Monday,Apr 21 2008, 10:56:08 PMForensics Team Gives Voice to Saddam's Fallen, Sho

By Donna Miles

American Forces Press Service

April 17, 2008 - Dr. Michael "Sonny" Trimble saw evidence of Saddam Hussein's brutality firsthand as he led a team that excavated nine mass graves in Iraq, then looked evil in the eye as he testified in an Iraqi court against the regime's atrocities.  But through those horrors, Trimble said, he witnessed something awe-inspiring as well: America's message to the world of its commitment to the rule of law and the value of human life.

A forensic archeologist for the Army Corps of Engineers' St. Louis District, Trimble received the Army's Decoration for Exceptional Civilian Service this week for his work leading a mass graves team in Iraq. Army Secretary Pete Geren and Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Richard A. Cody praised Trimble during an April 15 Pentagon ceremony for conducting forensic mass-grave exhumations and analyses that proved Saddam's role in genocide and crimes against humanity.

The assignment Trimble got in June 2004 was vastly different from his typical work inventorying and maintaining museum collections for the Corps of Engineers. The mission: stand up a forensic-analysis team, buy the necessary equipment, excavate nine major mass graves throughout Iraq, and analyze what the team found at a forensic laboratory the team would set up near Baghdad International Airport.

And the biggest challenge of all: be on the ground digging within 60 days.

Trials against Saddam were already under way, but so far, all evidence against him consisted of testimony and archival evidence such as execution orders he signed. "In the end, in any homicide, you have to have the body," Trimble said. "You have to be able to show that this person was murdered and how he was murdered. And in the case of genocide, you have to be able to show that the murder was gruesome and cold-blooded -- which, in this case, wasn't hard to do."

It was a daunting assignment despite Trimble's 34 years of forensics experience, the last 21 years with the Army Corps of Engineers. He drew on training he received working with the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command in Hawaii, the only Defense Department organization with a mission anything like the one Trimble and his team would carry out. JPAC excavates and analyzes the remains of suspected U.S. servicemembers still unaccounted for from past conflicts.

Trimble said he is still amazed that he was able to push through all the processes required to get his team on the ground working within two months.

"I'm not sure anyone has ever done that that fast, and I am not sure I could ever do it again," he said. "It was unbelievable. We were working 16-, 17-, 18-hour days, minimum."

The way mass graves were excavated in Bosnia is far more typical of the way forensic archeologist work. "You go out after the war is over. No one is shooting at you. You have the luxury of time as you excavate these graves, and you have to excavate them very carefully so that nothing is challenged in court," Trimble said.

That wasn't to be the case in Iraq.

"We hit the ground, and they said, 'You have to start getting these graves, finding them, digging them up, doing it carefully and writing that final report (to the court) that had to be translated into Arabic,'" Trimble said. "We had to do it fast and carefully -- and fast and carefully don't usually go together, especially in this field."

When Trimble and his team completed their mission, they didn't have a body. They had 367. Of those, 301, mostly Kurdish women and children, were uncovered in three mass graves related to Saddam's 1987-1988 Anfal campaign. Others were Shiites killed during the 1991 uprising in Karbala.

The Anfal campaign left more than 200,000 Kurds dead and possibly far more, but received little international attention, Trimble said. Saddam's order to execute 148 people in the Shiite town of Dujail -- a crime for which Saddam was later executed -- garnered far more publicity.

Unlike in Dujail, where Saddam singled out men and boys for revenge killings after a failed assassination attempt, the Anfal attacks were part of a longstanding campaign that wiped out nearly every Kurdish village in vast areas of northern Iraq. The campaign aimed to eliminate the Kurdish population, an objective Trimble said was best served by eliminating its women and children.

In many cases, the victims were told they were being resettled. Then, with all their worldly possessions in tow, they were taken deep into the desert to be killed, Trimble said. The killers "had pre-cut linear graves with heavy equipment, and they marched people into the graves, usually in the early evening, and machine-gunned them and covered them up," he said.

Iraq is riddled with graves of Saddam's fallen, Trimble said, guessing that he and his team found only a tiny fraction of them. "The whole country is filled with them," he said.

