Military


29 March 2005 Military News


News

Operations
Other Conflicts
Defense Policy / Programs
Defense Industry
News Reports

Current Operations

  • OIF/OEF Casualty Update 29 Mar 2005 [PDF]
  • II MEF SOLDIER KILLED IN NON-HOSTILE INCIDENT

  • Task Force Baghdad Soldiers undeterred by attacks MNF-I/MNC-I 29 Mar 2005 -- During cordon and search operations, Task Force Baghdad Soldiers detained five suspected terrorists March 28.
  • OSI keeps Baghdad Airmen, Soldiers safe AFPN 29 Mar 2005 -- Force Protection. To many Airmen, it means fishing for identification, showing it to the gate guard, and then going to work for a 12-hour shift.
  • Kearsarge Strike Group Deploys Navy NewsStand 29 Mar 2005 -- The USS Kearsarge (LHD 3) Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) and the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) got underway March 25 for their scheduled deployment.

  • OFFICE OF RUSSIAN ANTI-DRUG SERVICE TO BE OPENED IN AFGHANISTAN RIA Novosti 29 Mar 2005 -- The Russian federal anti-drug service intends to open an office in Afghanistan by the end of 2005, service's deputy director Alexander Fyodorov said.
  • RFE/RL Afghanistan Report, Vol 4, Number 10 29 Mar 2005 -- AFGHANISTAN'S INCREMENTAL DEMOCRACY / KABUL TO CREATE TEMPORARY CHAMBER OF PARLIAMENT / RFE/RL TALKS TO U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE / NEO-TALIBAN ESCALATE ACTIVITY / AFGHAN COUNTERNARCOTICS FORCE, OTHER POLICE RAID PRODUCTION CENTERS / FLOODS REPORTEDLY KILL MORE THAN HUNDRED PEOPLE IN SOUTH, WEST / SNOWBOUND NORTHERN REGION PLEADS FOR AID / CONFLICTING REPORTS ON POSSIBLE U.S. BASES IN AFGHANISTAN / KARZAI REASSIGNS KANDAHAR POLICE CHIEF, FIVE OTHERS... / ...VISITS PAKISTAN / AFGHANISTAN TO OPEN FIRST MILITARY ACADEMY / KARZAI INAUGURATES CONSTRUCTION OF U.S.-SPONSORED UNIVERSITY IN KABUL / CULTURE MINISTER URGES DISCUSSION OF CENSORSHIP / GOVERNMENT'S BUDGET RISES 15 PERCENT / AFGHANISTAN MARKS NEW YEAR / THIS WEEK IN AFGHANISTAN'S HISTORY

Other Conflicts

  • COTE D IVOIRE: France wants peacekeeper mandate extended just a month until summit results seen IRIN 29 Mar 2005 -- France has recommended that the UN mandate of international peacekeepers in Cote d'Ivoire should be extended by just one month until it becomes clear whether a peace summit in Pretoria on Sunday achieves a breakthrough in more than two years of slow-moving negotiations to end the West African country's civil war.
  • UGANDA/LRA VOA 29 Mar 2005 -- For almost two decades, the people of northern Uganda have been subjected to random attacks by a rebel group the United States calls a terrorist organization
  • Afghanistan: UN Sees Promising Trend In Poppy Cultivation RFE/RL 29 Mar 2005 -- A new UN survey identifies a positive trend in opium-poppy cultivation in the majority of Afghanistan's 34 provinces. While researchers suggest that opium-poppy crops have grown in five provinces, the broader decline marks the first time in four years that such harvests have fallen in Afghanistan. It is welcome news for authorities in Kabul and abroad fighting the opium trade. The survey was released on 27 March by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Afghanistan's newly formed Counternarcotics Ministry.
  • BORDER AMBIGUITY CAUSES INSTABILITY RIA Novosti 29 Mar 2005 -- The opposition in Ingushetia in the North Caucasus attempted to demonstrate yesterday demanding the return to Ingushetia of the Prigorodny district, currently part of North Ossetia.

  • SOUTH OSSETIA SKEPTICAL ABOUT TBILISI PEACE PROPOSALS RIA Novosti 29 Mar 2005 -- Tbilisi's latest proposals to settle the Georgian-Ossetian conflict are largely meant to get approval from the West, Boris Chochiev, co-chairman of the Mixed Control Commission and South Ossetian minister at large, said Tuesday.
  • GEORGIA MAKES TEMPTING PROPOSAL TO SOUTH OSSETIA RIA Novosti 29 Mar 2005 -- A complete text of the Georgian government's proposal on settling the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict has been published in Georgia, the Novosti-Georgia news agency reported.

