This is why they won't let the aid in

[justgamma]

local news just quoted someone who said they wouldn't let the Redcross in because people might want to stay and not leave.

:grr:

[Mabus]

1. The was Homeland Security

it is in the FAQs on the Red Cross site. They aren't allowed in. http://www.redcross.org/faq/0,1096,0_682_4524,00.html#4524

[chomskysright]

2. wrong wrong wrong WRONG: They want them to DIE:

You can map Bush's plans out if you can see Rove's pieces on the board:
First of all, BushCo are a cabal of narcissists. they have no regard for anyone else. GET THAT. If you fully realize that you can anticipate a good bit of their activity.

Rove put the chess pieces on the board: defunding Army Corps of Engineers driving the concerned City of N.O. people to beg for money to fix the levee. Can't be found: too much or Repub donors won't give. They're on high ground anyway.

3 cities in US mapped as being 'nightmares to be realized.' Which one has the most poor black people? : N.O. that one will be sacrificed. Pieces in place.

Act of God. Yes, we perceive that others will now think that we have fucked up when in fact this has been planned as re: MALEVOLENT NEGLECT. Allo looting to begin (expected: and it will be black people: get rid of some Dem voters while we're at it). (drumming fingers...waiting...waiting): NOW, is the time to send out the National Guard. Must create excuses: helicopters could not fly that low, etc. Timing's everything...drumming fingers...waiting, waiting....

Call up that CNN crew would you? Shut down the mike of the N.O. mayor: he's served our purposes. OK: Hit it boys: NG tanks roll into N.O. as Bush touches down.

Pure Reagan.

So: what's next? To shut down the media as much re: what has already taken place re: this perception that we screwed up by defunding Army Corps of Engineers re: fixing that levee.

See?

Get in Rove's head: you don't have to stay there: its pretty ugly but you can stand it if you know that if you can anticipate them, you can outsmart them

[Skip Intro]

5. wow

its so blatant

[ToolTex]

8. Rove at his finest. Remember...

when they started the "vacations" everyone said, expect a disaster or an attack? Rove knew he could count on a hurricane somewhere, it didn't much matter to him where it was. NO was just his good luck, but they wanted a newsworthy event. Remember?

Now few are talking PlameGate this week. But he prolly has bigger fish on the grill.

[PeacePal]

3. Humanitarian pros would KNOW how it was - here's a LONG compilation

of stuff I found today. I was wondering HOW we got the food drops into the Middle East, so I did some googling, cutting, and pasting.

I don't have a site of my own to link to, so here's the whole thing, with links:

This document is a collection of snips from military and government websites (links included) that address the US’s ability to deliver humanitarian aid. All week, I’ve been remembering the reports of the food drops we executed during the recent Afghanistan and Iraqi operations, so I sat down and searched the web. How did we do it then? What might we have been able to do in the aftermath of Katrina? Here’s what I found:

From Defense Logistic’s Website: Discussion of U.S.’s ability, experience, and procedures to deliver humanitarian aid (to Middle Eastern gulf areas, not US gulf)
Source: http://www.almc.army.mil/alog/issues/JulAug03/DLA_log_Backbone.htm
Onsite Battlefield Coordination
Another great tool used in Operation Iraqi Freedom is the DLA contingency support team (DCST). A DCST is a total force package of active duty and Reserve component military personnel and civilians assigned to DLA from all of the services. DCSTs deploy to the theater of operations and work closely with the logistics planners there. They are the main logistics cell in theater, deployed to help expedite sustainment requirements. In April, DLA had more than 70 people in the Iraqi theater of operations, about 30 percent of whom were Army personnel.
………………………………………..
As the fighting winds down, DLA's support mission in Iraq has not ended. In addition to providing full-service logistics; 100 percent of fuel, protective clothing, and medical supplies; and nearly all of the construction material critical to force protection, DLA also is performing a critical role in humanitarian assistance to Iraqi citizens.
DLA procures and stores humanitarian daily rations (HDRs) for the Department of State and ships them to the region as required. In March, DLA already had delivered to the region over 2.4 million HDRsenough food to feed the entire population of St. Paul, Minnesota, 3 meals a day for 8 days. One HDR is designed to feed one refugee for an entire day. HDRs are used to feed refugees until they reach a refugee camp.
DLA will continue to support humanitarian relief until nongovernmental aid can assume the mission. DLA also has gained responsibility for cleaning up the battlefields, including removing equipment, debris, and hazardous materials. And, as the supplier of 90 percent of DOD's replacement parts, DLA will see a surge in requisitions as vehicles and weapon systems are returned to home stations in need of long-deferred routine maintenance. The combat may be over, but DLA continues to support.

