Departing US troops pack millions of items in Iraq

JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq Everything from helicopters to printer cartridges is being wrapped and stamped and shipped out of Iraq. U.S. military bases that once resembled small towns have transformed into a cross between giant post offices and Office Depots.Soldiers who battled through insurgents and roadside bombs are now doing inventory and accounting. Their task: reverse over the course of months a U.S. military presence that built up over seven years of war.”We’re moving out millions of pieces of equipment in one of the largest logistics operations that we’ve seen in decades,” President Barack Obama said in a speech Monday hailing this month’s planned withdrawal of all U.S. combat troops from Iraq.

The orderly withdrawal is a far cry from the testosterone-fueled push across the berm separating Kuwait and Iraq, when American Marines and soldiers pushed north in the 2003 invasion, battling Saddam Hussein’s army while sleeping on the hoods of their vehicles and eating prepackaged meals.”I think it’s probably more challenging leaving, responsibly drawing down, than it is getting here, because you just have to figure out where everything is and getting it out of here. Are there enough airplanes, ships, containers, and do we have enough time to do that and meet the president’s mandate?” said Col. David F. Demartino, who is responsible for infrastructure and support services at Balad, which is home to 25,000 troops and civilians.

In essence the drawdown has been happening since late 2008. That’s when the U.S. started to reduce its numbers following the surge, which raised the American presence to about 170,000. Now the U.S. has just under 65,000 troops in the country, and the withdrawal is reaching a more furious pace as the August deadline approaches.Only 50,000 U.S. service personnel will remain after August. All troops are supposed to leave and all bases close by the end of next year, unless Iraq asks the U.S. to renegotiate their agreement to allow a continued American presence.In mid-July, JSS Mahmoudiya – once a U.S. position just south of Baghdad in one of Iraq’s most dangerous areas – was a ghost town. Tents were abandoned, covered with foam to retard fire, and the white-walled cafeteria was barren except for a few refrigerators holding drinks. The joint operations command was stripped of almost everything, including the big-screen TVs on which military personnel once watched operations.

The next day, it was handed over to the Iraqi government to become an army facility.Each handover involves a painstaking process of inventorying everything on the base that the soldiers aren’t taking with them. Every item is assessed to see if it can be moved and if so, whether it is needed anywhere else in the country. Many of the materials – water tanks, generators, and furniture – are eventually donated to the Iraqi government. As of July 27, $98.6 million worth of equipment has been handed over, most to the Iraqi army and Interior Ministry.More than 400 bases are being closed down or handed over to the Iraqi military. By September, the American military will have fewer than 100 bases in the country, down from a high of 505 in January 2008.

Some of these bases look somewhat like small towns with elaborate dining facilities serving tacos and crab legs and gyms with rows of treadmills.About half the vehicles – what the military describes as “rolling stock” – that have left Iraq have gone to Afghanistan. More than 180,000 items like weapons or communications equipment have also been sent to Afghanistan over the past year.In the past, when troops rotated into Iraq they brought some weapons and other equipment with them. But they inherited most of their equipment – including Humvees and other armored vehicles – from the unit they replaced.But now as troops aren’t being replaced, the last guys out must leave their equipment at the door to be redistributed, whether back to the U.S., other units in Iraq or to Afghanistan.

That makes places like the Central Receiving and Shipping Point at Balad “the center of the universe,” as one visiting officer nicknamed it. Equipment such as howitzers and helicopter blades or shipping containers and pallets arrives for redistribution.Sgt. 1st Class Stephen Latch runs the CRSP. He spent his first tour in Iraq with the infantry kicking down doors and hunting down members of Saddam’s regime. The only time he really thought about logistics was to wonder when his ammo and food would arrive.Now he’s at the center of the logistical version of a major offensive, helping ensure that the equipment goes south to Kuwait, the main exit point. Most material is driven down the heavily guarded main highway from Baghdad to the border, a more than 300-mile route. So far there have been no reports of significant attacks on any convoys.

