PACIFIC (Feb. 2, 2008) - An F/A-18 Hornet from Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 11, embarked aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) escorts a Russian Tu-95 Bear, long range bomber aircraft on Feb. 9, 2008 south of Japan. The bomber neared the vicinity of the carrier resulting in the fighter intercept. Nimitz was transiting through the Western Pacific on a regularly scheduled deployment when the incident occurred. U.S. Navy Photo

Labels: aircraft, CVN 68, CVW 11, F/A 18, Hornet, Tu-95 Bear, US Navy, USS Nimitz

Michael Yon is dispelling some media myths about the ISF:

[...]Although there have been some grumblings from journalists that illiterate ISF have been hired, there is a literacy standard for the Iraqi police. I have seen literacy tests administered in Anbar, for instance [...] Meanwhile, an increasingly capable ISF is being formed from the available men and women in Iraq [...]

Michael's had an opportunity to view several stages of the development of the ISF, and notes that although issues remain, there's definitely been progress:

[...] It’s been more than three years since I first started watching ISF up close, and there is no mistaking that there are more ISF, and their quality is improving. They fight well and courageously, taking far more casualties than we do. Iraqi soldiers and police are increasingly adopting the habits of the Americans they work with. So I will say with certainty that the Iraqi Army is getting better, and fast, because I have seen it firsthand across Iraq [...]

His latest "RUBs" dispatch is well worth the read; check it out here.

Also, Michael did an interview on NPR today - audio here and here.

Labels: Blogwatch, Good News, Iraq, Michael Yon

DONKEY WATCH
A donkey appears more interested in the camera than the U.S. Army soldiers from 1st Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, searching a damaged building in Baghdad, Iraq, Jan. 26, 2008. U.S. Army Spc. Jeffery Sandstrum

Labels: 1-2 Stryker Cavalry Regiment, Baghdad, Iraq, photos, US Army

News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Iraq Hospital Chief Allegedly Supplied Patients for Bombings
Iraqi threatens to disband parliament
Hawr Rajab Women’s Committee Holds Inaugural Meeting
Iraqi Army, Coalition Unearth 1,000 Landmines
Foreign militants entering Iraq down 50 percent: Petraeus
U.S. forces hold 25 "rogue" Iraq Shi'ite militiamen
Russia forgives 12-billion-dollar Iraq debt: reports
Some Al-Qaeda leaders flee Iraq with cash: general
Iraq's Displacement Crisis and the International Response
31 militants arrested in Iraq raids

Operation Enduring Freedom
Task Force Gets Mine-resistant Ambulances

Homeland Security / War on Terror / Hamas-Hezbollah Happenings
DHS, FBI Warn of Possibility of Female Homicide Bombers
Nazi Trials Invoked in Defense of New 9-11 Charges
Senate Approves Terror Surveillance Bill
Executions may be carried out at Gitmo

Troops on Trial
Women Testify That Air Force Colonel Sexually Assaulted Them

Fallen Heroes
DoD Identifies Army Casualty (Jawwalah)
DoD Identifies Army Casualties (Taji)

Supporting Our Heroes...or not
Berkeley City Council to Revisit Vote Against Marine Recruiting Station

Other Military News
Russian Bombers Buzz Deck of U.S. Ship - PHOTOS
Admiral Calls USS Nimitz Incident 'Benign'

Politics / Government
FOX News Projects Obama, McCain Sweep in Virginia, Maryland and D.C.
EXIT POLLS - DELEGATE COUNT
POTOMAC PRIMARIES BRIEFING BOOK (pdf) - PHOTOS
Report: Bill Clinton Planned to Divorce Hillary
Clinton Resists Calls to Release Tax Returns
Pa. Gov.: Some Whites Likely to Vote Against Obama (Yeah....and some Black voters are likely to vote against him, too)
Report: Clinton's Deputy Campaign Manager Resigns
Clinton, Obama already targeting March 4
Bush: Noose displays 'deeply offensive'
Administration proposes housing plan
Bush's Ex-Sister-in-Law Sued Over Engagement Ring
Secrets of the Great Seal of the United States Revealed
Fraud crackdown comes with a loophole

