed After Fair Trial - Story
Dictator Executed for Crimes Against Humanity

ON THE GROUND
Operation in Al Doura Market ‘Sweeping’ Success - Story
Iraqi Doctors Facilitate Change in Healthcare - Story
U.S. Troops Help Conduct Operations in Siniyah - Story
Iraqi Security Forces Increasing Capabilities - Story
Combined Forces Capture 60 Insurgents - Story

IN IRAQ
Soldiers Rescue Kidnapped Iraqis from Insurgents
Five Iranians Detained in Recent Baghdad Raids
Soldiers Take Pride in Transferring Supplies
Chief of Naval Operations Visits USS Boxer
Trainers Tell Gates They're Pleased With Progress

IN AFGHANISTAN
Afghan Officials, U.S. Troops Open Runway
Chief of Chaplains Brings Support to Region
Buccaneers Return from Afghanistan Tour

DefendAmerica Week in Review
Sunday - Monday - Tuesday - Wednesday - Thursday - Friday - Saturday

BACKGROUND
IRAQ
Renewal In Iraq
Iraq: Security, Stability
Fact Sheet: Progress and Work Ahead
Report: Strategy for Victory in Iraq
Iraq Daily Update
This Week in Iraq
Multinational Force Iraq
State Dept. Weekly Iraq Report (PDF)
'Boots on the Ground' Audio Archive
Weekly Reconstruction Report (PDF)
Iraq Reconstruction
Maps

AFGHANISTAN
Afghanistan Update
Maps

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


Weather
Afghanistan
Bost/Laskar Ghurian Herat Kabul Qandahar

Germany
Ansbach Aschaffenburg Berlin Berlin-Tempelhof Berlin/Schonefeld Bremerhaven
Darmstadt Frankfurt Frankfurt/Main Freiburg/Breisgau Garmisch
Garmisch-Partenkirchen Geilenkirchen Gelnhausen Giessen Kitzingen
Hanau Am Main Heidelberg Mainz Mannheim Nurnberg Stuttgart Trier
Wiesbaden Wurzburg

Gitmo

Guam
Agana Agana Heights Agat Andersen AFB Asan Barrigada

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

Japan
Kadena Air Base Okinawa Tokyo Yokohama

Philippines
Baler Radar Site Catanduanes Radar Site Manila

South Korea
Cheju Upper/Radar Chonju Chunchon Inch'on Kunsan Masan Mokp'o
Osan Pusan Seoul Suwon Taegu Taejon Tonghae Radar Site Ulsan Yosu