Latch said when he started his deployment last summer, they moved an average of about 2,500 items a month. Now he’s moving almost six times that amount, and it’s mostly going south.And people want it faster. It used to be something could sit in the CRSP yard for 45 days before heading to Kuwait, Latch said. But now if it’s there for five days, people start calling and want to know why.”We have a very, very aggressive attitude,” Latch said. “Everybody knows the stuff is going south. It’s going to move no matter what. You can either fight the current or you can just push as hard as you can to get that stuff down there fast.”The drawdown has not been without hiccups. The military was embarrassed by a report in the Times of London that contractors did not properly dispose of environmental waste removed from U.S. military bases.But U.S. commanders say they are addressing problems and are confident they will be able to meet the president’s deadline.

Demartino said that while going through shipping containers, buildings and offices at Joint Base Balad, soldiers have been stunned at the materials hoarded over the years in nooks and crannies all over the base.The biggest surprise was the thousands of printer cartridges tucked away by soldiers worried they would one day run out.”I walked through a few of these buildings, and I was thinking this is like Office Depot, and it’s just people going ‘I don’t want to run out. Let’s get them!'” he said. “I think it’s the mindset of ‘We’re never going to leave.'”(AP)

Az Promises of Fairness ''Ring Hollow to Many Latinos''

Randal Archibold, who has led the paper’s slanted, whitewashed coverage of Arizona’s fierce illegal immigration fight, again focused the feelings of the minority, not the majority of Americans, talking to Latinos in Phoenix for Friday’s “Arizona Law Is Stoking Unease Among Latinos.” His concluding verdict: “many Latinos remain unconvinced.”Among those Archibold interviewed was someone who “spray painted himself white and wrote on his body, ‘Am I reasonably suspicious?'” (Monica Almeida captured the image for the Times.) Who could fail to be swayed by such an argument?  When Gov. Jan Brewer signed Arizona’s new immigration enforcement law, giving police departments broad power to make immigration checks, she sought to allay concerns from Hispanic citizens and legal residents that they would be singled out for scrutiny.

“We have to trust our law enforcement,” Ms. Brewer said. “It’s simple reality. Police officers are going to be respectful. They understand what their jobs are. They’ve taken an oath, and racial profiling isn’t legal.”Those words ring hollow to many Latinos, including Jesus Ruiz, 25, a college student in Mesa, Ariz., who, like many Latinos here, believes that all too often the police view them suspiciously and single them out for what they consider questionable stops or harassment.

In one stop in 2004, Mr. Ruiz said, an officer pulled him over for speeding 10 miles over the limit and went on to question him on where he was going to school and whether he lived with his parents, and finally asked for his Social Security number.“I was thinking, is he supposed to be asking me for that and all these questions for a speeding ticket?” said Mr. Ruiz, who spray painted himself white and wrote on his body, “Am I reasonably suspicious?” at a recent protest against the new law, which goes into effect in late July.But it is not just young people.

Archibold then told an anecdote from a Phoenix judge who has been pulled over twice for traffic infractions, but not given a ticket, which somehow adds up to…something or other.Judge Jose Padilla of Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix, says that twice since he became a judge in 2006, the police have pulled him over, alleging minor traffic infractions. Even though Judge Padilla, 60, did not disclose his occupation, he ended up not receiving a ticket. He said his complaints to the police department led to sensitivity training for the officers.

Though the law isn’t even being enforced yet, Archibold managed to collect reports of immigrant harassment:

Already, he said, there are anecdotal reports that some police departments in the state are asking people for their papers. He said his department had received a picture of a patrol car near a Border Patrol vehicle, as if proximity proved that officers were already collaborating to carry out the law.Between rehashing recent incidents showing “tensions between law enforcement and some Latinos” in Arizona, talk of lawsuits and “roundups” of illegals, and a cameo by Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Archibold didn’t get to any supporters of the law (who are the clear majority both in Arizona and nationwide) until paragraph 31 out of 37).

Still, many Arizonans who support the law believe racial profiling concerns are overblown or a smokescreen to hide a belief that borders should be wide open.Archibold concluded with this less than shocking statement: “But many Latinos remain unconvinced.”A sidebar article by Larry Rohter (a fiercely pro-Obama reporter from the 2008 campaign) offered the less than earth-shattering news that some leftist musicians are boycotting Arizona in protest of the law, led by Zach de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine.

