Iraq, the Pull Out

[buglerbilly]

US may give Israel Iraq ammo

BY YAAKOV KATZ

11/02/2010 04:12

Equipment could also be left in Iraq to assist local security forces.

Ahead of the United States’s planned withdrawal from Iraq, American military teams have visited Israel to consider the possibility of storing some of the equipment and ammunition that is pulled out in special storage centers at various locations here, according to senior defense officials.

According to the officials, the Americans plan to leave a significant amount of equipment in Iraq to assist local security forces. Additional equipment, though, would be transferred to Afghanistan as well as possibly to Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

A security agreement between the United States and Iraq calls for withdrawal of all US forces by the end of 2011. The equipment that Israel might receive, one official said, is ammunition, vehicles, and a specially designed rapid cannon – called C-RAM – that can intercept small projectiles such as mortars.

“There is talk that some of the equipment will be stored in Israel,” the official said. “If that is the case, in the event of an emergency we may be able to use it.”

Last month, Defense News reported that the Pentagon had decided to double the value of emergency military stockpiles it stores in Israel to the value of $800 million. Defense officials said that this was a separate move, not connected to the withdrawal from Iraq.

The US already maintains several stockpiles in Israel that include missiles, armored vehicles, aerial munitions and artillery ordnance. The US began stockpiling equipment in Israel in the early 1990s.

The new deal, according to Defense News, was signed by Brig.-Gen. Ofer Wolf, head of the IDF’s Logistics and Technology Branch and Rear-Adm. Andy Brown, logistics director for the US Military’s European Command (EUCOM).

“Officially, all of this equipment belongs to the US military,” the official said. “If however, there is a conflict, the IDF can ask for permission to use some of the equipment.”

The last time this happened was during the Second Lebanon War in 2006 when the IDF received access to US stockpiles and also received shipments of weaponry, particularly smart bombs from the United States.

In related news, the IDF and the Pentagon are close to reaching an understanding regarding the establishment of a Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) maintenance center in Israel. The JSF is a fifth-generation fighter jet, also known as the F-35, manufactured by Lockheed Martin. The IDF is currently in the midst of advanced negotiations regarding the potential sale of a squadron of the aircraft to Israel.

In the negotiations with the Pentagon, Israeli demands have focused on three issues – the integration of Israeli-made electronic warfare systems into the planes, the integration of Israeli communication systems and the ability to independently maintain the planes in the event of a technical or structural problem.

The Pentagon had initially said that it would establish a maintenance center in Italy but Israel rejected the proposal and said that due to its operational requirements, it needed to have the ability to fix damaged planes immediately.

But the US is insisting on running its own maintenance centers, because the internal computers on the planes are classified and access to them is not given to foreign customers.

As a result, a compromise appears to be in the offing, under which the US will set up a maintenance center on an Israel Air Force base. The center will be manned by Americans who will fix damaged planes.

[buglerbilly]

U.S. failure to neutralize Shiite militia in Iraq threatens to snarl pullout

By Ernesto Londoño and Leila Fadel

Thursday, March 4, 2010

BAGHDAD -- A failed effort by the United States to neutralize a powerful Shiite militant group in Iraq has left in place a dangerous force whose attacks on American troops threaten to complicate the U.S. drawdown, according to American and Iraqi officials.

The group, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, kidnapped an American defense contractor last month, and U.S. officials say its members appear to be forming alliances with other Shiite militias to attack Baghdad's Green Zone and U.S. military bases with rockets.

Until this year, the group's leader, Qais al-Khazali, was in U.S. custody. His release came after negotiations with American and Iraqi officials that left the United States hopeful that Khazali would renounce violence and steer his men toward the political system, removing his group from the long list of threats facing U.S. forces.

But the episode appears to have only increased the clout wielded by Khazali, a onetime deputy to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr who has become the leader of one of the most organized and lethal Shiite militias in Iraq, one with close ties to Iran. The failed attempt at reconciliation also serves as a cautionary tale at a time when the United States is trying to neutralize insurgent groups not only in Iraq but also in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

This account of the U.S. military's failure to wean Asaib Ahl al-Haq from militancy has been drawn from interviews with Sami al-Askari, an Iraqi lawmaker who was the government's point man in the negotiations, and two U.S. military officials, who largely corroborated his description.

"They're going to try to target U.S. forces as we ramp up our drawdown," Brig. Gen. Ralph Baker, a commander in Baghdad, said of Khazali's forces. "It will be in an effort to claim some sort of credit for the removal of U.S. forces from Iraq."

Rise of Asaib Ahl al-Haq

Khazali, who is in his late 30s, is a soft-spoken, cerebral man who studied under Sadr's father, the late Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq Sadr, a revered figure among Iraqi Shiites who rallied the Shiite poor under Saddam Hussein's oppressive regime. Khazali was a deputy to the younger Sadr when the cleric's Mahdi Army began fighting the American military after the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion, but he split from Sadr in 2004.

At its peak, the Mahdi Army had tens of thousands of fighters who reported to local chieftains. But its power ebbed as Sadr turned out to be an erratic and ineffective leader. For at least the past two years, the Mahdi Army has in many ways been eclipsed by splinter groups such as Asaib Ahl al-Haq, which U.S. officials say has received training, money and weapons from Iran as part of an effort by Tehran to wage a proxy war against the United States on Iraqi soil.

Asaib Ahl al-Haq became a top concern for U.S. officials in January 2007 after the group executed five American soldiers based at a government building in the southern city of Karbala. Later that year, the group kidnapped a British citizen working as a consultant at the Iraqi Finance Ministry, along with his four bodyguards, also Britons. The group has also used armor-piercing roadside bombs and powerful rockets to attack U.S. troops.

Khazali was among the members of the group rounded up by American soldiers in late 2007 in connection with the Karbala operation. Having succeeded in undermining the Sunni insurgency in Iraq by putting tens of thousands of fighters on U.S. payroll, American and British commanders thought that Khazali's Shiite group could be similarly co-opted.

In fall 2008, U.S. officials began to broker meetings between Khazali and their Iraqi counterparts, including one that led to Khazali ordering a cease-fire and negotiating the release of more than 450 people from U.S. custody whom he identified as Asaib Ahl al-Haq members. About 200 of the men remain in Iraqi custody, a situation that has angered the group.

U.S. forces released Khazali in early January, a day after the group released the British contractor, Peter Moore. Iraqi officials say this turn of events has encouraged the group to see hostage-taking as a way to win release of its fighters.

High stakes in elections

U.S. and Iraqi officials suspect, however, that since his release, Khazali has traveled to Iran, where his family resides and where Asaib Ahl al-Haq's leaders are based. He also has stopped talking to Iraqi government officials and to the U.S. military. And the cease-fire has broken down over the past six weeks.

On Jan. 17, Iraqi and U.S. Special Forces soldiers took two Asaib Ahl al-Haq members into custody during an operation in Baghdad targeting members of another militia loyal to Sadr, called the Promised Day Brigade. The men were on a target list of Asaib Ahl al-Haq members circulated within the U.S. military.

Days later, the Green Zone started getting attacked with powerful rockets, some of them landing in or near the U.S. Embassy compound.

On Jan. 23, an American working for a military task force that analyzes sociological trends was kidnapped in Iraq, the first such case in more than a year. A Web site used by Asaib Ahl al-Haq has posted a video of the captive, Issa T. Salomi, and in recent days has published articles calling on Shiite militias to put their differences aside and reassert their commitment to fight what they see as the continued occupation of Iraq.

The U.S. military now has no more than a handful of Asaib Ahl al-Haq members in custody. American and Iraqi officials worry that violence could intensify after parliamentary elections on Sunday, particularly if Shiite candidates favored by Iran do poorly.

"The implicit threat is that if Iran is unable to achieve its objectives one way, it has militia groups that it can use to turn up the violence," said Marisa Cochrane Sullivan, a scholar at the Institute for the Study of War who has written extensively about Shiite militias. "The stakes are very high for Iran in this election. It's not surprising if they're pursuing concurring actions."

[buglerbilly]

Three bombings in Iraq's Diyala province kill at least 33 people

By Ernesto Londoño

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, March 4, 2010

BAGHDAD -- Three bombings in Iraq's Diyala province targeting government and medical buildings killed at least 33 people Wednesday morning, raising fears about deteriorating security days before Sunday's parliamentary elections.

Iraqi police officials said at least 55 people were wounded in the blasts.

The initial explosion, a car bomb, targeted an Iraqi police station about 9:45 a.m. in a western district of Baqubah, the provincial capital, according to Maj. Ghalib Aativa, a police spokesman. The detonation ripped through a nearby building and reduced it to rubble.

Minutes later, a suicide bomber in a car detonated explosives near the main provincial building, which has been the target of numerous attacks in recent years. The blast destroyed the office of former prime minister Ibrahim al-Jafari's political party. Jafari, a Shiite, is a candidate in the elections.

Shortly afterward, as the provincial police commander was walking into the city's main hospital to check on wounded police officers, a suicide bomber on foot detonated explosives near the main gate that leads to the emergency room.

Provincial authorities imposed a curfew in Baqubah.

Officials were quick to blame the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq, which has carried out a series of large-scale bombings in Diyala in the run-up to the elections.

Those wounded in Wednesday's bombings cursed the perpetrators as well as the security forces that they said failed to protect them. "This happened due to negligence by security leaders, and now I'm suffering from a wound in my left hand," said Ali al-Tameemi, the head of the Diyala health center. "One of my colleagues was killed."

In Sunni Arab districts, residents say insurgents have distributed leaflets threatening them with violence if they go to the polls. Despite the threat, most Sunni Arabs say they intend to vote. They are eager to augment their political clout after the 2005 parliamentary elections, which many Sunni blocs boycotted.

A special correspondent in Baqubah contributed to this report.

[buglerbilly]

As Iraq war enters final act, US readies for exodus of men and machines

Martin Chulov Baghdad guardian.co.uk,

Monday 15 March 2010 22.48 GMT


A US convoy advances into Iraq in 2003. Withdrawal is seen as the most crucial act of the war since invasion Photograph: CRIS BOURONCLE/AFP

Each night, in a giant base north of Baghdad, a team that moves armies for a living prepares for a mission that will define America's time in Iraq, more than any other act since the invasion seven years ago.

Leading them is the senior American officer who will orchestrate the military withdrawal, a man who claims he has one of the highest job satisfaction levels in the country.

"I have the best job in Iraq right now," says Brigadier General Paul Wentz, of the US military's 13th Sustainment Command. "There is no question about it."

Whether that assessment is a reflection of the fraught earlier years of the occupation, or the imminent end of an increasingly unpopular war, or the fact that his staff have prepared so well that they can't fail, is open to conjecture. Either way, the men and women of the 13th Sustainment Command are raring to begin the biggest movement of troops and machines anywhere in the world since Vietnam, more than 40 years ago.

The order to do so will probably come within 60 days of a result being declared from Iraq's recent general election. The count of votes is painstakingly slow – only around 65% of ballots had been counted more than a week after polling day on 7 March. But if, as the Obama White House hopes, the result is eventually deemed to be credible, the US commander-in-chief will call an end to the war that he has previously described as "dumb".

As soon as Wentz receives the call from the commanding US general in Iraq, Ray Odierno, a massive network of trucks, planes and ships will start to evacuate around 45,000 troops and more than 1m tonnes of equipment, ranging from super-sized bulldozers to water coolers, as well as hundreds of different types of machines and weapons that were used to fight and run the war.

The pullout looms as quite a payday for the Iraqi army. Late last year the US government set a cap of $30m worth of equipment that commanders can leave behind at each facility – a 15-fold increase from when guidelines were first written five years ago.

A total of 31m items will be packed and stacked, including 43,000 military vehicles, 600-odd helicopters, 120,000 containers and 34,000 tonnes of ammunition. Shipping out is estimated to take 240,000 truckloads and 119 shipping freighters.

The withdrawal will leave only 50,000 US troops in Iraq by 30 August, none of them in combat roles, and reduce the number of bases from 290 to fewer than 10. Even with the remaining US presence, the withdrawal will probably be perceived, in Iraq and elsewhere, as the final act of the war.

It is a milestone Wentz is acutely aware of. "This will be a chapter in history and we will really try to make sure it's a good chapter in history," he says from an anteroom on the giant Balad airbase, near where his charges are still co-ordinating the movements of more than 3,000 US vehicles throughout Iraq each day. "Our guys are still busy and we like to feel we are making a difference. Success for us will be if we wake up in September and nobody knows we have gone."

That may be the benchmark inside Iraq, where people long ago started to rail against the enormous, slow-moving American convoys that used to snarl traffic, and the often interminable delays at checkpoints manned by US soldiers. But, in the US, another key indicator is more important – not repeating the mistakes of the last American withdrawal from Iraq, in 1991.

That pullout was blighted by delays, equipment losses and incompetence, and has since been seen as a case study of how not to do things.

"We have learned a lot since then," says Wentz. "We don't have those Indiana Jones warehouses that nobody knows what's inside.

"A lot of the bad things that came out of the first Gulf war have been fixed. We have introduced a lot of technology. This is very important to the American taxpayer. We have to be fiscally responsible and good stewards of government monies."

Although the bulk of the heavy lifting is yet to begin, tanks and giant military trucks known as MRAPS are already on the move, some of the pieces leaving Iraq with the units they arrived with and others being readied for another war.

"The equipment will be going south and will most likely be reworked in Kuwait and sent to the folks in Afghanistan," said Wentz.

"Some of the containers will go out through the port of Aqaba in Jordan and also the port of Umm Qasr. Each month we are getting rid of more and more capacity, but, so far, they are largely component parts that have built up over the years."

The preparation for the big move has been dubbed Operation Clean Sweep.

Most troops will fly out of Iraq into Kuwait, where they will connect with a well-established military flight network back to America.

Iraq's main roads are safer now, but the military still prefers to keep as many troops as possible away from the 10-hour drive south to Kuwait. The main thoroughfare down the spine of Iraq, known as Route Tampa, was built to move armies. The four-lane sealed highway was constructed by Saddam Hussein to move his troops and machines to the Iranian front and home again. It also gave him a direct route to Kuwait.

The US and British armies used Route Tampa to get to Baghdad in 2003. And American convoys have continued to use it ever since, despite being extensively targeted by militants who launched ambushes and detonated countless roadside bombs from sand berms that line the roads.

Captain Jason Vivian from the 80th Ordinance Battalion, based in Pennsylvania, is in charge of a clearing yard on the Balad base which will become one of the busiest hubs in Iraq when Odierno's move order is handed down. To him, getting the withdrawal rolling is the pinnacle of a career.

"This is why I joined the military," he says, standing between cranes and rows of heavy armour. "The surge and the invasion were both important, especially for a logistician, but this to me is what it's all about."

[buglerbilly]

Iraq's Kurds could lose some of their influence to anti-American Sadr movement

By Leila Fadel

Washington Post Foreign Service

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

They should have slotted Sadr when they had the chance, the Iranian puppet little shit is gonna drag Iraq into Civil War on a scale that will far surpass what we have seen before..........the Kurds won't be happy to be subjugated by the Shia's either!Expect a BIG increase in attacks on US Troops as well........

BAGHDAD -- The Kurds, the strongest U.S. ally in Iraq and a leading political kingmaker, appear likely to lose some of their influence to a stridently anti-American group that did surprisingly well in this month's parliamentary elections.

Fiery cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's movement -- whose militiamen have battled the Americans and were blamed for some of the worst sectarian violence of recent years -- is positioned to take a pivotal role in the next parliament. The Shiite Muslim group, which had largely been driven underground by U.S. and Iraqi forces, has made a remarkable comeback by developing a sophisticated political organization in addition to its armed wing.

Meanwhile, the staunchly pro-American Kurdistan Alliance has been weakened by a fracturing of the Kurdish electorate, according to a preliminary count of Iraq's March 7 vote. Although the Kurds had been the most important kingmaker in past governments, they probably will share that role with the Sadrists as the two leading vote-getters -- Ayad Allawi's secular Iraqiya bloc and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's State of Law group -- struggle to build a coalition.

"The Sadrists had political and military power that surpassed that of the government, but they misused it and ended up in jails and in exile," said political analyst Ibrahim al-Sumaidaie. "Now, they have mastered their political power. They will find that the political game will give them more power and a wider role than their guns."

In 2006, the Sadrists played a part in choosing Maliki, a Shiite, as prime minister. Two years later, Maliki relented to U.S. pressure and deployed the Iraqi military to target the Sadrist militia, the Mahdi Army, in a successful offensive. But instead of disappearing, the Sadrists regrouped, shifting their focus from armed struggle to political strategizing.

In advance of this year's elections, the Sadrists were among the only blocs in Iraq to educate voters about the nation's complex electoral system. Although they nominated only 52 candidates out of the more than 6,000 who ran nationwide, they were shrewd in deciding which seats to target. As a result, they are expected to win as many as 40 seats in the next parliament, with their Shiite allies probably taking just over 20. There are 325 seats in the new parliament.

As of Monday, 95 percent of the votes had been counted, with the remaining results due on Friday.

The Sadrists' electoral success comes as the strength of the Kurdish coalition -- a bedrock of U.S. support -- has been thrown into doubt. The two main Kurdish parties face an internal challenge from a breakaway movement called Goran, or Change, which is expected to win eight to 10 seats. The Kurdistan Alliance, made up of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdish Democratic Party, also lost seats in the ethnically mixed provinces of Diyala and Nineveh, where Sunni Arabs, whose participation was hampered by violence in the December 2005 parliamentary elections, turned out to vote in large numbers this time around.

The alliance is expected to hold about 42 seats in the new parliament. In the last parliament, which had 275 members, it had 50 seats and was boosted by eight legislators from other Kurdish parties. Goran is considered a wild card, because no one knows whether its legislators will ultimately side with the alliance.

"The role of the Kurds depends to a large degree on what the Goran is going to do," said Sumaidaie, the analyst. "If Goran goes on a collision course with the Kurdistan Alliance . . . the power of the Kurds will be diminished."

The contest for the largest number of seats in Iraq's next parliament is now between the groups headed by Allawi and Maliki, which are locked in a neck-and-neck race. Both are expected to court the Kurds and the Sadrists to secure the majority needed to form a government.

"They are going to try to woo both blocs," said Tanya Gilly, a Kurdish legislator. "Anybody who is going to get those two is going to be able to form the government. Our numbers have decreased, but at the same time, the presence of any of these alliances gives the government more legitimacy."

On Friday, Hakim al-Zamili, a Sadrist candidate for parliament, sat in the front row of an outdoor prayer service in Baghdad and was besieged by admirers who rushed to hug him and kiss his ring. Unlike many Iraqi politicians, Sadrist candidates tend to live and pray in the communities they plan to serve.

"Everyone is scared of the Sadr trend now," said Zamili, a top vote-getter in Baghdad who is poised to win a seat. Zamili, a former deputy minister of health, was detained by the United States for more than a year. He was accused of running a militia through the ministry and was seen as a significant player in the sectarian warfare that nearly crippled the country. He says he was defending the ministry from "terrorists."

The Sadrists have not abandoned their violent tactics and continue to promote themselves as forcefully resisting the U.S. occupation. The leader of the movement, Sadr, has been living in Iran for about three years but retains his influence because of the sway he holds with the Shiite poor.

At the Friday service, men passed out DVDs carrying a message from Sadr promising to avenge U.S. arrests of the group's members. After the message, the recording showed a series of attacks by the Mahdi Army against U.S. military vehicles and bases dating from 2009 and earlier this year.

"Do not be weak. You are in our hearts and in our mind," the message from Sadr said, addressing the detainees. "We will not forget you as long as we are living."

Special correspondents K.I. Ibrahim, Aziz Alwan and Jinan Hussein contributed to this report.

[buglerbilly]

Paxton: Joint Staff Seeking Clarity On Iraq Withdrawal Issues

By JOHN T. BENNETT

Published: 26 Mar 2010 11:46

Before all U.S. troops can be removed from Iraq next year, Washington and Baghdad first must decide what "out of Iraq" means, a senior American military official says.


Issues need to be resolved before Baghdad and Washington determine the true scope of withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, Marine Corps Lt. Gen. John Paxton says. (FILE / U.S. MARINE CORPS)

U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Gen. John Paxton, director of operations for the Joint Staff, said Pentagon officials are examining a raft of issues to ensure a planned withdrawal from Iraq of most U.S. troops by the end of 2011 is done "responsibly."

Joint Staff officials, he said March 26 at a Brookings Institution-sponsored conference in Washington, spend "about 60 to 65 percent" of the time mulling Iraq withdrawal plans.

Officials must first settle on "a definition of what 'out of Iraq' really means," Paxton said.

He said before the Pentagon can begin the planned drawdown, they must have clear policies on issues including:

■ "Security forces arrangements."

■ Military-to-military issues.

■ Professional military exchanges.

■ "Military alliance-building in that region."

Some experts doubt Washington and Baghdad can achieve a standing goal of a nearly complete U.S. withdrawal by December 2011.

[buglerbilly]

Secular strongman edges out Iraq leader in poll endorsed by UN

Months of troubled talks expected to follow as Ayad Allawi ousts Nouri al-Maliki

Martin Chulov in Baghdad guardian.co.uk,

Friday 26 March 2010 20.05 GMT

Iraq's secular strongman, Ayad Allawi, has edged out prime minister Nouri al-Maliki in the bitterly contested general election, winning up to 10,000 more votes than the incumbent leader. He can now make the leading claim to form a government during the months of divisive talks that will surely follow.

Allawi has so far won 91 seats in the 325-seat parliament, two more than Maliki. All votes have now been counted. The result sets Allawi up for a series of showdowns with Maliki, who had earlier shown signs that he will not go quietly. He first invoked his role as commander in chief of the Iraqi military and then repeatedly criticised the way votes were counted.

After three weeks of accusations from both sides about interference in the count, the United Nations last night strongly endorsed the ballot, labelling the elections "credible" and a "significant achievement".

"There is now a solid basis for ratification by the supreme court," said Ed Melkart, the lead UN envoy. "We have not found evidence of systemic fraud on a widespread basis."

The UN's endorsement is considered a crucial precursor to the months of discussions that are sure to be needed, first to win a sceptical public's support for the electoral process and then to cobble together a coalition to form a government.

In a televised address immediately after the final results were announced at 8:45pm Baghdad time, a defiant Maliki repeated his accusations and insisted he still had a strong claim on forming the next government.

"We will move forward …" he said. "I give my people the strongest guarantee about that. There is a demand from the public and some of the political blocs to review things. There remains a strong suspicion about this result."

However, Maliki also appeared to appeal for calm. "I call for Iraqis to maintain order and to maintain public order. We await the final results to be ratified by the courts."

Allawi's victory in the popular vote is a surprise, shocking the incumbent prime minister and his supporters, who were confident of being returned to office. Allawi's campaign was lower profile than any other main candidate's; however, his support blossomed in Iraq's most deprived provinces, such as Anbar and Diyala and parts of Baghdad, which were regarded as crucial to the final result.

Allawi also took to the airwaves, as celebratory gunfire resounded through parts of east Baghdad. In a triumphant speech he said: "Iraqiya [his party] has started a dialogue with other parties already and we will not refuse anyone."

He confirmed he would be his cross-sectarian list's candidate for the prime minister's office, his second tilt at the top job, but a position that Maliki's State of Law list and the conservative Shia Islamic Iraq National Alliance had vowed to block him from taking.

Allawi was prime minister for nine months in 2004-05, leading a transitional government, but has maintained a low profile in public life ever since. He was the only leader of a coalition to have success in courting the cross-sectarian vote, stacking his Iraqiya party with high-profile Sunnis who are now guaranteed prominent positions in the new government.

However, his support base could also prove to be his Achilles heel, with both Maliki and the leader of the Iraqi National Alliance adamant that he will have to accept a lesser role during the political horse-trading to follow, because Iraq's Shia majority power base does not want to allow a potential Sunni revival to hold the nation's highest offices.

In the southern Baghdad suburb of Dora, which was one of the most violent enclaves in the land until early 2008, Bassan Aboud, 29, a soldier manning a checkpoint, said: "I want to shoot in the air to celebrate Allawi winning. He is much better than Maliki. Any cheating that happened in the election will not affect the broader result. It is credible."

Another Dora local, Haidar Dakhle, 38, said: "This is a big step for the future of Iraq. Allawi is the best candidate because Maliki had started to resemble a dictator."

Two bombs ripped apart a coffee shop and a restaurant in Diyala province, which also voted strongly for Allawi, two hours before the result was announced, killing up to 42 people and wounding 65. However, violence has remained at comparatively low levels since the election, which was held on March 7.

[buglerbilly]

More Than Third of Equipment Now Out of Iraq

(Source: U.S Army; issued April 5, 2010)

WASHINGTON --- The Army is now 35 percent complete in its effort to move equipment and materiel out of Iraq as part of the withdrawal from that country.

Lt. Gen. William G. Webster, commander, Third Army, spoke April 2 during a press briefing at the Pentagon, about the status of the drawdown in Iraq, and the buildup in Afghanistan. The Army began pulling equipment out of the country in May 2009.

"When we started this operation we had about 2.8 million items of equipment in Iraq, along with 88,000 containers containing some of that equipment," the general said.

The Army has also retrograded more than 11,000 pieces of rolling stock -- that is tracked vehicles, wheeled vehicles and trailers. Additionally, more than 21,000 troops have redeployed from Operation Iraqi Freedom. In all, more than 1.25 billion dollars worth of materiel and equipment have left Iraq.

"We're about 35 percent through with that now," Webster said.

Nearly half of the equipment coming out of Iraq has been marked to go to Afghanistan for the buildup there, Webster said. Other equipment will go back to the United States to be reintegrated into the Army, sold to foreign militaries, or disposed of. But much equipment the Army will keep, including that for buildup in Afghanistan, needs to be modified before going into the new environment, or repaired, due to excessive wear from use in Iraq.

"The equipment we have has been ridden hard," the general said.

Equipment is now being reset and repaired in Kuwait, Webster said. If it can't be reset there, it may go back to the United States to be repaired in depots.

"We have a large team of experts from Army Materiel Command and the Defense Logistics Agency that looks at all of this equipment in Iraq where it currently sits," he said. "If the equipment is not fully mission-capable or it doesn't have enough life in it ... they will pass that equipment back to us."

Webster said if the Army determines the overall cost to repair equipment is more than the operational cost, it might be scrapped.

While equipment needs to be cleaned up and refurbished before going into Afghanistan, other equipment needs to be modified for the different operational environment found there, Webster said.

"Some of the equipment we'll get out of Iraq does not have the latest armor on it," he said. "We may also have to change engines, suspensions, transmissions as well as adding on the latest armor before we push it forward. We're trying to get it to our troops in the best condition possible before they realize they need it."

To move that equipment around in theater, the Army is depending heavily on the Northern Distribution Network set up by the U.S. Transportation Command. About 50 percent of supplies are being moved that way, Webster said.

"Those northern routes have given us a great deal of relief and additional capacity if any of the routes are blocked by weather or enemy action," he said.

The general said through efficiencies he expects the Army can beat its initial time estimates for moving necessary equipment into Afghanistan.

"The president told us he wanted to move in there (Afghanistan) as quickly as possible," he said. "Initial estimates were that is was going to take as much as 18 months. Through the efficiencies we found and the hard work of the entire DoD team and our allies too, with all these other networks, we now will be able to move the 5,000-plus vehicles that are needed for the buildup by the end of the summer."

[buglerbilly]

Task Force Diamond Head Thwarts Indirect Attacks in Iraq

(Source: US Army; issued April 5, 2010)

CONTINGENCY OPERATING BASE SPEICHER, Iraq --- "Indirect fire" refers to the firing of a weapon without a direct line-of-sight between the weapon and its target; it's indiscriminate and it's deadly.

Eliminating this threat near Balad, Iraq, is a priority for aviation Soldiers of 2nd Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment "Task Force Diamond Head," 25th Combat Aviation Brigade, working in conjunction with ground force Soldiers of 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division.

Balad is located in the heart of what was once considered the power base of Saddam Hussein. According to Lt. Col. David Francis, the battalion commander and a UH-60 Black Hawk pilot with 2-25th Aviation Regiment, U.S. and Iraqi Security Forces have historically been targeted by indirect fire in this area in the form of mortars and rockets since the early beginnings of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Task Force Diamond Head's aerial reaction force operations are changing historical trends.

"[ARF] operations are a platform we developed in response to the ground force commander's aggressive commitment to defeat IDF originating from communities near Balad," said Francis. "The purpose of the mission set is simple: defeat IDF and we have had a demonstrable impact in and around Balad. Since we began ARF operations, we have had record-level lows of IDF attacks."

1st Lt. Beau Lane is Task Force Diamond Head's senior intelligence officer who conducts enemy threat analysis. According to Lane, in areas that had been receiving multiple rounds of IDF events every week, the number of attacks has decreased by more than 60 percent.

Task Force Diamond Head's ARF operations integrate aviation and ground force assets by linking pilots flying the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior and UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and flight crews with infantry Soldiers. ARF operations provide the capability of scouting, transporting, inserting and extracting Soldiers virtually anywhere on the battlefield. They also provide the capability of staying airborne with teams of Soldiers for extended periods of time. It's fluid, adaptable, unpredictable and requires highly-experienced aviation crews.

"[These ARF operations] are the most demanding, complex and dynamic mission-set that Task Force Diamond Head currently conducts," said Capt. Paul Hanson, commander and UH-60 Black Hawk Pilot, Company C, 2-25th Aviation Regiment.

-ends-

[buglerbilly]

Iraq's senior al-Qaeda leaders killed

Iraq's two senior al-Qaeda leaders have been killed by Iraqi and US forces.

Richard Spencer, Middle East Correspondent

Published: 7:01PM BST 19 Apr 2010


Abu Omar al-Baghdadi (Lt) and Abu Ayyub al-Masri Photo: AP

The Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, showed a press conference in Baghdad photographs of the bodies of two men he said were Abu Ayub al-Masri and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi.

Al-Masri, or "The Egyptian", was understood to be the head of al-Qaeda in Iraq. Al-Baghdadi was described as head of the Islamic State of Iraq, a local militant movement closely identified with al-Qaeda.

"The Man from Baghdad" had been reported killed and captured on numerous previous occasions, leading some to believe the pseudonym was no more than a cover name used by the group.

But Mr Maliki said the pair were killed when Iraqi forces, backed up by American units, surrounded a house in Salaheddin province west of Baghdad.

Rockets were fired into the house, killing the two men who were sheltering in an underground bunker.

Al-Baghdadi's son and an assistant to al-Masri also died.

The deaths were confirmed by the United States. "Iraqi security forces, supported by US forces, killed the two most senior leaders of al-Qaeda in Iraq early Sunday morning during a series of joint security operations 10 kilometres (six miles) southwest of Tikrit," a US forces statement said.

Tikrit was the home of Iraq's former leader, Saddam Hussein, and a number of senior figures from his regime.

The deaths of the two men could not have come at a more significant time.

A political deadlock since Iraq's general election six weeks ago ended in a near dead heat has led to concern that militant groups might take advantage to increase the number of violent attacks and recruit new members.

