OPERATION SWARMER — A U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter transports U.S. Army soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division’s Company C, 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment and Iraqi army soldiers during Operation Swarmer in Brassfield-Mora, Iraq, March 16, 2006. Operation Swarmer is a combined air assault operation to clear the area northeast of Samarra of suspected insurgents. U.S. Navy Photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Shawn Hussong

News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
'Operation Swarmer'
U.S., Iraq launch joint offensive
Military Investigating Firefight That Killed 15 Iraqi Civilians
Iraqi Parliament Sworn In
Report: Halliburton Didn't Protect Troops' Water
U.S. General: Iraq, Afghanistan Attacks Similar
Video: Interview With 101st Airborne
Video: Airborne Assault
Three year anniversary of Iraq war looms
Brain drain in Iraq as academics targeted
Iran Offers to Enter Iraq Talks With U.S.

Homeland Security / War on Terror
GOP Senators Introduce Eavesdropping Bill
Lawyer who upset Moussaoui trial put on leave
US airport screeners fail homemade bomb tests: NBC

Troops on Trial
Demoted Brigadier Cleared of Some Charges

Worldwide Wackos
US upbeat on Iran talks
Syria opposition vows unity to oust Assad

Homegrown Moonbats
Firestorm Over Effort To Honor Fonda

Politics
Bush: Iran Biggest Threat- Video: Security Strategy
Bush Names Interior Sec'y
House approves $91.9 bln for wars, Gulf Coast
Senate passes $2.8 trillion budget
News outlets subpoenaed in CIA leak case
Bush clings to pre-emptive force

U.N. News
Bolton: U.N. Will Send Iran Strong Signal

Oddities
Neverland Nevermore? - Jacko pulls plug on Neverland Ranch
Dutch Immigrants ForcedTo Watch Sexy Film
Which do you prefer? TV or sex?
Crime-solving is no sweat at body odor bank

Fox News
School Bus Flips After Collision, 8 Injured
House OK's $92B in War, Hurricane Spending- Video: How Much?
FBI: No Fed Charges in Emmett Till Killing
Dow Closes Near 5-Year High
Study: Warmer Seas Creating Stronger Hurricanes
Evidence for Big Bang Inflation
Report: Selig to Probe Bonds
Hawaii Authorizes Emergency Dam Inspections
FULL SPORTS COVERAGE

Reuters: Top News
VaxGen again delays anthrax vaccine delivery: WPost
Dow surges on tame inflation
Icahn group wins seat on board of KT&G
GM raises 2005 loss by $2 billion
AIG posts lower 4th-quarter results
Chiron recalls vaccine, revises 2005 earnings
Google extends deadline on closing Time Warner deal
Targacept sets IPO at 5 million shares, $11-$13/share
Fisher to buy Athena Diagnostics for $283 mln
AIG shares fall after results
Petco shares rise, UTStarcom falls
Chipotle shares on a tear, analysts hesitant
Home builders' shares rise on government reports
Barnes & Noble net tops views, Borders net down
Long-term care insurance
Iran oil customers hang tight for now
Minnows lead majors to greener future
No safe water for 1 billion poor, companies wary
Microsoft in $500 million business services push
California gang members to be tracked by GPS
Journey brings Cuban rafter back to Guantanamo
Low-carb diets can be unhealthy, doctors warn
WHO maps out new strategy to battle tuberculosis

AP World News
Patron Who Distracted Gunman Saved Others
No More McNamara Magic for Syracuse
Clemens Implies Career Over As U.S. Loses
George Washington Wins Overtime Thriller
Court Says Yates Retrial Can Go Forward

Military.com
TRICARE Fees Run Aground
Air Force May Combine Commands
US to Withdraw Most Forces From Iceland
Army Still Trips Over Cover-Up

CENTCOM: News Releases
Department of Defense
Victory Takes Time, Patience, Sacrifice - Story
U.S., Indonesia Must Continue on 'True Partnership'
Progress Continues Near Three-Year Mark - Story
Forces Launch 'Operation Swarmer'
Abizaid Stresses Security, Government in Iraq
Iraqi Forces Work Well Following Mosque Blast
Violence in Afghanistan Ebbs Over Time - Story

