SEATTLE — An electrical fire at the Fisher Plaza building disrupted a server farm that provides service to multiple Web sites — including one that facilitates electronic transactions for tens of thousands of businesses and Microsoft's new search site.

The electrical fire also affected KOMO television, KOMO Newsradio, STAR 101.5 FM and KVI, which broadcast from the building.

The small electrical fire broke out around 11 p.m. Thursday in the basement of Fisher Plaza at an electrical vault — the section of the building where

city power lines meet the building's transformers, said Seattle City Light spokesman Scott Thomsen.

Subsequent power failures affected operations for many Web sites and services.

Among those affected was Authorize.net Holdings Inc., based in Marlborough, Mass. The company provides credit card services for more than 238,000

merchants. Authorize.net's Web site was down Friday morning. However, the company is saying on its Twitter account that most of its services are back

online. Calls to Authorize.net's spokesman were not immediately returned Friday morning.

The travel section of Microsoft Corp.'s new search engine — Bing — was also disrupted. In a Web post on Bing.com, Microsoft said Bing Travel servers were

knocked out because of the electrical problem.

"This is isolated to Bing Travel only, and there has been no impact to any other aspects of Bing. We're hard at work to restore service following this

unexpected event and appreciate your patience," the posting said.

How many Web sites experienced problems was not immediately clear.

Rob Dunlop, vice president of operations for Fisher Communications Inc., said one of the main clients who uses the data center is Internap Network

Services Corp., a company that manages data centers and routes Internet traffic. Calls to Internap were no immediately returned Friday.

The electrical problem forced the evacuation of the building and disrupted the late night newscast, Dunlop said.

KOMO Newsradio and KOMO-TV are broadcasting Friday from remote locations.

Our radio staff is broadcasting from our transmitter sites, and KOMO 4 News broadcasted its evening shows from a deck at Fisher Plaza.

Fisher Communications released a statement saying Fisher engineers are working with Seattle City Light and the company that manages the Fisher Plaza

building to restore power and determine the cause of the electrical problem.

---

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

MCCLEARY, Wash. - Exactly one week after a 10-year-old girl vanished in this small Western Washington mill town, detectives are out in force trying to find leads to help solve her disappearance.

Lindsey Baum was last seen between 9 and 10 p.m. on Friday, June 26, as she walked home from a friend's home who lives about four or five blocks away.

An intense ground and aerial search carried out over the following days failed to turn up any clues, and searchers scaled back their efforts Thursday.

But now Lindsey's disappearance is being publicized in a new way, as folks hand out fliers to people driving through town in hopes of finding the missing girl.

One of those taking part in the latest effort is Duane Norris, who is doing what he can to keep Lindsey's picture out there and to keep the search alive.

"The thing about it is, all it takes is one tip," he says.

Lindsey was last seen at the corner of 6th and Maple heading home from her friend's house at about 9:15 p.m last Friday.

Detectives will be out in force at that same day and time this week to see who's around - and who may have been passing through town last Friday night.

They're willing to do anything to help kick loose a lead.

Fonda Voss is making sure visitors to nearby Straddleline ORV park are being reminded about Lindsey's disappearance. It's a big travel destination and one of the entrances to the Capitol Forest.

"The trails are very big. The Capitol Forest is 80,000 acres. Just keeping people aware when they're out on the trail to just keep their eyes open. It's a big area out there," she says.

At the request of the FBI, Clear Channel Communications also has agreed to put an alert about Lindsey up on their brand new digital billboards through the Kent Valley.

On Friday, Lola Kling of Kent passed through McCleary.

"I am so happy about that," she said of the new digital bulletins. "I'm really hoping that we can find this little girl."

Detectives are asking anyone to report if they've seen anything suspicious, if they've seen the little missing girl or anything out of the ordinary. They want to bring Lindsey home on the one-week anniversary of her disappearance.

A tipline has been set up at (866) 915-8299.

Meanwhile, FBI agents will be working through the holiday weekend, following up on dozens of tips that continue to come in.

Lindsey is 4-foot-9, 80 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes, and was last seen wearing a light blue hooded pullover shirt and blue jeans.

ZENIT

The World Seen From Rome

Daily dispatch - July 04, 2009

God Bless Father Zak

We really have wonderful, excellent and dedicated pastors like Fr. Zak. Sometimes we have the tendency to focus on other points but the truth is that there are countless priests who really care for their flock.

Ever since my childhood I've seen so many generous priests who, like Fr. Zak, "work overtime" and don't even recognize it.