The bloc that won the most seats, the Iraqiya National Movement of Ayad Allawi, was also the clear victor among the Sunni majority from which al-Qaeda has most of its support. Mr Allawi's failure to win over Shia parties into a sustainable coalition had caused resentment.

Mr Maliki, whose State of Law party fell short of Iraqiya by just two seats, won another important battle in his attempts to stay in office yesterday when the electoral commission ordered a partial recount.

The recount only affects the capital, but with by far the largest population of any province it also has more than a fifth of the seats.

Though observers thought any fraud in the election or the count was minor, even a small redistribution of seats could swing the balance of power and give Mr Maliki a mandate to try to form a new coalition.

[buglerbilly]

U.S. Soldier on 2007 Apache Attack: What I Saw

By Kim Zetter April 20, 2010 | 3:30 pm



Ethan McCord had just returned from dropping his children at school earlier this month, when he turned on the TV news to see grainy black-and-white video footage of a soldier running from a bombed-out van with a child in his arms. It was a scene that had played repeatedly in his mind the last three years, and he knew exactly who the soldier was.

In May 2007, McCord, a 33-year-old Army specialist, was engaged in a firefight with insurgents in an Iraqi suburb when his platoon, part of Bravo Company, 2-16 Infantry, got orders to investigate a nearby street. When they arrived, they found a scene of fresh carnage – the scattered remains of a group of men, believed to be armed, who had just been gunned down by Apache attack helicopters. They also found 10-year-old Sajad Mutashar and his five-year-old sister Doaha covered in blood in a van. Their 43-year-old father, Saleh, had been driving them to a class when he spotted one of the wounded men moving in the street and drove over to help him, only to become a victim of the Apache guns.

McCord was captured in a video shot from one helicopter as he ran frantically to a military vehicle with Sajad in his arms seeking medical care. That classified video created its own firestorm when the whistleblower site Wikileaks posted it April 5 on a website titled “Collateral Murder” and asserted that the attack was unprovoked. More than a dozen people were killed in three attacks captured in the video, including two Reuters journalists, one carrying a camera that was apparently mistaken for a weapon.

McCord, who served five years in the military before leaving in Nov. 2007 due to injuries, recently posted an apologetic letter online with fellow soldier Josh Steiber supporting the release of the video and asking the family’s forgiveness. McCord is the father of three children.

Wired’s Kim Zetter reached McCord at his home in Kansas. This is his account of what he saw.

Wired.com: At the time you arrived on the scene, you didn’t know what had happened, is that right?

Ethan McCord: Right. We were engaged in our own conflict roughly about three or four blocks away. We heard the gunships open up. [Then] we were just told … to move to this [other] location. It was pretty much a shock when we got there to see what had happened, the carnage and everything else.

Wired.com: But you had been in combat before. It shouldn’t have surprised you what you saw.

McCord: I have never seen anybody being shot by a 30-millimeter round before. It didn’t seem real, in the sense that it didn’t look like human beings. They were destroyed.

Wired.com: Was anyone moving when you got there other than the two children?

McCord: There were approximately two to three other people who were moving who were still somewhat alive, and the medics were attending to them.

Wired.com: The first thing you saw was the little girl in the van. She had a stomach wound?

McCord: She had a stomach wound and she had glass in her eyes and in her hair. She was crying. In fact, that’s one of the reasons I went to the van immediately, because I could hear her crying. It wasn’t like a cry of pain really. It was more of a child who was frightened out of her mind. And the next thing I saw was the boy…. He was kind of sitting on the floorboard of the van, but with his head laying on the bench seat in the front. And then the father, who I’m assuming was the father, in the driver’s seat slumped over on his side. Just from looking into the van, and the amount of blood that was on the boy and the father, I immediately figured they were dead.

So, the first thing I did was grab the girl. I grabbed the medic and we went into the back. There’s houses behind where the van was. We took her in there and we’re checking to see if there were any other wounds. You can hear the medic saying on the video, “There’s nothing I can do here, she needs to be evac’d.” He runs the girl to the Bradley. I went back outside to the van, and that’s when the boy took, like, a labored, breath. That’s when I started screaming, “The boy’s alive! The boy’s alive!” And I picked him up and started running with him over to the Bradley. He opened his eyes when I was carrying him. I just kept telling him, “Don’t die; don’t die.” He looked at me, then his eyes rolled back into this head.

Then I got yelled at by my platoon leader that I needed to stop trying to save these mf’n kids and go pull security…. I was told to go pull security on a rooftop. When we were on that roof, we were still taking fire. There were some people taking pot shots, sniper shots, at us on the rooftop. We were probably there on the roof for another four to five hours.

Wired.com: How much sniper fire were you getting?

McCord: It was random sporadic spurts. I did see a guy … moving from a rooftop from one position to another with an AK-47, who was firing at us. He was shot and killed.

After the incident, we went back to the FOB [forward operating base] and that’s when I was in my room. I had blood all down the front of me from the children. I was trying to wash it off in my room. I was pretty distraught over the whole situation with the children. So I went to a sergeant and asked to see [the mental health person], because I was having a hard time dealing with it. I was called a pussy and that I needed to suck it up and a lot of other horrible things. I was also told that there would be repercussions if I was to go to mental health.

Wired.com: What did you understand that to mean?

McCord: I would be smoked. Smoked is basically like you’re doing pushups a lot, you’re doing sit-ups … crunches and flutter kicks. They’re smoking you, they’re making you tired. I was told that I needed to get the sand out of my vagina…. So I just sucked it up and tried to move on with everything.

I’ve lived with seeing the children that way since the incident happened. I’ve had nightmares. I was diagnosed with chronic, severe PTSD. [But] I was actually starting to get kind of better. … I wasn’t thinking about it as much. [Then I] took my children to school one day and I came home and sat down on the couch and turned on the TV with my coffee, and on the news I’m running across the screen with a child. The flood of emotions came back. I know the scene by heart; it’s burned into my head. I know the van, I know the faces of everybody that was there that day.

Wired.com: Did you try to get information about the two children after the shooting?

McCord: My platoon sergeant knew that I was having a hard time with it and that same night … he came into the room and he told me, hey, just so you know, both of the children survived, so you can suck it up now. I didn’t know if he was telling me that just to get me to shut up and to do my job or if he really found something out. I always questioned it in the back of my mind.

I did see a video on YouTube after the Wikileaks [video] came out, of the children being interviewed. … When I saw their faces, I was relieved, but I was just heartbroken. I have a huge place in my heart for children, having some of my own. Knowing that I was part of the system that took their father away from them and made them lose their house … it’s heartbreaking. And that in turn is what helped me and Josh write the letter, hoping that it would find its way to them to let them know that we’re sorry. We’re sorry for the system that we were involved in that took their father’s life and injured them. If there’s anything I can to do help, I would be more than happy to.

Wired.com: Wikileaks presented the incident as though there was no engagement from insurgents. But you guys did have a firefight a couple of blocks away. Was it reasonable for the Apache soldiers to think that maybe the people they attacked were part of that insurgent firefight?

McCord: I doubt that they were a part of that firefight. However, when I did come up on the scene, there was an RPG as well as AK-47s there…. You just don’t walk around with an RPG in Iraq, especially three blocks away from a firefight…. Personally, I believe the first attack on the group standing by the wall was appropriate, was warranted by the rules of engagement. They did have weapons there. However, I don’t feel that the attack on the [rescue] van was necessary.

Now, as far as rules of engagement, [Iraqis] are not supposed to pick up the wounded. But they could have been easily deterred from doing what they were doing by just firing simply a few warning shots in the direction…. Instead, the Apaches decided to completely obliterate everybody in the van. That’s the hard part to swallow.

And where the soldier said [in the video], “Well, you shouldn’t take your kids to battle.” Well in all actuality, we brought the battle to your kids. There’s no front lines here. This is urban combat and we’re taking the war to children and women and innocents.

There were plenty of times in the past where other insurgents would come by and pick up the bodies, and then we’d have no evidence or anything to what happened, so in looking at it from the Apache’s point of view, they were thinking that [someone was] picking up the weapons and bodies; when, in hindsight, clearly they were picking up the wounded man. But you’re not supposed to do that in Iraq.

Wired.com: Civilians are supposed to know that they’re not supposed to pick up a wounded person crawling in the road?

McCord: Yeah. This is the problem that we’re speaking out on as far as the rules of engagement. How is this guy supposed to [decide] should I stop and pick them up, or is the military going to shoot me? If you or I saw someone wounded on the ground what is your first inkling? I’m going to help that person.

Wired.com: There was another attack depicted in the video that has received little attention, involving a Hellfire and a building that was fired on.

McCord: I wasn’t around that building when it happened. I was up on a rooftop at that time. However, I do know some soldiers went in to clear that building afterwards and there were some people with weapons in there, but there was also a family of four that was killed.

I think that a Hellfire missile is a little much to put into a building…. They’re trained as soldiers to go into a building and clear a building. I do know that there was a teenage girl [in there], just because I saw the pictures when I was there, that one of the soldiers took.

Wired.com: Have you heard from any other soldiers since the video came out?

McCord: I’ve spoken with one of the medics who was there. He’s no longer in the Army. When this video first came out, there was a lot of outrage by the soldiers, just because it depicted us as being callous, cruel, heartless people, and we’re not that way. The majority of us aren’t. And so he was pretty upset about the whole thing…. He kept saying, we were there, we know the truth, they’re saying there was no weapons, there was.

I’ve spoken with other soldiers who were there. Some of them [say] I don’t care what anybody says … they’re not there. … There’s also some soldiers who joke about it [as a] coping mechanism. They’re like, oh yeah, we’re the “collateral murder” company. I don’t think that [the] big picture is whether or not [the Iraqis who were killed] had weapons. I think that the bigger picture is what are we doing there? We’ve been there for so long now and it seems like nothing is being accomplished whatsoever, except for we’re making more people hate us.

Wired.com: Do you support Wikileaks in releasing this video?

McCord: When it was first released I don’t think it was done in the best manner that it could have been. They were stating that these people had no weapons whatsoever, that they were just carrying cameras. In the video, you can clearly see that they did have weapons … to the trained eye. You can make out in the video [someone] carrying an AK-47, swinging it down by his legs….

And as far as the way that the soldiers are speaking in the video, which is pretty callous and joking about what’s happened … that’s a coping mechanism. I’m guilty of it, too, myself. You joke about the situations and what’s happened to push away your true feelings of the matter.

There’s no easy way to kill somebody. You don’t just take somebody’s life and then go on about your business for the rest of the day. That stays with you. And cracking jokes is a way of pushing that stuff down. That’s why so many soldiers come back home and they’re no longer in the situations where they have other things to think about or other people to joke about what happened … and they explode.

I don’t say that Wikileaks did a bad thing, because they didn’t…. I think it is good that they’re putting this stuff out there. I don’t think that people really want to see this, though, because this is war…. It’s very disturbing.

Image: U.S. Central Command

Read More http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/04/2007-iraq-apache-attack-as-seen-from-the-ground/#more-23793#ixzz0lgjd5MCy

[buglerbilly]

CSA Discusses Progress, Future of Iraq

(Source: U.S Army; issued April 29, 2010)

BAGHDAD --- Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr. visited 1st Advise and Assist Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, on Contingency Operating Station Falcon, April 28.

The visit was part of his brief tour of Iraq to discuss the progress and future of the country with the units key to its future in the upcoming months.

"General Casey is travelling around Iraq, and one of the things he wanted to do was visit an advise and assist brigade," said Col. Roger Cloutier, the 1/3 AAB, commander. "We will be the only brigade in Baghdad province, and will be partnered with six [Iraqi] divisions and three operational commands. He wanted to come and discuss how we task organized and how we are accomplishing the mission."

His visit not only provided the commanders within the brigade an opportunity to discuss the successes and the future of their mission in Iraq with the CSA, it also provided the Soldiers of COS Falcon a chance to see and interact with the highest-ranking Soldier in the Army.

"I think it's a great opportunity for the Soldiers in our brigade to see the senior leader of the Army," said Cloutier. "They don't get to see him very often. The fact that he would travel all this way and we would get an hour of his time is flattering; it makes the Soldiers feel good."

During the brief meeting with Casey, key leaders and commanders also had the chance to hear his opinion on the mission progress to this point.

"The benefit [of Gen. Casey's visit] is perspective," said Cloutier. "He has seen the changes, and we had a great discussion about how things have evolved over time, the way ahead, and where we think Iraq is going. It gives you a good feeling when the chief of staff of the Army says, 'Hey, I think you guys are right on track; you understand this complex problem.' And his perspective is that we are doing it right."

Casey, who is in charge of the overall training, shaping, and equipping of the Army, spent time discussing the direction the Army as a whole will be taking in the future.

"We have increased the size of the Army almost 90,000 Soldiers since 2007," said Casey. "That enabled us to meet the plus-up in Afghanistan without having to go to 15-month deployments, and still come off of Stop Loss. I used to see the divisions that were 12 to 13 months at home, but when I go around the Army now I'm seeing 17 to 18 months as the normal. And that is going to continue. It's going to continue to the point by the end of 2011, we are going to have 70 percent of the active force at one year out, two years back, and 80 percent of the Guard and Reserve at one year out, four years back."

As Casey flew off after his whirlwind visit, the Soldiers of COS Falcon were left with the right to feel good about his trip, and themselves.

"[Gen. Casey] came down to see how we're doing," said Cloutier. "He understands how we're accomplishing our mission. He said 'You guys have got it, and I think you are on track.' Folks back home should be proud of their sons and daughters. The men and women of this brigade are doing a phenomenal job here. They are far from home, but they understand what we are trying to achieve and they are putting it on the line every day."

[buglerbilly]

Sons of Iraq turned the tide for the US. Now they pay the price

Lauded band of rebels helped on the frontline of the insurgency from 2006, in many eyes saving Iraq from the abyss

Martin Chulov, Baquba guardian.co.uk, Thursday 13 May 2010 23.10 BST


Iraqi People, seen through a shrapnel hole, inspect the site of a car bomb attack in Baghdad. Photograph: Karim Kadim/AP

Hours after burying his slain cousin, Muhammad Jassem stood in the scorching dirt of a former al-Qaida parade ground speaking about a lurking foe that he knows is hunting him, too.

Nearby, guards waited furtively at the entrance to the Islamic mourning tent for Sheikh Alman al-Shijah, blown apart last Friday by a bomb placed under his car. The rows of plastic seats set up to receive those paying condolences sat mostly empty, melting on the hard-baked plain in the village of al-Qadoon, in Diyala. It was here, Jassem says, that al-Qaida's former leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, would receive cadres.

"I saw him here in 2005," he said. "He was appointing al-Qaida princes and assigning military roles. This was a difficult neighbourhood – and still is.

"They have tried everything to get us," he added, referring to militants he believes are still doing Zarqawi's bidding. "And they will keep trying. This is still war up here. Our enemy may be cowards, but they are strong."

Sheikh Alman was a leader of the Sons of Iraq, the lauded band of rebels who helped turn the tide of the insurgency from 2006, in many eyes saving Iraq from the abyss. His killers had tried to slay him six times before they finally succeeded. His cousin, Jassem, is also a member. He says he has been the target of 13 would-be hits.

All around the country, Sons of Iraq leaders, also known as members of the Awakening Council, or al-Sahwa, rattle off similar numbers of attempts on their lives with a fatalistic calm. It is hard to find any member operating on the frontlines against Iraq's rejuvenated insurgency who isn't still being regularly threatened by hit squads. Most of their persecutors they claim to know. Many they believe have recently been freed from the now defunct US prison system in Iraq, which at its peak held almost 30,000 detainees. Many others had been rotated through the system during the blood-soaked years of 2006-07. Earlier this year, 15 Awakening members were killed in one night in Abu Ghraib. Things have got a lot worse since.

This week alone, nine members were killed in five days in one of the most lethal weeks the homegrown counter-insurgents have endured. One was slain along with his entire family of five.

Attempts on their lives are becoming such that even battle-hardened leaders, who have known little else but violence for almost five years, are now fearful for themselves and their families.

"I am very worried," said Sheikh Moustafa al-Kamal Shabib, a decorated Awakening Council leader from the south Baghdad suburb of Arab Jabour. From 2005 until early 2008, Sunni insurgents had full rein over the area's farmlands and ran weapons into Baghdad across the Tigris River, which snakes through the area's heart.

Sheikh Moustafa was one of many local leaders the US turned to in 2007 to capitalise on mini-rebellions in Sunni areas against al-Qaida groups which had begun to overplay their hands.

Initially, Iraq's disenfranchised Sunni groups had largely welcomed as reinforcements for a burgeoning resistance the hordes of Arab jihadis who had swarmed across porous borders and sought refuge in places such as Ramadi, Fallujah, west Baghdad and Diyala. But when the guests started imposing sharia law, beheading people on street corners and demanding access to their daughters, hospitality turned into hostility.

"They were wrong and we fought them and killed them by the dozens," said Sheikh Moustafa. The US military locked up hundreds more alleged militants in the Dora neighbourhood of Baghdad alone who had operated with impunity during a total collapse of law and order. "For three years you couldn't drive through here," he said as he pointed out homes flattened by US fighter jets during the surge of 2007.

Militants are not here in the numbers that they were before. But they are active: "Their preferred method is assassination with silencers. But they also put bombs under the cars of leaders."

Like all of Baghdad's 241 remaining Sons of Iraq leaders, Sheikh Moustafa has been given three bodyguards paid for by the Iraqi government. The 1,400-odd foot soldiers who report to him throughout Arab Jabour have been paid $300 (£205) a month by the Iraqi government since the US military handed over responsibility from late-2008 as part of moves to take Iraq to full sovereignty and pave a way for an American exit.

Ever since, it has not been an easy road. The government of prime minister Nouri al-Maliki has had an uneasy relationship with the rebels, who 12 months ago numbered 130,000. Now they are down to 91,405 and within two months of an election result they are set to be no more.

By then, the government aims to integrate all remaining members into government ministries and security forces – budget shortfalls not withstanding.

The Americans came to trust the Awakening Council, with former US commanding general David Petraeus offering amnesties to some leaders.

However, Maliki and his advisers have not felt the same way, fearing the Sons of Iraq are infiltrated by Sunni militants who could use them as a Trojan horse to wreak further terror.

Major general Mudhir al-Mawla, the director of the Sons of Iraq file in Iraq's national reconciliation commission, confirmed the scepticism in the government: "Ever since they began, there have been members of Maliki's administration who oppose them," he said. "They said they are like a militia and they all need to be disarmed. But they have played a very important role in giving precise information because they are locals. They know the locals and they know where their allegiances lie."

In March last year, in a move that underscored the distrust, Maliki's troops arrested a Sons of Iraq leader in the central Baghdad district of Fadhil and a two-day battle ensued. Ever since, he has been reluctant to travel to the frontline areas.

"[Maliki] came here once," said Awakening Council leader Sabah al-Mashadani in what was once another no-go zone in Baghdad, the former battlefield suburb of Adamiyeh. "He was very surprised when he was well received. He said: 'I thought everyone hated me here'."

In Arab Jabour, Sheikh Moustafa has never seen the prime minister, but he has seen his special forces, who arrested the sheikh in January on trumped up charges that he had killed five local men in 2007. The US military quickly took responsibility for the killings and Sheikh Moustafa was released in Maliki's name.

However, the episode underscored the fragility of his position, a feeling he claims is shared by the rank and file. "We are being hunted down. It has never been worse. I have been targeted by roadside bombs six times in the past four months."

Ten days ago, at the back of his family home, a $40,000 pond of fish was poisoned during the night by people he is adamant were linked to al-Qaida. Worse still, Sheikh Moustafa's son spent February in hospital after buying an orange juice that was also laced with poison.

He strongly suspects that he knows who is targeting him. In the village of al-Qadoon, Muhammad Jassem also thinks he knows his family's tormentor.

"That is the benefit of doing what we do," he said. "We know the people and we know where they have been."

In the nearby Diyala police station, Major Hisham al-Jalil, who has locked up most of the area's criminals since 2006, said the spike in attacks was being perpetrated by men who had returned from the US prisons and who blamed the Sons of Iraq for having sent them there.

"They see them as traitors," he said. "They hate the security forces too, but their vengeance is even stronger for the al-Sahwa, some of whom they fought alongside as insurgents. It is only going to get worse here."

With the US military only three months away from having no further combat role in Iraq, the Sons of Iraq are feeling isolated and abandoned. Their legacy will shape the declining months of the seven-year occupation, a fact the US military knows well.

Pressed on the hardships the US-backed rebels are facing, US major general Joseph Reynes, who is responsible for the remaining American side of the Sons of Iraq project, said leaders he spoke to felt they had a national duty to ward off the resurgent militancy.

"I went to Fallujah recently and spoke with a Sahwa leader who said as an Iraqi he must stand his post. They are soldiers on the front lines. This is an insurgency. It's tough. That's why we stand here as brothers moving forward in this fight."

But Sheikh Moustafa feels that brotherhood may fade away as the US withdraws from the bitter battleground of Iraq. "We were there when the Americans wanted us and we have never left," he says. "But there will be no one here for us when the Americans are gone."

From local heroes to al-Qaida's national nemesis

The Sons of Iraq grew out of a series of mini-rebellions against militants associated with al-Qaida that started in late 2006 – first in Anbar province, then spreading to Baghdad and elsewhere in the country.

The initial rebels included those who had been co-opted by al-Qaida, or had willingly offered their services as anti-occupation fighters before realising what that entailed. Al-Qaida were hounded out of Anbar, with American military backing, after over-playing their hand with locals. The then US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus (pictured), was quick to capitalise on the regional uprisings, which morphed into a nationwide rebellion against al-Qaida.

The US military offered many Sons of Iraq members amnesty and set up a formal programme, which at one stage paid 130,000 members, many of them former insurgents, $300 (£205) each a month.

The Sons of Iraq have been credited with a prominent role in stabilising the country. However, they have struggled to win the trust and full backing of the Shia-majority Iraqi government, which fears the Sons of Iraq ranks have been infiltrated by Sunni militants.

The Iraqi government has pledged to give all members jobs in either the security forces, or government departments. However, as the project winds down, Sons of Iraq members are being hunted down by insurgents who have been freed from US and Iraqi prisons and are determined to avenge old scores.

[buglerbilly]

Iraq prison system blamed for big rise in al-Qaida violenceGeneral claims 80% of prisoners released from US-run Camp Bucca have rejoined terrorists

Martin Chulov in Baghdad guardian.co.uk, Sunday 23 May 2010 20.06 BST


Shotgun-wielding US troops walk along a corridor separating detainees at Camp Bucca in Iraq. Photograph: David Furst/AFP/Getty Images

Iraqi security chiefs are blaming a big rise in violence this year on detainees released from the contentious American prison system who used their time in custody to appoint new leaders and plot mayhem after their release.

Interviews of military and police officials throughout Baghdad and the increasingly restive areas of Anbar and Diyala have painted a picture of a country that is again nearing a tipping point, with security officers and checkpoints under almost daily attack from a revitalised Sunni insurgency that gathered steam behind the walls of the two US prisons in Iraq.

The scenario is in sharp contrast to a US military assessment, which last year claimed that only 4% of the 88,000 detainees held since 2003 have been accused of committing new crimes after their release.

Major General Ahmed Obeidi al-Saedi, who leads the sixth division of the Iraqi army in south and west Baghdad, claims as many as 80% of detainees have either aligned, or realigned with militant groups, mostly to al-Qaida in Iraq, or its affiliates. He said 86 former inmates of the US prisons, known as Camp Cropper and Camp Bucca, have been rearrested since 10 March.

"I say to you emphatically that 80% who have been released from Bucca have returned to work with the terrorists and have in fact become stronger," said General Saedi, whose area of command has been increasingly under attack over the past two months.

"We ask them, did they finish their time in prison rehabilitated psychologically and they say 'no, it was the perfect environment to reorganise al-Qaida'."

Authorities have become increasingly concerned at the type of recent violence, as much as the rising number of attacks, with numerous cases of families being killed in areas that three years ago were seen as lost causes.

Some of the carnage has stirred ghosts of the same lethal and lawless period at a time when the security gains of the past two years are being undermined by a lingering political vacuum.

Last week, in a village in the Diyala province, 60 miles north of Baghdad, a76-year-old Shia, Abdullah Jassim Shakour, was beheaded in his home. Three days earlier he had spoken out against a resurgent al-Qaida presence.

In the Diyala police station that has detained one of the alleged killers, Captain Aamar Ahmed confirmed he recently had been released from US custody. "I can tell you that 100%," he said. "He had not been out of prison long. There are many others like him."

A second man, Yassir Sami, also a former US detainee, was then presented. He was released in early 2009 after being picked up during a US security sweep and has since allegedly confessed to a role in the first of a series of al-Qaida bombings that destroyed the foreign and finance ministries in Baghdad on 19 August last year.

Of greater concern to Iraqi authorities are revelations that the men accused of being the principals behind the August blasts and the four waves of savage attacks that followed, are also US prison veterans.

One of them, Munaf Abdul-Rahim al-Rawi, has told his jailers that much of the key planning behind the carnage was done in prison.

"He said 'we appointed our leaders inside Bucca'," said Saedi. "It was a very useful time for them.

"The head of finance for al-Qaida, Ali Naema al-Salmoon, was also in there with him. We caught him two weeks ago and he had been funding the bombings ever since he was released in 2009." The US is handing over the last of its two prisons to the Iraqi government. Camp Bucca in southern Iraq closed last August and Camp Cropper, near Baghdad airport, is now down to 3,000 inmates. At their peak, the two prisons held as many as 25,000 detainees.

An adviser to Major General Nelson Cannon, deputy commander of the US detention programme said all US detainees were first handed over to Iraqi authorities before being freed.

"All of them are then being released by the Iraqi government on the strength of the cases against them," he said. "We are constantly asking Iraqi parliamentarians or leaders to visit our processing centre and understand how we do things. It is very easy to blame the American side, but there are two parties involved and the Iraqis are heavily consulted."

Additional reporting: Enas Ibrahim

[buglerbilly]

Ares

A Defense Technology Blog

Preparing for the Iraq Drawdown

Posted by John M. Doyle at 5/26/2010 3:10 PM CDT

The U.S. military is continuing with plans to draw down forces in Iraq to 50,000 troops by September. Meanwhile, Iraqi politicians are still wrangling over forming a coalition government after the confused results of the March 7 elections. And violence is on the rise, especially in Diyala Province north of Baghdad.



U.S. Army troops provide security for an Iraqi Army vehicle in Diyala Province. (photo by Pfc. Adrian Muehe)However, one bright spot in all the uncertainty say U.S. officials in northern Iraq is the growing cooperation among the Iraqi Army, Iraqi police and the Kurdish defense force, known as the peshmerga.

Joint raids by U.S., Iraqi and Kurdish security forces have uncovered several caches of weapons – as well as a thriving arms smuggling business along Iraq's northeast border with Iran. But a top U.S. Army intelligence officer says there's been no indication that the arms are coming from Iranian government sources.

“There are profiteers selling weapons to both Sunis and Shia,” Lt. Col. Michael Marti, the intelligence chief for the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division, told a recent bloggers roundtable. “We look very closely at any cache that we find and subsequently destroy,” to determine if it is was looted from the Saddam Hussein regime's pre-war stockpiles or brought in from outside Iraq.

As far as Iranian involvement: “We get very little reporting of the specifics, of lethal munitions coming across the Iranian border. The information just isn't there,” Marti says.

But he adds: “I know that on the Iranian border, we haven't interdicted a smuggling operation that's been bringing lethal munitions across."

Marti is also in charge of intelligence for Task Force Marne, a unit of about 21,000 troops responsible for U.S. operations in northern Iraq. He spoke with bloggers by phone from Contingency Operating Base Speicher, in Tikrit, Iraq last week, discussing a series of joint U.S.-Iraqi-Kurdish raids – known as Operation Chelan – that have captured stockpiles of arms and at least eight insurgents -- some believed to be mid-level leaders of al Qaeda in Iraq for Diyala Province.

He says small arms, including indirect fire mortar systems, artillery rounds and some anti-tank missiles have been recovered in the raids. And the intelligence gained in each raid has driven subsequent operations. The focus of the operations have been al Qaeda in Iraq, specifically in Diyala province because the area has been targeted by extremists seeking to stir sectarian tension among the wary -- if not openly hostile -- Sunni and Shia communities.

The operations have usually included a brigade-sized unit of the Iraqi Army and peshmerga troops and a battalion of U.S. forces, operating in an advisory capacity. Marti says cooperation went well among the U.S., Kurdish forces and the Iraqi army units – which usually are made up of 60 percent Sunni and 40 percent Shia troops. He called the cooperation “very important” in light of the planned decrease in U.S. forces. “It wasn't easy to conduct the operation. I mean, there are some cultural barriers and communication barriers to break through," Marti said.

[buglerbilly]

U.S. withdrawal from Iraq will be on time, Vice President Biden says

By Scott Wilson

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, May 27, 2010

President Obama called Iraq his predecessor's war of choice. Now it is his war to exit -- and quickly.

The challenge for Obama, whose opposition to the Iraq invasion helped propel him to the presidency, is sticking to his timeline for a U.S. military withdrawal despite a jump in violence and continued wrangling among Iraqi politicians over who will lead the country.

The sensitive departure is being managed by Vice President Biden, who says the U.S. military will reduce troop levels to 50,000 this summer, even if no new Iraqi government takes shape.

"It's going to be painful; there's going to be ups and downs," Biden said in a 40-minute interview in his West Wing office this month. "But I do think the end result is going to be that we're going to be able to keep our commitment."

White House officials say Iraqis are increasingly relying on politics, rather than violence, to deal with disputes, diminishing the need for U.S. forces. But the situation on the ground demonstrates that Iraq remains fractured.

Rival factions have yet to establish a new government, nearly three months after close national elections, and politicians have begun warning of a power vacuum as neighboring Iran works to influence the outcome. Adel Abdul Mahdi, one of Iraq's vice presidents, urged all parties this month to agree quickly on a new leader to head off attempts by "terrorist gangs to use the circumstances in the country to hurt the Iraqi people and the armed forces."

Some recent attacks have had sectarian hallmarks that Iraqis fear could revive the divisions within their security forces that existed during the 2006 civil war. Iraq's factions also have yet to resolve such essential long-term issues as how to share oil revenue among regions and how to settle territorial disputes rooted in history.

Speaking Saturday at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., Obama said that the U.S. commitment to Iraq endures and that, as U.S. troops depart, "a strong American civilian presence will help Iraqis forge political and economic progress." He also reiterated his definition of success: "an Iraq that provides no haven to terrorists; a democratic Iraq that is sovereign and stable and self-reliant." On the day Obama spoke, the number of U.S. troops in Iraq dipped below the number in Afghanistan for the first time since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Biden, once a leading skeptic of U.S. involvement in Iraq, is now among the country's most ardent cheerleaders. He is seeking to balance Obama's determination to leave Iraq against growing concerns among some conservative critics that the current circumstances make a swift U.S. withdrawal too dangerous.

Senior administration officials counter that Iraq's fledgling democracy, now defended by improved domestic security forces, is sturdy enough to solve the country's problems with far fewer U.S. troops on hand.

