Homeland events this month:

Operation Enduring Freedom - January 2002

• Day 117: Thur, 1/31/02 - Def. Sec. Rumsfeld lists six transformational military goals: to protect the US homeland and bases overseas; to project and sustain power in distant theaters; to deny enemies sanctuary; to protect information networks from attack; to use information technology to link up different kinds of US forces so that they can fight jointly; and to maintain unhindered access to space and protect space capabilities from enemy attack.  Training missions begin in the Philippines.  Homefront: Nuclear plants and water supply systems were placed on highest alert last week after a new threat.  The public was advised of the memo today.  CNN aired to public for the first time, Al Jazeera's 10/21/01 interview with bin Laden.  He said "We believe that the defeat of America is possible, with the help of God, and is even easier for us -- God permitting -- than the defeat of the Soviet Union was before."  Counterfeit law enforcement badges have been selling over the Internet, but the sites are finally being shut down.
• Day 116: Wed, 1/30/02 - 2 more high-ranking Taliban captured in Pakistan.  US-backed Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty begins broadcasts to Afghanistan.  Afghanistan may adopt US currency temporarily as it establishes a new version of the "afghani" and a new Central Bank.  More fighting between rival tribal factions in Afghanistan.  (Yawn...)  Homefront:  A screener at San Francisco International Airport let a passenger go after his shoes set off explosives testing alarms.
• Day 115: Tue, 1/29/02 - Up to 1,200 al Qaeda fighters are regrouping in eastern Afghan mountains near village of Zurmat.  US and allied troops wouldn't mind having it as good in Afghanistan as the detainees have it at the Guantanamo Base in Cuba.  Homefront: President Bush gave his 1st State of the Union Address, saying tens of thousands of terrorists still threaten America — "ticking time bombs, set to go off".  "Steadfast in our purpose, we now press on. We have known freedom's price; we have shown freedom's power, and in this great conflict, my fellow Americans, we will see freedom's victory."  Full text.
• Day 114: Mon, 1/28/02 - Afghan soldiers, backed by US forces, storm Mir Wais hospital in Kandahar where al Qaeda militants have been barricaded for 2 months.  All 6 gunmen were killed.  A US Army helicopter (CH-47 Chinook transport) crash-landed in eastern Afghanistan, injuring 14 of the 24 soldiers aboard.  Wall Street Journal reporter is taken hostage in Karachi, Pakistan, with kidnappers wanting Pakistani detainees to have access to lawyers and families, that Abdul Salam Zaeef be returned to Pakistan, and that F-16 fighter jets purchased by Pakistan in the 80's be released.  Homefront: President Bush meets with Hamid Karzai at the White House.
• Day 113: Sun, 1/27/02 - Special Forces ("the alphabet guys" - bearded warriors hidden behind
  sunglasses) and Afghan allies are engaged in "Secret War" as they move from cave to cave.  With pale skin and big builds (in contrast to the Afghan fighters), covert forces dressed in black fleece jackets and khakis, weapons strapped to their legs or backs quietly slip in and out of the Kandahar base.  The Pentagon gives no details about these operations - may only find out when something goes wrong.  Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, while visiting Camp X-Ray at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, said the captives are not "prisoners of war".  Camp X-Ray now houses 158 al Qaeda/Taliban militants, of which over 100 are from Saudi Arabia.  Homefront:  The Council for Peace of Afghanistan held a meeting in Southern California to elect 10 community representatives to serve on a national Afghan-American council.  1,000 people packed into the 700-capacity hall including many Taliban supporters.  Hecklers and a shoving match led authorities to break up the gathering.  "My Party" virus, from Russia, hit.
• Day 112: Sat, 1/26/02 - Nearly 4,000 US troops are still in Afghanistan as work continues towards finding bin Laden and Omar.
• Day 111: Fri, 1/25/02 - Predator spy plane crashes in Pakistan, second this week.
• Day 110: Thur, 1/24/02 - US troops attack Taliban mountain hide-outs north of Kandahar.  US confiscates 2,000 weapons from Haji Bashar, a warlord in Helmand province.  Kandahar Province appeals to Afghan interim government to halt possible Iranian arms shipments into western Afghanistan.  "If provinces start going against other provinces, that will be the end of the central government."  US soldiers arrive at Edwin Andrews Air Base in the Zamboanga area of the Philippines, the first to arrive visibly armed with assault rifles.  US will not be allowed in combat, but only as support for Philippine forces.  Objective:  to rescue American and Filipino hostages held on Basilan island by the terrorist group, Abu Sayyaf, notorious for kidnappings and beheadings.  US finding that al Qaeda has been getting plenty of support from Iran, including financial assistance of $25 million.  Homefront: Rat Boy makes first court appearance in Virginia.
