By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Nov. 28, 2006 - Terrorists and extremists in Iraq
are working to destabilize the country to further their own goals,
a coalition spokesman in Iraq said at a news conference today.

This goal drives the horrific attacks on civilians and fuels
retaliatory killings in and around Baghdad, Army Maj. Gen. William
Caldwell said, adding that all this is counter to the will of
the Iraqi people.

"Al Qaeda, foreign terrorists and extremists do not want to let
the Iraqis decide their own future," Caldwell said. "Through two
elections and a constitutional referendum, the Iraqi people have
demonstrated they want to be a part of this political process
and they want to have a representative government."

Saddam Hussein's rule crippled the oil-rich nation. Making the
transition from dictatorship to democracy would be tough even
without terrorist efforts to derail the process, Caldwell said, but
he predicted the will of the Iraqi people will prevail. "Iraqis
are creating a country that will replace the rule of the gun
with the rule of the law," Caldwell said. "And they will put
criminals and killers out of business."

Mortar and car bomb attacks Nov. 23 that killed more than 180
innocent Iraqis and wounded 245 in Sadr City, a predominantly
Shiite neighborhood on the east side of Baghdad, reflect the al
Qaeda in Iraq strategy in the nation, the general said. "It was
indisputably a terrible crime against the Iraqi people," Caldwell
said. "The retaliatory attacks we have seen the last couple of
days are also."

Terrorists seek to control the Sunni population in the country,
Caldwell explained, and they are looking to dominate Baghdad,
the military and political center of gravity in Iraq. Al Qaeda
kills and intimidates Sunnis who want to work with the elected,
representative government. The group also seeks to weaken the Iraqi
government and destroy faith in the democratically elected
representatives. The terrorists attack the representatives and work
to make Iraqis fearful of dealing with their own government.

Al Qaeda's strategy also calls for attacks on Shiite civilians.
The attacks in Sadr City are an example of this strategy,
Caldwell said. Al Qaeda launches the attacks and counts on illegal
militias to launch revenge attacks on Sunnis. This creates division
along sectarian lines.

The Iraqis and coalition have made progress against al Qaeda in
Iraq, Caldwell said. Since November 2004, Iraqi and coalition
forces have killed or captured more than 7,000 al Qaeda in Iraq
terrorists, including more than 30 senior-level terrorists who
have been captured or killed since July, he said.

Between Nov. 14 and 19, Iraqi and coalition forces conducted a
number of targeted raids across Iraq and captured the terrorist
emirs of Ramadi, Bakuba, Qaim, Tikrit, Bayji and Baghdad,
Caldwell said. The forces also captured two terrorist facilitators, a
courier, an explosive expert and a financier. "The detention of
these terrorists represents a serious blow against the al Qaeda
in Iraq terrorist network," he said.

Iraqi and coalition forces also are working diligently against
death squads. Most sectarian attacks in the country are within 30
miles of Baghdad, and Iraqi and coalition forces continue to
work against illegal militias. "In the past week, our combined
forces conducted 18 operations against sectarian death squads
resulting in the detainment of 78 suspected cell members," Caldwell
said.

Caldwell said that polls in Iraq show the people want the
government to succeed. He said Iraqis are resolved on a unified,
secure and prosperous Iraq. "In polling conducted last month, 89
percent of Iraqis nationwide agreed with this statement: 'My first
loyalty is to my country rather than my sect, ethnic group or
tribe,'" Caldwell said. Only 25 percent of Iraqis said the country
would be better off divided along sectarian lines.

Coalition forces continue to work with Iraqi security forces to
build their professionalism, Caldwell said. More than 4,000 U.S.
servicemembers organized in 430 teams advise the Iraqi army,
police and border guards. The teams are necessary "to sustain and
develop these forces so they can evolve into a professional
security institution," the general said. "They will remain in place
long after we have met our goal of training and equipping 325,000
Iraqi security forces."

