News of the Force - Saturday, September 19, 2009 (Page 1)

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                 Saturday, September 19, 2009 - Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown

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NATO chief proposes linked U.S./Russia/NATO defense

    The head of NATO called yesterday for the U.S., Russia and NATO to link their missile defense systems against potential new nuclear threats from Asia and the Middle East, saying that the old foes must forget their lingering Cold War animosity.

 

 

Pandemic flu vaccine to fall short, WHO says

    Global production of swine flu vaccines will be "substantially less" than the previous maximum forecast of 94 million doses a week, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday.

 

Conservative Christians assail President Obama's agenda

    U.S. conservative Christians, a key base for the out-of-power Republican Party, gathered in Washington, D.C., yesterday to rally the faithful against President Obama's agenda, including his top domestic priority of health care reform.

    And get ready to see a lot of President Obama in the next couple of days. Pushing his plan for health care reform, the president will appear on five political talk shows tomorrow, as well as The Late Show with David Letterman on Monday.

 

Iran's president raises stakes against Israel

    President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad raised the stakes against Israel yesterday and called the Holocaust a lie, just as world powers try to decide how to deal with the nuclear ambitions of an Iran in political turmoil.

 

Guantanamo detainees in video link to families

    Several detainees at the U.S. camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have made the first video-teleconference calls to their families, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said yesterday.

 

No sign of deal as Obama's envoy leave the Middle East

    Washington's peace envoy ended a week of shuttle diplomacy in the Middle East yesterday with little yet to show for his efforts as Israel and the Palestinians dug in to opposing positions on Jewish settlements.

 

 

Putin hails 'brave' U.S. shift on missiles

    Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin praised President Obama's "brave" move to axe a planned missile shield in Europe as NATO's chief called for a new strategic partnership with the Kremlin.

 

 

 

Iranian opposition chiefs attacked during mass protests

    Iranian opposition chiefs were attacked yesterday as their supporters battled riot police, with tens of thousands mounting the first protest in two months against the re-election of hard-line President Ahmadinejad.

 

U.S. Navy Flag Officer announcement

    Vice Adm. David J. Dorsett has been nominated for reappointment to the grade of vice admiral and assignment as deputy chief of Naval Operations for information dominance, N2/N6, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations/Director of Naval Intelligence, the Pentagon, Washington, D.C. Dorsett is currently serving as director for Intelligence, N2, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, the Pentagon, Washington, D.C.

 

Bank of America faces criminal probe

    An FBI and Department of Justice investigation may add criminal charges to civil and regulatory allegations, the bank's hometown paper reports.

 

U.S. Marine Corps General Officer announcement

    Maj. Gen. John F. Kelly has been nominated for appointment to the rank of lieutenant general, and assignment as commander, Marine Forces Reserve/commander, Marine Forces North. Kelly is currently serving as the deputy commanding general, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, Calif.

 

Doctors baffled over swine flu cases

    In the intensive care unit of a hospital in Oklahoma, there are two children with the H1N1 flu. One is expected to live, and one is not. Why that is has their doctors baffled.

 

North Korea's nuclear vows fail to sway skeptics

    North Korean leader Kim Jong-il told a visiting Chinese envoy he will work to end his country's nuclear arms program through multilateral talks in an apparent breakthrough, but similar vows in the past have not been met with action.

 

Theft of radioactive scrap metal from Chernobyl thwarted
    Ukraine's State Security Service (SBU) has thwarted smugglers' efforts to remove some 25 tons of radioactive scrap metal from the Chornobyl disaster zone, RFE/RL's (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty) Ukrainian Service reports.

    Four unidentified police officers were arrested in connection with the incident and an investigation is under way.

    SBU spokeswoman Maryna Ostapenko said the impounded material's level of radioactivity is 13 times the allowable level.

 

NASA names crew for final shuttle mission
    

    Chief astronaut Steven Lindsey, a veteran of four shuttle missions, will command an all-veteran six-member crew for the final planned space shuttle flight next year, NASA announced yesterday.

