Another game, another blowout for Kadena

KADENA AIR BASE, Okinawa – Fresh off scoring on a 24-yard touchdown run, Jason Bland came off the field, heading straight for Kadena coach Sergio Mendoza, who greeted him with a big smile and a handshake.

“Man, you are a beast!” Mendoza told the junior running back, who played a big part among many in Saturday’s 40-0 win over Seoul American in a pivotal Far East Division I football game.

With senior star Justin Sego productive but not feeling 100 percent, Mendoza and the Panthers (3-0 overall) continued a two-week pattern of others stepping up to carry the load. Bland finished with 50 yards on four carries and two touchdowns and Barry Mitchell and John McBain each caught scoring passes from Jamario Harris.

“Every week, I’m having so much more faith,” Mendoza said of Bland, Mitchell and Kortez Hixon, capable backs who at times get overshadowed by Sego, who has team highs in yards with 577, carries with 45 and touchdowns with six, this season.

“They’re running hard, our fullback (Dominic Santanelli) is running hard … and our line is developing each week,” Mendoza said.

Of Mitchell, a versatile player who can line up at receiver or running back and even has a special formation designed for him, Mendoza said: “Barry’s a really special player. … It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Sego had 147 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries. Harris accounted for 137 yards of total offense and Mitchell 100. Sego had 175 all-purpose yards in just one half; he sat for the small portion of the second half that was played.

The game was called off with 69 seconds left in the third quarter due to a combination of the score and Seoul American only having 14 players left after injury and ejection.

Falcons coach James Davis said he wished the game could have ended another way.

“It affects both sides. If they (Panthers) don’t get to play four quarters, they get cheated, too. It was tough.”

Despite all the injuries, the Falcons never stopped playing hard, Davis said. “Sports, I believe, reveals character. It doesn’t build character. They come to me with character.”

The Panthers, who had two more apparent scores called back by penalties, held the Falcons to 50 yards of offense and three first downs, two on Seoul American’s opening possession. The Falcons got as far as the Kadena 49-yard line on the first possession, but no further the rest of the way.

Kadena next visits Kubasaki on Friday, while Seoul American travels to Nile C. Kinnick – Davis’ alma mater and where he was an assistant coach in the 2000s – next Saturday.

Having taken early command of the D-I race, the Panthers hope to avenge last November’s 34-31 overtime loss to Kubasaki in the D-I title game. “Kubasaki is a good team and we’re looking forward to playing them,” Mendoza said.

The Falcons’ D-I title hopes were dealt a severe blow. “I was hoping for a better showing here. What can you do? Try to get healthy and give Kinnick a run for their money,” Davis said. “That’s all we can do.”

ornauer.dave@stripes.com

Russia: info 'war' in Malaysian plane disaster

UNITED NATIONS — Russia's U.N. ambassador cast doubt on the Netherlands-led investigation into the downing of a Malaysian Airlines jet over eastern Ukraine's rebel territory and called Friday for a new probe assisted by the United Nations.

The countries that lost most of the 298 victims on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 — the Netherlands, Australia and Malaysia — as well as the United States and most other members of the U.N. Security Council strongly supported the Dutch-led international probe that involves dozens of detectives.

The chief Dutch prosecutor overseeing the criminal investigation said last week that the "most likely" scenario was that the plane was shot in July down from the ground. The Dutch Safety Board's preliminary report did not say who might have been responsible.

Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told the council Friday that several countries, which he did not identify, had used the disaster "to exacerbate international tensions," blaming Russian-backed Ukrainian rebels without any verified proof and holding Russia responsible "for the perpetration of serious international violations."

"We feel this was an act of an information war, a blatant intervention that hindered the investigation of the incident as well as a political attempt to predetermine the results of the investigation," he said.

Britain's U.N. Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant accused Russia of trying to undermine the ongoing "credible independent investigation."

Lithuania's U.N. Ambassador Raimonda Murmokaite stressed that "not a single country has raised doubts" about the Netherlands-led investigation or claimed that it is flawed.

Churkin, who called for the meeting, said the preliminary report released Sept. 9 lacks "convincing information about the circumstances of the crash."

It said the Boeing 777 broke apart over Ukraine due to penetration by a large number of "high-energy objects from outside the aircraft."

The Russian ambassador said the Security Council needs to resolve "a number of thorny issues," including establishing a halt to all military activities at the disaster site and promoting "swift and safe access" for investigators. He said the resolution adopted by the council after the crash called for the U.N. to determine possible options for U.N. assistance but it hasn't yet produced any.

Churkin added that the U.N. and the council may have to think about possibly establishing a special representative of the secretary-general on the issue of the disaster.

U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power said Churkin made clear that Moscow's "real intention is not to learn about the investigation, but to discredit it."

Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said her nation supports U.N. political chief Jeffrey Feltman's statement to the council that the world body is confident the Dutch-led probe is being handled properly.

Bishop called on Russia to use its influence over separatists to ensure safe access to the site for investigators from Netherlands, Malaysia and Australia.

The ongoing conflict between pro-Russian rebels and Ukrainian forces has prevented investigators from visiting the fields where the wreckage of Flight 17 plunged to the ground. That likely contributed to the cautious assessment by the Dutch board, which is expected to issue its full report is expected within a year of the disaster.

Churkin said Moscow wants the investigators to return but said the only way a transparent and objective international investigation can be carried out is with the participation of the United Nations.

Pro-Russian rebels officially deny having shot down the plane. However, a highly placed rebel officer told the AP in an interview in the aftermath of the disaster that the plane was shot down by a mixed team of rebels and Russian military personnel who believed they were targeting a Ukrainian military plane.

Live-fire training accident changed soldier's life in a flash

DURHAM, N.C. (MCT) — The Army training accident seven months ago that dimmed Sgt. Cory Muzzy’s sight and took his feet out from under him has not kept him from envisioning his future.

Muzzy, 24, was an ammunitions team chief in the 321st Field Artillery Regiment, part of the 18th Fires Brigade at Fort Bragg, when it happened. On Feb. 21, the unit was 60 hours into a 72-hour training mission – running on adrenaline and muscle memory, no sleep, Muzzy recalled Friday – when it was sent to the range for a live-fire exercise.

A few more hours and they would have been able to go home, to their beds, their families, their regular daily lives. Instead, everything changed in a flash.

When he joined the Army, Muzzy had hoped to go into the infantry, he said. “But they didn’t have any openings at the time, so they gave me the next closest thing” – artillery.

He learned to operate several of the weapons in the Army’s arsenal, including one of the big guns, the M777 howitzer, the one the team would use on the range that morning. The M777, rolled out in the mid-2000s to replace an older, heavier howitzer, can hit a target from 18.5 miles with a 150-pound, 155 mm round. A five-man crew can fire up to five rounds per minute.

The Army and Marines like the M777 because it’s several thousand pounds lighter than its predecessor and can be more easily hauled into combat. It was used during the war in Iraq and has been used in Afghanistan.

As the U.S. military has withdrawn from those conflicts and the rate of deployment has dropped, Fort Bragg continues to train with the M777 and other weapons as part of its efforts to rebuild as a “global response force.” The goal is to be able to deploy a task force at least the size of a battalion anywhere in the world within 18 hours, and an entire brigade within 96 hours, whether to provide humanitarian assistance or launch a full-scale invasion.

Practicing with live artillery

To prepare for the worst-case scenario, troops practice with the weapons – and live artillery – they would use if called to combat.

“You train as you fight,” Muzzy said, repeating one of the mantras he has heard so often during his seven years in the Army.

He was just 17 when he went in, responding to a recruiter’s phone call to his home in Pecos, N.M., and the promise of an education. At that age, he had to get his parents’ permission. His father was encouraging, he said. His mother, worried.

But Muzzy returned unscathed from a deployment to Iraq and one to Afghanistan. His wife, Michelle, thought he was safe, too. They had relocated to Roseboro, 45 minutes from Fort Bragg, and had a son, Killean.

When he left home for the three-day training exercise in February, Michelle didn’t think much of it.

“No big deal,” she said.

They got to the firing range in the dark, early morning. Manning the howitzer, it was Muzzy’s job to check the rounds before they were loaded into the gun to make sure they were what was called for, and to make sure the fuses were the right ones and were set properly.

But the unit was undermanned, Muzzy said, so he and other team members were doing missing crew members’ jobs as well, including ramming the rounds into the M777.

They were moving fast, Muzzy recalls, and so tired that their hands were performing the steps out of habit, before their thoughts could catch up.

The Army has not released a report on its investigation into the accident. But Muzzy said he believes that the crew got a bad lot of propellent, and a charge didn’t fire when it should have. So it remained in the cannon and then exploded when the crew opened the breach to re-load.

Crew member Pfc. James Groth, 22, of Ethal, Wash., was killed in the explosion. Muzzy and another soldier were critically injured, and five more soldiers had lesser wounds.

Muzzy was first taken to Womack Army Medical Center at Fort Bragg, and flown within hours to Duke Medical Center, where trauma specialist Dr. Mark Shapiro and a team of doctors were waiting for him.

