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Troop surge in Iraq

Editor's note: Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski broke the news last night on our broadcast and has written this follow-up for MSNBC.com.

Although nothing is final until President Bush puts his stamp on it, administration officials tell NBC News the president has all but decided on a temporary surge of additional American forces into Iraq in an effort to bring sectarian violence in Baghdad under control. 

While no one is talking specific numbers, military officials believe it would involve some 20,000 additional soldiers and Marines.

Most of the increase would be achieved by extending the deployments of those troops already in Iraq by 90 days, and accelerating the deployments for troops scheduled to deploy by sending them into Iraq sooner.

Click here to read the rest of Jim's report.

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Persian Gulf oil threatened

U.S. Naval forces are on a "heightened state of alert" in the Persian Gulf today after the United Kingdom issued a maritime warning that al-Qaida may be preparing to attack oil interests, including refineries and offshore oil platforms.

According to U.S. Navy officials, the alert has been ordered "as a precaution" based on general public threats made by al-Qaida and additional intelligence about possible terrorist attacks on oil facilities. The officials say however the alert is NOT based on any specific intelligence that pinpoints a possible time or place for an attack.

The British maritime warning, which cautions commercial shipping and oil operators to be vigilant, does mention the ground-based Rastannurah oil facility in Saudi Arabia.

Oil markets appear to have shrugged off the maritime warning. The price of crude is down slightly this morning.

VIDEO: Watch Jim's report on MSNBC-TV.

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Critical crossroads in Afghanistan

In a special report on MSNBC.com, NBC Pentagon Correspondent Jim Miklaszewski reviews the five years since U.S. and international forces drove the Taliban out of power in Afghanistan. Today, as the strength of the Taliban and al-Qaida grows again, total victory appears "as distant and remote as the long-embattled nation itself," Jim writes.

As the war on terror struggles on, the question remains: Did the U.S. and its allies do enough?

Read Jim's full report

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Keeping an eye on Cuba's shores

U.S. Coast Guard and intelligence officials tell NBC News there is NO EVIDENCE that any Cubans are making preparations for a massive exodus by boat from Cuba, but according to several officials, "We're keeping a close eye on it." U.S. intelligence estimates predict it's possible tens of thousands of Cubans may attempt to flee Cuba during any possible transition of power, but there are no signs any such movement is underway.

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Pentagon 9/11 memorial

This afternoon at 1:30 p.m. EDT, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will preside over a ground-breaking ceremony at the Pentagon. The event marks the start of construction of the memorial for the 184 Americans killed in the attack on the Pentagon on 9/11. 

When finished, the memorial will include 184 benches individually inscribed with the names of those killed: 125 in the Pentagon, 59 aboard the plane. There will be no recognition of the five hijackers killed aboard American Airline flight 77.

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Air Force One Graffiti?

Imagine my shock when I received an emailed video today which appeared to show vandals on a nighttime prank, breaching security at Andrews Air Force Base, scaling a tall, barbed-wire chain-link fence then spray-painting graffiti on the President's plane, Air Force One!                      

At first glance, even second and third, the video appeared absolutely legit. As someone who's flown into and out of Andrews hundreds of times over the past 20 years, often on Air Force One, the video seemed rich with precise details. It showed the massive hanger which houses both VC-25's, the military's designation for the two 747's which fly the President, the security patrol vehicles, even shots of the vandals running across a golf course. Andrews has three golf courses at one end of the runways.

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More U.S. troops to Iraq

The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, has ordered that some 700 soldiers from the Army's 1st Armored Division be redeployed from Kuwait to Iraq to enhance security during the upcoming Shiite religious pilgrimage in Iraq. U.S. military officials say the bulk of the force will be deployed in Karbala, with others in Baghdad, to assist Iraqi security forces in setting up checkpoints and security perimeters around religious activities in an effort to deter car and suicide bomb attacks.

The 700 additional forces, which had been stationed in Kuwait as a standby force, would remain in Iraq for approximately 30 days, then, if conditions permit, sent back to Kuwait.

In light of the recent spike in sectarian violence in Iraq, U.S. military officials also report Gen. Casey has not made a decision to resume the overall withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, even though that announcement was expected sometime this month.  The current number of American forces in Iraq is about 133,000.

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Rumsfeld's "Information War"

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld declared today that the war on terror is not only being fought on the battlefield, "but in the newsrooms -- in places like New York, London, Cairo and elsewhere." At a speech before the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, Rumsfeld outlined a strategy for the U.S. to become more aggressive in conducting "information warfare" in the modern era of satellite TV and the Internet.

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One night in Balad

Editor's note: Pentagon Correspondent Jim Miklaszewski recently returned from an embedded reporting trip to Iraq.

The NBC crew and I were already on our way to the Air Force battlefield hospital at the Balad Air Base when in the distance we saw the Blackhawk medevac helicopter coming in for a landing. What we didn't know was that it carried ABC anchor Bob Woodruff and cameraman Doug Vogt. Both had been seriously wounded by an IED -- improvised explosive device -- military jargon for one of those increasingly sophisticated and deadly roadside bombs. Vogt's reportedly recovering nicely. A week later, Woodruff remains in a medically-induced coma at the National Naval Medical Center outside Washington, his long-term prognosis still uncertain. What is clear is they both owe their lives to the men and women at Balad. 

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Journey to Samarra, Iraq

An NBC News crew and I are spending a couple days in one of Iraq's most dangerous cities, Samarra.
In the heart of the Sunni triangle, just south of Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikirt, Samarra has long been a safe haven for insurgents. In a critical test of U.S. efforts to improve the combat performance of Iraqi security forces, an entire battalion of Iraqi Special police (about 800 commandos), was sent into Samarra two months ago to take over for the incompetent, and some say corrupt, regular police force. 

But those commandos are not alone. A 10-man team of U.S. military trainers known as a Special Police Training Team, or SPTTS (pronounced SPITS), is embedded with the commandos to provide training, logistical support, even airstrikes if necessary. The program is considered the key to improving Iraqi security forces and allowing U.S. troops to start coming home in larger numbers.

How's it going? The local police chief was fired Sunday.

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