Ethnic Cleansing of Iraq's Assyrians Still Not Being Reported

GMT 3-6-2007 16:51:30
Assyrian International News Agency
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Södertälje, Sweden -- Now Södertälje is getting hot for journalists again. This time it wasn't Astra, Scania, soccer, basketball, hockey or crime. It's refugees. BBC, Time Magazine, International Herald Tribune and Swedish Radio/TV's program "Conflict" are among those that have visited my hometown and asked the question "Why are so many refugees from Iraq coming to this small town in Sweden?" Unfortunately, the question has not been answered, at least not completely.

Those refugees now arriving in Södertälje are Christian Assyrians (also known as Syriacs and Chaldeans) or Mandeans (followers of John the Baptist). The reason they come here, is that Södertälje is the Assyrian capital in the west, Perhaps it sounds crazy but that's the way it is. Every fifth resident of Södertälje is an Assyrian (Syriac or Chaldean) who have settled here to find security and peace. We come from Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Iran and Iraq.

This is what was told to the journalists.

The majority of those seeking asylum have arrived in Södertälje during the past seven years are from Iraq. First they fled the sanctions that were imposed on Iraq when the west established an embargo on the country due to Saddam Hussein's regime and people were starving to death. Now they are fleeing due to ethnic and religious persecution. If one is not a Muslim in large parts of today's Iraq one is looked as an enemy. If one is also born as a Christian you become a double enemy and should one assert their Assyrian (Syriac or Chaldean) heritage one becomes a triple enemy.

This is what was told to the journalists.

President Bush went to war using Christian rhetoric but once in Iraq he forgot the Christian Iraqis. A day doesn't pass in Södertälje that news of church bombings, rapes, beheading of priests, kidnapping of children and other "daily harassments" such as young girls being urinated upon are reported. The Christians are automatically seen as allies of the west.

This was stated by those interviewed.

According to the UN refugee organization UNHCR, a third of all the Iraqi refugees in the neighboring countries such as Syria, Turkey and Jordan are Christians. It's worth repeating, "a third!" If three of a hundred Iraqis are Christian and thirty of a hundred are fleeing what does that imply? Yes, ethnic cleansing. In the shadow of the state of war in Iraq there is a genocide in progress or, at least, the beginning of one. This is why they are arriving in Södertälje. At least four of those refugees I have spoken to have stated this to the journalists but it hasn't been published.

Journalists who are invited to the homes of people seeking asylum should listen to what is being told to them.

By Nuri Kino
EasternStar News Agency

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Monday, March 05, 2007
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Five stars for 'Amazing Grace'

By LARRY STIRLING
Monday, March 5, 2007

"Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found. Was blind but now I see."

Most all Christians know and love this ubiquitous hymn which so effortlessly and hauntingly affirms the notion of God's grace.

What may not be as well known is the fact that the words were written by John Newton (1725-1807), an English slave-ship master who could have just as easily written "Master the Tempest is Raging" because God answered his urgent prayer one "storm-tossed night" to save his ship.

Newton went on to suffer incarceration, extended illness, abuse as a servant, and even near death by starvation.

His deepening Christianity caused him to abhor the worldwide slave trade and become one of the first abolitionists in the world.

He left his sea-going career and, after much study and effort, was eventually confirmed as an Anglican priest.

Because of his unorthodox route to the ministry and evangelical preaching, his Olney Church was one of the few Anglican facilities that added capacity because of increasing attendance.

In 1767, English poet William Cowper settled in Olney. Their collaboration led to the composition of the "Olney Hymns" of which "Amazing Grace" was one. (Newton did not write the music. The melody is thought to be hoary Scottish or Irish.)

"Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear, the hour I first believed."

In 1779, Rev. Newton became the Rector of a church on Lombard Street in London and presided there until he died. Among the parishioners that heard his abolitionist preaching was a young member of the British House of Commons, the now legendary William Wilberforce (1759-1833).

The movie "Amazing Grace" is primarily about Wilberforce's multi-year effort to organize and mobilize an abolitionist movement in a nation that, just as the rest of the world, relied on subjugating some men for the benefit of others.

Wilberforce repeatedly turns to the Reverend Newton not only for Christian counseling but also for the facts, insight, and passion that animated his crusade against slavery.

The conditions of slavery are something that a son of the English upper crust could only imagine. "Captain" Newton had actually transported slaves and smelled the death. Not only that, he had been chained up himself.

