POSTER PATROL
An Iraqi policeman assigned to the 1-6-2 National Police posts informational posters in a neighborhood in Khadra, Iraq, Feb. 9, 2008. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Sharhonda R. McCoy

Labels: 1-6-2 Iraqi National Police, Iraq, Iraqi Police, Khadra

SCRUBBERS
U.S. Navy sailors aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Essex scrub the ship's flight deck between flight operations while under way in the Sea of Japan, Feb. 15, 2008. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer Ty Swartz

Labels: photos, ships, US Navy, USS Essex

DEMONSTRATION
An Afghan National Army soldier participates in a demonstration to show weapons and communicatons capabilities at Camp Joyce, Afghanistan, Feb. 12, 2008. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Jordan Carter

Labels: Afghan National Army, Afghanistan, Camp Joyce, photos

"What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence? It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling sea coasts, the guns of our war steamers, or the strength of our gallant and disciplined army. These are not our reliance against a resumption of tyranny in our fair land. All of them may be turned against our liberties, without making us stronger or weaker for the struggle. Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in our bosoms. Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, every where. Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors. "

News of Note
Operation Iraqi Freedom
Female Homicide Bomber Strikes in Baghdad, Killing 3
Cavalry Regiment Seizes Second Weapons Cache in Three Days
Council Aims for Saydiyah Revival
Iraqi Army Invites Coalition Brothers to Tour Villages, Meet Residents
Iranian Rocket, Other Munitions Handed Over to Coalition Forces

Operation Enduring Freedom
Homicide Bomb Kills at Least 80

Homeland Security / War on Terror / Hamas-Hezbollah
Israel's Olmert and Abbas to meet on Tuesday
Israeli attacks kill 4 in Gaza Strip
Bhutto's widower denounces extremism

Other Military News
Florida Boys Find Live WWII Grenade with Metal Detector
Kosovo's Leader: Parliament to Declare Independence

Religion of Peace??
Gunman Kills Muslim Politician in Mosque Attack

Worldwide Wackos
Iran says U.S. talks delayed for technical reasons

Homegrown Moonbats
Lawmaker Wants Global Warming Part of Textbooks

Politics / Government
Battle for Hawaii
Hillary Camp: Victory is Ours
McCain Picks Up Louisiana, Michigan Delegates
VIDEO: String of Crowd Faintings at Obama Rallies
Bush discusses African crises, praises Tanzania
Obama and Clinton take battle to Wisconsin - Video
Ex-Philippine officials urge Arroyo cabinet to resign
McCain gets 50 delegates from Mich., La.
Clinton aide wants Mich., Fla. delegates

In the Courts / Crime and Punishment / Law and Order
Cops: Dad Killed Daughter After She Text-Messaged Boy
Nev. student was victim of serial rapist
Gunman's contradictions confound police

U.N. News
"Hybrids" take back night in dangerous Darfur camps - Video

Science / Medicine and Health / Technology
Mission Complete
Astronauts work on space lab during busy mission - Video
Precision clock traps atoms in light to keep time
British unmanned Moon probe wins UK-NASA backing
Flash drives offer new choices for music fans
Shuttle prepares to undock from station

News from My Neck of the Woods
Kitten found after 25 days in NYC subway

Fox News
Home Explodes in Detroit, Injuring 5
301 Pennies Auctioned Off for $10.7M

Reuters
Al-Fayed takes centre stage at Diana inquest
Kenya says forcing a deal would be a mistake
Travel Picks: Top 10 places to fly solo
Colombian artist Oscar Munoz revamps Narcissus myth
Political films triumph in Berlin
Airline profits threatened by credit crisis: IATA
Borse Dubai says would consider Qatar bid for LSE
Credit Suisse CEO sees credit crisis nadir in months
United-Continental talks pick up pace: source
Bond insurer breakups could hurt Wall Street
Germany frets for economic model after tax scandal
Wall St Week Ahead: Bond insurer plan could inject positive note
Dow and Nasdaq slip on consumer spending worry - Video
Fed will continue to act decisively: Mishkin
Bear Stearns shares up amid renewed takeover talk
Food stocks rally on Heinz, Buffett news
Barnes Group profit falls on charges
Best Buy cuts year forecast as sales soften
Oil steady as economic concerns weigh - Video
Platinum hits record high $2,060 on panic buying
Safety to dominate fair

