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Sunday, August 29, 2010
An urgent call for solidarity with the people of Pakistan
Friday, August 27, 2010
Discussion with Detroit business and community leaders
U.S. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, conducts a round table discussion with Detroit business and community leaders in Detroit, Aug. 26, 2010. Mullen is on three-day Conversation with the Country tour to the midwest discussing needs of returning troops, their families, and how community leaders can support them. DoD photo by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley.
Also Read
Also Read
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Face of Defense: Soldier Overcomes Spinal Injury
By Army Sgt. Erica N. Cain
479th Field Artillery Brigade, 1st Army Division West
479th Field Artillery Brigade, 1st Army Division West
FORT HOOD, Texas, Aug. 25, 2010 – Her physical training may look ordinary, but for Army Staff Sgt. Dani Ventre of the 479th Field Artillery Brigade’s Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, it represents her extraordinary resilience in overcoming a spinal injury.
“I have been on and off a ‘dead man’s’ profile for six years, which doesn’t allow me to participate in any organized physical fitness training,” Ventre said. But when her temporary profile ended, Ventre set goals for herself and began participating in the battery’s organized fitness training at her own pace.
“I have been on and off a ‘dead man’s’ profile for six years, which doesn’t allow me to participate in any organized physical fitness training,” Ventre said. But when her temporary profile ended, Ventre set goals for herself and began participating in the battery’s organized fitness training at her own pace.
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Ventre said she took it upon herself to participate because she knew it would help her. “The physical fitness looked fun and would help me improve my physical ability, so I wanted to push myself to participate,” she explained. “My motivation to recover is not to hurt any more. I used to be a PT ‘stud muffin.’ Not so much anymore.”
Hopkins said Ventre’s motivation has been impressive. “What really stood out was the day the unit went on a battery run and Ventre lined up in the fourth rank with the pacesetters,” he said. “The lead soldier fell out of the group run, and Ventre was there to close the gap; she had never quit.”
Ventre said she’s been taking it slowly. “But I realize that the physical fitness sessions will help me recover and not be on profile any longer,” she added, “making me a better soldier, physically and mentally.”
Meanwhile, Hopkins said, Ventre’s resilience and determination set a good example. “At the end of the day,” he said, “that’s what it’s all about: a soldier never giving up and fighting until the end.”
Monday, August 23, 2010
The daughter of a South Korean sailor
From left, U.S. Navy Culinary Specialist 2nd Class Wiellard Guillermo and Culinary Specialist Seaman Billyartjoel Mateo present a cake to Jeon Ye Een, the daughter of a South Korean sailor, as USS Blue Ridge (LCC 19) arrives in Busan, South Korea, Aug. 13, 2010. Blue Ridge is in Busan for the second time this year to conduct community service projects. (DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Daniel Viramontes, U.S. Navy/Released) | |
Practices English phrases with Vietnamese children
U.S. Navy Cryptologic Technician 3rd Class Manuel Dominguez, right, assigned to the guided missile destroyer USS John S. McCain (DDG 56), practices English phrases with Vietnamese children during a community service project at a primary school in Da Nang, Vietnam, Aug. 12, 2010. McCain is on a port visit to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the United States. (DoD photo by Lt. Mike Morley, U.S. Navy/Released)
Unloading bags of flour
Pakistani men unload bags of flour from a U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter in Swat Valley in Pakistan, Aug. 11, 2010. Humanitarian relief and evacuation missions are being conducted as part of the disaster relief efforts to assist Pakistanis in flood-stricken regions of the nation. (DoD photo by Sgt. Monica K. Smith, U.S. Army/Released)
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Celebrating the 91st anniversary of the country’s independence
Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Afghan Minister of Defense Abdul Rahim Wardak attend a ceremony in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 19, 2010, to celebrate the 91st anniversary of the country’s independence. The ceremony commemorates the signing of the Treaty of Rawalpindi, which granted Afghanistan its independence from British rule in 1919. During the ceremony, Karzai also laid a wreath on the independence monument in memory of the fallen soldiers who gave their lives for the country’s freedom. (DoD photo by Staff Sgt. Bradley Lail, U.S. Air Force/Released)
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Navy Divers
U.S. Navy Diver 2nd Class David Orme, center, assigned to Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit (MDSU) 2, ascends to the surface of a pool along with Colombian divers Chief Technician Aurelio Alonso, left, and Capt. Camilo Cifuentez during underwater gear familiarization in Panama City, Panama, Aug. 17, 2010. MDSU-2 is participating in Navy Diver-Southern Partnership Station, a multinational partnership engagement designed to increase interoperability and partner nation capacity through diving operations. (DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Jayme Pastoric, U.S. Navy/Released)
The Royal Danish Navy
The Royal Danish Navy river class patrol vessel HMS Tyne (P281) is shown in full dress in Copenhagen, Denmark, Aug. 13, 2010, in honor of the 500-year anniversary celebration of the Danish Navy. U.S. Sailors aboard the Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate USS Taylor (FFG 50), along with 14 other national navies, participated in festivities celebrating the anniversary. Taylor is on a scheduled deployment in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of responsibility. (DoD photo by Mass Communications Specialist 1st Class Edward Kessler, U.S. Navy/Released)