    Peggy Whitson, a veteran space station commander, will take over as chief astronaut as the shuttle program winds down.
    Lindsey will be joined by pilot Eric Boe and mission specialists Benjamin "Al" Drew, Michael Barratt, Nicole Stott and Timothy Kopra, all space veterans. Barratt and Stott are currently in orbit aboard the International Space Station while Kopra just returned from a long-duration stay.
    Launch aboard the shuttle Discovery on mission STS-133 is targeted for September 2010. During the eight-day flight, a modified logistics module used to ferry equipment and supplies to and from the space station will be permanently mounted on the Earth-facing port of the central Unity module. No space-walks are currently planned.
    Barratt, who launched to the station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft last March, is scheduled to return to Earth with Expedition 20 commander Gennady Padalka on Oct. 11. Stott, who replaced Kopra aboard the station during Discovery's just-completed mission, is scheduled to come home with the crew of the next shuttle flight in November.
    Only six shuttle flights remain before the program is retired, all bound for the International Space Station. With yesterday's announcement, all of the crews are now assigned and no unassigned rookies remain in NASA's astronaut office at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

 

Somalia piracy suspect appears in New York City court

    A Somali teenager accused of leading a pirate attack on an American cargo ship off the coast of Africa has made a brief appearance before a New York judge.

 

California man convicted in nationwide anthrax scare

    A federal jury has convicted a 66-year-old Sacramento, Calif., man for mailing more than 100 anthrax hoax letters last year.

 

U.S. and China strengthen partnership to prevent WMD trade
    The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and China's General Administration of Customs (GAC), in cooperation with the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association (CACDA) and the University of Georgia's Center for International Trade and Security, has announced the successful conclusion of a workshop on Weapons of Mass Destruction Commodity Identification Training (WMD-CIT) in Shanghai, China.

    The workshop focused on effective means and ways to recognize and inspect WMD-related goods. The WMD-CIT curriculum is developed and delivered by NNSA's International Nonproliferation Export Control Program (INECP), which has helped more than 60 countries strengthen implementation of WMD-related export controls.

 

Plot suspect admits al-Qaida ties, may plead guilty

    

    A 3-day-long FBI interrogation has revealed a Denver, Colo., man received explosives training from al-Qaida.

 

Civil Air Patrol pilots to fly 'surrogate predators'

    

A Predator sensor ball is mounted underneath the left wing of this Civil Air Patrol Cessna 182, turning the aircraft into a 'surrogate predator’ suitable for pre-deployment training for Army and Marine Corps forces.

    

    With the conversion of a Civil Air Patrol plane into a "surrogate predator," the U.S. Air Force is relying on its auxiliary in a most imaginative way.
    "We're using a manned aircraft to simulate an unmanned aircraft," said CAP-USAF commander Col. Bill Ward, explaining that a sophisticated "redator ball" placed under the left wing of a Cessna 182 belonging to the CAP will give the plane the capability of mimicking the Air Force’s MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper, unmanned aircraft that provide real-time data to U.S. warfighters.
    The Air Force will use the surrogate predator to fill a critical training gap in support of Army and Marine Corps forces as they prepare for deployment.

    "Due to the Air Force maximum surge effort to provide more MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper support to ground units in CENTCOM, there are no Predator or Reaper forces available to support pre-deployment exercises such as Green Flag, which focuses on air-to-ground operations,” said Maj. Matt Martin, chief of the Predator/Reaper Operations Branch of the Air Combat Command at Langley Air Force Base, Va. "The surrogate predator is the solution."
    The Air Combat Command, or ACC, with the support of the U.S. Joint Forces Command, secured $2.5 million for the Surrogate Predator Program, once it was determined that the CAP could provide the needed training with its dedicated patriotic citizen volunteers at a fraction of the cost of the private contractor currently providing the training.
    "We've seen nothing but enthusiasm and a willingness to help from the Civil Air Patrol, which is why we chose them to do this mission," said Martin.
    With the predator ball in place, the CAP plane-turned-surrogate predator has the capability of locking onto a target and tracking it, said Col. Ward, adding that the ultimate goal is to broadcast streaming video. "This will give our soldiers and Marines a real-time view of what's going on," he said.
    Beginning this month, the ACC will provide mission training to selected CAP crews at Fort Polk, La. "ACC experts will train the CAP crews on how to do the mission using the same tactics, techniques and procedures that Predator crews use on combat missions," said Martin.
    "Basically, we will imitate being a Predator,” said Capt. David Lewis, the Louisiana CAP's project officer and one of six CAP pilots initially chosen for the program, who described the joint exercises like Green Flag as "the next big thing for the CAP in homeland security and the defense of our country."
    Lewis and the other CAP pilots have prior military experience, which is a requirement for the program. The pilots and their aircrews – a cadre of 18 CAP volunteers in all – will be needed in the program’s initial stages. Many more CAP volunteers will be involved as the program expands in the coming months. The ACC mission training will qualify them to provide air interdiction, close air support and intelligence/surveillance/reconnaissance support to ground forces. After a formal certification, these crews will be able to fly realistic surrogate predator missions. The ACC will closely monitor the program and will use Air Force operators with real-world Predator or Reaper experience to assist.
    "This initial cadre will then train the dozens of crews that will be needed to sustain our regular Green Flag support,” said Martin.