ON THE GROUND
Tankers Bridge Troubled Waters - Story
Trainer Rescues Dog from Fire - Story

IN IRAQ
Iraqi Soldiers on Track for Independent Ops
Standby Troops Deploy from Kuwait

IN AFGHANISTAN
Spartans Take Reins in Eastern Afghanistan
'Muleskinners' Assume Joint Logistics Mission

FACE OF DEFENSE
Volunteer Coaches Boxers - Story

AMERICA SUPPORTS YOU
Company Feeds Wounded Vets - Story
Illness Changes Support Efforts
Donation Keeps Marines Swinging

TOP NEWS
IRAQ
Iraq Not on Verge of Civil War
Insurgents Detained; Caches Found
Leaders Assess Operations
Parliament to Meet
Iraqis Appear to Choose Unity
Fact Sheet: Progress and Work Ahead
Report: Strategy for Victory in Iraq
Iraq Daily Update
This Week in Iraq (pdf)
Multinational Force Iraq
State Dept. Weekly Iraq Report (pdf)
'Boots on the Ground' Audio Archive
Iraq Reconstruction
Maps

AFGHANISTAN
Bird Flu Poses No Danger Video
Accident Claims Troop's Life
IED Blast Kills 4 U.S. Troops
Afghanistan Update
Maps

WAR ON TERRORISM
Arabs Note Iraq's March
Special Ops Transforms
War Requires More Than Might
Funding, Public: Challenges to War
Terrorists Use IEDs to Avoid Battle
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
New Enemy Requires New Strategy
Review Will Help Meet Threats
Sexual Assault Prevention Works
Secretary of State Visits Sailors
QDR Provides More Options
National Guard, Reserve Update