During a medical civic action program event in Dili
U.S. Public Health Services Capt. Susan Dunn, a doctor, examines a child during a medical civic action program event in Dili, Timor-Leste, Aug. 12, 2010. Dunn and other volunteers and Defense Department personnel are embarked aboard the Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19), which is in Timor-Leste supporting Pacific Partnership 2010. The exercise, which is the fifth in a series of annual U.S. Pacific Fleet humanitarian and civic assistance endeavors, is designed to strengthen regional partnerships. (DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Eddie Harrison, U.S. Navy/Released)
Bite-sleeve training
U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Sabrina Lindahl, with the 230th Military Police Company, Task Force Bastogne, conducts bite-sleeve training with Doly, a patrol narcotics detector dog from Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Fla., on Forward Operating Base Fenty in Afghanistan Aug. 13, 2010. (DoD photo by Spc. Richard Daniels, U.S. Army/Released)
Stop the Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in Sri Lanka
Stop the Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing of Tamils: Demonstration on 21st August 2010 at Westminster – London
“There has been a deafening global silence in response to Sri Lanka’s actions, especially from its most influential friends. The international community cannot be selective in its approach to upholding the rule of law and respect for human rights. Impunity anywhere is a threat to international peace and security everywhere.” – Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary-General
We all remain silent since we heard the Sri Lankan government massacred fifty thousand Tamils, according to a United Nation filed officer, in a tiny area in the north of country within three days. More than two hundred thousand innocent Tamils are held in concentration camps without any valid reason. Thousands of pregnant women, innocent children were killed by aerial attacks and chemical weapons. In the name of eliminating minority ultra nationalists, the Sri Lankan government committed a shocking genocide, preventing the entire national and international media, right groups, United Nation and so on, in the war zone.
Is this an example for eliminating the resistant politics, for the international power? Is this the new feature of new world order? Will it be the general phenomena of the world’s power? Just some months after this Sri Lankan humanitarian disaster, India has started to massacre in order to evacuate poor hill country forest inhabitants from acres and acres of their own land for exploitation of mines. Similar atrocities of power against the innocent poor people and against those who resist, is becoming social recognition in the other parts of the world. The war between the business power and the innocent is the real Avatar.
Sriri Lanka is a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-lingual and multicultural country. Despite this, the Sinhala-Buddhist Government claims that Sri Lanka is a Sinhala-Buddhist country. The ethno-religious mix of Sri Lanka, with 20 million people, consists of ethnic Sinhalese (74%), Tamils (18%) in two groups (ethnic Tamils, 12.5%, and the plantation, or Indian, Tamils, 5.5%) and Moors (6.5%).
The major Sinhalese political parties competed with each other to discriminate the Tamils in language, education and employment with the clear intention of gaining the Sinhalese vote. The head of the SLA stated in an interview last year that the Sinhala-dominated Sri Lankan Armed Forces comprise of 99% Sinhala.
After the so called genocide, the Sri Lankan government is currently conducting the ethnic cleansing against the minorities.
To achieve their goal with the silence of international community:
1. Drive them out of the country. Although 1.3 million have already been driven out, there are still 2 million left.
2. Make them “non-people”, i.e. internal refugees. Currently, there are 2 00,000 Tamil civilians living in concentration camps in the Tamil north and east or have fled into the jungles in the north to escape SLA bombing. There are also 200,000 Tamil refugees in south India.
3. Make them “disappear”. Today, Sri Lanka leads the world in “involuntary disappearances”.
4. Kill them — i.e. commit genocide
“On December 23 2009, the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) came out with a detailed 49-page report entitled Besieged, Displaced, and Detained. The Plight of Civilians in Sri Lanka’s Vanni Region of the Sri Lankan government’s responsibility for the plight of 230,000 to 300,000 displaced people in the Vanni (northern) conflict zone. “
The world constructs a new world order with a new power configuration. If we fail to stand together, we will be the victims. Sri Lanka is just the laboratory for the power to learn how to handle the resistance. Please come and participate in the demonstration against the Sri Lankan and Indian government held on:
Date: 21/08/2010
Time: 2 – 5 P.M
Venue : Richmond Terrace, Westminster
Nearest Tube: Westminster
07926033161
Organisers :New Directions (NDS) With collaboration of Progressive Nepalese Society UK
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Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
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Biometrics Shows Increasing Promise On, Off Battlefield
By Donna Miles American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON : Considered a battlefield curiosity just a few years ago, biometrics has become recognized as a vital warfighting capability. Now, defense officials see the same technology as a key to helping the Defense Department make its business practices more efficient.