From Tuft’s University
Source: http://fletcher.tufts.edu/research/2003/BenjaminSklaver.pdf
As the United States began it.s military campaign in Afghanistan to oust the
Taliban and capture al Qaeda leaders in October 2001, they began a near-simultaneous
program to air drop thousands of HDRs to Afghan civilians daily. Between October 7
and October 24, 2001, DOD dropped an unprecedented 821,880 HDRs over Afghanistan. 55 Years of drought, failed crops and economic isolation had left the
country facing a potentially devastating food crisis. WFP estimated the drought affected
rural population to be between four and six million.
From United Nations Nutrition Committee
Source: http://www.unsystem.org/scn/Publications/RNIS/countries/afghanistan_all.htm
-- During the military strikes, the United States has been dropping
interim food relief, in the form of humanitarian daily rations (HDR)
packets. 37,500 were dropped on October 7, and another 37,500 on
October 8. The HDR packets are an interim measure, until adequate
humanitarian relief can be delivered. As Counselor to the President
Karen Hughes said in a news conference on October 8, "we are going to
be clearing the way so we can deliver humanitarian relief."

From Department of State Website Timeline: the dates show how quickly we planned and executed in the past. Weren’t any of these procedures still available to us in our own gulf?
Source: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ho/pubs/fs/5889.htm
Compiler’s Note: March 19, 2003 was the first day of Operation Iraqi Freedom
September 30, 2001: Administration officials announced that $100 million had been authorized for the relief of Afghan refugees, and that a covert program of support for opposition groups in Afghanistan had been approved.
On various Sunday television news programs, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, Attorney General Ashcroft, and White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card, Jr. warned that terrorist groups eventually might attack the United States with chemical or biological weapons.
Mohammad Zahir Shah, former King of Afghanistan, met with leaders of the Northern Alliance and with an 11-member U.S. congressional delegation in Rome. The King had no interest in restoring the monarchy, but had proposed that he might convene a loya jirgah, or national assembly, to form a new government.
In London, Prime Minister Tony Blair said that he had seen "incontrovertible evidence" linking bin Laden to terrorist attacks on the United States. Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown announced that Great Britain had frozen $88 million worth of Taliban assets in a London-based bank.
October 4, 2001: In a speech at the State Department, President Bush announced an additional $320 million in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. He said the coalition against terrorism was strong since it was not a religious war but "a war between good and evil." Bush later visited the Labor Department, where he announced an extended program of unemployment benefits for those who had lost their jobs as a result of the terrorist attacks….
…After Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld visited Oman, the Defense Department announced that the United States would sell 12 F-16s with precision-guided weapons to Oman. Rumsfeld then went to Cairo to discuss Egypt’s role in the anti-terrorist coalition. He said that relief supplies might be air-dropped into Afghanistan.
October 7, 2001: U.S. and British forces attacked Taliban military targets throughout Afghanistan with bombers and cruise missiles. The thirty targets included airfields, air defense systems, terrorist training camps, and troop concentrations facing Northern Alliance forces. President Bush announced the strikes from the White House Treaty Room at 1 p.m. Eastern Time, and said that he had consulted with Congressional leaders the day before. He said that over 40 countries had provided air transit or landing rights and that even more had shared information. Canada, Britain, Australia, France, and Germany had pledged military support.
Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard B. Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, added that relief supplies would be air-dropped into Afghanistan, and that there would be radio broadcasts and leaflet drops to encourage defections from the Taliban. Rumsfeld spoke of cooperation with the Northern Alliance, and Gen. Myers hinted that covert operations were in progress in Afghanistan.
From Rand National Defense Research Institute: Quick response time
Source: http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2004/RAND_MG212.pdf
One of the most visible forms of early assistance by the U.S. military
was the airdrop of humanitarian daily rations (HDRs) throughout
Afghanistan. These drops began the same day the fighting did, October
7, 2001.