• Day 109: Wed, 1/23/02 - US attack two Taliban compounds north of Kandahar - one US special forces soldier was wounded in the ankle.  FBI Director Robert Mueller says US forces have obtained information from captured al Qaeda fighters that has prevented new attacks against US targets worldwide.
• Day 108: Tue, 1/22/02 - Rat Boy flown from USS Bataan to US base in Kandahar on way to US.
• Day 107: Mon, 1/21/02 - Donors at Tokyo conference of 60 nations, pledge over $1.5 billion for 2002 towards rebuilding Afghanistan, with US pledging $290 million.  Japan wants Afghanistan to "throw away their guns and take up farming tools."  However, Afghan fighting continues between rival warlords, including new deputy defence minister Abdul Rashid Dostum.
• Day 106: Sun, 1/20/02 - 2 Marines killed in helicopter (CH-53E Super Stallion) crash south of Bagram air base in Afghanistan mountains.  Saddam Hussein met with his senior aides to discuss mobilization of Iraqis against a possible US strike.
• Day 105: Sat, 1/19/02 - Donor countries are finalizing their aid package plans for Afghanistan, in preparation for donor conference to be held in Tokyo Monday and Tuesday.
• Day 104: Fri, 1/18/02 - Bin Laden trail grows cold - will become harder for US to do military operations in Afghanistan as northern alliance becomes stronger and US can't do military operations in many of the surrounding countries.  US dropped leaflets over Afghanistan depicting Mullah Omar as a dog at the end of a leash held by bin Laden.  The leaflets repeat the offer of $25 million bounty for bin Laden.  Al Qaeda fighters have crossed into Iran from Afghanistan but Tehran won't allow US access to those it detains.  Huge explosives cache found in Philippines, after tipoff from arrested Indonesian man.
• Day 103: Thur, 1/17/02 - Martyr-messages tape being translated - Ashcroft appeals for information on location of the 5 possible suicide-terrorists.  Britain unfreezes 55 million pounds in funds belonging to Da Afghanistan Bank and Ariana Afghan Airlines.  US expects to free up nearly $221 million (154 million pounds) in gold reserves and cash belonging to Da Afghanistan Bank.  Homefront:  FBI issues warning of "possible terrorist activity that could use or affect the Internet".
• Day 102: Wed, 1/16/02 - US troops find more al Qaeda hideouts, with one right outside base at Kandahar airport.  Suspicious figures just off the base would "appear in an instant...got to be tunnels."  The cave and tunnel openings were about 1,000 yards away and under some houses.  Rocket-propelled grenades, mortar fuses and ammunition were found inside.  Marines blasted the cave openings.  An al Qaeda informant voluntarily talks to US forces at Kandahar.  US will not lead the rebuilding of Afghanistan.  "We carried the bulk of the military load. We are not going to carry the bulk of the reconstruction load."  UN adopts sanctions against bin Laden, al Qaeda, and the Taliban; drops sanctions against Afghanistan.
• Day 101: Tue, 1/15/02 - US bombing cools down.  Threat still remains in Kandahar from armed holdouts.  US Military is stretching thin as it expands its presence around the globe.  "Iran is increasingly nervous about being encircled by countries with new US military ties and China has long worried about American power.  The military presence worldwide also could further anger Islamic hard-liners across southwest Asia and the Middle East."
• Day 100: Mon, 1/14/02 - US airstrikes finishing "bombing shut 50 caves and leveling 60 buildings" at the the former Al Qaeda site at Zawar Kili.  "Precision-guided munitions from B-52 and B-1 bombers and F-18 strike jets from aircraft carriers were used."  A video found in Mohammed Atef's house (he was killed in November) reveals 5 more terrorists that may be planning a suicide attack.  US Embassy in Yemen suspends services after receiving a specific threat; warns Americans they are terrorist targets - "keep a low profile, vary routines and avoid large crowds".  US continues gathering mountains of evidence.  CIA analysts feel bin Laden escaped by sea the first week of December.  Homefront:  Military may cut back on air patrols over US.  Combat air patrols have not flown over the US  since the Cuban missile crisis in 1962.