    A second airplane is already being modified to expand the Surrogate Predator Program. Once complete, the CAP will be able to provide coverage for both Green Flag East exercises from Fort Polk, La., and Green Flag West exercises from the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., close to where the second surrogate predator will be stationed in Las Vegas, Nev.
    Green Flag exercises typically involve 11 days of flying, eight hours per day, at least 10 times per year, and "hunter-killer scenarios," in which the surrogate predator starts by surveying targets and providing full-motion video to the brigade combat team. "Once a target is identified by the ground commander as hostile," Martin said, "the surrogate Ppredator will dynamically re-task into the strike role and coordinate with a forward air control to simulate the delivery of precision ordnance onto a target."
    Lewis foresees the potential of the surrogate predator for other CAP missions, like search and rescue and emergency services following hurricanes. "In the event of a natural disaster, the aircraft will certainly be made available to NORTHCOM for civil response purposes," said Martin. "However, due to the expense of the aircraft and the need to keep them available to support joint exercises, we don't anticipate using them to train for standard CAP missions."
    "Everyone involved is excited,” said Col. John Varljen, vice commander of the CAP's Southwest Region, which includes its Louisiana Wing. The CAP takes possession of the first Surrogate Predator this weekend. "This is an important mission, a real-world mission," said Varljen. "It is our contribution to the war effort."
    Homeland security missions are nothing new to the CAP, which has played a role in protecting America since its beginning days patrolling the Atlantic Coast for enemy aircraft and chasing German submarines during World War II. With its fleet of 550 aircraft, as well as numerous ground assets, and a force 58,000-strong, the CAP is considered a force multiplier at a very attractive cost.
    "The Civil Air Patrol is grateful for this new opportunity to aid in the defense of America," said CAP National Commander Maj. Gen. Amy Courter. "Our members are true patriots who volunteer to serve and professionally execute their duties with excellence every day. They truly go above and beyond the call of duty in service to this great nation."
    Ward predicts the Surrogate Predator Program will be "a real success story" for the Civil Air Patrol. "I think it’s going to highlight the CAP more than it already is to the Department of Defense," he said.
    The Civil Air Patrol is the uniformed, unpaid, volunteer civilian Auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force. For more information on the CAP, please visit www.gocivilairpatrol.com .

 

NCIS director retires after 27 years of service
By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class (SW/AW) Kristen Allen, USN, Naval Criminal Investigative Service Public Affairs

    The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) director stepped down from his position Sept. 12, and is retiring from the organization after 27 years of service.
    Special Agent Thomas Betro's official retirement date is Dec. 4. Deputy Director for Operations Greg Scovel is serving as acting director until Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus appoints a successor.
    Betro joined the then-Naval Investigative Service (NIS), NCIS' predecessor, in October 1982, and has served in numerous positions around the world, including two tours afloat aboard USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67) and USS Enterprise (CVN 65). Other tours included offices in Newport, R.I.; Philadelphia, Pa.; Iceland and Republic of the Philippines.
    The NIS became the NCIS in 1993. 
    "I loved every single assignment I've ever had," said Betro. "I've always told people that my last assignment was always my best, and I guess I'll walk out saying definitively that was the case at the end. Everywhere I've been, I've had great offices, worked with great people and in great locations." 
    Former Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter appointed Betro as the third civilian NCIS director on Jan. 8, 2006. As director, Betro served as the senior official responsible for criminal, counter-intelligence, and counter-terrorism investigations and related operations within the Department of the Navy. He also managed protective service operations for the naval leadership, had responsibility for information and personnel security policy within the Navy Department and operated the Navy's Central Adjudication Facility.
    The NCIS has about 2,400 civilian and military personnel serving in 41 countries and more than 160 locations around the world. According to Betro the people are what he will miss most about the agency. "It's been a great ride," said Betro. "I can't thank each and every person in the NCIS enough for what they do for this organization and what that's meant to me. I can't thank each and every one of them individually, but I wish I could."
    Related site: www.navy.mil/local/ncis/ .