From the White House Website: Pre-invasion planning for delivering of aid to Mid-Eastern gulf – couldn’t we have used Dept of Homeland Security do the same for OUR gulf?
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
February 24, 2003
Return to this article at:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/02/20030224-11.html

Briefing on Humanitarian Reconstruction Issues
3:40 P.M. EST
MR. ESKEW: Good afternoon, everybody. I'm Tucker Eskew, Director of the White House Office of Global Communications; thank you for joining us this afternoon. We've got a great panel for you -- "you" being members of the White House press corps, the foreign press and other specialty and beat reporters are welcome this afternoon…………………
MR. ABRAMS: We go into a situation where we recognize that military action in Iraq, if it is necessary, could have adverse humanitarian consequences. And we've been planning, therefore, over the last several months, an inter-agency effort to prevent or at least to mitigate any such consequences………………………………………………………………………
We also know that conflict can have a number of humanitarian effects. It can increase the number of displaced persons. It can interrupt the Oil For Food distribution of food. It can disrupt electricity supplies. It can lead U.N. and NGO workers to evacuate. Some have already evacuated. We believe that the International Red Cross will not evacuate, and stay during the conflict.
How much displacement will there be? How much of an impact on the humanitarian situation would a conflict have? To a substantial degree, the answer to that question depends on the regime. Does it use weapons of mass destruction? Are there efforts against their own oil wells, such as they did in Kuwait, when they set the oil wells on fire. Other efforts to cause, deliberately cause flooding. Other efforts to encourage ethnic violence or to destroy their own infrastructure. Those are questions we're not going to be able to answer at this time. We'll see.
But in dealing with them, the strategy we have for humanitarian relief has six key principles, and I think you've got those before you. The first is to try to minimize the displacement and the damage to the infrastructure and the disruption of services. And the military campaign planning has had -- has been tailored to try to do that, to try to minimize the impact on civilian populations.
We have what is called the humanitarian mapping program, in which the U.S. military has gone to very great lengths to work with humanitarian organizations, international agencies to locate humanitarian sites, key infrastructure, cultural and historical sites, and to protect them to extent that that's possible.
We recognize the potential for Saddam Hussein to target his own civilian population, he certainly has in the past -- and campaign planning has aimed, to the extent possible, to deny him that capability. We hope to discourage population displacement through -- partly through an information campaign, and partly by efforts to provide aid rapidly and restore public services rapidly -- for example, electricity, water supply, the Oil for Food Program, itself, and I'll come back to that.
Second principle, to rely primarily on civilian relief agencies. And civilian agencies and personnel are in the lead in all the coordinating and planning that we've been doing for about -- I'd say about four months. As a kind of offshoot of the deputies committee, Robin Cleveland and I have co-chaired an interagency group that has been doing this relief and reconstruction planning.
We want to rely primarily on civilian international organizations, which is the standard practice in situations like this: U.N. agencies; NGOs; other governments and their civilian agencies. OFDA, the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, and the Refugee Bureau at State, PRM, have been meeting with representatives of the international aid community for several months now.
These organizations -- the U.N. agencies, the NGOs -- have enormous expertise and capacity. And we're going to try to facilitate and fund their efforts to the greatest extent possible. We welcome U.N. planning -- and there has been a considerable amount of U.N. planning by the specialized agencies to play a key role in Iraq, as they do generally, when there are humanitarian crises. And we will be trying to support and facilitate their activities.
The role of the U.S. military is not to take a lead role in humanitarian relief activities. It is to facilitate early secure access, to create a humanitarian space, to provide information for U.S. civilian teams -- civilian relief agencies -- to fulfill their humanitarian mandates. There will probably be circumstances where there is no U.N. agency or NGO or civilian capability of any kind at a very early moment if conflict happens. And there, the military may be actually required to provide limited relief because there's no alternative. And with the guidance and assistance of USG civilian relief experts, they'll have to do that. We're going to anticipate that any such period would be short, and that civilian relief agencies would be able to get into those areas quickly.
Third principle, effective civil military coordination. We have been training and preparing a 60-person DART team, disaster assistance response team, which is really about the largest we've ever had. And it would enter liberated areas of Iraq in coordination with U.S. military forces, to, first of all, make an assessment of what are the -- what is the humanitarian situation, to coordinate then U.S. government relief activities that try to resolve whatever problems there are. They will be capable of immediate, in the field grant making. And their job is also liaison with the military, other donors, NGOs, international organizations.
The DART itself is made up of professionals in the field of humanitarian emergencies from several U.S. civilian agencies. And we'll have -- there will be a number of DART teams in the field. Andrew Natsios can say more about that. There are other coordination structures, humanitarian operations centers and civil military operation centers, being established in the region with the cooperation of several neighboring governments.
The government of Kuwait, for example, has made available a large facility to support a humanitarian operation center in Kuwait City. The job there is information sharing coordination, deconflicting efforts between U.S. military and Kuwaiti officials, U.S.-civilian representatives, U.N. agencies, international organizations, NGOs, coalition partners. The job of the humanitarian operation center is to gather them in one place so they can all coordinate what they are doing.
