A U.S. serviceman mans an M2 50 cal. machine-gun mounted on the deck of the...

A U.S. serviceman mans an M2 50 cal. machine-gun mounted on the deck of the USS Mount Whitney, December 20, 2002. The Mount Whitney is the U.S. Navy's most sophisticated command and control ship and is serving as a base for the Combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa. The task force, which was officially inaugurated this month, aims to hunt down any extremists operating in a region comprised of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Yemen, Sudan and Somalia. [Washington fears that members of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network may have fled to the region of porous borders and remote coastlines after the war in Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks on the United States.]