 

Clinton warns Iran over its nuclear program

    Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said yesterday that Iran's refusal to prove that its nuclear intentions are peaceful have "profound consequences" for world security.

 

Sworn testimony by ArmorGroup executive challenged

    A top executive of the private security contractor hired to protect the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan was informed in July 2008 of alleged illegal and immoral conduct by guards, attorneys for a whistle-blower suing the company said yesterday.

 

Parole denied for thee woman who claimed abuse

By Jim Corvey, News of the Force - St. Louis

    Three women convicted of murdering of their husbands learned they were denied parole yesterday, despite claims their husbands abused them and a new state law crafted specifically to get the Missouri Board of Probation and Parole to consider their cases. 
    Amy Lorenz-Moser, the attorney for two of the women, Roberta Carlene Borden and Vicky Williams, said she received a call from Borden, who informed her of the board's decision.

    The three received new parole hearings under a 2007 law signed by then-Gov. Matt Blunt. The law said offenders who had murdered their spouses would be eligible for parole if they had served at least 15 years in prison, had no prior violent felony convictions, had a history of "substantial physical abuse or sexual domestic violence" not presented at trial, and were sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 50 years. All three of the women had served 20 years or more.

    It is the parole board's policy not to comment on decisions until 10 days after they have been made. 
    Lorenz-Moser said the denials were devastating for her clients and their children, who have had their hopes dashed before. "When something like this happens, it's harder each time," Lorenz-Moser said. "It's the let-down." 
    Lorenz-Moser said Borden, who is housed in the same prison as Ruby Jamerson, the third woman, told her that Jamerson's parole had also been denied.

 

U.S. airmen conducting humanitarian mission in Vietnam
By Tech. Sgt. Kerry Jackson, USAF, 13th Air Force Public Affairs

    U.S. civil engineer and medical airmen are in Quang Tri Province, Vietnam, providing humanitarian and civic assistance to local communities Sept. 15-24 as part of "Operation
Pacific Angel 2009." 
    Operation Pacific Angel is a joint and combined humanitarian assistance operation conducted in the Pacific area of responsibility to support the U.S. Pacific Command's capacity-building efforts. This humanitarian and civic assistance program is aimed at improving military-civic cooperation between the United States and countries throughout the Asia-Pacific region. 
    "Our team has a lot of energy and enthusiasm, and we feel privileged to support this humanitarian effort alongside our Vietnamese counterparts," said Lt. Col. Alvin Alana, the operations officer for Pacific Angel events in Vietnam. "We understand the quality-of-life value that the construction and medical missions provide the Quang Tri Province community,
and we look forward to strengthening the bonds of friendship with the Vietnamese during our time here." 
    The medical team will provide general medical care to Quang Tri Province residents, to include care for chronic illnesses, acute illnesses, diabetes, hypertension, and treatment for parasites, along with routine dental and optometry care. Engineering efforts will include plumbing, electrical and structural work at the Thuy Medical Center. 
    The medical and civil engineer teams are working alongside the local East Meets West Foundation, a non-governmental organization that believes every person deserves access to clean water, proper medical treatment and a solid education. 
    "It's very important to Vietnamese people to know that the American people and the U.S. government came here to help improve the living conditions of Vietnamese people," said Tran Thi Minh Huong, national coordinator of the East Meets West Foundation. "It's very appreciated."