AP World News
K-State's Beasley drops 40 on Missouri
Carpenters fans try to save former home
Howard soars in spectacular dunk contest
Memphis survives scare to remain perfect
Stern expects Sonics to leave Seattle
Hawks hoping Bibby can help playoff push

CENTCOM: News Releases
JOINT STATEMENT By the U.S. Embassy Baghdad and Multi-National Force-Iraq
Coalition forces disrupt Special Groups criminal networks, detain two suspects
Coalition targets al-Qaeda in Iraq networks; two terrorists killed, two detained
Soldiers report largest cache finds since beginning of year
Coalition forces disrupt Special Groups criminal networks, detain two

USJFCOM
Phase one of Multinational Experiment 5 wraps up
More about Multinational Experiment 5
Joint Knowledge Online extends cultural awareness training for U.S. Forces Korea - podcast
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

Multi-National Force-Iraq
UH-60 Blackhawk precautionary landing made safe with Iraqi Police assistance (At Ta’Mim Province)
Suicide bombers kill 4, injure 16 during prayer at Tal Afar mosque
National Police, Coalition Forces find caches (Boob al Sham)
Weapon cache found in Babahani area
Iraqi Army, Rakkasans find second large cache in two weeks (Qarghuli)
Joint IA and IP operation nets 21 suspects detained by Mosul ISF

DefenseLink
TOP NEWS
Mullen: Iraq Surge Gives Window of Opportunity
New Iraq Laws Show Maturity
Top Doc Says Walter Reed Improved Wounded Care