As they performed in-depth scientific analyses of the remains they found, Trimble and his team felt heartbroken by what they found. Lack of acid in the soil had preserved most of the clothing that clung to skeletal remains, leaving no doubt that the victims were mostly women and children. Women clung to bags of pots and pans and other household goods. Young children lay within reach of pacifiers buried with them in the dirt.

Trimble said he and his team felt an obligation to the victims as they went to work as part of the Department of Justice's Regime Crimes Liaison Office in Iraq team. Their job was to provide indisputable proof the Iraqi court needed in its three separate cases against Saddam, his cousin Ali Hassan Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti, known as "Chemical Ali," and other former Baath Party officials.

As a culmination of the team's efforts, Trimble was called to testify against the defendants. He spent five solid hours in August 2006 recounting to the court his team's findings, being challenged directly by Saddam as well as Chemical Ali, who Trimble said had the piercing eyes of a "stone-cold killer."

Following what Trimble described as a "very fair" court process, the court found the defendants guilty.

To Trimble, the convictions weren't the end of the team's work. The team members took each set of human remains they had analyzed, wrapped them in cloth, and returned them to the Kurdish people. "It was important for us to show that respect for the human remains," Trimble said.

The Kurds buried the remains in a national cemetery and plan to build a museum similar to Washington D.C.'s Holocaust Museum to honor those killed. Clothing and other items discovered in the graves will help tell the stories of the Anfal campaign, Trimble said.

Trimble called it a privilege to be a part of the team that helped bring Saddam and his fellow regime members to justice and to ensure the world knew the story of those whose lives they took down. "I felt an obligation to the people I had worked with, but especially to the Kurdish and Shiia people murdered," he said. "After awhile, you get very close to the bodies of these people, and you really want to take care of them. I felt I owed that to them in a very big way."

But equally gratifying, Trimble said, was the opportunity to help show the world the values the United States embraces. "I thought this was the best representation of the United States," he said.

By helping the Iraqis set up a legal system to ensure fair trials, the United States demonstrated its commitment to the rule of law -- not tribalism -- to settle disputes, he said. And by committing people and resources to the process, the United States showed the value it places on human life.

"This was the best story we had going in a tough situation over there," he said. "It showed the United States coming over, training people, setting up a law system and really showing people in the Middle East that we take life seriously and are willing to put people and resources behind that."

Wednesday,Apr 16 2008, 02:09:29 AMMullen Strives for Balance in Current Role as Join

By John J. Kruzel

American Forces Press Service

April 15, 2008 - To keep U.S. forces well resourced, trained and poised for unknown future threats, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff strives for balance, he said today. Whether weighing regional versus global threats, military resources against mission needs, or adjusting the amount of deployment time and time at home, Navy Adm. Mike Mullen tries to achieve an even approach.

"How I approach this job is I really try to keep my focus on balance, given that uncertainty and that unpredictability," Mullen told an audience at the Heritage Foundation here.

Mullen said one of his primary duties is to keep his "head up above" current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and even above the Middle East, in order to distribute his focus equally across the global security landscape.

This broad view informs the chairman on how the military assesses world-wide security threats and the manner in which it recruits and retains forces for current and future conflicts, he said.

"So how do we balance all that?" he said. "That really is ... pretty close to my full-time job as chairman."

Mullen said the current focus is correctly placed on Iraq. He added that he and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates support recommendations made last week by Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker, respectively the top U.S. commander and diplomat in Iraq, during two days of testimony on Capitol Hill.

"We both were asked what are recommendations were, and we both testified that our recommendations were very consistent with what General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker have brought forward," Mullen said, referring to a House Armed Services Committee hearing he and Gates attended this morning.

"From the military standpoint, certainly, I was very comfortable with (Petraeus') assessment and spent a fair amount of time reviewing that with the Joint Chiefs," Mullen added.

But the chairman expressed concern that the U.S. military's focus is not as equally proportioned as it has been in the past. He said the conflict in Iraq is preventing forces from operating elsewhere.

"I think we need to be very clear about acknowledging that focus (on Iraq), and acknowledging what we can do, what we've done and also what we haven't been able to do," he said. "It is clearly having an affect on our ability to do other things."

The most obvious results of Iraq's hold on the U.S. military's attention can be seen in Afghanistan, Mullen said. He added that, while Bush earlier this month pledged to send more troops to Afghanistan, their availability depends on the situation in Iraq.