It is not a replacement for the U.N., which has its own coordinating structure through OCHA, the coordinator for humanitarian affairs. But it is a supplement to that. Fourth principle, facilitating IO and NGO operations. We will provide civilian experts to be the liaison with international organizations and NGOs, and to support and staff these coordination centers -- the humanitarian operation center in Kuwait and the civil military operation centers -- so that they are -- this is a customary pattern for NGOs and international organizations to work with the civilian side of U.S. government and they'll continue to do that.
And one of the things that our civilians can do by their own connection with the U.S. military is to provide information about access to particular geographical locations, security in those areas, and information about the populations in those areas that the U.S. military may have found. The DART staff is the primary contact for international organizations and NGOs in the field………………………….
We've given money, we have provided funding to relief agencies so that they can plan, hire staff and pre-position supplies. The Refugee Bureau at State has provided over $15 million to international agencies for pre-positioning and for contingency planning. Most of that to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
AID has provided over $9 million to a variety of agencies for contingency planning, including $2 million to UNICEF and $5 million to the World Food Program. AID is in discussions with international organizations to provide an additional $56 million soon.
We've also encouraged other donors. And a number of governments have come forward to pledge millions of dollars to -- mostly to U.N. agencies and to some NGOs.
Fifth, pre-positioning U.S. government relief supplies and response mechanisms. We have been stockpiling blankets, water, ladders, shelter supplies, medicines, other relief items at this point to serve about a million people -- the material in question worth about $12 million. And we're trying to forward-deploy those stockpiles into the region. One example, there are 46, 40-foot long containers of relief supplies en route to warehouses in the Gulf. We are stockpiling and pre-positioning humanitarian daily rations. You may remember those from Afghanistan and previous situations. This is a ration for one person for one day -- the equivalent in calories of three meals. And we're getting up to about 3 million of those pre-positioned.
And we are preparing to undertake immediate rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts to deliver essential services to the Iraqi people. And that means critical infrastructure, health facilities, water and sanitation systems. And electricity is key in all of those.
Finally, sixth, support the resumption of the ration-distribution system. That's a very important item. As I noted at the beginning, about 60 percent of Iraqis depend on it for their food. It is an immensely complex system that is run very competently by the U.N. and by the Iraqis. There are at the ground level about 55,000 ration agents. Iraqis get a ration booklet which tells them which day of the month their family should go to the distribution point, usually a local grocer, to pick up their rations for the month. We will make an effort to get that system up and running again if there is a conflict, and if we are in that situation.
We want to disrupt that system as little as possible, and get it back on its feet as soon as possible. And that is something that a lot of U.S. agencies are thinking about. We recognize that that is a critical aspect of -- a critical aspect of the humanitarian situation in Iraq.
Let's go down -- I've forgotten what the order is. I think -- we're skipping you, so Andrew.
MR. NATSIOS: I'm Andrew Natsios from AID. Let me first mention that this planning exercise has been going on now since late September. So I've been involved in emergency response now for almost 14 years. We have never had nearly five months advance time before a major emergency, should it happen. And so the amount of time that has gone into this, and the amount of staff that has gone into this has been enormous within AID, and the interagency process.
There are 60 people from the DART team, which comes out of the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, which I headed in the first Bush administration. There is staff from Gene Dewey's office and the Refugee Office in the State Department, and the Public Health Service in HHS are on that team, as well.
There are another 140 people working in AID who are technical staff back in Washington, on the planning exercises necessary to make sure all of this happens the way it's supposed to. And the areas that we focus on are first those basic humanitarian requirements that keep people alive and reduce human suffering in any emergency. One is health and medicine, the second is water and sanitation, which are critical issues, particularly in Iraq. Third is food and nutrition. Fourth is shelter. And a fifth is to internally displaced people and, of course, there could be refugee movements, as well, cross border.
And so the amount of time, the amount of preparation, the amount of planning we've done, the amount of staff working on this has been very substantial. I might also add that this is not new -- working with the military in conflicts is something that the U.S. government has been doing for a very long time, since even before the end of the Cold War. You may recall that we had a refugee emergency with about a million Kurds up in the mountains in northern Iraq. There was civil affairs units and military units, AID sent its largest DART team at that time -- in 1991, of 30 people -- that was sent in to work the relief effort there.
We've been in Bosnia and Macedonia and Kosovo, in Haiti, in Panama -- after Noriega. You can go through a list of instances where this has happened before. So this is not a new thing. It's been done before. The mechanisms for coordination within the international institutions have actually been established, they've been tested and they do work, I have to tell you. They've been refined. There are manuals on how the inter-connection between the NGOs, U.N. agencies, the ICRC, military operations and the DART team work in these emergencies. And that is a very important thing because, once again, we're not testing something that's new here.
