Enemy for USA

M. Al Sari and Nayef Al Sari

Maybe the events of 11 September 2001 in U.S.A. beginnings, but definitely sharp turn off for American people and the whole world towards new stage at the beginning of new century.

Few minutes before 9 AM ETD Tuesday 11 September 2001, In an apparently coordination terrorist attack against the USA four hijacked commercial passenger jets crashed, three of them in to two significant landmarks, the world commercial center in New York, and the pentagon building in Washington D.C.

US intelligence official announced ((there are good indications that persons linked to Osama bin laden may be responsible for these attacks)).

Bin laden the Saudi millionaire who has been blamed for terror attacks against U.S interests and is believed to be in Afghanistan.

1n case of ‘’Nerves Reactions’’ The Pentagon, the White House, and the State Department, the Capitol, the CIA and all other government buildings in Washington are evacuated. Federal Emergency Response Plan is implemented immediately after first attack. All U.S. embassies and U.S. forces around the world are put on high alert, the highest alert is ((THREAT CON DELTA)).

All federal agencies implement continuity plans to make sure U.S. government continuous to function effectively.

President Bush calls the crashes ((a national tragedy)), later in the day; Bush issues a statement from Barksdale near Shreveport Louisiana ((Make no mistake the United States will hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts)).

Secret service secures president Bush, Vise president Cheney, speaker of the House Dennis Hastert and key members of Bush s cabinet and national security team aboard Air force one lands in Omaha, Nebraska, and spokeswoman Karen Hughes says Bush is in a secure location.

The events exposed the vulnerability of the world’s greatest superpower, presenting the United States with the challenge of recovering emotionally and physically.

President Bush suggested Tuesday how high the death toll rise when he said ‘’ thousands of lives were suddenly ended by evil, despicable acts of terror.

He also issued a warning to any nation that may be giving refuge to those responsible for the terrorist attacks on the United States.

With an angry nation calling for retribution following Tuesday’s terrorist attacks, many Americans are seeking swift and decisive action against alleged mastermind Osama bin Laden but where? When? And how?

Although officials said the attacks appeared to have been well planned and executed, a passenger on the plane that hit the Pentagon said in cell phone call to her husband that the terrorists were armed with knives and box cutters. Attorney General John Ashcroft in his briefing to members of Congress said the Hijackers were working in groups of three to five members.

Thursday September 13, Satellites, space station crew watched horror below, the smoldering aftermath of air attacks on Washington and New York was clearly visible by the international space station resident. Estimates of the missing and dead in the days after the attacks had at one point exceeded 6,500, but by the end of October had dropped to around 4,600.

October 3, 2001 President George Bush said his administration will seek a package of measures worth as much as $75 billion to help boost the U.S. economy after last month’s terrorist attacks.

Added to the $15bn promised to airlines, $40bn in other emergency spending and $38bn in tax rebates, President Bush’s latest proposal amounts to a little more than half the $300bn some analysts say is needed to reinvigorate the nation’s economy. The Labor Department reported that the unemployment rate rose to 5.4 percent in October from 4.9 percent in September. Employers cut 415,000 jobs – the biggest number since 460,000 in May 1980 – compared with 213,000 in September. “These numbers show more fully the impact of the attacks of Sept. 11 on our country,” said Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, who added, “We had been anticipating these numbers.” President George W Bush has already given his seal of approval to the House plan.

The House legislation, which would cost an estimated $99.5bn in 2002 and more than $159bn over 10 years, includes four key items sought by President Bush: repeal of the corporate alternative minimum tax. A new round of tax rebate cheuqes of up to $600 for lower-income workers a cut in the 27% income tax rate to 25% in 2002 instead of 2006.

JANUARY 22 2002touring coal country, President Bush said Tuesday that passage of his energy strategy is a matter of national security and economic health, and insisted coal is crucial to weaning the country from foreign fuel dependency.

The $2 trillion budget that Bush submits to Congress on Feb. 4 will call for roughly doubling the current $13 billion for homeland security, a spending item that did not exist a year ago. Aides said Bush’s spending plan for the budget year that starts on Oct. 1 also would seek an increase of more $30 billion increase for the Pentagon, bringing its budget within range of $360 billion.

January 23 2002 President Bush called Wednesday for nearly $50 billion in additional military spending for the war on terrorism, the largest increase for the Pentagon in two decades.

After the devastating attacks on New York and Washington the talk is of waging war on terrorists bringing them to book by one means or other and dismantling the networks now operating in many countries. Hardly anyone disputes that flying an aircraft full of passengers into the world trade center was terrorism of the worst kind, but the outrage has tended to obscure the fact that there is still argument about what the word covers. In other contexts, the debate about who is a terrorist and who is a freedom –fighter is not dead. European countries have defined terrorism in low act saying terrorism means the use or threat of action to influence a government or intimidate the public for a political, religious or ideological cause. The action involved includes serious violence against people or danger to life, a serious risk to public health or safety, or serious damage to property.

Both the Nazi blitz on London in World War II and the British – American bombing of German cities in response used terror to try to break the spirit of the people both failed.

The United States officially classifies seven states as sponsors of terrorism – Iraq, Iran, Libya, Syria, Sudan, North Korea and Cuba.

On the other hand, Israel use state terror against the Palestinians; murdering  their leaders using the worse kind of terror, shooting, bombing, trapping and even killing under investigation or killing children every day in streets under T.V. cameras and bombing Lebanese cities and villages destroying houses and civil insulations, but the list of the United States doesn’t contain Israel’s name.

One effect of the New York and Washington attacks has been to prompt a number of governments to remind the United States of the problems they face with people they class as terrorists.

The Russians recalled the number of times they had insisted that the rebellion in Chechnya was a manifestation of international terrorism, partly inspired by people like Osama Bin Laden.

The Chinese demanded American understanding for their attempts to stamp out Muslim separatists in the western region of Xinjiang, and the Spaniards said the war against terrorism should cover all terrorists, including the ETA group, which uses car bombs and shootings to pursue its demand for an independent Basque state. ETA should not be excluded, they said, on the grounds that it was less fanatical than the group responsible for the attack on the World Trade Center.

“Terrorist” is a handy word of abuse for your enemies. As such it is often loosely used or misused. But there are more consensuses now that indiscriminate attacks on civilians are intolerable, however the crime is described.

September 24 2001 President Bush has formally notified Congress of his decision to deploy U.S. combat forces “to a number of foreign nations,” and said additional deployments are under consideration. “It is not now possible to predict the scope and duration of these deployments, and the actions necessary to counter the terrorist threat to the United States,” Bush said in a letter sent Monday night to House and Senate leaders. “It is likely that the American campaign against terrorism will be a lengthy one,” Bush wrote. The moves are the latest in a steady drumbeat of action that has built since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks against the United States. Saying, “The American people do not have the luxury of time,” Attorney General John Ashcroft called on Congress to quickly approve a legislative package he said would help authority’s combat terrorism.

For decades. In response, countries such as Italy and Spain have adopted harsh detentions, surveillance — and sometimes even torture tactics, but the important question is, did the United States of America accept those dirty ways and leave its principles in liberty, dignity, human rights and justice behind?

The hour new antiterrorism legislation becomes law, Attorney General John Ashcroft said he would direct all U.S. prosecutors and FBI offices to immediately use their expanded powers to wiretap phones, monitor Internet traffic and apprehend suspects and he believes there are still “substantial risks” of terrorist attacks against the United States.

Return to history of America from the beginnings of U.S.A. deployment,

Christopher Columbus’s 1492, enterprise to find a westward route to Asia led him by chance to the east coasts of central America, so he became later the hero and discoverer of America although he never abandoned the belief that he had reached Asia, and his voyages provoke many questions related to the linking of very different parts of the world, the Western Hemisphere and the Mediterranean.

Contacts between American people and European explorers, conquerors and settlers from 1492 to 1600 changed life on both sides of the Atlantic. During this period, in the wake of Columbus’s voyages, Africans also arrived in the hemisphere, usually as slaves. All of these encounters, changed the way in which peoples in the Americas led their lives, the dramatic events following 1492 set the stage for numerous cultural interactions in America.

