LEYTE GULF, Philippines — USS Harpers Ferry sailors and Marines load relief supplies aboard a CH-46E "Sea Knight" on the flight deck of the amphibious dock landing ship. Harpers Ferry, along with USS Essex and USS Curtis Wilber are en route to Leyte to provide assistance for recent mudslide victims. Photo by: Petty Officer 2nd Class Brian P. Biller

Full Story - from Marine Corps News

Iraq Market Bombing - 22 killed in southwest Baghdad
Bomber arrested after fatalities, 28 wounded in Shiite area of Sunni neighborhood

Global Hawk UAV welcomed home after three-year deployment
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AFPN) -- After supporting the Global War on Terror for three years, Global Hawk Unmanned Aerial Vehicle No. 3 (UAV-3) received its official homecoming Feb. 20 when its wheels touched down at 11:30 a.m. Pacific Time at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.
Full Story

Atlantic Ocean (Feb. 19, 2006) - The guided-missile destroyer USS Mason (DDG 87) comes alongside the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) to conduct a replenishment at sea (RAS). Eisenhower and embarked Carrier Air Wing Seven (CVW-7) are underway conducting Tailored Ship's Training Availability/Final Evaluation Period. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 3rd Class Andrew Geraci

from The American Thinker:

February 20th, 2006

The proof has been right in front of you the entire time. Documents available on the internet, which pass the smell test and are probably genuine, show the link between Saddam and al Qaeda.

On October 11th, 2004 an online news service called CNSnews published 42 documents that they claimed came from the Iraq Survey Group. The documents supposedly came from an ISG official who claimed they were captured in Iraq. CNSnews provided this information along with testimony from experts who authenticated the documents to the best of their ability. The story can be found here.

I have no connection to CNSnews. I did not release these documents to anybody while working with ISG or at any other time. But I will now add my name to the list of those who authenticate the documents. I know there is a good chance that these documents are real for three reasons.

The first reason is that I saw thousands of these documents while with ISG, and these look right.

But more than that, I saw the original of one of these documents at the Combined Media Processing Center in Qatar. I can therefore validate one document as having been captured in Iraq – which increases the likelihood that they are all real...

Read the Rest

Hat tip to Jihad Watch

IRAQI POLICE RECRUITS — More than 1,000 new Iraqi police recruits of the Babil Provincial Police Academy marched onto a parade field to take their place amongst the elite force during a graduation ceremony in Al Hilah, Iraq, Feb. 16, 2006. U.S. Army photo by Maj. Anna Friederich

News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Ambassador: Iraq Could Lose American Support

Operation Enduring Freedom
Australia to Bolster Afghan Force With 200 Soldiers

Homeland Security / War on Terror
Port Battle Heats Up
House leaders rally against Bush Administration
Firm Sues Over UAE Port Plan
Administration OK With UAE Running Six Major U.S. Ports
Video: Pressure Intensifies
Video: Port Insecurity
Arab Co. Ups PR on Port Deal- Video: Pressure Intensifies
Israel Kills Top Terrorist
U.S. Envoy Defends Guantanamo Conditions
US removing documents from public access: report
11 Islamic Militants Sentenced to Death
Military provides gentler images of Guantánamo prison

Other Military News
Police: Vet kills wife, self in front of son (This is so sad)

Philippine Landslide
Tragic Realization
Landslide recovery efforts not expected to see any more survivors

Cartooning Muhammad
Islamic Radicals Press for More Cartoon Protests
Afghan students protest cartoons - Play Video
Hundreds Protest in Pakistan Over Cartoons
Stop deadly cartoon protests, Iranian foreign minister urges

Hamas Rising
Palestinian president to ask Hamas to form govt
Iranian leader urges Muslims to fund Hamas government
Hamas wants ex-university official to be next Palestinian leader
Hamas reaches out to Fatah to form a broad coalition
Chosen prime minister seen as pragmatist

Worldwide Wackos
Russia, Iran End Nuke Talks
A bid to foment democracy in Iran
US and allies eye sanctions on Iran regime

U.N. News
Sudan Opposes U.N. Troops in Darfur
Australia Widens Inquiry Into Iraq Scandal

Politics
Abramoff Allegedly Paid to Arrange Bush Meeting
Ex-Malaysia PM: Abramoff Was Paid $1.2M

XX Winter Olympics
U.S. Wins First Ice Dancing Medal Since 1976
Police search house at Austria ski base
Those who know Davis say he's caring