• Day 99: Sun, 1/13/02 - Most destructive bombing raids in weeks on cave and tunnel complex in Zhawar Kili area.  30 more detainees enroute to Cuba.  A video tape aired in Australia showed al Qaeda terrorists practicing a "mass assassination of world leaders" at a golf tournament and "an attack on a motorcade" in Washington D.C., while practicing speaking English.  Video tapes in Singapore show a terrorist planning the bombing of a shuttle bus used by the US military by explosives carried in a box on a motorbike; also attacks on a US Navy vessel and some embassies.  US reconnaissance planes and warships have been
  monitoring Somalia for signs of al Qaeda activity and has discussed with neighboring Ethiopa " the possibility of using ground forces against any al Qaeda bases that might be found".  
• Day 98: Sat, 1/12/02 - US continues to bomb massive cave and tunnel complex in the Zhawar Kili area.  Afghans say they need $45 billion over next 10 years to rebuild their country, shattered by 23 years of war.  Security is tight for detainees at Guantanamo Bay.  Al Qaeda links found in Malaysia and Singapore, with 30 militants already arrested in Singapore.
• Day 97: Fri, 1/11/02 - Key border crossing into Pakistan is sealed in attempt to keep more weapons from being brought into Pakistan and the Spinboldak region, just south of the US base at Kandahar that was fired on yesterday.  About 6,000 N. Alliance soldiers have left Kabul over last three days.  1st 20 Taliban/al Qaeda prisoners arrive in Cuba at their new home, the detention cells of Camp X-ray.  Cuba offers medical aid to the detainees.  UN Security Council is lifting sanctions against Afghanistan, including allowing it's national airline, Ariana, to fly again, and imposing sanctions only on the Taliban.  Ariana was grounded in 1999 as part of an "attempt to force the Taliban rulers to turn over Osama bin Laden, then indicted for ordering the US embassy bombings in Africa".  Pro-democracy broadcasts will soon beam across Afghanistan via Radio Free Afghanistan, compliments of 19.2 million US dollars.  US preparing to leave its four Pakistan air bases and move to others outside the country, including Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.  Iran is ready to rebuild roads connecting it with Afghanistan.  Russia called for the end of US bombing in Afghanistan.
• Day 96: Thur, 1/10/02 - US continue bombing eastern Afghanistan al Qaeda training camp and newly discovered cave network that may cover 30-40 acres.  Karzai defends release of 7 Taliban; said they turned in their weapons.  Planes headed to Cuba, carrying Taliban/al Qaeda prisoners, were fired upon as they took off from the base in Kandahar.  So far, seven Taliban leaders have turned themselves in to Afghan officials in Kandahar and have been released without giving US opportunity to question them.  Afghan officials say, "Those men who have surrendered are our brothers, and we have allowed them to live in a peaceful manner. They will not be handed over to America."  US officials fear Iran is harboring al Qaeda fighters and trying to undermine new Afghan government.  Also, the US has begun military training operations in the Philippines with its military to root out Abu Sayyaf guerrillas.  Homefront: New and clearer image of the Milky Way, created by using x-ray filters, is released.
• Day 95: Wed, 1/9/02 - A US military refueling aircraft (KC-130) crashed in Pakistan killing all seven Marines aboard, including 1st female death.  Eyewitnesses saw flames before the plane crashed.  Mullah Omar is somewhere in central Afghanistan, according to Afghans in-the-know.  They also know about where bin Laden is, but "wait two weeks, we will have a more precise idea then."  Homefront: Five bombs found at home of boy planning to blow up his junior high school in Rosenberg, TX.
• Day 94: Tue, 1/8/02 - Airstrikes continue at a huge cave complex near Khost in attempt to flush out Taliban fleeing into Pakistan.  14 al Qaeda fighters, including two top leaders, surrender to US forces.  Also confiscated were laptop computers, cell phones, and training documents.  The three captured Taliban mullahs were let go by the Afghans before the US had a chance to question them.  Homefront:  US Justice Dept will begin searching for about 6,000 Middle Easterners/Arabs "who are no longer eligible to stay in the United States".  There are approximately 314,000 deportable aliens in the US.  Bin Laden is not in Utah.
• Day 93: Mon, 1/7/02 - US bombs major weapons cache in eastern Afghanistan.  Three mullahs surrender (former ministers of defence Obaidullah, of justice Nooruddin Turabi and of mines and industry, Saadudin) and one mullah blows himself up.  An Afghan doctor from Kabul University says peace will come to Afghanistan only after the US leaves.  Out of 100,000 refugees, apparently none have opted to return to Afghanistan after the Taliban fled.  Homefront:  20-yr old Steven Johnson was arrested at Chicago’s Midway Airport after security found four pocket knives, a box cutter, two road flares, and other suspicious items in his carry-on luggage.  Johnson had a one-way ticket on American Trans Air flight 710 for Orlando later that day.