"Through many dangers toils and snares I have already come. 'Tis grace that brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home."

Wilberforce made his first abolitionist speech to an astonished Parliament in 1789; introduced his first abolition bill in 1791; and lived to see all slaves in the British empire emancipated by the year of his death in 1833 fully 30 years before the United States would be blessed with President Lincoln's emancipation proclamation of 1863.

A good movie entertains while passing along positive values or lessons. They tell us things that make us better to each other. By that measure, "Amazing Grace" the movie is the best of many decades and certainly an exception to Hollywood's usual degrading fare.

The acting and the texture of the English setting are all first rate. It is one of those movies for which the theater audience actually applauds when it is over.

If I have one criticism of the movie, it is this. The film gives the impression that the problem of slavery is essentially solved.

It isn't. Slavery is still a worldwide, indeed growing, scourge. While we Americans, thanks to the omnipresent black victims lobby, continue to agonize about the historic blot on the American character, the same actors ignore massive worldwide trafficking in humans.

Our public dialogue on this issue seems downright fatuous. Just recently Matt Drudge breathlessly reported that Barry Obama's ancestors owned slaves. Of course the investigator found that the slave owners were the progenitors of Obama's "white" mother. They did not look into the history of his father's native Kenya where the UN reports massive slavery continuing until this very day.

And while Democrat Party leaders continue to cover up the fact that the post-civil-war, Jim Crow south was one hundred percent Democrat territory they completely ignore UN figures that slavery infects 53 different African countries.

The UN estimates that 800,000 mostly children are abducted throughout the world every year to be used in the sex trade or as child soldiers. Worldwide, millions are presently suffering involuntary servitude and egregious conditions.

So while our leaders are demanding apologies and reparations from Americans that never owned slaves, they betray the millions that are presently coerced.

"When we've been dead ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we have no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun."

Is there a modern-day Wilberforce anywhere in our Congress?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stirling is a retired judge who authored the book "Leading at a Higher Level." He is a former Army officer, member of the San Diego City Council, the California State Assembly and the State Senate. Send comments to larry.stirling@sddt.com. Comments may be published as letters to the Editor.

I am back in Baghdad, having driven with Command Sergeant Major Jeffrey Mellinger more than 1,200 miles up and down Iraqi roads over a ten-day period. CSM Mellinger’s direct boss is now General David Petraeus, and although the general has only been commanding the war in Iraq for three weeks, changes he’s made are already apparent. More on that during subsequent dispatches.

In a place where a single day could sometimes make an interesting book, I often go days without writing a word because I am out with soldiers running missions. When I return to base, reality is not respectful to readers or writers, and many important dispatches will never be published simply because I was unable to get internet connections. For the soldiers and their families who wonder why I never published something about this or that mission, or never published even a single photo of a good unit I did a mission with, the breakdown is most often an internet connection that does not work. Full stop.

Today, the logistics challenges entailed in finding a suitable place to live and work (in Baghdad) afford only about one hour for this quick overview of my experiences in the past couple of weeks.

Often the most dangerous places in Iraq are at the front gates of bases where suicide attackers roll in. Outside the wire—and often inside the wire—is bad-guy country. A block away from a base might as well be a hundred miles away. We rolled out in humvees for what would be about a 1,225 mile trip inside Iraq, and another portion to Germany and back.

On the 18th, we drove from Baghdad to Ramadi for a “Transfer of Authority” from the 1st Brigade 1st Armored Division, to the 1st Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division.

Geraldo Rivera was there. He’s got a cool mustache. Monte Morin of Stars & Stripes was there. Monte’s a serious war correspondent. Lieutenant General Raymond Odierno was there. Odierno is a serious general who runs a huge portion of this war. Next time Odierno comes on the news, it can be good to stop and listen.

Know your commanders: LTG Raymond Odierno.

Leaving Ramadi, some of the soldiers couldn’t get over Geraldo’s cool mustache. Many soldiers joke about Geraldo, while others greatly like him, but not even Bruce Willis can approach the cult status of Chuck Norris for combat soldiers. Soldiers love Chuck.