The Afghanistan factor

But even some of the administration's supporters say that analysis is grounded more in the rising demands of the war in Afghanistan -- where U.S. troop levels are expected to reach 100,000 by the end of the summer -- than in an impartial assessment of Iraq's progress. The withdrawal plan calls for reducing U.S. troops in Iraq from 92,000 today to 50,000 by the end of August, down from a peak of about 170,000 during 2007. The last U.S. troops are scheduled to exit at the end of 2011.

"Leaving Iraq is not only a public relations issue, but a recovery-of-force issue," said John A. Nagl, president of the Center for a New American Security, who served as an Army officer in Iraq and helped write the Army's counterinsurgency field manual. "The Army has not recovered from its surge into Iraq, and now it is surging in Afghanistan, which hasn't turned the corner at all."

"There are many connections between the two wars," Nagl said, "and the fact we only have one Army is one of them. We just don't have enough Army to do everything we want it to do right now."

In a 2006 commentary published in the New York Times, Biden warned that Iraq was heading toward partition along ethnic and sectarian lines because of the Bush administration's "profound strategic misjudgments." He wrote that "President Bush does not have a strategy for victory in Iraq," hoping only to "prevent defeat and pass the problem along to his successor."

The problem now sits with Biden, whom Obama made his point man on Iraq soon after taking office. The vice president holds a monthly review session in the situation room modeled after the one Obama runs on Afghanistan. White House aides emphasize that the subject of Iraq comes up frequently in the president and vice president's weekly meetings.

But Biden's selection to manage Iraq policy has sent an unintended message to some outside the administration.

"It gives the impression of second priority, not only to the people of Iraq but also to the NGOs and the United Nations teams working there," said Stephanie Sanok, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who returned in December from a year in Iraq. "Those people are asking: 'Why don't we get the president at this important moment? Why don't we get the highest-level support?' Vice President Biden is a very powerful man, but he's not the top."

As a former longtime chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden has a personal history with Iraq's leaders, something he has drawn on to help them work through vexing issues. One senior adviser said Biden "talks to them pol to pol" and has made it clear, when he has needed to, that he has Obama's ear.

Last fall, during a deadlock over a new election law that cast parliamentary voting into doubt, Biden visited Baghdad and the Kurdish city of Irbil, hoping to broker an agreement. He fell short.

So he turned to Obama, asking the president to call Massoud Barzani, president of Iraq's Kurdish region, with a request to back a political compromise. A day after the 20-minute phone call with Obama, Barzani did just that.

"He got them right up to the edge, but not over," said a senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the incident. "To Biden, this was all about timing."

Feeling vindicated

Biden's 2006 opinion piece, which he co-wrote with Leslie H. Gelb, proposed the creation of "three largely autonomous regions with a viable central government in Baghdad," a federal system he said is precisely the shape of the current arrangement. Yet Biden was forced throughout the 2008 campaign to defend the idea, which his political rivals cast as a call to break up the country.

Biden said he feels largely vindicated today. But he acknowledges that Iraq has moved "beyond what I thought at the time" because, he said, the various ethnic and sectarian-based parties all see value in participating in politics.

"The glue that holds the country together is oil," Biden said. "There's a lot of oil, the promise of it is real, there's a lot of gas, and it's all over the country. Everyone has figured out that getting a legitimate share of a much bigger pie is a pretty good deal."

Biden said he is confident that Iraqi leaders will agree to a government accepted by the electorate before the end of August.

Even if the parties are unsuccessful, he said, Iraq's interim government is functioning well. He dismissed the predictions of escalating violence as the same "sky is falling" worries that accompanied the election-law stalemate and other issues that Iraqi leaders have resolved.

Biden said Gen. Ray Odierno, the commander in Iraq, has never asked the administration to postpone the overall departure schedule. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told reporters last Thursday that Odierno "delayed some withdrawals a little bit" after the Iraqi elections were rescheduled to March, but Gates said he has "every expectation we will meet the 50,000 as of the first of September."

"I don't see anything that's in the realm of probability -- I guess you could come up with a scenario, but I can't think of any rational one based on what's on the ground -- that would lead us to think we need" more time, Biden said. "And, by the way, 50,000 troops is a lot of troops."

Next month, Biden will run a session focusing on the quickening shift of the relationship between the U.S. and Iraqi governments from a mostly military to a mostly civilian one, including stepped-up police training and other programs designed to strengthen the Iraqi state.

"We're long-term invested in this working for them, not long-term invested in being able to be characterized as occupiers," Biden said. "This is not draw down and draw out; this is draw down the military, ramp up the civilian intercourse with the Iraqis."

[buglerbilly]

Gagged Iraq report: The military should understand by now the merits of openness

Having the confidence to admit mistakes is one way to make progress – and there is much relevance in candour for the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan


British airmen conduct a dawn airborne counter insurgency patrol in Basra, Iraq, last year. Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images

Should the military be wasting its time squabbling over whether or not to circulate, let alone publish, an internal ministry of defence review of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, as Richard Norton-Taylor reports in today's Guardian? Probably not.

It is not as if the world does not know that everything except the brief ground war that toppled Saddam Hussein was pretty shambolic. The Chilcot inquiry, one of a near-perpetual series, is currently recrossing the scarred and muddy terrain like soldiers on the Western Front.

So Lieutenant General Chris Brown's reportedly scathing analysis of the failure both adequately to prepare for the invasion and to manage the occupation will doubtless embarrass military and civilian planners, but is unlikely to change the way the war is generally seen: as a costly military and diplomatic failure.

As with the banking crisis of 2007-09, the west – especially the United States and its Anglo-Saxon junior partner – will live with the consequences for a long time. In the past decade, the balance of global power has tilted towards the east for the first time in 600 years.

Here are two prime contributors to that loss of momentum and prestige, even for the still-mighty US.

One British general's take on the issue won't matter much, though the current dispute – and attendant media leaks – must reflect internal MoD politics and the arrival of a new government bent on military retrenchment of the kind Liam Fox seems to be proposing.

But having the confidence to admit mistakes publicly and take remedial action is one way to make progress and avoid their repetition, especially when the Iraq conflict in question is safely over, at least for British troops.

Martin Chulov reported from Baghdad this week that the Sunni "resistance", a word favoured from the safety of Islington, is again murdering fellow Iraqis at an alarming rate.

In any case there is relevance in candour, however limited, for the conflict in Afghanistan, still being waged with an uncertain future.

I was reminded of the merits of as much openness as possible by startling evidence of conflict between the military and the politicians during the much bloodier existential conflict of the first world war, which I stumbled on in recent reading. Both sides had a point.

The army – which was bearing the brunt of the war in assorted land theatres, notably Flanders – complained about the lack of kit, notably shells, which remained in scandalously short supply until at least 1917 and brought down Asquith's government.

The politicians – by then locked in a cross-party coalition, led by Liberal David Lloyd George – complained about incompetent and unimaginative generals, not just Field Marshall Douglas Haig, but him most of all.

They lacked the nerve to sack them when they still commanded popular and media support and were always promising a breakthrough. Occasionally it came, but reserves were lacking or in the wrong place, and the ground was lost.

The attempt to break the stalemate on the Western Front by taking Turkey and – with luck – Austria out of the war via the attack on the Dardanelles (1915) was only one such shambles. The navy screwed it up and the initial surprise was lost.

However, they did hold an inquiry, at the height of this terrifying war, and the man blamed for the strategic concept, Winston Churchill, was forced out of government. He went to the trenches rather than the boardroom and was back within the year.

But try this for size. In his manoeuvres to sack the dull, decent, royally-connected Haig and some of his yes-men subordinates, or to place him under the control of bolder French generals (who usually went on to flop too), Lloyd George deployed the press with his usual flair – something quite beyond Haig, though LG accused him of it.

In November 1917, with the outcome of the war still perilously in doubt as Russia collapsed, French armies mutinied and American military might arrived only slowly, Lloyd George made a public speech to French dignitaries in Paris that included the following passage:


We have won great victories. When I look at the appalling casualty lists I sometimes wish it had not been necessary to win so many ... When we advance a kilometre into the enemy's lines, snatch a small shattered village out of his cruel grip, capture a few hundred of his soldiers, we shout with unfeigned joy.

Gary Mead, who as the author of Good Soldier is Haig's broadly sympathetic biographer (it's hard work, but Mead does his best), records that the remarks were seen as a slur on both the generals and their armies, a "public rebuke" for the costly failures of military leadership.

Haig went on to victory, Lloyd George to four years of continued Liberal coalition with the Tories after the armistice of 1918. Both died earls, though LG's memoirs demolished Haig's reputation.

After exchanges like that the army can probably cope with General Brown's strictures.

[buglerbilly]

Iraq's Sunni insurgent groups gather to plot comeback amid political crisis

By Ernesto Londoño
Washington Post Foreign Service

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

BAGHDAD -- Seven years after the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime, dozens of Iraqis representing various insurgent groups checked into a five-star hotel in Istanbul this spring to plot a comeback. Days later, members of the outlawed Baath Party held a public meeting in Damascus, Syria, to hail the party's rebirth.

The unusual anniversary gatherings rankled Iraqi and American officials. Although the groups don't have large constituencies in Iraq, officials worry that their appeals could gain traction amid a political crisis in Iraq that has weakened the government and left the Sunni Muslims who were dominant under Hussein feeling newly disenfranchised.

Attendees at the Istanbul meeting included representatives of the 1920 Revolution Brigades and the al-Rashideen Army, which were among the Sunni insurgent groups formed to fight the U.S. occupation. Leaders of the loosely connected groups have tried unsuccessfully to band together in the past. The creation of U.S.-backed Sunni paramilitary squads in 2007 deflated the insurgency, driving some leaders into exile and forcing others to pledge to help the Americans.

As the U.S. military draws down, many Iraqi Sunnis who aligned themselves with the United States say they feel abandoned and vulnerable in a country run by Shiites. Until recently, insurgency leaders had kept a relatively low profile from exile in countries such as Syria and Jordan.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki condemned Turkey and Syria for allowing the gatherings, and in an interview he accused them of helping to destabilize Iraq.

"The only ones benefiting are al-Qaeda and the terrorist organizations," Maliki said. "Thus, our advice to our friends and brothers: Terror does not know borders, religion or ethnicity. They are now attacking Iraq because there are suitable circumstances, and tomorrow they will attack Turkey and others."

Feeling shut out

The groups could find receptive audiences in Iraq if the next government is widely seen as having insufficient Sunni representation. Many Sunnis accuse the Shiite-led Iraqi government of being sectarian, pointing to factors such as the disproportionate number of Sunni detainees and efforts to weed out Sunnis from government jobs.

Sunnis made a strong showing in the March 7 parliamentary elections, propelling the largely secular Iraqiya bloc to a first-place finish. The bloc did not win enough seats to secure the majority needed to form a government, however, making it likelier that an alliance of two Shiite groups will appoint the new prime minister.

"There is no doubt that Sunnis will feel excluded, disenfranchised and marginalized if they are not given a significant share in government," said Joost Hiltermann, an Iraq expert at the International Crisis Group. "After all, it is with this expectation that they agreed to abandon the insurgency during the surge in 2007."

The Sunni insurgency sprang up after the United States disbanded Iraq's armed forces and a large share of its government workforce following the March 2003 invasion. The groups attacked U.S. troops and sought to sabotage their efforts to install a parliamentary system that empowered the majority Shiites.

The indigenous Iraqi insurgent groups were eclipsed in 2006 by the foreign-led organization al-Qaeda in Iraq, which came to control key parts of the capital and large areas in the west and north. Many members of the original insurgency surrendered or joined forces with the U.S. military to fight al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Aside from al-Qaeda in Iraq and its affiliates, the insurgent groups that remain have maintained a relatively low profile of late. In the past, they often were divided by rivalries. "It remains unclear how serious a threat to the security of the state they could pose," Hiltermann said. "The Sunnis' greatest liability is their own internal divisions and lack of popular leadership."

Common ground

The key purpose of the April 10 conference in Istanbul was to find common ground, said Rabih Haddad, one of the organizers. He said group leaders were heartened by the possibilities ahead as the U.S. military withdraws amid the political impasse. "The general mood was one of optimism," he said via phone from Beirut.

Haddad said that nearly 250 people representing 20 groups attended the conference. It was held in Turkey, he said, because it is an "open, democratic" country.

U.S. officials have expressed dissatisfaction to the Turkish government, which made clear it played no role in holding the event. American officials tried unsuccessfully last year to have discussions with political representatives of the Sunni extremist groups to persuade them to participate in the political process.

"These groups at that meeting in Turkey had an opportunity to participate in the electoral process here, had they been playing by the rules," said Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey D. Feltman, the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East.

Sunni insurgent groups have said the United States will remain the primary target of their violence. But they have also picked fights with the Iraqi government.

"We are not in favor of using force with the government or any Iraqi," Harith al-Dhari, an exiled Sunni activist who heads the Iraqi Muslim Scholars Association, said in a phone interview from Jordan. "But if the Iraqi government continues using force against the resistance and if they don't take meaningful steps toward reconciliation, we will be obliged to defend ourselves."

Correspondent Leila Fadel and special correspondent Jinan Hussein contributed to this report.

[buglerbilly]

From The Times June 2, 2010

Farewell to the green zone: US leaves ‘privileged prison’

Oliver August, Baghdad



Iraqis celebrated the end of a little-loved era yesterday when the American military gave up control of the fortified green zone from which it has ruled for the past seven years.

A short ceremony on blazing hot tarmac, under the unrelenting morning sunshine, marked the moment when the last US soldiers withdrew from the checkpoints that ring the enclave in the heart of the capital. “Now it’s all an Iraqi problem,” said one uniformed American. “They are welcome to it.”

The green zone gates have kept ordinary Iraqis away from the centre of power, despite the arrival of democracy. Many felt frustrated by the arrangement and considered their country under occupation long after electing a prime minister — who is also resident in the green zone.

“More than anything, the green zone shows why the Americans failed here,” said an Iraqi member of parliament. “They lived separate from Iraqis and could never understand us. That’s why they made so many mistakes that cost so many lives.”

It bears mentioning that the Parliament, too, is in the green zone, as are the residences of many MPs. This does not so much undermine the member’s analysis as perhaps point to why Iraqi leaders have not necessarily fared much better than the departing American ones.

The green zone still comes under mortar and rocket attack, though less so than before. This year the vast American Embassy compound has taken four direct hits. Its various car parks remain equipped with “duck and cover” concrete shelters.

Many foreigners call the rest of Iraq outside their protected embassies, barracks and offices the “red zone”; a term Iraqis find baffling or even offensive. “Green is the colour of Islam,” said Abu Ibrahim, a fruit seller. “It should be ours.”

When American generals heard such sentiments years ago they started calling it the “international zone” — but the old name never went away. “al-green zone” is now a loan word in the Arabic language.

Shut out and frequently left without water and electricity, ordinary Iraqis have resented for years the privileges that have been enjoyed by green zone residents. Inside the gates, the lights never went out and the air conditioners kept humming throughout the scorching summers.

Foreign residents could be seen sipping imported coffee in the Green Bean Café under the tall dome before driving, without fear of kidnapping, to the Liberty outdoor swimming pool in an area renamed Little Venice for its streetside waterways. For dinner, the diplomats, spies, businessmen and security guards had various alcohol-serving options, including the Baghdad Country Club, home to all manner of debauchery.

And yet, few of them actually liked their lives inside the dusty concrete jungle, hemmed in by checkpoints and blast walls. “A prison with incoming mortar fire,” is how one former British resident described it.

Rents kept on rising and entertainment options narrowing — not least because puritanical and grandstanding Iraqi leaders forbade the transport of alcohol inside the green zone last year when they first started sharing control with the Americans.

Now that Iraqi forces have the five sq mile area to themselves, critics have asked if they really can ensure the safety of the Government. One former Iraqi security official appeared sceptical, telling The Times that it would be a simple matter for the military to attempt a coup. “If they park their tanks at the gates and seal off the entrances, then the politicians could not do much,” he said. “There are plenty of little Saddams in the army that might want to try.”

At least until the end of next year, however, American special forces with helicopter support will still be based at the nearby international airport, ready to prop up the civilian Government.

The first order of business for Iraq’s security force now is to find ways to open the green zone up to normal traffic. Baghdad’s streets are perpetually jammed, not least because main arteries running through the central district are blocked off.

According to one proposal, cars will be allowed to drive through a new, concrete-fringed passageway that bisects the rulers’ enclave. Recent bombings in the rest of Baghdad have, however, made some officials hesitate. Even with the Americans gone, a green zone bombing would still be a massive blow.

[buglerbilly]

Textron Marine & Land Systems to Deliver 80 Armored Vehicles to Iraqi Federal Police

(Source: Textron; issued June 1, 2010)

NEW ORLEANS --- Textron Marine & Land Systems, an operating unit of Textron Systems, a Textron Inc. company, today announced it has been engaged to build 80 armored military vehicles for the Iraqi Ministry of Interior for use by the Iraqi Federal Police, to be contracted through the U.S. Army Foreign Military Sales (FMS) process.

The total value of the procurement is approximately $94 million.

Of the 80 vehicles, 72 will be configured as Armored Personnel Carriers (APC), while the remaining eight will be in the standard U. S. Army M1117 Armored Security Vehicle (ASV) configuration employed as Command and Control vehicles. All of the vehicles to be delivered under this contract will be equipped with the Textron Marine & Land Systems 40/50 turret armed with an MK-19 40mm grenade launcher and .50 caliber machine gun.

A total of 184 vehicles (122 ASV and 62 APC) built by Textron Marine & Land Systems have already been delivered to Iraq under previous procurements.

“These vehicles will be a great addition to the significant number of Textron Marine & Land Systems armored vehicles already in use by the Iraqi Ministry of Interior. The ASV has demonstrated its outstanding combat effectiveness in meeting expanding roles and missions in Iraq, while proving to be safe and reliable,” said Textron Marine & Land Systems General Manager Tom Walmsley. “The workforce at Textron Marine & Land Systems takes a great deal of pride in producing vehicles that defend and protect our U.S. troops as well as our allies. That same commitment is extended to providing highly mobile and well protected vehicles to the Iraqi forces.”

The ASV is a 4X4 wheeled armored vehicle that offers significant crew protection through the employment of multiple layers of armor, defending against small arms fire, artillery projectile fragments, Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and land mines. The ASV possesses superior mobility, agility, handling and ride quality through the utilization of a four-wheel independent suspension system. Textron Marine & Land Systems has designed and produced more than 2,600 ASV and APC vehicles for the U.S. Army, Iraq, Colombia and Bulgaria.

Textron Marine & Land Systems specializes in the design, production and support of advanced marine craft, armored combat vehicles, turrets and related subsystems. Textron Marine & Land Systems serves military and commercial customers domestically and internationally, and has products operating in more than 35 countries worldwide. Textron Marine & Land Systems is an operating unit of Textron Systems, a Textron Inc. company.

-ends-

[buglerbilly]

U.S. military's castoffs become sought-after items at yard sales across Iraq

By Leila Fadel
Washington Post Foreign Service

Friday, June 4, 2010

FALLUJAH, IRAQ -- The remnants of the U.S. occupation of Iraq are being sold to the highest bidders in yard sales across the country.

The outskirts of cities like Baghdad, Fallujah and Ramadi -- once bastions of the Sunni insurgency -- are now destinations for bargain hunters interested in items such as generators and trailers. As the U.S. military draws down to 50,000 troops by the end of the summer, the junk left behind is quickly becoming part of the Iraqi landscape.

Just outside Fallujah, Iraqi merchants Mohammed Issawi and Abu Saif sat recently on plastic chairs in the blistering sun. Broken generators, trailers, dumpsters and air conditioners graced the dirt lot behind them. Some of the items were emblazoned with the red, white and blue flag of the United States.

After all that the U.S. occupation has taken from Iraq, Issawi said, Iraqis deserve to get something back -- even if it's just a low price on a laptop. "These are our things," he said. "They took these things from us, and now we are selling them back. They occupied our country by force."

Families buy $1,000 trailers once fashioned into sleeping quarters for soldiers and Marines. Base latrines have become cheaper alternatives to traditional dwellings made of brick and concrete. Air-conditioner units and large generators that can stave off Iraq's blistering summers are sold at half-price.

Merchants say they come across the loot in different ways. Some was found, some was stolen and some was sold to them. Much of it, they say, was just given away.

At Ahmed Adnan's auction just outside Balad, north of Baghdad, the enterprising 20-something recently showed off his hodgepodge of merchandise. He sells blast walls to the provincial government in northern Iraq's Nineveh province, where explosions remain a threat. Merchants from Baghdad travel to his junkyard to supply their shops for cut-rate prices. Civilians search through the goods for little treasures like iPods and laptops.

Entire villages pitch in to buy large generators and water purifiers, which are then shared. Many Iraqis still lack reliable running water and electricity, which is especially scarce during the summer. Iraq's neglected infrastructure, already in poor shape when U.S.-led forces invaded in 2003, has been further devastated by the past seven years of war.

As Adnan dealt with customers on a recent day, a truck of Iraqi soldiers drove up with laptops and flat screens to sell to him. The goods were likely looted.

U.S. officials worry that much of the tens of millions of dollars worth of U.S. equipment being handed over to the Iraqi government is neglected or quickly stolen. Under federal law, U.S. agencies must show that no other division in the government needs equipment before it can be donated or left behind. American commanders in Iraq received a waiver from the regulations in 2005, when they started closing bases and donating equipment to the Iraqi government. At the time, the Pentagon set a cap of $2 million worth of equipment per base that could be earmarked for donation.

In recent years, commanders have sought and received more latitude, citing the importance of leaving the Iraqi armed forces with functional bases. The policy has sparked a debate at the Pentagon over whether it makes sense to leave so much behind, but officials say that in many cases, it would cost more to ship items out than to buy new ones elsewhere.

The new rules allow commanders to donate equipment worth up to $30 million at each base they hand over. Some of the items -- such as passenger vehicles and generators -- are being donated despite the fact that they are in demand in Afghanistan, where the U.S. is increasing its forces.

Religious authorities in Fallujah have condemned the sale of any goods that originate on U.S. bases, since the material was once used to support a military occupation. Most equipment on the bases was shipped in from outside Iraq, but many Iraqis believe it was stolen from them.

The logic behind that is beyond me...............:cuckoo

"These materials are questionable and include forbidden and ill-gotten things," said Abdullah Hussein al-Qobaissi, a senior cleric in Fallujah. "Their sources are unknown. Did they come with the occupiers? Did the occupiers steal them from Iraq? Everyone should stay away from them even if they are sold cheaply."

Fallujah was the scene of some of the most intense battles of the war, ones in which thousands of civilians died and countless homes were flattened. Now the situation has calmed, many of the U.S. bases are gone and what's left behind will soon be woven into the tapestry of the nation.

Rukaya Abdul Aziz, 32, recently held her youngest child inside her new home. Her past two houses were destroyed in U.S. attacks, she said. Two of her cousins and her brother-in-law were killed in the war, and she eagerly awaits the final departure of U.S. forces.

"We hope they leave today, not tomorrow," she said. "Our sons are gone because of them."

The only shelter she and her husband, Munir Ibrahim Ismail, could afford to replace their homes was a trailer once used as a latrine. They scrubbed it clean, took off the back and used concrete to build an extra room.

"We wanted something that wasn't American, but this was the biggest we could afford," she said. "We had no choice."

Special correspondents Aziz Alwan and Uthman al-Mokhtar contributed to this report.

[buglerbilly]

U.S. Army Intelligence Analyst Arrested In Wikileaks Leak

Agence France-Presse

Published: 7 Jun 2010 10:03

WASHINGTON - A U.S. Army intelligence analyst has been arrested in connection with the leak of classified U.S. military combat video to whistleblower site Wikileaks, Wired.com reported.

Specialist Bradley Manning, 22, of Potomac, Md., was arrested nearly two weeks ago by the U.S. Army's Criminal Investigation Division, the technology magazine said on its website late Sunday.

Wired said Manning was arrested at Forward Operating Base Hammer, 40 miles (64 kilometers) east of Baghdad, and was being held in Kuwait. He has not been formally charged.

Manning was turned in late last month after boasting to a former computer hacker in an online conversation that he had leaked video of a 2007 U.S. military helicopter strike to Wikileaks, Wired said.

WikiLeaks released video in April of the Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad which killed two employees of the Reuters news agency and a number of other people.

Wikileaks said at the time that it had obtained the video "from a number of military whistleblowers" but did not provide any further information about how it got ahold of the footage, which it posted at Wikileaks.org and on YouTube.

Manning reportedly said he had leaked other material to Wikileaks, including separate video of a 2009 air strike in Afghanistan, a classified Army document evaluating Wikileaks as a security threat and 260,000 classified US diplomatic cables.

Wired said Manning had been in touch with former hacker Adrian Lamo, who contacted Army investigators and FBI agents after being told of the leaks.

"I wouldn't have done this if lives weren't in danger," Lamo told Wired about turning Manning in to the authorities.

"He was in a war zone and basically trying to vacuum up as much classified information as he could, and just throwing it up into the air." Lamo said.

WikiLeaks, run by Sunshine Press, describes itself as a "non-profit organization funded by human rights campaigners, investigative journalists, technologists and the general public."

[buglerbilly]

Pentagon 'hunting Wikileaks founder over Iraq video'

The Pentagon is trying to establish the whereabouts of the founder of Wikileaks, the whistle-blowing website, as it tries to stop the publication of classified documents it says could damage US national security.

By Nick Allen in Los Angeles

Published: 11:44PM BST 11 Jun 2010

Link to this video According to The Daily Beast website, US officials want to find Julian Assange, who they believe may be in possession of documents leaked by Bradley Manning, 22, a soldier who was detained in Baghdad a week ago.

Manning was detained in connection with the leak of a military video that was provided to Wikileaks and showed Apache helicopters gunning down unarmed men in Iraq, including two journalists. The intelligence specialist is now being held in Kuwait but has not been charged.

Twitter hit by hackerThe US State Department is studying hard drives from the computers Manning allegedly used to download 260,000 classified diplomatic cables and reports relating to leaders and governments in the Middle East.

Pentagon officials told The Daily Beast they were seeking "co-operation" from Australian-born Mr Assange and it was unclear what they could do to stop further publication even if they found him.

Mr Assange works from different countries, including Iceland and Sweden, and his whereabouts is currently unknown.

In a posting on Twitter, Wikileaks said suggestions it had 260,000 classified cables were "as far as we can tell, incorrect."

It added: "Any signs of unacceptable behaviour by the Pentagon or its agents towards this press will be viewed dimly."

What? We'll divulge everything if you try and find out what we've got? Methinks he is getting a bit up himself.............

[buglerbilly]

State Department creating mini-army in Iraq

U.S. looking to protect its envoys after troops depart


A U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter flies as the sun sets in Baghdad. State has asked that 24 of the helicopters for the small army that will stay in Iraq to protect U.S. diplomatic personnel after military forces leave. (Associated Press)

By Richard Lardner ASSOCIATED PRESS

6:41 p.m., Wednesday, June 16, 2010

The State Department is quietly forming a small army to protect diplomatic personnel in Iraq after U.S. military forces leave the country at the end of 2011, taking its firepower with them.

Department officials are asking the Pentagon to provide heavy military gear, including Black Hawk helicopters, and say they also will need substantial support from private contractors.

The shopping list demonstrates the department's reluctance to count on Iraq's army and police forces for security, despite the billions of dollars the U.S. invested to equip and train them. And it shows that President Obama is having a hard time keeping his pledge to reduce U.S. reliance on contractors, a practice that flourished under the Bush administration.

In an early April request to the Pentagon, Patrick Kennedy, the State Department's undersecretary for management, is seeking 24 Black Hawks, 50 bomb-resistant vehicles, heavy cargo trucks, fuel trailers, and high-tech surveillance systems. Mr. Kennedy asks that the equipment, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, be transferred at "no cost" from military stocks.

Contractors will be needed to maintain the gear and provide other support to diplomatic staff, according to the State Department, a potential financial boon for companies such as the Houston-based KBR Inc. that still have a sizable presence in Iraq.

"After the departure of U.S. forces, we will continue to have a critical need for logistical and life-support of a magnitude and scale of complexity that is unprecedented in the history of the Department of State," says Mr. Kennedy's April 7 request to Ashton Carter, the Defense Department's undersecretary for acquisition and technology.

Without the equipment, there will be "increased casualties," according to attachments to Mr. Kennedy's memo detailing the department's needs.

The military equipment would be controlled by the department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security, according to the information Mr. Kennedy sent to the Pentagon. During the Bush administration, the bureau was heavily criticized by members of Congress for its management of Blackwater Worldwide and other private security firms working in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The military has about 7,500 of the bomb-resistant vehicles — known as MRAPs — in Iraq. So shifting 50 to the State Department could be easily handled as the troops depart.

But handing over two dozen Black Hawks, which cost between $12 million and $18 million each depending on the model, would be more problematic. The aircraft are in short supply and heavily used by military forces in Afghanistan, where the primitive roads heighten the need for transportation by air.

The Defense Department has not formally responded to Mr. Kennedy's memo.

Spokesmen for both departments said the two agencies are discussing the request.

About 90,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq, and that number is expected to fall to 50,000 by the end of August under Mr. Obama's plan to remove all combat troops from the country. All American forces are scheduled to leave by the end of 2011.

Departing, too, will be key crucial missions they performed, such as recovering downed aircraft, convoy security, bomb detection and disposal, and the ability to counter rocket and mortar attacks.

By September 2011, the 22 U.S.-led reconstruction teams spread throughout Iraq will be replaced by five "Enduring Presence Posts," according to the documents Mr. Kennedy sent to the Pentagon. The State Department will be responsible for all the costs of operating these stations, including security, until at least 2015.

The department wants to use an existing Defense Department contract in Iraq to support these posts and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad with essential services, including meals, mail delivery and laundry.

© Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Click here for reprint permission.

[buglerbilly]

Blasts near government bank kill at least 26 in Baghdad

By Leila Fadel and Aziz Alwan
Monday, June 21, 2010

BAGHDAD -- Two car bombs exploded near a government-owned bank in central Baghdad on Sunday, killing at least 26 people and injuring more than 53, police said.

The bombs detonated simultaneously near the Trade Bank of Iraq and left a gaping crater in the street. A statement from Iraq's security forces said the vehicles were loaded with 176 pounds of ammonium nitrate.

A string of bombings and assassinations has killed at least 100 people in the past week. The Sunday blasts were the second attack on a government bank in a week. On June 13, a group of armed men, some said to be wearing Iraqi army uniforms, carried out coordinated bombings around Iraq's Central Bank and stormed the facility. At least 25 people died in the assault. Some of the attackers blew themselves up.

Residents are growing impatient and frustrated at the apparent lack of government leadership. It has been three months since national elections were held, and although parliament convened last Monday, it could be weeks, if not months, before a new government takes office. There are fears that the continued political vacuum will lead to more violence.

Meanwhile, people in the capital are angry about the lack of electricity and water as summer arrives; temperatures have begun to top 120 degrees.

In the southern city of Nasiriyah on Sunday, people protested the lack of services and the government's response. The protest occurred one day after a man was killed and three people were injured when police opened fire on a mob demanding services in the oil-rich city of Basra.

In Baghdad, the streets were largely deserted after the 11 a.m. bombings around the Trade Bank of Iraq, which was established in 2003 to oversee international investment and reconstruction. More than a dozen bomb-damaged vehicles and rubble from the bank and nearby houses littered the streets.