“Five years ago, it was something very new, and the capability wasn’t fully understood. It was kind of an add-on to the mission,” she said. “Now it’s an integral part of the mission because people have seen the value that it brings.” Gray’s office, known as the Biometrics Task Force until it was redesignated in March, is responsible for capitalizing on biometrics technology and promoting new advances to benefit the entire Defense Department. Fingerprints and other personally identifying features such as a person’s distinct iris, facial, palm and voice features have become particularly helpful in the intelligence and law enforcement arenas, she said. They help combat troops tell friends from foes and identify potential terrorists before it’s too late. They also provide a foolproof way to put names and faces to insurgent activities and to identify released detainees who have returned to terrorist activity. “You can identify an individual and associate him with certain actions,” Gray said. “You can figure out who someone associated with and what they have been involved in. You can link events such as an [improvised explosive device] at one place and a protest at another. You build a picture of what has gone on.” Meanwhile, biometrics has become a vital tool in vetting people in the combat zone before they’re granted access “inside the wire,” or into secure or sensitive facilities. “We want to make sure that the people we permit onto our facilities are not the same people putting IEDs down,” Gray explained. Biometrics also is widely employed beyond the combat zone to control access to military facilities worldwide. For example, every military member, family member and Defense Department civilian employee has a common access identification card that’s embedded with their fingerprints. But other biometric technologies are in wide use throughout the military. At Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., for example, the Air Force uses a device that “reads” hand prints to clear veterans receiving treatment at the Veterans Affairs clinic for access to the base hospital. At Fort Belvoir, Va., the Army uses iris scanning technology to provide keyless entry to sensitive areas. And the Navy regularly uses biometrics equipment to confirm identifies as they board foreign vessels. Gray anticipates broader use of this capability military-wide, particularly as the technology becomes increasingly faster, higher-quality and less obtrusive. Among the more promising technologies the Defense Department is exploring are biometric systems able to scan people “on the move” without requiring them to touch anything or even stop. Commercial airports see this as a great way to eliminate long back-up lines at security checkpoints. But Gray also recognizes warfighting applications, particularly at border crossings and other ports of entry where there’s a mass movement of people and insurgents might try to blend in undetected. “Those same ports of entry that legitimate business people or family members are crossing are the same places that the insurgents come across,” she said. “By having this technology, you will have the ability to ferret out those who are hiding amongst the populace without negatively impacting the population.” Meanwhile, Gray anticipates broader use of biometrics off the battlefield, particularly as the department acts on Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates’ mandate to improve efficiency. “The next big step forward in biometrics is definitely going to be in the business process arena,” she said. “It is truly a cross-cutting capability” she said can be applied in “a whole spectrum of functions, from the medical field to personnel to financial fields.” Biometrics can go a long way in streamlining recordkeeping, improving information-sharing and cutting out fraud – not only for the Defense Department, but for the U.S. government as a whole, she said. “We have a lot of benefits and a lot of services in which we rely on identifying someone so we can properly provide them what they need,” Gray explained. She cited just a few ways biometrics would improve the inter-department sharing that supports those benefits and services. Biometrics could help the Defense Department share military medical records with the VA, civilian employee records with the Office of Personnel Management and employee benefit records with the Social Security Administration. “The big question is, ‘How do we pull that thread of identity to make sure we are more efficient as the U.S. government in providing services?’” Gray said. “By integrating that across the U.S. government, we can find great efficiency.” Underlying this effort, she emphasized, is “a complete and total focus on privacy” that ensures all personally identifying information is protected in accordance with the Privacy Act.
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Friday, August 20, 2010
A Unique Petition: Repatriate Dr. Aafia Siddiqui To Her Home in Pakistan!
We urge all individuals concerned with human rights to sign this unique international petition to U.S. and Pakistani government officials, urging the immediate repatriation to Pakistan of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui. Unlike most online petitions, each time an endorser signs this petition and hits the send button, a copy of each signed petition will go directly into the email of the targets of the petition drive; i.e. Presidents Obama and Zardari, a number of other high ranking U.S. officials, and a number of U.S. and Pakistani media organizations.