MILITARY NEWS
Online Chats Net Valuable Results

IRAQ NEWS
Austin Assumes Command of Multinational Corps

WHY WE SERVE
Airman Recalls Firefight

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
1370 - Battle at Rudau - Germany beats Lithuania
1568 - Holy Roman Emperor agrees to pay annual tribute to Sultan for peace
1598 - Boris Godunov chosen tsar of Russia
1621 - Miles Standish appointed 1st commander of Plymouth colony
1670 - France & Bavaria sign military assistance treaty
1676 - Kings Charles II & Louis XIV sign secret treaty
1691 - Thomas Neale granted British patent for American postal service
1714 - Parliament of Paris accepts Pope Clemens XI's "Unigenitus" degree
1772 - 1st partition of Poland-Russia & Prussia, joined later by Austria
1776 - 1st volume of Gibbon's "Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire" published
1791 - Messier catalogs M83 (spiral galaxy in Hydra)
1801 - House breaks electoral college tie, chooses Jefferson President over Burr
1817 - 1st US city lit by gas (Baltimore)
1818 - Baron Karl von Drais de Sauerbrun patents "draisine" (early bicycle)
1836 - HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin leaves Tasmania
1848 - Toscane gets liberal Constitution
1854 - British recognize independence of Orange Free State (South Africa)
1864 - Confederate sub H.L. Hunley sinks Union ship Housatonic (1st submarine to sink an enemy ship)
1865 - Columbia, SC burns down during the Civil War (Battle of Charleston)
1867 - 1st ship passes through Suez Canal; Gyula Andressy becomes premier of Hungary
1870 - Mississippi becomes 9th state re-admitted to US after Civil War; Esther Morris appointed 1st female judge
1876 - Sardines 1st canned (Julius Wolff-Eastport, ME)
1878 - 1st telephone exchange in San Francisco opens with 18 phones
1880 - Tsar Alexander II of Russia survives an assassination attempt
1883 - A. Ashwell patents free-toilet in London
1896 - London Country Councils' Muzzling Order becomes effective
1897 - National Congress of Parents & Teachers (PTA) organizes (Washington DC)
1905 - Frances Willard becomes 1st woman honored in National Statuary Hall
1906 - Theodore Roosevelt's daughter Alice marries in the White House
1911 - 1st amphibian flight to & from a ship, by Glenn Curtiss, San Diego
1913 - New York Armory Show introduces Picasso, Matisse, Duchamp to US public; 1st minimum wage law in US takes effect (Oregon)
1915 - Edward Stone, 1st US combatant to die in WWI, is mortally wounded
1926 - Avalanche buries 75 in Sap Gulch Bingham UT, 40 die
1930 - French government of Tardieu falls
1931 - 1st telecast of a sporting event in Japan (baseball)
1933 - 1st issue of "Newsweek" magazine published; US Senate accept Blaine Act, ending prohibition
1934 - 1st high school auto driving course offered (State College, PA)
1938 - 1st public experimental demonstration of Baird color TV (London)
1940 - British destroyers board German Altmark off Norway
1943 - Dutch churches protest at Seyss-Inquart against persecution of Jews; General-Major Bradley flies to Washington, DC; Hitler visits field marshal von Mansteins headquarters in Zaporozje; New York Yankee Joe DiMaggio enlists in the US Army
1944 - Battle of Eniwetok Atoll begins - US victory on Feb 22; US begins night bombing of Truk
1947 - "Voice of America" begins broadcasting to USSR; Dutch Roman Catholic bishops publish manifest against "godless communism"
1949 - Chaim Weizman elected 1st President of Israel
1949 - Men's Figure Skating Championship in Paris won by Richard Button USA
1950 - 31 die in a train crash in Rockville Center, New York
1953 - Baseball star/pilot Ted Williams uninjured as plane shot down in Korea
1957 - Suez Canal reopens
1958 - Comic strip "BC" 1st appears
1959 - 1st weather satellite launched, Vanguard 2, 9.8 kg
1962 - Storm in Hamburg, kills 265
1964 - US House of Reps accept law on civil rights; US Supreme court rules 1 man 1 vote (Westberry vs Sanders)
1965 - US Ranger 8 launched, will transmit 7,137 lunar pictures; US-Japan baseball relations suspended over Masanori Murakami dispute
1966 - French satellite Diapason D-1A launch into Earth orbit
1967 - Kosmos 140 (Soyuz test) launches into Earth orbit
1968 - Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Springfield, MA, opens
1969 - Golda Meir sworn in as Israel's 1st female prime minister
1972 - President Nixon leaves Washington, DC for China; British Parliament votes to join European Common Market
1974 - 49 die in stampede for seats at soccer match, Cairo, Egypt
1976 - Macau adopts constitution (Organic Law of Macau)
1979 - China invades Vietnam
1981 - Chrysler Corp reports largest corporate losses in US history
1983 - Netherlands adopts constitution
1985 - 1st class postage rises from 20¢ to 22¢; 3rd person to receive an artificial heart (Murray Haydon)
1986 - 1st Francophone Summit convenes at Versailles; Johnson & Johnson announces it no longer sells capsule drugs; Libyan bombers attack N'djamena Airport in Chad
1988 - US Lieutenant Colonel William Higgins kidnapped by Lebanese terrorists & later killed
1989 - 6-week study of Arctic atmosphere shows no ozone "hole"
1989 - Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia & Libya form common market
1993 - Haitian ferry boat capsize in storm, 800-2,000 die
1995 - Colin Fergusson found guilty of killing 6 people on the Long Island Railroad in New York; Federal judge allows lawsuit claiming US tobacco makers knew nicotine was addictive & manipulated its levels to keep customers hooked
1997 - Carl Sagan Public Memorial at Pasadena, CA
1998 - Diane Zamora, 20, Naval Academy cadet convicted of capital murder; Larry Wayne Harris & Bill Levitt arrested for possession of anthrax