Defense Policy / Programs

  • Transcript: Defense Department Briefing 29 Mar 2005 -- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld; General Peter Pace, USMC, Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff
  • Submarine Squadron 20 to Conduct 360-degree Review of Commanding Officers Navy NewsStand 29 Mar 2005 -- Four Commander, Submarine Squadron (CSS) 20 commanding officers will participate in a new pilot program to measure leadership assessment, beginning in May.
  • Kitty Hawk Strike Group Returns to Japan Navy NewsStand 29 Mar 2005 -- USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) and Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 5 returned to Japan March 28 following an eventful seven-week underway period in the western Pacific Ocean, Sea of Japan, and the East and South China Seas.
  • Kitty Hawk Sailors Make Most of Busan Port Visit Navy NewsStand 29 Mar 2005 -- USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63), Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 5 and USS Cowpens (CG 63) departed Busan, Republic of Korea, March 17 after a three-day visit, during which many Sailors took advantage of opportunities to help the local community and experience a foreign culture.
  • Kitty Hawk Transfers Goodwill to Russian Ship Navy NewsStand 29 Mar 2005 -- USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) took part in a gift exchange with Russian Vishnya-class AGI ship Kurily (CCB 208) at sea March 20.
  • USS Shoup Report Concludes No Acoustic Trauma Navy NewsStand 29 Mar 2005 -- A report released March 11 by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) concluded that although the Navy's use of active sonar may have "induced a behavioral response," it was unlikely that the exposure caused any injury.
  • USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Redelivered to the Fleet Navy NewsStand 29 Mar 2005 -- The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (Ike) (CVN 69) was redelivered to the fleet March 25, after a four-year, approximately $2.5 billion dollar Refueling Complex Overhaul (RCOH) that brought state-of-the-art equipment and technology to one of America's premier fighting platforms.

  • Transcript: Defense Department Special Briefing on Combatant Status Review Tribunals 29 Mar 2005 -- Secretary of The Navy Gordon England
  • ENEMY COMBATANTS VOA 29 Mar 2005 -- The U.S. military tribunals set up to determine whether suspected al-Qaida and Taleban fighters held at a military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba are indeed enemy combatants has completed its review of all detainees. The tribunals found that most, though not all, of the detainees should still be classified as enemy combatants.
  • New Technologies, Approaches Enhance CENTCOM Effectiveness AFPS 29 Mar 2005 -- U.S. Central Command is posturing itself for a long war on terror, introducing efficiencies and new areas of focus to help ensure long-term success, the command's chief of staff told the American Forces Press Service.
  • Guantanamo Harnessing Wind to Create Power, Cut Emissions AFPS 29 Mar 2005 -- Public works officials here are combining ancient and modern technologies to build cost savings into the base's energy program.

  • KYRGYZ MILITARY TO PARTICIPATE IN CSTO EXERCISE RIA Novosti 29 Mar 2005 -- Kyrgyz Defense Ministry personnel will take part in the command post exercise (CPX) Rubezh 2005 slated for April 2-6 in Tajikistan, a Kyrgyz Defense Ministry spokesman told the Kyrgyzinfo news agency.

  • White House Report, March 29: WMD Report, Oil-for-Food Scandal Washington File 29 Mar 2005 -- ADMINISTRATION TO CAREFULLY CONSIDER WMD REPORT / FULL ACCOUNTING NEEDED IN OIL-FOR-FOOD PROGRAM / SALE OF JETS TO PAKISTAN DESIGNED TO AID IN WAR ON TERROR

  • White House Daily Briefing, March 29 Washington File 29 Mar 2005 -- WMD report, Volcker report/oil-for-food scandal, India/Pakistan weapons sale, Iraqi national assembly, Mexico/border, China/loans, trade/Congressman Porter, Afghanistan/First Lady's trip
  • State Department Briefing, March 29 Washington File 29 Mar 2005 -- Indonesia, United Nations, Zimbabwe, Kyrgyzstan, Romania, Israel/Palestinians, Lebanon

Defense Industry

  • US / EU AIRCRAFT VOA 29 Mar 2005 -- The dispute between the United States and the European Union over the subsidies to their own aircraft makers is likely to continue beyond the April 11 deadline both sides had set for an agreement. The U.S. negotiator to the EU, Deputy Secretary of State Robert B. Zoellick, said Tuesday in Budapest that the two sides have not even been in contact for more than a week.
  • CONSOLIDATED AIRCRAFT COMPANY: PROS AND CONS RIA Novosti 29 Mar 2005 -- Russia's aircraft-industry enterprises will soon become part of a consolidated aircraft corporation.