    This operation is unique in that dentists will provide a comprehensive package of dental care to include complete dental exams, x-rays, fillings, cleanings, sealings and oral hygiene education. Traditionally, dental care in remote locations is limited to dental extractions, even if teeth could be saved were more resources available. "We are able to provide elevated levels of dental care, similar to care available in the United States, even though we are in a remote-field site," said Capt. (Dr.) Charles Craft, a reserve corps dental officer with the U.S. Public Health Service and the liaison officer between the Air Force and the East Meets West Foundation here in Vietnam. "Typically, only extractions are available, but because we are partnering with an established NGO that has been here for more than 10 years, we are
able to provide a more comprehensive level of care," Dr. Craft said. 
    The team has already seen approximately 1,177 patients since opening their doors on Sept. 17, with more than 5,000 patients expected during the duration of the mission. 
    Pacific Angel is a Pacific Air Forces operation led by the 13th Air Force at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii. Two previous iterations of Operation Pacific Angel 2009 were conducted in July - one to Indonesia and another to Timor Leste.

 

Obama birth certificate trial set for January

By Jeff Schwilk

    

    The expedited trial has been set for Jan. 26, 2010, just 4-1/2 months from now.

    I and many other concerned veterans and citizens attended the hearing yesterday in Federal Court in Santa Ana, Calif., in the lawsuit against Barack Obama to determine his eligibility to be president and commander-in-chief. About 150 people showed up, almost all in support of the lawsuit to demand that Obama release his birth certificate and other records that he has hidden from the American people.

    Judge David Carter refused to hear Obama's request for dismissal, instead setting a hearing date for Oct. 5, since Obama's attorneys had just filed the motion yesterday. He indicated there was almost no chance that this case would be dismissed.

    Obama is arguing this lawsuit was filed in the wrong court, if you can believe that. I guess Obama would prefer a "kangaroo court" instead of a federal court.

    Assuming Judge Carter denies Obama's motion for dismissal, he will likely then order expedited discovery which will force Obama to release his birth certificate in a timely manner - if he has one.

    The judge, who is a former U.S. Marine, repeated several times that this is a very serious case which must be resolved quickly so that the troops know that their commander-in-chief is eligible to hold that position and issue lawful orders to our military in this time of war. He basically said Obama must prove his eligibility to the court, and said Americans deserve to know the truth about their president.

    The two U.S. Attorneys representing Obama tried everything they could to sway the judge that this case was frivolous, but Carter would have none of it and cut them off several times. Obama's attorneys left the courtroom after the 90 minute hearing looking defeated and nervous.

    The truth about Obama's eligibility will be known fairly soon - Judge Carter practically guaranteed it.

    Congratulations to the plaintiffs' attorney, Dr. Orly Taitz. She did a great job and won some huge victories yesterday; she was fearless.

    Related site: www.SanDiegoMinutemen.com .

 

Oklahoma Air National Guard member relieved of assignment

    

    An Oklahoma Air National Guard member who is accused of stealing electronics from the Tulsa Police Department while on assignment there has been relieved of his responsibilities with the Oklahoma National Guard's Counter-drug Program. 
    Alex Robert Turner was charged with felony embezzlement and concealing stolen property, court records show. Turner, 22, is accused of taking electronic items while he worked with the Police Special Investigations Division's Intelligence Unit, the arrest report states. 
    Turner is a senior airman and has been with the Oklahoma Air National Guard since 2005, said Air National Guard Lt. Col. Max Moss. He was assigned to the Oklahoma National Guard's Counter-drug Program, in which he was working as an intelligence analyst with the Tulsa Police Department, Moss said. 
    The mission of the national program is to provide military personnel and equipment to support federal, state and local law enforcement agencies that work to reduce the demand for drugs. Since 1989, the National Guard has worked with law enforcement agencies and community-based organizations to perform interdiction and anti-drug activities in the fight against illicit drugs, according to its Web site. 
    After the theft allegations surfaced, police officials ended Turner's assignment, and officers searched through his work space to collect department-issued equipment. They found several items that had been reported stolen and arrested Turner on Aug. 27, records show. Police also searched Turner's house and vehicle, where they discovered several other

devices that had been stolen. Other items were found hidden behind Turner's desk, his arrest report indicates. 
    Beyond removing him from the drug program, the military can review whether additional action should be taken against him, depending the outcome of the criminal case. 
    No one else from the Counter-drug Program is assigned to the Tulsa Police Department, Officer Leland Ashley said.