And so the three fundamental things we're doing is to assemble the team, train it -- they're going through very extensive training -- getting everybody's job descriptions down and duties down. We've actually done some test operations. Secondly, pre-positioning the stockpiles that Elliott mentioned. Many of those stockpiles are actually in the region now, simply waiting should they be necessary. And, third, establishing these coordination mechanisms that I mentioned earlier.
The team will also do assessments, rapid assessments to determine what is needed. We do planning based on scenario building. But the reality is on the ground that you always have to actually see what's happened. And the assessments are then done and then decisions are made about the disposition of relief commodities and resources.
So I think we're in good shape, in terms of the effort that we've put into this exercise, given the amount of time that we've had to think through it. I might also add, we don't know what's going to happen, but contingency planning is what this all about. Whenever we see something may happen, we try to plan for it. Thank you.
MR. ABRAMS: Thanks. Gene, I think you're next. Gene Dewey is Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY DEWEY: The center of gravity of the humanitarian effort is the multilateral system. And that's the case for several reasons. One, the U.N. agencies have been in country for a long time, for years and years. They have systems set up. And they have systems that are particularly appropriate for emergency action.
For example, for the water sector, which is always the most critical sector, the system for that which works best, which is recognized as best, is UNICEF working with NGOs such as Oxfam-UK and other NGOs with the expertise in water. There are other systems for immunization, systems for food distribution. So this is another reason.
The U.N. agencies, as Elliott mentioned, have been very cooperative and forward-leaning on this for several reasons. One, it's humanitarian that we're talking about, as much as that can be separated from political questions. Secondly, it's prudent planning. It's the way you have to do it. In the possibility of a contingency, it's only prudent to do what the U.N. agencies are doing. And then a third reason is this planning is being done without any presumption of the inevitability of military conflict.
And so these have all contributed to a very smooth planning, preparing, pre-positioning effort on the part of the U.N. agencies working with their NGO implementing partners, in terms of coordination.
The principles that we're working, aside from multilateralism, include what has already been mentioned, and I can't stress it enough, that is the need to avoid population displacement, or to minimize it as much as possible, because that's one of the most costly, both in material and human terms, that can occur in any contingency, when people leave their homes and have to undergo the expense of being at the mercy of the international community for an extended period of time, and then the cost or maybe the impossibility of ever getting back to their homes again.
The purposes that we're dealing with are to relieve hardship and acute human suffering, but at the same time, prepare the way for almost immediate movement to rehabilitation and reconstruction, and to facilitate that next step…………………………………………
Basically the functions of our bureau will be to help make coordination work. Our core expertise is the multilateral system. We'll do our best to make the humanitarian operation center and the civil military operations centers just that, civil military and not military operations centers. And we'll be doing our best to bridge those cultures between the civilians and the military, planners and implementers if implementation becomes necessary.
We were first out of the box in terms of providing funding for pre-positioning and preparedness, we gave just about all we had, the $15 million that we've given to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and $100,000 to the International Organization for Migration. We did it, though, also to try to leverage as much as possible the efforts of the rest of the donor community. This is slow going. It's heavy lifting, but it is going to be one of the major efforts that can assure success in the humanitarian field to get as much burden-sharing contribution as we can before the contingency is actually upon us. …………………………….
MR. ABRAMS: Thanks. Dr. Joseph Collins is Deputy Secretary of Defense for Stability Operations. Joe.
DR. COLLINS: Thanks. Elliott, I came here prepared to say ten things. All of them have been said twice, so let me repeat only about seven of them for the third time.
If the President orders military action, the Department of Defense is prepared for military contingencies, but it's also prepared to support humanitarian relief during combat and to support reconstruction efforts after combat.
Some of the key things that we are able to do in those areas have been mentioned. The first, humanitarian mapping and careful targeting to avoid excessive damage to the civilian population. Secondly, during the combat phase the Department of Defense is ready to assist AID and State in providing humanitarian relief to the people of Iraq.
Thirdly, and if necessary, DOD is ready to provide special services and supplies, such as the famous humanitarian daily rations. Fourth, on the reconstruction effort, DOD is prepared to assist State, AID, NGOs and the United Nations to help the Iraqi people in reconstruction. And also -- and, perhaps, most importantly -- to help them prepare for self-government. And I think that's the key point to remember here. What all of us have been talking about here is not occupation, it's liberation. And, ultimately, creating a democracy inside of Iraq………………………………………………………………………….
Q I have two questions of the briefers. How many refugees are you planning for? How many IDPs? How many DART teams, and where will they go?
MR. NATSIOS: Well, just in terms of the number of DART teams, there is one large team of 60 people that we'll divide into three sub-units. There will be a core headquarters that will control all of the operations. So there will be three teams that will be dispatched to different parts of the country.
I think we're planning for about 2 million, as I recall, internally displaced people and refugees.

