'al-Qaida sympathizer' accused of NYC bomb plots (AP)

NEW YORK ? An "al-Qaida sympathizer" accused of plotting to bomb police and post offices in New York City as well as U.S. troops returning home remained in police custody after an arraignment Sunday on numerous terrorism-related charges.

Jose Pimentel of Manhattan was described by Mayor Michael Bloomberg at a news conference announcing Pimentel's arrest as "a 27-year-old al-Qaida sympathizer" who was motivated by terrorist propaganda and resentment of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said police had to move quickly to arrest Pimentel on Saturday because he was ready to carry out his plan.

"He was in fact putting this bomb together," Kelly said. "He was drilling holes and it would have been not appropriate for us to let him walk out the door with that bomb."

Ten years after 9/11, New York remains a prime terrorism target. Bloomberg said at least 14 terrorist plots, including the latest alleged scheme, have targeted the city since the Sept. 11 attacks. No attack has been successful, however. Pakistani immigrant Faisal Shahzad is serving a life sentence for trying to detonate a car bomb in Times Square in May 2010.

Kelly said Sunday that Pimentel was energized and motivated to carry out his plan by the Sept. 30 killing of al-Qaida's U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.

"He decided to build the bomb August of this year, but clearly he jacked up his speed after the elimination of al-Awlaki," Kelly said.

A U.S. citizen originally from the Dominican Republic, Pimentel was "plotting to bomb police patrol cars and also postal facilities as well as targeted members of our armed services returning from abroad," Bloomberg said.

New York police had him under surveillance for at least a year and were working with a confidential informant; no injury to anyone or damage to property is alleged, Kelly said. In addition, authorities have no evidence that Pimentel was working with anyone else, the mayor said.

"He appears to be a total lone wolf," the mayor said. "He was not part of a larger conspiracy emanating from abroad."

At Pimentel's arraignment, his lawyer Joseph Zablocki said his client's behavior leading up to the arrest was not that of a conspirator trying to conceal some violent scheme. Zablocki said Pimentel was public about his activities and was not trying to hide anything.

"I don't believe that this case is nearly as strong as the people believe," Zablocki said. "He (Pimentel) has this very public online profile. ... This is not the way you go about committing a terrorist attack."

Pimentel, also known as Muhammad Yusuf, was denied bail and remained in custody. The bearded, bespectacled man wore a black T-shirt and black drawstring pants and smiled at times during the proceeding. His mother and brother attended the arraignment, Zablocki said.

Pimentel is accused of having an explosive device Saturday when he was arrested, one he planned to use against others and property to terrorize the public. The charges accuse him of conspiracy going back at least to October 2010, and include first-degree criminal possession of a weapon as a crime of terrorism, and soliciting support for a terrorist act.

Bloomberg said at the news conference that Pimentel represents the type of threat FBI Director Robert Mueller has warned about as U.S. forces erode the ability of terrorists to carry out large scale attacks.

"This is just another example of New York City because we are an iconic city ... this is a city that people would want to take away our freedoms gravitate to and focus on," Bloomberg said.

Kelly said a confidential informant had numerous conversations with Pimentel on Sept. 7 in which he expressed interest in building small bombs and targeting banks, government and police buildings.

Pimentel also posted on his website trueislam1.com and on blogs his support of al-Qaida and belief in jihad, and promoted an online magazine article that described in detail how to make a bomb, Kelly said.

Among his Internet postings, the commissioner said, was an article that states: "People have to understand that America and its allies are all legitimate targets in warfare."

The New York Police Department's Intelligence Division was involved in the arrest. Kelly said Pimentel spent most of his years in Manhattan and lived about five years in Schenectady. He said police in the Albany area tipped New York City police off to Pimentel's activities.

Asked why federal authorities were not involved in the case, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said there was communication with them but his office felt that given the timeline "it was appropriate to proceed under state charges."

About 1,000 of the city's roughly 35,000 officers are assigned each day to counterterrorism operations. The NYPD also sends officers overseas to report on how other cities deal with terrorism. Through federal grants and city funding, the NYPD has spent millions of dollars on technology to outfit the department with the latest tools ? from portable radiation detectors to the network of hundreds of cameras that can track suspicious activity.