 

Joint patrol offers mutual benefits in Afghanistan

By Capt. Tony Wickman, USAF, Konar Provincial Reconstruction Team Public Affairs

Haji May Gull Jun, left, Asadabad's chief of police, discusses security plans with U.S. Army 2nd Lt. Stewart Brough with help from local interpreter Wrokhan Sahel, center, at Camp Wright, in the Asadabad district of Afghanistan's Konar Province. Brough led the Konar Provincial Reconstruction Team's first walking patrol in the Dam Kalay village. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Brian Boisvert)

 

    The Konar Provincial Reconstruction Team conducted a power assessment in Dam Kalay village in the Asadabad district of Konar Province, Afghanistan, an event that offered security force members the opportunity to patrol with their Afghan counterparts.

    This was the reconstruction team's first walking foot patrol through the village with the Afghan National Police. The interaction was beneficial for both, team members said. 
    "The patrol went well and it was a good experience," said U.S. Army 2nd Lt. Stewart Brough, security force platoon leader for the team. "When locals see our [Afghan] counterparts and us out together, it gives them confidence." 
    Brough said part of the team commander's intent is to put an Afghan face to the government's efforts in the province, and that includes security. 
    U.S. Army Pvt. Daniel Hancock, a team security force member from Las Vegas, Nev., said it was helpful to work with the local police. "This patrol will help us integrate better with the [Afghan police] and them with us," he said. "It also gives people confidence in their local police to protect them." 
    Hancock noted that the team's security members gained some cultural insights during the patrol. Afghan police pointed out a section of the river that village elders didn't want the patrol to cross because local women were gathering water, he said. "So, on the patrol the [Afghan police] were able to tell us, so we could hold up until the women were gone to keep everyone safe and happy," Hancock said. In turn, Hancock said, the Afghan police offered valuable help with security. 
    The patrol was deemed a success, Brough said.

 

Manning overage gives U.S. Army a jump on expansion

    

    The U.S. Army Reserve, which has struggled to make end-strength in recent years, will now be over-strength by 1,356 soldiers.

 

Last few families depart Texas detention center

    The last immigrant families have departed a disparaged former Texas prison that housed them while they awaited decisions in immigration cases, federal officials said yesterday.

    The families have been deported, paroled or released while they pursue asylum or another immigration status to remain in the U.S., Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a statement.

    The last four families left the T. Don Hutto facility, in Taylor, Texas, this week. ICE has said Hutto will now house only female detainees.

    Federal officials announced last month that Hutto would no longer hold immigrant and asylum-seeking families as part of a Department of Homeland Security plan to reform detention policies. Families arriving at the U.S. border and entry points from now on either will be placed under supervision or detained at the much-smaller Berks Family Residential Center in Leesport, Pa.

    Hutto opened as a family detention center in 2006 to ensure the families would show up to immigration court. ICE wanted to end the "catch and release" practice that had permitted families in the U.S. illegally to remain free while awaiting a hearing. Some borrowed other people's children and posed as families to avoid detention, ICE officials maintain. But Hutto quickly drew criticism. Guards trained to detain violent criminal adults were in charge of sad, sick or restless children - from babies to teenagers. Parents complained children were disciplined with threats of being separated from their family. ICE has said all at Hutto were treated humanely.

    Children and parents lived in tiny cells furnished with bunk beds and a steel toilet and lined up for up to several head counts daily. Toys, pencils or even juice boxes were not allowed in the cells. The school day was just an hour or two.

    After advocates sued the government, privacy curtains were installed around cell toilets and razor wire was removed from around the complex. Cartoon murals were painted on walls. Children began attending more regular school days.

    Court-appointed observers inspected the facility and talked to the detainees. The government periodically reviewed cases to determine if families could be bonded out or paroled.

    Hutto was set to stop holding families by year's end, but outgoing Homeland Security detention adviser Dora Schriro had said she expected them to leave sooner. Schriro, whose last day heading the department's Office of Detention Policy and Planning was yesterday, was to leave a report detailing other detention recommendations before starting Monday as the New York City jails commissioner.

    Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is expected to make the report public soon.

 

Suicide blast kills 30 in Pakistan

    A suicide car bomb attack has killed at least 30 and wounded scores more, flattening a hotel and stores at a Shiite market in the city of Kohat.