The name America was given to the Western Hemisphere by European writers and mapmakers after Columbus’s death. Nothing in their experiences had led the first explorers to realize that they had come into contact with a vast and unrecorded continent, many times the size of Europe. Previously there had been no accounts, or even rumors, of the “unknown” peoples of this “new” continent in European scholarly literature and discussion or in popular chronicles.

Mediterranean explorers in search of the spices and riches of the Far East initially believed that they had reached Asia. In part due to this confusion, Europeans conjured up or “invented” images and tales to explain America that would conform to the descriptions of Marco Polo and others.

In early allegorical images, “America” was sometimes portrayed as a noble, native woman submissively awaiting European arrival. Ferocious sea animals and exotic creatures filled early maps of the region. Regrettably, we still have incomplete knowledge of the worldview and everyday life of the varied peoples of the Americas before European settlement.

European arrivals in the Florida peninsula produced violent confrontations. The Spanish came first, presumably as an extension of slave raiding in the Caribbean islands. Ponce de Leon’s expeditions, in 1513 and 1521, failed because of Timucua and Calusa resistance. Subsequent Spanish expeditions moved on without founding any permanent settlements until St. Augustine was established in 1565.

The French initially touched the Florida coast near the St. Mary’s River in the early 1560s, attempted settlements in the region, created alliances with the various Indian settlements, and eventually were annihilated by the Spanish in 1565.

The British tried to establish colony at Jamestown – Virginia after they Lost Colony of Roanoke. John Rolfe tries a tobacco crop to help save the desperately struggling Jamestown settlement.

For in 1614, in what has been called by at least one historian the most momentous event of the 17th century, the first shipment of Virginia tobacco was sold in London. Two years later, in June 1616, Rolfe and other leaders of the colony arrived in London to discuss the newly successful crop. Few realize that this seminal event in American history may well be why the lower half of the United States today speaks English instead of Spanish.

Shortly before American Revolutionand Independence War, Britain imposed new taxes on the colonies, which Determined to achieve independence, the colonies formed the Continental Army, to challenge Britain’s large, organized militia.

The war that won political independence for 13 of Britain’s N. Amer. colonies, forming the United States of America, began when Britain sent a force to destroy rebel military stores at Concord Mass.

After fighting broke out on April 19, 1775 (see Battles of Lexington and Concord), rebel forces began a siege of Boston that ended when Amer. forces under H. Knox forced out the British troops under W. Howe on March 17, 1776 (see Battle of Bunker Hill). The Americans, who declared themselves independent on July 4, 1776, refused Britain’s offer of pardon in exchange for surrender.

On Christmas night, Washington crossed the Delaware River and won the Battles of Trenton and Princeton. Americans in Pennsylvania, Despite a victory in the Battle of Ticonderoga, British troops under J. Burgoyne were defeated by H. Gates and B. Arnold in the Battle of Saratoga (Oct. 17, 1777), troops in the south, culminating in the successful Siege of Yorktown, where C. Cornwallis’s forces surrendered on October 19, 1781, bringing an end to the war on land.

The Amer. navy under J. Barry at sea won the last battle of the war in March 1783 in the Straits of Florida.

With the Treaty of Paris (Sept. 3, 1783), Britain recognized the independence of the U.S. east of the Mississippi River and ceded Florida to Spain.

Georgia was the least populated of the 13 American colonies, as events to the north began to lead to war with Britain, Georgia, for the most part, continued with business as usual. When the colonial representatives began convening The Continental Congress, Georgia reluctantly sent delegates. In 1776, this Congress signed the Declaration of Independence.

The discovery of gold in California in 1848 further fueled competition for exclusive rights to routes across Nicaragua and Panama.

After futile attempts with the government of Colombia to construct a canal across Panama, the United States managed to conclude a treaty for that purpose with Panama in 1903.

June of 1863 found the Confederacy planning to invade the north. Lee ordered General Ewell and the Second Corps Army of Northern Virginia to clear ShenandoahValley of Union opposition. This order led to the Battle of Second Winchester. Milroy’s men quickly gave up and began surrendering, and some of his cavalry managed to escape.

In the spring of 1864, Lt. General Ulysses S. Grant ordered Maj. General Franz Sigel to march south on the Valley Pike and advance to Staunton. Upon reaching Staunton, Sigel was to destroy the railroads and then proceed to Lynchburg to lay to waste the rail complex located there and force his way to the rear of General Lee’s army. If General Sigel succeeded, then Lee’s main supply line would be severed; and Lee would have been forced to fight on two fronts simultaneously. If the South was to have any hope left, then Sigel must be stopped. Thus the stage was set for the Battle of New Market.

On the morning of June 5, 1864, a detachment of Union cavalry moved down the Staunton Road. As they neared Mount Meridian, they ran into Confederate cavalry led by General John D. Imboden. The Union forces were driven back by the Confederate force. Upon being reinforced, the Union cavalry once again advanced to Mount Meridian; this time they were aided by ten artillery field pieces. Imboden responded with two pieces of artillery, and continued to delay the Union advance. The Union cavalry suffered about 100 casualties in the early morning action. Behind the Union cavalry, Union infantry marched south from Port Republic. Confederate troops fled over the bluffs and sought escape by crossing the river. It was now every man for himself, as all sense of order was lost. Vaughn’s and Imboden’s cavalry at last join the fight and assumed the role of rear guard. Some of the Confederate forces tried to make a last ditch stand at the Middle River Church but it was too little too late. The Confederate losses were 100 killed, 500 wounded, and 900 captured or missing. The Union losses were 150 killed, 650 wounded, and 75 missing.

This Piedmont battle was a disaster for the Confederates who could now do nothing to stop Hunter from taking Staunton and then moving on to Lynchburg. General Lee was forced to send troops to the Valley to prevent this. Lee now was forced to fight on two fronts, at a time when he could least afford it.

General Early’s invasion of the North in late June and early July 1864, resulted in the diversion of Union reinforcements, headed toward Petersburg, to the defense of Washington. As General Early’s Maryland Campaign faltered with the arrival of these reinforcements, Early returned to the Valley and set the stage for the Second Battle of Kernstown.

General Early made a defensive stand at Kernstown. This allowed him to save his wagons and artillery. The Union probed his defenses, but as night fell the Union troops were to disorganize to launch an effective pursuit. Early’s army retired to Fisher’s Hill south of Strasburg under the cover of darkness.

Overnight the small town of Winchester became a virtual hospital. Every structure was used to house and care for the wounded. The battle had resulted in over 9,000 casualties. The Confederates had suffered 226 killed, 1,567 wounded, and 1,818 captured or missing. The Union had suffered 697 killed, 3,983 wounded, and 338 missing. The area known as Middle Field proved to be one of the most sanguinary fields of the Civil War. This area today is in the vicinity of the entrance of the Winchester Mall.

After the devastating defeat in Winchester on September 19, 1864, the Confederate Army of General Jubal Early encamped on Fisher’s Hill.

Confederate Cavalry led by Lomax formed a line to the northwest and beyond Back Road. To hide his deployments, Lt. General Jubal Early deployed a skirmish line on the hills north of Tumbling Run. These hills are often called Quarry Hill, Flint Hill, and School House Hill.

For Lomax the results were equally disastrous. He lost 5 guns and all of his rolling stock in his efforts to reach safety. Valley residents sometimes refer to the Battle of Tom’s Brook as the “Woodstock Races.” Confederate losses were 20 killed, 50 wounded, and 280 missing or captured. The Union losses were 10 killed and 47 wounded. From the losses suffered by both sides, one can see just how one-sided this battle really was.

The Battle of Cedar Creek October 19, 1864 rivals The Battle of Opequon (Third Winchester) in its size and intensity. Both are listed as major battles in the Civil War. It also was the crushing blow to the Confederacy in the Shenandoah Valley. Sheridan’s success in the Valley and Sherman’s success in the Atlanta Campaign greatly aided President Lincoln in his bid for reelection.