In the Courts / Crime and Punishment / Law and Order
Georgia Man Arrested After 3-Year-Old in His Care Apparently Shoots Self in Head
Julian Lennon: Yoko Wants to Sue 'Lennon'
Mom Abandons Boy, 3, After He Is Found Wandering Mall
Feds: N.Y. Woman Sold Child for Sex to Pay Rent
Report: 'Ponytail Bandit,' ID'd, Believed to Be in Thailand
Cop Suspended After Video Surfaces of Berating Kids
Canseco Denies Seeing Clemens Use, Seek Steroids
Clemens 'IS here to talk about past'
Deputies Caught Dumping Man From Wheelchair - VIDEO
Jury deliberates in ex-officer's trial

Media in the Media / Bloggers in the News / Watching the Web
Yahoo acquires video service for $160M

Science / Medicine and Health / Technology
Wife: Vasectomy Killed My Husband
Woman Told She Miscarried Finds Out She's Still Pregnant a Month Later
New dinosaur species found in Mexico
Astronaut mum on what ailed him
Telescopes spot one of earliest galaxies

Mother Nature
Drip, drip begins in icy Ohio Valley
FEMA to use trailers after tornadoes

Oddities
Woman, 89, uses ax to break into home

Fox News
Dolly Parton's Breasts Cause Her to Postpone Tour
Pop Tarts: Carrie Underwood Sexin' Up Her Style

Reuters

AP World News
Coleman says he's secretly been married
Shakira charity auction raises $76,000
Busch, Stewart handed 6-race probation
Lenny Kravitz postponing European tour
GM posts biggest annual US auto loss
Harris among Country Hall inductees
Pakistani opposition in coalition talks
Zednik upgraded to good condition
Livan Hernandez, Twins agree at $5M

CENTCOM: News Releases
Coalition targets al-Qaeda in Iraq networks; two terrorists killed, two detained
Coalition forces disrupt Special Groups criminal networks, detain two
Coalition forces capture Special Groups leader, detain four total suspects

USJFCOM
Newsmaker Profile: Director of Joint Training Army Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya - podcast
Joint fires team, Army training center leaps forward with joint integrated training
Learn more about the Joint Fires Integration and Interoperability Team
Joint Deployment Training Center revs up for the future - podcast

Multi-National Force-Iraq
Airmen Deliver School Supplies, Soccer Balls to Safwan School
Radio Station Opens in Wehida
Deputy Minister of Education of Iraq attends detainee release ceremony (Baghdad)
Local tip yields cache (Baghdad)
Suspected special group criminal cell leader detained in Abu T’shir
Large cache discovered in southern Arab Jabour

DefenseLink
TOP NEWS
Deputy Secretary Urges Prompt DoD Funding
Navy Efforts in Gulf Reflect New Maritime Strategy

MILITARY NEWS
Proposed Treaty Threatens Operations with NATO Allies
Virginia Guard Called to Fight Fires
Agency, at 50, Keeps High-Tech Edge
African-Americans Have Legacy of Military Service, Sacrifice - Special

IRAQ NEWS
Fair Helps Residents Plan for Economic Future
As Al Qaeda Loses Support, Its Fighters Flee Cities
Troops Kill 2, Capture 11 in Baghdad and South