A statement from the bank's chairman, Hussein al-Uzri, said five bank guards were killed and six wounded.

"The Trade Bank of Iraq, and Iraq itself, are undeterred," Uzri said in the statement. "The work of building Iraq's economic strength -- which the Trade Bank of Iraq is doing so much, and very successfully, to support, and in which we are making significant progress year by year -- goes on uninterrupted, as does the work of the Bank, which will be open for business tomorrow."

At the site of the blasts, which was cordoned off by Iraqi security forces, cranes and front-loaders cleared the debris.

"This is a massacre," said firefighter Mohanned al-Aanee, 35, as he sifted through the debris. "Everybody is vaporized. Security is a lie, and only God is left to protect us."

Alwan is a special correspondent.

[buglerbilly]

Ares

A Defense Technology Blog

Logistics Problems On the Road to Kuwait

Posted by Paul McLeary at 6/21/2010 6:20 AM CDT



By the time Labor Day rolls around, there will be about 50,000 American troops left in Iraq as part of the slow, yet significant, exodus of western troops after seven years of war. And like any other military operation, it is the lonely legions of military logisticians who are the people responsible for coordinating the peversely complicated task of getting the troops and their gear back home, even if their job doesn’t exactly generate a lot of interest from the public, or the press.

Actually, a new report out from the Inspector General of the Department of Defense implies that the units redeploying from Iraq don’t seem to be too interested in what the logisticians have to say, either. Or at least the teams sent to help them pack. You see, the 13th Sustainment Command (ESC) is supposed to be checking and cataloging every piece of equipment that leaves Iraq bound for American depots in Kuwait, (dubbed Operation Clean Sweep), but many redeploying units either don’t know this, or don’t care. The 13th ESC has deployed Mobile Redistribution Teams (MRT) to catalog all items as they’re packed up in Iraq, and ensure that no weapons or hazardous materials are tossed in with other items. But the DoD’s IG reports that:

… not all units supported the MRT mission, limiting the effectiveness of Operation Clean Sweep. During our site visits to four Forward Operating Bases, we identified units that denied the MRTs access to their excess equipment, did not comply with FRAGO requirements to sort their excess equipment before the MRT’s arrival, and did not provide adequate logistical support to the MRTs.

You see, the order that give birth to the teams didn’t require mandatory participation in Operation Clean Sweep and “the MRT’s mission and goals were not communicated to all units and commanders.” Despite this, the movement of gear has already been epic. From May 2009 to August 2010, it’s estimated that 2.4 million of the 3.4 million pieces of U.S. military equipment will have been shipped out of Iraq. But it’s not like the MRT’s aren’t busy. The 13th ESC reports that from October 2009 to April 2010, the MRT’s “identified and re-established accountability” for about $768 million of American gear.

And what do things look like when a unit denies MRT’s access to their gear, and end up being a little lax about how they pack up their gear? Some storage units that were shipped to Kuwait were “poorly packed and some contained weapons and hazardous material, increasing the risk of injury to Theater Redistribution Center personnel responsiblhings look like e for opening the containers."

Other containers not packed or shipped by MRTs held unserviceable non-repairable equipment and trash that should have been destroyed or scrapped in Iraq. In addition, equipment in these containers was not identified, processed, and brought to record until it reached Camp Arifjan delaying visibility of serviceable equipment in the supply system that may be needed elsewhere, including Afghanistan.”

It’s not a sexy job, checking off boxes on a succession of lists as soldiers load up shipping containers, but it is important, for lots of reasons that last sentence makes clear.

(Pic USMC. Two U.S. Marine Corps CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters fly over equipment and supplies prepared for transport)

[buglerbilly]

Iraqi Troops Train on M-16 Rifle, Continue Transition from AK-47

(Source: U.S Army; issued June 21, 2010)

BAGHDAD --- Soldiers serving on Camp Taji, Iraq, trained Iraqi troops on the fundamentals of marksmanship with the M-16 rifle, June 15. The training was part of a continued effort by the U.S. to phase out the Iraqi Army's use of the Soviet-era AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifle.

The swap between the two weapons has gun-enthusiasts across the military and social-media sites up-in-arms, as fans of both weapons debate the practicality of the initiative.

The AK-47, which has become symbolic of Middle Eastern militaries, has been used by the Iraqi Army since the 1960s. The weapon is less accurate than the western M-16 rifle, yet its more durable design makes it a more suitable match for a desert climate, critics say.

But the transition to the M-16 is not based solely on the weapons capability. As the rifles are issued to Iraqi soldiers, they will be registered individually -- a measure intended to reduce the number of American weapons being acquired by insurgents.

The new M-16s will also update the Iraqi Army's arsenal, as many of their AK-47s are in varying states of disrepair, military officials said.

On Camp Taji it was all smiles from the Iraqi troops, as the U.S. Soldiers walked them through the basics of firing the M-16.

"For their first time, they shot very well -- even compared to some U.S. Soldiers," said Sgt. Kevin Averre, the noncommissioned officer in charge of the training. Averre is assigned to the Combat Aviation Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, serving as a battle NCO in the brigade's tactical operations center.

In 2003, Averre served with Iraqi Security Forces as an infantryman assigned to the 4th Infantry Division.

"Even in 2003 they spoke very highly of the M-16's accuracy," said Averre.

The training focused primarily on "zeroing" the weapons, a process by which Soldiers adjust the weapon's sights to align with their eyesight. The Iraqi soldiers also received instruction on weapons maintenance, something seldom necessary with the durable AK-47.

While the Iraqi Army has already received thousands of weapons in accordance with the proposed one-for-one swap of AK-47 for M-16, receipt of the weapons is prioritized by necessity.

Many Iraqi soldiers on Camp Taji do not use M-16s, and as the weapons continue to arrive, U.S. units will remain actively engaged in the training of the Iraqi Army.

-ends-

[buglerbilly]

IG Highlights Problems With Iraq Equipment

Jun 28, 2010



By Michael Fabey

U.S. military units are failing to package, ship and account for equipment being brought back from Iraq as part of the force drawdown there, a recent Pentagon Inspector General (IG) report says.

As part of “Operation Clean Sweep” — set in motion by the Defense Department fragmentary order (FRAGO) of Oct. 26, 2009, U.S. military units are supposed to be properly identifying, packing, shipping and keeping track of equipment in Iraq being transported back to the United States or to other regions.

“In addition to the drawdown of personnel, DOD must also determine the disposition of its equipment, which can include equipment as small as ammunition to as large as Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles,” the IG notes in its June 11 report.

There were about 3.4 million pieces of military equipment in Iraq in May 2009, the IG says. The amount of military equipment was reduced to about 3 million items by January 2010, and is expected to be reduced to 1 million items by September 2010.

The Mobile Redistribution Teams (MRT) processed and accounted for about $768 million of excess equipment from October 2009 to April 10, 2010, according to documents provided by the 13th Expeditionary Sustainment Command (ESC), the IG says.

“However, not all units supported the MRT mission, limiting the effectiveness of Operation Clean Sweep,” the IG said. ”During our site visits to four Forward Operating Bases, we identified units that denied the MRTs access to their excess equipment, did not comply with FRAGO requirements to sort their excess equipment before the MRT’s arrival, and did not provide adequate logistical support to the MRTs,” the IG says.

The problem is that the FRAGO did not require mandatory participation in Operation Clean Sweep and the MRT’s mission and goals were not communicated to all units and commanders, according to the report.

“During our audit, U.S. Forces–Iraq and 13th ESC issued two FRAGOs which addressed our communication concerns; however, neither required mandatory participation in Operation Clean Sweep,” the IG says. “Mandatory participation is key to Operation Clean Sweep effectiveness.

When units pack and ship excess equipment without MRT assistance, the risk of injury to personnel at the receiving activity is increased and the accountability and visibility of the equipment is delayed.”

The IG identified containers at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, that were not packed and shipped by the MRTs, which were poorly packed and contained items such as weapons and hazardous material.

“In addition,” the IG says, “those items were not brought to record until reaching Camp Arifjan, delaying the accountability and visibility of equipment that might be needed elsewhere, including Afghanistan.”

The IG recommends the FRAGO be reissued to require mandatory participation in Operation Clean Sweep and the U.S. Forces–Iraq, Joint Staff Logistics Directorate issue FRAGOs directing participation in Operation Clean Sweep to those units not participating.

The IG also says the 13th ESC should revise and reissue its FRAGO to remove the option to decline participation in Operation Clean Sweep and to also report unit participation data to the U.S. Forces–Iraq, Joint Staff Logistics Directorate.

Credit: US Army

[buglerbilly]

US Drawdown From Iraq Gathers Pace

June 28, 2010

Agence France-Presse

The withdrawal of American combat troops and equipment from Iraq is 60 percent complete two months ahead of a deadline that will serve as a precursor for a complete US military pullout.

Camp Victory, a giant sprawling base on the edge of Baghdad airport, is one of eight sites where American soldiers are sorting through the mass of hardware and supplies that must either be taken home, sent to Afghanistan, or destroyed.

Although the military is anxious to avoid accusations that it is "cutting and running" from Iraq as operations in Afghanistan take precedence, US troop numbers are steadily falling and just 50,000 will remain beyond August 31.

"We are right-sizing the force," Brigadier General Gus Perna, the man in charge of the drawdown, told AFP at Camp Victory in a giant yard filled with 330 vehicles headed for neighbouring Kuwait to be moved out of the country.

"Over 32,000 pieces of rolling stock have been retrograded out of Iraq since February 2009," he said, referring to MRAP (Mine-resistant, armour-protected) and Humvee troop carriers used since the 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein.

The vehicles are being driven south into Kuwait before they are moved to Afghanistan or back to the United States. Around 800,000 other pieces of equipment have so far left Iraq in cargo containers.

Camp Victory is the central hub for movement operations and combines with four locations in northern Iraq, one in the west of the country and two in the south where equipment is being processed and tracked for eventual shipping.

There are currently 84,000 US troops in Iraq, but President Barack Obama's decision to pull all combat soldiers out means 34,000 are readying themselves to leave while a training and advisory force stays behind after August.

It takes one hour for a vehicle to be processed and it will stay there for three to five days before heading south in a convoy. Between 30 and 40 vehicles leave Camp Victory each day, US logistics officers said.

When combined with the seven other sites, however, around 3,500 vehicles have left the country in June so far, the highest monthly total this year.

An Iraqi military official told AFP that Baghdad is happy with the pace of the pullout of combat troops and stressed that important equipment was being given to local forces.

"The withdrawal has reached more than 60 percent of its requirements and there have been no problems so far," said defence ministry spokesman Major General Mohammed al-Askari.

Excess US equipment with an estimated worth of 91.4 million dollars has so far been handed over to the Iraqi government, and other supplies such as rifle ammunition will be left because it is uneconomical to ship it to America.

This is in addition to hardware and facilities that the United States has refurbished under the two-billion-dollar Iraqi Security Force Fund approved by Washington.

Although some equipment is being given to the Iraqis there is also a massive amount of material that the US military machine is destroying because it is deemed "unserviceable".

At Camp Victory, clapped-out military trucks were being stripped down and cut up and sold off to local scrap metal dealers, while dozens of computers and printers were being destroyed in a giant shredding machine.

Between 50 and 70 40-foot and 20-foot containers filled with equipment are being lifted by giant magnetic cranes onto lorries bound for Kuwait each day.

With deaths of Iraqi civilians and security forces still in the hundreds each month, there remains concern that a dangerous security vacuum could ensue when US combat troops pull out in just over two months' time.

But Michael O'Hanlon, a national security and defence policy expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington, said the August 31 withdrawal should not be seen as a cause for concern.

"I'm generally optimistic," he said.

"The end of the 'combat mission' is partly a semantic change and the 50,000 remaining US troops will still be quite capable.

"The fact that we have been out of the cities for a year already suggests the drawdown is eminently feasible," O'Hanlon added.

© Copyright 2010 Agence France-Presse. All rights reserved

[buglerbilly]

Risk-tolerant China investing heavily in Iraq as U.S. companies hold back


Chinese oil workers work side by side with Iraqis at al-Ahdab oil field in Wasit province, about 100 miles south of Baghdad. Their workplaces are heavily protected by barricades and guards. (Leila Fadel/the Washington Post)

By Leila Fadel and Ernesto Londoño
Washington Post Foreign Service

Friday, July 2, 2010

AL-AHDAB OIL FIELD, IRAQ -- China didn't take part in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq or the bloody military battles that followed. It hasn't invested in reconstruction projects or efforts by the West to fortify the struggling democracy in the heart of the Middle East.

But as the U.S. military draws down and Iraq opens up to foreign investment, China and a handful of other countries that weren't part of the "coalition of the willing" are poised to cash in. These countries are expanding their foothold beyond Iraq's oil reserves -- the world's third largest -- to areas such as construction, government services and even tourism, while American companies show little interest in investing here.


"The U.S. really doesn't know what to do in Iraq," said Fawzi Hariri, Iraq's industry minister. "I have been personally, as the minister of industry, trying to woo U.S. companies into Iraq. There is nothing yet. Nothing tangible."

In the past two years, Chinese companies have walked away with stakes in three of the 11 contracts the Iraqi Oil Ministry has signed in its bid to increase crude output by about 450 percent over the next seven years. They also renegotiated a $3 billion deal that dates to when Saddam Hussein was in power.

Only two American firms won stakes in oil deals, an underwhelming showing that industry analysts and U.S. officials say reflects deep concerns about doing business in a country besieged by insecurity, corruption and political turmoil.


"They made a mistake and overestimated the risk," said Ruba Husari, an oil analyst in Baghdad who runs the Iraq Oil Forum, a trade Web site. "I think they did not realize on the spot that it was the biggest window of opportunity, and they missed out."

In an effort to meet the rising energy demands of its fast-growing economy, China has invested aggressively in oil-rich nations. Chinese companies have made notable inroads in the Middle East and Africa, in part because of a higher tolerance for risk and a savvy diplomatic corps that has laid the groundwork for advantageous deals.

Iraqi officials say they are heartened by their expanding ties with China but are still pursuing investment from other nations.


"They have gained a number of plum contracts for energy," Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said of the Chinese. "Wherever there is an oil well in the world, you'll see a Chinese flag next to it."

Working 'as partners'

At al-Ahdab oil field in Wasit province, roughly 100 miles south of Baghdad, about 200 Chinese laborers have begun work under a contract renegotiated in 2008 by a Chinese state-owned consortium, Al Waha Oil Co. Workers in red jumpsuits operate imported oil rigs alongside their Iraqi counterparts. Their workplaces are heavily protected by barricades and guards.


"People know they didn't participate in the invasion or the sanctions, and they have an old participation in Iraq that predates Saddam Hussein," said Ahmed Abdul-Redha al-Zanki, the senior engineer for Iraq's North Oil Co., which is working with the Chinese to develop the field. "They work with us as partners," in stark contrast to the condescending practices of Western companies, he said.

The French and Chinese have also made forays into the cement industry. The Chinese have started building a billion-dollar power plant in the south. The Chinese and the United Arab Emirates are in advanced talks to build residential complexes. The French automaker Renault and Germany's Mercedes-Benz are in advanced talks to make trucks for industrial transport, according to Iraqi officials. The South Koreans signed a memorandum of understanding to build a multimillion-dollar steel mill in the south and a power plant, and the Turks have scored a series of construction and government services contracts.

Except for a $3 billion General Electric contract to provide power-generating equipment and a Boeing deal, Iraqi and U.S. officials are hard pressed to point to any significant U.S. investment in Iraq. Outside of the two oil service contracts that American companies were awarded and U.S. government contracts, the United States "consistently ranks in the bottom" among investors, according to a 2009 study by Dunia Frontier Consultants, which tracks private investment in Iraq.

The United Arab Emirates is Iraq's top private investor, with plans to invest $70 billion across the country, followed by South Korea, a 2010 study by the same firm said. Turkey and Iran also are major trade partners with Iraq.


"We're coming off a financial crisis," a senior U.S. diplomat said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of embassy rules. "You have to look at your bottom line. It's not the best time to be suddenly in the market as a new place to invest."

Worth the risk?

U.S. companies will probably continue to shy away, particularly after the State Department's latest Iraq investment climate assessment, issued in March.


"Potential investors should prepare themselves for significant security costs; cumbersome and confusing procedures for business visas or new business registrations; long payment delays on some Iraqi government contracts; and sometimes unreliable, non-transparent dispute resolution mechanisms," the assessment said. "Allegations of corruption are still endemic, and the legacy of central planning and inefficient state-owned enterprises continue to inhibit economic development."

But several countries have come to see Iraq as an incredibly promising market despite the risks.

The French government, which also did not participate in the war, recently set up a center in Baghdad to support French companies seeking to test the waters.


"This is a rich country," French Ambassador Boris Boillon said. "In this world of recession, in this period of global crisis, we need to get growth and expansion wherever you can find it."

Last fall, the French government helped arrange for 100 French businessmen to attend a five-day trade fair in Baghdad. Most other European and American delegations decided at the last minute that attending would be too risky.

The French chartered five buses and ferried the businessmen daily to the fairgrounds.


"I think Americans are fed up," Boillon said. "There is Iraq fatigue in the U.S. When you tell an American: 'You can go to Iraq and make business, because there are opportunities,' the guy thinks twice and says, 'Oh, Iraq -- that bloody country.' "

[buglerbilly]

U.S. on Track to End Combat Mission in Iraq, Officials Say

(Source: U.S Department of Defense; issued July 3, 2010)

BAGHDAD --- The United States in on track or ahead of schedule to end its combat mission in Iraq this summer, and the lack of a permanent government there will not serve as a deterrent to that plan, senior administration officials traveling with Vice President Joe Biden said today.

But, an official speaking on background said, "we would like to see -- the Iraqi people would like to see -- a government as expeditiously as possible." Political maneuvering has continued since Iraq’s March election, and a permanent government has yet to be seated.

The vice president is in Iraq this weekend for a dual purpose: to meet with U.S. troops for the Fourth of July holiday and to meet with senior Iraqi leadership leading the government or playing a part in the formation of the next one, the official said.

The vice president today met with Ad Melkert, the United Nations secretary general's special representative for Iraq, followed by a meeting with Army Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, commander of U.S. Forces Iraq, and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill. Biden spoke to reporters at the start of his meeting with Odierno and Hill.

"I remain, as I have from the beginning, extremely optimistic about a government being formed here that will be representative -- represent all of the parties," he said.

Meanwhile, a caretaker government is in place that's providing security and taking care of Iraqis' basic needs, the official said. But whether Iraq has a caretaker or permanent government, the United States is still on track to end its combat mission in Iraq, he added.

The United States is moving from a primarily military mission to a civilian, diplomatic and economic mission as the military presence in Iraq ramps down, he said. As of today, about 82,000 U.S. servicemembers are serving in Iraq, down from 165,000 at the height of the surge in 2008. The number will drop to 50,000 by the end of the summer in accordance with the U.S.-Iraqi security agreement, and the troops will remain in an “advise-and-assist” role. The agreement also calls for all U.S. troops to be out of Iraq by the end of 2011.

But this change won't come overnight, the official stressed.

"We're not flipping a light switch on Aug. 31," he said. "The combat mission will be ending; the presence of combat troops will not. We'll still have a significant number of troops there with combat capability."

Much of the transition from a combat mission to an advise-and-assist mission already has taken place, the official noted. Iraqis have been in the lead since U.S. servicemembers pulled out of Iraqi cities last year, he said.

Odierno has said he has "absolute confidence" in the plan, the official said. The United States is moving troops out on schedule, and is ahead of schedule in terms of moving equipment out of Iraq. Odierno also has confidence in Iraqi security forces, another official added.

In fact, the level of attacks is overall at "historic lows," the official said. Iraq carried out its election with its own security forces in the lead in providing security, he noted as an example. And senior al-Qaida in Iraq leaders either were killed or captured in recent months, with Iraqi forces in the lead acting on intelligence developed by the Iraqis.

"The No. 1, 2, 3 and 4 -- depending on how you count -- senior members of al-Qaida in Iraq have all been taken off the field by the Iraqis," he said.

The official also noted a "tremendous change" on the ground in Iraq. People are gathering, restaurants are opening and there's a general increase in activity, he said.

The official said he's seen reports that the United States is "not focused or disengaged" from Iraq. "Nothing could be further from the truth," he said. The nation isn't disengaging, but the nature of the engagement is changing, he explained.

"We're really seeing the re-emergence of Iraq," he said. "Virtually every time there's been a roadblock … the Iraqis have found a way. It hasn't always been easy, its taken time, but using the political process, Iraqis have found a way."

While in Iraq, Biden will underscore the nation's ongoing commitment to Iraq and will listen and offer advice to leadership, but only if asked, the official said.

This is Biden's fourth visit to Iraq since he took office, and the first for his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, who accompanied her husband on the trip.

Tomorrow, the Bidens will attend a naturalization ceremony for U.S. troops, followed by meetings with U.S. troops and senior Iraqi officials.

-ends-

[buglerbilly]

US Eyes UN Peacekeepers for Iraq in 2011

July 06, 2010

Associated Press

BAGHDAD - The top American military commander in Iraq said Tuesday that U.N. peacekeeping forces may need to protect disputed territories in the nation's north if tensions between Kurds and Arabs haven't eased by the time U.S. troops leave in 2011.

In an interview with The Associated Press, U.S. Army Gen. Ray Odierno said U.N. peacekeepers might be one option if Kurdish soldiers haven't integrated into the Arab-dominated Iraqi army over the next year. He said he hopes the U.N. forces won't be necessary.

But Odierno acknowledged that tensions between the two cultures - and the oil-rich land in Iraq's north that each side claims as its territory - have been simmering for years without resolution. Iraq's Kurds want several areas of Ninevah, Tamim and Diyala provinces to be part of their autonomous region, a move opposed by the Arab-dominated central government.

"If (they) have not integrated, we might have to think of some other mechanism," Odierno said. "I don't know what that is yet. Is it a Chapter 6 U.N. force? I don't know. But that's something that has to be worked out, and it'll be depending on how far we are able to bring this process."

Chapter 6 of the United Nations charter refers to peacekeeping duties like investigating and mediating disputes.

Odierno said that if Kurdish troops are working well within the Iraqi army, "then we'll let them do it. It's too early to tell. But that's an issue that we'll have to watch and work through."

The prospect of U.N. peacekeepers raises questions about whether Iraq will be stable by the time all U.S. troops are required to leave at the end of 2011 under a security agreement between Washington and Baghdad.

It's widely believed that Iraq's leaders may ask the United States to revisit that agreement and leave at least some troops behind after 2011 to give the nation's uneven army and police forces more time to train.

Odierno maintained that decision would be up to the incoming Iraqi government, whose leadership is still being negotiated after no clear winner emerged from the March parliamentary elections. But he left open the door that some U.S. troops might stay.

"I don't see a large U.S. presence here. I really don't," he said. "They might want technical support, but again, that's their decision, not ours."

The United Nations would need to approve a resolution before sending peacekeeping troops to Iraq, and doing so would significantly change its political mission. The current U.N. mission in Iraq does not include support for peacekeepers.

A U.N. spokeswoman in Baghdad, Radhia Achouri, directed questions about potential peacekeepers to the Iraqi government and the U.N. Security Council in New York. She said the U.N. mission in Iraq "is not part of discussions on such matters."

Worried that the ethnic tensions could lead to war after Kurdish and Iraqi troops clashed in eastern Diyala province in 2008, Odierno this year ordered the U.S. military to set up security checkpoints in the disputed territories that are guarded by soldiers from all three forces.

The hope is that Kurds and Arabs would work together against a common enemy - al-Qaida in Iraq and insurgents who exploit the tensions - instead of fighting each other.

The experiment for the most part has been peaceful, but clashes continue to break out between Kurdish and Arab forces, including one on Monday when a fistfight led to gunfire among soldiers near a market in Qara Tappah, a Diyala town about 75 miles northeast of Baghdad. Two Iraqi soldiers, a Kurdish officer and one civilian were wounded in the clash.

Authorities called the clash a misunderstanding between soldiers, and Odierno described it as a spat between individuals - and not a widespread Kurd-Arab problem.

There's no guarantee the checkpoints will remain once U.S. forces leave in 2011. In an AP interview last month, Gen. Babaker Shawkat Zebari, a Kurd who is top commander of the Iraqi military, said the checkpoints will no longer be necessary once Iraq's parliament settles the disputed areas.

When that might happen, however, anyone's guess.

Odierno said he could not predict when parliament might address the morass - or whether it might be solved before the end of 2011.

"It's a difficult issue," he said. He said he hopes negotiations over selecting Iraq's new leaders "might help push it forward a little bit, but we'll see."

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

GI Hit With Charges Over Wikileaks Video

July 06, 2010

Military.com|by Bryant Jordan



An American Soldier confined by the military since May for allegedly providing a website with video showing U.S. helicopters firing on several Iraqis -- including a journalist -- will be charged criminally, an Army spokesman for the U.S. military headquarters in Baghdad confirmed to Military.com this morning.

Pfc. Bradley Manning of Potomac, Md., allegedly gave Wikileaks a 38-minute video from a 2007 AH-64 Apache helicopter attack on a group of men who may have been wrongly identified as insurgents watching American ground troops engaged in combat in a Baghdad neighborhood. One of the men was a journalist for Reuters and another was his driver. Wikileaks labeled the video "Collateral Murder" and uploaded it onto the Web in April.

Manning, 22, was arrested by the Army in May while stationed at Forward Operating Base Hammer, about 40 miles from Baghdad, according to a report by Wired magazine in June, which said he was then held in confinement in Kuwait.

According to a redacted version of the charge sheet provided to Military.com, the Army says Manning wrongfully placed classified video and documents onto his personal computer and added unauthorized software onto a secret government network computer. The Army also alleges that Manning then transferred video and documents, including more than 50 classified U.S. State Department cables, to unauthorized sources.

Manning is assigned to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division.

The Army reportedly eyed Manning as a suspect after he boasted to a former computer hacker that he was the source of the Wikileaks video.

On the gun camera video, the helicopter crew with the 227th Aviation Regiment mistakenly identified a camera held by the Reuters photographer as a rocket-propelled grenade. The video also showed the Apache crew firing on wounded individuals and a van that stopped to help the injured. Several people in the van were killed and two children were injured.

The Army eventually cleared the Soldiers involved in the attack.

Since the video was put online, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange had reportedly gone into hiding as stories circulated that the Pentagon was hunting for him and that his whistleblowing website had been crumbling.

Wired, which has closely followed Assange's operation, recently reported that the site's secure submission page -- which has permitted sources to send documents to Wikileaks -- "stopped working after the site failed to renew its SSL certificate, a basic web protection that costs less than $30 a year and takes only hours to set up," the magazine said.

Earlier reports indicated Assange was preparing to release thousands of classified State Department cables that Manning also had reportedly sent him. The release never occurred. But one of the counts against Manning is that he pulled from a secret government network computer more than 150,000 diplomatic cables.

He faces a separate count of accessing a State Department cable entitled "Reykjavik 13." The charge sheet does not explain "Reykjavik 13," though a New York Times article speculates it is one from a January 13 conversation between U.S. deputy chief of mission in Iraq, Sam Watson, and Iceland's leadership over financial losses in the banking industry.

In all, Manning faces 12 counts of illegally accessing or passing on information to unauthorized sources, according to the Army. All the allegations occurred between November 2009 and May 2010.

In a statement, the Army said the criminal investigation remains open.

© Copyright 2010 Military.com. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

Eight people killed as violence against Shiite pilgrims continues in Iraq

By Leila Fadel
Washington Post Foreign Service

Friday, July 9, 2010

BAGHDAD -- At least seven people were killed in bombings targeting Shiite pilgrims in the Iraqi capital Thursday, and a pilgrim returning home on foot was shot dead outside the northern city of Kirkuk, on the third day of deadly violence by militants apparently intent on stoking sectarian tensions amid a months-long political stalemate.

On Wednesday, a string of explosions in and around Baghdad killed more than 50 people and wounded more than 250. The deadliest was a suicide bombing aimed at Shiite pilgrims passing through the mostly Sunni neighborhood of Adhamiyah; more than 28 people were killed. Pilgrims were also targeted Tuesday, when at least seven were killed.

The attacks on the Shiite community appeared intended to destabilize the country as politicians remain deadlocked on the formation of a new government, four months after national elections. Elected officials are occupied making backroom deals for top jobs, in sluggish negotiations that observers say are unlikely to be resolved soon.

Violence has dropped significantly since the height of the sectarian war that flared out of control in 2006, but some worry it could rise again as the U.S. military draws down to 50,000 troops by Sept. 1. Last month, at least 135 people were killed in the capital alone.

Many Shiites participating in ceremonies to commemorate the death of the revered Shiite figure Imam Musa al-Kadhim said they felt attackers were trying to drag the country back into civil war. In the darkest days of the past seven years, 100 bodies a day were being found in Baghdad.

Despite the threat of bloodshed, more than 4 million people gathered in northwest Baghdad to mark the anniversary, with some pilgrims taking more than a week to reach the shrine on foot. The attackers struck despite the tens of thousands of security personnel on the streets and the road closures that were imposed to allow pedestrians to pass.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who was visiting Lebanon on Thursday, condemned the deadly explosions in Baghdad, the Associated Press reported. "Those who benefit from such acts are the enemies of humanity, the enemies of democracy," he said.

Also Thursday, four people were killed and five injured in bomb attacks on officers' homes in the western city of Ramadi; the dead included a woman and a child. A farmer was also killed in a bombing in Kirkuk, police said.

Special correspondent Aziz Alwan contributed to this report.

[buglerbilly]

Some 'Stop Loss' Soldiers to return from Iraq early

Jul 8, 2010

By Master Sgt. Duff E. McFadden


Photo credit Spc. Joshua E. PowellSoldiers in Iraq provide security while their platoon attends a local council meeting outside Forward Operating Base Taji, Iraq, July 3, 2010.

Hundreds of Soldiers will leave their units in Iraq and return home early over the next two months to help meet the president's mandated troop strength of 50,000 in the country by Sept. 1. CONTINGENCY OPERATING SITE MAREZ, Iraq (Army News Service, July 6, 2010) Hundreds of Soldiers will leave their units in Iraq and return home early over the next two months to help meet the president's mandated troop strength of 50,000 in the country by Sept. 1.

"Many of these Soldiers are part of Stop Loss," said Col. Charles E.A. Sexton, commander of the 2nd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division. He is keeping a promise to Soldiers in his unit who involuntarily had their service extended in order to deploy.

"These Soldiers have served honorably, while having their service obligation extended beyond their original separation date in order to meet the operational needs of the deployment," Sexton said.

"This early redeployment is an opportunity to allow these Soldiers to separate from the service at a time closer to their original separation date," he explained.

Not all of the Soldiers returning home early were affected by Stop Loss, however. The force cap also allows commanders the opportunity to redeploy Soldiers who will attend professional development schools, assist in the unit's reintegration, or who have family emergencies, medical issues or complex family needs.

"The decision to send a Soldier back early is one the command takes very seriously," Sexton said. He added that the operational impact of sending a Soldier home early must be carefully considered so that the mission can continue.