That same afternoon, we drove from Ramadi to Balad, bomb craters pocking the route like mile markers. In fact, for the entire 1,225 miles, the only constant was the bomb craters, those that had already happened and those waiting for the right vehicle to trigger them into existence. Both kinds carry the specter of instant or prolonged death, like a stowaway passenger with a suspicious cough. But in war, that passenger is more of a mascot, so CSM Mellinger was “walking the line” like he always does: out there with the warfighters. One of the highest ranking soldiers in Iraq spends more time on the roads than practically any young soldier.

With the odometer running over many embeds, Mellinger has taken me about 4,000 miles (total) up and down Iraqi roads, visiting units from north to south, east to west, showing that the military truly opens their doors to writers who will stick it out. They don’t even have to like you: my fights with the Army are well-known, yet they continue to open their doors. There’s a lesson in there. I wrote that Iraq was in a civil war shortly after covering the first elections. I wrote about commanders who did poorly, and ISF units that couldn’t shoot straight, and I wrote about the veneer of victory in Afghanistan cracking under the weight of a poppy-fueled Taliban resurgence. Yet they still let me in.

It’s a reminder of why I am so proud of my country, despite our many problems. It’s also a caution about why we must stick with our people who have been mostly abandoned at war. I understand the position of the journalists. Especially the ones who get blown up or shot at fairly regularly, but the informed interest of ordinary Americans is critical to the outcome of this war. And the truth is that our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, most of whom rarely (if ever) see a writer, are abandoned by default.

In Balad, we stopped at Anaconda, where many of our dead and wounded are lifted out. We accompanied a C-17 medevac flight straight to Landstuhl, Germany. On the jet to Germany were many wounded soldiers. Some seriously. One soldier was dying. About thirty of his pals had come to the hospital in Balad to say goodbye. Everyone knew he would not survive. I’ll have to write about that flight with the details the topic warrants, as time permits, but sufficient for this is that the care was outstanding. However, when the Washington Post recently exposed serious shortcomings on the stateside aspects of care, the reports seemed to confirm conversations I’ve had with some wounded veterans last year.

Balad: Loading from the bus onto the flight to Germany. This patient was all smiles coming off the bus. But it was a show of sorts. When she got on the jet and the camera was put away, she burst into tears because she wanted to stay in Iraq and finish her time there. A couple days later, in Germany, she was still upset and complained to CSM Mellinger that she hadn’t been sent back to Iraq.

After several days in Germany, we boarded a small Cessna jet and landed in Sofia, Bulgaria to refuel. During our brief time at the airport, I asked some Bulgarians if it’s true that they nod their heads up and down for “no,” and shake their heads back and forth for “yes.” It’s true. Shake for “yes,” nod for “no.”

We spiraled back in for a night landing in Balad, and woke up the next morning at roughly 3:30 AM for the long drive up the Iraqi roads to Mosul. Of course, there were the bomb craters. We also came across five burning or burned-out fuel trucks.

There’s a lot of talk back at home that morale among American forces is low here. While writing this, I called Rich Oppel from the New York Times, who is in Baghdad, to ask him how morale looked from his vantage. Rich said that a lot of the soldiers are not happy with the extensions of their tours, something I have heard soldiers complain about also. However, I watch morale very closely. More closely than all else. Low morale in a particular unit can be the result of poor leadership in that unit, or just not getting mail, for instance. But gauging morale is not a simple affair of asking a few soldiers. A person has to live with them across Iraq. Having done so, my opinion is that overall troop morale is good to high. (If their morale could be bottled, it would probably would sell like crack, then be outlawed.)

During this latest loop around, we visited American and Iraqi soldiers, and people in very different kinds of locations. Most of the things I saw, heard and smelled will never find their way into any particular dispatch. But they will be added to the near mountain of background facts that shape the context that allows me to speak with a little authority. Just a little. If morale starts to sag, I will be one of the very first to know. I’ll know it even before most of the troops know it. And if I see morale sagging, I’ll write about it.

Many “reliable sources” talk about the unreliability of the various Iraqi Security Forces (a blanket term for Army, Police, Border Patrol and other groups.) Some of the ISF clearly are a dangerous part of the problem. On a joint American-Iraqi compound call FOB McHenry, some Iraqis were apparently fiddling with some explosives about a week earlier. Apparently they made one of those little “mistakes,” the kind that shattered their trailer and rocked the American side of the compound. Four Iraqi soldiers were killed and one was wounded, demonstrating the rationale for the policy which actually prohibited their having explosives on base. Apparently they were trying to kill someone, but nobody is sure who the actual target was. Several days after our soldiers thought they had it all cleaned up, they found another leg. The rest of the Iraqi unit disappeared. This would appear to be a major setback if we panned over and focused on the incident, but in context it’s just another day at war.