45 civilians were killed in an airstrike in the Khyber tribal region

Pakistan acknowledged yesterday that at least 45 civilians were killed in an airstrike in the Khyber tribal region, an admission that could undermine the military’s anti-Taleban campaign in the country’s northwest region. Hundreds of tribesmen demonstrated against the attack in Sera Vela village, which was hit by air force jets at the weekend, causing the worst civilian casualties in a single incident in Pakistan’s war against Islamic militants. Tribal elders said that up to 71 people were killed in the strike, denying there any militants in the area.

A senior military official told The Times that civilians were among dozens of people killed in airstrikes aimed at insurgent hideouts along the Afghan border. He said that the attack also killed 30 militants.

The military rarely admits civilian deaths, which, according to some reports, have mounted in recent months as Pakistan intensifies its offensive against al-Qaeda backed militants in the lawless tribal region. The military had earlier denied that there were any civilian casualties in the weekend attack.

The military official insisted the military had received credible intelligence that militants had been hiding in the area. Security officials said that a large numbers of Taleban fleeing the military operation in South Waziristan had moved to the Khyber tribal region.

Tribal elders and residents disputed the military’s account, saying that there was no militant sanctuary in the area. Many of those killed in the attack belonged to the Kookikhel tribe which has a history of co-operating with the military in the anti-Taleban campaign. Most families in the village have sons in the security forces and many retired army and paramilitary soldiers were among the dead and injured.

Kashmalo Khan, 63, a retired paramilitary soldier whose right leg was fractured, said that he lost 11 family members in the attack. “The bombing continued as people were busy in relief work,” said Mr Khan, who was being treated in a Peshawar hospital. “There is not a single Taleban in our area. The military was given wrong information.”

Another resident said the house that was initially bombed belonged to Hamid Khan, whose two sons were serving in the Frontier Corps. “They had nothing to do with the Taleban,” said Hazar Gul, a resident of Sera Vela.

Sera Vella is a small border village in Khyber, one of the seven semi autonomous tribal regions where the Pakistani army has been conducting operations against Islamic militants. Analysts said that such a large number of civilian deaths could undermine the military’s efforts to mobilise public support for its anti-Taleban campaign. The incident has provided a strong propaganda tool for militants.

“The attack has killed the people most directly affected by the Taleban savagery. It may now turn these people against the military,“ said Rifaat Hussain, professor of Security Studies at Quai-e-Azam University in Islamabad. “The family members of the victims could become easy recruits for the militants.”

Tension ran high in the area, where hundreds of tribesmen joined an anti-Government rally demanding an apology from the military. They also demanded compensation for the family of the victims.

Thousands of Pakistan troops have been involved in the biggest ever offensive against militants in the tribal regions which had become a haven for the Taleban and al-Qaeda.

Pakistan’s military effort to clear the borderland of insurgents who have also been involved in the attacks on Nato troops across the border in Afghanistan has earned praise from Britain and the US administration. The offensive is seen as being critical to the success of the new US Afghan war strategy.

The army, backed by the air force, has recently expanded its operation to Orakzai and Khyber tribal regions after driving out insurgents from South Waziristan, which was also the headquarters of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, the militant group responsible for most of the recent terrorist attacks inside the country.

About 200,000 have fled the Orakzai and Khyber regions, swelling the total number of displaced people. According to the United Nations 1.3 million people fleeing from the conflict zone have taken refuge in neighboring towns in the North West Frontier Province.

SHANGHAI Two prominent schools in China dispute allegations that hacking attacks on Google

SHANGHAI Two prominent schools in China dispute allegations that hacking attacks on Google and other firms originated from them, a report said Saturday.The New York Times reported late Thursday that security investigators traced the hacking to computers at Shanghai Jiaotong University and Lanxiang Vocational School in China.The official Xinhua News Agency cited an unnamed university spokesperson Saturday as saying the allegation against it is baseless, and an official at the vocational school said its investigation found no evidence the attacks originated there.

Li Zixiang, a Communist party official in the Lanxiang school in the eastern Shandong province, said students there are currently on their winter break. He also disputed the Times report that some evidence linked attacks to one computer science class taught by a Ukrainian. “We have never employed any foreign staff,” Xinhua quoted Li as saying.Another official at the vocational school disputed the Times’ report that Lanxiang had close ties to the military.Zhou Hui, director of the school’s general office, told Xinhua that some students had joined the military after school, but it was natural for citizens to do so.