With the Confederate retreat, Custer’s Division raced along the Middle March Brook and reached the rear of the Confederate Army. The Union cavalry pursued the Confederate Army until dark. The bridge at Spangler’s Mill collapsed and resulted in Early’s loss of almost all of his artillery and many of the Confederate wagons. The Union cavalry captured 43 cannons, over 200 wagons, and a large number of prisoners. The Confederate Army lost over 10 battle flags during the Battle of Cedar Creek, a loss that speaks volumes about the spirit and state of the Confederates.

In the 20th century European domination in Central American affairs gave way to North American interests. The Hay-Pauncefote Treaty of 1901 alerted the British that the United States was no longer bound by the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850, which required neutral control in the construction of a Transisthmian canal. The signing of the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty in 1903 provided for the establishment of the Panamanian Canal Zone, the building of a canal, and the presence of the armed forces of the United States and their right to intervene in Panama in the event of public disturbance.

August 1, 1914 Outbreak of World War I; German declaration of war on Russia.

President Wilson proclaims US neutrality.

July 1915 Wilson sends notes to Secretary of War Garrison and Secretary of Navy Daniels directing them to draft a defense program.

July 29   US Marines land in Haiti .US severs relations with Germany March, 1917 Wilson’s Cabinet votes unanimously for war.

First US troops (1st Division) arrive in France, December, 7, 1917   United States and Austria-Hungary at war.

July 6, 1918 Wilson agrees to American intervention in Siberia, Large-scale Allied intervention begins at Vladivostok, 1st US Army organized under Pershing, American troops land at Archangel in North Russia.

This intervention continued for sixteen months after the end of the First World War because of indecision, confusion and inertia on the part of American leaders – and not because of any sinister, imperialistic or anti-Bolshevik intent.

The last American troops left Russian soil for the United States on April 1, 1920, one year and four months after the end of the First World War.

January 1919 Peace negotiations start at Paris, the conference accepts principle of League of Nations, Treaty of Versailles submitted to German delegation signed in Hall of Mirrors at Versailles on June, and 28, 1919. Political turmoil in the early 1930s was a by-product of the economic collapse brought about by the Great Depression.

Opening events of World War II on Sept 1, 1939 – Nazis invaded Poland, German troops crossed the Vistula River in Poland. Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand and Canada declared war on Germany. United States proclaimed neutrality, Soviets invaded Poland.

April 9, 1940-Nazis invades Denmark Norway, then France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands; Holland surrenders to the Nazis, Winston Churchill becomes British Prime Minister, And Evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk begins. June 14, 1940 – German enter Paris.

Dec 7, 1941 – Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Attacking the American fleet taking the Americans by surprise, 19 ships were sunk and about 2,400 American soldiers and sailors were killed.

The story began On November 26, 1941, when 20 submarines, five midget subs followed by a combined fleet of two battleships, three cruisers, 11 destroyers, six carriers, eight tankers, three more submarines, and 423 planes left Tankan Bay in Japan. Heading east on a northerly route so as not to be discovered, they sailed for the United States and its westernmost outpost, the Hawaiian Islands.

At 6:45 a.m. on December 7, the first wave of aircraft took off from the deck of the Japanese command ship, the Akagi. Led by Commander Mitsuo Fuchida, 183 bombers flew southeast for less than an hour until they reached the northernmost shores of Oahu at Kahuku Point.

The first wave split into three groups. Fuchida with 89 Kates headed southwest around the island, heading directly for Ford Island and Battleship Row. The second and third attack groups split again, making their way over the Waialua Valley, toward Schofield Barracks, Wheeler Field, Ewa Marine Air Corps Station, Hickam Field, Bellows Field, and Kaneohe Bay.

December 8, 1941 – United States and Britain declare war on Japan, Germany declares war on the United States, First American forces arrive in Great Britain.

May 7, 1943 – Allies take Tunisia, German and Italian troops surrender in North Africa. Allies land in Sicily, Americans capture Palermo, Naples- Italy and Rome.

Nov 28, 1943 – Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin meet at Teheran.

June 6, 1944 – D-Day, Allies Troops land on Normandy – France, liberation of France and Europe begins. U.S. troops liberate Cherbourg. Then Paris.

Feb 4-11 – 1945 Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin meet at Yalta. German troops in Italy surrender, Unconditional surrender of all German forces to Allies. V-E (Victory in Europe) Day.

On 6 August 1945 the First atomic bomb dropped, on Hiroshima, Japan.

American B-29 bomber, named Enola Gay by the pilot Paul W. Tibbets, dropped the “little boy” uranium atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima.

Aug 8, 1945 – Soviets declares war on Japan and invade Manchuria.

Three days after Hiroshima bombing on 9 August 1945 a second bomb made of plutonium and nicknamed “fat boy,” was dropped on the city of Nagasaki.

These two bombs quickly yielded the surrender of Japan and the end of American involvement in World War II By 1946, the two bombs caused the death of as many as 240,000 Japanese citizens, On 14 August the Japanese surrendered unconditionally and on September 2, 1945 – Japanese sign the surrender agreement; V-J (Victory over Japan) day. The war in Asia ended.

October 24, 1945 – United Nations is officially born.

When World War II began, Korea became an armed camp and an important part of the Japanese war base.

In late 1943, Korean patriots received their first words of outside encouragement. In the Cairo Declaration of 1 December. When the first U.S. troops arrived at Seoul in early September 1945, Korean civil affairs were in a state of complete confusion.

In the meantime, the Russians built up the Communist Party organization in North Korea and brought in an exiled Korean Communist, Kim IL Sung .

The split between the north and the south became more permanent as later, Border clashes broke out along the parallel 38 during early 1950 and Communist political propaganda in South Korea mounted. Communists launched a full-scale attack on 25 June 1950 across the Parallel. The United States reacted swiftly to the North Korean invasion and immediately presented the problem to the United Nations. Within hours of the attack the U.N. Security Council demanded the immediate cessation of hostilities and the withdrawal of North Korean forces back to the 38th Parallel. When the North Koreans continued to advance, the Security Council passed a resolution on 27 June urging U.N. members to provide military assistance to South Korea. President Truman quickly ordered General MacArthur to send air and naval forces to aid the ROK troops and when these proved insufficient to halt the fast-moving Communist battle forces, the President instructed MacArthur to commit U.S. ground units, too.

Since other members of the United Nations indicated that they intended to send contingents to Korea, the U.N. Security Council asked the United States to form a unified command and appoint a commander. President Truman accepted the responsibility of American leadership and named MacArthur as the first U.N. commander. MacArthur would receive his instructions through the Army Chief of Staff, acting as executive agent for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The U.N. commander appointed Lt. Gen. Walton H. Walker and his Eighth Army to take charge of all U.N. ground forces in Korea. President Rhee later placed the ROK Army units under General Walker. In this way began one of the most vicious and most misunderstood wars the United States has ever fought. Army Historical combat descriptions of the Korean War.

Nov. 26 – 1950 MacArthur’s Xmas offensive collapses and MacArthur at last orders a general retreat – the big bug-out begins in earnest.

The Korean People’s Army reappears from their mountain bases and cut off all highways leading to S Korea. More than 150,000 UN troops are trapped in the frozen battlefields of N Korea. This comes as a complete surprise to Truman and the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. Truman panics and threatens to use nukes in N Korea. However, the threat of nukes splits the UN allies who are already nervous about their involvement in the war. Truman realizes that US cannot go alone on the nuke issue and backs off.

Nov. 30, 1950 – Truman states in public: “The military commander in the field will have charge of the use of the weapons (A-bombs) as he always has.” Unbelievably, Truman is not aware of the Atomic Energy Act provision, which dictates that only the President can authorize use of the atomic bomb. Truman’s statement shocks the international community. UN allies are ready to jump the ship.

Dec. 9, 1950 – MacArthur wants 26 atomic bombs. His plan is to “drop 30-50 bombs strung across the neck of Manchuria; then introduce half a million Chinese Nationalist troops at the Yalu and spread behind the front lines from the East Sea to the Yellow Sea – a belt of radioactive cobalt which has an active life of between 60 and 120 years.” He says that his plan is “a cinch.” Many in US support MacArthur’s plan.