Sgt. Drake Harris, Forward Support Company, 1-64th Armor, was to separate Sept. 26, 2009. The Prescribed Load Listing, Maintenance Control noncommissioned officer in charge, planned to start school at the University of St. Louis in September. But he said he has no regrets about the Stop Loss extension.

"I've been able to save a lot of money and pay off a lot of bills," said the 23-year old St. Louis, Mo., native. "I've also researched other schools, even the ROTC program at St. Louis. I've looked into the new GI Bill and everything it offers. If I had gotten out in September, I wouldn't have been able to research everything as thoroughly as I have."

Harris is scheduled to redeploy to Kuwait in early August, well ahead of the rest of his brigade.

Harris and Sgt. Jacob A. Wilson received the Stop Loss news during brigade-wide training at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., last July.

"I have no regrets about this deployment and I haven't been disappointed with it," said Wilson, a maintenance squad leader who is on his third deployment to Iraq. "I don't feel bad about Stop Loss, or for being sent home early. I don't have any bad feelings about it at all."

The concept behind the military Stop Loss program was to sustain cohesive operational forces that train and serve together throughout their deployments, as well as keep Soldiers with certain skills needed within those units.

First used in the 1990-91 Gulf War, authority for Stop Loss has existed since 1984 (Section 12305, Title 10, U.S. Code). It enables the president of the United States to involuntarily extend or retain servicemembers beyond their established separation date if they are deemed to be essential to the national security of the United States.

[buglerbilly]

U.S. Contractor Use in Iraq Expected To Rise

By WILLIAM MATTHEWS

Published: 12 Jul 2010 15:55

As the U.S. military pulls troops and equipment out of Iraq, the State Department will have to rely increasingly on contractors to perform such services as flying rescue helicopters and disarming roadside bombs, a congressional commission warned.


An Iraqi Army helicopter, right, and a U.S. Army Black Hawk train together at Camp Taji, Iraq. Contractors will be taking part in more activities in Iraq, including helicopter rescue. (AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE)

That is not an ideal solution but none other seems available, members of the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan said during a July 12 hearing.

While the Defense Department works to reduce its dependence on contractors, the State Department will have to greatly increase its use of hired help.

"Boy, that really troubles me," said Dov Zakheim, a commission member and former Pentagon budget chief. "You're going to be getting contractors not only doing what they're doing today, but doing things that are inherently governmental."

In a scenario spelled out by commission Co-chairman Michael Thibault, if State Department employees working as trainers for the Iraqi police come under fire from Iraqi insurgents, the injured might well have to be rescued by contractors because U.S. military forces are pulling out of the country.

Thibault, who described being rescued by an Army helicopter during his own wartime service, said he would be leery about being rescued by a contract pilot, who he said is unlikely to be as well-trained as a U.S. military pilot.

But the State Department appears to have little choice. It lacks its own force of personnel to fly helicopters, disarm bombs or provide dozens of other services that U.S. military personnel now provide. And the military is scheduled to reduce its Iraq footprint to 50,000 troops in August and be out of that country by the end of next year.

In Iraq, the State Department has relied on the military to recover damaged vehicles and downed aircraft, manage contractors, protect convoys, provide emergency response forces, provide communications support, gather intelligence and more.

In a letter to the Pentagon this spring, the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service complained that its capabilities are "inadequate to the extreme challenges in Iraq."

In many countries, the State Department relies on its host nation to provide for emergency needs, security and other services. But Iraq is in no condition to do that.

Thibault said the State Department will have to more than double its force of 2,700 security personnel. And department officials have asked to keep military equipment, including helicopters and mine-resistant armored vehicles.

The State Department also asked to be allowed to continue using the Army's LOGCAP contract and Defense Logistics Agency support to buy food, fuel and other necessities.

The commission criticized a lack of coordination between the two departments as the military moves toward handing the Iraq mission over to the State Department. In a report, the commission has criticized Congress for failing to provide money to pay for support the State Department will need as the military withdraws.

Much of the July 12 hearing, however, focused on whether the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) included enough discussion of the military's increased reliance on contractors.

Thibault complained that the 2010 QDR says even less about using contractors than the 2006 document did. "The new QDR pays scant attention" to planning for contractor use in wartime, he said.

In 1973, when Richard Nixon was president and gasoline was 37 cents a gallon, the Total Force Policy, which created the all-volunteer military, "made a pretty clear statement" about the importance of contractors, Thibault said.

But today, "37 years later, they are still not fully recognized or incorporated in planning and training."

Other commission members counted the times "contingency contracting" - the hiring of contractors for war-zone duties - was mentioned in the QDR.

"There are only three specific mentions," said Charles Tiefer, a law professor. "We have two wars going on and more contractors than troops in those wars, yet the QDR has basically two mentions of things having to do with contractors."

There are "just two mentions," said commissioner Clark Kent Ervin.

Kathleen Hicks, deputy undersecretary of defense for strategy, plans and forces, offered her own word count. She insisted that the 2010 QDR contains 12 references to contractors compared with nine in the 2006 document.

Hicks said policies on planning for the use of contractors and reducing their numbers have been thoroughly spelled out in instructions from Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

[buglerbilly]

Odierno: Iran Threat to US Troops Rising

July 13, 2010

Associated Press



BAGHDAD - The U.S. military is beefing up security around its bases in Iraq in anticipation of Iranian-backed militants looking to score propaganda points by attacking American Soldiers leaving the country, the U.S. commander said Tuesday.

Gen. Ray Odierno said the Iranian threat to U.S. forces has increased as Tehran looks to boost its political and economic influence in Iraq in the face of a decreasing U.S. military presence.

"There's a very consistent threat from Iranian surrogates operating in Iraq," and security has been stepped up at some U.S. bases, Odierno told reporters in Baghdad. He added that joint operations with Iraqi forces against suspected Iranian-sponsored insurgents have also been increased, while the scheduled withdrawal proceeds apace.

Though no attacks have yet occurred, said Odierno, there was credible intelligence some Iranian-backed groups were planning strikes on U.S. forces.

Odierno said militants were hoping to make propaganda out of attacks on withdrawing U.S. troops to make it seem as though they were being driven out.

"For years, these groups have been talking about attacking U.S. forces to force them to leave," Odierno said.

The U.S. has been wary of Iran's growing influence in Iraq and the two countries remain at odds over Tehran's nuclear program.

Since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 toppled Saddam Hussein's regime, the Islamic republic has capitalized on centuries-old religious and cultural ties to secure greater leverage in Iraq, becoming its biggest trading partner and an important consultant to the Shiite-led governments.

The U.S. has long argued that Iran is sponsoring Shiite insurgents attacking American troops operating in the country, a charge Iran denies.

While connections between certain groups of Shiite militants in Iraq and the government in Tehran were "always very convoluted," Odierno said that at least some have ties to the powerful Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, a heavily armed paramilitary force tasked with protecting the clerical regime.

"Whether they are connected to the Iranian government, we can argue about that," Odierno said. "But they are clearly connected to the IRGC."

Violence has fallen significantly in the past few years in Iraq, but insurgents continue to target Iraqi security forces and members of the Sunni community who joined forces with Americans to fight extremists.

On Tuesday, gunmen stormed the house of a local commander of a government-backed anti-al-Qaida militia in Youssifiyah, killing him, his wife and two of his children and his brother, said police and hospital officials in the town 12 miles (20 kilometers) south of Baghdad.

In eastern Baghdad, a policeman and a civilian died when roadside bomb detonated near a police patrol. Six people were injured in the attack, police and hospital officials said.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Odierno admitted that militant attacks were still lethal, but maintained that their capabilities had declined dramatically in recent years and Iraqi security forces were now more able to deal with them.

The ability of Iraqi forces to keep the country stable as the U.S. military pulls out is essential to keeping the withdrawal on schedule.

"Our assessment is that Iraqi security forces are capable of maintaining a level of stability necessary for the country to move forward politically and economically," Odierno said. "And based on that assessment we are going to continue to go down to 50,000 troops by Sept. 1."

There are currently 77,500 American Soldiers in Iraq. All U.S. forces are to leave the country by the end of 2011.

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

Suicide bomber kills 43 people in Iraq attack

A suicide bomber has killed 43 people in an attack on an army office in Iraq's deadliest single attack in more than two months.

Published: 1:21PM BST 18 Jul 2010


An injured Iraqi man is wheeled into a local hospital Photo: AFP / GETTY

The attack was aimed at militia fighters who target al-Qaeda groups as they queued to receive their wages.

Forty people were also wounded in the 8.30am bombing in the predominantly Sunni Arab district of Radwaniyah, a former insurgent hot spot 16 miles from the Iraqi capital, defence and interior ministry officials said.

"Hundreds of Sahwa members were gathered close to the entrance to the base," a commander at the scene said, asking not to be identified.

"The suicide bomber blew himself up in the biggest group of Sahwa members. We generally let them enter the base in groups of 10 for them to get their salaries," he added.

Recruited from among Sunni Arab tribesmen and former insurgents, the Sahwa militia is credited with turning the tide in the war against al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Also known as the Sons of Iraq, the group took up arms against the jihadists with US backing in late 2006 and has since been on the receiving end of repeated retaliatory attacks.

A second suicide bombing targeted the militia on Sunday in the town of Al-Qaim close to the Syrian border, police said.

The bomber blew himself up in a Sahwa office in the town killing two militiamen and a policeman, and wounding six other people.

Control of the Sahwa passed to Iraq in October 2008, and their wages have been paid, often late, by the Shiite-led government.

Baghdad has promised to incorporate 20 per cent of the Sahwa into the police and military and find civil service jobs for many of the rest, but the process has been slow and is fraught with risks.

In the past six months many Sahwa fighters and members of their families have been killed in revenge attacks.

The bombing in Radwaniyah was the deadliest to hit Iraq since May 10 when three car bombs at a factory in Hilla, south of Baghdad, followed by a fourth targeting emergency workers, killed 53 people.

[buglerbilly]

Two Al-Qaida Leaders Killed in Iraq Attacks

July 21, 2010

Deutsche Presse-Agentur

MOSUL/KIRKUK, Iraq - Five people, including two unidentified al-Qaeda leaders, have been killed and eight others injured in unrelated attacks in Iraq, police sources said Wednesday.

Iraqi military forces shot dead the two al-Qaeda leaders in the area of al-Zahraa in the northern city of Mosul, security sources said. Further information on the leaders' identities was not immediately available.

The military was acting upon information it had received from the area's residents, the police source said.

Two Iraqi soldiers were killed and a military officer was injured by a bomb targeting an army patrol in Mosul.

A woman died and her child was injured in a bombing in another part of the city, in which police forces were targeted.

A military officer was injured when a bomb exploded in his car as he was driving in the are of al-Qayara, some 350 kilometres north of the capital Baghdad.

Another bomb exploded in a passenger car as it drove along a highway north of the city of Kirkuk, injuring three people.

Gunmen also opened fire on a civilian car in Kirkuk, injuring two passengers, including one security officer.

Police arrested an al-Qaeda leader and 15 other members of the organization in an operation in Baquba, west of Baghdad, Baquba police chief Abdulhussein al-Shimry said.

Ali Hussein Ibrahim al-Khailani, al-Qaeda's leader in the city's al-Harouniya area, was arrested for killing and displacing tens of people, al-Shimry said.

Police arrested 15 other wanted individuals, including seven al-Qaeda members, in a separate operation in the same area.

© Copyright 2010 Deutsche Presse-Agentur. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

Odierno: No Plans to Slow Iraq Withdrawal

July 21, 2010

Associated Press



WASHINGTON - The inability of Iraq's political leaders to form a new government will not delay US plans to reduce its military presence to 50,000 soldiers by the end of August, the top US commander in the country said Wednesday.

General Ray Odierno told reporters at the Pentagon he has no plans to ask the White House to extend the August 31 deadline for ending combat operations and transitioning to a counter-terrorism and training role. He said the 50,00 troops will still provide a strong capability and it is important to send a signal to the Iraqi people that the United States lives up to its commitments.

"It's counterproductive for us to be doing combat operations in Iraq," Odierno said. "I think it's time for them to do those."

Iraq has been in a political deadlock since March elections in what Odierno described as "one of the closest elections we have ever seen in the Middle East." The narrow outcome left lawmakers in a dispute over who had the right to form a new government.

Former prime minister Iyad Allawi's Iraqiya List won 91 seats in the 325-member parliament, while incumbent Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki's coalition, State of Law, won 89 seats. The National Iraqi Alliance came in third with 70 seats.

Allawi and al-Maliki both claim the right to form a new government, Allawi because his party won the most seats. Al-Maliki insists that his broader allegiance with other parties gives him 159 seats, just short of a majority.

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

Iranian Backed Group Plots Rocket Attacks on Troops in Iraq: Odierno



Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps continues to train and arm Shia extremist groups in Iraq attempting to attack U.S. bases with a crudely built, but potentially very deadly, improvised rocket-assisted mortar, or what the military calls IRAM, Iraq commander Gen. Ray Odierno told Defense Tech this morning.

IRAM is basically a flying IED, consisting of a propane tank or other canister stuffed with explosives and launched by a rocket motor from simple rails mounted in a flat-bed truck into a base or outpost. It’s the quantity of explosives contained in the crude devices which makes them so deadly; some contained upwards of 100 pounds of high explosive. The crude Katyushas are parked near a base’s perimeter wall, the rails angled toward the target, and the rockets launched over the walls.

A group named Kataib Hezbollah, Iranian funded and controlled by Tehran, has received specialized training in Iran in the use of the Katyusha like IRAM, Odierno said at the press roundtable. “They’re very primitive… but it can cause mass casualties,” he said. Shia groups have attempted a number of IRAM attacks over the past few years, although most have failed. The latest intelligence indicates Kataib Hezbollah has refined the weapon and their tactics and over the last few weeks have been preparing some kind of mass attack, Odierno said.

Read more: http://defensetech.org/#ixzz0uNirBWde
Defense.org

[buglerbilly]

Four Al-Qaida Inmates Escape Iraq Jail

July 22, 2010

Associated Press



BAGHDAD - Four al-Qaida-linked detainees have escaped from a Baghdad area prison that was handed over by the U.S. to Iraqi authorities a week ago, Iraq's justice minister said Thursday.

Dara Noureddin said the four, awaiting trial on terrorism charges, escaped from the prison formerly known as Camp Cropper.

The escape could be a major embarrassment for Iraq, which took over control of the prison from U.S. forces on July 15.

The handover of the facility marked a milestone for Iraq's push to regain full sovereignty as the U.S. pulls out the last of its combat forces by the end of next month.

The U.S. military could not immediately be reached for comment.

Noureddin did not name the men who escaped, but said they had been arrested by U.S. forces in 2008 in western Iraq.

"The four detainees were awaiting trial after their arrest" on terrorism charges, Noureddin said.

Two Iraqi intelligence officials and a third in the Interior Ministry who are knowledgeable about the case said authorities believe the four men - whom they identified as al-Qaida members - were aided by the man in charge of their prison block.

The intelligence officials said the four were discovered missing Tuesday during an evening roll call. When prison staff went to inform the unit head, they found that he, too, was missing. He has not reported for work since, they said.

The intelligence officials said one of the escapees is believed to be a senior member of the group, and had the title of finance minister of the Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaida front group.

All three officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the details of the investigation to the media.

The U.S. forces handed over about 1,500 prisoners to Iraqi authorities July 15, but continue to hold 200 detainees at the request of the Iraqi government. They are kept in a separate part of the prison dubbed Compound 5.

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

Three U.S. Embassy guards killed in rocket attack in Baghdad's Green Zone



By Ernesto Londoño
Friday, July 23, 2010

BAGHDAD -- A rocket attack in Baghdad's Green Zone Thursday afternoon killed three guards employed by the U.S. Embassy and wounded 15 people, including two Americans, the embassy said.

Two of the guards killed were Ugandan and one was Peruvian, embassy officials said.

Also Thursday, Iraqi officials disclosed that four detainees linked to the Sunni insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq escaped this week from a prison the United States handed over to Iraqi control last week.

In a statement on the Green Zone attack, the embassy said those killed or wounded worked for a government contractor that protects U.S. facilities in Iraq. Herndon-based Triple Canopy employs the Ugandan and Peruvian guards who work at the embassy.

The statement did not say whether the rocket landed inside the embassy compound. Some of the guards work at outer checkpoints.

The United States has long employed Peruvian guards to protect civilian and military installations in Iraq. In recent months, according to guards, it has begun phasing out Peruvians in favor of Ugandans, who work for less money. Guards from third-country nations earn $450 to $1,000 a month, the guards said.

Insurgents have for years lobbed rockets toward the heavily guarded, sprawling U.S. Embassy compound inside the Green Zone. Such attacks intensified in the spring and summer of 2007 and again in the spring of 2008, and have since occurred sporadically. Most do not result in casualties.

The attack underscored the tenuousness of security a month before the U.S. military is scheduled to declare the nominal end of its combat mission in Iraq and reduce its troop level to 50,000.

Although violence has decreased in the country, attacks occur almost daily, and many Iraqis fear that political violence will intensify in the months ahead as a struggle for power spawned by the inconclusive March 7 parliamentary elections drags on.

At least two of the inmates whose escapes were disclosed Thursday are reportedly senior members of the Islamic State of Iraq, the umbrella organization that includes al-Qaeda in Iraq. The two men were the finance and interior ministers of the Islamic State of Iraq, which sought to form a shadow government in Iraq after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

Brig. Gen. Qassim Atta, an Iraqi military spokesman, said on Iraqi television that the Justice Ministry was to blame for the break, which reportedly occurred Tuesday.

"It is not our responsibility," he said.

The U.S. military handed over control of the Camp Cropper prison to the Iraqi government last Thursday. During the ceremony, U.S. commanders expressed confidence in the Justice Ministry's ability to run the prison, which houses some of Iraq's most notorious insurgents.

"This is the first day of a new era," said Maj. Gen. Jerry Cannon, the U.S. officer in charge of detainee operations, according to a news release. "One in which all elements of the Iraqi criminal justice system are able to assert their role in providing the continued safety and security of the Iraqi people."

Iraqi officials said the new warden of the prison, Omar Khalisa, who had been appointed at the urging of U.S. officials, vanished shortly after the jailbreak.

[Deks]

Teething problems. To be expected, I suppose.

[buglerbilly]

Mosul struggles with ethnic divides, insurgency

By Leila Fadel

Saturday, July 24, 2010

MOSUL, IRAQ -- In Iraq's third-largest city, buildings are bombed out and scarred by thousands of bullet holes. But unlike in many parts of Iraq that have calmed significantly in recent years, much of the damage is recent.

Mosul and the surrounding province of Nineveh are a microcosm of Iraq's most explosive and unresolved conflicts as the United States prepares to draw down to 50,000 troops by Sept. 1. Kurdish and Sunni Arab leaders battle over disputed lands, provincial and central government officials wrestle for control, and Sunni insurgents continue to slip back and forth across the porous borders with Turkey and Syria.

"We will remain a thorn in the chest of the Americans," reads a graffiti tag on one Mosul building.

It's a prediction that U.S. officials are working hard to avoid. They are focusing their attention here so they don't leave behind a time bomb for the fledgling Iraqi government and for the U.S. troops who will remain in Iraq before all American forces are withdrawn by the end of 2011.

Attacks have dropped in Nineveh over the past year, but it is still one of the most violent places in Iraq. Among Mosul's approximately 1.8 million residents, there is deep mistrust of the various Iraqi security forces that patrol here. Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander, recently suggested that a U.N. peacekeeper force might be needed to maintain security in some areas after the United States pulls out.

Of particular concern are the Sunni insurgent groups that exploit a Kurd-Arab dispute over land. As other bastions of the Sunni insurgency calmed in recent years, Nineveh never truly quieted. Odierno told reporters last week that although U.S. and Iraqi forces have had success killing and detaining al-Qaeda in Iraq leaders within Mosul, the group remains active in the adjacent deserts.

Over the first six months of the year, 422 people in Nineveh died as a result of violence, according to provincial morgue statistics. More than 1,100 were wounded. The death toll in the province is more than three times that of Anbar province, once the heart of the Sunni insurgency.

The security forces here are widely considered to be part of the problem. The police are believed to be infiltrated by insurgent groups, and one of the main Iraqi army commanders for the area, Nasser al-Hiti, is known for harsh tactics, Odierno said.

Hiti was unpopular with U.S. commanders in Abu Ghraib, where he previously worked. But he has long been praised by the defense ministry and is seen as a favorite of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Calls to the defense ministry were not returned.

Two Iraqi army divisions, a federal police division and local police operate within the city because no one force can control it alone. There is little communication between the forces, Iraqi officials said.

"The problem is the citizens don't cooperate totally to give us information," Nineveh Gov. Atheel al-Nujaifi said. "The trust is still weak between the security forces and the people. We have five to six intelligence groups operating here. Each agency is related to a specific party in Baghdad. There is no trust between these agencies. Sometimes that results in a struggle."

Kurds dislike Nujaifi, an Arab nationalist, because he is seen as anti-Kurdish. But he said he thinks he should have more control over security in the province. He cannot travel in Kurdish-controlled areas and has no authority over federal forces that report to Baghdad. He and his legal adviser say the Iraqi army arrests hundreds of people and does not allow them access to lawyers.

Col. Charles Sexton, a brigade commander in Mosul, characterized the friction among Iraqi security force units as a "healthy disagreement." The U.S. military hopes the 23 checkpoints along the boundary line of the disputed territory claimed by both Arabs and Kurds -- 12 in Nineveh alone -- will close the security gap that allows insurgent groups to operate, said Maj. Gen. Tony Cucolo, who commands U.S. forces in the north. The checkpoints are manned by a combination of U.S., Iraqi and Kurdish forces.

Both the province and Mosul are majority Sunni Arab, with a large Kurdish population as well as other minority communities. The United States has focused its efforts on defusing tensions as it draws down and on training the police to the point where they can take charge of Mosul's security.

The political uncertainty that grips Iraq hasn't helped. It has been four months since the national election, but there is still no government in Iraq because rival factions are deadlocked. Whoever ultimately takes charge will inherit the challenge of handling the disputed territories.

Kurds want to annex what they see as Kurdish lands into their semi-autonomous region; Arabs want to keep the land under central government control. The area is often called the "trigger line" because of its potential to turn violent quickly.

Ghazi Mohammed sees the violence regularly in the forensic medical center where he works. There are violent-death cases every day. He also examines court-referred allegations of torture by security forces, five to six a week. About 80 percent of those people have evidence of beatings and burn marks, he said.

"There are checkpoints everywhere, and the killings continue," Mohammed said in his office. On the wall behind him, charts track the ebb and flow of death in the province. Before the elections, assassinations rose. They then dropped off, and now he sees them rising again.

"It's a political issue," he said. "It's more than just insurgents and resistance."

Mohammed has begged for a transfer so he no longer has to endure threats from security forces and from the relatives of dead insurgents, he said. He has applied for asylum in five Western countries; every attempt has failed. "There is no trust, and the city is unstable," he said. "The security forces create enemies from inside the city every day."

In Mosul's western district of al-Borsa, police dodge grenades, gunfire from narrow alleyways and roadside bombs. Lt. Col. Shamel Ahmed Ugla patrolled the area with his men earlier this month. Police have become the biggest targets of Sunni insurgents in the province, but it's hard to tell who is a threat.

"They try to attack us every minute, but we are always chasing them," he said. "Mosul gave many sacrifices. It is tired now. It is sad."

He has arrested scores of people since he took over the area, but he complains that they often end up back in the streets.

"The judicial system takes the side of the terrorists," he said. "It's a revolving door. Some policeman's blood boils because he lost his cousin or brother or friend. He might hit [the detainee] in the face or with a stick, and the terrorist goes to the judge and says he was beaten."

That morning, his officers had arrested a man they thought was informing insurgent groups of police movement. In the man's store, the police said they found a clock with a list of insurgents' names, a list of potential victims and a bag of bullets hidden inside.

As Ugla patrolled the streets, the detainee was beaten with a stick by police officers back at the base. The detainee admitted to the police that he had been paid about $100 a month to help al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Later, Ugla denied that the man was beaten.

"If he was beaten, to hell with him," he yelled. "Stop asking these questions."

[buglerbilly]

Outside forces hindering progress in Iraq

HUSSEIN TAHIRI

July 23, 2010


Stability is a way off for Iraq. Photo: AP

It has been more than four months since Iraq's second parliamentary elections were held and as delays continue in forming a new government, the chance of the county plunging into more chaos and bloodshed increases. Just last week bombings at a mosque in Diyala province killed 15 people.

The March 7, 2010, elections produced inconclusive results in which none of the major political groupings gained a significant majority. The Iraqi National Movement, headed by the former prime minister Ayad Allawi, gained 91 seats, the State of Law Coalition, headed by the outgoing prime minister Nuri al-Maliki, 89, the National Iraqi Alliance 70, while the Kurdistani parties gained 57 seats.

Soon after the primary results, various coalitions began to negotiate to form a new government. However, after months of negotiations, Iraq looks further from forming a government than it did in the early days after the elections.

There is encouragement — and at times pressure on all sides to form a consensus government — but the various political groupings are so far apart that building consensus is difficult. Agreeing on key positions such as the presidency of the country and the post of prime ministership is even more difficult. This has created a perception that various Iraqi political factions are more interested in gaining power than the future of their country.

While all eyes are on disparate Iraqi political parties, the struggle between Iran and the US over influence and power in Iraq has relatively gone unnoticed.

The US, though it would publicly deny it, seems to favour Allawi, who is a secular and Shiite, and has the support of the Sunni Iraqi Arabs. It would like to include the Sunni Arabs into the government to satisfy its regional Sunni Arab allies, to reduce the likelihood of Sunnis joining the former Baathists and al-Qaeda, and to reduce the Iranian influence over Iraqi internal affairs.

Allawi's Iraqi National Movement does not have a good relationship with Iran. Iran, in turn, is trying its utmost to make sure Allawi and his Sunni allies would not form the new government.

Iran would like to see its Shiite allies such as the State of Law Coalition headed by Maliki or the National Iraqi Alliance, a coalition of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq headed by Amar al-Hakim, Muqtada al-Sadr and smaller Shiite groups, who are closer to Iran to form the new government.

There have been claims that Iran, through its Shiite allies, has been deliberately delaying the formation of the new Iraqi government. These claims seem to be plausible as Iran has a vested interest in having uncertainty in Iraq to prove that the US has failed in bringing democracy and stability to the country.

The Iranian government is using the Iraqi situation as a deterrence measure against its own population. It wants to show that, should the Iranian people support a Western-led attempt to overthrow the regime, they could face the same fate as the Iraqis have faced.

Political crisis and uncertainty in Iraq could also mean that the US might not be able to withdraw its forces from Iraq as scheduled. Ironically, withdrawal of US forces from Iraq would not be beneficial to Iran, at least not at this stage.

The US and Israel have threatened to use force, if necessary, against Iran over its nuclear program. Iran is well aware that as long as there are US forces on the ground in Iraq it would be difficult for the US or Israel to use force against Iran. An attack on Iran could put the US forces in great danger as they would be within the reach of the Iranian fire. In addition, significant numbers of Shiites in Iraq sympathise with the Iranian government, so using force against Iran would attract retaliatory measures by Shiites in Iraq against US forces.

With Iraq as a competing ground for power struggle and influence within and without Iraqi boundaries, it should be expected that many future elections could also take a long time to produce governments.

Dr Hussein Tahiri is a commentator on Middle Eastern affairs. He is an adjunct research associate with Monash University's School of Political and Social Inquiry.

[buglerbilly]

Report: DoD Can't Account For $9.1B In Iraq Funds

By TOM SPOTH

Published: 27 Jul 2010 13:34

The U.S. Defense Department failed to properly account for almost $9 billion of Iraq reconstruction funds, which is 96 percent of the money it received from 2004 to 2007, according to a report released July 27 by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.

Eight organizations in the department were authorized to spend $9.1 billion from the Development Fund for Iraq, which is made up of funds from Iraq's oil and gas exports, surplus money from the United Nations Oil-for-Food Program and frozen Iraqi assets. The Pentagon organizations were supposed to set up accounts at the U.S. Treasury Department to manage the money, but only U.S. Army Central Command did so for the roughly $400 million it received.

As a result, the SIGIR report found, the remaining $8.7 billion was "vulnerable to inappropriate uses and undetected loss."

The report faults the Pentagon for not issuing guidance on establishing the accounts at Treasury until December 2004, about six months after the Pentagon organizations had received most of the money from the Development Fund for Iraq. The Pentagon also didn't name an official to make policy on or oversee the use of that money, the report says.

The Treasury accounts are intended to ensure accountability for non-U.S. government funds. Because Army Central Command established an account, it was able to give SIGIR a full rundown of its DFI obligations, expenditures and remaining balances. The other organizations could not.

Much of the $9.1 billion was controlled by the Joint Area Support Group-Central and the Army Corps of Engineers. Also holding funds were the Army's Project and Contracting Office for Iraq, the Multi-National Corps-Iraq, the Joint Contracting Command Iraq/Afghanistan, the Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment, and the Navy.

The Iraqi government withdrew U.S. authority to administer the DFI funds at the end of 2007, but the SIGIR report found that the Pentagon is still holding on to millions of dollars because of its poor financial management.

[buglerbilly]

Mullen Calls for Long-Term Partnership with Iraqi Military

(Source: U.S Department of Defense; issued July 27, 2010)

BAGHDAD --- The United States military is committed over the long-term to a positive, productive partnership with Iraqi security forces, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said here today.

The U.S. military drawdown in Iraq is on schedule, said Navy Adm. Mike Mullen. The drawdown, he added, will reduce the numbers of U.S. troops in Iraq to less than 50,000 by August 31.

“I see absolutely nothing to negatively impact that [drawdown],” Mullen said during a joint news conference with Jacob Lew, deputy secretary of state for management and budget.

Mullen has been visiting Iraq since 2004. “I’ve seen things at their worst,” he recalled. “I remember when very few people had very few hopes for a better future in Iraq. Today, that hope abounds. It’s nearly palpable.”

Mullen said he is stunned and pleased by the changes in Iraq, but more progress must be made. The U.S.-Iraqi relationship will move from mainly military to one based on “strong, vibrant civilian institutions and leadership,” the admiral said.

There are just under 65,000 American servicemembers in Iraq today – down more than 100,000 from the height of the surge of forces in 2007. Mullen praised Army Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the commander of U.S. Forces Iraq, and his team for their management of the drawdown.

American planners here said they have sent much-needed equipment to U.S. troops in Afghanistan, provided equipment and materiel to Iraqi security forces, and cleaned up many of the sites to U.S. environmental standards.

The U.S. mission will change from Operation Iraqi Freedom to Operation New Dawn on September 1, and the American forces will switch totally to an advise and assist role, Mullen said. U.S. forces, he added, will retain the ability to defend themselves.

Other U.S. forces will continue to train and work with the Iraqi army and Iraqi police, Mullen said. Other troops will continue to help the Iraqis develop logistics capabilities for their security forces, and also develop the Iraqi air force and navy.

“We will continue to assist in targeted counterterrorism operations where necessary,” the chairman said. “But it is the Iraqi security forces that must provide for the security of their own people.”