Alexis Smith, 22, who lives in an apartment in the same building as Pimentel, said she was shocked that he was a suspect in a terrorist plot. "He was always very courteous to us," she said, adding that Pimentel helped her carry groceries and luggage into the building.

"It's nice to know he was only working alone," she said.

___

Associated Press writers Jennifer Peltz and Colleen Long and AP video journalist David R. Martin contributed to this report from New York. AP writer Samantha Gross also contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111121/ap_on_re_us/us_nyc_bomb_plot

top chef powerball winner powerball winner narwhals narwhals gmail app gmail app

"Joy Behar Show" won't be renewed, HLN confirms (omg!)

By Daniel Frankel

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - HLN has confirmed that it is not renewing Joy Behar's talk show.

The series starring the co-host of "The View," which debuted in September 2009, will leave the cable news network's schedule in mid-December.

"I am very proud of the show that we created at HLN, and I owe tremendous thanks to the show team who made it possible," Behar said in a statement.

The show's time slot will be filled by one of HLN's "current programs," a network release said.

Since moving to the 10 p.m. hour in January after "Dr. Drew" displaced it from its 9 p.m. perch, "The Joy Behar Show" has averaged just less than half a million viewers per episode.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_joy_behar_show_wont_renewed_hln_confirms214449550/43663978/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/joy-behar-show-wont-renewed-hln-confirms-214449550.html

kevin smith kevin smith black friday jordy nelson amas arkansas razorbacks arkansas football

Theodore Forstmann, big in 80s takeover wave, dies

(AP) ? Theodore J. Forstmann, a longtime Wall Street financier who was a major player during the wave of corporate takeovers in the 1980s, including the battle for RJR Nabisco in 1988, died Sunday at the age of 71.

The cause was brain cancer, according to a statement from sports marketing giant IMG, where Forstmann served as chairman and CEO after acquiring the company in 2004.

A pioneer of the leveraged buyout business, celebrity bachelor and free market proselytizer, Forstmann cut the figure of a swashbuckling risk taker. But in buying companies, he tended to be more careful and conservative than did rivals. Famously, he backed down from buying RJR Nabisco when the price got too high. His instincts turned out right. The winner, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, struggled for years to wring profits from the company.

Forstmann was the senior founding partner of investment firm Forstmann Little & Co., one of Wall Street's most successful specialists in leveraged buyouts, deals financed mostly with debt. The company completed dozens of such deals to purchase a wide array of companies, including Dr. Pepper, baseball card maker Topps, Gulfstream Aerospace and Ziff-Davis Publishing.

Forstmann Little's leveraged buyouts generated lofty returns for its partners and outside investors, which included many corporate pension funds.

In a 1996 interview with The Associated Press, Forstmann said his interest in deal-making was sparked in childhood, while reading a biography of Howard Hughes. "This guy loved doing deals," Forstmann said of Hughes.

Forstmann earned his undergraduate degree from Yale University, and his law degree from Columbia University. He spent some time as an attorney before establishing Forstmann Little in 1978, with his brother Nicholas and then-partner Brian Little.

Forstmann's first takeovers were small ones, as he only had so much money to spend. Things picked up as the 1980s unfolded and the firm's successes brought in more investors.

"I never went to business school. I was basically never in an investment banking firm worthy of mentioning," Forstmann told the AP. "I've always been a guy who had ideas."

He was often seen with celebrities, and dated a few, too, although he never married. Two names romantically linked to him: Elizabeth Hurley, the model and actress, and Padma Lakshmi, the TV host and cookbook author. He was also a big Republican party supporter. He wanted free markets to help reform education. To help bring market-based solutions in government, he helped fund the education of "Forstmann Scholars" at the Pepperdine School of Public Policy.

Forstmann was a complex, brilliant person who was the quintessential entrepreneur, said Michael Dolan, IMG's president and chief operating officer.

He would remember numbers for years and had the ability to spot a company's potential, no matter whether it marketed athletes or made aircraft or soft drinks, Dolan said Sunday in an interview with the AP.

"He had no problem jumping into an opportunity," Dolan said. "That's what makes an entrepreneur, someone who sees something that other people don't see and says 'I'm going to go after this.'"