MacArthur and company also considers chemical weapons. MacArthur is not privy to the awful secret that the Soviets have more nuclear bombs in stock than US does; and that US does not have 26 A-bombs in all of its arsenals.

Dec. 7, 1950 – The CIA reports: “The Chinese Communists felt that use of the atom bomb in Korea as tactical support of UN troops would not precipitate war, but use of strategic atom bombing inside of Manchuria was another matter, and in that case, the decision on war would be left to Soviet Russia.” The CIA goes on to state that the Russians have promised China 300,000 Soviet troops plus tactical support in case of war with US. Gen. Collins is sent to Korea on a fact-finding mission and he report s that Gen. MacArthur is out of touch with reality – the old man does not know his own battlefield situation. After a year of bitter combat, the war in Korea lost momentum. By the first of July 1951, the war of movement had come to an end and a new, more static phase began. As the battle lines stabilized, the impetus for a political settlement of the conflict mounted. There could be little doubt that the outbreak in Korea was but a segment of the larger contest between the Soviet Union and the United States. The major question revolved about the importance of that segment. Was Korea simply a local test of power, a part of the continuous Communist probing for soft spots that could be easily brought under control by direct action? Or could it become something more serious-the first step toward World War III if the Soviet Union felt her basic interests threatened by a setback in Korea? The search for an answer to this problem was to plague the United States and her allies throughout the war and to exert a profound influence on the direction of political and military affairs. There is no public record of the total number of civilians, and United Nations forces tortured, mutilated or murdered during this war. There is no public record that any of the murderers were identified, much less tried and executed. Civilians suffered heavy casualties during the actual fighting, as well. From both sides. Ant to move peace talks out of Korea. Following a New Year’s Day bombing by the communists of Kimpo Airfield and the Inchon harbor west of Seoul, peace negotiations continued on a bumpy course in Korea .

Jan. 3-9, 1952: At the subcommittee talks on exchanging prisoners, the reds say they will exchange military and civilian prisoners in phases, not all at once as the U.N. negotiators want. At the top-level talks on enforcing the armistice, the communists refuse to agree to a ban on building military airfields after the truce. An unidentified U.N. negotiator says Jan. 7 the red delegates are acting “like schoolgirls who had a secret and were not telling their friends.” The same day Adm. C. Turner Joy, chief U.N. delegate, says, “With each passing day there is less and less reason to think the communists really want a stable armistice.”

In late August 1953 the U.N. General Assembly had welcomed the holding of a political conference which the truce agreement had recommended, but it was not until February 1954 that the Foreign Ministers of the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and France agreed to participate in a conference at Geneva to discuss the peaceful settlement of the Korean question.

Delegations from the Republic of Korea and from all the nations participating in the United Nations Command met with delegations from the USSR, Communist China, and North Korea on 26 April 1954 in Switzerland. The fundamental differences in the approaches of the two groups to the unification problem quickly demonstrated that agreement would be impossible unless one side made wholesale concessions. The UNC nations proposed free elections throughout Korea under U.N. auspices after the Chinese Communist forces had been withdrawn from the country. To the Communists, the U.N. was one of the belligerents and could not act as an impartial international body; they were willing to have free elections but only under the auspices of a body composed of equal representation from both sides wherein they would have veto privileges. To the UNC delegations the Communist proposals seemed to offer the prospects for elections only after long delays and on the Communists’ terms. After nearly two months of discussions, the conference came to a close in mid-June with neither side willing to accept the other’s solution. A negotiated unification of Korea appeared to be as distant in 1954 as it had been in 1948.

The closest the world has come to nuclear war was the Cuban Missiles Crisis of October 1962. The Soviets had installed nuclear missiles in Cuba, just 90 miles off the coast of the United States. U.S. armed forces were at their highest state of readiness. Soviet field commanders in Cuba were authorized to use tactical nuclear weapons if invaded by the U.S. The fate of millions literally hinged upon the ability of two men, President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev, to reach a compromise.

Fifteen years into the cold war, the new American president and the Soviet premier met in Vienna to discuss the east-west confrontation, in particular, the situation in Berlin. They resolved nothing, and Khrushchev left the June 1961 summit thinking Kennedy was a weak president. The superpowers continued to increase their military strength. The Soviets felt threatened because the U.S. still had more missiles. More importantly, some of those missiles were based in Turkey, just 150 miles from the U.S.S.R. These increasing tensions would inevitably lead to a showdown, somewhere, sometime. That place was Cuba.

The crisis began on Monday, October 15, when photos taken by U-2 pilot Richard.

U.S. ships at quarantine line were prepared to destroy any ship that failed to stop at that line.

Wednesday, October 24. Soviet ships approached the quarantine line. EX-COMM wondered if Khrushchev had had enough time to instruct the ship captains.

Later that day, they got their answer. Soviet ships stopped dead in the water after receiving a radio message from Moscow. To quote Secretary of State Dean Rusk, “We were eyeball to eyeball and the other guy just blinked.”

This did not mean, however, that the crisis was over.

Realizing how close they had come to disaster, Kennedy and Khrushchev established the “hot line” between the White House and the Kremlin so they could speak directly.

Nine months after the crisis, Kennedy and Khrushchev signed an agreement to ban nuclear testing in the atmosphere. This marked the beginning of what seemed to be a new willingness to cooperate and communicate. However, on November 22nd, 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. Eleven months later, Premier

Khrushchev was removed from office by Communist hard liners. One can’t help but wonder what would have happened if these two men had stayed in power.

Perhaps the same two people who had brought us so close to nuclear war, changed by that experience, could have brought us far from it.

Communist activist Ho Chi Minh,secretly returns to Vietnam 1941 after 30 years in exile and organizes a nationalist organization known as the Viet Minh (Vietnam Independence League).

July 1945 – Following the defeat of Nazi Germany, World War II Allies including the U.S., Britain, and Soviet Union, hold the Potsdam Conference in Germany to plan the post-war world. Vietnam is considered a minor item on the agenda.

In order to disarm the Japanese in Vietnam, the Allies divide the country in half at the 16th parallel. Chinese Nationalists will move in and disarm the Japanese north of the parallel while the British will move in and do the same in the south.

September 2, 1945 – Japanese sign the surrender agreement in Tokyo Bay formally ending World War II in the Pacific. On this same day, Ho Chi Minh proclaims the independence of Vietnam Ho declares himself president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and pursues American recognition but is repeatedly ignored by President Harry Truman.

December 19, 1946 – In Hanoi, 30,000 Viet Minh launch their first large-scale attack against the French. Thus begins an eight year struggle known as the First Indochina War. “The resistance will be long and arduous, but our cause is just and we will surely triumph,” declares Viet Minh military commander Vo Nguyen Giap. “If these [people] want a fight, they’ll get it,” French military commander Gen. Etrienne Valluy states.

July 1949 – The French establish the (South) Vietnamese National Army.

July 26, 1950 – United States military involvement in Vietnam begins as President Harry Truman authorizes $15 million in military aid to the French.

American military advisors will accompany the flow of U.S. tanks, planes, artillery and other supplies to Vietnam. Over the next four years, the U.S. will spend $3 Billion on the French war and by 1954 will provide 80 percent of all war supplies used by the French.

September 16, 1950 – General Giap begins his main attack against French outposts near the Chinese border. As the outposts fall, the French lose 6000 men and large stores of military equipment to the Viet Minh.

December 9, 1951 – Giap begins a careful counter-offensive by attacking the French outpost at Tu Vu on the Black River. Giap now avoids conventional warfare and instead wages hit and run attacks followed by a retreat into the dense jungles. His goal is to cut French supply lines. By year’s end, French causalities in Vietnam surpass 90,000.

May 7, 1954 – 10,000 French soldiers surrender at Dien Bien Phu. By now, an estimated 8000 Viet Minh and 1500 French have died. France proceeds to withdraw completely from Vietnam, ending a bitter eight-year struggle against the Viet Minh in which 400,000 soldiers and civilians from all sides had perished.

January 1955 – The first direct shipment of U.S. military aid to Saigon arrives. The U.S. also offers to train the fledgling South Vietnam Army.