Mullen believes the Iraqi security apparatus is ready, and said he is pleased with their performance. Violent acts have declined 50 percent since July of last year, Mullen said, and security incidents are at their lowest point since 2003.

What’s more, the Iraqi security force’s behavior during the recent national elections proved to the Iraq people that the military is apolitical and loyal to the Iraqi constitution.

“As I have said to my own military, there are few attributes more important or more vital to a democracy than a military that stays out of politics and remains subservient to civilian leadership,” Mullen said.

The election left a closely divided legislature, and the Iraqi politicians have yet to form a new government. Senior U.S. officials, including Vice President Joe Biden, have told the Iraqis that it is important for them to work together to form a government as quickly as possible. However, the delay in forming the new Iraqi government will not affect the U.S. drawdown or many of the development programs already underway, Mullen and Lew said.

Yet, the weakened insurgents still retain the ability to launch attacks, Mullen said. He called yesterday’s attack on the headquarters of al Arabiyah television network an attempt to muzzle the press.

“That these criminals chose to lash out at a responsible, free and independent media organization, speaks volumes about the desperation of their situation and their motives,” Mullen said. Insurgent attempts to squelch the Iraqi press, the admiral said, represents “nothing more than an attempt to hold back the Iraqi people from the free exchange of ideas and greater awareness of the world around them. It is as futile as it is foolish.”

The chairman met today with Iraqi President Jalal Talibani, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. Mullen also met with Defense Minister Abdul Qadir and Gen. Babakir Zabari, the Iraqi military chief of staff.

-ends-

[buglerbilly]

Survivors Fast-Tracked for Stop-Loss Pay

July 28, 2010

Military.com|by Bryant Jordan

This applies to people who have served in Afghanistan as well................

As the deadline nears for veterans to apply for special pay for having been "stop-lossed" after 9/11, the Defense Department has set up a fast-lane for one group of applicants: survivors of those who have died since leaving the military.

"Every week we get applications from surviving family members," said Maj. Roy Whitley, the Army's Project Manager for Retroactive Stop Loss Special Pay. "We deal with those one-on-one, and we do as much work as we can and they go to the top of the list."

Since Congress voted in the 2009 war supplemental to compensate Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Airmen who were involuntarily extended on active duty, about 30,000 veterans have been awarded back pay amounting to $500 for every month or partial month they stayed beyond their separation date, Whitley said. The average benefit has been about $3,700, according to the Defense Department.

Deadline for submitting an application is Oct. 21. He said the turnaround time is anywhere from two to four weeks.

Whitley was unable to estimate how many vets or surviving dependents will be eligible for the money, but the Army alone estimates it has 125,000 former Soldiers who should be applying for it.

He said the Army has so far been able to identify more than 80,000 people it knows must be contacted and has sent out letters to more than 50,000. It expects to finish up its identification and out-reach program in about 10 days, he said. In addition the Army has placed information posters up at recruiting offices and veterans centers across the country.

Servicemembers – or their survivors – who were stop-lossed anytime between Sept. 11, 2001 and Sept. 30, 2009 are eligible for the special pay, according to the DoD.

Applicants need their DD-214 or a personnel record noting their original expiration of service date. Additional information and required source documents can be found on DoD's website. The department also set up a Stop-Loss Facebook page.

While Whitney works as the Army's stop-loss retroactive pay program manager, he said all the services are giving applications from survivors individualized, expedited service.

"They're at a disadvantage [as civilians]. You don't understand the records, don't understand the process … you don't know the regs. That is our job. There is no surviving family member that does not get taken care of immediately."

© Copyright 2010 Military.com. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

Al Qaeda in Iraq’s Health Care Plan: Stolen Blood, Skilled Docs

By Katie Drummond July 29, 2010 | 10:30 am



Pockets of insurgents are stealing blood supplies from local hospitals and blood banks in Iraq, often at gunpoint, and using the looted stockpiles to treat their own troops. That’s the report out of the New York Times this week, but it’s only another reminder of the premium placed on life-saving medical supplies — blood and organs, but also surgical tools and pharmaceuticals — in times of turmoil and war.

In Iraq, the thefts have actually been ongoing for years. The Times notes that, since at least 2005, Al Qaeda in Iraq fighters have raided hospitals — often the same ones several times — and stolen “large quantities of blood,” rather than risk arrest by bringing wounded group members in for treatment. These thefts often go on without interference from Iraqi security forces or hospital employees — many of whom “have members sympathetic to the insurgency.”

There’s no doubt the report is troubling, not only as an example of Iraq’s chaotic civil order, but because civilians are faced with life-threatening blood shortages and hospitals closed to ward off the looting. Even the U.S. military, which usually relies on shipped in blood donations, can barely sustain an adequate supply for injured American troops — so much so that they’re funding synthetic blood programs as a permanent way to stave off the scarcity.

But it’s no surprise, in any crisis, that medical supplies become hot commodities: terrorists, armies, and even civilians coping with a natural disaster won’t get far without the bare necessities, which puts a lofty premium on food, water, and health care. After January’s earthquake in Haiti, reports quickly emerged of violent raids on dozens of orphanages, whose proprietors were forced to stop stockpiling food and medicine beyond a two-week supply. And U.S officials have even stalled critically important aid, like $50 million in provisions to Somalia in 2004, over fears it was being diverted to terror cells.

And maybe because of just how universally indispensable health care is, allegations of organ theft and looted medical supplies have also been useful propaganda tools. Last year, Israel emphatically denied Palestinian reports that troops had stolen organs from Palestinian children. Only two months earlier, Hamas was denying Israeli allegations that their troops had raided aid trucks for food and medicine.

What’s unique about Al Qaeda in Iraq’s blood theft is that their medics might actually know how to use the vital fluid safely. As the Times reports, mismatched blood types can be life threatening — so looting blood and transfusing it without proper training is extremely risky. But Iraqi doctors say they’ve seen enough Al Qaeda torture victims “amputated in a very precise and skilled way,” to suspect the insurgents have well-trained doctors handling transfusions and other life-saving procedures.

It doesn’t help that corruption and inadequate funding continue to plague the Iraqi health care system. In 2009, members of the government’s health ministry openly admitted that corruption, bribery and money siphoning were costing civilian lives — and also complained that their three percent share of the country’s budget was far from sufficient to maintain and equip facilities. Even without factoring in the scarcity caused by insurgent raids, “doctors routinely dispatch patients’ relatives to fetch medicines, IV fluids and syringes from private merchants or the black market,” McClatchy DC reported last year.

And if history is any indication, the Times report only skims the surface of how much is really being looted, raided and stolen by Iraqi insurgents — and from where. We already know they’ve nabbed NATO food supplies, cars and scads of antiquities. If nothing else, at least scoring nukes has thus far proved a little tougher than rations and vital fluids.

Photo: U.S. Air Force

Read More http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/#ixzz0v5FH4ZzU

[buglerbilly]

Shiite bloc suspends talks, undermining Maliki's chances to remain Iraq's leader


Iraqi security forces patrol a street in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, July 31, 2010. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban) (Hadi Mizban - AP)


An Iraqi army soldier searches a man at checkpoint at Azamiyah neighborhood in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, July 31, 2010. Authorities announced a partial lifting of a curfew imposed on the Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah Thursday following a brazen daylight attack by al-Qaida militants who killed 16 members of the security forces at a checkpoint there before burning some of their bodies and planting the black banner of the terror network. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed) (Khalid Mohammed - AP)


Iraqi army soldiers secure a street at Azamiyah neighborhood in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, July 31, 2010. Authorities announced a partial lifting of a curfew imposed on the Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah Thursday following a brazen daylight attack by al-Qaida militants who killed 16 members of the security forces at a checkpoint there before burning some of their bodies and planting the black banner of the terror network. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed) (Khalid Mohammed - AP)


Iraqi security forces search cars at a checkpoint in the Azamiyah neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, July 31, 2010. Authorities announced a partial lifting of a curfew imposed on the Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah Thursday following a brazen daylight attack by al-Qaida militants who killed 16 members of the security forces at a checkpoint there before burning some of their bodies and planting the black banner of the terror network. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed) (Khalid Mohammed - AP)

By Ernesto Londoño
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 2, 2010

BAGHDAD -- Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's chances of keeping his job suffered a setback Sunday when a coalition of Shiite parties that appeared to represent his best hope of staying in office broke off talks with his slate.

The move did not resolve a dispute among Iraqi politicians over who among the members of parliament elected March 7 will lead the next government. But it appeared to leave Maliki in a weaker position as his former political allies renewed negotiations with the Sunni-backed coalition led by former prime minister Ayad Allawi.

Both Maliki and Allawi claim the right to form the new government, citing conflicting interpretations of the constitution. Neither has found enough allies in parliament to secure the simple majority required to appoint the next prime minister.

U.S. officials have watched the stalemate with growing consternation as they prepare for their own transition.

The United States will soon send a new ambassador and a new commanding general to Baghdad as the U.S. troop withdrawal accelerates. The U.S. military will draw down to roughly 50,000 troops by the end of the month.

American officials had hoped to make the change of guard after a new Iraqi government was seated, thinking an experienced U.S. team would be better positioned to handle any unrest and violence triggered by the Iraqi transition of power.

In coming days, the White House will dispatch a team to Baghdad to assist with the transition and assess U.S. policy regarding Iraq's stagnant government formation process, American and Iraqi officials said.

Separately, a few American experts on Iraqi politics who played key roles during the 2007 U.S. troop surge are temporarily returning to Baghdad to advise U.S. officials.

Brett McGurk, an Iraq adviser to then-President George W. Bush who was among the key negotiators of a 2008 bilateral agreement, recently arrived in Baghdad.

Sadi Othman, who was Gen. David H. Petraeus's main interlocutor with Iraqi politicians during the surge, has been asked to return to work for the incoming U.S. commander, Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III. Ali Khedery, who was an adviser to then-U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, will work temporarily for the next ambassador, James F. Jeffrey.

Sunday's political developments left Iraqi and American officials wondering how Maliki would respond.

"He can do unexpected things that are not even in his best interest when he's cornered," said an American official who advises the Iraqi government, speaking on the condition of anonymity to be more candid.

Officials from the Iraqi National Alliance, the coalition of religious Shiite parties that suspended talks with Maliki, said they wanted to pick someone else for the top job.

"We found that our negotiations with State of Law weren't serious," said Bahaa al-Aaraji, a member of parliament, referring to Maliki's slate.

Aaraji said the religious parties would open a new round of talks with their counterparts in Allawi's bloc and a Kurdish coalition in coming days. He said they would resume talks with Maliki's slate only if he agrees to nominate a substitute candidate for prime minister.

Ezzat Shahbandar, a lawmaker from Maliki's slate, played down the significance of the suspended talks, saying the religious parties were "putting themselves out of the equation."

The political bickering has angered residents as government services deteriorate and attacks kill scores of civilians each month.

At least 396 civilians died in attacks in July, according to Iraqi government officials who compile data from records kept by the Interior, Defense and Health ministries.

At least 680 civilians were wounded in attacks, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the government does not release the data publicly. The July figures also show that 50 Iraqi soldiers and 89 police officers were killed.

The U.S. military disputed the accuracy of the figures, saying far fewer people were killed in July.

Special correspondents Aziz Alwan and Jinan Hussein contributed to this report.

[buglerbilly]

Obama Touts Iraq Drawdown Success

August 02, 2010

Associated Press



ATLANTA - President Barack Obama declared Monday that the Iraq war was nearing an end "as promised and on schedule," touting what he called a success of his administration though it comes amid persistent instability and uncertainty in Iraq.

Obama cited progress toward meeting his deadline of withdrawing all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the end of this month. A transitional force of 50,000 troops will remain to train Iraqi security forces, conduct counterterrorism operations and provide security for ongoing U.S. civilian efforts. Under an agreement negotiated in 2008 with the Iraqis, all American troops are to be gone from Iraq by the end of next year.

"The hard truth is we have not seen the end of American sacrifice in Iraq," Obama said in a speech to the national convention of the Disabled American Veterans. "But make no mistake, our commitment in Iraq is changing - from a military effort led by our troops to a civilian effort led by our diplomats."

The main focus of Obama's appearance was the move toward fulfillment of Obama's campaign promise to end the Iraq war, a position that perhaps most defined his 2008 candidacy and was key to his base of support in the liberal wing of his party. With pivotal congressional elections approaching, the White House wants to highlight the progress as a success story. Monday's speech was only the first in a series of such events planned for this month, with others to be headlined by the president as well as Vice President Joe Biden and other administration officials.

"The message is, when the president makes a commitment, he keeps it," White House spokesman Bill Burton told reporters traveling with Obama to Georgia on Air Force One.

But the rhetoric comes amid deep concerns about Iraq's stability.

U.S. officials have stepped up the pressure on Iraqi leaders to overcome a political impasse that has prevented the formation of a new government for the nearly five months since parliamentary elections that did not produce a clear winner.

In a reminder of Iraq's fragility, two bombings and a drive-by shooting killed eight people there Monday.

With such attacks remaining a daily occurrence, especially in Baghdad, questions persist about the readiness of Iraqi security forces to take over for the Americans and tamp down insurgents. Obama said, "Violence in Iraq continues to be near the lowest it's been in years," but figures released by Iraqi authorities over the weekend - dismissed by the U.S. military as too high - showed July to be the deadliest month for Iraqis in more than two years.

At the same time Obama has drawn down forces in Iraq, he has increased the U.S. commitment in Afghanistan, ordering a surge of 30,000 additional troops for the 9-year mission there.

But with casualties on the rise, fresh concerns have arisen - with some saying the Afghanistan war should be ended and others questioning Obama's plan to begin winding it down as soon as next July. Critics say such a timetable will embolden the Taliban and other extremist groups in the region.

With such debate and low public support, the White House has launched a fresh effort to paint the U.S. goals in Afghanistan as modest: keeping the region from being a haven for terrorists.

"We face huge challenges in Afghanistan," Obama said Monday. "But it's important that the American people know that we are making progress and we're focused on goals that are clear and achievable."

Despite the increase in Afghanistan, there are fewer U.S. troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan now than there were when Obama took office last year. Come September, when the Iraq drawdown is complete, the White House says there will 146,000 troops on the ground, down from 177,000 in January 2009.

Speaking before a mostly friendly crowd of more than 2,500 disabled veterans, some in wheelchairs, others with lost limbs, Obama promised an all-out effort to support troops. "Your government is going to take care of you when you come home," he said.

After the speech, he was heading to a lunch benefiting the Democratic National Committee, his latest stop in a summer fundraising sprint that also includes events in Chicago later this week. But Georgia's most prominent Democrat, former Gov. Roy Barnes, wasn't joining Obama in Atlanta. Barnes, who is running to get his old job back, had previously scheduled events in southern Georgia, his campaign said.

Distancing himself from the president could be politically smart for Barnes. Georgia is a Republican stronghold that John McCain carried in 2008. A poll conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc. in July had Obama with a 37 percent approval rating in the state. Fifty percent of those surveyed disapproved of Obama's performance.

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

Troops Departing Iraq Pack Millions of Items

August 04, 2010

Associated Press



JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq - Everything from helicopters to printer cartridges is being wrapped and stamped and shipped out of Iraq. U.S. military bases that once resembled small towns have transformed into a cross between giant post offices and Office Depots.

Soldiers who battled through insurgents and roadside bombs are now doing inventory and accounting. Their task: reverse over the course of months a U.S. military presence that built up over seven years of war.

"We're moving out millions of pieces of equipment in one of the largest logistics operations that we've seen in decades," President Barack Obama said in a speech Monday hailing this month's planned withdrawal of all U.S. combat troops from Iraq.

The orderly withdrawal is a far cry from the testosterone-fueled push across the berm separating Kuwait and Iraq, when American Marines and Soldiers pushed north in the 2003 invasion, battling Saddam Hussein's army while sleeping on the hoods of their vehicles and eating prepackaged meals.

"I think it's probably more challenging leaving, responsibly drawing down, than it is getting here, because you just have to figure out where everything is and getting it out of here. Are there enough airplanes, ships, containers, and do we have enough time to do that and meet the president's mandate?" said Col. David F. Demartino, who is responsible for infrastructure and support services at Balad, which is home to 25,000 troops and civilians.

In essence the drawdown has been happening since late 2008. That's when the U.S. started to reduce its numbers following the surge, which raised the American presence to about 170,000. Now the U.S. has just under 65,000 troops in the country, and the withdrawal is reaching a more furious pace as the August deadline approaches.

Only 50,000 U.S. service personnel will remain after August. All troops are supposed to leave and all bases close by the end of next year, unless Iraq asks the U.S. to renegotiate their agreement to allow a continued American presence.

In mid-July, JSS Mahmoudiya - once a U.S. position just south of Baghdad in one of Iraq's most dangerous areas - was a ghost town. Tents were abandoned, covered with foam to retard fire, and the white-walled cafeteria was barren except for a few refrigerators holding drinks. The joint operations command was stripped of almost everything, including the big-screen TVs on which military personnel once watched operations.

The next day, it was handed over to the Iraqi government to become an army facility.

Each handover involves a painstaking process of inventorying everything on the base that the Soldiers aren't taking with them. Every item is assessed to see if it can be moved and if so, whether it is needed anywhere else in the country. Many of the materials - water tanks, generators, and furniture - are eventually donated to the Iraqi government. As of July 27, $98.6 million worth of equipment has been handed over, most to the Iraqi army and Interior Ministry.

More than 400 bases are being closed down or handed over to the Iraqi military. By September, the American military will have fewer than 100 bases in the country, down from a high of 505 in January 2008.

Some of these bases look somewhat like small towns with elaborate dining facilities serving tacos and crab legs and gyms with rows of treadmills.

About half the vehicles - what the military describes as "rolling stock" - that have left Iraq have gone to Afghanistan. More than 180,000 items like weapons or communications equipment have also been sent to Afghanistan over the past year.

In the past, when troops rotated into Iraq they brought some weapons and other equipment with them. But they inherited most of their equipment - including Humvees and other armored vehicles - from the unit they replaced.

But now as troops aren't being replaced, the last guys out must leave their equipment at the door to be redistributed, whether back to the U.S., other units in Iraq or to Afghanistan.

That makes places like the Central Receiving and Shipping Point at Balad "the center of the universe," as one visiting officer nicknamed it. Equipment such as howitzers and helicopter blades or shipping containers and pallets arrives for redistribution.

Sgt. 1st Class Stephen Latch runs the CRSP. He spent his first tour in Iraq with the infantry kicking down doors and hunting down members of Saddam's regime. The only time he really thought about logistics was to wonder when his ammo and food would arrive.

Now he's at the center of the logistical version of a major offensive, helping ensure that the equipment goes south to Kuwait, the main exit point. Most material is driven down the heavily guarded main highway from Baghdad to the border, a more than 300-mile route. So far there have been no reports of significant attacks on any convoys.

Latch said when he started his deployment last summer, they moved an average of about 2,500 items a month. Now he's moving almost six times that amount, and it's mostly going south.

And people want it faster. It used to be something could sit in the CRSP yard for 45 days before heading to Kuwait, Latch said. But now if it's there for five days, people start calling and want to know why.

"We have a very, very aggressive attitude," Latch said. "Everybody knows the stuff is going south. It's going to move no matter what. You can either fight the current or you can just push as hard as you can to get that stuff down there fast."

The drawdown has not been without hiccups. The military was embarrassed by a report in the Times of London that contractors did not properly dispose of environmental waste removed from U.S. military bases.

But U.S. commanders say they are addressing problems and are confident they will be able to meet the president's deadline.

Demartino said that while going through shipping containers, buildings and offices at Joint Base Balad, Soldiers have been stunned at the materials hoarded over the years in nooks and crannies all over the base.

The biggest surprise was the thousands of printer cartridges tucked away by Soldiers worried they would one day run out.

"I walked through a few of these buildings, and I was thinking this is like Office Depot, and it's just people going 'I don't want to run out. Let's get them!'" he said. "I think it's the mindset of 'We're never going to leave.'"

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

Al-Qaida in Iraq Tries to Lure Ex-Allies

August 06, 2010

Associated Press

BAGHDAD - Al-Qaida in Iraq has begun offering cash to lure back former Sunni allies angry over the government's failure to give them jobs and pay their salaries on time, according to Sunni tribesmen and Iraqi officials.

The recruitment drive adds to worries that the terror network is attempting a comeback after the deaths of its two top leaders in April and is taking advantage of a summer of uncertainty. The political stalemate in Baghdad is entering its sixth month after inconclusive elections, just as the U.S. military is rapidly drawing down its forces.

Al-Qaida's strategy is to provoke the Shiite majority into launching revenge attacks - a development that could re-ignite open warfare, split the Iraqi security forces along sectarian lines and cement al-Qaida's leadership role among Sunnis.

But if the extremists are unable to win back their former Sunni allies, it would be difficult for them to rebound as a significant threat - though al-Qaida could continue to be a deadly nuisance for years to come.

Al-Qaida's overtures in recent weeks are notable because its militants have killed hundreds of former allies over the past two years, setting off blood vendettas between the Sunni extremist group and others in the Iraqi Sunni community. Many former insurgents also disliked al-Qaida's imposition of a strict interpretation of Islam in areas under its control.

But tribesmen said the need for cash to feed their families is pushing some lower-ranking former al-Qaida in Iraq members to rejoin the terror group - and that al-Qaida's presence is growing in Anbar province west of the capital.

"The government must help us counter the resurrection of al-Qaida in Anbar," warned Mahmoud Shaker, an influential tribesman from the province's Habbaniyah district.

Others warned that the recruitment could help al-Qaida gain ground elsewhere in Iraq.

"I expect that if salaries continue to be paid late, Sahwa members will themselves seek to rejoin al-Qaida," said Rafia Adel, referring to the Sunni tribesmen who turned against al-Qaida and sided with the U.S. military and the government. Adel is a senior Sahwa leader from the city of Beiji in Salaheddin province.

Al-Qaida is also exploiting continuing resentment by the Sunnis over their second-class status in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein - particularly in Baghdad, which had been a Sunni-dominated city for 1,000 years.

The 2006 and 2007 revolt by Sunni tribesmen against al-Qaida dramatically changed the course of the war. Former insurgents were organized into Awakening Councils, or Sahwa, to help U.S. and Iraqi troops fight al-Qaida.

The U.S. military initially supervised and paid the salaries of the Sahwa fighters, whose numbers peaked to about 100,000 in 2008. The Iraqi government took over the Sahwa from the Americans last year, agreeing to give at least 20 percent of the fighters police and government jobs and to pay the rest to maintain security in Sunni areas. Other fighters simply returned to their old jobs.

Nowadays, the government pays the salaries of its estimated 650,000-strong police and army on time, including the estimated 20,000 Sahwa fighters who have been assimilated into the security forces.

But the remaining fighters on the government payroll go without their checks, in some cases for as long as three months. The government cites lack of funds or bureaucratic snags for the delays.

Another Sahwa complaint is that the government detained scores of its leaders on terrorism charges last year. Although most detainees were released - often because of U.S. pressure - the arrests were seen as a humiliation.

Exploiting these grievances, al-Qaida operatives are approaching disgruntled Sahwa members with cash offers and telling them the government's repeated failure to pay their wages on time is helping al-Qaida's recruitment drive, according to four senior Sahwa leaders - two in the Baghdad area and two in the mainly Sunni provinces of Anbar and Salaheddin.

They said al-Qaida was in most cases offering to top by $100 or more the average monthly salary of a Sahwa member, which ranges between $250 and $300.

"Al-Qaida is spending a great deal of money to win back members of the Sahwa," Adel said.

Al-Qaida in Iraq is thought to fund itself through private donations from sympathetic businessmen and charities in the Arab world and, increasingly, the robbery of banks, money changers and jewelry stores in Iraq. It is also rumored to be involved in kidnap-for-ransom operations.

U.S. officials believe al-Qaida in Iraq no longer has ties to the overall al-Qaida leadership, believed to be in Pakistan.

A senior Iraqi security official said he was aware of al-Qaida's overtures to Sahwa members, adding that cash offers came in letters and messages sent through intermediaries to tribal chiefs in charge of Sahwa groups across Iraq. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

A Sahwa leader in southern Baghdad said al-Qaida carefully chooses the time it approaches Sahwa members with cash offers, often targeting groups owed months of back pay to exploit their anger and need for money.

"It is during those times that we as leaders offer our men money to help them until their back pay arrives," said the leader from Dora, a former al-Qaida stronghold. He spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear for his safety.

It is unclear to what extent al-Qaida's drive has been successful so far, but it appears that the extremists have had some luck in luring low-ranking, cash-starved fighters - as well as those nursing other grudges against the Shiite-led government - but not, for the most part, influential tribal chiefs.

Ironically, some fighters may be drawn to al-Qaida simply because the government has failed to protect them from their attacks. And in some cases, al-Qaida is suspected of targeting the very people it is trying to recruit - as in a July 18 bombing that killed dozens of Sahwa members gathered to collect back pay outside an army base in Radwaniya, a Sunni suburb of Baghdad.

For now, analysts say al-Qaida's strength in Iraq is limited.

"The group is still more akin to a terrorist outfit than the vanguard of a broad-based popular insurgency," said Michael W. Hanna of the Century Foundation in New York.

Peter Harling, of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, said that while al-Qaida has shown an enduring capacity to stage spectacular attacks, it remains a "fringe movement."

"Its real strength, during its heyday, derived from its prominent position within a much wider insurgency," he said.

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

Booby-Trapped House Kills 8 Iraqi Soldiers

August 11, 2010

Associated Press



BAGHDAD -- Gunmen burst into a house north of Baghdad early Wednesday, killing three people and sending the surviving children to an Iraqi army checkpoint to lure soldiers to the residence. As the troops arrived at the booby-trapped house, it blew up, leaving eight soldiers dead.

The pre-dawn incident in the volatile Diyala province underlines the unrelenting dangers that members of Iraq's security forces still face as American forces prepare to reduce their numbers by the end of the month and end all combat operations.

It also highlights the constantly evolving and sophisticated tactics of insurgents that American and Iraqi officials say have been seriously debilitated since the deaths of their top leaders last spring.

Wednesday's incident occurred about 1 a.m. in the town of Sadiyah, 60 miles (95 kilometers) north of Baghdad.

A top town official, Sheik Ahmed Al-Zarqushi, told The Associated Press that gunmen broke into the house, and killed a man and two women inside. Then they sent the two children in the house to the Iraqi army checkpoint to get help.

"When the Iraqi army forces arrived and broke into the house, the house blew up and killed eight soldiers and wounded four others," he said.

He did not say if the gunmen had gotten away before the troops arrived.

Al-Zarqushi added that groups linked to al-Qaida are very active in the area. Earlier reports indicated that gunmen in the house had opened fire on the checkpoint, but the sheik said that was incorrect. The checkpoint was about 380 yards (300 meters) from the house, he said.

The death toll and account was confirmed by Capt. Qais Ahmed, from the Iraqi army in Sadiyah.

Meanwhile in Baghdad, gunmen broke into the house of a senior female doctor and killed her, Iraq's health minister and a police official said.

The minister, Saleh al-Hasnawi, said the gunmen broke into the house of Dr. Intissar al-Tuwaijri at about 6:00 a.m., tied up her husband and killed her.

Al-Hasnawi said he believed the killing of the physician he described as one of the best doctors in the country was a criminal incident, and that his ministry was waiting for the results of a police investigation.

Al-Tuwaijri was the general director of Alwiyah Maternity hospital in Baghdad's central Karradah area.

A police officer said the preliminary investigation showed that the gunmen used pistols fitted with silencers and stole 250 million Iraqi dinars (about $215,000).

All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release information.

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

State Dept. faces skyrocketing costs as it prepares to expand role in Iraq

By Karen DeYoung and Ernesto Londoño, Washington Post

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

As the last U.S. combat troops prepare to leave Iraq this month, the State Department is struggling to implement an expanded mission that it has belatedly realized it might not be able to afford.

Beginning in September, the State Department will take over all police training in Iraq from coalition military forces, and it has proposed replacing its current 16 provincial reconstruction teams spread across the country with five consular offices outside Baghdad.

But since planning for the transition began more than two years ago, costs have skyrocketed and the money to pay for them has become increasingly tight. Congress cut the State Department's Iraq request in the 2010 supplemental appropriation that President Obama signed late last month; the Senate Appropriations Committee and a House subcommittee have already slashed the administration's $1.8 billion request for fiscal 2011 operations in Iraq.

Gen. Ray Odierno, the outgoing commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, and other U.S. officials are urging lawmakers to reconsider their plans, citing concerns that waning resources could jeopardize tenuous security gains.

"We can't spread ourselves so thin that we don't have the capacity to do the job in the places where we put people," said Deputy Secretary of State Jacob Lew, who has told Congress that State will not deploy civilians where it cannot protect them. "If we don't put people in a place where they have mobility, where they can go out and meet with the people and implement their programs," he said, "there's very little argument for being in the place we send them."

The State Department has signaled in recent weeks that it will need up to $400 million more than initially requested to cover mushrooming security costs, but lawmakers seem in no mood to acquiesce.

"They need a dose of fiscal reality," a senior Senate aide said, speaking on the condition of anonymity amid ongoing negotiations over the State Department funding.

"If they miscalculated by hundreds of millions of dollars, they need to tell us where they propose to find the money," the aide said. "It's not going to come from [funds allotted to] Afghanistan or Haiti."

Lew, at the Center for Strategic and International Studies last week, indicated that State might be forced to revise its plans, including limiting the number of police-training facilities to fortified, central locations in major population areas. "That means there will be other places that we don't have a police-training capacity," he said, although "anyone who has done police training in difficult environments knows that it's much better to be out in the field, working one-on-one, than to do classroom training."

Other officials have said that at least one of the "embassy branch" offices, or consulates, will have to be eliminated, most likely in Diyala province, and that at least two others will have to be scaled back.

To undertake unprecedented tasks in what is still a highly dangerous environment, the State Department plan calls for replacing protection for civilians that the U.S. military now provides with what amounts to its own armed force. It proposes to triple the current 2,700 security contractors and reinforce facilities where diplomats and police trainers will work to specifications beyond what the military considers safe for its own personnel.

To transport civilians around Iraq, including medical evacuation if necessary, State has asked the Pentagon to leave behind two dozen UH-60 helicopters and 50 bomb-resistant vehicles, heavy cargo trucks, fuel trailers and high-tech surveillance systems -- all of which are to be maintained and operated by contractors yet to be funded. Pending since April, the requests were still under military consideration as of this week.

"We don't have a yes, and we don't have a no," Undersecretary of State for Management Patrick F. Kennedy said, adding that "a good dialogue" was underway. If the military does not provide the equipment, he said, it will have to come at an "enormously expensive" price from contractors.

The administration and Congress disagree over whether the State Department is asking for additional funds or for a reallocation of what it has already requested. To some extent, the question is irrelevant, because Lew, now Obama's nominee to head the Office of Management and Budget, warned appropriators that if there was no more money for State's operations budget, it would have to be taken out of development assistance programs in Iraq and elsewhere.

"So now you have security, but no programs," a senior House aide said, also speaking on the condition of anonymity. "That's what drives us nuts about them. They screwed this one up, and we have to fix it."