** If you're deployed, and want to see your location's weather listed here, please email me! **

Today in History
0335 - Saint Silvester I ends his reign as Catholic Pope
0406 - 80,000 Vandels attack the Rhine at Mainz
0870 - Skirmish at Englefield: Ethelred of Wessex beats Danish invasion army
1492 - 100,000 Jews expelled from Sicily
1502 - Cesare Borgia (son of pope Alexander VI) occupies Urbino
1564 - Willem van Orange demands freedom of conscience/religion
1600 - British East India Company chartered
1604 - Admiral Steven van der Haghen's fleet reaches Bantam
1621 - Hungarian King Bethlen Gábor/Ferdinand II sign Treaty of Mikulov
1669 - France & Brandenburg sign secret treaty
1670 - France & England sign Boyne-treaty
1687 - 1st Huguenots depart France to Cape of Good Hope
1688 - Pro-James II-earl of Devonshire occupies Nottingham
1700 - Frisia/Groningen adopt Gregorian calendar, tomorrow is 1/12/1701
1708 - Great Alliance captures Bridge
1711 - Duke of Marlborough fired as English army commander
1744 - James Bradley announces discovery of Earth's motion of nutation (wobble)
1745 - Bonnie Prince Charlies army meets with de Esk
1756 - Russia joins the Alliance of Versailles
1758 - British expeditionary army occupies Goree (Dakar) Senegal
1775 - Battle of Québec; Americans unable to take British stronghold
1776 - Rhode Island establishes wage & price controls to curb inflation: Limit is 70¢ a day for carpenters, 42¢ for tailors
1779 - English fleet beat Dutch Merchant vessels
1781 - Bank of North America, 1st US bank opens
1783 - Import of African slaves banned by all of the Northern states
1805 - End of French Republican calendar; France returns to Gregorianism
1841 - Alabama becomes 1st state to license dental surgeons
1852 - Future President & Mrs. Rutherford B. Hayes marry
1857 - Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa as new capital of Canada
1859 - Dutch colony in Dutch Indies counts 4,800 slaves
1862 - President Lincoln signs act admitting West Virginia to the Union; Battle of Stone's River TN (Stone River, Murfreesboro); Skirmish at Parker Cross Roads, TN; Union ironclad ship Monitor sinks off Cape Hatteras, NC
1879 - Cornerstone laid for Honolulu's Iolani Palace (only royal palace in US); Edison gives 1st public demonstration of his incandescent lamp
1890 - Ellis Island (New York NY) opens as a US immigration depot
1896 - 25th auto built in US
1897 - Brooklyn's last day as a city, it incorporates into NYC (1/1/1898)
1902 - Boers & British army sign peace treaty
1906 - French/British/Italian treaty concerning rights on Abyssinia
1907 - For the 1st time, a ball drops at Times Square to signal the new year
1910 - US tobacco industry produced 9 billion cigarettes in 1910
1911 - Marie Curie receives her 2nd Nobel Prize
1914 - Colonel Jacob Ruppert & Cap Huston purchase New York Yankees for $460,000
1921 - Last San Francisco firehorses retired
1923 - 1st transatlantic radio broadcast of a voice, Pittsburgh-Manchester; BBC begins using Big Ben chime ID
1924 - Edwin Hubble announces existence of distant galactic systems
1925 - 14th congress of CPSU decides to accelerate industry
1930 - Pontifical encyclical Casti connubii against mixed marriages; US tobacco industry produced 123 billion cigarettes in 1930
1934 - Helen Richey becomes 1st woman to pilot an airmail transport
1935 - Charles Darrow patents Monopoly; CPH becomes Dutch Communist Party
1939 - 25 U boats sunk this month (81,000 ton)
1940 - 37 U boats sunk this month (213,000 ton)
1942 - 60 U boats sunk this month (330,000 ton); Battle in Barents Sea; Potatoes rationed in Holland
1944 - 48 people die in a train accident in Ogden, UT; Japanese army evacuates harbor city Akyab
1945 - Ratification of UN Charter completed
1946 - French troops leave Lebanon; President Truman officially proclaims end of WWII
1949 - 18 countries recognize Republic of Indonesia
1951 - 1st battery to convert radioactive energy to electrical announced
1958 - International Geophyscial Year ends; Cuban dictator Batista flees
1961 - Marshall Plan expires after distributing more than $12 billion; Failed coup by Syrian group in Lebanon
1962 - Katanga becomes part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Dutch leave New Guinea
1964 - Indonesia proclaims expelled from the UN
1968 - 1st supersonic airliner flown (Russian Tupolev TU-144)
1969 - Congo-Brazzaville becomes People's republic, under Major Ngouabi
1970 - Congress authorizes the Eisenhower dollar coin; Paul McCartney files a lawsuit to dissolve the Beatles
1971 - Lieutenant General Robert E. Cushman, Jr, USMC, ends term as deputy director of CIA
1972 - Leap second day; also in 1973-79, 1987, 1998
1974 - Gold legal in US, Franklin Mint strikes Panamá's Gold 100 balboa coin; Popular Electronics displays Altair 8800 computer
1977 - Donald Woods, a banned white editor, flees South Africa; Ted Bundy escapes from jail in Colorado; Amir Sheikh Jabir al-Ahmad al-Jabir Al Sabah becomes leader of Kuwait; Cambodia drops diplomatic relations with Vietnam
1978 - CIA director, Admiral Stansfield Turner retires from the Navy; Iran's shah names Chapour Bakhtiar premier
1980 - A Jewish owned hotel in Nairobi Kenya is bombed killing 18
1980 - Senegal President Leopold Senghor resigns
1981 - CNN Headline News debuts; Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings stages coup in Ghana, suspends constitution
1982 - CBS Mystery Theater final episode on radio after 8 years; NBC radio cancels almost all of its network daily features
1983 - Brunei gains complete independence from Britain; Nigeria's National Assembly dissolves after military coup
1984 - NYC subway gunman Bernhard Goetz surrenders to police in New Hampshire; Rajiv Gandhi takes office as India's 6th PM, succeeding his mom, Indira; Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen loses his arm in a car crash; US leaves UNESCO
1985 - King Hussein of Jordan and President Assad hold talks
1986 - Dupont Plaza Hotel fire in San Juan, Puerto Rico kills 97
1990 - Iraq begins a military draft of 17 year olds; The Sci-Fi Channel on cable TV begins transmitting; United Somali Congress seizes Presidential Palace
1991 - The last day of existence for the CPN (Communist Party of Netherlands) and the USSR
1994 - 1st snowless December in Baltimore, MD; Anti Apartheid Group of Netherlands (AABN) disbands
1995 - Cartoonist Bill Watterson ends his "Calvin & Hobbes" comic strip
1997 - Intel cuts price of Pentium II-233 MHz from $401 to $268; Microsoft buys Hotmail E-mail service; More Swedes died than were born in 1997, 1st time since 1809; South African & US surgeons separate Zambian Siamese twins joined at the head
1999 - Control of Panamá Canal reverts to Panamá

