Leaders @ MindSay

American Forces Press Service

July 3, 2008 - Leaders from across the U.S. intelligence community dedicated the National Center for Medical Intelligence yesterday at Fort Detrick, Md. Established by the secretary of defense as the premier producer and coordinator of medical intelligence, NCMI produces medical intelligence for global force protection and homeland health protection to safeguard U.S. interests worldwide, officials said.

"The National Center for Medical Intelligence is the critical link between Department of Defense force protection and broader homeland health protection," said Army Lt. Gen. Michael D. Maples, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. "It demonstrates the vital contribution that medical intelligence makes to public health security."

Medical intelligence is the assessment of potential health risks and health care capabilities that allows planning for medical countermeasures, health care support and medical personnel support. NCMI, formerly known as the Armed Forces Medical Intelligence Center, was established in 1982.

NCMI's designation as a national center reflects the growth in its roles and responsibilities which has been under way for several years, officials said. This growth has included expanded relationships beyond the Defense Department and the intelligence community, and now includes the Department of Homeland Security, the White House, the State Department, coalition and foreign partners, and other domestic, non-Defense Department customers.

The growing integration between homeland health protection and medical intelligence allows NCMI to focus on a broader range of foreign medical threats to U.S. military and civilian personnel, allies, and other critical national interests, officials explained -- pandemic flu, avian flu or other animal diseases that potentially could threaten the United States, for example.

The national center includes a growing network for enhanced situational awareness and early warning, officials added, which will strengthen the integrated picture of health threats to U.S. citizens at home and abroad.

NCMI officials expect to break ground in December on a 15,000-square-foot addition to the existing facility.

(From a Defense Intelligence Agency news release.)

By Jim Garamone

American Forces Press Service

July 2, 2008 - Defense Department officials are very concerned about the situation in Afghanistan, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said here today. "Violence is up significantly from a year ago," Navy Adm. Mike Mullen said during a Pentagon news conference. For the second month in a row, more coalition servicemembers died in Afghanistan than died in Iraq.

Given the country's harsh winters and unforgiving terrain, summer historically is the fighting season in Afghanistan, but the Taliban have become more organized and efficient, Mullen said. But part of the increase in violence is because there are more coalition and Afghan troops in the country. They are going into more areas, and the Taliban are responding, the admiral said.

Another factor, he said, is a combination of Afghanistan's porous border with Pakistan and the Taliban using areas in Pakistan's federally administered tribal area as safe havens. "There is much more freedom this year to move across the border," the chairman said.

The NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan is at 52,700 personnel, and the effort in the country remains in what's known as an economy-of-force mission, Mullen said. "What we're going through now is an ability to win in the combat standpoint, but we don't have the troops to hold the areas," he explained.

Mullen said a recent statement by Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani on the terrorist problem in the country is encouraging. He praised Gilani's appreciation of the terrorist threat and the decision to place Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani in command of Pakistan's frontier corps in addition to the army.

Pakistani security forces launched attacks against the Taliban in and around Peshawar. "It's important that this be sustained and pressure placed on insurgents," Mullen said. "I'm encouraged by what I've seen, but I think we must be patient."

U.S. assistance must be as robust as it can possibly be, and the Pakistani government and military must move as rapidly as they can against this problem, the chairman said.

U.S. and NATO leaders are focused on the challenges in Afghanistan, particularly in the east and the south. "We are exploring a number of options and opportunities to get a better understanding of the scope of the threat and the best means with which to counter it," Mullen said. "I've made no secret of my desire to flow more U.S. forces to Afghanistan just as soon as I can. Nor have I been shy about saying those forces will not be available unless or until the situation in Iraq allows us to do so."

The United States does not have the forces available to flow into Afghanistan without a reduced requirement in Iraq. "We're on an increasingly positive path in Iraq, and ... I'm hopeful that towards the end of the year, opportunities like that will be created," Mullen said.

No easy solution or quick fix is available in Afghanistan, the admiral said, and more troops will be necessary. Some NATO allies have committed to sending more troops, but not until the end of the summer and into the fall.

"We need and are pursuing a broader interagency international approach -- one that includes infrastructure improvement, foreign investment and economic incentives," Mullen said. "I'm hopeful these efforts will pay off in the future."

But everyone needs patience, the chairman said. "As we have seen in Iraq, counterinsurgency warfare takes time and a level of commitment and flexibility," he said. "We remain committed to a stable future for Afghanistan and her people, and I'm just as convinced as ever that we will achieve it."

Date:  November 13-24, 2008

Location: Las Vegas, NV

Top leaders and key decision-makers of major companies representing a broad range of industries will meet with distinguished scientists, public health officials, law enforcement personnel, first responders, and other experts to discuss pandemic prevention, preparedness, response and recovery at the 7th International Bird Flu Summit.

At the summit, attendees will be able to draw on first-hand best practices to create the solid business continuity plans that their companies and organizations need in order to prepare for, respond to, and survive a pandemic.

The summit draws on the success of the six previous summits which featured as speakers several distinguished personalities such as Dr. David Nabarro, the United Nations Coordinator for Avian and Human Influenza, Alex Thiermann of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) and Dr. Wenqing Zhang of the WHO Epidemic and Pandemic Alert and Response.

Well-known emergency responders, heads of hospitals from around the world, and poultry industry leaders also spoke in previous summits. Included in this list are Adolfo García-Sastre of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, John Thompson of the National Sheriff’s Association, Prof. Oleg I. Kiselev of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Anna Thorson of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute and Dr. Bruce Stewart-Brown, Vice President of Food Safety and Quality for Perdue Farms.