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

Afghanistan
Bost/Laskar Ghurian Herat Kabul Qandahar

Gitmo

Today in History
0432 - St. Patrick, a bishop, is carried off to Ireland as a slave
0455 - Roman senator Petronius Maximus becomes Emperor
1521 - Ferdinand Magellan discovers the Philippines
1526 - French king François I freed from Spain
1537 - French troops invade Flanders
1580 - Prince Willem of Orange welcomed in Amsterdam
1658 - Pro-Charles II plot in England discovered
1672 - England declares war on Netherlands
1753 - 1st official St Patrick's Day
1755 - Transylvania Land Co buys Kentucky for $50,000 from a Cherokee chief
1756 - St. Patrick's Day 1st celebrated in NYC at Crown & Thistle Tavern
1757 - Prince Mas Saïd of Mataram surrenders to Mangkubumi in Java
1762 - 1st St. Patrick's Day parade in NYC
1766 - Britain repeals Stamp Act
1776 - British forces evacuate Boston to Nova Scotia during Revolutionary War
1800 - English warship Queen Charlotte catches fire; 700 die
1824 - England & Netherlands sign a trade agreement
1836 - Texas abolishes slavery
1845 - Bristol man, Henry Jones, patents self-raising flour
1845 - Rubber band patented by Stephen Perry of London
1861 - Italy declares independence; Kingdom of Italy proclaimed
1863 - Battle of Kelly's Ford, Virginia (211 casualities)
1868 - Postage stamp canceling machine patent issued
1884 - John Joseph Montgomery makes 1st glider flight, Otay CA
1886 - Carrollton Massacre, (Mississippi) 20 blacks killed
1891 - British Steamer Utopia sinks off Gibraltar, killing 574
1894 - US & China sign treaty preventing Chinese laborers from entering US
1898 - 1st practical submarine 1st submerges, New York NY (for 1 hour 40 minutes)
1899 - Windsor luxury hotel in NYC catches fire, 92 die
1905 - Eleanor Roosevelt marries FDR in New York
1906 - President Theodore Roosevelt uses term "muckraker"
1912 - Camp Fire Girls organization announced by Mrs. Luther Halsey Gulick
1917 - Tsar Nicolas II of Russia abdicates the throne
1921 - Lenin proclaims New Economic Politics; Sailors revolt in Kronstadt (thousands die)
1924 - Netherlands & USSR begin talks over USSR recognition; Sweden & USSR exchange diplomats
1926 - Dutch Calvinists oust Reverend J G Geelkerken over Genesis 3
1926 - Spain & Brazil prevent Germany joining League of Nations
1927 - US government doesn't sign league of Nations disarmament treaty
1931 - Stalin throws Krupskaya Lenin out of Central Committee
1932 - German police raid Hitler's Nazi-headquarter
1934 - Dollfuss, Mussolini & Gömbös sign Donau Pact (protocols of Rome)
1941 - National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC opens
1942 - Belzec Concentration Camp opens-30,000 Lublin Polish Jews transported; General Douglas MacArthur arrives in Australia to become supreme commander
1943 - Aldemarin (Ned) & Fort Cedar Lake (US) torpedoed & sinks
1945 - Allied ships bomb North-Sumatra
1950 - Belgian government of Eyskens resigns; Element 98 (Californium) announced
1951 - Government of Drees takes power
1957 - Ramon Magsaysay, President of Philippines, dies in a plane crash
1958 - Navy launches Vanguard 1 into orbit (2nd US), measures Earth shape
1959 - Australia & USSR restore diplomatic relations; Dalai Lama flees Tibet for India
1960 - Eisenhower forms anti-Castro-exile army under the CIA
1961 - South Africa leaves British Commonwealth
1963 - Elizabeth Ann Seton of New York beatified (canonized in 1975); Eruptions of Mount Agung, Bali, kills 1,500 Balinese
1966 - South Africa government bans Defense & Aid Fund; US sub locates missing H-bomb in Mediterranean
1970 - US casts their 1st UN Security Council veto (Support England)
1973 - Queen Elizabeth II opens new London Bridge; St. Patrick's Day marchers carry 14 coffins commemorating Bloody Sunday
1978 - Reds don green uniforms for St. Patrick's Day
1982 - 4 Dutch TV crew members shot dead in El Salvador
1986 - Haemers gang robs gold transport in Belgium of 35 million BF
1987 - IBM releases PC-DOS version 3.3
1988 - Iran says Iraq uses poison gas
1989 - Dorothy Cudahy is 1st female grand marshal of St. Patrick's Day Parade
1991 - USSR holds a referendum to determine if they should stay together; 9 of 15 Soviet representatives officially approve new union treaty
1992 - De Klerk wins a white only referendum; Islamic Jihad truck bombs Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina killing 29; Russian manned space craft TM-14, launches into orbit
1993 - 86 killed by bomb attack in Calcutta
1994 - Iran transport aircraft crashes in Azerbaijan (32 killed)
1995 - Sinn-Fein leader Gerry Adams visits White House; US approves 1st chicken pox vaccine, Varivax by Merck & Co

Birthdays
1473 - James IV, king of Scotland (1488-1513)
1777 - Roger Brooke Taney, 5th Chief Justice (Dred Scott decision)
1781 - Dominique J. de Eerens, Governor-General of Netherland Indies
1787 - George Simon Ohm, physicist (discovered Ohm's Law)
1804 - James Bridger, scout/fur trader/mountain man par excellence
1820 - Patrick Edward Connor, Union Brevet Major General
1828 - Patrick Ronayne Cleburne, Confederate Major General, the "Stonewall" of the West
1832 - Walter Quintin Gresham, Union Brevet Major General
1834 - Gottlieb Daimler, engineer/inventor/auto pioneer-designed 1st motorcycle
1873 - Chard Somerset, 1st woman Cabinet minister (1929-31); Margaret Bondfield, British Labour leader/1st woman cabinet member
1901 - Eisaku Sato premier of Japan (Nobel 1974)
1907 - Jan M.J. van Houtte, premier of Belgium (1952-54)
1909 - Patrick Reilly, British diplomat
1910 - Bayard Rustin, civil rights leader
1918 - Wilhelmus M.J. Russell, Dutch attorney/Member of 1st chamber (KVP/CDA)
1919 - Nat "King" Cole, singer (Unforgettable, Mona Lisa)
1930 - James Benson Irwin, Colonel USAF/astronaut (Apollo 15)
1936 - Thomas K. Mattingly II, Captain USN/astronaut (Apollo 16, STS-4, 51C)
1942 - John Wayne Gacy, Jr., serial killer (32 boys)
1955 - Cynthia McKinney (Representative-GA); Gary Sinise, actor (Apollo 13, Forrest Gump) (a great supporter of our Heroes)