Forstmann eventually became a big critic of the industry he helped create. In the late 1980s, he lit into rivals for the risky way they financed their acquisitions. They would borrow money from investors in junk bonds. Those bonds are IOUs issued by the riskiest companies.

Later, he complained that there were simply too many people in the takeover business. The result: Buyout firms were paying sky-high prices for their targets to beat competitors, and so might have trouble wringing profits out of the deals.

He turned out right again ? but maybe not in the way he imagined. In the tech mania of the late 1990s, Forstmann himself ended up overpaying for two firms ? XO Communications and McLeodUSA. Both eventually filed for bankruptcy.

In 1988, Forstmann made clear his distaste for dealmaking greased by junk bonds. The AP quoted him as saying, "Today's financial age has become a period of unbridled excess with accepted risk soaring out of proportion to possible reward.

"Every week, with ever-increasing levels of irresponsibility, many billions of dollars in American assets are being saddled with debt that has virtually no chance of being repaid," he said.

During the furious bidding for RJR Nabisco Inc. in the fall of 1988, Forstmann's protestations about the rampant use of expensive junk bonds ? which carried interest rates sometimes as high as 18 percent ? were ignored. Rival takeover firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts ended up buying RJR in what was then the biggest takeover in U.S. history.

KKR's $24.5 billion purchase of the food and tobacco giant was announced in November of that year after a bidding brawl that some considered a symbol of corporate gluttony. That deal saddled RJR with enormous debt.

For all of 1988, the dollar amount of mergers and acquisitions financed largely with borrowed money totaled more than $200 billion.

International Management Group (IMG), a sports and celebrity management and marketing firm that has represented Tiger Woods, Joe Montana and Derek Jeter, was sold to Forstmann Little in a cash deal valued at more than $700 million.

When Forstmann bought it, the company was mostly representing professional athletes. But Forstmann saw the potential of college sports, diversifying IMG into licensing college athletic programs for apparel and other uses.

Forstmann also saw growth potential in China, India and Brazil, forming joint ventures to set up a basketball league in India and motor sports and soccer competition in China.

Forstmann, who cited Nelson Mandela and Abraham Lincoln as his heroes, was a philanthropist and co-founder of the Children's Scholarship Fund in 1998, which focuses on helping parents send their children to schools of their choice.

He was also a director of the International Rescue Committee and helped establish a medical program for war-injured children in Bosnia. He was a trustee of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund and also served on the board of directors at Freedom House, Empower America, the Robin Hood Foundation, the CATO Institute, and the Preventative Medicine Research Institute.

He signed "The Giving Pledge" earlier this year, in which America's wealthiest people pledge to give away at least half of their fortunes. Forbes estimated Forstmann's net worth at $1.8 billion as of September 2011.

He is survived by his adopted sons Siya and Everest, and his siblings: J. Anthony Forstmann, John Forstmann, Marina Forstmann Day and Elissa Forstmann Moran.

____

Auto Writer Tom Krisher in Detroit contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-11-20-US-Obit-Forstmann/id-51ab435985624a6192be6cfd792857ce

rhodes scholarship rhodes scholarship black friday 2011 ufc 139 results adrian peterson chicago bears lee corso

Kenya's new chief justice pushes reform of courts

In an exclusive interview, Kenya's new Chief Justice William Mutunga pledges to deepen reforms to speed up decisions and lessen the effect of corruption under the new constitution, but foresees challenges ahead from political elites.

Stepping into a Kenyan courtroom is like stepping back into time, and not because of the powdered wigs gracing the judges? heads.

Skip to next paragraph

Some cases date back 30 years or more, with some original litigants already dead and buried before they get their day in court. A murder case lingering in court 10 years is common, with poorer suspects languishing in jail and richer suspects released on bail, secured by their high priced lawyers, or by a well-placed bribe to a corrupt judge. Nationwide, there is a staggering 1 million case backlog, two-thirds of which are easily resolved traffic violations.

Kenyans have a chance to ensure that those bad old days are gone, says Kenya?s new Chief Justice, William Mutunga, in an exclusive interview with the Monitor. A new constitution, passed last year, is just the first step. But true reform can still be snatched away, he says, if Kenyans don?t remain vigilant in holding their leaders and their judges to the rule of law, even when it goes against their personal interests.