Google revealed Jan. 12 that digital thieves had stolen some of its computer code and tried to break into the accounts of human rights activists opposed to China’s policies. The sophisticated theft also targeted the computers of more than 30 other companies, according to security experts.The digital assault was serious enough to prompt Google to confront China’s government about censorship rules that weed out politically and culturally sensitive topics from search results in the country. Google says it’s prepared to shut down its China-based search engine and the company and the government are still discussing a possible compromise.China has denied involvement in Internet attacks and said in January its anti-hacking policy is transparent and consistent. (AP)

Npower sent low energy bulbs to three million customers

Npower sent low energy bulbs to three million customers

The Green Party accused Npower of taking “inexcusable” shortcuts instead of investing in more effective measures such as loft insulation. Unsolicited mail-outs of light bulbs as an option under the scheme were stopped by the government as of this month.NpowerLow energy light bulbs were scrapped as an option in June 2009 – and the ban came into force at the new year. said the bulbs were “part of a mix of energy-efficient measures”.The regulator Ofgem said it had expressed concern with Npower about the practice of unsolicited mail-shotsThe government ordered energy companies to help pay for measures to cut household energy consumption – such as cavity wall or loft insulation, or by issuing low energy light bulbs – two years ago. Npower – Britain’s third-largest energy supplier – sent an unrequested selection of low energy bulbs to all of its three million customers before the deadline, the Times reported. That met the company’s requirements under the scheme, but will only cut a fraction of the energy that other measures such as cavity wall or loft insulation will achieve, critics claim.

Reduce emissions

Other major energy firms, including British Gas, are thought to have distributed light bulbs before the practice was banned. It was stopped because it was not clear whether the bulbs were being used.

In July, a consultation paper revealed that energy suppliers have sent households about 200 million bulbs as part of the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT) scheme. Energy suppliers’ research had suggested that 6% of the bulbs would be unused. A Green Party spokesman said: “It is inexcusable to take short cuts by sending out millions of unsolicited light bulbs instead of taking more effective measures such as cavity wall or loft insulation.”

A Department of Energy and Climate Change spokeswoman said unsolicited mail-outs of light bulbs had been stopped because it was not clear whether they were being used and research suggested enough had been distributed to satisfy demand. Energy efficiency driveShe said the ban “means energy suppliers will have to fulfil their obligation by providing more installations of loft and cavity wall insulation instead, which will further reduce emissions and permanently lower fuel bills”.

“We’ve recently increased and extended the obligation meaning even more money will be made available into making homes more efficient,” she added. Npower said it was committed to the CERT scheme and “was doing the right thing by [its] customers and energy efficiency”. A spokesman said: “These low energy bulbs are part of a mix of energy-efficient measures (including cavity wall or loft insulation) – some of which are inherently more expensive than others.

“They should be viewed in the wider context of the 120 projects undertaken by Npower every hour of every day at a cost of over £100m.” Npower customers who have already received low energy bulbs may still contact the company and request financial support for additional carbon reducing measures and will be judged on a case-by-case basis.

Karzai orders investigation into cousin's slaying

Hamid Karzai

KABUL  Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Tuesday that he has asked the Interior Ministry to investigate the slaying of a young relative in a possible revenge killing connected to a family feud.The October killing of 18-year-old Waheed Karzai in southern Afghanistan had apparently attracted little attention in Afghanistan before it was reported this week by the New York Times, but Karzai was asked about it during a news conference with the visiting NATO chief. The report raised questions about whether Karzai’s administration was trying to downplay the killing and whether powerful families could escape investigation, a sensitive issue amid rising concerns about corruption and impunity in Karzai’s government.

Waheed Karzai was shot to death in October in Karz, the president’s hometown in Kandahar province. He was the son of the president’s cousin, Yar Mohammad Karzai. The Times quoted relatives as saying they believed another cousin, Hashmat Karzai, shot the teenager as vengeance for a so-called honor killing allegedly committed three decades ago.

The report cites relatives as saying that Yar Mohommad Karzai had killed the father of Hashmat Karzai who was also one of the president’s cousins. Hashmat Karzai, in turn, reportedly denies any role in the October shooting of Waheed Karzai and suggests it was committed by drug dealers who targeted the teenager by mistake.