Let us pray for our priests; I have a group of friends who just started a holy hour for their sanctification and for all their intentions. They deserve it; they are God's representative on earth, what else do we want?

Gina Rivera

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Seeking Penance

I asked a 93-year-old priest in Spain why he spent so much time in the confessional (an hour before every Mass he celebrated) waiting for penitents when it would be easier on him if they just made an appointment for a time more convenient to him. His answer was that the time he spent waiting was his own self imposed penance for sins he committed. He celebrated Mass and heard confessions every day.

I never met a holier or happier priest.

Frank Enderle

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Gathering Together

As for myself, I am often uncomfortable calling the parish directly to make an appointment for confession. It's nice to know that there are others waiting in line, and we are supporting each other in this sacrament. In my area, there have been large turnouts for parish-wide confession nights in Lent and Advent. I also wonder, might retired priests be able to sit and listen for a few hours each week, so as to lighten the burden in clergy-light towns?

Julia DiSalvo

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No Capitulating

Good for them ... this faithful Catholic agency voluntarily closed rather than assist in adoptions by gays. An ethical and honorable response in support of the faith by an agency true to the faith. Bravo! No agency should capitulate in this situation.

Bernard Pettie

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Creeping Secularism

In the late '70s, when the Soviet Air Force shot down a KAL civilian airliner with 269 people on board, the South African Sunday Times was one of the few newspapers not to register unqualified outrage. Their leading article said the following (I quote from memory): Why were you shocked when the Soviets shot down a civil airliner? It was less than half their daily average, unless they wiped out a good-sized Afghani village on the same day.

Why are we shocked at the secular humanist attack on PBS religious programming in the U.S.? After all, they are even being "reasonable" by allowing existing programming to continue! But we should not be shocked; they have been encroaching and circumscribing for years. Over the centuries, they have tried martyring, buying, threatening, bribing and state take -overs, and none of these has led to lasting success. The current trend is marginalisation; driving religion and its signs out of the public arena, making religions invisible.

Ironically, this is so often done while ostensibly preserving the "rights" of "minority" religions, as in the U.K. not too long ago, when the state tried to proscribe public displays of Christianity at Christmas on these precise grounds. That Muslims publicly said that the Christian celebration of Christmas did not offend them made not the slightest difference. The old childhood tactic of covering one's ears and screaming loudly to avoid hearing what the other person says, works as well at 60 years as at 6, it seems.

Secular humanism, more's the pity, is being ALLOWED to triumph in the First World. In Africa, Asia and South America, religion is flourishing. Christians, for example, just would not tolerate this kind of circumscription. Why have Europe and North America allowed thi s to happen?

I fear that one of the problems with Catholicism is the number of creeping secularists within the Catholic Church. In days gone by, as Cardinal Pell of Sydney once remarked, they left the Church and fought their battle from without. Having learned the long-term ineffectiveness of this, they have since discovered that the better tactic is to remain and undermine from within.

It seems to me that the only way to deal with this creeping secularism is to go out and meet the foe. If we cower behind fortress walls, they will eventually break down those walls, aided by those within who support them. Bad-mannered though it may seem to those who do not like a show of religion in the public arena, we must learn again to become militant; not only to fight back secularist attacks on religion, but to launch our own initiatives. Winning converts for Jesus Christ is the most powerful weapon we have against the assaults of secularism. We need to rediscover the power of ker ygma, proclamation of the Good News of Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.

The early Christians did not fear "dungeon, fire and sword." Why have we become so fearful in this age? The attack has been subtle, but it is getting more vociferous. Unless we fight back against the encroachments of creeping secular humanism, there might soon be very little left to defend.

Pope Benedict has carried the battle right to them. That is why parliaments have been trying to censor him. He lacks no courage on these matters; we should be supporting him for all we are worth!

Rev. Fr Phillip Vietri C.O.
Oratory of St Philip Neri
Port Elizabeth

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Multi-National Corps - Iraq
Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory
APO AE 09342
 
 
www.mnc-i.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
RELEASE No. 20090704-02
July 4, 2009
 
 
Vice President welcomes new American citizens in Baghdad
Multi-National Corps - Iraq PAO
 