May 1961 – President Kennedy sends 400 American Green Beret ‘Special Advisors’ to South Vietnam to train South Vietnamese soldiers in methods of ‘counter-insurgency’ in the fight against Viet Cong guerrillas.

Defense Secretary McNamara and the Joint Chiefs of Staff recommend instead a massive show of force by sending six divisions (200,000 men) to Vietnam. However, the President decides against sending any combat troops.

December 1961 – Viet Cong guerrillas now control much of the countryside in South Vietnam and frequently ambush South Vietnamese troops. The cost to America of maintaining South Vietnam’s sagging 200,000 man army and managing the overall conflict in Vietnam rises to a million dollars per day.

May 1962 – Defense Secretary McNamara visits South Vietnam and reports “we are winning the war.”

July 23, 1962 – The Declaration on the Neutrality of Laos signed in Geneva by the U.S. and 13 other nations, prohibits U.S. invasion of portions of the Ho Chi Minh trail inside eastern Laos.

August 1, 1962 – President Kennedy signs the Foreign Assistance Act of 1962 which provides “…military assistance to countries which are on the rim of the Communist world and under direct attack.”

November 24, 1963 – President Johnson declares he will not “lose Vietnam” during a meeting with Ambassador Lodge in Washington. By year’s end, there are 16,300 American military advisors in South Vietnam, which received $500 million in U.S. aid during 1963.

Summer 1963 – As 56,000 Viet Cong spread their successful guerrilla war throughout South Vietnam; North Vietnamese Army (NVA) regulars pouring in via the Ho Chi Minh trail reinforce them.

American military advisors in South Vietnam are 23,000 by the end of the year 1964. There are now an estimated 170,000 Viet Cong/NVA fighters in the ‘People’s Revolutionary Army’ which has begun waging coordinated battalion-sized attacks against South Vietnamese troops in villages around Saigon.

On March 16, 1968 angry and frustrated men of Company from 11th American Brigade, entered the village of Mai Lai. “This is what you’ve been waiting for — search and destroy — and you’ve got it,” said their superior officers.

A short time later the killing began. As the “search and destroy” mission unfolded it soon degenerated into the massacre of over 300 apparently unarmed civilians including women, children, and the elderly. Calley ordered his men to enter the village firing, though there had been no report of opposing fire. According to eyewitness reports offered after the event, several old men were bayoneted, praying women and children were shot in the back of the head, and at least one girl was raped, and then killed. For his part, Calley was said to have rounded up a group of the villagers, ordered them into a ditch, and mowed them down in a fury of machine gun fire.

Congressman Ron Dellums with other members tried to investigate and begun hearings about military policy used in Vietnam, which appears to them war crimes. They were concerned with s schemes as free-fire zones, search and destroy missions, mass resettlement of peasantry and the so-called “body count mania.” Since the Dept of Defense [DOD] acknowledges the use of these tactics, illustrate graphically what happens when such tactics are translated into action.

One eyewitness Hugh Thompson U.S. Army pilot questioned about what happened in Mai Lai and here are his answers: We didn’t just fly over one time. It was our mission to recon out in front of the American troops.

It was clear to us that something was going wrong. And at one time we had asked for assistance on a wounded civilian and a captain walked up and shot the girl we’d asked assistance for. Another time, we’d seen an irrigation ditch full of bodies, of which some were still living. We landed and talked to the Americans on the ground, said there are some wounded civilians in the ditch, can you help them out. And we were told, yes, we’d help them out of their misery. I said, quit joking, how about helping them, and they said OK. As I took off, they walked to the ditch, and we heard machine-gun fire.

April 30, 1969 – U.S. troop levels peak at 543,400. There have been 33,641 Americans killed by now, a total greater than the Korean War.

September 16, 1969 – President Nixon orders the withdrawal of 35,000 soldiers from Vietnam and a reduction in draft calls.

December 20, 1969 – A frustrated Henry Cabot Lodge quits his post as chief U.S. negotiator at the Paris peace talks.

By year’s end, America’s fighting strength in Vietnam has been reduced by 115,000 men. 40,024 Americans have now been killed in Vietnam.

April 20, 1970 – President Nixon announces the withdrawal of another 150,000 Americans from Vietnam within a year.

January 25, 1972 – President Nixon announces a proposed eight-point peace plan for Vietnam and also reveals that Kissinger has been secretly negotiating with the North Vietnamese. However, Hanoi rejects Nixon’s peace overture.

February 21-28 – President Nixon visits China and meets with Mao Zedong and Prime Minister Zhou Enlai to forge new diplomatic relations with the Communist nation. Nixon’s visit causes great concern in Hanoi that their wartime ally China might be inclined to agree to an unfavorable settlement of the war to improve Chinese relations with the U.S.

April 4, 1972 – In a further response to Eastertide, President Nixon authorizes a massive bombing campaign targeting all NVA troops invading South Vietnam along with B-52 air strikes against North Vietnam. “The bastards have never been bombed like they’re going to bombed this time,” Nixon privately declares’’. Heavy B-52 bombardments ranging 145 miles into North Vietnam begin.

January 8, 1973 – Kissinger and LeDuc Tho resume negotiations in Paris, All remaining differences are resolved.

January 27, 1973 – the U.S., North Vietnam, South Vietnam and the Viet Cong sign The Paris Peace Accords. Under the terms, the U.S. agrees to immediately halt all military activities and withdraw all remaining military personnel within 60 days. The North Vietnamese agree to an immediate cease-fire and the release of all American POWs within 60 days. An estimated 150,000 North Vietnamese soldiers presently in South Vietnam are allowed to remain. Vietnam is still divided. South Vietnam is considered to be one country with two governments, one led by President Thieu, the other led by Viet Cong, pending future reconciliation.

March 29, 1973 – The last remaining American troops withdraw from Vietnam as President Nixon declares, “the day we have all worked and prayed for has finally come.” America’s longest war, and its first defeat, thus concludes. During 15 years of military involvement, over 2 million Americans served in Vietnam with 500,000 seeing actual combat. 47,244 were killed in action, including 8000 airmen. There were 10,446 non-combat deaths. 153,329 were seriously wounded, including 10,000 amputees. Over 2400 American POWs/MIAs were unaccounted for as of 1973.

December 18, 1974 – North Vietnam’s leaders meet in Hanoi to form a plan for final victory.

April 27, 1975 – Saigon is encircled. 30,000 South Vietnamese soldiers are inside the city but are leaderless. NVA fire rockets into downtown civilian areas as the city erupts into chaos and widespread looting.

Three U.S. aircraft carriers standby off the coast of Vietnam to handle incoming Americans and South Vietnamese refugees.

April 30, 1975 – At 8:35 a.m., the last Americans, ten Marines from the embassy, depart Saigon, concluding the United States presence in Vietnam. North Vietnamese troops pour into Saigon and encounter little resistance. By 11 a.m., the red and blue Viet Cong flag flies from the presidential palace. President Minh broadcasts a message of unconditional surrender. The war is over.

On Dec. 20, 1989, the United States invaded Panama to oust strongman Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega and install a friendly government.

The Organization of American States and the United Nations passed resolutions deploring the invasion.

The presidents of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua signed an accord in August 1989 to disband the contrarebels. The Marxist Sandinista regime of Nicaragua fell after the country’s February 1990 elections. Opposition candidate Violeta Barrios de Chamorro was elected president. By early 1992 a peace plan was in place in El Salvador between rebel forces and the government.

In June 1990 United States President George Bush proposed an initiative to encourage the growth of free-market economies in Central America by canceling part of their debt to the United States and by promising to work towards establishing a free trade zone throughout North, Central, and South America.

August 2 1990 Iraq invaded Kuwait, the United States government acted quickly. Ships were dispatched to the Persian Gulf, operation ‘Desert Shield’ begins. U.S. warns of Iraq’s military and chemical, biological and nuclear weapons capabilities. ‘Desert Storm’ begins; Allied Troops leaded by U.S.A. invade Iraq and Kuwait, and return Kuwait to its former rulers, by the End of February 1991. George Bush decided to end the war and bring the troops home. UN weapons inspectors converged on Iraq and the coalition armies dispersed several hundred U.S. troops died in the brief battle, and tens of thousands of Iraqis died. The hysteria surrounding the threat of chemical weapons was contagious. The chemical weapons “sensors” produced frequent false alarms that occasionally led to panic.