Topics Include:

Country Report & Situations Update

Surveillance and Data Management

Preparing Communities Strategies; Local Partnership and Participation

Delivery of Vaccine and Antiviral Medication

National Pandemic Influenza Medical Countermeasure

Socio Economic Impact on Poultry Industry

Benefit-risk Assessment: Public Health, Industry and Regulatory Perspectives

Prevention Education Efforts and Risk Communication

Command, Control and Management

Emergency Response Management

Business-Based Planning

School-Based Planning 

Community-Based Planning

More Information

http://www.new-fields.com/birdflu7/index.php

By Jim Garamone

American Forces Press Service

June 30, 2008 - The enemy in the eastern portion of Iraq's Anbar province has been neutralized, the coalition commander in the area said today. Al-Qaida in Iraq still can launch occasional horrific attacks, but in Ramadi and Fallujah -- once strongholds of the terror group -- security is allowing the region to transfer to provincial Iraqi control, Marine Corps Col. Lewis Craparotta, the area's coalition commander, told Pentagon reporters in a briefing via satellite from Camp Fallujah today.

Still, the colonel said, coalition and Iraqi forces must remain vigilant, as al-Qaida wants to come back into the area. "Both cities have historical significance to the insurgents," he explained.

In an attack in Karmah last week, for example, an al-Qaida suicide bomber infiltrated a tribal leader meeting. The explosion killed three Americans and 15 Iraqi leaders.

"We watch the enemy actions very closely," Craparotta said. "We work side by side with both the Iraqi police and the Iraqi army to reduce the enemy's capabilities to execute these attacks, and to prevent them from re-establishing themselves in our area."

Iraqi police and soldiers are full partners in the fight against al-Qaida, the colonel said.

"Yesterday, ... we sat down with the police and the army and talked about this incident in Karmah," he said, "and we decided there was a need to conduct an operation that ... was completed this morning."

Craparotta said he asked the Fallujah police chief what he needed from the coalition to perform the mission. "He told me that he would just as soon I watch my students go out there and execute and that he was confident he could do it, and if I was available to provide a [quick-reaction force], that that would be enough," the colonel said.

While the events in Karmah are tragic, he said, they need to be taken in perspective.

In May and June, five other suicide-vest attacks and a car-bomb attack took place in Fallujah, he said, and Iraqi police and soldiers minimized the effects of these attacks and prevented many more attacks. The police, in fact, have the lead in Ramadi and Fallujah, he added.

"The relationships that we have developed with the Iraqi police have allowed us to reduce slowly our 24-hour presence [and] put them in the lead for most of the day-to-day operations," the colonel said. "There is mutual respect among the forces and a common goal: protecting the citizens. Both the Iraqi army and the Iraqi police leadership have certainly proven capable. They have risen to every occasion, and they have certainly earned the respect of the population."

Coalition experts continue to train the Iraqi security forces. Military and police transition teams work with Iraqi units to hone their skills.

Security progress allows civilian agencies and the Iraqi government to step forward to improve the quality of life for the average Iraqi, Craparotta said. "We've assisted or are assisting the Iraqis with local governance, reconstruction, implementing the rule of law and generally trying to improve the quality of life for the citizens," he said. "Local governments are continuing to prosper, with mayors and city councils taking on more and more responsibility. And we expect that that will accelerate here, as we transition to provincial Iraqi control."

Anbar province will transfer to Iraqi control as soon as the sandstorm across the region subsides. The colonel said he expects that once the transfer occurs, more Iraqi government money will come into the province "so that they can really take advantage of that element of control that they'll gain after the ceremony."

The rule of law is settling into place, and small and mid-sized companies are beginning. Provincial authorities are learning the stresses and challenges of a democratic budgetary process.

"As with most budgets, I think there is always a desire for more," Craparotta said. "But this is ... the first year that we've been able to execute a budget."

Local officials are helping to draft next year's budget now. "We're picking up steam in the budget area and governance, and I think we're on the road to success," the colonel said.

American Forces Press Service

June 27, 2008 - A terrorist killed during a June 24 operation in Mosul, Iraq, has been positively identified as the city's top al-Qaida in Iraq leader, military officials here reported today. Officials said coalition forces killed Abu Khalaf, the al-Qaeda in Iraq "emir" of Mosul.

In the operation, coalition forces engaged and killed a man who was reaching for a pistol, another who was wearing a suicide vest, and a woman who tried to detonate the dead man's suicide vest. Associates later identified Abu Khalaf as one of the men killed in the operation.

As coalition forces were taking down the terrorist leader, officials said, they also were moving in on one of his suspected closest assistants, detaining him and uncovering more than $100,000 in U.S. currency.

Abu Khalaf previously had been a deputy and Mosul military commander for a close associate of former al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in a June 2006 coalition bombing raid. He rose through the ranks to become the terror organization's overall chieftan in Mosul.

In that capacity, officials said, he met with senior al-Qaida in Iraq leaders in Mosul and Jazeera, coordinating and ordering dozens of attacks against Iraqi citizens, Iraqi forces and coalition forces.

Information gleaned from associates in custody revealed that Abu Khalaf often traveled with foreigners, and associates identified the suicide-vest-wearing man killed with him as Abu Khalud, a Syrian who was a longtime close associate of the Mosul terrorist leader, officials said.

"With the declining morale [among al-Qaida in Iraq operatives] and paranoia within their ranks, Abu Khalaf's death and loss of funds will severely impact their terrorist operations," Navy Lt. David Russell, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesman, said.

(From a Multinational Force Iraq news release.)