 
CAMP VICTORY, BAGHDAD - Beneath a 50-foot American flag, 237 service
members from 59 countries became U.S. citizens. They recited the Oath of
Allegiance in the rotunda of the Al Faw Palace, Camp Victory, Iraq
during a naturalization ceremony on Independence Day. 
"On this Fourth of July I'm reminded that you're carrying the
torch of our founding fathers from 233 years ago, and yes, as of today
they are your founding fathers," said Vice President Joseph R. Biden,
Jr. 
Biden was here to participate in high level meetings with Iraqi
officials, as well as to participate in the ceremony.
The words, "give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses
yearning to breathe free..." are found on the Statue of Liberty, but
General Raymond T. Odierno, commanding general, U.S. forces - Iraq, did
not believe it fit the crowd before him.
"If I had to write a description of the soon to be citizens in
this rotunda I would say: give me your brightest and your bravest. Give
me your warriors and your heroes who will enhance our great nation and
strive to keep her safe," he said.
Spc. Tamaleilau Mose, a paralegal specialist with the 81st
Brigade Special Ttroops Battalion, 16th Sustainment Brigade, travelled
over 300 km to get to Camp Victory, hopping Blackhawk helicopters and
sleeping in transient tents along the way. All the while, she had a
single mission in mind -- that mission was to become a United States
citizen.
Mose, a native of American Samoa, had not originally intended on
naturalizing here. She became aware of the possibility through the work
she was doing for other Soldiers. 
Her excitement was apparent in her beaming smile and the gleam
in her eyes. 
"Being in the Judge Advocate General's office at Contingency
Operating Base Q-West with the 16th Sustainment Brigade, we provide
services such as legal assistance, which included naturalization," said
Mose. "From the beginning, a lot of Soldiers came in for their
naturalization packets. I didn't know anything about it and so quickly
got to know the whole process. I got in touch with U. S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services in Rome and started sending packets through them
and got a feel for everything," she added. So in April, Mose sent in her
own packet.
Her family, who has lived in Kent, Wash. since 1993, is unaware
that she will get her citizenship on the Fourth of July. Indeed, this
will be quite a surprise for the holiday. 
"It feels great to help Soldiers. I understand a lot of them
come from different backgrounds," Mose said. "It's tough trying to get
anywhere, especially being in the United States without having
citizenship. I understand the frustration of being in the military and
not even being able to vote. Something as simple as that, it means a lot
to someone who isn't a citizen," she continued. 
Mose added one last comment that summarized her feelings about
her participation in this process.
"For me, it's like watching your kids grow up. Me being here
and having helped all these other Soldiers... I feel very fulfilled. "
Spc. Fanfan Mazard is currently stationed at Camp Taji, Iraq,
and received his citizenship on Fourth of July here as well.
Mazard, whose family is from Port au Prince, Haiti and now
mostly reside in Deerfield Beach, Fla. will be the first in his family
to be naturalized. His aspirations vary from going back to school to
becoming a police officer. He even suggested, perhaps, becoming an air
conditioning mechanic. 
"We have no jobs down there (in Haiti). Most of us had to have
people from the States send us money so we could leave and come to the
United States," said Mazard. "I didn't have anything to do there, just
go to school. And when you're done with school, you can't get a job
because they don't have anything," Mose continued. 
He added yet another reason why this was such a relevant step to
him.
"I think it's important because my wife, she's a citizen. She's
able to vote but I couldn't because I wasn't a citizen. But now, I'll be
able to participate!" he said as a smile grew on his face.
"I feel so happy because I've been trying hard," Mazard said. "I
can't wait for that day to come. Today, I don't think I'm even going to
be able to go to sleep. I'm going to be calling my family and telling
them that I became a citizen. I'm happy!" he added, never dropping that
smile. 
Spc. Jesus Moran-Alvarez, an Army artillery track mechanic from
Santa Maria, Calif., joined the Army to be tested, he said. He wanted
to see if he was actually capable of making it through. 
Alvarez is one of dozens of applicants who applied and tested for
citizenship at Camp Victory in Iraq.
"My mother and I are the only two that aren't citizens in my
family. All my siblings were born in the U.S. I go home for Christmas
so it's my turn to put a boot in her behind," Alvarez said with a laugh.
"Something as small as being able to vote, choosing who your
next president will be, it's a big thing to me, especially after I've
spent most of my life in the States, it's something that I've always
wanted to do," he said.
Alvarez's family is from Teocaltiche Jalisko, Mexico but has
lived in California for over 20 years. 
"They've worked hard to get where they're at, to help us
succeed, to see one of their children serve a great country that they
admire. They're proud of that," he continued.
"It is an honor and a privilege to be invited to a ceremony for
citizenship and to receive a letter from President Obama, the first
African-American president," Spc. Ammar Al Khalidi, Iraq native,
interpreter, 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team, said. "I'm making history
and when I have kids, I plan to show the letter to them with pride."
Ending the ceremony was the sound of 237 Service members
standing at attention proudly reciting the Pledge of Allegiance as
citizens of the United States. 
 
