U.S. military packs up its flag, ends Iraq war

'The mission of an Iraq that could govern and secure itself has become real,' says Defense Secretary Panetta at the ceremony.

(Video on site)

December 15, 2011

BAGHDAD -- The U.S military officially ended its war in Iraq on Thursday, packing up a military flag at a ceremony with U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta nearly nine years after the invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.

The last 4,000 American troops will withdraw by the end of the year, leaving Iraq still tackling a weakened but stubborn insurgency, sectarian tensions and political uncertainty.

"After a lot of blood spilled by Iraqis and Americans, the mission of an Iraq that could govern and secure itself has become real," Panetta said at the ceremony.

U.S. soldiers rolled up the flag for American forces in Iraq and slipped it into a camouflage-coloured sleeve.

Nearly 4,500 U.S. soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis lost their lives in a war that began with a "Shock and Awe" campaign of missiles pounding Baghdad, but later descended into a bloody sectarian struggle between long-oppressed majority Shi'ites and their former Sunni masters.

Saddam is dead, an uneasy politics is at work and the violence has ebbed. But Iraq still struggles with the insurgency, a fragile power-sharing government and an oil-reliant economy plagued by power shortages and corruption.

In Falluja, the former heartland of an al Qaeda insurgency and scene of some of the worst fighting in the war, several thousand Iraqis celebrated the withdrawal on Wednesday, some burning U.S. flags and waving pictures of dead relatives.

Iraq's neighbours will keep a close watch on how Baghdad will confront its problems without the buffer of a U.S. military presence, while a crisis in neighbouring Syria threatens to upset the region's sectarian and ethnic balance.

U.S. President Barack Obama, who made an election promise to bring troops home, told Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki that Washington will remain a loyal partner after the last troops roll across the Kuwaiti border.

Iraq's Shi'ite leadership presents the withdrawal as a new start for the country's sovereignty, but many Iraqis question which direction the nation will take once U.S. troops leave.

Some fear more sectarian strife or an al Qaeda return to sow terror in the cities. A squabble between Kurds in their northern semi-autonomous enclave and the Iraqi Arab central government over disputed territories and oil is another flashpoint.

Violence has ebbed since the bloodier days of sectarian slaughter when suicide bombers and hit squads claimed hundreds of victims a day at times as the country descended into tit-for-tat killings between the Sunni and Shi'ite communities.

In 2006 alone, 17,800 Iraqi military and civilians were killed in violence.

Iraqi security forces are generally seen as capable of containing the remaining Sunni Islamist insurgency and the rival Shi'ite militias U.S. officials say are backed by Iran.

But even for those enjoying a sense of sovereignty, security is still a major worry. Attacks now target local Iraqi government offices and security forces in an attempt show that the authorities are not in control.

"I am happy they are leaving. This is my country and they should leave," said Samer Saad, a soccer coach. "But I am worried because we need to be safe. We are worried because all the militias will start to come back."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fgw-us-iraq-20111216,0,1827020.story

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Theft of veterans' plaques (sad but true) could be federal crime

That's how Congressman Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) described a rash of thefts of plaques from veterans' memorials that have spurred him to introduce related legislation. The Protect Veterans' Memorials Act would make transporting stolen veterans' memorials, monuments or plaques of any value across state lines a federal crime.

"The stealing of plaques off veterans' memorials has been an epidemic in Connecticut," he said.

Police believe the metal plaques -- such as ones stolen in Ansonia, Conn., that honored local residents who served in World War II and the Vietnam War -- are being sold for scrap.

Plaques honoring local Medal of Honor recipient Frank P. Witek were swiped in Derby, Conn., and a historic marker honoring Commodore Isaac Hull, a commander during the War of 1812, was reported missing in Shelton, Conn. Plaques bearing veterans' names were pried from a monument in New Britain, Conn., last year.

"This is a first in this area," Ansonia Police Lt. Andrew Cota lamented in an interview.

The money the thieves will make pales in comparison with the cost of replacing the plaques, Murphy said in an interview Wednesday. "Small towns in Connecticut don't have five and $10,000 lying around to reforge these plaques," he said.

Current law makes it a federal felony to transport stolen goods of more than $5,000, subject to a maximum of 10 years' imprisonment and a fine of double the amount of the item stolen or $250,000, whichever is larger. Murphy's bill would remove the $5,000 threshold, making veterans' monuments of any value subject to the federal law.