SIGN THE PETITION AT
http://www.iacenter.org/SiddiquiPetition
Dr. Aafia Siddiqui is being held in federal prison in New York City awaiting sentencing, now scheduled for September 23. This is a campaign for justice, solidarity and compassion for a woman and a political prisoner who has been severely injured and abused. Read full story
Dr. Aafia Siddiqui is being held in federal prison in New York City awaiting sentencing, now scheduled for September 23. This is a campaign for justice, solidarity and compassion for a woman and a political prisoner who has been severely injured and abused. Read full story
Aafia Siddiqui & Children
Monday, August 16, 2010
Amnesty International Condemns the Stoning to Death of an Afghan Couple by the Taliban
Iranian Justice ( File photo) |
A couple was stoned to death on Sunday for ‘eloping,’ in a Taliban-controlled village in Kunduz, northern Afghanistan, Amnesty International confirmed today.
“The stoning of this couple is a heinous crime. The Taliban and other insurgent groups are growing increasingly brutal in their abuses against Afghans,” said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific director.
The stoning came two days after Afghanistan’s highest Islamic religious body, the Council of Ulema, called on the government to more strictly enforce physical shari’a punishments, known as hudood, as a concession to the Taliban in an attempt to end the war. Under the Taliban,hudood punishments included public stoning, amputations and lashing.
“The Afghan government and the Council of Ulema must condemn the use of stoning following this sickening Taliban execution,” said Zarifi. “Afghan leaders must stand against stoning and other appalling human rights abuses masquerading as ‘justice,' no matter how much pressure they are under to deal with the Taliban.”
This stoning is the first to be confirmed in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. Local sources told Amnesty International that the couple had eloped to Pakistan, but returned to their village of Mullah Qulli in Archi district of Kunduz after being told that their families had agreed to marry them. Instead, they were stoned to death on August 15 by a Taliban council.
Amnesty International has warned that the Afghan government should not sacrifice human rights, particularly the rights of women and minorities, in the name of reconciliation with the Taliban and other insurgent groups.
The organization has recently called on the Afghan government to seek the assistance of the International Criminal Court to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity by the Taliban and all other parties to the war in Afghanistan.
Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 2.8 million supporters, activists and volunteers who campaign for universal human rights from more than 150 countries. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth and dignity are denied.
For more background information on stoning: Please see the attached Amnesty International Summary on Global Stoning.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Mullen Addresses Military Family Challenges
Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, traveled to New Orleans yesterday to address some of the challenges confronting our military families.
Speaking to the National Guard Family Program Volunteer Workshop, Chairman Mullen stressed the need to close a gap for military families, particularly for those in the Guard and Reserve.
Guard and Reserve families often live far from the support of a military installation, he said, recalling when a National Guard woman traveled six hours to speak to his wife, Deborah.
The military needs to find ways to deal with this type of isolation, he said.
The chairman also spoke of the need to provide better support to military children, particularly in our nation’s schools. Training is needed to equip teachers to deal with the emotional impacts of deployments, war, and in some cases, loss. Teachers often are unaware that a student has a military parent, which can impede their ability to help the child, he said.
Chairman Mullen also vowed to eliminate the “yes-no” box that determines whether servicemembers’ units can contact their families during deployments. On some family readiness checklists, servicemembers can opt out of keeping their family members informed about family readiness information, benefits and entitlements.
Chairman Mullen also vowed to eliminate the “yes-no” box that determines whether servicemembers’ units can contact their families during deployments. On some family readiness checklists, servicemembers can opt out of keeping their family members informed about family readiness information, benefits and entitlements.
“There are just too many spouses whose spouse deploys where that box is checked no,” he said. “In my time as chairman, I’m going to make that box go away.”
The military has a plethora of programs aimed at supporting military families, but the number of programs isn’t as important as the quality, Chairman Mullen said. “I don’t need any more programs,” he said. “I need the ones we have to really be working really well.”
Progress has been made, but much work remains to be done, Mullen said. “While we’ve done a great deal, we cannot rest on our laurels. [We must] stay focused in listening to our families.”
For more on Chairman Mullen’s remarks, read my American Forces Press Service article,“Mullen Seeks End to ‘Yes-No’ Box on Predeployment Checklists” or the story written by Army Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill of the National Guard Bureau, “Mullen: Family Support Vital to War Effort.” (Issued on:Aug. 3, 2010)
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Cleaning a Colombian child’s wound
U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Lee McGraw, from USS New Orleans (LPD 18), cleans a Colombian child’s wound during a community relations project in a village near Bahia Malaga Naval Base in Colombia Aug. 3, 2010. New Orleans is participating in Amphibious-Southern Partnership Station 2010, which is a combined amphibious exercise designed to enhance cooperative partnerships with maritime forces from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, the United States and Uruguay. (DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Brien Aho, U.S. Navy/Released)
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
A look on matrimonial ads style
Sent by : Sanjeev Batra |
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