From Vought Aircraft Industries Website: describes the equipment we used back then – megadollars spent on it – where was it this week?
Source: http://www.voughtaircraft.com/newsFactGallery/factsheets/docs/C17_0803.doc

C 17 GLOBEMASTER III AIRLIFTER
Fact Sheet
The U.S. Air Force C 17 Globemaster III airlifter is designed to fulfill global airlift needs for many years. It can carry large combat equipment and troops or humanitarian aid directly to small austere airfields anywhere in the world. Vought is the largest structures subcontractor to Boeing on the C-17, performing work at sites in Dallas, Texas, Milledgeville, Ga., and Brea, Calif.
In the Field
The C-17 program began in 1983, making its maiden flight on Sept. 15, 1991. The Air Force declared the first C-17 squadron operational in January 1995. Since then the fleet has amassed more than 400,000 flying hours in support of Air Force operations worldwide. In 1998, eight C-17s completed the longest airdrop mission in history, flying more than 8,000-nautical miles from the United States to Central Asia, dropping troops and equipment after more than 19 hours in the air.
It has supported numerous contingency operations, including flying troops and equipment to Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Joint Endeavor for peacekeeping efforts in Bosnia, and the Allied Force Operation in Kosovo. The C-17 fleet is being used extensively to support the war on terrorism. They have been responsible for the airdrop of more than 2.4 million humanitarian daily rations to refugees in Afghanistan, in addition to moving troops and heavy equipment, and carrying other supplies such as blankets and bulk food. In other humanitarian missions, C-17s delivered hurricane relief supplies to Honduras and Nicaragua.
During Operation Iraqi Freedom, the C-17 participated in the largest airdrop of troops since World War II. Under the cover of darkness, almost 1,000 "Sky Soldiers" of the 173rd Airborne Brigade parachuted from C-17 Globemaster IIIs into the Kurdish-controlled area of northern Iraq. This was the first combat insertion of paratroopers using a C-17.