"What we think is happening is that these thieves are laying low and planning to bring the plaques out of state to scrap dealers," Murphy said. "We think it's important to have a federal penalty since the trade is likely to cross state lines."

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/

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From Google News

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LA Countering Homegrown Extremism with Community Policing

by Elizabeth Lee | Los Angeles

The White House says fighting homegrown extremism in the United States is a top national security priority. The Los Angeles Police Department is working with the Department of Homeland Security to implement a plan to train police across the country to prevent extremism.

A White House counter-terrorism plan announced earlier this month calls for local police to work with U.S. minority and immigrant communities. The second-largest city in the United States, Los Angeles, is home to immigrants from around the world. “We are one of the most diverse cities in the world. We have more languages spoken here than I think anywhere in the United States and possibly the world," he said.

Deputy Chief Michael Downing heads the Counter-Terrorism and Special Operations Bureau of the Los Angeles Police Department. He says local authorities have been working closely with federal agencies and members of the community for years. “The world is globalized. The threat is internationalized that traditional crime has become transnational. ... people that live in our country now represent this whole globe," he said.

Downing says sensitivity to how immigrants think and react to world events in their home country will help them feel less isolated and prevent extremist behavior. He says building trust through relationships and addressing minority community concerns is key.

Omar Ricci of the Muslim Public Affairs Council agrees. “It develops a partnership where Muslims are not treated as suspects, but treated as resources in combating the more global problem of terrorism," he said.

Community outreach is the job of police officer Chand Syed, who is of Pakistani descent, was born in Saudi Arabia, and raised in the United States. “My religion and my ethnicity has assisted because I have an understanding, and I can talk on a level that other police officers might not be able to," he said.

Downing says programs like those of the Los Angeles police and sheriff's departments that reach out to minority communities are not common among U.S. law enforcement agencies. "Ninety percent of the police agencies in America have less than 100 officers," he said.

He says smaller police agencies do not have the resources or training to form partnerships with minority groups.

American Civil Liberties Union attorney Peter Bibring says without proper training there is a danger of ethnic profiling. “We just need to make sure that whoever is doing that policing focuses on activity that actually gives rise to a suspicion of criminal activity or suspicion of terrorist activity, instead of focusing broadly on protected constitutional conduct like photography or on particular racial or religious groups," he said.

Downing says Los Angeles Police do not practice broad profiling. “If we are profiling as it relates to terrorism, we are profiling behavior only. It does not matter what you look like, it does not matter what god you worship," he said.

Downing says Los Angeles police are working with federal officials to develop effective training for law enforcement across the country.

The White House Plan also wants groups, such as schools, that do not normally deal with such issues to be involved with countering violent extremism. But Officer Syed says accomplishing that is complicated. “Funding is a big thing, education. My unit could definitely use more officers. We would love to do more outreach and engagement with different communities, but we are limited by budget," he said.

Syed says he hopes the White House will provide the money to carry out its plan to fight extremist threats in the United States.

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/usa/LA-Countering-Homegrown-Extremism-with-Community-Policing-135630218.html

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Census shows 1 in 2 people are poor or low-income

WASHINGTON— Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans -- nearly 1 in 2 -- have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income.

The latest census data depict a middle class that's shrinking as unemployment stays high and the government's safety net frays. The new numbers follow years of stagnating wages for the middle class that have hurt millions of workers and families.

"Safety net programs such as food stamps and tax credits kept poverty from rising even higher in 2010, but for many low-income families with work-related and medical expenses, they are considered too `rich' to qualify," said Sheldon Danziger, a University of Michigan public policy professor who specializes in poverty.

"The reality is that prospects for the poor and the near poor are dismal," he said. "If Congress and the states make further cuts, we can expect the number of poor and low-income families to rise for the next several years."

Congressional Republicans and Democrats are sparring over legislation that would renew a Social Security payroll tax cut, part of a year-end political showdown over economic priorities that could also trim unemployment benefits, freeze federal pay and reduce entitlement spending.

Robert Rector, a senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, questioned whether some people classified as poor or low-income actually suffer material hardship. He said that while safety-net programs have helped many Americans, they have gone too far, citing poor people who live in decent-size homes, drive cars and own wide-screen TVs.

"There's no doubt the recession has thrown a lot of people out of work and incomes have fallen," Rector said. "As we come out of recession, it will be important that these programs promote self-sufficiency rather than dependence and encourage people to look for work."