“Anything can be possible, so we will have to wait and investigate if the truth is this, that an accident occurred … or there is something else going on that’s more conspiratorial. We don’t know,” the Afghan leader said.”Both sides have contacted me within the family,” he said. “The Ministry of Interior is also investigating the issue. At this point that is all I can say.”

A spokesman for the Interior Ministry, Zemeri Bashary, said Karzai ordered the ministry to begin investigating the killing three days ago, the same day the newspaper report was published. He said counterterrorism police and criminal investigators were assisting local officials, who began looking into the killing earlier.

Hashmat Karzai heads the Afghanistan-based Asia Security Group, which provides security for five U.S. military bases in the country.Col. Wayne Shanks, a U.S. military spokesman, declined to comment on the feud allegations. He said Asia Security Group got the contracts because “it was judged to have the best service for the best cost.”

On Tuesday, NATO head Anders Fogh Rasmussen pledged that operations in Afghanistan will show “new momentum” in 2010 as more troops bolster the international force.”We will focus much more on protecting the population, protecting the roads and protecting development projects. We will train more Afghan army and Afghan police, and starting next year, they will start to take the lead where and when they are ready,” he said.The United States plans to send some 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan and another 7,000 are expected from other countries.

Fogh Rasmussen pledged that foreign troops would protect the Afghan people until the country’s own security forces are able to prevent the Taliban from regaining control of the country and to root out al-Qaida and other terrorist groups.”We know that the price of inaction, the price of leaving too early would be far higher,” he said. “So we will stay the course. It is as simple as that.”

NATO, meanwhile, is seeking additional help in Afghanistan from Russia, which already has allowed supply routes from the north to supplement the main route through the Khyber Pass that had increasingly been targeted by militants. Fogh Rasmussen said that during a visit to Moscow last week, he made concrete proposals including Russian equipment for the Afghan army – most particularly helicopters – and training for pilots, police and anti-narcotics officers.”We did not conclude those discussions, and the Russians did not make any pledges during my visit,” Fogh Rasmussen said. The Soviet Union fought a disastrous 10-year war in Afghanistan before withdrawing in 1989.

Karzai reiterated his call urging the Taliban to enter negotiations, saying that foreign troops would not be needed in the country if there were peace.The Taliban has so far rejected proposals for talks, while resentment of the presence of international forces in Afghanistan appears to be rising and fueling support for the militants.

Also Tuesday, NATO reported that several militants had been killed in operations in two parts of the country. In a statement, it said several were killed Monday in Ghazni province as a joint Afghan-international force searched compounds where insurgent activity had been reported and that a joint force pursuing a Taliban commander in Kandahar province on Tuesday killed some militants. The statement did not give specific numbers or other details.

Karzai’s office said that he and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown held a telephone conversation about preparations for the international conference on Afghan security, governance and civilian engagement that is to be held in London on Jan. 28.

Nasa prepares to launch all-seeing telescope to find new asteroids

The Wide-field Infra red Survey Explorer (WISE)

Scientists are set to launch an all-seeing telescope with an ability to map the sky hundreds of times greater than other observatories.The Wide-field Infra red Survey Explorer (WISE) will now be launched on Monday after the mission, scheduled for for today, was delayed because of a problem with the spacecraft’s steering engine.WISE, which will blast off from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base, will scan the entire sky in infra red light in search of never-before-seen asteroids, comets, the coolest and dimmest stars, and the most luminous galaxies.Infra red is light beyond the red part of the rainbow that is invisible to our eyes.The Nasa spacecraft, about the size of a Smart car, will snap 7,500 pictures a day at four different infra red wavelengths and the findings could totally revise the familiar portrait of our solar system.

One of its main tasks is to catalog objects posing a danger to Earth.Some astronomers have speculated the telescope could even reveal a huge gas planet in the outer reaches of our solar system.Peter Eisenhardt, a project scientist at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, told The Times: ‘What we’re doing is opening up the sky in a way that hasn’t been possible before.’It will transform the picture of our solar neighbourhood.’

The £195million satellite will orbit Earth 15 times a day, in low orbit 325 miles above the ground.The mission will last about 10 months, until its supply of solid hydrogen runs out, and will scan the entire sky about one-and-a-half times.Solar panels will provide WISE with the electricity it needs to operate and it will take six months to orbit the sky once.