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Operations
Other Conflicts
Defense Policy / Programs
News Reports

Current Operations

• AFGHAN POL VOA 17 Jun 2002 -- Afghanistan's grand elective assembly, the Loya Jirga, is in its seventh day.
• AFGHAN-POL VOA 17 Jun 2002 -- Afghanistan's grand elective council, the Loya Jirga, is back in session, following a day of spirited, sometimes-raucous debate over a new interim legislature. But -- as V-O-A Correspondent Gary Thomas reports from Kabul -- the issue suddenly disappeared from the agenda, when the council resumed Monday.
• AFGHAN POL VOA 17 Jun 2002 -- Afghanistan's interim president has told the grand elective assembly -- the Loya Jirga -- that he wants to choose his own cabinet. President Hamid Karzai also called on the assembly to choose representatives to decide the issue of allocating seats in an interim parliament.
• PENTAGON/AFGHANISTAN VOA 17 Jun 2002 -- U-S and coalition forces in Afghanistan have uncovered several large weapons caches, including one containing Chinese-made surface-to-air anti-aircraft missiles.
• AMERICAN TALEBAN VOA 17 Jun 2002 -- John Walker Lindh, the young American captured while fighting with the Taleban last year, suffered a series of legal setbacks Monday. A federal judge rejected arguments from Mr. Lindh's attorneys that the charges against him be dropped and also rejected a request that his trial be held somewhere other than in northern Virginia.
• PAK / U-S / ARRESTS VOA 17 Jun 2002 -- Pakistan has detained a number of foreign nationals, including two Americans, for trying to illegally enter Pakistan from Afghanistan.
• PENTAGON/PHILIPPINES VOA 17 Jun 2002 -- U-S troops in the southern Philippines have come under fire from suspected Abu Sayyaf terrorists. It is the first reported combat involving American forces since they began their counter-terrorist training mission in February.
• DoD News Briefing - Secretary Rumsfeld and Gen. Myers 17 Jun 2002 -- "Operation Mountain Lion continues in Afghanistan. Our teams are searching sites throughout the country for Taliban and remaining al Qaeda forces and weapons. Over the last two-plus weeks, U.S. and coalition forces have uncovered several weapons caches, which include a large number of Rags and their launchers, small arms and small-arm rounds -- this is in the numbers -- in the hundreds of thousands -- grenades, mortars and even 30 shoulder-fired missiles -- surface-to- air missiles. Our training program for the Afghan national army continues. The first battalion is reaching the midpoint of its training cycle, and the second battalion has recently started there training. We're pleased at this point with the progress."

Other Conflicts

• ISRAEL / PALESTINIANS VOA 17 Jun 2002 -- A Palestinian suicide bomber has detonated explosives near a group of Israeli border police, killing himself but causing no other casualties.
• U-S / MIDEAST VOA 17 Jun 2002 -- As President Bush completes work on a new set of Middle East peace proposals, his officials are criticizing Israel for its decision to wall off the West Bank with a security fence. They say any demarcation of a border with a Palestinian state should be left to negotiations.
• U-S-LEBANON-ISRAEL VOA 17 Jun 2002 -- The United States has made new appeals to Syria, Lebanon and Iran to urge them to restrain Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas...this, amid concerns the pro-Iranian group may be planning to escalate attacks against Israel in an effort to disrupt U-S-led regional peace efforts.
• U-S MIDEAST PEACE VOA 17 Jun 2002 -- As President Bush prepares to announce as early as this week a Middle East peace plan that is expected to include support for a Palestinian state, U-S lawmakers are making their voices heard on the issue. With violence continuing in the region, bipartisan lawmakers say talk of Palestinian statehood is premature.

Defense Policy / Programs

• DoD and Netherlands formalize Joint Strike Fighter Agreement 17 Jun 2002 -- Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics and the Netherlands Secretary of State for Defense exchanged signed memorandum of understanding (MOU) documents committing the Netherlands to participation in the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) system development and demonstration (SDD) phase.
• Navy Signs MOU to Transfer Ship Construction 17 Jun 2002 -- The Navy announced today that it is signing a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) with General Dynamics (GD), and Northrop Grumman Ship Systems (NGSS) to transfer ship construction between the two corporations' shipyards. (...) Under this plan, DDG 102, which was to have been built at Ingalls, will be transferred to Bath Iron Works. LPD 19, in the initial stages of construction at Bath Iron Works, will be transferred to Northrop Grumman.

News Reports

• PORTS / SECURITY VOA 17 Jun 2002 -- The U-S Department of Transportation is distributing nearly 93-million dollars in grants to increase security at dozens of U-S maritime ports.
• SHAPE Morning News Update 17 Jun 2002 -- The European Union will add three Palestinian militant groups, including a military arm of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, to a list of banned terrorist groups next week, EU sources said on Friday in Brussels.
• SHAPE Afternoon News Update 17 Jun 2002 -- Karadzic's wife told NATO in letter he will not surrender