Oddities
Video: Schools Ban Tag
Guy seeks police help for something moronic
Stripping away the mystery
Passive robber takes 'no' for an answer
Kiss not just a kiss -- gets man life in prison
'Scotty' heads to space next month .
New Yorkers get award for -- politeness
Gold-ilocks: Willowbrook firm to auction famous follicles

Other News of Note
Hall of Fame broadcaster Gowdy dies at 86
NATO Mulls More Aid for Sudan Peacekeepers

Fox News
Blast Traps Mexican Miners
Sudan: No U.N. Darfur Mission
Stocks to Watch: Wal-Mart
RadioShack CEO Steps Down
FULL SPORTS COVERAGE

Reuters: Top News
New Orleans rebuilding plan takes shape
Rescuers dig against odds for buried Mexico miners - Video
Calif. execution delayed while appeal considered
Jobs cut at energy lab restored before Bush visit
China blood test lapses fuel "hidden AIDS epidemic"
Bird flu likely to burst out again and again: study
British SMS boom leads to digit damage
Study sees more benefit from some heart drugs
In-car navigation systems can be dangerous: report
Japan shares spring back to life
Wal-Mart quarterly profit rises
Home Depot quarterly profit rises
Google denies acting unlawfully in China
Barclays 2005 profit up but UK still a concern
Hitachi drives see rough 2006 under flash assault
R.R. Donnelley in $250 million AARP contract
Wipro acquires U.S.-based cMango for $20 mln cash
Stock futures point up on retailers' profits
Spain's Endesa opens 8 pct up after E.ON bid
Chinatrust shares rise amid Mega stock buy
Air Canada parent ACE shares fall 3 percent
Satellite group SES sees margin squeeze, shares hit

AP World News
Kin of Mexican Miners Growing Desperate
Japan Seeks Assurances for U.S. Beef
Liberia Inaugurates Truth Commission
Nepal Opposition Plans to Step Up Protests
Haiti Election Chief Flees Country
Holocaust Denier Gets Three Years in Jail
China, Pakistan Reinforce Warming Ties
Met to Return Disputed Art to Italy
Serbs, Albanians Discuss Kosovo's Future

The Seattle Times
White House civil-liberties panel created in 2004, still hasn't met
Medicare drug plan short on participants
Bush encourages spending on energy-saving products
FDA is urged to ban carbon-monoxide-treated meat
Indians hunted carelessly, study says
Companies offer space services for remains of people without deep pockets
Adult sentence sought for teen
Violence crossing Chad-Sudan border, group says

Chicago Sun-Times
Jail guards blame bosses
Feds probe young inspectors' hiring
Bookstore is paradise for Lincoln fans
Four-hour emergency at nuke plant near Chicago
Police dog disappears from cop's backyard
Were kids' drownings accident or murder?
Bush: Energy tech to 'startle' U.S.
El Nino could leave Africans hungry
Alabama church bombed in '63 made landmark

Military.com
Governors Question Port Turnover
Military Retirees' Health Care May Rise
Strain and Battle Fatigue Hit Home Front
Prosecutors Seek 10 Years for Cunningham
In Philippines, U.S. Military at the Ready

CENTCOM: News Releases
TWO AIF KILLED, TWO DETAINED, MULTIPLE EXPOLSIVES DISCOVERED BY ‘STRIKE' BRIGADE

Department of Defense
Officials Identify Helicopter Crash Victims - Story
Palace Drill Prepares Combat Lifesavers - Story

TOP NEWS
IRAQ
Coalition Forces Destroy Weapons
Troops Nab Suspects
Officials Identify Casualties
Troops Foil Bombing, Uncover Plot
Troop Levels Must Balance
Iraqi Ops More Independent Video
Forces Detain 106, Find Weapons
Casey: Certification Critical
Fact Sheet: Progress and Work Ahead
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
Afghan Engineers Attend Workshop
Afghanistan Update
Maps

WAR ON TERRORISM
Bush: Democracy Will Yield Peace
Pace: Progress in Afghanistan, Iraq
Forces Bolster Maritime Security
Hospital's War is Against Death
Program Yields Counterterror Tools
Army Modernizes to Win Long War
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

MILITARY NEWS
Navy Ships Provide Disaster Relief
Photos: Philippine Relief Efforts
All 'Accounted For' After Helo Crash
Sailors, Marines Help Victims
Web Special: Iwo Jima
Flexibility Needed to Fight Terror
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

