Polish army soldiers from the Civil Military Cooperation Group, Multi-National Division - Central South, Camp Echo, Iraq, and Iraqi army soldiers from the 8th Iraqi Army Division arrive for a mission at a children's and maternity hospital in Diwaniyah, Iraq, Dec. 7, 2006. The Polish and Iraqi army soldiers delivered 100 boxes of medical supplies to the hospital. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Dawn M. Price



An Iraqi army soldier from the 8th Iraqi Army Division and a member of the hospital staff unload boxes of medical supplies at a children's and maternity hospital in Diwaniyah, Iraq, Dec. 7, 2006. Polish army soldiers from the Civil Military Cooperation Group, Multi-National Division - Central South, Camp Echo, Iraq, and Iraqi army soldiers delivered 100 boxes of medical supplies to the hospital. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Dawn M. Price



A Polish army soldier from the Civil Military Cooperation Group, Multi-National Division - Central South, Camp Echo, Iraq, mans his machine gun while providing security for his team during a mission at a children's and maternity hospital in Diwaniyah, Iraq, Dec. 7, 2006. The Polish CIMIC and Iraqi army soldiers from the 8th Iraqi Army Division delivered 100 boxes of medical supplies to the hospital. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Dawn M. Price



Polish army Maj. Piotr Lewandowski, from the Civil Military Cooperation Group, Multi-National Division - Central South, Camp Echo, Iraq, talks with an Iraqi man selling newspapers at a children's and maternity hospital in Diwaniyah, Iraq, Dec. 7, 2006. The Polish CIMIC and Iraqi army soldiers from the 8th Iraqi Army Division delivered 100 boxes of medical supplies to the hospital. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Dawn M. Price



Polish army Lt. Col. Andrzej Kujawa, second from right, from the Civil Military Cooperation Group, Multi-National Division - Central South, Camp Echo, Iraq, gives a digital infant scale to the director of the children's and maternity hospital in Diwaniyah, Iraq, Dec. 7, 2006. The Polish CIMIC and Iraqi army soldiers from the 8th Iraqi Army Division delivered 100 boxes of medical supplies to the hospital. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Dawn M. Price



Polish army soldiers from the Civil Military Cooperation Group, Multi-National Division - Central South, Camp Echo, Iraq, provide security for their team during a mission at a children's and maternity hospital in Diwaniyah, Iraq, Dec. 7, 2006. The Polish CIMIC and Iraqi army soldiers from the 8th Iraqi Army Division delivered 100 boxes of medical supplies to the hospital. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Dawn M. Price



Polish army Sgt. Ireneusz Mazur, from the Civil Military Cooperation Group, Multi-National Division - Central South, Camp Echo, Iraq, provides security for his team during a mission at a children's and maternity hospital in Diwaniyah, Iraq, Dec. 7, 2006. The Polish CIMIC and Iraqi army soldiers from the 8th Iraqi Army Division delivered 100 boxes of medical supplies to the hospital. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Dawn M. Price



Polish army Capt. Adam Miroslaw, from the Civil Military Cooperation Group, Multi-National Division - Central South, Camp Echo, Iraq, meets with a local contractor during a mission to inspect the power generator for a water station in Diwaniyah, Iraq, Dec. 7, 2006. The CIMIC helps fund, contract and inspect local projects given to Iraqi companies to help improve the quality of life in Iraq. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Dawn M. Price



Polish army Capt. Przemyslaw Wierzbicki, from the Civil Military Cooperation Group, Multi-National Division - Central South, Camp Echo, Iraq, provides security for his team during a mission to inspect the power generator for a water station in Diwaniyah, Iraq, Dec. 7, 2006. The CIMIC helps fund, contract and inspect local projects given to Iraqi companies to help improve the quality of life in Iraq. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Dawn M. Price


More photo essays at DefendAmerica

Battle of the Bulge
Photo by Chris Clarke (Army.mil)
December 15, 2006
Tanks and Infantrymen of the 82nd Airborne Division, Company G, 740th Tank Battalion, 504th Regiment, push through the snow towards their objective in Belgium. (Image and description courtesy of the Truman Presidential Museum and Library)"

News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Perry sees Iraq "quagmire" absent changes
Iraq PM calls on Saddam officers to return to army - Video

Homeland Security / War on Terror / Hamas-Hezbollah Happenings
PHOTO ESSAY: Masked Palestinian militants hold grenade launchers as they ride through the streets of Gaza City
Abbas Seeks Immediate Palestinian Elections
Officer loyal to Abbas killed after election call
Blair urges West to back Abbas
Showdown looms over domestic spying
Abbas guard base in Gaza City attacked