?A lot depends on what we do this year and next year,? he says. ?We are looking at the next elections as the benchmark for our success.? If political leaders lose elections, but still trust the new judicial process enough to bring their complaints to court, ?then we can say the new judicial framework has been successful.?

But Kenyans must be patient, he adds. ?I understand the astronomical expectations. Kenyans believe that once you have the right person in a position, good things can happen. You have to manage their expectations, and tell them there are things you can?t do quickly.?

Dramatic as it sounds, fixing Kenya?s judicial system is a matter of life and death. In late 2007, when presidential candidate (and now Prime Minister) Raila Odinga refused to take his dispute over the final official vote count in favor of incumbent President Mwai Kibaki ? arguing that judges appointed by President Kibaki would rule for Kibaki ? Kenya?s political stalemate became a powderkeg. Supporters for both parties unleashed a wave of violence that killed an estimated 1100 deaths and more than 300,000 Kenyans displaced from their homes. Putting in place a judiciary that makes decisions based on the law, rather than personal loyalty, is an important step in making sure there are other ways to resolve disputes than through violence.

?I think our greatest concern is that people who have strategic positions can affect negatively the reform process,? says Hassan Omar Hassan, head of the Kenyan National Human Rights Commission. ?Those people are in danger of losing their grip on power, and they will institute ways to roll back the reform of the judiciary. The good news is that Kenya has a strong civil society, with strong public participation. But if we lose vigilance, we might lose the spirit of reform.?

Kenyans once joked that if there was an Olympic sport for creating power from dysfunctional courts, their politicians would dominate the sport as much as Kenya?s runners currently dominate marathons. By ensuring that the judicial system is broken, those in power are able to deprive justice to others while winning important judicial decisions that suit their own interests. But there are signs of progress on that score. In Transparency International?s 2011 rankings of countries on the basis of good governance and honest business environments, Kenya ranked 106th out of 180 countries, up from 147th in 2007. http://www.heritage.org/index/country/Kenya

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/BPIaPcZ68No/Kenya-s-new-chief-justice-pushes-reform-of-courts

cnbc debate family circus spanier jorge posada walmart black friday ad walmart black friday ad rick perry gaffe

Lenovo LS2421p Wide

Green Tech

The Lenovo LS2421p Wide ($219.99 direct) is an excellent choice for anyone seeking a 23.6-inch desktop monitor that will not only save you money at the register, but help cut electric costs as well. As with most affordable TN+ panels its grayscale performance is nothing to write home about, but it delivers great color quality and does a good job of displaying tiny fonts. As a bonus, it has a four-port USB hub that makes connecting to external peripherals a breeze.

The LS2421p Wide is actually a 23.6-inch monitor and not a not true 24-incher as its name would suggest. The1920-by-1080 panel has a matte anti-glare coating that works well and is non-reflective. It is housed in a piano black cabinet with moderately thin bezels and uses LEDs for backlighting. Rounded corners and a thin slice of transparent trim around the edges give the display a sleek, understated look. The cabinet is ably supported by a piano black oval stand that offers forward and backward tilt adjustment but lacks height and swivel adjustments.

To the right of the Lenovo logo on the bottom bezel is a backlit power button and five touch sensitive function keys that are invisible until you touch one of them, at which point they all light up. There are two USB ports mounted behind the left bezel where they are readily accessible, making it easy to plug and unplug input devices (keyboard and mouse) and things like USB keys, cameras, and external hard drives. There are two more USB ports on the back panel as well as a USB-PC connection, an HDMI port, and a VGA port.

The function keys provide access to a variety of settings menus including brightness and contrast, image properties, and options. The image properties menu contains a color submenu with four presets (Neutral, sRGB, Reddish, and Bluish) and a custom mode with individual RGB saturation settings. There's also a Scaling submenu where you can change the aspect ratio, and a NOVO VISION submenu with three video presets (text, web, and video mode) and a split screen mode that displays text mode on one side and Web mode on the other. Web and movie modes are a bit oversaturated, while the text mode offers the best all around image quality. Other settings include clock, phase, and automatic image setup (for use with an analog signal) as well as menu position and menu language.