Birthdays
1490 - Charles de Bourbon officer/governor (Lombardy)
1519 - François de Guise [Balafré], French general strategist (Calais)
1723 - Tobias Mayer "method of lunars" for longitude determination
1804 - Samuel Read Anderson, Confederate Brigadier General
1817 - Frederick Douglass, famous African-American
1824 - William Farrar "Baldy" Smith, Union Major General
1837 - Francis Jay Herron, Union Major General
1854 - Friedrich A. Krupp, German arms manufacturer
1855 - Otto Liman von Sanders, German general in Turkey (WWI)
1874 - Thomas J. Watson, Sr., representative/founder (IBM)
1880 - Alvaro Obregon, General/President of Mexico (1920-24)
1884 - Arthur Vanderpoorten, Flemish minister of Internal affairs (1940)
1888 - Otto Stern, German/US physicist (Stern-Gerlach-experiment, Nobel 1943)
1889 - H(aroldson) L. Hunt, Texas oil multi-millionaire
1906 - Galo Plaza Lasso, President of Ecuador (1948-52), head of OAS (1968-75)
1914 - (Bert de) Wayne Morris, WWII-pilot/actor (Paths of Glory)
1918 - Charles A. Hayes (Representative-IL)
1929 - Yasser Arafat PLO-leader (Achille Lauro, Nobel 1994)
1933 - Craig Thomas (Representative-WY)
1938 - Mary Frances Berry, educator/head (US Commission on Civil Rights)
1942 - Huey Newton, Black Panther leader
1944 - Bernie Grant, British politician (Labour)
1945 - Willie J.L. Swildens-Rozendal, Dutch MP (PvdA)

Passings
0364 - Flavius Jovianus, Christian emperor of Rome (363-64), dies at about 32
0956 - Hugo the Great, Earl of Paris/duke of Francia, dies at about 55
1612 - Ernst of Bayern, Prince/Bishop of Luik/archbishop of Cologne, dies at 57
1688 - Reverend James Renwick, hanged in Scotland for being a Presbyterian
1874 - (Lambert) Adolphe J. Quetelet, Belgian astronomer/sociologist, dies at 77
1905 - Serge Alexandrovich, Governor-General Moscow, murdered
1912 - Aloys von Aerenthal, foreign minister (Austria-Hungary), dies at 57; L. Oates, British explorer (Antarctica)
1918 - Wilfrid Laurier, Canadian PM (1896-1911)
1934 - Albert I LCMM von Saksen-Coburg, King of Belgium (1909-34), dies at 58
1977 - Quincy Howe, newscaster (CBS Weekend News), dies at 76
1991 - Enrique Bermudez, commandant (Contra)

Reported Missing in Action
1967
Sooter, David W., US Army (CA); OH23G shot down - released by DRV March, 1973 - deceased, 1968

1968
The following USN personnel reported MIA when their OP2E was shot down - remains returned 1993:
Ashby, Clayborn W., Jr. (KY)

Coons, Chester L. (ND)

Dawson, Frank A. (CA)

Donato, Paul N. (MA)

Hayden, Glenn (CA)

Kravitz, James S. (CA)

Martin, James E. (UT)

Thurman, Curtis F. (MO)

Wonn, James C. (PA)

1972
Cutter, James D., USAF (KY); F105G shot down (w/Fraser), released by DRV March, 1973 - retired as a Major - alive as of 1996

Fraser, Kenneth J., USAF (NY); F105G shot down (w/Cutter), released by DRV March, 1973 - alive as of 1998

Hawley, Edwin A., Jr., USAF (AL); F4D shot down (w/Irwin), released by DRV (injured) February, 1973

Irwin, Robert H., USAF (NY); F4D shot down (w/Hawley) - remains returned July, 1989 - ID'd November, 1989

Labels: Headlines, History