NIMS INTEGRATION CENTER ISSUES SAR CREDENTIALING GUIDELINES

Earlier this week FEMA’s NIMS Integration Center announced new proposed credentialing guideline for SAR (search and rescue) personnel. The guidelines were prepared by a working group of subject matter experts. The working group identified 36 positions likely to be needed in an interstate response. They also worked to establish standard definitions for each of the position job titles. The guidelines contain both recommended and minimum criteria for levels of training, experience, licensing etc. The complete guidelines are or soon will be available on the NIMS website. They are in a 45 day period for public comment. Instructions on making comments can also be found at their site

COMMENTS FROM ME

Much effort since 9/11 has been put into improving consistency of response. A big part of this effort is the various guidelines etc. put out by agencies like the NIMS Integration Center. This is also the thinking behind ICS (Incident Command System) and NIMS (National Incident Command System) itself. These efforts are needed. However they need the largest possible participation of people with day to day response responsibility. Granted many “subject matter experts” are or have been first responders themselves. Still my bottom line is if any guidelines produced don’t work for those on the line right now, today, they’re just a waste of trees. I would encourage all first responders to take active advantage of "public comment" periods when guidelines like these are being established. Let the voices of those on the front lines be heard !

By Sgt. Sara Wood, USA
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Nov. 21, 2006 - The Defense Department's technology
transfer program, which shares newly developed DoD technologies
with civilian first responders, benefits both communities in
cost effectiveness and mission accomplishment, the DoD official in
charge of the program said here today.

Congress mandated the technology transfer program in December
2002 as part of the 2003 Defense Authorization Act. However, the
program has only been actively in development for about two
years, Donald Lapham, manager of the program, told the Pentagon
Channel and American Forces Press Service.

DoD has a long history of transferring technology to support
first responders, but this program ensures all the department's
capabilities are leveraged to provide as many options as possible
to the civilian agencies, Lapham said.

"A lot of the equipment and technology that's used by the
warfighter also can be used by first responders," Lapham said. "A lot
of the equipment is similar to what law enforcement uses, and
even what firefighters use."

Under the technology transfer program, DoD works closely with
the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice
to determine the needs of the first responder community, Lapham
said. DoD laboratories look at the technologies they are
developing to identify those that might transfer well to first
responders, and consider dual-use capabilities for future products, he
said.

Due to recent events, there is a strong focus within DoD and the
first responder community on developing compatible
communications, Lapham said. DoD has been working on new communications
systems, and these technologies will probably be the first to be
transferred to civilian first responders, he said.

The technology transfer program will benefit both DoD and the
first responder community in several ways, Lapham pointed out. DoD
will benefit from being able to field new technologies with
first responders for further testing and development, and both
communities will benefit economically, he said.

"If first responders purchase and use the same type of equipment
as the warfighter, this will eventually increase the quantity of
products produced, and DoD will benefit from a lower cost, as
will first responders," he said.

The technology transfer program is still in the development
phase, Lapham said, as many technologies take a long time to be
fully researched and developed. Once the technologies are developed
and transferred, civilian responders will benefit in an obvious
way, by having more resources available to them, but troops
fighting the war will also benefit from the collaborative
environment the program will create between DoD and civilian laboratories,
he said.

"I think that in the future it will benefit the warfighter
because they will see technologies being developed and produced
faster and reach them sooner," he said.

Some of the technologies being developed under the transfer
program are a blood-clotting system, a water purification pen, body
armor, and robotic items that inspect vehicles and containers.

Yesterday I came across the website Live Science for the first time. One of the features of this website is they do lists of the "top ten" scientific whatevers. Among these I found a list of the Top 10 U.S. Disaster Worries.

I'm not sure what methodology they used to rank the risks, and to be sure the vulnerability to a particular type of disaster varies widely around the country. The piece is also short on detail. Still it does make interesting reading for those of us who evaluate risks, vulnerabilities etc. Its a short slide show kind of thing. It will only take a few minutes of your time, so give it a look.

Fort Bend Now is a news ite here in Fort Bend County, Texas. Earlier today they published a commentary on preparedness that I wrote. I though my readers here might like a look at it.

I use hurricanes as an example in this article to make my point. The editors at Fort Bend Now decided to use a headline which focused on this. However the points I make are applicable to almost any large scale emergency, including those resulting from terrorism.

I am grateful to Fort Bend Now for the chance to stress the need for preparedness to their readers. This same article is being separately syndicated across the internet so that its preparedness message will gain and even bigger audience.