Six weeks at Duke

“My concern was that he wasn’t going to make the trip,” Shapiro said Friday. Shapiro knew from talking to the doctors at Womack that Muzzy had brain and spinal injuries, had already lost his right leg near the knee, and would likely lose his left foot and some of that leg as well. His hearing was damaged, and his eyesight largely lost.

Shapiro said the team had Muzzy in the operating room within 10 minutes of the helicopter’s landing. Neurosurgeons went to work relieving the pressure on his brain from a blood clot, and Shapiro went into Muzzy’s abdomen. Within two weeks, Muzzy had undergone more than a dozen surgeries, he said.

Without the hospital’s efforts, Muzzy said, “I wouldn’t be here.”

After six weeks, Muzzy transferred to Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, where he has continued treatment and rehab. He’s been outfitted with two prosthetic legs and is able to walk with half-crutches. Hearing aids help him hear his son’s chatter, and additional surgeries on his eyes may bring back more of his vision.

Eventually, he plans to leave the Army, move back to Roseboro and enroll at Fayetteville Technical Community College. He wants to study to be a mechanic.

Right now, he said, he can see the contrast between light and dark, and make out general shapes – enough that he was able to recognize Shapiro on Friday when Muzzy and his family visited Duke for the first time since he left the hospital in March. Once again, he was on a mission.

“I came back to say thank you,” he said.

Quillin: 919-829-8989

———

©2014 The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.). Distributed by MCT Information Services

Secret Service boosts security outside White House

WASHINGTON — The Secret Service chief has stepped-up security outside the White House after a man with a knife who jumped the fence made it into the presidential residence before being apprehended, officials said Saturday.

President Barack Obama insisted he still has confidence in the beleaguered agency's ability to protect him and his family.

Secret Service Director Julia Pierson ordered enhanced officer patrols and surveillance along the North Fence of the compound just after the incident on Friday evening, which triggered a rare evacuation of the White House as well as renewed scrutiny of the Secret Service. The agency said Pierson had also ordered a comprehensive review of what happened.

"The president has full confidence in the Secret Service and is grateful to the men and women who day in and day out protect himself, his family and the White House," said White House spokesman Frank Benenati. He said the White House expected Pierson's review to be conducted "with the same professionalism and commitment to duty that we and the American people expect from the U.S. Secret Service."

The presidential vote of confidence came as the storied agency sought to dispel growing concerns about security at the White House, one of the most heavily protected buildings in the world. Another man was arrested Saturday outside the White House in an unrelated event.

President Barack Obama and his daughters had just left the White House by helicopter on Friday evening when the Secret Service says 42-year-old Omar J. Gonzalez scaled the fence, darting across the lawn and through the unlocked North Portico doors before officers finally tackled him.

"Every day the Secret Service is challenged to ensure security at the White House complex while still allowing public accessibility to a national historical site," the agency said in a statement. "Although last night the officers showed tremendous restraint and discipline in dealing with this subject, the location of Gonzalez's arrest is not acceptable."

The Secret Service's Office of Professional Responsibility was carrying out the review, which started Friday with interviews and a physical site assessment and will include a review of all of the security and operational policies, officials said.

Officials had originally said that Gonzalez appeared unarmed as he sprinted across the lawn — potentially one reason agents didn't shoot him or release their service dogs to detain him. But Gonzalez had a small folding knife with a 3 ½-inch (9 centimeter) serrated blade at the time of the arrest and faces a weapons charge, according to a criminal complaint issued late Friday.

According to a criminal complaint, when Gonzalez was apprehended he told Secret Service agents he was "concerned that the atmosphere was collapsing" and needed to contact the president "so he could get word out to the people."

Gonzalez, of Texas, was transported to a nearby hospital after his arrest for evaluation. He was expected to appear in federal court Monday to face charges of unlawfully entering a restricted building or grounds while carrying a deadly or dangerous weapon.

Less than 24 hours after Gonzalez' arrest, a second man was apprehended after he drove up to a White House gate and refused to leave, the Secret Service said, prompting bomb technicians in full gear to search the vehicle as agents shut down nearby streets.

There were no indications the two events were connected. Yet the pair of incidents in short succession only intensified the scrutiny of the Secret Service, which is still struggling to rehabilitate its image following a series of allegations of misconduct by agents in recent years, including agents on Obama's detail.

Gonzalez's former Texas neighbors said he moved out roughly two years ago. Sgt. 1st Class David Haslach, who lives two doors down from Gonzalez's former home, said Gonzalez had been in the U.S. military and told Haslach he had received a medical discharge.

He and another former neighbor, Elke Warner, both recalled him seeming paranoid in the months before he left town.

"At the end, he got so weird. He had motion detector lights put in," Warner said. She added that she last saw Gonzalez about a year and a half ago at a nearby camp site, where he was apparently living with his two dogs.

Attempts to reach Gonzalez or his relatives by phone were unsuccessful.

The Secret Service has struggled in recent years to strike the appropriate balance between ensuring the first family's security and preserving the public's access to the White House grounds. Once open to vehicles, the stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House was confined to pedestrians after the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, but officials have been reluctant to restrict access to the area further.

___

Pablo Martinez Monsivais in Washington and Terry Wallace in Copperas Cove, Texas contributed to this report.

Second man arrested trying to enter White House

WASHINGTON — A man who drove up to a White House gate and refused to leave was arrested on Saturday, the Secret Service said, less than 24 hours after another man jumped the fence and made it all the way into the presidential residence before being apprehended. The president and first family were not at home.

The second incident started Saturday afternoon when a man approached one of the White House gates on foot, Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said. He later showed up at another gate in a car and pulled into the vehicle screening area. When the man refused to leave, he was placed under arrest and charged with unlawful entry. Officials have not released his identity.

Bomb technicians, fully suited, could be seen looking through a white four-door sedan with New Jersey plates and pulling out what appeared to be keys. Streets near the White House were temporarily closed as officers responded, but the White House was not locked down.

It wasn't immediately clear who the man was or why he was trying to enter the White House. President Barack Obama, his wife and daughters were at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland where the first family was spending the weekend.

There were no signs that Saturday's arrest was related to the security breach the night before. But the pair of incidents in short succession heightened concerns about security at the White House, one of the most heavily protected buildings in the world.

Just minutes after Obama and his daughters had departed by helicopter Friday evening, a 42-year-old man hopped over the fence and darted across the lawn, ignoring officers' commands to stop, Donovan said. He managed to get through the doors of the North Portico, the grand, columned entrance that looks out over Pennsylvania Avenue.

The Secret Service identified the suspect as Omar Gonzalez of Copperas Cove, Texas. He was charged with unlawful entry into the White House complex and transported to a nearby hospital complaining of chest pain.

On a quiet cul-de-sac about an hour's drive from Waco, Texas, where Gonzalez was last known to have lived, former neighbors said he moved out roughly two years ago, explaining only that he had to get out of Copperas Cove, which sits next to the Fort Hood Army post.

Sgt. 1st Class David Haslach, who lives two doors down from Gonzalez's former home, said Gonzalez had been in the U.S. military and told Haslach he had received a medical discharge. He and another former neighbor, Elke Warner, both recalled him seeming paranoid in the months before he left town.

"At the end, he got so weird. He had motion detector lights put in," Warner said. She added that she last saw Gonzalez about a year and a half ago at a nearby camp site, where he was apparently living with his two dogs.

Attempts to reach Gonzales or his relatives by phone were unsuccessful.

The breach triggered a rare evacuation of much of the White House, with Secret Service officers drawing their guns as they rushed staffers and journalists out a side door.

Officials said Gonzalez appeared as he was running to be unarmed — potentially one reason why agents didn't shoot him or dispatch service dogs to stop him — and agents who searched him found no weapons.

The embarrassing incident comes at a difficult time for the Secret Service, which is still struggling to rehabilitate its image following a series of allegations of misconduct by agents in recent years, including agents on Obama's detail.

The Secret Service has struggled in recent years to strike the appropriate balance between ensuring the first family's security and preserving the public's access to the White House grounds. Once open to vehicles, the stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House was confined to pedestrians after the Oklahoma City bombing, but officials have been reluctant to restrict access to the area further.

Last year, a 34-year-old dental hygienist tried to ram her car through a White House barrier before leading police on a chase that ended with her being killed. Her 1-year-old daughter was in the car but escaped serious injury.

___

Pablo Martinez Monsivais in Washington and Terry Wallace in Copperas Cove, Texas contributed to this report

Army chief of staff Odierno says US may need more troops in Iraq

WASHINGTON — Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army chief of staff, said Friday it might be necessary to deploy more U.S. forces to Iraq beyond the 1,600 troops already there, warning that the fight against the Islamic State will intensify and could go on for years.

Odierno, who served as the top U.S. military commander during the last war in Iraq, also said he would not rule out the need to send small numbers of U.S. ground troops into combat as tactical airstrike spotters or as front-line advisers embedded with Iraq forces.