The LS2421p did a fine job of displaying uniform colors on the DisplayMate Color Scales and 256 Intensity Level Color Ramp tests. You don't get the vibrancy with the matte screen that you do with a glossy coating, but colors are well defined nonetheless. Small text reproduction was also very good; fonts set to 5.3 points on the Scaled Fonts test were completely legible and well formed so you can view document pages side-by-side without sacrificing readability.

Grayscale performance was a mixed bag. The panel was able to reproduce the darkest shades of grays without issue, but it had trouble at the high end; the two lightest shades of gray were indistinguishable from white (a common characteristic of TN+ technology). There was some loss of detail on my test photos, but only in the very brightest areas. Viewing angle performance was generally good but there was some loss of color fidelity when viewed from an extreme angle (another characteristic of TN+ technology).

The LS2421p won't stress your utility bill. It used only 16-watts of power during my testing, which is exactly what the 24-inch Gateway FHX2402L ($229.99 list, 3stars) used. The 24-inch HP LA2405wg ($379 direct, 3.5 stars) used 41-watts and the Asus ML248H ($209.99 list, 3.5 stars) required 23-watts. With its low power traits and TCO and Energy Star compliancy the LS2421p earns our Greentech stamp of approval. Lenovo also covers their monitors with a generous three year warranty which includes on.

With its $220 price tag and cost saving LED backlighting the Lenovo LS2421p Wide is a smart choice for anyone looking to save a few bucks without sacrificing quality. Granted, it doesn't have the flexibility of the HP LA2405wg, but it has a four-port USB hub (the LG2405wg has two) and is considerably less expensive. Affordable price, solid performance, and a convenient feature set are all reasons why the Lenovo LS2421p Wide is our current Editors' Choice for affordable desktop monitors.

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Lenovo LS2421p Wide with several other monitors side by side.

More monitor reviews:
??? Lenovo LS2421p Wide
??? Viewsonic VX2753mh
??? AOC e2243FW
??? Gateway FHX2402L
??? Apple Thunderbolt Display
?? more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/QibeWMCvzIg/0,2817,2396546,00.asp

courtney stodden drake take care herman cain accuser herman cain accuser election day kawasaki disease joe frazier

Sponsored By:

We were unable to forward you to the advertisement you clicked on.

The likely cause for this is that your browser, feed reader, or email application is configured to not accept cookies, or your reader may launch an external browser to view links without sharing cookies.

  • If you're using Internet Explorer, make sure your privacy setting is at medium or below.
    • Select 'Internet Options' from the 'Tools' menu in your browser window
    • Click the Privacy tab
    • Adjust your privacy setting if necessary
      ?
  • If you're using a reader that embeds Internet Explorer (examples: Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Feed Demon), you'll also need to select Internet Explorer as your default web browser.
    • Open Internet Explorer
    • Select 'Internet Options' from the 'Tools' menu in your browser window
    • Click the 'Programs' tab and check the box for Internet Explorer to check if it is the default browser and save your change
    • Close your browser, re-open it, and when prompted, select Internet Explorer as your default
    • You can then click on an ad in your newsletter and visit the site you wish to view

Source: http://ads.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=263a82aa1dae23fa154a5ddc76186087&p=4

tony bennett pumpkins pumpkins occupy wall st occupy wall st the graduate holly madison

Yelp?s Biggest Shareholders: Who Owns What And Who Sold What

Yelp shares sold to ElevationIn February 2010, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman and chairman Max Levchin each pocketed $15 million each in a private sale of stock to Elevation Partners, which previously had bought $25 million worth of shares from the company in Yelp's series E financing. The private purchases was part of another $36.8 million Elevation paid individual shareholders, including Stoppelman and Levchin. It is increasingly common for growth investors like Elevation or DST to provide founders and early shareholders with some liquidity before an IPO. Now that Yelp has filed to go public, these details are coming out in its S-1. Stoppelman and Levchin are still the two largest individual shareholders in Yelp. Stoppelman owns 11.1 percent of the company, while Levchin actually owns a little bit more, with 13.8 percent. Depending on what Yelp's valuation will be at its IPO, those stakes could be worth more than $100 million each (assuming a $1 billion market cap).