Perhaps the most hyped war in history was now over. It was almost certainly the war most orchestrated for the media. All the troops had been drilled for months in preparation for a tremendous battle and possibly chemical and biological weapons. Suddenly it was over. They were sent home and returned to their normal everyday lives. Memories of the threat of chemical and biological weapons lingered.

By the end of 20^thcentury And the beginning of 21^stcentury the Soviet UnionU.S.S.R. collapsed leaving its position as first or second super power to the U.S.A. alone, president George Bush (THE FATHER) declared new strategy under what he call (NEW GLOBAL REGIME).

Under such new conditions it seems to be no one in this world dare to attack or fight again the greatest power, the USA, But here is Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, Taliban and the events of Tuesday September 11 2001, and once again USA find itself in severe confrontation with what it call it Terror, and after the events it seems to be no alternatives of Retaliation which is No Easy Task.

America’s first instinct is to hit back, and hit back hard in response to a terrorist attack that many have compared with Pearl Harbor. But retaliation was a lot easier back in 1941, when the bombers had a return address and plenty of fixed assets of their own. Terrorism is different; it’s what Pentagon planners call “asymmetrical warfare,” in which an enemy who can’t match America’s planes, ships and missiles uses unconventional methods to strike. The prime suspects in the latest outrage — the networks associated with Osama Bin Laden — have no fixed address or military installations of their own, much less civilian infrastructure. The fugitive Saudi terrorist financier may be sheltered by Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban militia, but his is very much an independent operation rather than anybody’s proxy.

BIN Laden:Osama bin Muhammad bin Awad bin Laden born in 1955, the youngest of twenty sons of Saudi Arabia’s wealthiest and most prominent families.

In the wake of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, intelligence experts focused on the possible role of Osama bin Laden, the Saudi multimillionaire who has been held responsible for a number of terrorist actions, including the bombing of the American embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.

In 1968, Osama’s father died in a helicopter crash, and Osama, at the age of thirteen, inherited eighty million dollars. When he was fifteen, he had his own stable of horses, and at nineteen he entered King Abdul-Aziz University, in Jeddah, where he received a civil-engineering degree in 1979.

In 1984, bin Laden moved to Peshawar, a Pakistani border town near the Khyber Pass, which served as the key staging area for the jihad in Afghanistan.

When bin Laden arrived in Afghanistan, the government that had eventually assumed power after the departure of the Soviets was being besieged by a fundamentalist student faction known as the Taliban. Its leader was Mullah Muhammad Omar, who, like bin Laden, had fought in the jihad. The two men had a similar ideology and complementary needs: bin Laden needed refuge, and the fledgling Taliban needed cash. Bin Laden gave the mullah an initial payment of three million dollars for the cause, and the Taliban was able to capture the key center of Jalalabad in September of 1996. Ten days later, the capital, Kabul, fell. And, sometime after that, according to United States officials, bin Laden, through the marriage of one of his daughters, became Mullah Omar’s father-in-law. Bin Laden’s objectives as he declared: Religious war against America and American interests. Removing US forces from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. Liberating Jerusalem from Israelis. Overthrow the “un-Islamic” governments of the region. Restoration of the Caliphate, or pan-Islamic ruler. Osama Bin Laden is America’s most wanted man but also a hero too many young people in the Muslim world.

He is wanted by the US in connection with a growing number of terrorist atrocities, including the 1998 bombing of two US embassies in Africa and the bombing of the USS Cole warship in October 2000 in yeman. And now he is Washington’s chief suspect in the assaults on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

American officials believe Bin Laden’s associates may operate in over 40 countries – in Europe and North America, as well as in the Middle East and Asia.

The fear must now be that even if Bin Laden himself is eliminated, the movement in which he is a leading figure will be harder to crush.

JANUARY 18 2002; Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf during fighting in Tora Bora area said he thinks Osama bin Laden has not been able to get treatment for his kidney disease and is most likely dead.

The United States is “reasonably certain” that one of the voices it has been monitoring on battlefield radios in eastern Afghanistan is that of Osama bin Laden, and Unless bin Laden turns up in the next couple of days in the Tora Bora area, the likelihood is that the U.S. military campaign in Afghanistan will begin winding down without having delivered a number of the most prized leaders in the enemy camp. Pursuit of the world’s most-wanted terrorists will become, once more, an intelligence-and-police operation.

When President Bush decided the retaliation he said that this is a different kind of war and he wants to build a coalition, so he spoke with several world leaders in an ongoing effort to build an international coalition against terrorism.

Secretary of State Colin Powell issued one of his strongest messages to Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers, saying the regime may soon pay the price for the “support” and “inspiration” of suspected terrorists such as Osama bin laden. America and Britain are producing secret plans to launch a ten-year ((war on Terrorism)) – Operation Noble Eagle involving a completely new military and diplomatic strategy to eliminate terrorist networks and cells around the world.

This war will be largely be fought by diplomatic personnel and intelligence forces.

Terrorist’s cells have roots in perhaps as 60 countries including the U.S., most countries in Europe, many in Africa and Middle East and Asia

Sunday Oct 7 2001 U.S. military attacks started against Afghanistan, involved 15 land-based bombers, 25 strike aircraft and U.S. and British ships and submarines fired about 50 Tomahawk missiles against Afghan targets, the attacks came in four waves over a six-hour period targeted the Taliban’s air defense installations, defense ministry, airport-based command centers, airfields, electrical grids and other energy production facilities. President Bush said the United States opened a new front in the war against international terrorism Sunday with its attacks on Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban and al Qaeda terrorist camps.

Monday  October   8   2001 striking at the heart of Taliban power, U.S. and British forces attacked targets in major Afghan cities in the opening of U.S. led war on terrorism. The Taliban declared defiantly that Afghans were ready to sacrifice their lives in the struggle.

The Pentagon has also deployed nearly 1,000 troops, including an enhanced infantry battalion from the 10th Mountain Division, to a former Soviet air base near Karshi, in Uzbekistan, about 100 miles from the Afghan border.

Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban’s supreme leader, issued a defiant statement urging the world’s Muslim community to be “with Islam, not with Bush. With truth, not lies.” Across the Mideast, there was anger at the U.S. counterattack and some support for Bin Laden .

Anti-American anger on the Arab streets — fueled by the ongoing campaign against Iraq and by Israeli military actions against the Palestinian uprising — provides Bin Laden with a growing pool of potential recruits, often highly educated and skilled young men who are willing to die for his cause. And the passions on the street also make it more difficult for even pro-U.S. governments in the Arab world to be seen to be working too closely with Washington. Isolating Bin Laden may require ongoing efforts to repair and maintain Washington’s relations with its Arab allies, whose security services remain the front line of the battle against Bin Laden. “Getting involved in ground warfare in Afghanistan… is a very difficult proposition,” If the Americans decide to widen the conflict to attacking countries that might harbor terrorists, and there are many of them around the world — one thinks of Syria, or Algeria, Iraq perhaps, even Pakistan — then sympathy for the United States might begin to evaporate President Bush gave the CIA it broadest authority to conduct lethal covert action against Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network. He signed an order, known as an intelligence finding that directed the CIA to undertake to sweeping and deadly covert action against bin Laden and his network. The president has given the agency the green light to do whatever is necessary. Lethal operations that were unthinkable, the operations were to include a high degree of coordination between the CIA and military units, to give Bush the power to rapidly dispatch troops based on the newest and best information from the intelligence agency.

Though all U.S. presidents since Gerald Ford have signed an executive order prohibiting the CIA or other agencies from getting involved in political

Assassinations, there is agreement among some CIA and White House lawyers that the ban does not apply in time of war.

Long time before 11 September 2001 The World Health Organization warned Western governments to be on the alert for attacks using chemical and biological weapons, Doctors have called for concerted international action to combat the danger, They said an international consortium of medical and public health experts should be set up to monitor the threat of biological weapons.