In a breakfast interview with the Defense Writers Group, Odierno said that "1,600 is a good start" and that "I don't think there's a rush, a rush to have lots of people in there now." But he predicated that as operations accelerate against jihadist fighters from the Islamic State, military commanders will revisit U.S. troop levels. "Based on that assessment, we'll make further decisions," he said.

President Barack Obama has authorized the deployment of the 1,600 U.S. troops in several stages since June, most recently on Sept. 10, when he sent an additional 475 personnel to Iraq. Most serve as advisers to Iraqi and Kurdish forces or as security for the U.S. Embassy and the international airport in Baghdad.

While Obama has repeatedly insisted he will not send U.S. ground forces into combat in Iraq, he has not indicated whether he thinks more troops will be necessary in the coming months to carry out his strategy against the Islamic State.

Any recommendations from military commanders to send more troops to Iraq would have to receive the endorsement of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel before going to the White House for final approval.

Asked if Hagel was open to the idea of deploying more troops, his spokesman, Rear Adm. John Kirby, said in an email: "The Secretary is — and will remain — open to hearing the advice and counsel of senior military leaders. He expects that advice to be candid, forthright and forward-looking."

Thousands of U.S. troops are stationed at bases in nearby Persian Gulf countries, from which they are carrying out a campaign of airstrikes and surveillance missions targeting the Islamic State, a group that has seized large parts of territory in Iraq and Syria.

On Friday, France joined the United States in the air war, conducting its first airstrike against Islamic State targets in Iraq. Rafale fighter jets destroyed an Islamic State supply depot near Mosul, according to President Francois Hollande. He said more French operations would follow in "coming days."

Obama has sought to rally a broad international alliance to counter the extremist group. There have been pledges of support, yet to be detailed, but France is the first to accompany the United States in conducting airstrikes.

France has several Rafale fighters and other warplanes stationed at al-Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates. The U.S. military also maintains a force at al-Dhafra, a key staging area for its air operations over Iraq.

In his interview, Odierno said the fight against the Islamic State will become more difficult as Iraqi and Kurdish forces, with the help of U.S. air power and advisers, go on the offensive and try to retake territory.

"This is going to go on," he said. "This is not a short term — I think the president said three years. I agree with that — three years, maybe longer. And so what we want to do is do this right. Assess it properly, see how it's going, adjust as we go along, to make sure we can sustain this."

Odierno said he supported the Obama administration's current strategy to train and equip Iraqi, Kurdish and Syrian proxy forces to attack Islamic State insurgents, while keeping U.S. troops out of any firefights on the ground.

But he said targeting Islamic State fighters and leaders with U.S. airstrikes will become more complicated as they retreat from open spaces they once controlled and into major cities and other populated areas.

"The worst thing that can happen for us is if we start killing innocent Iraqis, innocent civilians," he said. "So we have to be very careful and precise on how we're doing this. We'll have to determine that, as we go forward, if we can sustain the level of preciseness that is necessary to limit civilian casualties."

Asked if it might become necessary to embed U.S. tactical air controllers or Special Operations Forces with Iraqi troops on the front lines, Odierno replied: "I don't rule anything out. I don't ever rule anything out, personally."

Other U.S. commanders have also indicated that they would like Obama to give them more leeway and relent on his stated opposition to U.S. troops becoming involved in ground combat.

On Tuesday, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified before Congress that, if necessary, he might recommend to Obama in the future that he permit small teams to embed with Iraq forces.

Dempsey also acknowledged that Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, the commander for the Middle East, had already recommended doing so in the case of at least one battle in Iraq but was overruled.

There are signs that the White House is becoming more flexible. Obama aides said this week that the president might consider cases in which U.S. advisers could embed with Iraqi forces or call in airstrikes, although they shied away from describing such roles as combat missions.

Singer reflects on 'America's Got Talent' run, plans to leave service

The singing soldier from “America’s Got Talent” didn’t make the show’s final round, but he’s not about to stop singing.

The soldier part, though, will end sooner rather than later.

“I am currently in the process of getting out of the military,” Pfc. Paul Ieti said via email through an Army public affairs officer Sept. 5, answering Army Times’ questions for the first time since being eliminated from the NBC competition late last month. “It’s been a great three years and an experience of a lifetime meeting new friends, seeing new places and learning so much about the importance of life and discipline.”

“I love the military,” he added, “but with the God given talent I have, I know there’s more out there for me to use it with and to share with the world.”

Ieti, a petroleum supply specialist based out of Georgia’s Hunter Army Airfield with A Company, 603rd Aviation Support Battalion, 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, got knocked off the show Aug. 27, the night after singing his version of the Backstreet Boys hit “I Want It That Way.” The show’s four judges offered less-than-glowing reviews, and Ieti didn’t earn enough votes from viewers to move on.

The 21-year-old’s strongest memory of the talent-show experience was a much different moment with the judges: The reactions of model Heidi Klum, former Spice Girl Mel B and radio legend Howard Stern to his audition, a cover of Rihanna’s “Stay” that already had turned Ieti into a minor YouTube celebrity.

“The moment that really stood out the most was when three of the judges came up to the stage and gave me hugs while the crowd went crazy,” he said. “It was all so amazing. ... The whole experience all felt like a dream and I didn’t want to wake up.”

The fourth judge, comedian How­ie Mandel, elicited cheers from the crowd before the audition by asking Ieti what he did for a living.

“I’m a soldier in the U.S. Army,” Ieti replied, going on to explain that he’d just returned from a deployment to Afghanistan.

Support from soldiers

Ieti’s audition earned him a trip to “Judgment Week” with other top performers. His rendition of the Rascal Flatts hit “Bless the Broken Road” punched his ticket to the quarterfinals, where he covered One Direction’s “You and I” in a live performance at New York’s Radio City Music Hall.

That got him into the semifinals. All told, the competition required 34 days of regular leave, according to a spokesman with Ieti’s unit.

“My leaders and supervisors were very supportive and stood behind me the whole time,” Ieti said. “They made it possible for me to leave for the show and for that I want to sincerely thank them.”

Ieti, who returned to work Sept. 2, also thanked fellow soldiers for their support, but as viewers of the show’s tear-jerking backstage productions know, his closest ties are to his family in American Samoa.

“My mom and dad are quite popular themselves back home,” he said. “They’ve been getting interviewed about me being on the show. I don’t know when I’m going to see them again, but I’m praying it’ll be soon because I do miss them more than anything and would give anything just to see them.”

A number of Ieti’s non-NBC performances can be seen on his YouTube page, which has amassed more than 1.3 million views. The show’s winner will be announced Sept. 17.

Feds: Lieutenant colonel had cash delivered to his doorstep

SAN ANTONIO (MCT) — A retired Army lieutenant colonel from Cibolo plans to plead guilty in San Antonio to taking more than $250,000 from companies he intended to work for after his service at the much-maligned Camp Arifjan in Kuwait, a supply hub for U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

While he was not a contracting officer, Mark L. Moss, 48, oversaw cable, Internet and satellite services for the military in Kuwait for nearly five years and developed a cozy relationship with a pair of contractors there, Al-Pacific LTD Est. for Electronics and Makhpiya Project Management, or MPM, federal court documents allege.

In order to not get indicted, he worked out a plea deal and plans to plead guilty Thursday to a charge of committing acts that benefitted his financial interests. He faces up to five years in prison.

“I want to be clear, this is not a bribery case,” said Moss' lawyer, Adam Cortez of San Antonio. “It was him taking money from companies he had an interest in. He was going to go work for them to get contracts from the government of Kuwait.”

The documents said Moss accepted free services, dinners, gifts, an expensive Breitling watch, cash hand-delivered to his home or wired to his accounts in San Antonio and debit cards to use at ATMs abroad between November 2007 and June 2010.

“During this time, Al-Pacific had double-digit-percentage growth in the value of the contracts it was awarded,” Special Agent Carlos Markham, with the Defense Investigative Criminal Service, wrote in a federal affidavit. “The owner of Al-Pacific provided money and gratuities to Moss to ensure that Al-Pacific would not lose any portion of its current contracts and would possibly gain more contracts with the U.S. military in Kuwait.”

During the time in question, Al-Pacific's contracts went from $1.9 million in fiscal 2007 to $5 million in fiscal 2011, fedspending.org reports.

But Cortez likened Al-Pacific to the San Antonio Water System — the only game in town.

“The reason they made more money was because of the surge,” Cortez said. “They needed more services.”

The affidavit said Moss also received money and gratuities from MPM. During the period in question, Moss developed restrictive requirements, like a seven-day delivery period, that limited competition and led to initial selection of higher bidders like MPM, the affidavit states.

Defense Department investigators identified at least $253,000 that was transferred by the companies to accounts in the name of Moss or his relatives.

Moss told investigators he encouraged contracting officers assigned to his unit to favor Al-Pacific and MPM when selecting who to award contracts to.