We got on a helicopter for a short ride, and when we landed we watched the live video from one of our spy planes as it beamed down the carnage of a bomb (ours? theirs?) in the road that apparently detonated near some Iraqi civilians. The body of one adult lay on the road, and a child had clearly lost a leg. The Iraqi forces did not seem to be hurrying to take the child away.

Soon we drove to Baquba, where I had spent months in 2005. Today Baquba is a hardcore battleground. These Iraqi soldiers and police were preparing for a live-fire exercise conducted by American soldiers just outside FOB Gabe. I’ve heard many people claim that putting small groups of Americans out with Iraqis is suicidal for the Americans, but that’s just uninformed talk. (In fact, about half the people living with me in a tent in Baghdad are Iraqis.) There are definitely ISF people who will kill us, but they seem to be the exception. If they were the rule, I would have been dead at least two years ago; I am frequently either alone with armed ISF or am with American soldiers and we are vastly outnumbered by ISF, yet I have never been attacked by ISF. (Not on purpose, anyway. There have been a few “friendly fire” incidents but I never got shot and they always apologized.)

During the live fire training (yes, that’s a loaded assault rifle and the Iraqi soldier is running by me to shoot targets), a massive firefight erupted not far away. One of those firefights where there is so much shooting that all the shots sound like one very long shot that can last for a whole minute.

The American and Iraqi soldiers just kept training while the firefight roared and ebbed away. There were the sounds of mortars landing in the distance. During a mission maybe a month ago, I was with CSM Mellinger and we were “moving to contact” (meaning moving into a firefight in this case) and there were some explosions. His gunner said something like, “IEDs!” And Mellinger responded with something like, “Shut up and keep the comms clear. Those were just RPGs.” Turns out, Mellinger was right. And during this fight in Baquba, Mellinger was timing the seconds between mortar impacts while watching the live-fire training I was photographing. (This is like Alice in Wonderland sometimes.)

Finally, we loaded up the humvee and drove away from Baquba, through the middle of where the firefight had just occurred maybe thirty minutes earlier. Shell cases littered the ground, and we plied our way to the end of that particular journey, back to Baghdad, where I would spend the next several days attempting to publish a single word.