"So until we come down in numbers of brigades in Iraq, the brigade-size requirements in Afghanistan just aren't going to be met," he said. "That link is very direct."

Mullen also said that operations shouldn't cloud military planners' vision of threats emanating from Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

"Clearly, (it's where I would pick) if I were going to pick a place where the next attack is going to come from," he said. "That's where al-Qaida is, that's where their leadership is, and we're going to have to figure out a way to resolve that challenge."

Echoing comments he has made previously regarding lengthy deployments, Mullen stressed the need to reduce 15-month tours and to further balance servicemembers' time deployed to time at home, also known as "dwell time."

Underscoring how he defines his role as the military's top officer, Mullen said his principle responsibility is to "build the military for the future in a very uncertain time and very dangerous time and very unpredictable time."

"It's this balance between what we're doing today," he added, "and what we're doing tomorrow."

Tuesday,Apr 15 2008, 03:32:49 AMIncreased Security Brings New Commerce to Iraqi Ci

By Army Staff Sgt. Margaret C. Nelson

Special to American Forces Press Service

April 14, 2008 - A young man begins a business to support his new family. Not exactly headline news, but for 24-year-old Kusai, his dream would be realized in the heart of this city that was considered an extremists' stronghold only six months ago.  Hawijah, about 60 miles south of Kirkuk city in Iraq's Kirkuk province, has held center stage to the region's worst violence against civilians, Iraq security forces, and coalition forces. The residents here faced 10 to 15 attacks per day, according to military records.

Soldiers report that they routinely were targeted with small-arms fire upon exiting the confines of Forward Operating Base McHenry, where soldiers of the 10th Mountain Division's 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, are located.

But since the citizens and their local leaders turned against the extremists, overall violence in this predominantly Sunni-Arab populated region of northeastern Iraq has dropped nearly 80 percent, Army Lt. Col. Christopher Vanek, commander of 1-87th Infantry, said.

Though isolated incidents occur, "the crucial element to the ongoing successes here are the concerned citizens of Hawijah, who are effectively identifying those responsible [for violent acts] expeditiously," Vanek said. More than 7,000 Hawijah citizens are enrolled as "Sons of Iraq," aiding local security efforts.

Kusai, the young businessman, said the local populace's rejection of extremist violence made it possible for him to open his shop and provide for his family.

"There is business. People feel safer. You see the security," Kusai, said, pointing to the five Sons of Iraq who had stopped by to investigate and converse with the soldiers of Company B, 1-87th Infantry. "These men are very good. They are always stopping by to see if everything is OK," he said.

Kusai is not the only merchant who has benefited. An ice cream parlor across the street that resembles a scaled-down version of a fountain shop in the United States is stocked with soft drinks, cookies, cakes and an ice cream machine.

Masmoud Wasif, 17, welcomes the soldiers as they enter to purchase some canned drinks to hand out to the children that have gathered there. The shop is owned by Wasif's parents, who have operated the store for about three years.

"Business is much better," he said. "People are not afraid to come to the marketplace and shop." He credits the Sons of Iraq for the increased security. "I am very happy they are here," he said, then asked them if they could stay until midnight so he could earn more money.

Besides providing overwatch for the city's security, Sons of Iraq were seen clearing debris and sweeping the streets during this visit. A day later, on a return trip from another mission, Vanek remarked that he has never seen the streets of Hawijah so clean.

"This is incredible," he said upon learning that the Sons of Iraq were responsible. "Incredible."

(Army Staff Sgt. Margaret C. Nelson serves with 115th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment.)

Tuesday,Apr 15 2008, 12:55:09 AMWounded Warriors' Health Care Improving, Senior Of

By Gerry J. Gilmore

American Forces Press Service

April 14, 2008 - The Defense and Veterans Affairs departments are making progress to improve health care for injured servicemembers and military veterans, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said here today.  The two agencies "are working together to better serve wounded warriors," Gates, accompanied by Veterans Affairs Secretary James B. Peake, told reporters at a news conference at the Pentagon's river entrance.