“Although Moss did not control the bids directly, he stated he was the commanding officer of the contracting officers and had direct contact with them,” Markham wrote. “If Al-Pacific or MPM was not selected as the primary company for any particular contract, Moss would contact the winning company and as a lieutenant colonel in charge of contracting would encourage them to hire Al-Pacific and/or MPM as a sub-contractor.”

Additionally, Moss told the feds that anytime Al-Pacific or MPM needed access to the base or needed security badges to begin work, he would contact the Provost Marshall's Office and expedite their requests.

“Moss added this would basically move them up to the front of the line, ahead of all other requests for security badges to include other contractors,” the affidavit said. “This granted Al-Pacific and MPM quicker response times since they were able to bypass routine and lengthy security procedures.”

No one else has been charged, and the owner of MPM has since died, Cortez said.

“The government was extremely fair,” Cortez said. “They looked at the evidence and didn't make more of it than what it was.”

Camp Arifjan is infamous in contracting circles because the Pentagon was embarrassed when several service members, including former Army Maj. John Cockerham of San Antonio, were found to have rigged bids on millions of dollars in contracts during the Iraq War.

Cockerham is serving more than 16 years in federal prison near El Paso for accepting $15 million in bribes from certain contractors in exchange for giving them contracts for bottled water and other services.

gcontreras@express-news.net

Twitter: @gmaninfedland

———

©2014 the San Antonio Express-News. Distributed by MCT Information Services

CIA has halted spying on friendly governments in Europe, US officials say

WASHINGTON — The CIA has curbed spying on friendly governments in Western Europe in response to the furor over a German caught selling secrets to the United States and the Edward Snowden revelations of classified information held by the National Security Agency, according to current and former U.S. officials.

The pause in decades of espionage, which remains partially in effect, was designed to give CIA officers time to examine whether they were being careful enough and to evaluate whether spying on allies is worth running the risk of discovery, said a U.S. official who has been briefed on the situation.

Under the stand-down order, case officers in Europe largely have been forbidden from undertaking "unilateral operations" such as meeting with sources they have recruited within allied governments. Such clandestine meetings are the bedrock of spying.

CIA officers are still allowed to meet with their counterparts in the host country's intelligence service, conduct joint operations with host country services and conduct operations with the approval of the host government. Recently, unilateral operations targeting third country nationals — Russians in France, for example —were restarted. But most meetings with sources who are host nationals remain on hold, as do new recruitments.

The CIA declined to comment.

James Clapper, the U.S. director of national intelligence, said during a public event Thursday that the U.S. is assuming more risk because it has stopped spying on "specific targets," though he didn't spell out details.

Spying stand-downs are common after an operation is compromised, but "never this long or this deep," said a former CIA official, who, like others interviewed for this article, spoke on condition of anonymity because it's illegal to discuss classified material or activities. The pause, which has been in effect for about two months, was ordered by senior CIA officials through secret cables.

The current stand-down was part of the fallout from the July 2 arrest of a 31-year-old employee of the German intelligence service. Suspected of spying for Russia, he told authorities he passed 218 German intelligence documents to the CIA.

In a second case, authorities searched the home and office of a German defense official suspected of spying for the U.S., but he denied doing so, and no charges have been filed against him.

A few days later, Germany asked the CIA station chief in Berlin to leave the country, an unprecedented demand from a U.S. ally. The move demonstrated how seriously the Germans were taking the situation, having already been stung by revelations made by Snowden, a former NSA systems administrator, that the agency had tapped German Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone.

The NSA disclosure infuriated Merkel, who demanded explanations from President Barack Obama. It embarrassed both world leaders and has left many Germans skeptical about cooperating with the U.S.

CIA managers were worried that the incident could lead European security services to begin closely watching CIA personnel. Many agency officers in Europe, operating out of U.S. embassies, have declared their status as intelligence operatives to the host country.

The spying stand-down comes at an inopportune time, with the U.S. worried about Europeans extremists going to fight in Syria, Europe's response to Russian aggression and European hostility to American technology companies following revelations the companies turned over data to the NSA. While the U.S. cooperates closely with Europe against terrorism, spying can help American officials understand what their allies are planning and thinking, whether about counterterrorism or trade talks.

The "EUR" division, as it is known within the CIA, covers Canada, Western Europe and Turkey. While spying on Western European allies is not a top priority, Turkey is considered a high priority target — an Islamic country that talks to U.S. adversaries such as Iran, while sharing a border with Syria and Iraq. It was not known to what extent the stand-down affected operations in Turkey.

European countries also are used as safe venues to conduct meetings between CIA officers and their sources from the Middle East and other high priority areas. Those meetings have been rerouted to other locales while the pause is in place.

The European Division staff has long been considered among the most risk-averse in the agency, several former case officers said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss secret intelligence matters by name.

A former CIA officer who worked under nonofficial cover wrote a 2008 book in which he described a number of operational "stand- downs," in Europe, including one in France in 1998 because of the World Cup soccer championship, and another in a European country in 2005, in response to unspecified security threats.

The former officer, whose true name has not been made public, wrote "The Human Factor: Inside the CIA's Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture," under a pseudonym, Ishmael Jones. He is a former Marine who served 15 years in the agency before resigning in 2006. The CIA acknowledged his status as a case officer when it successfully sued him for publishing the book without first submitting it for pre-publication censorship, as he was required to do under his secrecy agreement.

The CIA last faced that sort of blowback from a European ally in 1996, when several of its officers were ordered to leave France. An operation to uncover French positions on world trade talks was unraveled by French authorities because of poor CIA tactics, according to a secret CIA inspector general report, details of which were leaked to reporters.

The Paris flap left the EUR division much less willing to mount risky espionage operations, many former case officers have said.

Army chief of staff Odierno says US may need more troops in Iraq

WASHINGTON — Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army chief of staff, said Friday it might be necessary to deploy more U.S. forces to Iraq beyond the 1,600 troops already there, warning that the fight against the Islamic State will intensify and could go on for years.

Odierno, who served as the top U.S. military commander during the last war in Iraq, also said he would not rule out the need to send small numbers of U.S. ground troops into combat as tactical airstrike spotters or as front-line advisers embedded with Iraq forces.

In a breakfast interview with the Defense Writers Group, Odierno said that "1,600 is a good start" and that "I don't think there's a rush, a rush to have lots of people in there now." But he predicated that as operations accelerate against jihadist fighters from the Islamic State, military commanders will revisit U.S. troop levels. "Based on that assessment, we'll make further decisions," he said.

President Barack Obama has authorized the deployment of the 1,600 U.S. troops in several stages since June, most recently on Sept. 10, when he sent an additional 475 personnel to Iraq. Most serve as advisers to Iraqi and Kurdish forces or as security for the U.S. Embassy and the international airport in Baghdad.

While Obama has repeatedly insisted he will not send U.S. ground forces into combat in Iraq, he has not indicated whether he thinks more troops will be necessary in the coming months to carry out his strategy against the Islamic State.

Any recommendations from military commanders to send more troops to Iraq would have to receive the endorsement of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel before going to the White House for final approval.

Asked if Hagel was open to the idea of deploying more troops, his spokesman, Rear Adm. John Kirby, said in an email: "The Secretary is — and will remain — open to hearing the advice and counsel of senior military leaders. He expects that advice to be candid, forthright and forward-looking."

Thousands of U.S. troops are stationed at bases in nearby Persian Gulf countries, from which they are carrying out a campaign of airstrikes and surveillance missions targeting the Islamic State, a group that has seized large parts of territory in Iraq and Syria.

On Friday, France joined the United States in the air war, conducting its first airstrike against Islamic State targets in Iraq. Rafale fighter jets destroyed an Islamic State supply depot near Mosul, according to President Francois Hollande. He said more French operations would follow in "coming days."

Obama has sought to rally a broad international alliance to counter the extremist group. There have been pledges of support, yet to be detailed, but France is the first to accompany the United States in conducting airstrikes.

France has several Rafale fighters and other warplanes stationed at al-Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates. The U.S. military also maintains a force at al-Dhafra, a key staging area for its air operations over Iraq.

In his interview, Odierno said the fight against the Islamic State will become more difficult as Iraqi and Kurdish forces, with the help of U.S. air power and advisers, go on the offensive and try to retake territory.

"This is going to go on," he said. "This is not a short term — I think the president said three years. I agree with that — three years, maybe longer. And so what we want to do is do this right. Assess it properly, see how it's going, adjust as we go along, to make sure we can sustain this."

Odierno said he supported the Obama administration's current strategy to train and equip Iraqi, Kurdish and Syrian proxy forces to attack Islamic State insurgents, while keeping U.S. troops out of any firefights on the ground.

But he said targeting Islamic State fighters and leaders with U.S. airstrikes will become more complicated as they retreat from open spaces they once controlled and into major cities and other populated areas.

"The worst thing that can happen for us is if we start killing innocent Iraqis, innocent civilians," he said. "So we have to be very careful and precise on how we're doing this. We'll have to determine that, as we go forward, if we can sustain the level of preciseness that is necessary to limit civilian casualties."

