Special Operations

EASTERN PROVINCE, Saudi Arabia -- The first U.S. troops committed to any ground assault on Iraq or its forces in Kuwait are likely to be members of the elite Special Operations Command now training other units of the multinational force in the Persian Gulf, a high-ranking U.S. military official said yesterday.Army Col. Jesse Johnson, commanding officer of Special Operations Command-Central, said in an interview at his underground command post at a heavily guarded air base that Special Operations troops would accompany the first wave of Arab units -- expected to lead the ground assault -- to coordinate their movements on radio links to U.S. and other forces.

Hundreds of commercial motorists were issued citations last week while passing through Maryland as part of a targeted police effort to crack down on drivers who actively avoid paying tolls at one of the state's largest toll plazas, according to Maryland State Police. The police initiative, dubbed "Operation Prevent," was conducted Wednesday through Friday at the Tydings Bridge toll plaza on Interstate 95 in Cecil County, where 20,500 toll violations have occurred in the past year, police said.

Two recent reports appearing on the same day last week in The New York Times and The Washington Post illustrate U.S. intentions in Iraq. What they reveal is that despite the heralded "end" of U.S. participation in the war there, U.S. policy continues to depend on our security apparatus to influence Iraq, at the expense of Iraqis' sovereignty and dignity. The Times report informed us that the U.S. State Departmentdecided to cut the U.S. embassy staff by 50 percent from its current 16,000 personnel.

Baltimore's Fire Department is overhauling its rescue teams and converting its Locust Point station into a new command center — moves designed to increase the availability of firefighters trained to work in deep water, collapsed buildings and other dangerous locations. Fire Chief James S. Clack said the changes — which come after a December accident that shut down the dive team — are needed to address shortcomings in the agency. Baltimore, he said, has fallen "a little behind" other big cities since the Sept.

WASHINGTON - They were crucial to the defeat of the Taliban government, calling in precision airstrikes while huddled in the hills with Afghan allies. And these shadowy warriors are playing an increasingly larger role in the overall war on terror, training foreign troops from the gorges of Georgia to the steamy jungles of the Philippines. Now, military leaders are looking at these special operations forces - from the Army's Green Berets to the Navy's SEALs - with heightened interest, proposing to increase their numbers, provide new equipment and set up more training missions with rank-and-file troops.

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is considering ways to broadly expand the role of U.S. Special Operations forces in the global campaign against terrorism, including sending them worldwide to capture or kill al-Qaida leaders, according to Pentagon and intelligence officials. Proposals being discussed by Rumsfeld and senior military officers could lead Special Operations units to become more deeply involved in long-term covert operations in countries where the United States is not at war and, in some cases, where the local government is not informed of their presence.

MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- So many of America's special operations commandos have been thrown into combat in Iraq and Afghanistan that only a handful of the elite troops are available for the quiet but critical work of training local security forces and stabilizing governments elsewhere -- raising worries about al-Qaida and related terrorist groups expanding in other parts of the world. The demand for Army Green Berets, Navy SEALs and other highly trained units in battle, which senior military commanders expect will last for the foreseeable future, is a tough problem for the military and for its relatively small and overstretched special operations forces centered here in a bustling wartime headquarters.

Somewhere back in the American psyche, there's Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler standing on the stage of the Ed Sullivan Show mouthing the words to his No. 1 hit, "Ballad of the Green Berets."That was 1966, and Sadler's dirge would stand as one of the last jingoistic gasps connected with Vietnam and with the U.S. Army's Special Forces.A decade later, their image riddled by the war, the Green Berets fell on hard times as the Army emphasized a more conventional approach to soldiering. On the nation's movie screen the stereotypical Green Beret became a killing machine.

WHERE'S THAT darn Martha Burk when she's really needed? Not defending the rights of Emily Hummel, that's for sure. Burk, the old battle-a - er, uh, - the women's rights activist who sought to reverse the men-only membership of the Augusta National Golf Club by holding a protest demonstration of Lilliputian proportions, might want to focus her attention on Hummel's plight. Hummel is a junior at Perry Hall High School. She has definite plans about what she wants to do when June 2004 rolls around.

NBC News announced Friday that Brian Williams' ratings-impaired, journalistically-challenged "Rock Center" newsmagazine will have a report on what it was like inside the Situation Room on the night Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. Navy Seals. I guess bowing to the president and hiring the secretary of state's unqualified daughter as a special correspondent should be worth something, shouldn't it? Check out the breathless language in the first paragraph: "In a first for network television," "unprecedented access" and "exclusive airing.