Congress hasn't bought the argument, first articulated by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton when she introduced the budget in February, that State's Iraq proposal is a bargain compared with the $16 billion overall the U.S. government will save in reduced military costs after a reduction to 50,000 U.S. troops at the end of this month.

While defense appropriators are used to such funding levels, they are astronomical to lawmakers overseeing the State Department, whose global operations budget request totals about $16 billion for 2011. An additional $36 billion has been requested for worldwide foreign assistance programs.

But even the defense committees are balking at what Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has called an unsustainably bloated Pentagon budget and continued expenditures for Iraq. The military's request for $2 billion to equip and bolster the Iraqi armed forces next year -- on top of $18 billion spent since 2003 -- was cut in half by the Senate Armed Services Committee this summer. Defense officials have asked for the decision to be reconsidered.

"They've got a surplus of oil revenue," Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), whose Armed Services Committee halved to $1 billion the Iraq military equipment request, said in an interview last week. "And we've got a tight budget here. Connect that with the fact that we've got a damned big budget deficit of our own. A billion dollars seems to me to be a very generous contribution."

In an interview, Odierno said there was a "misinterpretation that Iraq has this huge amount of wealth now," adding that it is unlikely the country will substantially boost its output of crude oil before 2013.

Money for the Iraqi military is important, he said, to help "mitigate the risks associated with U.S. forces leaving." The 50,000 U.S. troops who will remain in Iraq after Sept. 1 are due to leave by the end of next year.

Officials in Washington said that the Defense and State cuts were interconnected in several ways, including the expectation that the Iraqi military could assist in providing security for an increased American civilian presence as the U.S. military relinquishes that task.

But while Iraqis are providing some help, officials said they were not yet comfortable depending on them. "We want to work with both the Iraqi army and the Iraqi police in bolstering our security," a senior administration official said. "That has to be worked out in terms of the availability of trained personnel, and it will take time to achieve it.

"I'm not saying it's never going to happen. I'm just saying it's not going to happen tomorrow."

Londoño reported from Baghdad.

[Deks]

A police officer said the preliminary investigation showed that the gunmen used pistols fitted with silencers and stole 250 million Iraqi dinars (about $215,000).


Are iraqi banks not trustworthy? Who has $215k sitting at home?

[buglerbilly]

Heaps of Iraqi's............people get business done with hard cash not cheques...........nothing unusual about this for a guy in his position and too many people would have known that as well making him a prime target.

[buglerbilly]

Iraqi army not ready to take over until 2020, says country's top general

Lieutenant General Babakir Zebari calls for US army to stay beyond Obama's 2011 deadline for complete withdrawal

Matthew Weaver and agencies guardian.co.uk, Thursday 12 August 2010 08.20 BST


Iraq's army chief, Lieutenant General Babakir Zebari, with US counterpart Lieutenant General Michael Barbero at a news conference. Photograph: Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters

The Iraqi army is not ready to take over responsibility from the Americans, its most senior general has warned, as the White House insists the US army is on course to end its combat role in the country by the end of this month.

Lieutenant General Babakir Zebari told a defence conference in Baghdad that the Iraqi army would be unable to cope without backing from US forces.

He suggested the Iraqi army would be incapable of assuming control for another decade.

"If I were asked about the withdrawal, I would say to politicians: the US army must stay until the Iraqi army is fully ready in 2020," he said.

This is not the first time Zebari has said Iraq needs the Americans to stay longer, but the timing of his comments makes them significant.

Barack Obama has pledged to hand over military responsibility to the Iraqi government by the end of the August as part of plan to reduce troop levels to 50,000.

Zebari said the reduction in US troop numbers was going well but only because "they are still here". He predicted trouble next year when all the remaining US troops are due to leave. "The problem will start after 2011 – the politicians must find other ways to fill the void after 2011," he said.

Last night the White House said Obama was satisfied that the US could finish its combat role in Iraq safely this month and meet the deadline for removing troops from the country by the end of 2011.

The president was briefed on withdrawal by his national security team and the top US commander in Iraq, Ray Odierno. The White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said: "The president heard directly from General Odierno, who said that we were on target to complete our drawdown by the end of August. Already we have removed over 80,000 troops from Iraq since President Obama took office."

Violence in Iraq has fallen since the peak of sectarian warfare in 2006-2007, but in July the number of violent civilian deaths from daily bombings, shootings and other attacks rose sharply.

US officials expect violence to worsen as insurgents exploit the failure of political factions to agree on a new government after an inconclusive parliamentary election in March. This week US-backed militia leaders have said al-Qaida is attempting to make a comeback in Iraq.

"There continues to be terrorists in Iraq. There continues to be acts of violence," the deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, said. But they had not affected the positive trends in Iraq and the overall level of violence had gone down, he added.

The president received an update from the vice-president, Joe Biden, and Christopher Hill, the US ambassador to Iraq, on Iraq's troubled efforts to form a new government.

Biden's national security adviser, Tony Blinken, said frustration was building among Iraqis over failure to form a governing coalition. "There is a sense of urgency to move forward and get a government formed," he said. "We really believe there is forward movement. But it's not up to us

[buglerbilly]

WH: US on Track to End Iraq Combat Role

August 12, 2010

Agence France-Presse

Despite warnings from Iraq's top officer, the United States said Wednesday its drawdown was "on target" and suggested as few as "dozens" of U.S. Embassy troops might remain in Baghdad after 2011.

There are now 64,000 American Soldiers in Iraq, but this number is due to fall to 50,000 by the end of the month when the United States is set to declare an end to combat operations and switch to a training and advisory mission.

"We're on target by the end of the month to end our combat mission," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told a press briefing.

But only hours earlier, Iraq's top military officer told AFP on the sidelines of a defense ministry conference in Baghdad that American forces may be needed in the conflict-wracked nation for a further decade.

"At this point, the withdrawal is going well, because they are still here," Lt. Gen. Babaker Zerbari said.

"But the problem will start after 2011 -- the politicians must find other ways to fill the void after 2011. If I were asked about the withdrawal, I would say to politicians: the U.S. Army must stay until the Iraqi army is fully ready in 2020."

The general's remarks, which could irk political leaders in Baghdad, came after eight of his soldiers were killed in a brazen attack that exposed shaky security here less than three weeks before U.S. troop numbers fall by 14,000.

A top White House adviser then fanned the flames by suggesting that the U.S. military presence in Iraq after the main American pullout in 2011 could be limited to "dozens" of troops under the authority of the embassy.

"We'll be doing in Iraq what we do in many countries around the world with which we have a security relationship that involves selling American equipment or training their forces, that is establishing some connecting tissue," said Anthony Blinken, national security adviser for the vice president.

"This is something that's common to many embassies around the world, under the authority of the chief of mission, the ambassador, and typically it involves some small numbers of military personnel," he said.

"But when I say small, I'm not talking thousands, I'm talking dozens or maybe hundreds, that's typically how much we would see."

Blinken downplayed the notion a U.S. withdrawal would usher in a security void.

"There are many remaining issues that Iraqis need to resolve," he said, "but in terms of the danger that some people were concerned about, about a vacuum developing in Iraq in the absence of a government formation, we haven't seen that."

All U.S. troops must leave the country by the end of next year, according to the terms of a bilateral security pact, and President Obama has insisted that the ongoing withdrawal is on schedule and will not be altered.

Obama huddled Wednesday with his civilian and military national security team to discuss the situation in Iraq under three months ahead of the date for the end of combat operations. It comes as Iraq has yet to install its government with five months to go until it hold legislative elections.

Marine Gen. James Mattis officially took the helm Wednesday of U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, which has overall control of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, replacing Army Gen. David Petraeus.

Petraeus had taken over direct command of the faltering Afghan conflict after his predecessor, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, was fired for giving a damaging magazine interview.

Mattis, a four-star Iraq veteran, took command of operations in the Mideast and Central Asia at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, with Defense Secretary Robert Gates looking on.

Assuming command, he said: "to our friends in the region: I bring a message of steadfast continuity and unrelenting engagement with you. We are standing besides you and we will work with you to promote security and stability."

© Copyright 2010 Agence France-Presse. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

US sticks to Iraq timetable, says only 'dozens' might stay

Agence France-Presse

Posted at 08/12/2010 11:37 AM | Updated as of 08/12/2010 11:37 AM

WASHINGTON, August 12, 2010 (AFP) - Despite warnings from Iraq's top officer, the United States stuck Wednesday to its drawdown schedule and suggested just "dozens" of US embassy troops might remain in Baghdad after 2011.

There are now 64,000 American soldiers in Iraq, but this number is due to fall to 50,000 by the end of the month when the United States declares an end to combat operations and switches to a training and advisory mission.

"We're on target by the end of the month to end our combat mission," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told a press briefing, as US President Barack Obama huddled with his civilian and military national security team on Iraq.

Hours earlier, Iraq's top military officer told AFP on the sidelines of a defense ministry conference in Baghdad that American forces may be needed in the conflict-wracked nation for a further decade.

"At this point, the withdrawal is going well, because they are still here," Lieutenant General Babaker Zerbari said.

"But the problem will start after 2011 -- the politicians must find other ways to fill the void after 2011. If I were asked about the withdrawal, I would say to politicians: the US army must stay until the Iraqi army is fully ready in 2020."

The general's remarks came after eight of his soldiers were killed in a brazen attack that exposed Iraq's still massive security problem as it struggles to install a government five months after a general election.

Weekend violence left at least 60 people dead across Iraq, including 43 killed in a trio of bomb blasts late Saturday in the southern city of Basra.

A top White House advisor fanned the flames by suggesting the US military presence in Iraq after the main American pullout in 2011 could be limited to "dozens" or "hundreds" of troops under the embassy's authority.

"We'll be doing in Iraq what we do in many countries around the world with which we have a security relationship that involves selling American equipment or training their forces, that is establishing some connecting tissue," said Anthony Blinken, national security advisor for Vice President Joe Biden.

"This is something that's common to many embassies around the world, under the authority of the chief of mission, the ambassador, and typically it involves some small numbers of military personnel," he said.

"But when I say small, I'm not talking thousands, I'm talking dozens or maybe hundreds, that's typically how much we would see."

Blinken downplayed the notion a US withdrawal would usher in a security void.

"There are many remaining issues that Iraqis need to resolve," he said, "but in terms of the danger that some people were concerned about, about a vacuum developing in Iraq in the absence of a government formation, we haven't seen that."

All US troops are supposed to leave the country by the end of next year, according to the terms of a bilateral security pact, and Obama has insisted the ongoing withdrawal is on schedule and will not be altered.

General James Mattis officially took the helm Wednesday of the US Central Command, or CENTCOM, which has overall control of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, replacing General David Petraeus.

Petraeus had taken over direct command of the faltering Afghan conflict after his predecessor, General Stanley McChrystal, was fired for giving a damaging magazine interview.

Mattis, a four-star Iraq veteran, took command of operations in the Mideast and Central Asia at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, with Defense Secretary Robert Gates looking on.

Assuming command, he said: "to our friends in the region: I bring a message of steadfast continuity and unrelenting engagement with you. We are standing besides you and we will work with you to promote security and stability."

The US deployment in Iraq reached its peak in 2007 at 170,000 troops but their presence has gradually diminished over the past 18 months.

Seven military officers will hear evidence in the case against Khadr, who was just 15 when he was captured in Afghanistan, and is accused of throwing a grenade during a firefight that killed US Army medic in July 2002.

His lawyers have criticized the proceedings against him as the first prosecution of a child soldier "in modern history."

Qosi's civilian lawyer Wednesday called for leniency in sentencing against him client, citing the conditions at Guantanamo.

"We are not asking you to send him home now or to declare him innocent. He pleaded guilty," Reichler said.

Guantanamo "is not like a prison in the United States. It's been eight and a half years without hearing, without seeing his wife, his mother, his father," Reichler added.

The sentencing phase of the trial comes despite the plea agreement between Qosi and government lawyers, which includes an agreed-upon sentence that remains secret.

Scant details of the agreement emerged Tuesday, when proceedings were temporarily suspended over questions about whether promises to Qosi could be kept.

The agreement reportedly stipulates that Qosi can serve out his eventual sentence in Guantanamo's Camp 4, where inmates live communally, but prison rules require convicted detainees to be isolated from other prisoners.

Military judge Nancy Paul called the discrepancy "troubling," and pointed out that the Pentagon official responsible for overseeing the trials is supposed to coordinate the conditions of a plea deal with prison authorities.

But she said the failure to do so ahead of time "did not invalidate the pre-trial agreement."

"Confinement will be deferred for 60 days. There is still no guarantee but we have 60 days to work this issue," she said.

In the meantime, she strongly recommended that Qosi be housed in Camp 4 since it was "a factor in Mr. al-Qosi's will to plead guilty."

The commander of the joint task force that runs the prison, Jeffrey Haberson, told reporters: "Our policy right now, the DOD (Department of Defense) policy, is to keep convicted individuals physically separated from general population of detainees."

Thus far, lawyers have not raised the possibility of repatriating Qosi, who was arrested in Pakistan in December 2001.

He left his native Sudan in 1996 to join Bin Laden in Afghanistan and eventually became chef, assistant and occasional driver to the Al-Qaeda leader.

[buglerbilly]

Debate Grows Over Keeping Troops in Iraq

August 13, 2010

Associated Press



BAGHDAD - As the U.S. winds up combat operations in Iraq this month, a gap is widening between the militaries of both countries and their political masters over whether American Soldiers should stay beyond the 2011 deadline for a complete U.S. troop withdrawal.

It's the latest friction as the uneasy allies try to end the seven-year U.S. war without unraveling Iraq's precarious security.

A security agreement between the two nations calls for all U.S. troops to leave Iraq by the end of 2011. By Sept. 1, only 50,000 American soldiers will remain in the country, their combat authority strictly curtailed in the largest step to date toward the 2011 deadline.

Mindful of their campaign promises, both Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and aides to President Barack Obama this week declared that this summer's withdrawal indeed marks the beginning of the end of U.S. troops in Iraq.

"This commitment will end on the scheduled date, as agreed," al-Maliki said Thursday at a meeting of Iraqi defense officials in Baghdad.

Not so fast, said Gen. Babaker Shawkat Zebari, the Kurd who commands Iraq's military, warning again Wednesday that his army may not be ready to defend the nation until 2020.

Zebari first aired those concerns in an Associated Press interview in June, in which he indicated it could be a decade or more before his soldiers can take full control of security in Iraq.

"If it was in my hands, from the military perspective of the job, I would have asked them to keep some American bases in the country" until then, he told the AP.

The gap was also on full display in Washington this week.

The White House defiantly maintained Wednesday that all troops - save those working with the U.S. Embassy and other diplomatic outposts - will be out of Iraq by the end of next year, just as Obama gears up for the 2012 presidential election campaign.

"We have every intention of fulfilling that agreement by end of 2011," Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters. "All systems in the United States government are planning towards getting down to no troops at the end of 2011, consistent with that agreement."

But within hours, while talking to Pentagon reporters en route to a military ceremony in Tampa, Fla., Defense Secretary Robert Gates left open the door that troops could stay in Iraq as long as Baghdad asks for them.

"We have an agreement with the Iraqis that both governments have agreed to that we will be out of Iraq at the end of 2011," Gates said. "If a new government is formed there and they want to talk about beyond 2011, we're obviously open to that discussion."

"But that initiative will have to come from the Iraqis," he said.

At the height of the U.S. military surge in 2007, nearly 170,000 American forces were in Iraq. The security agreement that outlined their phased-out departure could be re-negotiated to allow U.S. troops to remain if, as Gates said, Iraq's leaders demand it.

That decision may not be up to al-Maliki, who has been grasping to retain enough support to remain as prime minister since his slate came in a close second in March parliamentary elections to a Sunni-dominated political alliance.

Even if Iraq's government asks for U.S. troops to stay, there's no guarantee the Obama administration will agree to it.

Doing so would likely infuriate Democrats within Obama's political base after he promised during his 2008 campaign to end what he termed "a dumb war." Obama already has his hands full with the other, longer war - in Afghanistan - and with Republicans on Capitol Hill who are pummeling him with nearly nonstop criticism of his handling of it.

Bombings continue almost daily in Baghdad and around the rest of Iraq - a grim reality illustrated by the fact that the number of civilians killed by insurgents in July was the highest in two years. Though violence is far lower than it was between 2005 and 2007, when revenge attacks by Sunnis and Shiites brought the country to the edge of civil war, Iraq is far from secure.

Even al-Maliki acknowledged Thursday that U.S. aid - largely for an estimated 660,000 Iraqi troops, police forces and government-backed militias - will be needed far beyond 2011 to make Iraq safe.

"Despite accomplishing big progress in building these forces, they need more training, more rehabilitation and secure equipment," he said.

Ultimately, it's political leaders who make the final call, and without repeated spectacular attacks that signal the return of sectarian violence, there's little reason for al-Maliki or the White House to budge from the 2011 timeline.

"Right now, it makes no sense for the White House to rethink the policy, and there's no political advantage for Maliki to signal weakness or vacillation when that decision doesn't have to be made today and the reality isn't yet clear," said Juan Zarate, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who sat on the National Security Council during the Bush administration.

But he predicts "a serious debate" down the road on whether to keep troops in Iraq - especially if their departure could lead to Iranian meddling and threaten American interests in the Mideast.

"The military guys are being more cautious because they understand that the security conditions may shift in a way that requires a continued presence," Zarate said. "You may see a move from this strict 'No troops in Iraq' mantra."

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

Obama's exit strategy from Iraq under threat once again

Christopher Hill's departure from Iraq after a stint as US ambassador has eerie parallels with that of Paul Bremer, with both leaving the country at a tipping point

Martin Chulov Baghdad The Observer, Sunday 15 August 2010


A woman weeps over the coffin containing the body of her nine-year-old son at his funeral in Najaf, south of Baghdad, Iraq. As the US winds up combat operations in Iraq this month, terror has returned to the country. Photograph: Alaa Al-Marjani/AP

For the second time since the fall of Baghdad, America's main man in Iraq has ended a year-long stay by talking up a country on the wrong side of a tipping point. US ambassador Christopher Hill's departure last weekend was a much lower-profile exit than the dash to the airport in 2004 of unpopular post-invasion viceroy Paul Bremer, but it did have eerie parallels.

Bremer left claiming he had helped make Iraq sovereign and to establish the foundations of a functional state. His prophecy was in tatters long before George W Bush gave him America's highest civilian honour, for his role in running post-Saddam Iraq in the shambolic early days of the occupation.

Hill arrived in Iraq 16 months ago on a mission to turn things around. Sectarian chaos had ravaged the country in the interim. Bush's democratic project here looked stillborn, far from being central to the birth pangs of a new Middle East. And, more important for a US diplomat, America's standing both in the region and around the world had taken a pounding.

Like Bremer, Hill also claims to have made gains. But in mid-2010, it is difficult to find any trend or tangible evidence to support his optimism. Indeed, the country looks in worse shape than when Hill arrived.

Over the past month, US officials have been trying hard to push the incumbent prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, and Iyad Allawi, the man who edged him out in a general election five months ago, into a power-sharing arrangement that would end a dangerous political deadlock.

Like a pair of bull walruses fighting, neither man has given ground as the fragile security gains of the past two years threaten to unravel. At the same time, the mood on the street has palpably soured.

Throughout this most brutal of summers (where the daytime temperature in Baghdad has rarely been below 48C), Iraqis have been getting by with around four hours per day of electricity (usually too weak to run more than one air conditioner). Even more concerning is the creeping return of terror; almost daily assassinations, a spike in bombings and rocket fire. This was not the way it was supposed to be when the conquerors left town.

The US-sponsored deal would mean Maliki could hang on to the prime minister's chair, but with diluted powers, while Allawi would take a newly formed position as head of a national security council, which would give him an executive overlord role across the security forces.

All stakeholders here were thought to have been satisfied. In Allawi, the restive Sunni centre of the country would get a strongman who had their interests at heart. His return to real power would also likely win over Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Iran, meanwhile, was believed to be appeased by the reinstallation of Maliki and his Shia Islamic backers.

Last week, however, the proposal somehow found itself back on the drawing board. Not for the first time had the machinations of power-sharing confounded those who come here to make sense of it all. All sides seem to have retreated to positions that are not far beyond the postures they struck shortly after the results of the 7 March poll, which gave Allawi a narrow 91 to 89 seat victory, but in need of a coalition to help him form a government in the 325-seat parliament.

After much post-poll jousting, the ballot was deemed to have been fair and transparent. Little since then has met the same standards. The intractable stalemate seems to point to far more than the stubborn wills of the two opponents. Neighbouring Iran is as much to blame; it wants to entrench Shia majority rule in the heartland of Arabia, and of Saudi Arabia, which remains horrified by such a prospect.

All of this, while Obama, his departed ambassador and a number of US generals continue to insist that their job in the land that the US has occupied for seven years is nearly done. There are many in Iraq who are far from convinced; the Sons of Iraq leadership, the chief of the Iraqi military and even Saddam Hussein's most loyal deputy, Tariq Aziz, who said Obama would leave Iraq to the wolves if he continued the pull-out.

In truth, the much-vaunted 31 August combat withdrawal deadline is largely about symbolism and emotional detachment from a war that Obama reluctantly inherited.

There will still be six US brigades and 94 bases. Their commanders may well be more wary about sending them into the fray, but if they stood by while Baghdad burned, America's standing would take a far bigger hit than it is enduring now. The war in Iraq is increasingly becoming Obama's problem after all.

[buglerbilly]

5 Killed in Baghdad Checkpoint Shootings

August 14, 2010

Associated Press

BAGHDAD - Gunmen killed five Iraqi security personnel Saturday, including a pair of sleeping policemen who were shot and set on fire, amid persistent debate over whether Iraqi forces can protect the country as U.S. troops leave.

The early-morning shootings at Baghdad checkpoints demonstrated insurgents' aim to weaken confidence in the government and aggravate sectarian tension as all but 50,000 U.S. troops head home by the end of August.

In the first attack, gunmen armed with silenced pistols killed two policemen asleep in their patrol car at a security checkpoint in the Shiite-dominated New Baghdad neighborhood, said an officer with the federal police in Baghdad. The assailants then set the car on fire and fled, he said.

A half-hour later, a drive-by shooting on a checkpoint killed two more policemen in the Amil area, another Shiite neighborhood, in southwest Baghdad, two other Baghdad police officials said. Two passers-by were injured, they said.

Around the same time, gunmen attacked a checkpoint manned by government-backed Sunni fighters from groups known as Awakening Councils in the mostly Shiite Shaab area in the capital's northeast. One of the fighters was killed and two were injured, the police officials said.

It was not clear if the shootings were coordinated or carried out by the same attackers.

Health workers at the Baghdad city morgue and two hospitals confirmed the casualties. All authorities spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.

As the number of U.S. soldiers dwindles at a rate of about 4,000 each week, insurgents have stepped up attacks on Iraqi security forces, demonstrating remaining vulnerabilities. Checkpoints continue to be an easy target for gunmen, and traffic police - many of whom are unarmed - have also been slain in recent weeks.

Last year, President Barack Obama ordered all but 50,000 U.S. troops to leave Iraq by Aug. 31 as part of his campaign promise to end what he once termed "a dumb war." Under a security agreement between both nations, all U.S. troops are to be out of Iraq by the end of 2011.

But fears that Iraq's security forces won't be able to fend for themselves have been voiced more vocally as the end-of-the-month deadline nears. This week, Gen. Babaker Shawkat Zebari, who commands Iraq's military, repeated his warning his army may not be ready to defend the nation until 2020.

Babaker for months has said it may be necessary for U.S. forces to remain in Iraq until his soldiers can take full control of security, but the timing of his statement this week was widely seen as a veiled plea for the American military to reconsider its departure.

A government spokesman said Saturday that Iraqi security forces will be ready to defend the nation by the end of 2011.

"Iraq does not need a constant American military presence or bases in Iraq," spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, so far has stuck by the 2011 deadline outlined in the security agreement but he also is struggling to hold on to his job after coming in second place in March parliamentary elections to a Sunni-backed political coalition. Iraq's government largely has been in disarray since, with no end in sight to bickering over who will be the country's next leader.

Iraqi civilians also are coming under attack. A bomb attached to a car in the Amil area of Baghdad blew up Saturday morning, injuring its driver and three bystanders, officials said.

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

Suicide bomber kills 59 in Iraq

A suicide bombing has killed at least 59 people queuing outside an army recruiting station in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad.

By Richard Spencer, Middle East Correspondent, UK Daily Telegraph

Published: 9:49AM BST 17 Aug 2010



A wounded army recruit is transferred to a hospital after a bomb attack occurred in Baghdad Photo: REUTERS The explosion, two weeks before the United States army formally hands over remaining frontline functions to the Iraqi security forces, was the most lethal single attack in the country this year.

It marks a resumption of a previously successful tactic aimed at discouraging Iraqis from joining the police and army.

Last month, 43 people were killed in a bombing which struck a wages queue of members of a government-run militia used to combat al-Qaeda in Sunni areas of the country.

In the most recent incident, potential recruits were lining up outside a centre established at the Saddam Hussein-era defence ministry building in the centre of Baghdad. They were being allowed in 250 at a time, making the recruits and the monitoring soldiers and officers an easy target.

Some reports said the attack, at around 7.30 on Tuesday morning, may have involved two men.

“After the explosion, everyone ran away, and the soldiers fired into the air,” said Ahmed Kadhim, 19, a recruit who was unharmed.

“I saw dozens of people lying on the ground, some of them were on fire.

Others were running with blood pouring out.”

By mid-morning, the Baghdad authorities had confirmed 39 dead, but the city morgue said it had already received 59 bodies. Sources said more than 120 were wounded.

Although the American military “surge” of 2008, combined with the success of the Sunni militias, drastically reduced the scale of the insurgency in Iraq, there has been a rise in violence as the time for US withdrawal approaches.

The fact that Baghdad’s intensive security has failed to stop regular major suicide attacks has particularly worried the authorities.

Last week, Lt Gen Babaker Zebari, the Iraqi chief of staff, warned that his troops might not be ready to assume full responsibility for the nation’s defences till 2020. The police are said to be even less well-prepared, though American senior officers say the overall level of training is adequate.

Failure by the major political parties to agree terms for a coalition government five months after a inconclusive general election in March has contributed to the unease. If Iraqiya, a cross-sectarian grouping that won the support of most Sunnis, is excluded from senior positions the level of disillusionment in the militias is likely to rise.

There have been reports that al-Qaeda has offered members higher wages to defect.

From September 1, the number of American troops in Iraq will be reduced to 50,000, in support and training roles. A final pull-out is scheduled for the end of 2011.

[buglerbilly]

Next U.S. Steps in Iraq Focused on North

By JOHN T. BENNETT

Published: 17 Aug 2010 16:23

U.S. military forces will begin a four-part mission in Iraq next month when the U.S. State Department assumes operational lead in the country, with a major focus on Arab-Turkish relations.

American troops will on Sept. 1 formally shift from counterinsurgency operations to stabilization efforts, Pentagon and State Department officials said Aug. 17.

Colin Kahl, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Middle East policy, said U.S. military forces primarily will focus on four issues after the Defense Department hands over control of American operations in Iraq to the State Department:

■ "Force protection," meaning providing security for State Department and other U.S. officials there, as well as some Iraqis.

■ The continuation of programs to "train, equip and support" Iraqi military and security officials.

■ "Continued partnered counterterrorism missions."

■ Carrying out the remainder of Washington's plans to draw down the 50,000 military troops that will still be in Iraq after Sept. 1.

During a forum in Washington sponsored by the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), Kahl and Michael Corbin, deputy assistant secretary of state for near eastern affairs, made clear remaining American troops and diplomats will spend ample time on Iraq's north. It is there where long-standing tensions among Turks, Iraqi Arabs and Kurds have been simmering - and sometimes heating to a bloody boil.

Kahl said, "much of our diplomatic presence will be in the north for that reason" beyond Sept. 1. His State Department cohort nodded agreement as Kahl spoke.

A senior Iraqi official recently said his military would not be able to fully defend the nation until 2020.

Asked about the remark, Kahl said the Obama administration has concluded Iraqi military and security forces will be able to do enough by the end of 2011 to allow American forces to be totally withdrawn.

But, he added, "of course" the Iraqi military will need to buy weapons and other hardware from Washington and other allies.

That's because, he said, the Iraqi force "is a work in progress," adding that the American military is, too.

Meantime, Corbin promised State Department personnel will not shy away from "getting out and doing our mission" in Iraq after Sept. 1 despite significant security risks.

That department's Diplomatic Security Service "tries to keep diplomats out of harm's way." But the realities of certain parts of Iraq, which can at times still be violent, will force DSS to change how it protects U.S. officials, he said.

Corbin also acknowledged keeping American diplomats and officials safe when the State Department takes over will produce "mind-boggling costs" for his department. He gave no indications that State will have trouble covering those bills.

In mid-2011, Washington plans to stand up a new "security assistance office" in Iraq, Kahl said.

Corbin added it will be "robust," and tasked with functions like overseeing military sales to the Iraqi government.

Both officials made references to the importance oil will have on building a sound Iraqi economy.

One thing the State Department already is doing to that end, he said, is helping American firms weed through paperwork and take other steps to begin operations in Iraq's southern oil-producing regions.

That kind of investment, the officials said, will be key to Iraq's long-term economic fortunes.

Further, some have pointed to Iraq's ongoing political stalemate and bickering as evidence America cannot begin a large-scale draw down. But the officials said much is happening behind the scenes to give them confidence Iraqi leaders are busy working on a political agreement.

[buglerbilly]

In Iraq, cemetery is symbol of militia's vow to fight if U.S. forces delay exit


Mourners pay their respects to fighters and supporters of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr buried in a cemetery near Najaf, Iraq. (Leila Fadel/the Washington Post)

By Leila Fadel, Washington Post

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

NAJAF, IRAQ -- The followers of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr call this plot of land on the edge of this holy Shiite city the Freedom Cemetery.

It is barren, nondescript desert ground, a two-acre section within the Sadrist Martyrs' cemetery. The graves have not been excavated. But it is reserved for a purpose: the possibility that U.S. forces might stay beyond the Dec. 31, 2011, departure deadline mandated by a security agreement between the United States and Iraq.

If that happens, members of the Mahdi Army, a militant Shiite group that bills itself as a resistance force against the U.S. occupation, have promised to rise up and fight to the death. Their bodies would be buried in the cemetery.

"If the Americans leave, which we don't think they will, we'll make it a burial site for our parents," said Abu Mohammed, who oversees the Sadrist cemetery, where 4,250 fighters and Sadr supporters are buried. "If their exit is delayed, we will fight and give our blood.

"This will be our solution," he said as he waved toward the reserved plot.

The cemetery is a reminder that even as the United States is about to declare the end of its combat mission in Iraq, armed groups still see U.S. troops as combatants. Shiite militias, including the Mahdi Army, remain armed and continue to attack U.S. troops. Assassinations are on the rise, and rocket attacks targeting the Green Zone and U.S. military facilities have spiked.

U.S. troop levels have decreased to about 59,000 from a high of more than 165,000. By Sept. 1, there will be 50,000; by the end of next year, U.S. troops are to fully withdraw from Iraq, which has no new government more than five months after inconclusive national elections.