AFGHANISTAN NEWS
Soldiers Visit Children on First Day of School

FACE OF DEFENSE
Airman Drives Convoys

AMERICA SUPPORTS YOU
Group Announces Patriot Freedom Scholarships

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

Today in History
1049 - Bruno, Count of Egesheim & Dagsburg crowned Pope Leo IX
1111 - German King Hendry V arrives at St Peter, Rome
1130 - Pope Innocent II elected
1502 - Granada Muslims forced to convert to Catholicism
1528 - Treaty of Dordrecht between emperor & ecclesiastical power
1577 - Spanish land guardian Don Juan of Habsburg signs "Eternal Edict"
1624 - English parliament comes together
1733 - Georgia founded by James Oglethorpe, at site of Savannah
1762 - English fleet occupies Martinique
1763 - John Casteret appointed British minister of foreign affairs
1772 - Yves de Kerguelen of France discovers Kerguelen Archipelago, India
1793 - 1st US fugitive slave law passed; requires return of escaped slaves
1818 - Chile gains independence from Spain
1821 - Mercantile Library of the City of New York opens
1825 - Creek Indian treaty signed; Tribal chiefs agree to turn over all their land in Georgia to the government & migrate west by Sept 1, 1826
1832 - Ecuador annexes Galápagos Islands
1839 - Boundary dispute between Maine & New Brunswick leads to Aroostook
1840 - Housatonic Railroad opens
1850 - Original Washington's Farewell Address manuscript sells for $2,300
1861 - State troops seize US munitions in Napoleon AK
1865 - Henry Highland Garnet, is 1st black to speak in US House of Representatives
1870 - Official proclamation sets April 15 as last day of grace for US silver coins to circulate in Canada
1873 - Congress abolishes bimetallism & authorizes $1 & $3 gold coins
1874 - King David Kalakaua of Sandwich Island HI, is 1st king to visit US
1876 - Al Spalding opens his sporting good shop
1877 - 1st news dispatch by telephone, between Boston & Salem, MA; US railroad builders strike against wage reduction
1878 - Frederick Thayer patents the catcher's mask (pat # 200,358)
1879 - 1st artificial ice rink in North America (Madison Square Garden, NYC); News about slaughtering of Isandlwana reaches London
1882 - Social-Democratic Union forms in Amsterdam
1886 - 2nd British government of Salisbury forms
1908 - New York to Paris auto race (via Alaska & Siberia) begins in New York NY; George Schuster wins after 88 days behind the wheel
1909 - National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded; Netherlands' SDAP suspends Marxist Tribune group (Gorter & Wijnkoop)
1912 - Last Ch'ing (Manchu) emperor of China, Henry P'u-i, abdicates
1915 - Cornerstone laid for Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC
1921 - Soviet troops invade Georgia (theirs, not ours); Winston Churchill becomes British, minister of Colonies
1924 - President Calvin Coolidge makes 1st presidential radio speech
1925 - 1st federal arbitration law approved by Congress; Estonia forbids Communist Party
1927 - British expeditionary army lands in Shanghai
1932 - Communist Party of Holland forms Unemployed Combat Committees
1933 - German vice-chancellor von Papen demands Catholic aid for Nazis
1934 - France hit by a general strike against fascists & royalists
1935 - Great airship, USS Macon, crashes into Pacific Ocean
1938 - Austrian chancellor Schuschnigg visits Hitler in Berchtesgaden
1938 - German troops entered Austria
1941 - Jewish Council for Amsterdam forms, under Ascher/Cohen; Occupation Police arrest "Jewish Foursome"
1942 - 3 German battle cruisers escape via Channel to Brest N Germany
1943 - General Eisenhower departs Algiers to Tebessa
1944 - Wendell Wilkie (R) enters presidential race
1945 - San Francisco selected for site of UN Conference
1947 - Daytime fireball & meteorite fall seen in eastern Siberia
1948 - 1st Lieutenant Nancy Leftenant becomes 1st black in army nursing corps
1949 - Panic in Quito, Ecuador, after "War of the World" played on radio; Unidentified aircraft bomb Jerusalem
1950 - Senator Joe McCarthy claims to have list of 205 communist government employees; Albert Einstein warns against hydrogen bomb
1953 - USSR breaks relations with Israel
1955 - President Eisenhower sends 1st US advisors to South Vietnam; Soviets decides space center built in Baikonur, Kazachstan
1957 - Researchers announce Borazan (harder than diamonds) been developed
1958 - General Miguel Ydegoras Fuentes elected President of Guatemala
1960 - Chinese army kills 12 Indian soldiers
1961 - USSR launches Venera 1 toward Venus
1963 - Argentina asks extradition of Ex-President Peron
1973 - 1st US POWs in North Vietnam released - 116 of 456 flown to Philippines
1979 - Kosmos 1076, 1st Soviet oceanographic satellite, launched
1981 - Admiral Bobby R. Inman, USN, becomes deputy director of CIA; Cape Verde amends its constitution
1984 - Jayne Torvill & Christopher Dean skate "Bolero" at the Olympics receiving all perfect scores for quality & the gold medal
1989 - 5 Pakistani Moslem rioters killed protesting "Satanic Verses" novel
1991 - Iceland recognizes Lithuania's independence
1994 - 17th Olympics Winter games open in Lillehammer, Norway
1995 - PRI loses/PAN wins Mexican regional elections
1997 - Fred Goldman says he will settle for a signed murder confession from O J Simpson in lieu of his $20.5 million judgement
1998 - 250-car Italy pile-up due to fog, 4 die & 50 hurt; Intel unveils its 1st graphics chip i740; US district judge T. Hogan declares line-item veto law unconstitutional