'Tis the Season
Disney Tells Santa Lookalike to Get Lost

Worldwide Wackos
Early signs mixed in Iran vote - Video
Fidel Castro phones Cuban officials: paper reports
U.S. presses for real progress in N.Korea nuclear talks
North Korea turns tables in Japan abduction dispute
Fidel Castro phones Cuban officials: paper reports - Video

Homegrown Moonbats
Jimmy Carter's Mideast book polarizes opinion

Politics / Government
Indiana senator says won't make White House bid
Edwards set to launch '08 bid; Bayh out

In the Courts / Crime and Punishment
DNA Lab Withheld Results in Duke Rape Case

Science / Nature
Astronauts Struggle With Solar Array
Experts Doubt Relics Are Remains of Joan of Arc
Astronauts plan fourth walk to complete panel work - Video
Pacific NW winds kill four, leave 500,000 powerless - Video
Penguins offer evidence of global warming
Lower-fat diet cuts breast cancer recurrence: study
Carmakers fight global warming lawsuit

Media in the Media / Bloggers in the News
Star Trib plagiarism probe clears writer

Oddities
Woman Weighing 43 Pounds Found in Home
3 Guilty in Slaying of Debutante
Legal flap brews in Illinois over noose
Man, 85, charged with kidnapping wife

Other News of Note
If You're Reading This Headline,Then You're the 'Person of the Year'!
Missouri Man Kills 5, Including 3 of His Children

Fox News
Report: Miss USA Tara Conner Will Be Dethroned
Ten Players Ejected After Wild Brawl at End of Knicks-Nuggets Game
Disney World Tells Santa Lookalike to Hit the Road

Reuters: Top News
Starr sees value of parity but cherishes excellence
Eli Lilly played down risks of top drug-NY Times
Michael Jackson postpones Tokyo Christmas event
Stocks wait for PPI, mergers and Santa
Dow, S&P and Nasdaq up on benign inflation data - Video
Silver plummets 7 pct on fund selling, dollar rise
Brink's shares rise on news of rival's sale price
Dollar rallies and shrugs off tame inflation data
Searching for a star
Fed gives green light to risk taking
U.S. jury rules against Freightliner in fraud case
Money drying up for some investors in buyout firms
Searching for the stars among fund managers
Westinghouse wins massive China nuclear deal
Dell says gets non-compliance letter from Nasdaq
China, at energy summit, urges oil consumers to unite

AP World News
21 die in fire at Pakistan wedding party
T.O. helps Cowboys ground Falcons 38-28
Strikers picket 150 Goodyear stores
Workers struggle to ID Katrina victims
Knight 1 win from tying Smith's record
Veteran French rocker escapes taxes
Judge approves 2 Comair contract deals
Smithsonian TV deal irks investigators
No. 7 Wisconsin stuns No. 2 Pitt 89-75
Cubans freed after second Keys landing
Judge: Mustang Ranch brothel keeps name
BP told to detail pipe replacement plan
Coin dealer seeks appeal in Ohio case

Military.com
F-35 Test Flight Deemed a Success
Reserves, National Guard Feel Strain
Pilot Recalls Shoot-Down During Escort
Op-ed: Into Iraq's Quicksand
Defense Tech: Tricycle of Death
A Military Aviation Crisis Looming
Advisors: Home Alone for the Holidays
Podcast: Philpott on Benefits 2007
Beat the Weekend Shopping Crowds
Gear in the News: SSN 709

CENTCOM: News Releases
CAVALRY TROOPS CONFISCATE WEAPONS, DETAIN SUSPECT

POLAR BEARS STORM QUARGHULI VILLAGE BY AIR, LAND AND WATER

COALITION FORCES, IRAQI NATIONAL POLICE RESPOND TO EXPLOSION AT MOSQUE IN ZUBAIDA

JOINT STATEMENT BY AMBASSADOR ZALMAY KHALILZAD AND GEN. GEORGE CASEY ON IRAQ’S WINNING SILVER IN THE 15TH ASIAN GAMES IN DOHA, QATAR

ISF CAPTURES ILLEGAL ARMED GROUP MEMBER, DETAIN TWO OTHERS

ISF CONDUCT OPERATIONS TO CAPTURE ILLEGAL ARMED GROUP LEADER

ISP CAPTURE INSURGENT CELL LEADER

PARATROOPERS FIND CACHE, DETAIN THREE

USJFCOM
USJFCOM’s new super computer to enhance joint experimentation, training - podcast
Command surgeon hosts joint task force medical seminar - podcast

Department of Defense
NEWS UPDATES
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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
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
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