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Current Operations

• West Coast Amphibious Ships Deploy in Support of Operation Enduring Freedom Navy Newsstand 15 Jan 2003-- Seven San Diego-based amphibious warships have received orders to deploy in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. The ships will depart San Diego Jan. 17.
• Special Navy Unit Reflects on GTMO Deployment Navy Newsstand 15 Jan 2003-- "I got called on a Wednesday, and I was at the mobilization station by Saturday," said Fireman Robert Scarro, a Naval Reservist assigned to Mobile Inshore Undersea Warfare Unit (MIUWU) 204, ". . .so it took a few days for things to sink in."
• 3rd ID fires Bradley Linebackers in Kuwait Army News Service 15 Jan 2003-- Air Defense Artillery "Bulldogs" and other elements of the 3rd Infantry Division proved how lethal they can be Jan. 2 through 13 during a live-fire training exercise in Kuwait

Other Conflicts

• IVORY COAST VOA 15 Jan 2003 -- Talks near Paris this week seek to end a conflict in Ivory Coast that began last September when renegade soldiers launched a failed coup attempt against President Laurent Gbagbo. As V-O-A's Luis Ramirez reports from Abidjan, Ivorians hope the talks will help resolve longstanding political issues that have deepened ethnic divides in the once-stable West-African country
• CYPRUS / TALKS VOA 15 Jan 2003 -- The leaders of Cyprus' Greek and Turkish communities have resumed United Nations-sponsored talks aimed at reunifying the island before it joins the European Union in 2004. V-O-A's Roger Wilkison reports the meeting came a day after tens of thousands of Turkish Cypriots called on their leader to approve the U-N reunification plan or resign
• U-S / ISRAEL CLOSURES VOA 15 Jan 2003 -- The United States took issue Wednesday with Israel's decision to close down two Palestinian colleges as part of its response to Palestinian suicide bombings in Tel Aviv earlier this month
• ISRAEL / PALESTINIANS VOA 15 Jan 2003 -- Three Palestinians have been killed in Israeli security sweeps in the West Bank overnight and the military demolished the homes of four Palestinians convicted of carrying out a series of attacks against Israelis
• FRANCE/IVORY COAST VOA 15 Jan 2003 -- The political parties and the rebel factions of the Ivory Coast sat down to talk peace in Paris today. Their talks, which will continue until January 23rd, are expected to be difficult. France and others have warned that the stability of Ivory Coast and the entire West African region is threatened by the civil war which has lasted four months and killed hundreds.

Defense Policy / Programs

• White House Daily Briefing White House 15 Jan 2003
• TR Battle Group Begins COMPTUEX Navy Newsstand 15 Jan 2003-- USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) began its Composite Unit Training Exercise (COMPTUEX) Jan. 13 to complete another qualification in preparation for deployment.
• Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft: The Future of Maritime Patrol NAVAIR News 15 Jan 2003-- Since its humble beginnings in WWII, the U.S. Maritime Patrol and Reconnaissance Force (MPRF) has long been a transformational power. Originally intended to survey and monitor the blue water ocean, the MPRF has continually evolved over the years, developing and integrating new technologies and systems that allow it to go beyond providing for dominance over undersea and surface threats by way of its traditional roles in Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) and Anti-Surface Warfare (ASuW), to conducting intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and command, control and communications (C3) missions in support of blue water, littoral, land, and amphibious operations.
• Dyess aircrews poised for bomb runs over Iraq AFPN 15 Jan 2003-- While the United States prepares for a possible war with Iraq, aircrews at this B-1B Lancer base have not changed their training routine.
• ACC begins F/A-22 operations AFPN 15 Jan 2003-- Air Combat Command entered a new era Jan. 14 as America's newest fighter-attack aircraft touched down here.
• PACAF to deploy forces PACAF News 15 Jan 2003-- Approximately 60 people from the 56th Air Operations Squadron, 56th Air Communications Squadron and the Pacific Air Forces Air Intelligence Squadron, Hickam AFB, Hawaii, will deploy to Yokota Air Base, Japan and set-up a deployable, Joint Air Operations Center Jan. 15-30.
• VIEQUES / NAVY BOMBING VOA 15 Jan 2003 -- The U-S Navy has resumed training exercises off the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, one day after local protesters squared off with military personnel along the perimeter of the controversial firing range
• Military Poverty VOA 15 Jan 2003 -- The U-S Military is preparing for possible war in Iraq. But the armed services are also struggling with a more domestic issue. By the Pentagon's own estimate, thousands of military families live in poverty. As Brian Mann reports from Fort Drum, in New York, despite recent salary increases, many enlisted men and women say they can't afford food and other basic needs
• Defense Department Briefing Transcript Washington File 15 Jan 2003-- Rumsfeld: The president has repeatedly made clear -- and it bears repeating -- that the burden of proof is not on the United States, it's not on the United Nations or the international community to prove that Iraq has these weapons. The burden of proof is on the Iraqi regime to prove that it is disarming, and to show the inspectors where the weapons are.
• Wolfowitz Visits Afghanistan, Germany, Belgium Washington File 15 Jan 2003-- Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz arrived in Afghanistan Jan. 14 after a 14-hour flight aboard an Air Force C-17 transport plane from Andrews Air Force Base, Md.
• "International Cooperation Deters Illegal Fishing," by Cdr. John Davis Washington File 15 Jan 2003-- Multinational cooperation is essential in enforcing conservation of fisheries over the vast distances of the ocean, says Commander John Davis, chief of fisheries enforcement for the U.S. Coast Guard. Davis describes how U.S. cooperation with Russian and Chinese authorities has achieved a steep drop in illegal driftnet fishing in the North Pacific.

News Reports

• BUSH AFRICA VOA 15 Jan 2003 -- President Bush wants to extend duty-free status for some African imports to the United States. V-O-A's Scott Stearns reports, the president also announced more assistance for 30 million people facing hunger
• ECUADOR-PRESIDENT VOA 15 Jan 2003 -- Ecuador swore in a new president on Wednesday -- an army colonel who three years ago helped stage a coup that unseated then unpopular president Jamil Mahuad (zhah MEEL mah WAHD).
• AFRICA/U-S/TRADE VOA 15 Jan 2003 -- A conference on trade between the United States and sub-Saharan African countries has begun in Mauritius. As V-O-A Southern Africa Correspondent Challiss McDonough reports from Johannesburg, the top U-S trade official opened the summit on a controversial note.
• UN / CONGO / HUMAN RIGHTS VOA 15 Jan 2003 -- U-N investigators have confirmed in a new report that civilians, many of them members of the Pygmy community in northeastern Congo, have suffered horrific human rights abuses, including cannibalism, systematic rape, torture and kidnapping by rebel fighters
• ZIMBABWE ARRESTS VOA 15 Jan 2003 -- There has been a wave of arrests of opposition politicians and activists in Zimbabwe. Peta Thornycroft reports from Harare, the crackdown follows reports President Robert Mugabe might retire early, and his firm denial of those reports on Tuesday