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Qk07mE02F6g/

james harrison phaedra parks oklahoma earthquake ben roethlisberger new madrid fault current time judy garland

Ice Cream Sandwich Prompts Users To Join Google , Enter Credit Card Information

joingoogle+One seemingly minor change that Google has introduced in the new version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, could actually have just as large an impact on the company as the various UI tweaks: anyone who enters their Google account credentials into the phone (which means, just about everyone) will be prompted to sign up for Google+. And they'll also be prompted to enter their credit card information for purchases in Android Market. This is a really big deal. Android is now activating over 550,000 devices per day, and that growth has been increasing steadily. This is going to result in a lot of new Google+ users, or at least people who are signing up for Google+ accounts. And as Google continues to infuse Google+ features into Android, they'll likely become more and more active on it. The credit card ask is also significant. Android Market has obviously been accepting credit card information for Google Checkout for years now. But I suspect people will be more inclined to enter that information during the initial setup process of their Google accounts, as opposed to the first time when they go to buy a paid app (when they might just shrug their shoulders and find a free alternative).

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/v5Yt2x1btK0/

kurt warner st. croix st. croix threadworm nick swisher pirates of silicon valley htc flyer tablet

Bieber baby drama may not be over yet

Mariah Yeater may still be out for blood. Or at least a cheek swab.

After switching up the legal team that filed ? and subsequently filed to dismiss ? her paternity suit against Justin Bieber, the 20-year-old mother of a 4-month-old son has obtained new counsel and is moving forward with her mission to get the teen heartthrob to take a DNA test, E! News confirms.

And just because she's not suing the teen heartthrob right now, however, doesn't mean she never will again, says attorney Jeffrey Leving, the remaining lawyer from her original team.

MORE: Justin Bieber Flips the Bird in London

The case was dismissed "without prejudice," Leving asserted. "That means we can refile it at any time...It can be filed again tomorrow."

In the meantime, the Chicago-based attorney has handpicked two new West Coast members of Yeater's legal camp, John Carlson of Los Angeles and Art Kallow of San Diego.

Leving says that their client is still getting death threats and is coping as well as any 20-year-old single mom with "no money [who's] being stalked" can be. So, he adds, it would be best if any future paternity test could take place outside the proverbial confines of the court "so we don't have a media circus."

READ: Five Other Alleged Baby Daddies Who Let Their DNA Do the Talking

"We want privacy," he says, "and we want to wrap this up."

Well, Bieber might want a little something for his troubles, too.

While his lawyer hasn't yet returned calls for comment, spokesman Matthew Hiltzik told E! News Wednesday that Team Bieber will "continue to consider all of our options to protect Justin."

  1. More Entertainment stories
    1. Does Simon Cowell really need to tweet?

      The reality TV/music guru is now on Twitter, and this is a good time to examine whether celebrities should be so social.

    2. 'Dancing's' Carrie Ann defends her judging
    3. 'South Park' pokes fun at Penn State woes
    4. 3 years later, Beyonce reveals wedding dress
    5. Was Ryan Gosling robbed of 'Sexiest' title?

GALLERY: Justin Bieber ? What's the appeal?

After performing on the German version of "The X Factor" Tuesday, the 17-year-old tweeted that he had "a great time," and, "I love and appreciate the fans! they get me thru everything. Im here for them!"

Presumably when he says "everything," that includes this particular pickle.

? Reporting by Claudia Rosenbaum

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/45331751/ns/today-entertainment/

texas judge tom brokaw maria shriver andy irons ethan zohn jeremy mayfield occupy oakland general strike

Special Forces equals Green Berets. Got it?

U.S. Army Second Lt. Christopher Kennedy McKelvy, left, great nephew of President John F. Kennedy, Brig. Gen. Edward M. Reeder, Jr., center, and Army Secretary John McHugh, right, pause after placing a wreath during a ceremony commemorating the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's designation of the name of the Special Forces Green Berets, Thursday, Nov. 17, 2011, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt)

U.S. Army Second Lt. Christopher Kennedy McKelvy, left, great nephew of President John F. Kennedy, Brig. Gen. Edward M. Reeder, Jr., center, and Army Secretary John McHugh, right, pause after placing a wreath during a ceremony commemorating the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's designation of the name of the Special Forces Green Berets, Thursday, Nov. 17, 2011, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt)