"Our departments are making progress on the over 400 recommendations put forth by several major commissions and task forces," Gates said. Several fact-finding panels were formed to examine servicemembers' and veterans' health care after a series of Washington Post articles published in February 2007 cited substandard practices involving medical outpatients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center here.

Gates and Peake were accompanied at the Pentagon news conference by Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon R. England and Deputy Veterans Affairs Secretary Gordon H. Mansfield. The deputies have been meeting weekly "to track implementation and progress" of commission recommendations, Gates said.

Defense and VA collaborations are improving veterans' outpatient care, tracking patients' long-term recovery through one system that is jointly administered by both DoD and VA, streamlining disability medical evaluation procedures, simplifying case-management procedures, and more, Gates said.

Gates said he looks forward to future collaboration with Peake and his agency "to ensure the wounded servicemembers receive the first-rate health care that they so much deserve."

Peake echoed Gates' sentiments, noting federal wounded warrior recovery coordinators in place nationwide "are really starting to make a difference" in ensuring military veterans are getting the best health care available.

"We continue to seek ways ... to understand how best to improve our disability processing for our wounded warriors and transition them effectively into the VA system when that is necessary," Peake said.

Peake saluted the Army's wounded warrior transition brigades, the Navy's Safe Harbor program, the Marine Corps' Marine for Life and wounded warrior regiment programs, and the Air Force's Palace HART (Helping Airmen Recover Together) programs for assisting injured servicemembers and wounded transitioning veterans.

All of these programs "are important as we focus on doing the right thing by our wounded warriors," Peake said, adding that he's pleased by the progress that has been made.

"There has never, in my experience, been a closer cooperation between the departments and a more vigorous exchange of information and ideas and problem-solving than what we have today," Peake added.

Former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala and former Sen. Robert Dole were appointed by President Bush to head an investigative panel to examine allegations of poor outpatient care at Walter Reed. That commission released its findings in July. In addition, the Defense and Veterans Affairs departments launched extensive reviews of all of their medical facilities to ensure that wounded warriors are being treated properly.

Tuesday,Apr 8 2008, 05:44:40 AMSWAT Operations

April 7, 2008 (San Dimas, CA) The April 9, 2008, program of Conversations with Cops at The Watering Hole focuses on SWAT operations with guest Kevin Barrett.

Program Date: April 9, 2008

Program Time: 2100 hours, Pacific

Topic: SWAT Operations

Guests:  Kevin Barrett

Listen Live: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/LawEnforcement

About the Guest

Kevin Barrett is the Chairman/CEO of the International Tactical Officers Training Association and SWAT Digest. Kevin is currently active duty [15 years] for a municipal police department where he is assigned to a special response team (SWAT) as a primary entry team member. Kevin’s past assignments include criminal investigations, drug task force and patrol. He has participated in hundreds of tactical operations and has specialized training and experiences in close quarter battle (CQB), counter terrorism, dignitary protection, SCBA and linear assault operations. He is a court certified expert in clandestine laboratory investigation and operations (DEA/ CLET certifications.) Kevin attended Indiana State University and is a certified instructor through the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy.

About the Watering Hole

The Watering Hole is police slang for a location cops go off-duty to blow off steam and talk about work and life.  Sometimes funny; sometimes serious; but, always interesting.

About the Host

Lieutenant Raymond E. Foster was a sworn member of the Los Angeles Police Department for 24 years.  He retired in 2003 at the rank of Lieutenant.  He holds a bachelor’s from the Union Institute and University in Criminal Justice Management and a Master’s Degree in Public Financial Management from California State University, Fullerton; and, has completed his doctoral course work. Raymond E. Foster has been a part-time lecturer at California State University, Fullerton and Fresno; and is currently a faculty advisor and lecturer with the Union Institute and University.  He has experience teaching upper division courses in law enforcement, public policy, technology and leadership.  Raymond is an experienced author who has published numerous articles in a wide range of venues including magazines such as Government Technology, Mobile Government, Airborne Law Enforcement Magazine, and Police One.  He has appeared on the History Channel and radio programs in the United States and Europe as subject matter expert in technological applications in law enforcement.

Listen, call, join us at the Watering Hole.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/LawEnforcement

Program Contact Information

Lieutenant Raymond E. Foster, LAPD (ret.), MPA

editor@police-writers.com

909.599.7530