 

Obama rejects race as lead cause of criticism

    

    President Obama says distrust of the role of government - rather than his race - was the cause of fierce criticism in the contentious debate over health care.

 

New missile plan better suited against Iran, Gates says

    

    The new U.S. missile defense plan will offer better protection than a previous proposal even if intelligence forecasts on Iran prove wrong, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday.

    As opposed to earlier plans to build ground-based components in Poland and the Czech Republic, the new sea-based approach is better suited to intelligence on Iranian threats and would provide protection sooner, the secretary said. 
    Going a step further, Gates - a former CIA director - said the new arrangement is preferable even if U.S. intelligence assessments that indicate Iran is more focused on developing short-range missiles over long-range capabilities prove incorrect. 
    "I probably am more familiar with the risks of over-reliance on intelligence than anybody, because I've seen how often it's wrong," he said. "If the intelligence is wrong, and the Iranians develop a capability sooner than the intelligence is saying, this architecture gives us a better chance of being able to cope with it than the previous program, just because of the new technologies that are available that give us more flexibility." 
    The defense secretary appeared before Pentagon reporters with his Czech counterpart, Martin Bartak, following a meeting that included discussion of the new missile defense system in Europe that President Obama announced in Thursday. 
    In December 2006, Gates recommended to then-President George W. Bush that the United States should put advanced radars in the Czech Republic and 10 ground-based interceptors in Poland. That was when intelligence officials gauged the development of Iran's intercontinental ballistic missile as the foremost threat to the United States and its allies. Now, intelligence reports paint a different picture – that the country is moving faster to develop its shorter-range missiles. "The original program that I recommended would have had no capability against short- and medium-range missiles until probably 2018," Gates said yesterday. "What the new system provides is some capability beginning in 2011 that will grow steadily each year in terms of its sophistication and its coverage of Europe. The next phase would begin in 2015." 
    A drawback to the previous plan was that ground-based interceptors designed to deal with no more than five enemy missiles at once were prone to being overwhelmed by a larger salvo fired simultaneously, Gates said. "What we have seen with the Iranians is that they're producing and deploying significant numbers of short and intermediate missiles, and so a salvo like that could overwhelm even when the 10 interceptors were in place," he said, though he added that research will continue on the ground-based system. 
    After much deliberation, Gates told reporters, his recommendation to Obama was to begin phasing in a missile defense system that puts radars and missiles in place sooner that are more suited to protect against the current threat. Plans are then to continue building on the system to increase its range of defense capabilities. 
    Deploying the Navy's ships equipped with the Aegis weapons system to the region by 2011 drives the new plan's initial phase. Their Standard Missile 3 interceptor has passed several tests in the past two years, and forward-positioned Army radar systems will support them.
This will give the military a smaller range of detection and protection, but is enough initially to protect U.S. troops and our allies against Iran's shorter-range missiles, officials said.

 

Border security fences and hi-tech cameras deemed ineffective

    

    Lawmakers are taking aim at the $3.7-billion Department of Homeland Security effort to install miles of fences and high-tech cameras along the U.S.-Mexico border.

 

Taji celebrates graduation of Intermediate Intelligence courses 
    Two hundred sixty-nine Iraqi intelligence professionals from multiple units throughout Iraq graduated from seven Intermediate Intelligence courses at the Intelligence and Military Security School (IMSS) in Taji, Iraq, on Sept. 10. 
    The majority of graduates were military members from the Iraqi Army but also included civilian and military personnel from the Navy, Air Force and other intelligence organizations within the Ministry of Defense.  
    Training began Aug. 8. The seven courses specialized in human intelligence, counter- intelligence, intelligence staff analysis, signals intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance, Air Force ntelligence and naval intelligence. The diverse five-week curriculum included
classroom instruction, practical exercises and role-playing events.  
    During graduation, the guest speaker and former IMSS commandant from 2005-2007, retired Iraqi Gen. Salman, emphasized the importance of intelligence in making Iraq a safer country. He noted that Iraq was "depending on" the graduates and the new intelligence professionals are the "eyes and ears of the commander."

 

Today in History

    On Sept. 19, 1881, the 20th president of the United States, James A. Garfield, died of wounds inflicted by an assassin.

    For more of Today in History, visit http://newsoftheforce.org .

 

 

 

 

 

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