As the shocked citizenry strives to return to normal, a pall of fear is hanging over New York City. At every dinner party in town conversation will eventually turn to the dreaded word: “Anthrax.” anxious customers who come to Gary Hugo’s army surplus shop on Canal Street to buy gas masks were terrified of the next attack.

In Florida, State health officials said anthrax had been detected on the computer keyboard of a dead man, 63-year-old Robert Stevens, who worked as a photographer on The Sun, October 9 2001 A co-worker of the dead has tested positive for the disease and U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft has said he is concerned but did not know if the anthrax cases were linked to last month’s attacks on America.

News of the second anthrax case came as the United States was on high alert for possible attacks by the al Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden .

Health officials and the FBI have said there is no evidence yet of any links between the September 11 attacks and the anthrax cases.

October 19    2001; 2nd New Jersey postal worker tests positive for anthrax, and 32 others have tested positive for exposure to the bacteria.

Federal investigators confirmed that the strains of deadly anthrax spores mailed to New York, Washington and Florida are virtually identical as federal agents, tracing the possible path of one letter laced with the bacteria, focused attention on a blue mailbox in suburban New Jersey.

Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge told reporters that “tests to date have concluded that the strains [of anthrax] are indistinguishable” and likely came from the same source. The matching results provided the clearest indication yet that the same person or group is likely responsible for sending anthrax spores through the mail to Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.), NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw and American Media Inc.

The FBI has identified a New Jersey mailbox as the site where the anthrax-laced letters were posted. Officials now believe the anthrax found in Florida, New York City and Washington are from the same source. As the number of confirmed and suspected anthrax cases grew, the government aid had made a deal to buy more than 100 million doses of an antibiotic that kills the insidious bacteria.

DECEMBER 5 2001; Suspected anthrax hoaxer arrested; Clayton Lee Waagner, the suspected author of hoax letters sent to abortion clinics that claimed to be contaminated with anthrax, has been arrested in a Cincinnati suburb, federal authorities said. The FBI in Cincinnati was handling the case. The 45-year-old suspect has been linked to anti-abortion extremist groups.

Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told a special safety session in Vienna that a terrorist nuclear attack was more likely than previously thought.

The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog has urged governments to “act quickly” to prevent any terrorist atomic attack.

President Bush said that threats from Osama bin Laden to use weapons of mass destruction should be taken seriously, although there is no evidence bin Laden or his al Qaeda terrorist organization possess such weaponry.

“This is an evil man that we’re dealing with, and I wouldn’t put it past him to develop evil weapons to try to harm civilization as we know it.”

President Musharraf of Pakistan had restructured the chain of command controlling Pakistan’s nuclear missiles, to isolate them from Taliban sympathizers inside his own security forces, and to prevent them falling them into the hands of rogue elements if he was assassinated or toppled.

Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal moved to six secret sites within 48 hours of the September 11 attacks out of fear that extremists would try to seize the warheads. Which thought to be up to 40 nuclear warheads. The general now in charge of guarding them, Khalid Kidwai, answers only to the president. Extra troops and anti-aircraft batteries have been established around the six new sites.

The United States has asked for Pakistan’s assistance in possible military operations against global terrorism, U.S. military officials briefed Pakistani government and military officials about possible retaliatory strikes.

Thousands of demonstrators carrying life-sized pictures of Osama bin Laden marched through the streets of Karachi shouting “Death to America” and burning effigies of President Bush and General Musharraf, who faces backlash as country splits, A former head of Pakistan’s powerful Intelligence agency said that the Pakistan Army would rise up and revolt together with civilians if the Government supported attacks on Afghanistan.

President Bush lifted sanctions against Pakistan and India that were imposed after the two nations tested nuclear weapons in 1998. For Pakistan, the lifting of sanctions is a reward for its cooperation in the U.S. showdown with Afghanistan.

In addition, the United States and Pakistan signed an agreement to reschedule $379 million in debt owed to the United States. The deal was signed at a ceremony by U.S. Ambassador Wendy Chamberlin and a Pakistani official.

Powell’s high-level diplomatic efforts notwithstanding, the temperature between India and Pakistan over the disputed area of Kashmir rose. Pakistan placed its troops in the area on high alert, citing what it described as Indian troop movements.

An Indian spokeswoman replied that no troops were on the move and called Pakistani charges a “complete fabrication.”

In a regularly scheduled briefing in Islamabad, Gen. Rashid Qureishi said Pakistan is “ready to thwart any attempt at mischief or misadventure” by India.

Pakistani officials in Kashmir said two areas had been attacked and accused India of unprovoked firing on civilians.

The firing took place, about an hour before Powell arrived for his visit to Pakistan. The Indian Army said it shelled 11 Pakistani military posts across the cease-fire line, destroying them; the strikes were in retaliation for attacks the night before by Pakistani forces against three power stations.

Tensions between Delhi and Islamabad are not eased by the terrorism crisis.
Both India and Pakistan have in their own ways signed up for America’s coalition against terror – but there is no sign of any improvement in their notoriously frosty relations. Pakistan remains intensely suspicious of Delhi’s intentions, while the Indians are outraged that Islamabad should be even talking about terrorism, after a decade or more of Pakistan-sponsored insurrection in the disputed state of Kashmir which illustrates an unresolved aspect of the emerging Bush doctrine.

An Asian nuclear doctrine must be part of America’s long-term vision. Islamabad keeps nuclear weapons to safeguard Pakistan’s survival. New Delhi, which has always said it will not launch a nuclear strike, first, says it wants to deter two countries – Pakistan and China – from pressing too hard their territorial claims over Indian soil. With billions of lives at stake, the onus is on America to ensure that all sides start talking again.

A Pakistan Ranger tries to maintain calm on the border, The Pakistani President, Pervez Musharraf, has said his country wants peace with India but is ready for war if forced into it, as the two nuclear powers’ military build-up continues.

The Indian prime minister has ruled out talks with General Musharraf next week and says India is ready for “every eventuality”. The two leaders are due to attend a regional summit in Nepal. Pakistani officials said they would be willing to meet at anytime and anywhere to discuss rising tensions between the two nations. U.S. President Bush welcomed the developments, calling them a “good sign.” Bush said he hoped the two countries were not “heading for war.”

September 29 2001: U.S.and British Special Operations forces have been conducting reconnaissance operations in the region and in Afghanistan. The missions, are meant to pave the way for any future action aimed at bin Laden and his top lieutenants, propaganda efforts, including radio broadcasts and dropping leaflets over Afghanistan, are aimed at encouraging Taliban forces to surrender or defect to opposing forces.

October 20 2001 About 100 Army Rangers and other commandos struck into the Taliban’s stronghold of southern Afghanistan in the first of many likely hit-and-run raids in the escalating war against terrorism. Two soldiers died when a U.S. helicopter, prepared for search-and-rescue duty, crashed in neighboring Pakistan.

Separately, the commandos left Afghan airspace by helicopter and returned to base after several hours inside the country,

In preparation for ground action, the USS Kitty Hawk, an aircraft carrier in the Indian Ocean, was loaded with Special Forces.

Air Force AC-130 gunships, meanwhile, began attacking in southern Afghanistan. The high-firepower planes typically give close air cover to forces on the ground or troops going in for small-unit operations.

Special operations troops such as the Army’s Green Berets perform many missions, including assistance to opposition forces and collection of intelligence. Special Forces in southern Afghanistan are supporting the CIA’s effort to encourage ethnic Pashtun leaders to break away from the Taliban.

Army Rangers, “attacked and destroyed targets” in Afghanistan and “are refitting for future actions” against targets “known to harbor terrorists.”

November 11 2001 Northern Alliance leaders claimed their troops were in control of several towns and had cut off the remaining Taliban forces in northeast Afghanistan. “The importance of this big defeat, dramatic defeat is not only that they have lost areas, but they have lost their main fighting force,”

Taliban forces advanced toward Konduz, The Northern Alliance began moving west in the direction of Khanabad and Konduz just after a couple of hundred Afghan Taliban surrendered at the Northern Alliance front lines.

NOVEMBER 26 2001 About 500 of an expected 1,000-plus Marines landed south of the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar in an airstrip where they attacked by an armored column of Taliban , U.S. helicopter gunships supported the Marines.