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darryl Says:
No dispatches because of of no internet? unacceptable… write the dispatches and save them to a thumb drive and publish when you have an internet connection ….. come on i know you smarter than that …..
I will send you a thumb drive or two if you need them …
March 5th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
Neal Hunt Says:
Michael: You do great work and are a true Patriot. I try to forward your dispatches to as many people as possible. You need, however to latch on to a major outlet so the rest of the country can get the real story. God Bless you and all of our heroes.
March 5th, 2007 at 2:07 pm
Annice Kelsey Says:
Stay safe and don’t get hurt. You are in my prayers.
Ann
March 5th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Billy P. Says:
Thanks for the update Michael. Please tell the soldiers that most Americans still want to win this struggle and want to help our military and the Iraqis in any and every way - however long it may take.
God Bless
March 5th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Wallyoneil Says:
Thanks for the info Michael. Very informativeand obviously more balanced than the Mainstream media, which is just a propaganda machine.
Semper Fidelis,
Wally O’Neil SSgt USMC(Ret)
March 5th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
Mark L Harvey Says:
Outstanding report. Keep them coming when you can. The Lame Stream Media won’t tell it like it is like you are more than willing to do!!
God bless you and KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN!!
March 5th, 2007 at 2:23 pm
robert j anderson Says:
Have read the observations of mr Yon for a long time. thanks for the shot at and capturing the reality of daily life there.i have a frustration in that i am not able to do anything with the info you give. e-mails to officials do nothing. what can a sympathetic citizen do? what website can i go to? the lack of info and compassion from the media here is frustrating. i was a soldier during vietnam. it hurt me(the lack of understanding public)
Thanks for what you do.Wish a sympathetic movie could be made!
Bob
Longview, Tx
March 5th, 2007 at 2:23 pm
Carol Says:
Do not be tempted to grow a mustache, yug.
“…gauging morale is not a simple affair of asking a few soldiers” - true for all research, the best research is “hanging out” and is called ‘ethnography’ in the commercial world. You’d make a great market researcher. We are lucky that someone like you is writing about this. Thank you.
March 5th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
Jen W Says:
THANK YOU for all you do! You give us a perspective that no one else is giving. I agree that you need to be syndicated. We NEED to see these dispatches in our newspapers. If the media knew what was good for them, they would request that you allow them to reprint them!
Keep on keepin’ on! As always we are praying for your safety!
March 5th, 2007 at 2:36 pm
Robert Says:
Michael,
Keep the faith - ditto what Darryl says - digital voice recorders work too; maximize your drive time.
March 5th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
Terrence Says:
Mike,
Great job again on your dispatches! Anything we can do to help you get a consistent Internet connection?
Best,
Terrence
March 5th, 2007 at 2:45 pm
LTC Dan Ward Says:
Mike — I am a former SF Officer. I am curious about all the photos (not just yours) showing ISF troops. What concerns me is the apparent lack of uniformity in their combat uniforms (example: Steel pots for some, Kevlar for others, different BDU patterns). Seems to me we are inadequately resourcing ISF and inhibiting cohesion and espirit de corps, not to mention how the public views and has confidence in them by how they appear. They kind of look like guerillas, more than an organized, trained army. Reminds me of the NG & USAR SF circa 1970s when it was hard to get soldiers in the same uniform, thus looking like a mob.
March 5th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
Barry Says:
De Oppresso Liber!
March 5th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
Charlie Carpenter Says:
Thanks so much for the engaging report, and the work you are doing which gives us a glimose of the warwe don’t get anywhere else. May God keep ypou safe, and may your communiques keep coming, Thanks,and God bless you.
March 5th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
Bill Brent Says:
I greatly appreciate your posts, Michael, and have contributed to your website to help (in a small way) make them possible. But I have to say, Darryl has a point about using thumb drives for dispatches.
March 5th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
Paul Rusin Says:
What a day in the ‘hood. It is good to hear stories from the frontlines.
Any soldiers in Iraq, or Afghanistan, who would like to write home go to my webpage, or send emails to prusin@rochester.rr.com.
March 5th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
pat walley Says:
God Bless you. Please be careful. I read whatever you send, because what we hear from the media is junk. Please tell all those brave servicemen and women we support them 100%.
March 5th, 2007 at 4:09 pm
frank Says:
Rather than rely on a Internet connection, let’s get you setup in such a way that you can compose e-mail/dispatches off-line, and whenever you are around a I-Net connection you can batch-send whatever queued e-mail/dispatches you have.
I can help you with this, or your web admin should be able to help out.
Also, do you have a SAT phone? I’m sure we could do a little fund raiser drive to get your a SAT phone, a contract, and data-link so you can upload from anywhere a story.
Large images can always be sent later as bandwidth permits.
March 5th, 2007 at 4:14 pm
James R, Says:
Michael-
First and foremost THANK YOU…
You know it really is amazing to see what happens when you use your God Given talents! With that, your Dispatches are one of the most unique on the (world-wide-web). My brother in law is on his 4th tour in Iraq (82nd Airborne). Thanks for taking the time w/ the updates!
PS: This site will help your internet issue: http://wimax-coverage.com/no-satellite-internet.html
…LOL…
God Bless You!
- James R.
Orange County, Ca
March 5th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
M. Merrell Says:
Michael,
Enthralling article as usual.
To all others: If you want to help him, send more money. I’m sure he knows what to do with it.
Thanks Michael.
March 5th, 2007 at 4:57 pm
Paulette Says:
So good to hear from you I was beginning to wonder if you were okay. Thanks for the update stay safe! Praying for all our slodiers and you.
March 5th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
alexa kim Says:
I believe Michael is writing everything down, he just hasn’t been able to post them. Are you kidding me?
Michael you are doing a TREMENDOUS job and I cannot get enough. Thank you so much!
As usual, please pass along our thanks, my thanks, and personal admiration, support (for them and their mission) and utter adoration of and for them, k?
You are in my thoughts which means you are in my prayers!
March 5th, 2007 at 5:33 pm
Lewis Grant Says:
Valuable insight
March 5th, 2007 at 5:37 pm
alexa kim Says:
To LTC Ward, I too have noticed the discrepancies in the ISF uni’s and such but at least they’re not in civies! And, honestly, if they’re getting our military hand-me-downs, without me having to pay yet more for new issue, I’m fine with that. They have more than they otherwise would. MY Soldiers are entitled to the dragon skin and latest and greatest first, last and always. I know you feel the same, I promise I’m not suggesting otherwise, you are, after all, one of ours. I’m crazy about you!
March 5th, 2007 at 5:38 pm
PRODOS Says:
Enjoyed your post greatly - as always.
LTC Dan Ward’s observation about the ISF fellows is interesting. i.e. Noticing the “lack of uniformity in their combat uniforms”.
Such things matter greatly in a war zone. If there’s a lack of “espirit de corps” amongst ISF people - with their fellow Iraqis, I worry about their deeper commitment to cooperating with US forces - the foreigners. I hope I’m wrong about that.
I was especially glad to read your notes about morale - especially after recent reports in The Australia (newspaper) suggesting some sort of widespread discontent across American soldiers.
Frankly, I can NEVER believe that American soldiers and their commanders would ever let morale get low.
Best Wishes from the world’s
most PRO-American non-American,
PRODOS
Melbourne, Australia
March 5th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
Colin, Vancouver BC Says:
Glad your back at it, I was missing your comments, thanks for the e-mail alert and link for comment problems, as I did get frustrated awhile back trying to post. Stay safe!
March 5th, 2007 at 5:40 pm