Today in History
1173 - Pope Alexander III canonizes Thomas Beckett, Archbishop of Canterbury
1431 - England begins trial against Joan of Arc
1564 - Philip II routes cardinal Granvelle to Franche-Comté
1574 - Spanish garrison of Middelburg Netherlands surrenders
1598 - Boris Godunov crowned tsar
1613 - Michael Romanov, son of the Patriarch of Moscow, elected Russian tsar
1673 - Michiel A de Ruyter appointed Lieutenant-Admiral-General of Dutch fleet
1675 - Prince Willem III appointed viceroy of Gelderland
1764 - John Wilkes thrown out of English House of Commons for "Essay on Women"
1777 - English ambassador Joseph Yorke demands dismissal of Governor John de Graaff for saluting US flag
1782 - US Congress resolves the establishment of a US mint
1792 - Congress passes Presidential Succession Act
1795 - Freedom of worship established in France under constitution
1797 - Trinidad, West Indies surrenders to the British
1804 - 1st locomotive, Richard Trevithick's, runs for 1st time, in Wales
1828 - 1st American Indian newspaper in US, Cherokee Phoenix (weekly), Georgia
1842 - 1st known sewing machine patented in US, John Greenough, Washington DC
1846 - 1st US woman telegrapher, Sarah G Bagley, Lowell MA
1853 - US authorizes minting of $3 gold pieces
1857 - US issues flying eagle cents; Congress outlaws foreign currency as legal tender in US
1858 - Edwin T Holmes installs 1st electric burglar alarm (Boston MA)
1861 - Navaho Indians elect Herrero Grande as chief
1862 - Texas Rangers win Confederate victory at Battle of Val Verde, NM; Confederate Constitution & Presidency are declared permanent
1864 - 1st US Catholic parish church for blacks dedicated, Baltimore, MD; Battle at Okolonam, MS
1866 - Lucy B. Hobbs (Taylor) becomes 1st US woman to earn a DDS degree
1874 - Benjamin Disraeli replaces William Gladstone as English premier
1885 - Washington Monument dedicated (Washington DC)
1887 - Oregon becomes 1st US state to make Labor Day a holiday; 1st US bacteriology laboratory opens (Brooklyn)
1895 - North Carolina Legislature adjourns for day to mark death of Frederick Douglass
1902 - Dr. Harvey Cushing, 1st US brain surgeon, does his 1st brain operation
1903 - Cornerstone laid for US army war college, Washington DC
1907 - SS Berlin sinks off Hoek van Holland Netherlands (142 dead)
1914 - White Wolf troops attack Zhanjiang China
1915 - 20th Russian Army corps surrenders
1916 - Battle of Verdun (WWI) begins (1 million casualties)
1917 - British Mendi sinks off Isle of Wight, 627 die; Train near Chirurcha, Romania catches fire & explodes; 100s die
1918 - Australians chase Turkish troops out of Jericho, Dutch Palestine
1922 - Airship Rome explodes at Hampton Roads Virginia; 34 die; Great Britain grants Egypt independence
1925 - 1st issue of "New Yorker" magazine published
1931 - Alka Seltzer introduced
1932 - André Tardieu becomes premier of France
1934 - Nicaraguan patriot Augusto Cesar Sandino assassinated by National Guard
1939 - Belgian government of Pierlot forms
1941 - US Senate accepts Omar Bradley's demotion to Brigadier-General
1943 - Dutch Roman Catholic bishops protest against persecution of Jews; German offensive at Western Dorsalgebergte Tunisia
1944 - "The War As It Happens" news show premieres on NBC (NYC only)
1945 - Archbishop De Jong calls for help with war casualties; British Army captures Goch; US 10th Armour division overthrows Orscholz line
1946 - Anti-British demonstrations in Egypt
1947 - 1st instant developing camera demonstrated in NYC, by E.H. Land; 1st broadcast of 1st US TV soap opera "A Woman to Remember"
1952 - Bangladesh Martyrs Day (martyrs of Bengali Language Movement)
1952 - Dick Button performs 1st figure skating triple jump in competition
1953 - F. Crick & J. Watson discover structure of DNA-molecule
1958 - Egypt-Syria as UAR elect Nasser President (99.9% vote)
1961 - Mercury-Atlas 2 reentry test reaches 172 km; Gabon adopts constitution
1966 - Indonesia's President Sukarno fires General Nasution
1968 - 150,000 demonstrate against leftist students in West-Berlin
1969 - 1st launching of heavy N-1 rocket at Baikonur Kazachstan (explodes)
1970 - Pathet Lao conquerors Xieng Khuang & Muong Suy
1971 - Series of tornadoes cuts through Mississippi & Louisiana, killing 117
1972 - Richard Nixon becomes 1st US President to visit China
1974 - Israeli forces leave western Suez; Yugoslavia adopts constitution
1979 - Japan launches Hakucho x-ray satellite & Corsa-B (550/580 km)
1980 - Hanni Wenzel is 1st Liechtensteiner to win Olympics gold (giant slalom); Eric Heiden skates Olympics record 1500 meter in 1 55.44
1981 - Japan launches Hinotori satellite to study solar flares (580/640 k); NASA launches Comstar D-4
1987 - Syrian army marches into Beirut
1988 - During a live TV broadcast, televangelist Jimmy Swaggart (age 52) admitted to visiting a prostitute, then announced he would be leaving his ministry for an unspecified length of time. (Defrocked in April by the Assemblies of God, he was ordered to stay off TV for a year, but returned after only three months)
1989 - US bust Chinese heroin ring, capture record 820 lbs heroin ($1 billion street value)
1991 - USSR announces Iraq agrees to a proposal to end Persian Gulf War - US calls the plan unacceptable
1995 - RAF-pilot Jo Salter is 1st woman to fly in a tornado
1996 - Soyuz TM-23, launched into orbit
1997 - STS 82 (Discovery 22) lands