A Navy SEAL from Edgewater is to be laid to rest this week at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Patrick D. Feeks of Edgewater was among seven Americans and four Afghans killed when their Black Hawk helicopter crashed northeast of Kandahar, Afghanistan, during a firefight with insurgents last month. The Aug.16 incident was one of the deadliest air disasters in the nearly 11-year-old war. The Taliban claimed responsibility for shooting down the helicopter.

NBC News announced Friday that Brian Williams' ratings-impaired, journalistically-challenged "Rock Center" newsmagazine will have a report on what it was like inside the Situation Room on the night Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. Navy Seals. I guess bowing to the president and hiring the secretary of state's unqualified daughter as a special correspondent should be worth something, shouldn't it? Check out the breathless language in the first paragraph: "In a first for network television," "unprecedented access" and "exclusive airing.

Two recent reports appearing on the same day last week in The New York Times and The Washington Post illustrate U.S. intentions in Iraq. What they reveal is that despite the heralded "end" of U.S. participation in the war there, U.S. policy continues to depend on our security apparatus to influence Iraq, at the expense of Iraqis' sovereignty and dignity. The Times report informed us that the U.S. State Departmentdecided to cut the U.S. embassy staff by 50 percent from its current 16,000 personnel.

In his final commencement address as the secretary of defense, Robert M. Gates told the graduating class of midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy on Friday that they will join the nation's war effort at a critical turning point in Iraq and Afghanistan. During a 20-minute address that avoided politics and instead focused largely on leadership and recent military successes, Gates noted that the 2011 class joined the academy at a time when the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan were entering an especially dangerous phase.

MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- So many of America's special operations commandos have been thrown into combat in Iraq and Afghanistan that only a handful of the elite troops are available for the quiet but critical work of training local security forces and stabilizing governments elsewhere -- raising worries about al-Qaida and related terrorist groups expanding in other parts of the world. The demand for Army Green Berets, Navy SEALs and other highly trained units in battle, which senior military commanders expect will last for the foreseeable future, is a tough problem for the military and for its relatively small and overstretched special operations forces centered here in a bustling wartime headquarters.

WHERE'S THAT darn Martha Burk when she's really needed? Not defending the rights of Emily Hummel, that's for sure. Burk, the old battle-a - er, uh, - the women's rights activist who sought to reverse the men-only membership of the Augusta National Golf Club by holding a protest demonstration of Lilliputian proportions, might want to focus her attention on Hummel's plight. Hummel is a junior at Perry Hall High School. She has definite plans about what she wants to do when June 2004 rolls around.

In his final commencement address as the secretary of defense, Robert M. Gates told the graduating class of midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy on Friday that they will join the nation's war effort at a critical turning point in Iraq and Afghanistan. During a 20-minute address that avoided politics and instead focused largely on leadership and recent military successes, Gates noted that the 2011 class joined the academy at a time when the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan were entering an especially dangerous phase.

FORT BRAGG, N.C. - Sgt. Steven Snyder is getting his affairs in order. He has updated his will, directed his paycheck to go to his family and given his wife, Jamie, power of attorney. For the first time in his six years in the military, the 27-year-old soldier is facing the grim reality that he likely will go to war. An infantryman in the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, Snyder has spent the last year and a half preparing for dangerous missions. His division is capable of deploying soldiers and conducting airborne operations anywhere in the world within 18 hours.

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is considering ways to broadly expand the role of U.S. Special Operations forces in the global campaign against terrorism, including sending them worldwide to capture or kill al-Qaida leaders, according to Pentagon and intelligence officials. Proposals being discussed by Rumsfeld and senior military officers could lead Special Operations units to become more deeply involved in long-term covert operations in countries where the United States is not at war and, in some cases, where the local government is not informed of their presence.

WASHINGTON - They were crucial to the defeat of the Taliban government, calling in precision airstrikes while huddled in the hills with Afghan allies. And these shadowy warriors are playing an increasingly larger role in the overall war on terror, training foreign troops from the gorges of Georgia to the steamy jungles of the Philippines. Now, military leaders are looking at these special operations forces - from the Army's Green Berets to the Navy's SEALs - with heightened interest, proposing to increase their numbers, provide new equipment and set up more training missions with rank-and-file troops.