Service members stand for the national anthem at the start of the
Naturalization Ceremony held at the Al Faw Palace in Baghdad, July
Fourth. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Karah Cohen)
 
 
 
Service members raise their hands for the Oath of Allegiance during the
Naturalization Ceremony held at the Al Faw Palace in Baghdad July
Fourth. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Karah Cohen)
 
 
 
Vice President Joe Biden speaks to Service members during a
naturalization ceremony at the Al Faw Palace July 4, as Gen. Ray
Odierno, commander, Multi National Force - Iraq, Gregory B. Smith,
associate director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Lori
Pietropaoli, deputy director of USCIS Rome, look on.
 
 
-30-

Multi-National Corps - Iraq
Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory
APO AE 09342
 
 
www.mnc-i.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
RELEASE No. 20090704-03
July 4, 2009
 
 
PHOTO RELEASE: Vice President speaks at Baghdad Naturalization Ceremony
Multi-National Corps - Iraq PAO
 
BAGHDAD - 
 
 
General Raymond T. Odierno Commander, Multi-National Force Iraq speaks
at a naturalization ceremony as 237 service members from 59 countries
become U.S. citizens at Al Faw Palace, in Baghdad, Iraq July 4. (U.S.
Army Photo by Lee Craker) 
 
 
Vice President Joseph Biden and General Raymond T. Odierno share
comments at a naturalization ceremony as 237 service members become U.S.
citizens at Al Faw Palace, in Baghdad, Iraq July 4. (U.S. Army Photo by
Lee Craker)
 
 
Spc. Michael Edwards takes the oath of citizenship in the largest
ceremony U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has ever conducted in
Iraq at the Al Faw Palace, in Baghdad, Iraq July 4. (U.S. Army Photo by
Lee Craker)
 
 
Vice President Joseph Biden delivers the keynote address at a
naturalization ceremony as 237 service members become U.S. citizens at
Al Faw Palace, in Baghdad, Iraq July 4. (U.S. Army Photo by Lee Craker)
 
 
Vice President Joseph Biden congratulates a service member on becoming
an American citizen at Al Faw Palace, in Baghdad, Iraq July 4. (U.S.
Army Photo by Lee Craker)
 
 
Vice President Joseph Biden delivers the keynote address at a
naturalization ceremony as 237 service members become U.S. citizens at
Al Faw Palace, in Baghdad, Iraq July 4. (U.S. Army Photo by Lee Craker)
 
-30-
 

THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT ARTICLE.

THE SOONER WE ACCEPT THAT NOT EVERY PROBLEM HAS A SOLUTION, THE SOONER WE WILL BE ON OUR WAY TO DEALING WITH THE PROBLEM.

Stop This Naive Talk About “Two Peoples” and About a “Solution” 

By Hugh Fitzgerald – JIHAD WATCH

The “two states for two peoples” and the “solution” — should be held up for inspection and ridicule.

Let’s start with the “two peoples.” Who are these “two peoples” of which we hear so much? The “Two Peoples” are supposed to be the Israeli Jews and the “Palestinians.” But the “Palestinians” in question are merely the local Arabs, as anyone will come to realize who stays for a minute to think about the matter and to put aside, for the moment, the incessant Arab propaganda since the Six-Day War that led to the invention of the “Palestinian People” and then to the “project” of their “construction,” the “construction of that ‘Palestinian’ identity” — see Joel Beinin, see Rashid Khalidi, see Joseph Massad. That “construction” is a weapon of war, a weapon of Islamic propaganda. It crumbles, upon inspection, into dust. For those “Palestinians,” or rather, those local Arabs who are now called “Palestinians,” are identical in every important respect, in language, in culture, in ethnic identity, and above all in the shared Total Belief-System, to other Muslim Arabs. They are proudly Muslim or, for the handful of remaining Christians, “Islamochristians” who have internalized the Muslim worldview. All of them proudly share — see the PLO and Hamas charters — the idea of a single Arab people, whose most important identifying mark after Islam itself (and for the “islamochristians” it can serve as a substitute for Islam) is ‘Uruba, Arabness.