Asked if it might become necessary to embed U.S. tactical air controllers or Special Operations Forces with Iraqi troops on the front lines, Odierno replied: "I don't rule anything out. I don't ever rule anything out, personally."

Other U.S. commanders have also indicated that they would like Obama to give them more leeway and relent on his stated opposition to U.S. troops becoming involved in ground combat.

On Tuesday, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified before Congress that, if necessary, he might recommend to Obama in the future that he permit small teams to embed with Iraq forces.

Dempsey also acknowledged that Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, the commander for the Middle East, had already recommended doing so in the case of at least one battle in Iraq but was overruled.

There are signs that the White House is becoming more flexible. Obama aides said this week that the president might consider cases in which U.S. advisers could embed with Iraqi forces or call in airstrikes, although they shied away from describing such roles as combat missions.

Fence-jumper who prompted White House evacuation made it inside

WASHINGTON — A man jumped over the fence of the White House on Friday and made it through the front door before officers managed to apprehend him, just minutes after President Barack Obama had departed, the Secret Service said.

The intruder sprinted toward the White House after leaping over the fence and ignored commands from officers to stop, Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said. He was ultimately apprehended just inside the North Portico doors, the grand, columned entrance that looks out over Pennsylvania Ave.

Donovan said the man appeared to be unarmed to officers who spotted him jumping the fence, and a search of the suspect turned up no weapons. The suspect, identified as Omar J. Gonzalez, 42, of Copperas Cove, Texas, was placed under arrest and transported to nearby George Washington University Hospital after complaining of chest pain.

Although it's not uncommon for people to hop the White House fence, they're typically apprehended before they can get very far. Friday's incident was likely to prompt a renewed look at security procedures at one of the most highly protected buildings in the world.

"This situation was a little different than other incidents we have at the White House," Donovan said. "There will be a thorough investigation into the incident."

The breach prompted a rare evacuation of much of the compound. White House staffers and Associated Press journalists inside the West Wing were evacuated by Secret Service officers, some with their weapons drawn.

The incident occurred just minutes after Obama and his daughters, along with a guest of one of the girls, left the White House aboard Marine One on their way to Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland where Obama and his family were to spend the weekend. The White House said first lady Michelle Obama had traveled separately to Camp David and was not at home at the time of the incident.

Evacuations at the White House are extremely rare. Typically, when someone jumps the White House fence, the compound is put on lockdown and those inside remain in place while officers respond to the situation.

Last week, on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, the Secret Service apprehended a man who jumped over the North Fence. Officers drew their firearms and used a service dog as they took the man in custody.

France destroys militant depot, becomes 1st country to join US airstrikes

PARIS — France is back at America's side in conducting military strikes in Iraq.

More than a decade after spurning President George W. Bush's war against Saddam Hussein, France on Friday became the first country to join U.S. forces pounding targets inside Iraq from the air in recent weeks — this time in pursuit of militants of the Islamic State group.

Flying from the United Arab Emirates, two French Rafale jets fired four laser-guided bombs to destroy a weapons and fuel depot outside the northern city of Mosul, part of the territory the militants have overrun in Iraq and neighboring Syria, officials said.

An Iraqi military spokesman said dozens of extremist fighters were killed in the strikes. A French military official said a damage assessment had not been completed, while showing reporters aerial images of targets hit. Officials said it was at a former military installation seized by the group.

One analyst said the French action was more symbolic than substantive — France's military means in the region are limited — but it could give political cover for other allies to join in and show that the U.S. is not acting alone in a country still sown with deadly violence 11 years after Saddam's ouster.

"We are facing throat-cutters," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told a meeting of the U.N. Security Council that was called to show support for Iraq's government in battling the militants. "They rape, crucify and decapitate. They use cruelty as a means of propaganda. Their aim is to erase borders and to eradicate the rule of law and civil society."

For all his political and economic troubles at home, French President Francois Hollande has again showed he will use force to fight Islamic militants to help a beleaguered government.

Other such operations in Iraq would continue in coming days, Hollande said, "with the same goal — to weaken this terrorist organization and come to the aid of the Iraqi authorities."

"In no case will there be French troops on the ground: This is only about planes that, in liaison with Iraqi authorities (and) in coordination with our allies, will allow for a weakening of the terrorist organization," he said.

Hollande stressed that France's actions were limited to supporting the Iraqi military or Kurdish Peshmerga forces, and wouldn't involve targets in Syria.

Not so long ago, coordinated French and U.S. military strikes in Iraq might have been unthinkable. But feeding off sectarian strife in Syria and Iraq, the Islamic State group has destabilized the region and become a lure for jihad-minded youths from France, elsewhere in Europe, and beyond.

Hollande says France is operating independently in Iraq, based on a request for airstrikes from Baghdad and in coordination with its allies. The U.S. Central Command said Thursday the U.S. military has conducted 176 airstrikes in Iraq since Aug. 8.

Broadly unpopular at home, Hollande has nonetheless drawn praise for a muscular foreign policy. Iraq is the third country in which he has authorized firepower: French troops largely purged al-Qaida-linked militants from Mali in 2011, and have sought to end sectarian violence in Central African Republic.

In 2011, France and the U.S., as well as Britain, did the heavy lifting in the NATO-led airstrikes in Libya. Last year, France was ready to join possible U.S. military action against President Bashar Assad's forces in Syria, before President Barack Obama stopped short. In recent weeks, French authorities have ruefully suggested that the U.S. inaction fostered the rise of jihadists in the region.

On Monday, Hollande hosted U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and top diplomats from more than two dozen countries that pledged to help Iraq fight the extremist group, which has drawn widespread condemnation for its brutality — including the beheadings of Western hostages.

The U.N. Security Council condemned the Islamic State group in a presidential statement approved Friday by all 15 members in a session chaired by Kerry.

The statement expressed "deep outrage" at the killing, kidnapping, rape and torture of Iraqis and citizens of other countries by the Islamic State group. It noted that some of those acts might constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Since January, at least 8,500 civilians have been killed and more than 16,000 wounded in Iraq, according to U.N. estimates given to the council by Nikolay Mladenov, the top U.N. envoy in Iraq. Since June, he added, the toll had been 4,700 killed and 6,500 wounded.

Iraq's new, foreign minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, called for military, economic and financial assistance to help Baghdad fight the Islamic State group.

The fall of Mosul on June 10 was a turning point in Iraq's war against the group. The U.S.-trained Iraqi military, under pressure for months by small-scale attacks, buckled quickly when the militants advanced on the city.

The first French airstrikes in Iraq have additional significance: France, one of America's oldest allies, was among the most vocal critics of Bush's decision to conduct military action in 2003 that toppled Saddam.

Qassim al-Moussawi, a spokesman for Iraq's military, said the French airstrikes hit the town of Zumar, killing dozens of the group's fighters. Hollande said France has taken precautions to prevent civilian casualties, and the French military official said the depot was located in a remote area.

Zumar and surrounding towns have remained heavily contested by Islamic State fighters, even as Iraqi and Kurdish security forces have managed to make headway in nearby regions with the support of U.S. airstrikes.

The French bombs fell within minutes of a ceremony in which Gen. Martin Dempsey, the U.S. military commander, laid flowers at a Normandy cemetery honoring thousands of U.S. troops who died in France in World War II. Dempsey said he was told of the attack by French counterpart Gen. Pierre de Villiers, and he praised the French action.

"The French were our very first ally and they're with us again now," Dempsey told reporters traveling with him in Normandy. "It just reminds me why these relationships really matter."

At Friday prayers in the Iraqi holy city of Karbala, a representative for the most revered Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, said foreign help in the fight against the Islamic State group should not lead to a violation of Iraq's sovereignty.

"The international efforts on this regard should not be used as a pretext to allow the foreigners to control the course of events in Iraq, especially in the military field," Abdul-Mahdi al-Karbalaie said. "It is true that Iraq is in need for the help of brothers and friends in combating the black terrorism, yet safeguarding its sovereignty and independence should be highly considered. This should be taken care of."

France is conducting the operations in Iraq from French Air Base 104 inside Al Dhafra base near Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. French jets began flying reconnaissance missions Monday over Iraq.

The base, with about 750 French service personnel and six Rafales, is 1,700 kilometers (1,050 miles) from Mosul, meaning that the planes need refueling in flight to strike in Iraq.

For future operations, France could also mobilize its only aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, which is docked in southeastern France and would need at least five days to reach the eastern Mediterranean. The ship can carry about 30 planes including Rafales, Super-Etendards and U.S.-built E-2C Hawkeye surveillance aircraft.

Retired French Gen. Vincent Desportes said the French involvement, alongside far greater U.S. firepower, was more symbolic than militarily significant. But he said it could have a "snowball effect" by drawing in allies such as Australia or Canada to think more about participation.

"Three or four (French) airstrikes doesn't change much," said Desportes. "But it changes things in that it shows that the Americans are no longer alone."

He also pointed to France's tradition of supporting the U.S. in military ventures, including the deployment of more than 20,000 troops in the U.S.-led Gulf War in 1991.