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Custer is one of the Generals who briefed our group for VOICES OF SOLDIERS.
A smart guy!
----------------

Jihadists Use Internet as Recruiting, Networking Tool, Intel Official Says
By John J. Kruzel
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, March 5, 2007 – The Internet is the most important venue for the radicalization of Islamic youth, the head of intelligence at U.S. Central Command, said in an interview aired yesterday.

Army Brig. Gen. John Custer and other experts described the effects of terrorists' online recruiting and networking methods during a 60 Minutes interview with correspondent Scott Pelley.
"I see 16-, 17-year-olds who have been indoctrinated on the Internet turn up on the battlefield," Custer said. "We capture them; we kill them every day in Iraq, in Afghanistan."
Stephen Ulph, a researcher and writer on militant Islam, is a consultant at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., where cadets are learning to recognize the Web's power as a new weapon. Ulph told 60 Minutes that Jihadist recruiters online are waging a massive battle for the hearts and minds of Muslims.
"They throw a bomb into (a recruit's) mental universe ... and shatter it," he said. "And, then (they) say, 'Here's how we're going to reassemble these fragments.'"
Recruiters use the Internet to deconstruct moderate interpretations of Islam and then repaint the scripture in a more radical version, he said
"If your parents aren't proper Muslims, if the sheik of a mosque isn't a proper Muslim, what are you doing obeying them?" he said. "Once they've softened (the recruit) up and he's now in freefall, they say, 'This is your identity. We're going to put the "j" back into Islam. It's jihad.'"
Jihadist Web sites exploded after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and an estimated 5,000 terrorist sites exist online, 60 Minutes reported. One Jihadi site they investigated had 17,869 members.
Custer described how Web sites are set up to entice possible recruits.
"You start off with a site that looks like current news in Iraq; with a single click, you're at an active jihad attack site," Custer said. "You can see Humvees blown up. You can see American bodies drug through the street. You can see small-arms attacks.
"Next link will take you to a motivational site, where martyr operatives, suicide bombers, are pictured in heaven; you can you see their farewell speeches," he said. "Another click and you're at a site where you can download scripted talking points that validate ... religious justification for mass murder."
Custer said today's warfare is a different type, which takes place on an asymmetric battlefield.
"There is no front line of troops. Civilians are targets. The press has no credentials here. Kidnap them. Put a gun to their head, and put them on the evening news," he said. "It's a battle of perceptions, and al Qaeda understands it. And America needs to understand it.
"Can you imagine thousands of tanks on a battlefield now?" Custer said. "I can't."
The general's comments echo remarks that another military official, Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, made Feb. 26 at the Special Operations and Low-Intensity Symposium, in Arlington, Va.
Al Qaeda and it associates operate within a "full-spectrum network" that extends beyond the physical battlefield into the virtual world, Kimmitt, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Near Eastern and South Asian affairs, said.
"It has the ability to use the virtual and physical network, all tied together in this center of gravity of this radical Islamist ideology," he said. "The fact that it uses the most advanced methods of communications to get what it needs to be done is truly remarkable."
In addition to recruiting, terrorists who seek to obtain chemical, biological weapons, and radioactive material for dirty bombs, use the Internet to wire money and to transfer tactics, techniques and procedures, he said.
"It has truly got its stuff together in terms of fighting as a network," he said. "Those (improvised explosive devices) ... going off in Afghanistan weren't sent over there by books, they were sent over by information directly available on the internet."