• Day 92: Sun, 1/6/02 - US conducted four airstrikes in the Zawar and Khost area.  Afghans still insist bin Laden fled to Pakistan.  346 Taliban/al Qaeda militants are now in US custody.  Pakistan is holding 200+ Saudi Arabians caught fleeing Afghanistan.  The painstaking task of demining Afghanistan is made safer by using explosives-sniffing dogs; currently 136 dogs are being used.  Homefront:  Military forces from Ft. Hood, TX and other bases are preparing to ship out to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to establish a maximum-security detention center for up to 2,000 Taliban/al Qaeda detainees.
• Day 91: Sat, 1/5/02 - Bin Laden and Omar trails grow cold.  In attempt for more leads, US distributes leaflets in Afghanistan showing picture of bin Laden in a suit and depicting pictures of dead Afghans, saying he's a coward that has abandoned them.  Pakistan deports former Taliban ambassador Abdul Salaam Zaeef back to Afghanistan, where he is now in US custody.  Special forces search former al Qaeda homes and enjoy interaction with Afghan people.  More than 30,000 radios are being distributed in Afghanistan by the US through the Afghanistan Emergency Information Program (AEIP).  Homefront:  A single-engine plane, controlled by a 15-yr old student pilot, crashed into the Bank of America building in downtown Tampa, FL.  More on Tampa crash.
• Day 90: Fri, 1/4/02 - One US Army special forces soldier killed by hostile enemy fire, and a CIA agent wounded in ambush.  Mullah Omar is said to be in Baghran, in the southern Helmand province.  US forces are searching house-to-house.  At a ceremony in Kabul, Afghan interior minister Yunis Qanuni and UK General John McColl, who will lead the force, formally signed the international peacekeeping force deal for Afghanistan.  US military shuts down "Camp Rhino", its desert base in southern Afghanistan.  Considerable loss of life, munitions, and intelligence resources have been found by US forces in caves abandoned by al Qaeda.  500 originally supplied by CIA to Afghan mujahideen during Cold War against Soviet invasion, Stinger missiles are being bought back by the US for $150,000 each.
• Day 89: Thur, 1/3/02 - US dropped about 100 bombs on an al Qaeda regrouping compound in eastern Afghanistan south of Tora Bora, which included training facilities and a cave complex.  Bin Laden may have been at the compound.  Afghanistan releases 169 more Taliban prisoners - some sympathetic to the new government, some not.  Taliban holdouts in Helmand offer to swap Omar for US to quit bombing.  US is conducting reconnaissance flights over Somalia to determine whether al Qaeda terrorists are rebuilding.  Homefront:  FBI extends high-alert warning through March 11, 2002.  A threatening letter containing a white powdery substance received at Washington DC's capital tested negative for Anthrax.
• Day 88: Wed, 1/2/02 - A 12-nation team, part of the 25-nation foreign security force in Kabul began surveying the Afghan capital.  Members from Germany, France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Greece, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Romania met British troops at the force's headquarters in Kabul.  The US Army's 101st Airborne Division hasd been arriving at a military airfield in Kandahar over the last several days to replace more than 1,000 Marines there.  Taliban surrender talks are under way, but the US Defense department doesn't feel this includes Omar.  There are now 221 US detainees - 200 in Kandahar, 8 on the USS Bataan, 12 in Baghram and 1 in Mazar-e-Sharif.  Homefront:  Bush appoints Afghan-born US national security advisor Zalmay Khalilzad, as special envoy to Afghanistan.  Khalilzad, an ethnic Pashtun born in Mazar-e-Sharif, "was enlisted by the National Security Council after his writing on the country attracted White House attention."  Zacarias Moussaoui arraigned in Virginia on 6 conspiracy charges related to 9/11 terrorist attacks - pleads "nothing to plea".  His lawyers entered "not guilty" plea in his behalf.  October trial date set.
• Day 87: Tue, 1/1/02 - US soldier was wounded in the leg when his unit was ambushed outside Jalalabad.  US imposes sanctions on 6 more terrorist groups, including five from Northern Ireland: the Continuity IRA, the Loyalist Volunteer Force, the Orange Volunteers, the Red Hand Defenders and the Ulster Defense Association, and Grapo, a group from Spain aka the First of October Anti-Fascist Resistance League.  US now holds a total of 189 al Qaeda/Taliban detainees from 14 different countries.  Homefront: A pilot flew over President Bush's ranch in Crawford, TX - fighter jets escorted him out of the no-fly zone and to a landing at a local airport.  Bush is on vacation there.