The C-17 set 13 world records during flight testing in November 2001 at Edwards Air Force Base, including resetting two of the 22 world records that it claimed during initial flight testing in 1992-1994. Eleven of the records were for maximum altitude with various payloads as the C-17 carried payloads up to 40,000 kg (88,200 pounds) to an altitude in excess of 43,800 feet. The other records were for maximum altitude in horizontal flight without a payload, and greatest payload to a height of 2,000 meters.
In May 1995, Boeing and the C-17 received the prestigious Robert J. Collier Trophy from the National Aeronautic Association as the top aeronautical achievement in the United States for 1994.

U.S. Air Force Contracts
On May 31,1996, Boeing and the Air Force signed a seven-year $14.2 billion contract to build the next 80 C-17s, starting in 1997, with final deliveries in 2004. With the 40 aircraft previously on contract, the additional buy brought the Air Force C-17 fleet to 120. In addition to the original 120 aircraft, Boeing and the Air Force signed a follow-on procurement contract in August 2002 for 60 more aircraft. Thus, the C-17 fleet will number 180 aircraft by 2008.

Capabilities
The C-17 is a high-wing, four-engine, T-tailed aircraft with a rear-loading ramp. The aircraft is 174 feet long, 55.08 feet high and has a wingspan of 169.75 feet. Maximum payload is 170,000 pounds (about twice that of a C-141B)

With a payload of 160,000 pounds, the C-17 can take off from a runway of 7,600 feet, fly 2,400 nautical miles, and land on a small austere airfield in 3,000 feet or less. Ferry range of the C-17, which also can be refueled in flight, is 4,700 nautical miles. The four engines are Pratt & Whitney PW2040 series turbofans, designated by the Air Force as the F117-PW-100. Each engine produces 40,440 pounds of thrust, located on pylons ahead of and below the wing leading edge. The engines are equipped with directed-flow thrust reversers capable of deployment in flight. On the ground, a fully loaded aircraft, using engine reversers, can back up a 2 percent slope.

Two of the nacelle design features account for the C 17's capability to make extreme short field landings at heavy gross weights: propulsive lift technology and an advanced thrust reverser design. Propulsive lift results from directing engine exhaust across both sides of the flap. Combined with the advanced thrust reversers, propulsive lift enables short landings. The thrust reversers are an integral part of the C-17 nacelle. When thrust reversal is initiated, both fan and core exhausts are redirected. Thrust is directed forward and upward through exposed louvers for maximum reverse thrust. During ground operations, the thrust reversers can be deployed with engines idling, directing engine blast away from personnel working cargo.

A cockpit crew of two, plus one loadmaster, operates the C-17, a cost-effective flight crew complement made possible through advanced digital avionics. The system uses four cathode-ray tube displays, two full-capability HUDs (Head-Up Displays) and advanced cargo systems.