Related Sites:
U.S. Central Command

Related Articles:
Building Global Network, Denying Safe Havens Essential in War on Terror

Increased Awareness Will Improve Brain-Injury Treatment, Officials Say
By Sgt. Sara Wood, USA
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, March 5, 2007 – Traumatic brain injury, the signature wound of a conflict punctuated by daily bomb attacks on coalition forces and Iraqi civilians, is receiving increased emphasis from Defense Department leaders and the military medical community.

DoD has made great strides in treating severe traumatic brain injuries -- those with obvious symptoms like open head trauma or loss of consciousness -- but the challenge lies in better identifying and treating mild brain injury, two top officials in the DoD health care community said.
These mild injuries, which can be caused by repeated concussions or indirect exposure to a bomb blast, are hard to diagnose because soldiers may not recognize their own symptoms, and screening tests can't always capture the full range of possible symptoms.
Treatment of traumatic brain injury is an emerging field, because the use of improvised explosive devices is greater in this conflict than it has been in any other, said Dr. William Winkenwerder Jr., assistant secretary of defense for health affairs.
In late 2006, DoD implemented a thorough screening process, based on one used for professional athletes, for soldiers and Marines who suffer head injuries. The post-deployment health assessment all servicemembers must go through also includes questions about mental and psychological symptoms, Winkenwerder said. Even with these processes in place, not all servicemembers who suffer from mild traumatic brain injury are identified, he acknowledged.
"Everyone's antenna are raised at this point about the need to look for the subtle cases -- those who might not have been right immediately in a blast zone, but could have been near, or that they might have experienced this kind of event two or three times," Winkenwerder said. "In those cases, they need to be looked at very carefully."
Many cases of mild traumatic brain injury don't get reported because servicemembers don't recognize the symptoms or are too embarrassed to admit to problems with memory or other mental functions, said Navy Vice Adm. Donald C. Arthur, surgeon general of the Navy.
Arthur said he himself suffered a traumatic brain injury a year and a half ago and was initially embarrassed to talk about the problems he was having as a result. After he underwent basic cognitive tests, he said, medical personnel thought he was fine because they didn't have a baseline of his mental functioning before his injury to compare.
DoD needs to develop tests that will measure servicemembers' cognitive functions to establish a baseline for comparison when injuries occur, Arthur said. DoD also is refining its screening processes to better identify mild symptoms that are hard to spot, he said, but awareness needs to be increased to help soldiers recognize their own problems.
"We will try to identify all of them that we can using objective tests," he said. "But we need to be very open to servicemembers coming to us telling us that they perceive that they have an issue and treating them as if we had diagnosed them, because they may be more sensitive in their knowledge of themselves than we could be with objective tests."
Another thing that can complicate the diagnosis of traumatic brain injuries is the residual effect of injuries that occurred at the same time as the brain trauma or medication that servicemembers may be taking, Arthur said. Post-traumatic stress disorder also can affect mental functioning and may be confused for traumatic brain injury, he said.
"It's important for us to go back and look at what are the components of the brain injury that are left, after the medications, after the combat stress, and after the other injuries are cared for," he said.
Recent increased attention on traumatic brain injury is positive, Winkenwerder said, because it teaches servicemembers, commanders and medical personnel that subtle brain trauma is something that needs to be taken seriously and treated. DoD, in partnership with the Department of Veterans Affairs, is a leader in traumatic brain injury research, spending about $14 million so far in the area, he said. DoD is looking at enhancing that research effort in hopes of learning as much as possible quickly and applying that knowledge in the field, he said.
"We're never satisfied," he said. "We do not believe at any one point in time that we've reached the best. It's a continual striving, and as we learn and deal with new situations, new circumstances, ... it's our obligation to respond and to learn and to get better."

Biographies:
Dr. William Winkenwerder Jr.
Vice Adm. Donald C. Arthur, USN