Birthdays
1378 - Callistus III [Alfonso the Borja], Pope (1455-58)
1720 - [Bonnie Prince] Charles Edward Stuart, English pretender to throne
1738 - Charles Lord Cornwallis, soldier/statesman "fire when ready Gridley"
1815 - George Gordon Meade, Union Major General
1825 - Francis Trowbridge Sherman, Union Brigadier-General
1830 - Ismail Pasha, kedive of Egypt (1863-79)
1838 - Emile Loubet, premier/President of France (1892, 1899-1906)
1864 - Robert G. Aitken, US astronomer (Binary Stars)
1880 - George C. Marshall, authored Marshall Plan (Nobel 1953)
1881 - Colin G. Fink, US chemist (electro chemistry)
1905 - Guy Mollet (Socialist), French premier (1956-57)
1940 - Oleg Anatolyevich Yakovlev, Russian cosmonaut
1948 - Viktor Mikhailovich Afanasieyv, Russian cosmonaut (Soyuz TM-11, TM-18)

Passings
0192 - Lucius Aurelius Commodus, Emperor of Rome (180-192), murdered at 31
0406 - Godagisel, king of the Vandels, dies in battle
0439 - Melania the Younger, Roman monastery founder/saint, dies at about 56
1384 - John Wycliffe, English religious reformer/bible translator, dies
1616 - Jacques Le Maire, pirate/explorer (Lemaire Strait), dies at 31
1719 - John Flamsteed, 1st Astronomer Royal, dies at 73
1775 - General Richard Montgomery, dies fighting the British
1802 - Francis Lewis Welsh, US merchant / signer of the Declaration of Independence), at 89
1862 - James Edward Rains, lawyer/Confederate Brigadier-General, in battle at 29; Joshua Woodrow Sill, Union Brigadier-General, in battle at 31
1882 - Léon Michel Gambetta, French attorney/premier (1881-82), at 44
1907 - Jules de Trooz, Belgium PM, at 63
1936 - William F. Ellison, Irish clergyman/astronomer, at 72
1947 - Franz X Ritter von Epp, German general (SW Africa), at 79
1950 - Karl Renner, Austrian Chancellor/President (1918-20, 45-50), at 80
1951 - Maxim M. Litvinov [Meyer H. Wallach], Russian diplomat, at 75
1953 - Albert Plesman, Dutch aviation pioneer/founder (KLM), at 64
1972 - Roberto Clemente, Pittsburgh Pirate slugger, in a plane crash at 38
1990 - Vasily Grigoryevich Lazarev, cosmonaut (Soyuz 12, 18A), at 62
1993 - Thomas J. Watson, Jr., president of IBM (1956-71)/diplomat, at 79; Zviad Gamsachurdia President of Georgia SSR (1991-1993), by suicide at 54
1994 - BAM "Bob" Schreiner, airline owner (S Aviation Group), at 79
1995 - "Calvin & Hobbes" (comic strip), dies
1996 - 61 law enforcement officers killed by felons in US this year; Ann Susan Hills freelance journalist, dies at 55
1997 - 76 law enforcement officers killed by felons in US this year; Michael Kennedy son of Robert Kennedy, dies in ski accident at 39

Reported Missing in Action
1964
Cook, Donald G., USMC (NY - also sometimes listed as VT); DIC December, 1967

Dodge, Edward R., US Army SF (VA); )1F last seen turning in cloud cover in valley (w/McDonald)

McDonald, Kurt C., US Army SF (WA); last seen turning in cloud cover in valley (W/Dodge)

1967
Belcher, Glenn Arthur, USAF (ND); A1E crashed - remains returned December, 1997

Peace, John D., USN (OH); A6A believed shot down (pilot, w/Perisho)

Perisho, Gordon S., USN (IL); A6A believed shot down (bombardier / navigator, w/Peace)

1971
Duggan, William Y., USAF (TX); F4D shot down (pilot, w/Sutter)

Sutter, Frederick J., USAF (KS); F4D shot down (bombardier / navigator, w/Duggan)