Cargo is loaded onto the C 17 through a large aft door that can accommodate military vehicles and palletized cargo. The C 17 can carry and airdrop 102 paratroopers and virtually all of the Army's outsized combat equipment.



Vought Milestones
In July 1997, Boeing and Vought signed a memorandum of agreement -- valued at $1.9 billion -- for production of major components for 80 additional C-17s over a six-year period. The agreement covers fiscal years 1997-2002 with deliveries continuing into early 2004.

In March 2002, Boeing and Vought signed another agreement to produce components for 60 additional C-17 aircraft. The contract for follow-on aircraft, beyond the current delivery of 120 aircraft, is valued at $1.1 billion. Work on this program will extend C-17 manufacturing at the Dallas and Milledgeville facilities through the year 2008, and the Brea facility through 2007.

In 2002, Vought celebrated delivery of its 100th shipset for the C-17. The finished aircraft rolled out of its hangar in Long Beach, Calif., in October and was delivered to the U.S. Air Force.


From Defense Security Cooperation Agency: what we could have dropped in the US Gulf, if we’d been prepared.
NEWS RELEASE
Source: http://www.dsca.osd.mil/PressReleases/hdrs.pdf
On the web: http://www.dsca.osd.mil Media/Public Contact: [phone]
Date: 11 October 2001
Over 100,000 Humanitarian Daily Rations Airdropped to Afghans;
8 Million Distributed Globally Since 1993
(Washington, D.C.) The Department of Defense relief effort in Central Asia has passed a significant milestone. More than 100,000 Humanitarian Daily Rations (HDR) have been distributed to Afghan refugees in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
“The HDR is a nutritious and convenient form of aid which can be delivered anywhere the US Government can get to” said Michael Ritchie, the head of DSCA’s Humanitarian Affairs and Demining Program. “The HDR is acceptable to all cultures. It has a proven track record of alleviating starvation and misery all over the world.”
The HDR was first produced in 1993. The Department of Defense devised it after extensive consultation with a wide variety of expert sources, to include the World Food Program, the Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Agriculture. One ration will provide 2300 calories to a refugee, the total daily requirement. The rations are entirely meat-free, and thus are culturally acceptable to people all over the world. HDRs are designed to be fully digestable by people who are suffering the effects of malnutrition.
The HDR can be eaten without heating or without adding any water. It is shelf-stabilized, and does not require any special refrigeration or handling. It can either be delivered as conventional freight, or can be airdropped to people scattered in remote regions. “The HDR is an effective ration to ward off starvation until bulk food can be delivered” said Ritchie. “It can be delivered in a variety of ways and consumed without any preparation.”
Since 1993, over 8 million HDRs have been distributed to refugees and disaster victims around the world. These refugees have been in over 20 countries, to include Bosnia, Cuba, Haiti, Rwanda and Iraq.
More information on the makeup of the HDR can be found on the internet at:
http://www.dscp.dla.mil/subs/rations/meals/hdr.htm

[Eloriel]

6. My goodness. Can you post your own threads yet? If so, please

post this -- but, PLEASE with more paragraphs, pretty please.

And welcome to DU!! :bounce:

[PeacePal]

9. Thanks for the welcome, and no, I've can't post own threads.

I did post some of the same info (after I cleaned up the formatting, sorry!) to other popular threads.

I'm a bit of a LAN networking geek, OJT'd by owning own company, but am NOT any good yet with HTML, or posting on the web. So I'm learning to post in paragraphs and pauses by trial and error only.

But I AM a quick learner. Thanks!

[Eloriel]

4. Bullshit -- here's a more realistic (IMO) explanation

ATTN DU RESEARCHERS -- LIHOP/MIHOP evidence stacking up
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4588088&mesg_id=4588088

[ispeculate]

7. Red Cross National Affairs

You can call and ask for verification of this.

Red Cross National Affairs phone number 202-303-5551

This was just mentioned on The Mike Malloy show.