"Aside from the case of the Iraq war — which was a stupidity — we have always been alongside the Americans," Desportes said. "In this case, it seems to me very good that we're cooperating."

Sylvie Corbet in Paris; Robert Burns in Caen, France; Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations; and Qassim Abdul-Zahra, Sameer N. Yacoub and Vivian Salama in Baghdad contributed.

Abuse scandals prompt Hagel to examine military's links to NFL

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is taking a close look at the military’s ties to the National Football League amid a spate of domestic violence scandals involving high-profile athletes.

Hagel has not requested a formal review nor threatened to cut off any programs. But he is asking his staff to provide a status update about the department’s many links to the league.

“The secretary wants to get a sense of the depth and scope of the interaction” between the Defense Department and the league, Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said Friday.

“We have high expectations of the organizations with whom we partner,” Kirby said.

The Defense Department is connected to the NFL on many levels.

At big stadium events, military aircraft conduct flyovers, ceremonial units perform drills and individual service members are invited to sing the national anthem.

Recruiters spend millions of dollars on advertisements during games, though most of those contracts are between the services and television networks.

Overseas, the NFL offers free broadcasting rights to Defense Department Armed Forces Television so deployed troops can watch games around the world.

The Army and NFL have an agreement to share research about traumatic brain injury, which is common among both football players and combat troops.

Several NFL players were recently accused of domestic violence. They include Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice, who was caught on a hotel elevator security camera punching his fiancée in the face. Critics say the league has not responded forcefully enough.

The military logs more than 8,000 domestic violence complaints each year from military families. About one-third of those involve male victims and female perpetrators, according to Defense Department data.

Army football team hopes to finally conquer Wake Forest

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Wake Forest hasn’t been able to count on many wins during coach Dave Clawson’s tough first season.

A visit from Army on Saturday might be one of them.

The Demon Deacons (1-2) have won seven straight in the series with the Black Knights (1-1) and have never lost to them in Winston-Salem.

Clawson and new Army coach Jeff Monken were assistants together at Buffalo in 1992.

Clawson says the Paul Johnson disciple uses the same triple-option offense that Navy and Georgia Tech run and “it is an absolute pain in the neck to defend.

“There are so many different ways they probe you and find out how do you handle motion, how do you handle unbalanced,” Clawson said. “They’ll just run it, run it, run it, lull you to sleep and then the play action game is really effective. Again, he knows what he’s doing with that offense.”

That should provide a test of Wake Forest’s best unit — its defense. The Demon Deacons rank in the middle of the Atlantic Coast Conference pack in most key defensive stat categories, and allow 100 yards rushing per game.

Army is 19th nationally on the ground, averaging 269.5 yards, and is coming off a 35-0 loss at Stanford.

“We want to run the football and throwing the ball is not an afterthought, but it’s certainly not at the forefront of our thoughts in terms of going into a game,” Monken said. “It’s not how can we get guys open to throw the football, but how can we run the ball effectively.”

Wake Forest can’t seem to get anything going offensively. With true freshman quarterback John Wolford behind a young offensive line, the Demon Deacons rank last in the ACC in total offense, rushing offense and scoring offense.

“We are not a football team that has a very big margin of error,” Clawson said.

Bigger, better, cheaper Wi-Fi coming soon to barracks, dorms

A new Wi-Fi service is being rolled out over the next year in barracks and dormitories for soldiers, airmen and Marines.

Troops will be able to get basic Internet with a data transfer speed of 128 kilobits per second, as well as TV services with local channels, for free. They’ll also have the option to pay to upgrade to faster speeds and more channels.

All the services, including Internet-based TV, are wireless.

Boingo Wireless, the company that has new agreements with the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, and the Marine Corps Non-Appropriated Fund Business and Support Services Division, is on track to launch the service at 30 bases this year, Boingo spokesman Christian Gunning said.

Besides offering faster connections, the service will be less costly in many cases.

“It’s a lower price for Internet, compared with what they pay today for the same sort of package,” which does not include TV, said Mark Verdeyen, AAFES’ telecommunications merchandise manager. “Or they get much faster service for a few dollars more.”

He said the 5-megabits-per-second service offered for $29.95 a month under the new Boingo program costs about $40 a month under the previous comparable plan — without TV. Prices and options range up to $89.95 a month for expanded Internet up to 30 Mbps packaged with expanded TV with up to 100-plus channels.

Troops can carry the service with them to new assignments or when visiting another base offering the service. Paid plans also will offer access to more than a million Boingo Wireless hotspots worldwide.

No service member is locked into a long-term contract; the arrangement is month to month, which is more convenient for mobile troops.

They can use the services on any devices — laptop, phones, tablets, Xbox and desktop computers.

The service is now available at Camp Pendleton, California; Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona; Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, South Carolina; Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, California; Fort Eustis, Virginia; and Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana.

Most Marine Corps bases will have the service by early next year, said Anita Roberson of the Corps’ NAF Business and Support Services Division.

They are working with installation and logistics officials on the new program. By Oct. 1, AAFES expects to have it in place at 11 more installations, said Mark Dowdey, AAFES’ telecommunications business manager, and will roll it out to as many Army and Air Force installations as possible by late summer next year.

Some Army and Air Force barracks have had Wi-Fi, but most were wired connections, said Dowdey.

The Marine Corps has provided Wi-Fi and cable in barracks common areas or recreation rooms, with Wi-Fi and wired hookups for individual rooms varying by base.

The Navy Exchange Service Command has provided Wi-Fi in bachelor quarters on Navy bases since 2011 through contractor Net Near U, a spokeswoman said.

Pricing is standard for all the bases where Boingo is being implemented:

Spain to send Patriot missiles to Turkey's border with Syria

This article has been corrected.

Spain on Wednesday said it will send Patriot missile batteries and 130 soldiers to Turkey as NATO mulls extending the deployment of missile defenses near the Syrian border.

The troops and missiles are expected to replace Dutch units in Adana, Turkey, when the Dutch withdraw in January 2015.

The Dutch — along with the U.S. and Germany — each deployed two Patriot batteries in early 2013 to protect Turkey’s southern border from spillover from Syria’s raging civil war. The deployment was sparked by sporadic cross-border shelling in October 2012 that killed a number of Turkish citizens.

Initially planned as a yearlong deployment, the U.S., Germany and the Netherlands all extended the assignment through January 2015. The Netherlands announced in August that it no longer had the resources to continue the mission and would pull out after that date.

“There has been some work done to find a replacement for the Dutch,” Canadian army Lt. Col. Jay Janzen, a NATO spokesman, said.

The mission was scheduled to end in January, Janzen said.

“Right now, we’re currently doing a review. It looks like it’s going to be extended further because the threat appears to still be in Syria,” Janzen said, “but the final decisions haven’t been made.”

In a news release from NATO headquarters, U.S. Gen. Philip Breedlove on Thursday thanked Spain for its decision to send Patriot batteries to Turkey.

“The Alliance’s southern border is located in a difficult neighbourhood and considerable instability remains in Syria and across the region,” he said.

The potential extension of the Patriot missile mission comes as U.S. President Barack Obama is attempting to build a military coalition to deal with the self-styled Islamic State militants operating across Turkey’s border in Iraq and Syria. Turkey has yet to commit to military action against the group, which is believed to be holding a number of Turkish citizens hostage.

millham.matthew@stripes.com

Twitter: @mattmillham

The original version of this story had the incorrect last name for Lt. Col. Jay Janzen and the military to which Janzen belongs. He is a Canadian army officer.

Scots reject independence from England in historic referendum

EDINBURGH, Scotland — Scottish voters have rejected independence, deciding to remain part of the United Kingdom after a historic referendum that shook the country to its core.

The decision prevented a rupture of a 307-year union with England, bringing a huge sigh of relief to the British political establishment. Scots voted 55 percent to 45 percent Thursday against independence in a vote that saw an unprecedented turnout.

A majority of voters did not embrace Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond's impassioned plea to launch a new state, choosing instead the security offered by remaining in the United Kingdom.

"We have chosen unity over division," Alistair Darling, head of the No campaign, said early Friday in Glasgow. "Today is a momentous day for Scotland and the United Kingdom as a whole."

Salmond conceded defeat, saying "we know it is a majority for the No campaign," and called on Scots to accept the results of the vote.

"This has been a triumph for the democratic process and for participation in politics," he said, insisting that London-based politicians were now expected to honor their promises of giving more powers to Scotland.

The No campaign won the capital city, Edinburgh, by a margin of 61 percent to 38 percent and triumphed by 59 percent to 41 percent in Salmond's home city of Aberdeen.

The Yes campaign won Glasgow, Scotland's biggest city, but it was not enough.

Salmond had argued that Scots could go it alone because of its extensive oil reserves and high levels of ingenuity and education. He said Scotland would flourish on its own, free of interference from any London-based government.

Many saw it as a "heads versus hearts" campaign, with cautious older Scots concluding that independence would be too risky financially, while younger ones were enamored with the idea of building their own country.