The second is the naive notion of a “Solution.” Americans appear to be particularly susceptible to this idea: everything can be called a “problem,” and every problem has a “solution.” No. This is not true, and never has been. There is no “solution” to what some might call the “problem” of human inequality, for example, but there are ways we manage to deal with this, including the legal equality — which is not the same thing as forced equality of outcome — that the American system attempts to protect, with varying degrees of success. There is no “solution” to political hysteria, or conspiracy theorists — examples of human stupidity — but one tries to keep them within manageable bounds.

And there is no “solution” to what Islam inculcates, about which there is no ambiguity. It insists that between Muslim and non-Muslim there is a permanent divide between Dar al-Islam and Dar al-Harb, the regions of the world where, in the former, Islam is dominant and Muslims rule, and the latter, the House of War, where non-Muslims continue to resist the natural and just and right dominance of Islam. That resistance — whether by war, or by legal and political institutions that flatly contradict the Shari’a, or by other means — is seen not as “defensive” but as constituting “offensive war” made against Muslims. When non-Muslims successfully resisted Muslim attempts, over a thousand years, to seize through military conquest more of Europe — near Poitiers in the eighth century, or at Vienna as late as the seventeenth century, in the Muslim view these successful attempts were “offensive” in nature. And now Muslims have been allowed to move into Europe in large numbers, really only during the last several decades, and to multiply, while being supported by every possible benefit that generous welfare states can offer. Meanwhile, the indigenous non-Muslims, beset by economic worries (in large part, from the high cost of continuing to support a system that Muslim immigrants have everywhere managed to take full advantage of, and then some), have plummeting birth rates.

There is no “solution” to the ideology of Islam. There is only a sober understanding, by those who are the intended victims of that ideology, and a making of common cause of all non-Muslims. This common cause should be based not least on an intelligent awareness of Islamic triumphalism, whereby any success against non-Muslims anywhere merely whets, and does not sate, Muslim appetites for further success. For in the mental background of history-haunted Muslims, especially Arab Muslims, are the first century or two of uninterrupted Arab conquests, a past that they keep hoping will again be their future.

There is no “solution” to the Arab Jihad against Israel, or to the Jihad, carried out in the main by non-Arab Muslims, against India, or to those being waged within Thailand, or the Philippines, or in any number of non-Muslim lands. And in Western Europe, the “struggle” or Jihad to push back, to undo, the Infidels in the lands they still, preposterously, consider their own, is not — not right now, while the Western world still possesses much greater military might — military in nature. It does not involve qitaal and not even, as yet, terrorism. No, the main weapons of the Jihad in Western Europe are deployment of the Money Weapon, carefully targeted and well-financed and non-stop campaigns of Da’wa, and demographic conquest. The first can be halted by interdicting all Saudi and other aid from outside, and vigilantly monitoring the so-called “Muslim charities.” The second can be undone by counter-campaigns, designed to immunize those targeted groups. I have already written on what could be done to make black prisoners far more resistant to the siren-song of Islam in prisons. And as to the third, there should be a halt to Muslim immigration, a return-to-sender of all illegal Muslim immigrants, and a stripping of citizenship from all those who cannot offer — without perjuring themselves — loyalty to the political and legal institutions that exist. There should also be other requirements, cultural and linguistic, demanded for naturalization, including a raising of the age of marriage, an enforcement of the laws against polygamy, a monitoring of the mosques to ensure that hatred of, and violence toward, Infidels is nowhere to be found (and that strips Islam of so much that makes Islam, Islam). There should be enforcement of anti-fraud laws, so that the massive fiddling of the system by Muslim immigrants is halted, and those who have amassed wealth through that fiddling have it seized, systematically and relentlessly.

All of these measures, as yet entirely unaccomplished, are reasonable, are justified, and would have immediate and steadily growing support. For more and more non-Muslims are becoming aware, despite their own appeasement-minded elites (particularly in all trans-national or multi-national groups, such as the upper bureaucracy of the E.U.), of what Islam means, of what Islam is all about.

No “two peoples.”

No “solution.” The very idea that everything is susceptible of “solution” puts one in mind of some of the criticisms of American naivete and assumptions that the world is always and everywhere malleable, to be set right by Yankee can-do-it-iveness. This is the kind of thing that did not escape notice from nineteenth century observers, from the days of Mrs. Trollope and Tocqueville to those of James Bryce, nor from native-born analysts of the American character, from Mark Twain to H. L. Mencken all the way to today, with you, dear reader, and with me.