U.S. Army Special Forces Green Beret Capt. Alex Ford of the 1st Battalion, Third Special Forces group at Fort Bragg, N.C., takes part in a ceremony commemorating the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's designation of the name of the Special Forces Green Berets, Thursday, Nov. 17, 2011, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt)

Joseph P. Kennedy II, second from left, attends a ceremony commemorating the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's designation of the name of the Special Forces Green Berets, Thursday, Nov. 17, 2011, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt)

Members of the U.S. Army Special Forces Green Berets salute during a ceremony commemorating the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's designation of the name of the Special Forces Green Berets, Thursday, Nov. 17, 2011, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt)

(AP) ? The U.S. Army Special Forces Green Berets get plenty of acclaim ? sometimes too much acclaim. Often it's a case of mistaken identity.

All special operations forces tend to get called, incorrectly, "Green Berets," and many in the military are trying to borrow their job description: training foreign forces to fight America's enemies overseas.

In a climate of shrinking budgets, the Green Berets are branding themselves as the go-to force for counterinsurgency that can do the job with fewer troops than conventional forces.

As the Pentagon divvies up money and missions, the Green Berets want to make sure their job isn't handed to someone else.

It's not that the Green Berets don't have their hands full. Some 87 percent of the deployed force is in the general area of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the Pentagon has ordered their 8,500-strong force expanded by 1,000 over the past four years because they are so much in demand, Brig. Gen. Ed Reeder, the Special Forces commander, said in an interview with The Associated Press.

But sometimes, they feel less than appreciated, especially when just about everyone gets the name wrong.

"Special Forces," means specifically ? and only ? Green Berets, as some Green Berets will tell you through gritted teeth.

Yet since the Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan earlier this year, even the commander-in-chief has used "special forces" to refer to all special operations forces ? from SEALs to Army Rangers to Air Force Special Operations troops. Many inside the Pentagon don't know the difference.

That's partly why dozens of Green Berets, current and former, descended on Washington, on Thursday to mark the 50th anniversary of the green beret itself ? a distinctive part of the uniform that now serves as a nickname. They laid a wreath at the grave of President John F. Kennedy, who helped make Green Berets a permanent part of the U.S. military landscape.

The Special Forces were established in 1952, but Kennedy approved the namesake cap in 1961.

Kennedy saw the Green Berets as key to his battle against communism, using "unconventional warfare" ? teaching local forces to overthrow the local government or leader, fighting alongside them to provide expertise, intelligence and logistical support.

When the U.S. responded to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Green Berets were the first military forces deployed, Reeder said, together with CIA operatives. They provided Afghanistan insurgents firepower, direction and intelligence to help unseat the Taliban in just 43 days.

More recently in Afghanistan, Green Berets employed their other skill of "foreign internal defense," in this case by helping the local forces support the U.S.-backed Afghan government.

That fit into the larger strategy of protecting the local population and fostering local government. While popular mythology credits the creation of counterinsurgency strategy to now-retired-Gen. David Petraeus in Iraq, Green Berets will tell you they have been practicing it for decades and doing it with fewer forces.

The Green Beret small-footprint counterinsurgency is being discussed as a possible exit strategy for the White House as it seeks a way to shrink the U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan. The Green-Beret-designed program to secure remote Afghan areas ? called Village Stability Operations ? is being touted as the way to keep the Taliban out, with far fewer U.S. troops.

But everyone from Navy SEALs to Marine Corps special operations forces have been pressed into service to man the village outposts after getting a one-week crash course in the Green Berets' model of fighting alongside local forces. Green Berets get years more training in language and combat.

The Pentagon's top officer, the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, Gen. Martin Dempsey, has even said the practice of training and working with local forces should be farmed out to regular troops.

"What frustrates me is when people say (regular) troops could replace special operations, and it would be cheaper," said retired Special Forces Col. David Maxwell, who now teaches at Georgetown University's foreign service school.

Not everyone has the skills or aptitude to work in small teams in remote areas with indigenous forces, he said.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-11-17-Special%20Forces-Green%20Berets/id-5091e4ebbac8487f83720854c3d1b08d

live with regis and kelly christopher walken robert wagner robert wagner sarah vowell breaking dawn part 2 breaking dawn part 2