The result saves British Prime Minister David Cameron from a historic defeat and also helps opposition chief Ed Miliband by keeping his many Labour Party lawmakers in Scotland in place. His party would have found it harder to win a national election in 2015 without that support from Scotland.

Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, a Scot, returned to prominence with a dramatic barnstorming campaign in support of the union in the final days before the referendum vote. Brown argued passionately that Scots could be devoted to Scotland but still proud of their place in the United Kingdom, rejecting the argument that independence was the patriotic choice.

"There is not a cemetery in Europe that does not have Scots, English, Welsh and Irish lined side by side," Brown said in his final speech before the vote. "We not only won these wars together, we built the peace together. What we have built together by sacrificing and sharing, let no narrow nationalism split asunder."

For his part, Cameron — aware that his Conservative Party is widely loathed in Scotland — begged voters not to use a vote for independence as a way to bash his party.

The vote against independence keeps the U.K. from losing a substantial part of its territory and oil reserves and prevents it from having to find a new base for its nuclear arsenal, now housed in Scotland. It had also faced a possible loss of influence within international institutions including the 28-nation European Union and the United Nations.

The decision also means Britain can avoid a prolonged period of financial insecurity that had been predicted by some if Scotland broke away.

In return for staying in the union, Scotland's voters have been promised significant — though somewhat unspecified — new powers by the British government, which had feared losing Scotland forever.

Katz reported from London. Associated Press writer Danica Kirka contributed to this report.

Attack on Ebola workers in Guinea reflects challenges fighting virus

JOHANNESBURG — When Guinean government officials visited the village of Womme in the country’s southeast, they planned to educate people about Ebola and show people how to avoid it — in a region where many still believe the virus doesn’t exist.

But it all went disastrously wrong.

Members of the local population responded furiously, pelting the delegation with stones and beating them with clubs, according to Guinean radio. The delegation, which included doctors and journalists, fled into the bush after the attack Tuesday.

Radio reports said a local politician, two journalists and others hadn’t been heard from since they fled the attack.

Nine people are missing, according to Guinean government. Six members of the delegation were killed, according to local media, but government officials cannot confirm the report.

Twenty-one people were injured as youths attacked, stoning six cars, in an incident that underscores the challenges for local and international health teams fighting Ebola in West Africa.

Womme is outside the town of Nzerekore, which saw a similar protest in recent weeks.

Since Ebola surfaced in this region of Guinea in February (and perhaps as early as December), medical agencies have experienced resistance from some members of the population. Doctors Without Borders, the main agency working in West Africa to stem Ebola, declared there were at least 10 villages where it couldn’t work because of hostility from local people.

The World Health Organization announced Thursday that 2,622 people had died in West Africa, mainly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, out of more than 5,300 reported cases. The epidemic has put ramshackle local health systems under intense pressure, leaving local populations with nowhere to seek treatment for other ailments such as malaria, to give birth, or even seek treatment for broken limbs.

Many health workers have fled their posts, afraid to work in an environment that has killed hundreds of local doctors, nurses and hygienists.

One reason the outbreak spread out of control in West Africa was terror of an incurable disease that kills more than half those infected and suspicion of outsiders who came to bring Ebola patients to hospitals. There was also alarm at warnings they should abandon long, deeply held and important burial rituals, such as washing the bodies of the dead.

Dozens of infected people went underground, evading treatment, and spreading the infection. In Liberia, Monrovia, rumors initially spread that Ebola didn’t exist. An intensive government campaign, depicting symptoms on posters around the city, gradually changed attitudes there.

But as Liberians flocked to seek treatment, they confronted a severe shortage of beds. The WHO said 315 beds available in Liberia are meeting less than 20 percent of demand.

In Monrovia alone, 1,210 beds are needed, but only 240 are available.

In Guinea’s southeast, a search team was sent to track down the delegation after the attack in Womme, but villagers destroyed a bridge leading to the village to prevent police or the military from gaining access, according to national radio.

“A team has been dispatched to verify more information,” Guinean government spokesman Damantang Camara told Reuters.

One journalist who escaped the attack said she heard villagers hunting for delegation members, suggesting they may have been abducted, the BBC reported.

Guinean radio quoted one Womme resident saying that the delegation was attacked after medical workers sprayed disinfectant in order to control the spread of the virus in public places.

The assault follows similar attacks against medical workers or health officials in several other villages and towns in recent weeks. Last month, riots erupted after a medical team sprayed a marketplace in the same region as rumors spread it was a conspiracy to infect the population.

In Sierra Leone, government officials have ordered everyone to stay at home for three days in an effort to control the spread of the disease. International medical groups including Doctors Without Borders have criticized the measure, saying it will not contain the crisis.

Meanwhile, Doctors Without Borders said Thursday it had taken too long to evacuate a French woman working with the organization caring for Ebola patients in isolation wards, and she has now contracted the virus and was diagnosed Tuesday.

Brice de le Vingne, operations manager for the organization, said there was an unacceptable delay of 42 hours because the only aircraft equipped to transport the woman had to fly from the U.S. He called for an evacuation plane to be stationed in Monrovia, the Liberian capital and epicenter of the epidemic, where most new cases are emerging.

The WHO has warned that 20,000 people could be infected before the disease is brought under control.

The International Monetary Fund has announced plans to provide loans of $127 million to the three worst affected countries, to help them cope with the crisis.

©2014 Los Angeles Times. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Scotland referendum results suggest voters reject independence

EDINBURGH, Scotland — Voters in Scotland turned out in unprecedented numbers for an independence referendum and with most votes counted Friday, results suggested a strong wish to keep Scotland's 307-year union with England.

With 26 of 32 regional electoral centers reporting, the No side had about 54 percent of the vote to about 46 percent for the Yes side. Those against independence also scored a big win by strongly taking Aberdeen, Scotland's oil capital.

The average turnout was 86 percent — a record high for any Scottish election.

The Yes camp appeared resigned to defeat. Saying she was "personally bitterly disappointed" with the results, Deputy Scottish National Party leader Nicola Sturgeon told BBC that Scottish nationalists "need to pick ourselves up and move on."

After the polls closed late Thursday, a nationwide count began immediately. Many Scots stayed up overnight in homes and bars, awaiting the result.

"Why not roll the dice for once?" Yes supporter Thomas Roberts said at one Edinburgh polling station. "I'm going to sit with a beer in my hand watching the results coming in."

At Highland Hall outside of Edinburgh, where the final result will be announced later Friday, vote-counters at dozens of tables sorted through paper ballots, watched keenly by monitors from the Yes and No camps.

Eager voters had lined up outside some polling stations even before they opened Thursday. More than 4.2 million people had registered to vote — 97 percent of those eligible — including residents as young as 16.

For some, it was a day they had dreamed of for decades. For others, the time had finally come to make up their minds about the future — both for themselves and for the United Kingdom.

"Fifty years I fought for this," said 83-year-old Isabelle Smith, a Yes supporter in Edinburgh's maritime district of Newhaven, a former fishing port. "And we are going to win. I can feel it in my bones."

But financial consultant Michael MacPhee, a No voter, said he would observe the returns "with anxiety."

Scottish independence is "the daftest idea I've ever heard," he said.

After polls closed, some No campaigners said they were confident they had swayed enough undecided voters to stave off independence. They may have been helped by a last-minute offer from Britain's main political parties to give Scotland more powers if voters reject secession and by fears about the future of Britain's pensions and the National Health Service in an independent Scotland.

British Prime Minister David Cameron was to make a televised address about Britain's future Friday morning after the final result was announced.

The question on the ballot could not be simpler: "Should Scotland be an independent country?"

Yet it divided Scots during months of campaigning, generating an unprecedented volume and intensity of public debate and participation. The Yes side, in particular, energized young people and previously disillusioned working-class voters.

Many questions — the currency an independent Scotland would use, its status within the 28-nation European Union and NATO, the fate of Britain's nuclear-armed submarines, based at a Scottish port — remained uncertain or disputed after months of campaigning.

One thing was known: A Yes vote would trigger 18 months of negotiations between Scottish leaders and London-based politicians on how the two countries would separate their institutions before Scotland's planned Independence Day on March 24, 2016.

Obama's no-combat pledge leaves room for US forces near front lines

WASHINGTON — Putting U.S. military boots on the ground in Iraq doesn't necessarily mean pitching infantry units into the battlefield.

The possibility raised by the top U.S. general this week of involving American forces in the ground fight against the Islamic State presents a different scenario: small groups of commandos operating in the shadows of Iraqi army units, giving advice and calling in airstrikes.

President Barack Obama on Wednesday again drew a hard line on sending U.S. forces into "another ground war in Iraq," even as U.S. combat planes and drones fly missions overhead. Yet that pledge may not preclude having American warriors coming under fire next to Iraqi troops as they root out Islamic State militants.

"The problem with all of this is the very phrase 'boots on the ground,' " said Anthony Cordesman, a military analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "This is a completely different kind of presence than sending in a brigade or a division."