  • NATO Ships Visit SAFAGA, EGYPT NATO/JFC Naples 29 Mar 2005 -- NATO ships will visit Safaga from 30 March to 2 April when units from the Standing NATO Response Force Mine Counter Measures Group 2 (SNMCMG2) will be berthed in Safaga civilian port.

News Reports

  • Indonesia: More Than 1,000 Feared Dead From Quake Off Coast RFE/RL 29 Mar 2005 -- Officials say more than 1,000 people may have been killed by a powerful overnight earthquake off the coast of Sumatra.

  • AKAYEV'S SECURITY MINISTERS WANT JUSTICE RIA Novosti 29 Mar 2005 -- Former Kyrgyz Emergencies Minister Temirbek Akmataliyev and Interior Minister Keneshbek Dyushebayev announced Tuesday in Bishkek the establishment of a new public movement Spravedlivost (Justice).
  • EXPERT: KYRGYZ REVOLUTION TASTES LIKE OPIUM RIA Novosti 29 Mar 2005 -- According to Nikolai Bordyuzha, the secretary general of the Collective Security Council Organization (CSTO) including Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan), CSTO leaders had the necessary levers to influence the situation in Kyrgyzstan ahead of the revolution, Izvestia reported.
  • OLD KYRGYZ PARLIAMENT RESIGNS RIA Novosti 29 Mar 2005 -- The People's Representatives Assembly, the upper chamber of Kyrgyzstan's 3rd parliament, has resigned.
  • AKAYEV CALLS TO PROTECT YOUNG AND WEAK DEMOCRACY RIA Novosti 29 Mar 2005 -- If he only knew Bishkek, Kyrgyz capital, was in for ransacking, President Askar Akayev would have certainly introduced a state of emergency, he said in an interview.
  • AKAYEV GIVES DETAILS OF GOVERNMENT HOUSE STORM RIA Novosti 29 Mar 2005 -- Askar Akayev addressed the Ekho Moskvy radio in a live cast today to offer a dramatic account of Kyrgyz government premises taken by storm.
  • AKAYEV CALLS HIMSELF LEGITIMATE HEAD OF KYRGYZSTAN RIA Novosti 29 Mar 2005 -- Askar Akayev claimed he remained the president of Kyrgyzstan and was not going to run for presidency at the elections scheduled for June 26.
  • CHECKPOINTS ON CHINESE-KYRGYZ BORDER OPERATING RIA Novosti 29 Mar 2005 -- Checkpoints on the Chinese-Kyrgyz border have been functioning normally, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said at a media briefing Tuesday.
  • Ousted Kyrgyz Leader Says He's Not Ready To Resign RFE/RL 29 Mar 2005 -- Kyrgyzstan's ousted president, Askar Akaev, said today that he still considers himself the country's legitimate ruler and has no intention of stepping down for the time being.
  • Kyrgyzstan's Upper Chamber Dissolves Itself RFE/RL 29 Mar 2005 -- The upper chamber of Kyrgyzstan's old parliament today followed the outgoing lower chamber in suspending its activities and giving way to the newly elected single-chamber parliament.
  • Analysis: Kyrgyz Developments Worry Iran, But Unlikely To Have Lasting Impact RFE/RL 29 Mar 2005 -- The Iranian Foreign Ministry reacted cautiously when asked about the recent ouster of Kyrgyz President Askar Akaev, who fled from Bishkek following the storming of government offices by protesters. Spokesman Hamid Reza Assefi said Iran is monitoring developments and added, "We hope conditions in Kyrgyzstan will return to normal as soon as possible," IRNA reported on 26 March.
  • KYRGYZ POL VOA 29 Mar 2005 -- Political uncertainty continues in Kyrgyzstan, with some members of the political opposition now accusing acting President Kurmanbek Bakiyev of turning against them.
  • KYRGYZ TENSIONS VOA 29 Mar 2005 -- Tensions heightened in Kyrgyzstan, Tuesday, one day after a deal was struck that confirms both the new parliament and acting President Kurmanbek Bakiyev as the legitimate power, until new elections, scheduled for June 26th, can be held.
  • KYRGYZSTAN'S REGIME 'COLLAPSED LIKE A HOUSE OF CARDS' US Dept. of State IIP, Foreign Media Reaction 29 Mar 2005