Mayors in 29 cities say more than 1 in 4 people needing emergency food assistance did not receive it. Many middle-class Americans are dropping below the low-income threshold -- roughly $45,000 for a family of four -- because of pay cuts, a forced reduction of work hours or a spouse losing a job. Housing and child-care costs are consuming up to half of a family's income.

States in the South and West had the highest shares of low-income families, including Arizona, New Mexico and South Carolina, which have scaled back or eliminated aid programs for the needy. By raw numbers, such families were most numerous in California and Texas, each with more than 1 million.

The struggling Americans include Zenobia Bechtol, 18, in Austin, Texas, who earns minimum wage as a part-time pizza delivery driver. Bechtol and her 7-month-old baby were recently evicted from their bedbug-infested apartment after her boyfriend, an electrician, lost his job in the sluggish economy.

After an 18-month job search, Bechtol's boyfriend now works as a waiter and the family of three is temporarily living with her mother.

"We're paying my mom $200 a month for rent, and after diapers and formula and gas for work, we barely have enough money to spend," said Bechtol, a high school graduate who wants to go to college. "If it weren't for food stamps and other government money for families who need help, we wouldn't have been able to survive."

About 97.3 million Americans fall into a low-income category, commonly defined as those earning between 100 and 199 percent of the poverty level, based on a new supplemental measure by the Census Bureau that is designed to provide a fuller picture of poverty. Together with the 49.1 million who fall below the poverty line and are counted as poor, they number 146.4 million, or 48 percent of the U.S. population. That's up by 4 million from 2009, the earliest numbers for the newly developed poverty measure.

The new measure of poverty takes into account medical, commuting and other living costs. Doing that helped push the number of people below 200 percent of the poverty level up from 104 million, or 1 in 3 Americans, that was officially reported in September.

Broken down by age, children were most likely to be poor or low-income -- about 57 percent -- followed by seniors over 65. By race and ethnicity, Hispanics topped the list at 73 percent, followed by blacks, Asians and non-Hispanic whites.

Even by traditional measures, many working families are hurting.

Following the recession that began in late 2007, the share of working families who are low income has risen for three straight years to 31.2 percent, or 10.2 million. That proportion is the highest in at least a decade, up from 27 percent in 2002, according to a new analysis by the Working Poor Families Project and the Population Reference Bureau, a nonprofit research group based in Washington.

Among low-income families, about one-third were considered poor while the remainder -- 6.9 million -- earned income just above the poverty line. Many states phase out eligibility for food stamps, Medicaid, tax credit and other government aid programs for low-income Americans as they approach 200 percent of the poverty level.

The majority of low-income families -- 62 percent -- spent more than one-third of their earnings on housing, surpassing a common guideline for what is considered affordable. By some census surveys, child-care costs consume close to another one-fifth.

Paychecks for low-income families are shrinking. The inflation-adjusted average earnings for the bottom 20 percent of families have fallen from $16,788 in 1979 to just under $15,000, and earnings for the next 20 percent have remained flat at $37,000. In contrast, higher-income brackets had significant wage growth since 1979, with earnings for the top 5 percent of families climbing 64 percent to more than $313,000.

A survey of 29 cities conducted by the U.S. Conference of Mayors being released Thursday points to a gloomy outlook for those on the lower end of the income scale.

Many mayors cited the challenges of meeting increased demands for food assistance, expressing particular concern about possible cuts to federal programs such as food stamps and WIC, which assists low-income pregnant women and mothers. Unemployment led the list of causes of hunger in cities, followed by poverty, low wages and high housing costs.

Across the 29 cities, about 27 percent of people needing emergency food aid did not receive it. Kansas City, Mo., Nashville, Tenn., Sacramento, Calif., and Trenton, N.J., were among the cities that pointed to increases in the cost of food and declining food donations, while Mayor Michael McGinn in Seattle cited an unexpected spike in food requests from immigrants and refugees, particularly from Somalia, Burma and Bhutan.

Among those requesting emergency food assistance, 51 percent were in families, 26 percent were employed, 19 percent were elderly and 11 percent were homeless.

"People who never thought they would need food are in need of help," said Mayor Sly James of Kansas City, Mo., who co-chairs a mayors' task force on hunger and homelessness.

Online:

Census Bureau: http://www.census.gov

U.S. Conference of Mayors: http://www.usmayors.org/

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