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BBC
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Mar 10, 08 1:55 PM CDT
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Five American troops are dead after a suicide bomber struck today in the Mansour district of Baghdad, the BBC reports. The soldiers were patrolling a busy shopping center when a young man wearing an explosive vest engaged them in conversation shortly before detonating, said a military spokesman. Three other service members and an Iraqi interpreter were wounded in the blast.
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Houston Chronicle
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Mar 10, 08 5:08 AM CDT
(Newser) -
A Texas teenager has become the second woman since World War II to be awarded the Silver Star for bravery in combat. Texas medic Monica Lin Brown, 19, used her body to shield five wounded comrades from gunfire while she treated them after their convoy was caught by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, reports the Houston Chronicle .
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Time
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Mar 9, 08 9:45 AM CDT
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There’s fury on Capitol Hill (and the campaign trail) over a $40 billion Air Force contract going to a European team, Mark Thompson notes in Time , but it’s entirely appropriate for the military to get the best technology it can. Indeed, anger over the snub to Boeing shows lawmakers at their worst, worrying about hometown pork instead of defense needs.
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Wall Street Journal
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Mar 8, 08 4:43 PM CST
(Newser) -
American warfare has changed over hundreds of years, but one tradition that remains is a commander’s condolence letter to the family of a fallen soldier. The Wall Street Journal spends time with a lieutenant colonel in Iraq who writes his letters by hand whenever one of his men dies. "I wait to find the words," he says, "and they will come."
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Associated Press
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Mar 8, 08 7:53 AM CST
(Newser) -
US troops are coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan with epidemic rates of hearing damage, AP reports, with 128,000 disabled by permanent hearing loss or tinnitus, ringing in the ears. The nature of the current conflict is part of the problem, with roadside bombs and sudden ambushes giving troops no chance to use protective equipment. "They can't say, Wait a minute, let me put my earplugs in,'" said a Navy specialist. "They are in the fight of their lives."
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Associated Press
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Mar 7, 08 4:07 AM CST
(Newser) -
Google camera teams have been banned from US military installations after panoramic views of the inside of a Texas base ended up on the internet, the AP reports. The street-level images show "where all the guards are, how the barriers go up and down, how to get in and out of buildings," said a general worried about the security implications. A message sent to all Defense Department facilities has ordered officials not to allow Google Earth crews to photograph them.
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Reuters
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Mar 7, 08 3:30 AM CST
(Newser) -
Cutting the time soldiers have between tours of duty helped the Pentagon boost troop numbers in Iraq—but has taken a heavy toll on soldiers' mental health, Reuters reports. An Army survey found a steep rise in mental health problems among soldiers returning for their third or fourth combat tour, and experts say the troops are not getting enough time to recover . "Soldiers are not resetting entirely before they get back into theater," said the head of the Army's mental health advisory team.
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Associated Press
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Mar 6, 08 9:25 PM CST
(Newser) -
As many as 10 Capitol Hill offices received letters today with a photo of a man standing in front of the Times Square military recruiting office before it was struck by a small bomb. A message with the photo reads, “Happy New Year, We Did It,” the AP reports, but it remains unclear who sent the letters. Also in the envelopes were an apparent manifesto against the Iraq war and an unidentified booklet, a Democratic aide says.
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BBC
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Mar 6, 08 2:31 PM CST
(Newser) -
Twin bomb blasts claimed 54 lives and wounded 130 in a Baghdad shopping center today, BBC News reports. Two roadside bombs timed to detonate within minutes of each other exploded in a shopping center in Karada district, leaving survivors holding body parts and searching for loved ones. Violence in Iraq has seen an upswing this month after a six-month decline generally attributed to the troop surge.
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Christian Science Monitor
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Mar 6, 08 1:39 PM CST
(Newser) -
US troops are increasingly augmenting their military-issue gear with higher-end commercial products to gain an extra edge—and look sharp, the Christian Science Monitor reports. The military has encouraged the trend, perhaps in response to the equipment shortages that have dogged the Iraq and Afghanistan war efforts, loosening procurement rules that previously stopped troops from providing their own equipment.
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AFP
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Mar 6, 08 6:10 AM CST
(Newser) -
The American military has announced it will court-martial four Marines on charges of gang-raping a Japanese woman in Hiroshima last year. The first two Marines will face a general court-martial in late April or early May. Japanese prosecutors had concluded that there was not sufficient evidence to charge them in a civilian proceeding.
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Associated Press
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Mar 5, 08 5:43 PM CST
(Newser) -
A jury in Connecticut convicted a former Navy sailor today of passing along classified information about US ships in the Persian Gulf to terrorists, the AP reports. Prosecutors said Phoenix native Hassan Abu-Jihaad, 32, sent details about naval ship movements to a group affiliated with al-Qaeda in April of 2001. The FBI says no attacks resulted from the leak.
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Marine Corps Times
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Mar 4, 08 8:46 AM CST
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Military officials are investigating a video posted on YouTube that appears to show a Marine hurling a puppy off a cliff, the Marine Corps Time s reports. The video shows a Marine joking with buddies in a rocky landscape before throwing the animal. An official from the Hawaii base where the Marine is thought to be stationed called the video "shocking and deplorable."
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Associated Press
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Mar 3, 08 11:22 AM CST
(Newser) -
Afghanistan controls all but 5% of its territory, insisted its intelligence chief today—contradicting a far more pessimistic US assessment that last week said the Afghan government controls just 30% of its territory, the Taliban holds 10%, and tribal leaders are in charge of the rest. Western governments have chimed in against the US assessment.
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Wall Street Journal
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Mar 3, 08 4:00 AM CST
(Newser) -
Years of careful strategy and an alliance between executives was the key to Airbus nailing a $40 billion deal to build Air Force planes, reports the Wall Street Journal . The Pentagon’s decision last week is “a transformational shift in the way weapons systems are acquired. It’s an acknowledgment that globalization is real," said Ralph Crosby Jr., the top US executive for Airbus parent EADS.
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Los Angeles Times
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Mar 1, 08 3:16 PM CST
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US troop cuts in Iraq will stall after July to ensure security for local elections, a Washington official said yesterday. "You can actually increase your own risk if you pull out too many simultaneously," the official said. "This is not a stall tactic." But Baghdad officials nixed plans for th