Obama, who won the presidency on his pledge to end Iraq war, is facing fresh questions from Congress and the public about whether the U.S. risks sliding deeper into a conflict there. The debate flared up after Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Senate committee he would recommend that U.S. military advisers accompany Iraqi troops into battle if necessary to defeat Islamic State.

Some defense analysts — including Obama's former defense secretary, Robert Gates — say Islamic State can't be defeated without a ground offensive.

Dempsey was referring to something limited: special forces teams, usually operating in 12-member groups, and forward air controllers, typically two-person teams.

"If we get to the point where I think we need the JTAC with the Iraqi security forces, I'll make the recommendation. But I'm not there," Dempsey said Sept. 16 before a Senate committee, referring to a Joint Terminal Attack Controller trained to coordinate air strikes.

The United States is set to have about 1,600 military personnel in Iraq to protect American diplomatic missions and to assess and advise the Iraqi military. Obama's strategy for the conflict relies on a campaign of U.S. airstrikes supporting Iraqi and Kurdish forces on the ground.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday that if Dempsey determines it's necessary at some point to send advisers to front-line positions to provide tactical advice and call in air strikes, the president will consider it on a "case- by-case basis." Obama still won't approve a combat role for U.S. ground forces, he said.

Even with those restrictions, the danger of U.S. casualties would be considerable since, to be effective, commando groups would most likely need to operate in the middle of fighting or nearby, according to Cordesman and former military officers.

Air controllers helping ground units typically work within visual range of a target, though they may be using binoculars, said Norton Schwartz, who was U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff from 2008 to 2012.

Although the U.S. sometimes confirms targets with remote imagery, such as from drones, forward air controllers are more reliable in a battlefield situation with multiple targets or moving targets, said Schwartz, now president of Business Executives for National Security.

"We can generally hit what we aim at," Schwartz said. "The question is: Is it a valid target? You want to have confidence in who's providing the information."

Dempsey alluded to unspecified technological advances in his congressional testimony, as he explained why he hasn't yet recommended send such air controllers to battlefields.

"There are technologies available that we didn't have five years ago that allow us to actually apply force and to see the situation on the ground in ways we couldn't before," he said.

David Deptula, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant general who commanded the combined air operations center during the war in Afghanistan, said imaging technology on U.S. warplanes would facilitate strikes on Islamic State forces moving between towns or paralyze movements within a town. Forward controllers still would make air power more effective in urban battles, said Deptula, now dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies in Arlington, Virginia.

John Nagl, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who coauthored the Army's counter-insurgency manual, said accurate information from controllers also is essential to avoid strikes that accidentally kill allies.

Another level of involvement are the larger special forces teams that both advise Iraqi forces and go with them into combat. That would magnify an Iraqi unit's effectiveness "two or three times," said Nagl.

U.S. efforts to train local troops encounter "very, very serious limits" unless advisers also go with them into combat, Cordesman said.

Special forces teams, such as those of the Army's Green Berets, can provide tactical advice, bolster unit leaders and help hold together elements of a unit it comes under fire, he said.

The U.S. used such units during the initial phase of the Afghan conflict. They moved on horseback and dismounted to direct B-52 airstrikes with laser designators and hand-held GPS devices — technology that has improved in the past decade.

The idea of returning America ground forces to Iraq today would face strong opposition among Obama's allies in the U.S. and stir opposition in Iraq.

"The American people are very burned by what happened in Iraq" with the 2003 invasion, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said at a news conference.

Iraq's new prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, told the Associated Press in an interview that his country rejects having foreign troops join the battle against Islamic State.

"We don't want them. We won't allow them," he said.

With assistance from Tony Capaccio and Angela Greiling Keane in Washington.

(c) 2014, Bloomberg News.

Islamic State opens major offensive in north Syria

ISTANBUL — Islamic State forces have mounted a major offensive against Kurds in northern Syria, occupying more than a dozen villages in an apparent attempt to capture another border crossing with Turkey, the local government said Thursday.

The villages are near the town of Kobani, known in Arabic as Ayn al-Arab, one of the last major crossing points to Turkey not in Islamic State hands. The Islamists have been trying to seize the town for months and are now attacking from three directions, with tanks, machine-gun mounted Humvees and Grad rockets against nearby villages, said Idris Nassan, who holds the title of deputy foreign minister for the Kobani canton, the administrative district that includes not just the town but the villages that surround it.

Kobani’s Kurdish defenders had been expecting the assault after intercepting Islamic State radio communications. They evacuated at least 15 villages of all but their military-age male inhabitants before the offensive began Wednesday, he said.

Many of those villages are now under Islamic State control, he said.

Nassan, however, said that the Kurdish fighters, members of the People’s Protection Unit, which is known by the Kurdish initials YPG, may be setting a trap for the Islamic State militants. “Their morale is high,” he said of the YPG. “They have a new strategy. I think in the coming days, they will do something.”

Of all the battlefronts in Syria, the fight for Kobani may be politically the most complex. Both the Islamic State attackers and the defenders from the YPG, an offshoot for the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, are listed as terrorist organizations by the United States and other nations.

Nassan appealed for international military support, but that seems unlikely. Turkey does not want international aid to go to a force that in the past has mounted major guerrilla operations against Turkish military and civilian targets, and it reportedly has warned American officials not to take actions in Syria that would strengthen the YPG.

At the same time, Turkey, the United States and other countries have suspected that the YPG is working hand-in-glove with the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose forces abandoned the region in the summer of 2012.

For their part, the Kurds say Turkey is working with the Islamic State, something Turkish officials have denied repeatedly. Nassan repeated the charge Thursday, accusing Turkey of providing logistical support to the extremists.

Whatever label is currently applied to the PKK and its Syrian offshoot, it has become at most a relatively minor threat to Turkey. Since March 2013, the two sides have been engaged in a peace process to end the three-decade-long guerrilla war.

The maneuvering near Kobani appears to be part of a general positioning of Islamic State forces in recent days, perhaps in response to the stepped-up pace of American airstrikes in Iraq and the threat of eventual strikes in Syria.

On Thursday, so-called moderate rebel forces reported that the Islamic State appeared to have drawn down their forces north of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, and suspended a push to capture Bab al-Salama, a critical border crossing point for supplies destined for rebels and millions of displaced Syrian civilians.

Turkish officials said the Islamic State has been transferring fighters from Syria to Iraq, possibly to reinforce forces under increasing aerial attack.

On Thursday, the U.S. Central Command reported that its aircraft had struck an Islamic State training camp southeast of Mosul, destroying a large ground unit, two buildings the group was occupying and an armed vehicle, and had bombed an ammunition dump southeast of Baghdad.

The most recent strikes brought to 14 the number of attacks since Monday, when Central Command said it began operating under new, more aggressive rules of engagement authorized by President Barack Obama that allow offensive strikes against targets that do not directly threaten U.S. personnel. U.S. aircraft have launched 176 strikes since Aug. 7, when Obama first ordered renewed U.S. operations inside Syria.

Alhamadee is a McClatchy special correspondent. Jonathan S. Landay contributed to this from Washington.

©2014 McClatchy Washington Bureau. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

With Senate vote, Obama wins support for war effort in Syria

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration can now move forward with plans to arm and train Syrian rebels — a key provision in its new war against the Islamic State — following a vote Thursday in the Senate.

The chamber voted 78-22 in favor of a bill that bars U.S. ground combat but allows the Pentagon to begin sending support to fighters opposing the extremist group after it seized territory in Syria and Iraq and beheaded two American journalists.

The House passed the measure Wednesday as part of a temporary budget bill to fund the government through Dec. 11. President Barack Obama has said he will sign it.

Congress moved quickly to approve the Syrian assistance this week despite deep reservations about the president’s newly unveiled Islamic State offensive, which relies on local forces to fight on the ground, stepped-up U.S. airstrikes and an international coalition to defeat the Islamic State.

“I am clear-eyed about the enormity of the challenge. There is risk … We must be willing to take some risk to degrade this brutal and barbaric organization,” said Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., who chairs the Foreign Relations Committee.

The legislation authorizes the Defense Department to redirect existing funding to the rebels, and it must notify Congress of its plans and progress. No dollar amount is specified in the bill, but the administration had requested $500 million to train about 5,000 Syrians.

The administration has estimated it may need 12,000 fighters to push out the Islamic State, which has declared a caliphate that adheres to Sharia law and said it plans a violent clash with the United States. Some lawmakers have estimated the fight could take from six years to a decade.

“Frankly, I still have many questions about the way forward,” Menendez said. “But I have no question that this particular action is needed now.”

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and other Republicans criticized Obama’s Syria initiative as part of a larger war plan that is politically motivated and short on policy substance.

“We know that something needs to be done, but your government doesn’t know what to do yet,” he said.

The Syria authorization was attached to a continuing resolution, a stop-gap budget measure that will temporarily fund the military, the Department of Veterans Affairs disability claims processing and investigations of improper conduct, and stave off furloughs or a shutdown. Congress must now work to pass annual funding bills before the resolution expires in December.

tritten.travis@stripes.com

Twitter: @Travis_Tritten