But if there is no “solution,” there is a policy that will make things less, rather than more, dangerous for Israel and for the rest of the non-Muslim world. There is a policy that does not require doing violence to justice, to equity, and to history. There is a policy that will not lead to a whetting of Arab and Muslim triumphalism. And that policy requires getting used to, and not being upset by, the permanent existence of low-level strife between Israel and its Arab tormentors, who will never give up their desire to harm the state and people of Israel. But if the Israelis are not dictated to, not constantly pressured, not made the object of a thousand resolutions and kibitzing quartets loaded as any gambling den’s dice, they can hold firm against the Jihad. And while they do, the rest of the Infidel world will be catching up in its own understanding of how it too is threatened by the very same ideology. And that will, or should, in the end lessen pressure on Israel, and make for an alliance among all threatened non-Muslims, no longer trying to cut their separate deals at the expense of this or that Infidel nation-state — Israel, India, or a dozen others.

No “solution” but permanent containment. That is the way to deal with the matter: Containment.

It worked before. It is the only way.

Hugh Fitzgerald is a lecturer on the manipulation of language for political ends. He writes for Jihad Watch, FrontPage Magazine, American Thinker, The Iconoclast and other publications.

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Multi-National Corps - Iraq
Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory
APO AE 09342
 
 
 
www.mnc-i.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
RELEASE No. 20090704-01
July 4, 2009
 
Iraqi city continues recovery after attack
Multi-National Division - North PAO
 
FORWARD OPERATING BASE WARRIOR, KIRKUK, IRAQ - The city of Taza in
Kirkuk province, Iraq, continued its recovery efforts after a
devastating truck bomb attack in June.
Representatives from the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry
Division, and Kirkuk's Provincial Reconstruction Team traveled to Taza
June 27 to assist in the recovery. Capt. Nathan Jennings, commander of
Company C, 4th Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd BCT, met with Mayor
Talib of Taza.
Jennings said, the purpose of the visit was to assess the
security situation in the city, deliver much needed water, and examine a
tent city that was established using tents donated by the Turkish
government and several non-governmental organizations for displaced
residents who lost their homes in the blast.
"The town has been feeding at least 3,000 people a day since the
blast to accommodate the family members and friends who came to attend
funerals," Jennings said. "We brought the water to make sure the
visitors had enough."
Mayor Talib, who has worked on recovery efforts since the
attack, said water lines leading to the destroyed homes have been
temporarily repaired and water to the city has been restored.
The tent city was erected by the Iraqi Army in a field near the
town. The Iraqi Soldiers will establish a field kitchen to feed the
victims and a fence for additional security. Taza officials said, the
tents will be furnished.
"The tents have electricity for a portion of the day and will
have power 24 hours a day shortly," Talib said.
Chris Jennings, the Kirkuk PRT representative offered his
agencies assistance in the recovery as well.
"The PRT is here to help facilitate Taza's needs through the
civilian sector," Jennings said.
With much of the debris removed from the blast site,
reconstruction and rebuilding homes was top priority during the meeting.
"In the coming weeks, we can start looking at offering micro
grants to help businesses that were damaged in the attack rebuild,"
Jennings said.
Talib said, the families of those killed in the blast would
receive 2 million Iraqi dinars and those wounded would receive 1 million
Iraqi dinars, while the Government of Iraq has earmarked U.S. $5 million
for rebuilding residential homes in Taza.
Talib, who also is on the reconstruction and humanitarian
committee, said there was a plan to rebuild in place and that it would
take up to a year to complete.
"If terrorists knew this explosion would have unified Arabs,
Turks, and Christians, they wouldn't have done it," Talib said. "It has
united us!"
 
Capt. Nathan Jennings (center), Palmer, Alaska native and commander of
Company C, 4th Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team,
1st Cavalry Division, meets with Talib (right), the mayor of Taza, June
27, to discuss recovery efforts in the city Taza, Kirkuk province, Iraq,
following a truck bomb attack June 20. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt.
Jason Douglas)
 
 
U.S. Army Soldiers pull security during a recovery assessment by a U.S.
envoy June 27 to the blast site of a truck bomb attack that occurred on
June 20 in the Iraqi city of Taza, Kirkuk province, Iraq. The cleanup of
the site is near completion following the removal of several tons of
debris. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Jason Douglas)
 
 
Tents donated by the Turkish government fill a field in the city Taza,
Kirkuk province, Iraq, following a truck bomb attack June 20. The tents
have electrical power that are cooled with water coolers and will
temporarily house displaced residents who lost their homes in the blast.
(U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Jason Douglas)