Birthdays
1211 - Henry VII Roman, Catholic German king (1220-35)
1438 - Adolf van Egmond, Duke of Gelre/earl of Zutphen
1474 - Lorenzo Campeggi(o), Archbishop of Bologna/diplomat
1588 - John Winthrop, English attorney/puritan/1st Governor of Massachusetts
1768 - Francis II Florence, last Holy Roman emperor (1792-1806)
1775 - Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, wife of John Quincy Adams
1809 - Charles Darwin, discovered evolution (Origin of species); Abraham Lincoln, (R) 16th President (1861-65)
1828 - Robert Ransom, Jr., Confederate Major General (Confederate Army)
1831 - John Morrissey, boxer/developer of Saratoga Springs horse race track
1838 - Charles Carroll Walcott, Union Brevet Major General
1841 - Gijsbert van Tienhoven, Dutch mayor (Amsterdam)/foreign minister
1868 - Johan H.A. Schaper, Dutch MP/founder (SDAP)
1869 - Hendrik P. Marchant, Dutch minister of Education/Arts (VVD)
1893 - Omar Bradley, General of the Army WWII, "The GI General"
1911 - Sylvstre A. Guzman Fernandez, President (Dominican Republic)
1914 - Nello Celi,o Swiss President
1915 - Andrew J. Goodpaster , US General/Supreme Commander (NATO-Europe)
1923 - James Abdnor (Senator-SD, 1981-87)
1930 - Arlen Specter (Senator-R-PA, 1981- )
1931 - Constance A. Morella (Representative-MD)
1933 - Ivan Nikolayevich Anikeyev, cosmonaut
1936 - Fang Lizhi, Chinese astrophysicist/dissident
1940 - Hank Brown (Representative-CO, 1981-88)
1941 - Naomi Uemura, mountain climber (1st Japanese to scale Everest)
1956 - Paula Zahn Omaha NB, news anchor (ABC, CBS This Morning); Ad P. Melkert, Dutch minister of Social Affairs

Passings
1128 - Toghtekin, slave/atabek of Damascus
1242 - Hendrik VII, Roman Catholics German king (1220-35), commits suicide
1554 - Lord Guildford Dudley Jane Grey's husband, beheaded
1771 - Adolf Frederik, King of Sweden (1751-70), dies at 60
1942 - Grant Wood, US painter (American Gothic), dies at 49
1945 - Henrietta Szold, founder (Hadassah, Youth Aliyah); Walraven [Wally] van Hall, Dutch banker/resisted Nazis, executed at 39
1958 - Marcel Cachin 1st communist French senator, dies at 88
1971 - James Cash Penney, founder (J C Penney), dies at 95
1984 - Anna Anderson Manahan (claimed to be Grand Duchess Anastasia) dies in VA
1993 - James Bulge,r English child beaten to death at 2, by 10 year old boys

Reported Missing in Action
1967
Sullivan, Martin J., USN (MA); F4B crashed in water, Killed, body not recovered

Weissmueller, Courtney E., USAF (FL); F100D shot down

1968
The following US Army personnel lost when their UH1H was shot down:
Brown, Harry Willis (SC); medic

Groth, Wade L. (MI); crewchief

Gunn, Alan W. (TX); pilot

Roe, Jerry L. (TX); aircraft commander

1969
The following US Army personnel reported MIA when their RU1A was shot down:
Fisher, John B. (FL); released by Sihanouk March, 1969

Osburn, Laird P. (WV); released by Sihanouk March, 1969 - alive and well as of 1998

Pryor, Robert J. (TN); released by Sihanouk March, 1969

1970
Bradshaw, Robert S. III, USMC (TX); F4B shot down (w/Breeding), KIA, body not recovered

Breeding, Michael Hugh, USMC (KS); F4B shot down (w/Bradshaw), KIA, body not recovered

1971
Mc Leod, Arthur E., US Army (NY); AH1G shot down (w/Wilkinson), remains ID'd August, 1999

Wilkinson, Clyde D., US Army (TX); AH1G shot down (w/McLeod), remains ID'd August, 1999

Labels: Headlines, History