November 29 2001 with about 1,000 Marines on the ground, the coalition finally has a forward operating base inside Afghanistan. As the Marines worked to establish a base south of Kandahar, U.S. warplanes launched the most intensive raids on the city in weeks, Heavy fighting around the city continued but it could not be determined who was participating. The anti-Taliban Northern Alliance has said it is moving south from Herat toward Kandahar, the Taliban’s political and spiritual base, while elements of Afghanistan’s Pashtun tribes have threatened to move on Kandahar if Taliban leader Mohammed Omar does not relinquish control of the city.

DECEMBER 7 2001 U.S. troops were fighting fleeing Taliban fighters near Kandahar, Ground forces of the Eastern Alliance — the anti-Taliban faction around Jalalabad — moved their tanks closer to the mountains after engaging Taliban forces during the day.

Taliban forces surrendered the strategic town of Spin Boldak, near the Pakistan border, to tribal leaders. Anti-Taliban tribal fighters raised the green, red and black flag in both cities showing support for the country’s former king, Mohammed Zahir Shah.

Interim Afghan government leader Hamid Karzai said; supreme Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar missed a Thursday night deadline to renounce terrorism and was being sought. The end of Taliban control in Kandahar followed a deal reached for them to surrender, and last up to four days, said Karzai. It was uncertain how the process would proceed now that so many Taliban fighters have fled.

U.S. Marines were on the ground in southern Afghanistan to gather intelligence and look for members of the Taliban and al Qaeda.

October 24 2001 Afghan tribal leaders with roughly 800 of afghan’s gathered in Peshawar, Pakistan for a two- or three-day meeting conference called Assembly for Peace and National Unity of Afghanistan .The goal of the conference is to determine a leadership foundation for a post-Taliban Afghanistan.

The Northern Alliance is willing to meet with Afghanistan’s deposed king in Europe in hopes of assembling a government to succeed the embattled. The Northern Alliance, which moved into the Afghan capital last week following a Taliban withdrawal, had invited representatives of all Afghan factions to meet in Kabul to assemble a new government. Mohammed Zahir Shah, Afghanistan’s former king, was deposed in a 1973 coup and has been living in Rome, Italy. He has offered to lead an interim government as a transitional figure but said he is not interested in restoring the Afghan monarchy.

Former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani, the alliance’s top political leader, said that any agreement in Germany would not be definitive and that any decisions on the future of Afghanistan would be made here in subsequent meetings.

The Northern Alliance agreed to attend a key meeting in Berlin on to discuss a future government for Afghanistan with other Afghan factions.

Francesco Vendrell, the UN special envoy, said the talks would be a “first, very important step” towards creating a peaceful, united and self-governing Afghanistan.

Delegation members already in Bonn may use the opportunity to hold preliminary talks over and confer with the U.N.’s envoy to Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, ahead of the official start.

The United Nations said four Afghan groups have been invited to the talks, including a delegation from the Northern Alliance; representatives of the former Afghan king, Mohammed Zahir Shah; and two groups of Afghan exiles, one based in Peshawar, Pakistan, and another based in Cyprus.

Nov 25: Former Afghan commanders and tribal elders, belonging to six Pakhtoon-populated provinces of Afghanistan, have decided to send a delegation with a massage for the Taliban to surrender and hand over power to the tribal elders peacefully.

The centerpiece of Zahir Shah’s plan for Afghanistan after the Taliban is the use of a loya jirga, the traditional Afghan leadership council, to develop a representative government. The former king’s aides say they will promote that plan of action at meetings this week in Germany.

Thursday, 27 December 2001Afghanistan’s 30-member interim cabinet, agreed by four Afghan factions after talks in Bonn has now been finalized.

The cabinet is drawn from representatives of the Northern Alliance, the Rome group loyal to former king Zahir Shah, and the smaller Cyprus and Peshawar exile groups.

Political authority on the ground remains in the hands of the various warlords and armies who filled the void left by the retreating Taliban. Even if the international community sends a peacekeeping force to Kabul, the country faces an uphill battle to shed a political culture based on Mao’s dictum that “political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”

Regrouping

Friday March 1 2002, Pentagon: Taliban, Al Qaeda Gathering in Afghanistan, The U.S. military is gathering intelligence on pockets of hundreds of suspected al Qaeda and Taliban fighters regrouping near the city of Gardez in eastern Afghanistan.

Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters are regrouping in the mountains of eastern Paktia province and just over the border in Pakistan, urging the faithful to wage holy war against U.S. forces. U.S. officials and Afghan sources estimate 4,000 to 5,000 foreigners who fought for the Taliban and al-Qaeda remain inside Afghanistan. Many of them are believed to be in Paktia and other provinces along the Pakistan border. They are receiving support from a variety of groups, including Kashmiris, Islamic militants in Pakistan and some former officials of Pakistan’s intelligence service, according to Afghan sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“We have Chechens, Arabs, Pakistanis and Afghans, were recently discovered in at least one pocket of fighters in the mountains near Gardez,” Ziarat Gul Mangal, deputy intelligence chief of Paktia province said.

Saturday March 2 2002, Heavy Fighting, U.S. Bombing in East Afghanistan, Afghan troops and U.S. bombers attacked hundreds of die-hard al Qaeda and Taliban fighters holed up in mountains in east Afghanistan, but soldiers involved said the offensive was beaten off. The battle, the heaviest reported fighting in Afghanistan for weeks, was taking place in Paktia province where the Pentagon says intelligence reports show pockets of Osama bin Laden ‘s al Qaeda network and followers of deposed Taliban leader Mullah Omar are seeking to regroup. More than 500 Arabs and other al Qaeda fighters along with their families are holed up in the area, U.S. military spokesman Major A.C. Roper told a news briefing in the southern city of Kandahar, the main base for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, that operations were on-going, but he declined to give further details. He also declined to comment on reports a large number of U.S. troops had been moved from Kandahar air base to Bagram air base on the outstrips of Kabul and much closer to Paktia.Top Pentagon officials said on Friday the U.S. military had been watching the area for a long period after deposing Afghanistan’s Taliban leadership and sending remnants of Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda guerrillas, blamed for the September 11 attacks on the United States, into hiding in the rugged country.

“For some time now, coalition and Afghan forces have been conducting operations in eastern Afghanistan to eliminate al Qaeda and Taliban groups that have been identified in the area.U.S. Warplanes and helicopters opened a new offensive Saturday against Taliban and al-Qaida believed regrouping in Afghanistan’s eastern mountains in an air assault backed by Afghan forces on the ground.

Monday March 4 2002, At least six Americans were killed and an unknown number wounded when their helicopter was shot down over eastern Afghanistan in intense fighting that caused the worst U.S. combat casualties of the 5-month-old war, Pentagon officials said Monday. It was not clear how many of the soldiers died in the crash and how many were killed by small-arms fire during fighting that broke out after the crash, said Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke. She said she didn’t know the number of wounded or whether a search-and-rescue operation had been completed. The helicopter, normally used to ferry Special Forces troops and supplies, was downed on its way to the largest battle of the war so far – an assault on suspected al-Qaida and Taliban fighters that the Pentagon says were regrouping south of Gardez.

Tuesday March 5 2002, U.S.-led forces fought their way under heavy fire toward Taliban and al Qaeda bunkers in the icy mountains of eastern Afghanistan, pressing on with one of the bloodiest offensives of the war.

Friday March 8 2002 Snow, clouds and high winds quelled fighting Friday, but the week-old battle to drive al-Qaida and Taliban holdouts from the rugged, icy mountains in eastern Afghanistan was expected to drag on for several more days as the enemy hunkered into hide-outs and refused to surrender.

Tuesday March 12 2002, Advancing U.S. and coalition forces fought with small groups of al-Qaida and Taliban holdouts Tuesday as allied troops worked their way through the warren of mountain caves in eastern Afghanistan — their progress slowed by mines and booby traps. As the ground fighting has subsided, hundreds of U.S. troops from the 10th Mountain Division and the 101st Airborne Division have rotated back to Bagram air base north of Kabul.

 

This is part of the book that will be published on weekly basis upon approval of the authors