Birthdays
1417 - Louis IX, Duke of Bayern (University of Ingolstadt)
1728 - Peter III, Russian tsar (1761-62), husband of Catherine
1794 - Antonio López de Santa Anna, President of México (1833-36)
1800 - John Henry Winder, Confederate Brigadier General
1802 - George Douglas Ramsey, Union Brevet Major General
1805 - David Tod, US diplomat/(Governor-OH, 1861-63)
1829 - Johnson Hagood, Confederate Brigadier General
1857 - Jules de Trooz, baron/premier of Belgium (1907)
1867 - Otto Hermann Kahn Banker, organized Metropolitan Opera Company
1875 - Jeanne Louise Calment, France, world's oldest woman (died at 122)
1902 - John Smallenbroek, Dutch minister of Internal Affairs
1910 - Douglas R.S. Bader, British pilot (WWII)
1913 - Glenn M. Anderson (Representative-CA)
1917 - Victor G.M. Marijnen, Dutch premier (1963-65)
1924 - Robert G. Mugabe, Premier/President of Zimbabwe
1931 - Larry Hagman, TV actor (I Dream of Jeannie, Dallas)
1932 - Harald V, King of Norway
1936 - Barbara Jordan, (Representative-TX, 1972-78)
1938 - Beryl F. Anthony, Jr. (Representative-CA)
1940 - John Lewis (Representative-GA)
1941 - Charlie Shelburne, English earl/large landowner
1947 - Olympia J. Snowe (Representative-ME)
1964 - Mark E. Kelly, Lieutenant USN/astronaut, Scott J. Kelly, Lieutenant USN/astronaut

Passings
1513 - Julius II (Giuliano dellea Rovere), Roman Catholic Pope (1503-13), dies at 69
1554 - Hieronymus Bock, German doctor (founder of modern botany)
1648 - Christian IV, King of Denmark/Norway
1711 - Joan van Hoorn, Governor-General of Netherlands-Indies (1707-09), dies at 57
1730 - Benedict XIII (Pietro F Orsini), Pope (1724-30), dies at 81
1803 - Edward Despard, last person drawn & quartered in England
1864 - Jeffery Forrest, US Confederate Brigadier-General, dies in battle
1872 - Pavel P. Gagarin, Russian monarch/politician, dies at 82
1879 - Peter P. van Bosse, Dutch liberal minister of Finance, dies at 69
1919 - Habib Ullah Chan emir of Afghanistam (1901-19), murdered at 46; Karl von Hohenzollern Prince of Belgium; Kurt Eisner, premier Bayern (socialist), murdered at 51
1926 - Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Dutch physicist (Nobel 1913), dies at 72
1938 - George Ellery Hale, astronomer
1965 - Malcolm X (Little), Black Muslim leader, assassinated in New York, NY at 39
1992 - Franc Holden British astronomer (Binary Stars); Kate A ter Horst-Arriëns, Dutch nurse (Battle of Arnhem), dies at 85

Reported Missing in Action
1967
Borja, Domingo R., US Army SF (CA); KIA in ground action, body not recovered

Wright, Arthur, US Army (MI); disappeared while checking outpost perimeter wire