Passings
0180 - Antonius Marcus Aurelius [Marcus Verus], Emperor of Rome, dies at 58
0461 - St. Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, dies in Saul (according to legend)
0659 - Gertrudis van Nijvel, saint/patron of travellers, dies at about 32
1040 - Harold, British King (1035-40)
1516 - Giuliano de' Medici, monarch of Florence, dies at 37
1649 - Gerardus Johannis Vossius [Gerrit Vos], Dutch regent, dies at 71
1653 - Johan van Galen, Admiral (battle of Livorno), dies in battle at 48
1704 - Menno baron van Coehoorn, fort builder/Coevorden/howitzer, dies at 63
1764 - George Parker, English astronomer
1796 - Pieter Paulus, lawyer/Dutch CEO (National Convention), dies at 41
1846 - Friedrich W. Bessel, German astronomer (Bessel Functions), dies at 61
1849 - Willem II Frederik GL, King of Netherlands (1840-49), dies at 56
1853 - Christian Doppler, physicist
1863 - John Pelham, Confederate artillery Major, dies in battle at 24
1891 - Napoleon J.K.P. Bonaparte, French prince/member National Convention, dies at 68
1898 - Blanche Kelso Bruce (Senator-MS, 1875-1881), dies in Washington, DC at 57
1906 - Carlos Calvo, Argentinian diplomat (Calvo Clause), dies at 82
1941 - Joachim Schepke, German commandant (U-100), dies in battle
1961 - Suzanna Salter, 1st US female mayor/temperance leader, dies at 101
1965 - Quentin Reynolds, newscaster (Its News to Me)/author (FBI), dies at 62
1982 - Hans ter Laag, Dutch sound technician / Jan Kuiper, Dutch news editor (IKON) / Joop Willemsen, Dutch cameraman / Koos Koster, Dutch newscaster (IKON), murdered in El Salvador
1992 - Grace Stafford Lantz, cartoon voice (Woody Woodpecker), dies at 87
1993 - Laadi Flici, Algerian MP, murdered
1996 - Thomas Enders, diplomat, dies at 64

Reported Missing in Action
1966
Baldock, Frederick C., USN (PA); A4C shot down, released by DRV February, 1973 - retired as a Commander - alive as of 1998

1967
Goeden, Gene William, USN (OR); A1H shot down, KIA, body not recovered

1968
The following USN personnel reported MIA when their S2E disappeared over water - all reported Killed, body not recovered:
Barber, Thomas D. (CO); crewman

Benson, Lee D. (CA); co-pilot

Hubbs, Donald R. (NJ); pilot

Nightingale, Randall J. (IL); Antisubmarine Warfare Technician 2nd Class

The following US Army personnel reported MIA after their unit came under heavy fire - both presumed KIA:
Collazo, Raphael C. (CA); remains returned May, 1993

Ross, JLynn, Jr., (MI); remains ID'd June 1996

Also reported MIA this day in 1968:
Doss, Dale W., USN (VA); A6A shot down (bombardier/navigator, w/Shuman), released by DRV March, 1973 - retired as a Captain - alive and well as of 1998

Hensley, Thomas Truett, USAF (LA); F105D crashed, presumed Killed

Shuman, Edwin A., USN (MA); A6A shot down (pilot, w/Doss), released by DRV March, 1973 - retired as a Captain - alive and well as of 1998

1969
Armistead, Steven R., USMC (CA); A6A shot down (w/Finney)

Dinan, David T. III, USAF (NJ); F105 shot down, ejected, believed KIA in landing

Finney, Charles E., USMC (MS); A6A shot down (w/Armistead), remains returned March, 2000

1971
The following US Army personnel reported MIA when their UH1H was shot down:
Bauman, Richard L. (OH)

Dix, Craig M. (MI)

Hestand, James H. (OK); pilot, released by PRG February, 1973 - alive as: of 1998

Harris, Bobby G. (TX); KIA

Also reported MIA this day in 1971:
Lilly, Lawrence E., US Army (CA); A1G shot down, KIA, body not recovered