The Obama administration says the United States is on track to withdraw all of its forces, despite concerns from some Iraqi officials who say they worry that the drawdown is premature. Regardless of the assurances, many Iraqis say they're convinced that the Americans will never leave.

U.S. military officials say that Shiite militias will remain a threat to Iraq's security and U.S. troop security. They are working with the Iraqi government to arrest militia members.

"They are outside the security mechanism, and they have said they will continue to attack the U.S. forces," said Maj. Gen. Stephen Lanza, the top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq. The U.S. military is on track to end its mission at the end of next year, he said, calling the cemetery in Najaf "rhetoric" and "propaganda."

A 'different' war

The Mahdi Army, created in 2003, is the militant wing of Sadr's movement; he inherited a grass-roots following from his father, an influential Shiite ayatollah. After fighting with U.S. forces in 2004, the group grew out of control in the worst days of Iraq's sectarian war in 2006 and 2007.

Sadr froze the militia's activities in 2008 and has since divided most of his men into two unarmed civic organizations called Mumahidoon, Arabic for "those who pave the way," and Munasiroon, "the supporters." The groups provide services to the poor Shiite communities that make up their base, protect mosques and study religion.

Although the militia is armed, only a small and extremely secretive armed wing called the Promised Day Brigade, whose purpose is to attack U.S. troops, is permitted to fight. DVDs of their attacks are often distributed after Friday prayers at Sadr-controlled Shiite mosques.

"The war is different now; it's intellectual, political, and we have a military wing," said Sheik Kadhim al-Saadi, a prominent Sadrist sheik in Baghdad. He sat recently in a Shiite mosque in eastern Baghdad, under a woven rug depicting Mahdi Army fighters carrying AK-47s beneath the watchful eye of Sadr's visage.

The militia has largely laid down its weapons, and the movement made a powerful political showing in the March 7 elections by winning 40 seats, the largest showing by a Shiite coalition.

"We cannot predict what happens in the future," Saadi said. "But if anything comes up, Sayed Moqtada wants to ensure that all the men of the Sadr trend are prepared physically and mentally." Sayed is an honorary title used to refer to Sadr.

Arranged by battles

The Sadrist Martyrs cemetery is divided into plots by battles.

One plot is for fighters who rose up in Najaf in 2004 to fight U.S. forces in the holy city. One is for Sadr supporters killed in insurgent attacks, and another is for those who were killed after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered an offensive against the militia in the southern port city of Basra.

A handful of graves in a separate part of the cemetery are the resting places of the Promised Day Brigade fighters. No one speaks of them. Only recently did people begin to mark the graves, after hesitating because of fear about repercussions against martyrs' families by government security forces.

Abu Moqtada, a Mahdi Army fighter from Baghdad who laid down his weapons and joined the Mumahidoon, recently walked through the graveyard to mourn his fallen brothers. Every grave is marked with the words "The Happy Martyr." He said he has lost as many as a dozen friends since the 2004 Najaf battle.

Abu Moqtada, who used a nickname to protect his identity, was imprisoned by the U.S. military for more than two years. He was arrested at a friend's funeral and accused of attacking U.S. troops. The detention intensified his anger toward the United States. He is free now. He no longer fights U.S. troops because Sadr has forbidden him to. But he is ready to fight again.

One day, he could be buried in Freedom Cemetery.

"We are ready at any moment, but we are waiting for one word from the Sayed," Abu Moqtada said.

[buglerbilly]

Operation Iraqi Freedom ends as last combat soldiers leave Baghdad


Last U.S. combat troops leave Iraq
The 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, which left Iraq this week, was the final U.S. combat brigade to be pulled out of the country.

By Ernesto Londoño
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, August 19, 2010

Lt. Col. Mark Bieger huddled his infantrymen in a darkened parking lot minutes before they were to depart Baghdad for the last time.

"This is a historic mission!" he bellowed, struggling to be heard over the zoom of fighter jets and unmanned drones deployed to watch over the brigade's convoy to Kuwait. "A truly historic end to seven years of war."

The 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, which left Iraq this week, was the final U.S. combat brigade to be pulled out of the country, fulfilling the Obama administration's pledge to end the U.S. combat mission by the end of August. About 50,000 U.S. troops will remain in Iraq, mainly as a training force.

"Operation Iraqi Freedom ends on your watch!" exclaimed Col. John Norris, the head of the brigade.

"Hooah!" the soldiers roared, using an Army battle cry.

Shortly before midnight Saturday, a group of infantrymen boarded Stryker fighting vehicles, left an increasingly sparse base behind and began scanning the sides of a desolate highway for bombs. For many veterans, including some who made the same trip in the opposite direction years ago under fire, it was a fitting way to exit.

"They're leaving as heroes," Norris said of his soldiers. "I want them to walk home with pride in their hearts."

Besides pride, the soldiers will carry with them the hidden costs of war: hardened glares; tales of comrades' deaths relayed in monotone sentences devoid of emotion; young faces rendered incongruously old.

There might never be an acknowledged end to the Iraq war -- a moment where it ceases being America's conflict. U.S. commanders acknowledge that the months-long political impasse over the disputed March 7 elections and a flurry of other unresolved disputes in Iraq have the potential to erode hard-won security gains.

But U.S. commanders also seem to be stressing that this is no longer America's war to lose. "I will let history judge whether we reached irreversible momentum," Norris said. "That's not my call."

By the end of this month, the United States will have six brigades in Iraq, by far its smallest footprint since the 2003 invasion. Those that remain are conventional combat brigades reconfigured slightly and rebranded "advise and assist brigades." The primary mission of those units and the roughly 4,500 U.S. special operations forces that will stay behind will be to train Iraqi troops. Under a bilateral agreement, all U.S. troops must be out of Iraq by Dec. 31, 2011.

Leaving Iraq one last time is particularly emotional for veterans who have served multiple tours, several soldiers said in the two-day journey through the southern desert to Kuwait in cramped, windowless vehicles.

Gallery here........

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2010/08/18/GA2010081806433.html?sid=ST2010081805662

[buglerbilly]

Fatah al Islam chief killed while traveling to Iraq

By Bill Roggio August 18, 2010, Long War Journal



The leader of a Lebanon-based al Qaeda affiliate has been killed while attempting to travel to Iraq to join the insurgency.

Abdulrahman Awad, the leader of Fatah al Islam, was killed along with his deputy, Ghazi Faysal Abdullah, by Lebanese security forces during a clash in the Bekaa Valley over the weekend.

Fatah al Islam confirmed the deaths of Awad and Abdullah in a statement released on a jihadi website, and said that the two leaders were traveling to Iraq to join up with the Islamic State of Iraq, al Qaeda's front group. The statement was discovered by the SITE Intelligence Group and reported by The Associated Press.

According to the Fatah al Islam statement, Awad, a Palestinian, sent his son to Iraq two months ago to become a suicide bomber. There have been no reports of Palestinian suicide bombers carrying out attacks in Iraq in the past two months.

Fatah al Islam's top leaders are known to have had close links to al Qaeda in Iraq. Shakir al Abssi, the leader of Fatah al Islam up until December 2008, had close ties to Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the deceased leader of al Qaeda in Iraq. Fatah al Islam claimed that Syrian forces killed Abssi in 2008.

Al Qaeda in Iraq continues to use eastern Syria as a staging ground for foreign terrorists entering Iraq, often with the support of Syria's intelligence service.

Over the past several years, the Lebanese government has sought to dismantle Fatah al Islam. In 2007, the Lebanese military carried out a major offensive against Fatah al Islam in the Nahr al Bared Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon. At least 222 Fatah al Islam terrorists and 171 Lebanese soldiers were killed during the 15-week battle. Two Moroccans were among the Fatah al Islam fighters killed.

Officials fear that Fatah al Islam has penetrated Lebanon's military. In December 2008, a military prosecutor charged 15 troops with plotting attacks against Lebanese soldiers and having links with the terror group. “We suspect they were coordinating their acts with a Fatah al Islam ring based in the Ein al Hilwah Palestinian refugee camp,” the prosecutor said.

A jailbreak in the summer of 2009 also fueled suspicions of inside support for the terror group. Taha al Hajj Suleiman, a Syrian national and spokesman for Fatah al Islam, escaped from a jail in August 2009. Several prison officials were fired after the Interior Ministry found evidence of "deficiencies that might have facilitated the escape.” Suleiman was detained by police one day later.

In August 2007, the US State Department added Fatah al Islam to the list of terror groups under Executive Order 13224. The terror group is known to have plotted to establish an Islamic Emirate in the Tripoli region in Lebanon. Fatah al Islam has also been linked to several terror attacks and plots in the Middle East, including the September 2008 car bombing in Damascus, Syria, that killed 17 people, and plots to blow up trains in Germany and assassinate anti-Syrian politicians in Lebanon. Abssi was convicted, along with Zarqawi, by a Jordanian court for the murder of USAID representative Laurence Foley. Syria refused to extradite Abssi to Jordan.

Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2010/08/fateh_al_islam_chief.php#ixzz0x2puPM4o

More news on this from NOW! Lebanon............

Where’s Awad?

Mona Alami , NOW Contributor , December 8, 2008


Lebanese soldiers secure an army checkpoint at the entrance to the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh on July 19, 2008, following clashes in the camp. (AFP/Mahmoud Zayat)

The Lebanese daily al-Liwaa reported last Monday that Fatah al-Islam’s new commander, the previously unknown Abdul Rahman Awad, had disappeared from the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of the South Lebanese city of Saida. According to al-Liwaa, Awad may have headed to Turkey, where he reportedly shared an apartment with another Lebanese Islamic militant, Abu Bakr Aqida, reported to have been involved in the 2000 Dinniyeh clashes with the Lebanese army. But who is Abdul Rahman Awad, and how did he come to have his 15 minutes of fame on the Lebanese stage?

The Awad saga started on November 6, when Syrian Television broadcast confessions from a group of militants claiming to be from Fatah al-Islam who said they had planned and carried out the Qazaz explosion in Damascus on September 27, which killed 17. The terrorist group had become infamous for the conflict that pitted it against the Lebanese army in the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in the summer of 2007 that cost the lives of 174 soldiers and the displacement of thousands of Palestinians.

During the Syrian TV confessions – which included a woman named Wafaa who claimed she was the daughter of Fatah al-Islam leader Shaker al-Abssi – the name of Abdul Rahman Awad was mentioned as a possible successor to Abssi, who remains at large following the Nahr al-Bared battle.

The al-Liwaa article reported that the Lebanese army had been pressuring officials in Ain al-Hilweh to surrender Islamist suspects wanted in a spate of deadly attacks against its soldiers, as Lebanese police and security forces cannot enter Palestinian camps according to a decades-old agreement, but who have the camp surrounded by checkpoints. The paper added that “the deputy head of army intelligence, Colonel Abbas Ibrahim, and the head of intelligence for the South, Colonel Ali Shahrour, met on Tuesday with representatives of the various factions and residents of Ain al-Hilweh and asked them to hand over suspects wanted in attacks against the army,” quoting an army spokesman. Six men were accused to have been involved in attacks against the army, among them Awad.

Rumors were rife as to how and where Awad lived in Ain al-Hilweh. The Lebanese Daily Star reported, citing various Lebanese newspapers, that “Awad was under house arrest in the camp and was unable to receive visitors or leave his premises. An anonymous source within the camp’s popular committee, in which all the camp’s factions are represented, told the newspaper that Awad had even been stripped of his cellular telephone.” As-Sharq al-Awsat, on the other hand, quoted Palestinian sources, who said that arresting Awad would not be easy, as he may have been sleeping with an explosive belt around his waist. The paper underscored that those negotiating Awad’s release quoted him as saying that he refused to be handed over to “disbelievers” and that he preferred to be killed instead.

Mounir Maqdah, head of Fatah in the camp, told NOW Lebanon that the rumors were false, adding that “up to his disappearance, Awad was residing in his house around the Tawarek area - the camp’s Islamic quarter - where he lived with his wife and children.”

Sheikh Maher Oueid, leader of Ansar Allah, an Islamic faction financed by Hezbollah, specified that Awad had lived in Hay Ziat and had been in the company of six other people, among whom Oussama Shehabi, Naim Abbas, Wissam Shbaita and Ahmad Dukhi, who all disappeared with him. Ahmad Dukhi is the brother of Mohamad Dukhi, identified by the Daily Star as a Jund al-Sham militant wanted by the Lebanese judiciary on several charges and accused of involvement in bombings in northern Lebanon attributed to the Jawhar group, and who was handed over to the Lebanese army by Palestinian factions.

The intricate story might not surprise many, in a country where international intelligence teams and terrorist groups thrive in the shadow of a weakened state. What may come as a surprise is the minor role Awad seems to have played in the last few years, up until he was named as the new leader of Fatah al-Islam. According to Sheikh Oueid and Maqdah, Awad is a 46 year-old Palestinian man from Ain al-Hilweh, who used to be a member of the Palestinian Fatah organization. Here, however, testimonials diverge: Maqdah claims Awad was employed as the bodyguard of Sultan Abu Aynayn, secretary general of Fatah, while Sheikh Oueid says he was in the employ of Abu Iyad, a high-ranking PLO official. Awad has five brothers, three of whom are members of Fatah, while one is a member of the Islamic Movement (Haraka Islamiya).

“Awad left to join Osbat al Ansar,” explained Maqdah, adding that he abandoned the Islamic organization later in the 1990s, while Oueid said that his departure was probably due to “personal disagreements with the Osbat al-Ansar leadership.” Awad then started selling coffee in the camp until a few years ago, when he allegedly travelled to Iraq for a few months. “Upon his return to the Ain al-Hilweh camp, he tried unsuccessfully to put in place a few Islamic movements, but he was never able to recruit more than a few members,” said Maqdah, who was adamant that Awad was not at Nahr al-Bared, but in Ain al-Hilweh during the 2007 conflict.

Oueid believes that that Awad regularly visited Nahr al-Bared prior to the 2007 summer battle, underlining that he had been involved in the Taamir clashes between the Lebanese armed forces and Jund al-Sham in June of 2007.

“He disappeared from the scene after accusations of his involvement with Fatah al-Islam were aired on Syrian TV,” said Oueid. “We thought he was still in the camp, but he has not been in touch with his family or relations.”

Maqdah said that the Palestinian committee in Ain al-Hilweh had agreed to surrender anyone who jeopardizes the camp stability. “Patrols have been circulating all over the camp and even to the Tawarek area, in order to ensure the camp’s security,” he insisted.

In an overpopulated camp, where some 60,000 people are crammed into just over one square kilometer, it remains doubtful that anyone could evade the watchful eye of neighbors, family members and rivaling factions. “Awad may be anywhere,” said Oueid. “Those who were able to smuggle him out of the camp and into Iraq could have once again helped him in spite of the [Lebanese] army’s checkpoints around Ain al-Hilweh.”

To read more: http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArchiveDetails.aspx?ID=70057#ixzz0x2qlfdU6

[buglerbilly]

Goodbye, Iraq: Last US Combat Brigade Exits

August 19, 2010

Associated Press



KHABARI CROSSING, Kuwait -- A line of heavily armored American military vehicles, their headlights twinkling in the pre-dawn desert, lumbered past the barbed wire and metal gates marking the border between Iraq and Kuwait early Thursday and rolled into history.

For the troops of the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, it was a moment of relief fraught with symbolism but lightened by the whoops and cheers of Soldiers one step closer to going home. Seven years and five months after the U.S.-led invasion, the last American combat brigade was leaving Iraq, well ahead of President Obama's Aug. 31 deadline for ending U.S. combat operations there.

---

EDITOR'S NOTE: The 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd ID, was officially designated the last combat brigade to leave Iraq under Obama's plan to end combat operations in Iraq by Aug. 31. Associated Press writer Rebecca Santana joined the troops on their final journey out of the country.

---

When 18-year-old Spc. Luke Dill first rolled into Iraq as part of the U.S. invasion, his Humvee was so vulnerable to bombs that the troops lined its floor with flak jackets.

Now 25 and a staff sergeant after two tours of duty, he rode out of Iraq this week in a Stryker, an eight-wheeled behemoth encrusted with armor and add-ons to ward off grenades and other projectiles.

"It's something I'm going to be proud of for the rest of my life -- the fact that I came in on the initial push and now I'm leaving with the last of the combat units," he said.

He remembered three straight days of mortar attacks outside the city of Najaf in 2003, so noisy that after the firing ended, the silence kept him awake at night. He recalled the night skies over the northern city of Mosul being lit up by tracer bullets from almost every direction.

Now, waiting for him back in Olympia, Wash., is the "Big Boy" Harley-Davidson he purchased from one of the motorcycle company's dealerships at U.S. bases in Iraq -- a vivid illustration of how embedded the American presence has become since the invasion of March 20, 2003.

That presence is far from over. Scatterings of troops still await departure, and some 50,000 will stay another year in what is designated as a noncombat role. They will carry weapons to defend themselves and accompany Iraqi troops on missions (but only if asked). Special forces will continue to help Iraqis hunt for terrorists.

So the U.S. death toll -- at least 4,415 by Pentagon count as of Wednesday -- may not yet be final.

The Stryker brigade, based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state and named for the vehicle that delivers troops into and out of battle, has lost 34 troops in Iraq. It was at the forefront of many of the fiercest battles, including operations in eastern Baghdad and Diyala province, an epicenter of the insurgency, during "the surge" of 2007. It evacuated troops at the battle of Tarmiyah, an outpost where 28 out of 34 Soldiers were wounded holding off insurgents.

The U.S. military kept a tight lid on security, restricting the media embedded with the U.S. troops from reporting on the brigade's movements until they were almost to the border.

The brigade's leadership volunteered to have half of its 4,000 Soldiers depart overland instead of taking the traditional flight out, a decision that allowed the unit to keep 360 Strykers in the country for an extra three weeks. The remainder of the brigade flew out with the last of the troops slated to leave later Thursday.

U.S. commanders say it was the brigade's idea to drive out, not an order from on high. The intent was to keep additional firepower handy through the "period of angst" that followed Iraq's inconclusive March 7 election, said brigade chief, Col. John Norris.

It took months of preparation to move the troops and armor across more than 500 kilometers (300 miles) of desert highway through potentially hostile territory.

The Strykers left the Baghdad area in separate convoys over a four-day period, traveling at night because the U.S.-Iraq security pact -- and security worries -- limit troop movements by day.

Along the way, phalanxes of American military Humvees sat at overpasses, Soldiers patrolled the highways for roadside bombs, and Apache attack helicopters circled overhead as the Strykers refueled alongside the highway.

Chief Warrant Officer 3 Gus McKinney, a brigade intelligence officer, acknowledged that moving the convoys overland put Soldiers at risk, but said the danger was less than in the past.

The biggest threat was roadside bombs planted by Shiite extremist groups who have a strong foothold in the south, McKinney said.

But except for camels straying into the road, and breakdowns that required some vehicles to be towed, there were no incidents. The last of the Strykers rolled across the border just before 4 a.m. Thursday into Kuwait, honking their horns and waving to the small crowd gathered at the crossing.

The brigade's leadership was on hand to greet the troops after they crossed the border and pulled into a parking lot where they shed their sweaty armor and stumbled out of their Strykers.

"This is powerful. This is exciting for me. As a commander, this means that all of my Soldiers are safely inside of Kuwait and getting ready to redeploy back to their families," Norris told The Associated Press.

The worst of the ride was conditions inside the Strykers -- sitting for hours in a cramped space -- and the temperatures outside that reached 50 Celsius (120 Fahrenheit).

The driver's compartment is called the "hellhole" because it sits over the engine and becomes almost unbearably hot. The vehicle commander and gunner can sit up in hatches to see the outside world. At the tail end are hatches for two gunners. Eight passengers -- an infantry squad in combat conditions -- can squeeze in the back.

Riding as a passenger felt a bit like being in a World War II-era submarine -- a tight fit and no windows. The air conditioning was switched off to save fuel on the long ride south to Kuwait. Men dozed or listened to music on earphones.

Once out of Iraq, there was still work to be done. Vehicles had to be stripped of ammunition and spare tires, and eventually washed and packed for shipment home.

Meanwhile, to the north, insurgents kept up a relentless campaign against the country's institutions and security forces, killing five Iraqi government employees in roadside bombings and other attacks Wednesday. Coming a day after a suicide bomber killed 61 army recruits in central Baghdad, the latest violence highlighted the shaky reality left by the departing U.S. combat force and five months of stalemate over forming Iraq's next government.

For Dill, who reached Kuwait with an earlier convoy, the withdrawal engendered feelings of relief. His mission -- to get his squad safely out of Iraq -- was accomplished.

Standing alongside a hulking Stryker, his shirt stained with sweat, he acknowledged the men who weren't there to experience the day with him.

"I know that to my brothers in arms who fought and died, this day would probably mean a lot, to finally see us getting out of here," he said.

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

British veterans of Iraq operations invited to give views to inquiry

13:28 GMT, August 19, 2010

Retired or serving British Armed Forces personnel who deployed to Iraq have been invited to feed their views into the Iraq Inquiry by its Chairman, Sir John Chilcot, at a special event in Tidworth.

The event will take place at Tidworth Garrison on Tuesday 14 September 2010. Its purpose is to hear the views of military personnel who were deployed to Iraq between 2003 and 2009.

Sir John Chilcot has written the following open letter to all military personnel who served in Iraq between 2003 and 2009:

"The Iraq Inquiry will be holding an event at Tidworth Garrison on 14 September to hear the views of military personnel (serving or retired, regular or reserve) who were deployed to Iraq between 2003 and 2009.

"The purpose of this event is to gain insights from those who are in a unique position to talk about how the campaign was conducted and the impact it had upon their lives. This event is an opportunity for you to ensure that your voice is heard and your views feed into the lessons that the inquiry identify.

"My colleagues on the Iraq Inquiry Committee and I believe it is vital that we hear direct from those most affected by the Iraq campaign.

"In the latter half of last year we met the families of some of the 179 Service personnel, and other British citizens, killed in Iraq. We heard how they have been affected by their losses and their views on what they would like the inquiry to address.

"We also held an extremely useful event earlier this year at the Defence Academy in Shrivenham where we met Service personnel who served in Iraq.

"The inquiry is primarily about learning lessons, so these meetings are crucial to our work. We need to understand what went well and what could have been done better.

"I hope that the lessons the inquiry identifies will help us, as a nation, to continue to improve in many areas, including the way in which we approach expeditionary campaigns and nation-building, and the impact on military personnel.

"If you would like to express an interest in attending this event please contact the Iraq Inquiry (secretariat@iraqinquiry.org.uk) before noon on Friday 10 September.

"This event is not the only means by which you can give your views to the inquiry.

"We are happy to receive the thoughts of anyone who served during the campaign or from relevant groups or associations on behalf of their members. If you would like to send a written submission to the Iraq Inquiry please use the address above [Iraq Inquiry, 35 Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3BG].

"The committee is grateful for your help in this aspect of the inquiry's work and looks forward to receiving your views in person or in writing."

[buglerbilly]

U.S. Combat Brigades Stay in Iraq Under Different Name

By KATE BRANNEN

Published: 19 Aug 2010 14:14

As the final convoy of the Army's 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, based at Fort Lewis, Wash., entered Kuwait early Aug. 19, a different Stryker brigade remained in Iraq.

While the “last full U.S. combat brigade” has left Iraq, just under 50,000 soldiers from specially trained heavy, infantry and Stryker brigades will stay, as well as two combat aviation brigades. (U.S. ARMY) Soldiers from the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 25th Infantry Division are deployed in Iraq as members of an Advise and Assist Brigade, the Army's designation for brigades selected to conduct security force assistance.

So while the "last full U.S. combat brigade" left Iraq, just under 50,000 soldiers from specially trained heavy, infantry and Stryker brigades will stay, as well as two combat aviation brigades.

Compared with the 49,000 soldiers in Iraq, there are close to 67,000 in Afghanistan and another 9,700 in Kuwait, according to the latest Army chart on global commitments dated Aug. 17. Under an agreement with the Iraqi government, all U.S. troops must be out of Iraq by Dec. 31, 2011.

There are seven Advise and Assist Brigades in Iraq, as well as two additional National Guard infantry brigades "for security," said Army spokesman Lt. Col. Craig Ratcliff.

Last year, the Army decided that rather than devote permanent force structure to the growing security force assistance mission, it would modify and augment existing brigades.

The Army has three different standard brigade combat teams: infantry, Stryker and heavy. To build an Advise and Assist Brigade, the Army selects one of these three and puts it through special training before deploying.

The Army selected brigade combat teams as the unit upon which to build advisory brigades partly because they would be able to retain their inherent capability to conduct offensive and defensive operations, according to the Army's security force assistance field manual, which came out in May 2009. This way, the brigade can shift the bulk of its operational focus from security force assistance to combat operations if necessary.

To prepare for their mission in Iraq, heavy, infantry and Stryker brigades receive specialized training that can include city management courses, civil affairs training and border patrol classes.

As far as equipment goes, the brigades either brought their gear with them or used equipment left behind that is typical to their type of brigade, said Ratcliff.

The first Advise and Assist Brigade - the 4th Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Armored Division from Fort Bliss, Texas - deployed last spring to Iraq, serving as a "proof of principle" for the advisory brigade concept.

Of the seven Advise and Assist Brigades in Iraq, four are from the 3rd Infantry Division, based at Fort Stewart, Ga. The 1st Heavy Brigade of the 1st Armored Division, based at Fort Bliss, and the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 4th Infantry Division, based at Fort Carson, Colo., are also serving as Advise and Assist Brigades.

The 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 25th Infantry Division is based at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. A combat medic from that unit was killed Aug. 15 when his Stryker combat vehicle was hit with grenades, according to press reports.

Two combat aviation brigades also remain in Iraq, according to Dan O'Boyle, Redstone Arsenal spokesman. Three more are deployed in Afghanistan, where there are currently no Advise and Assist Brigades.

[buglerbilly]

Iraqis watch pullout with bitterness and fear

August 21, 2010


On their own ... Iraqi soldiers man a checkpoint in Baghdad after the last US combat brigade pulled out of the country. Photo: AFP

Liz Sly

BAGHDAD: Iraqis danced in the streets when US troops withdrew from their cities a little more than a year ago. After the last American combat brigade trundled across the border into Kuwait on Thursday, reversing a journey that began more than seven years ago, there was no rejoicing.

Instead, a mood of deep apprehension tinged with bitterness is taking hold as Iraqis digest the reality that the American invaders who they once feared would stay forever are in fact going home - at a time when their country is in the throes of a political crisis that many think could become more violent.

''I'm not happy at all. I'm worried. They're leaving really early,'' said Wissam Sabah, a carpet seller in a Baghdad shopping districts. ''We don't have a government and we don't know what is going to happen next. Maybe we will go back to civil war.

''The situation is getting worse every day. The politicians are inflaming the situation, there is a battle between them, and I am 100 per cent certain it will be reflected in the streets.''

US combat operations in Iraq will not officially end until August 31, the deadline set by Barack Obama for the reduction of the force to 50,000 people involved in ''stability operations''.

But with the departure to Kuwait of the last combat brigade, the formal battle mission is essentially over. In the coming days, 2000 more personnel from units scattered around the country will leave, bringing the number remaining down to the 50,000 promised by the President.

The US military stresses that is still a sizeable number of soldiers, and that they will be equipped with considerable firepower. Fighter jets and attack helicopters will remain, as will about 4500 Special Forces members who will continue to carry out counterterrorism missions alongside Iraqi counterparts.

The soldiers staying behind have been rebranded from combat troops into six Advise and Assist Brigades, which will focus on mentoring Iraqi security forces until the December 2011 deadline for the departure of all US forces under the terms of a 2008 security agreement between Iraq and the US.

But many Iraqis worry that the time is wrong for a drawdown whose date was a result of Mr Obama's campaign promise to bring troops home. Parliamentary elections in March that were supposed to cement Iraq's fledgling democracy have instead triggered a destabilising political stand-off between ethnic-tinged factions that received roughly similar numbers of votes and cannot agree on who should be in charge.

''Some people think it's a run-out. An irresponsible withdrawal,'' said a Kurdish MP, Mahmoud Othman. ''This is about what's going on in America, not about what's going on on the ground.''

On the ground, there has been no dramatic deterioration in security, at least not yet. But many Iraqis are concerned about the recent rise in the number of shootings and assassinations across Baghdad and in the still-troubled provinces.

A rash of attacks on judges, traffic police, senior civil servants and members of the Iraqi security forces has stirred fears that insurgents are more ubiquitous than had been thought. A suicide bombing in Baghdad against army recruits on Tuesday, in which 63 people died, called into question the Iraqi security forces' ability to take care of its own, let alone the safety of ordinary citizens.

''I'm surprised they're going because the situation is really uncertain, really tense,'' said Mohammed Khalid, 22, whose toy shop is lined with blonde-haired dolls dressed in pink and a fearsome array of plastic rifles, pistols and automatic weapons.

''The Americans should stay until the Iraqi army can control Iraq,'' he said.

The effect of the withdrawal may be more psychological than real. US and Iraqi officials point out that US forces have for the past year played little part in securing the urban centres where the insurgency is most active. US troops were redeployed to the outskirts of the cities in June last year under the terms of the 2008 security agreement, and Iraqi forces have been in charge since.

General Babakir Zebari, the chief of staff of the Iraqi armed forces, predicted that the shift in the US mission would have no serious impact, and said he was confident the Iraqi security forces could maintain stability.

A group of Iraqi soldiers standing guard beside their US-supplied Humvee on a main street in Baghdad did not seem so sure, however.

One soldier, asked if security would deteriorate with the departure of the Americans, replied: ''Of course, because we have no government.''

Another made it clear he was not happy to see the Americans go. ''I wish they had taken me with them,'' he said. ''I don't want to be here.''

Los Angeles Times

[buglerbilly]

Diplomats Take the Lead in Fractious Iraq

August 22, 2010

Associated Press



WASHINGTON -- As the White House eagerly highlights the departure of U.S. combat troops from Iraq, the small army of American diplomats left behind is embarking on a long and perilous path to keeping the volatile country from slipping back to the brink of civil war.

Among the challenges are helping Iraq's deeply divided politicians form a new government; refereeing long-simmering Arab-Kurd territorial disputes; advising on attracting foreign investment; pushing for improved government services; and fleshing out a blueprint for future U.S.-Iraqi relations.

President Barack Obama also is banking on the diplomats - about 300, protected by as many as 7,000 private security contractors - to assume the duties of the U.S. military. That includes protecting U.S. personnel from attack and managing the training of Iraqi police, starting in October 2011.

The Iraq insurgency, which began shortly after U.S. troops toppled Baghdad in April 2003, is why the U.S. only now is entering the post-combat phase of stabilizing Iraq. Originally, the U.S. thought Iraq would be peaceful within months of the invasion, allowing for a short-lived occupation and the relatively quick emergence of a viable government.

Although the insurgency has been reduced to what one analyst terms a "lethal nuisance," it will complicate the State Department's mission and test Iraq's security forces.

Much is at stake as the department negotiates with the Pentagon over acquiring enough Black Hawk helicopters, bomb-resistant vehicles and other heavy gear to outfit its own protection force in Iraq.

"Regardless of the reasons for going to war, everything now depends on a successful transition to an effective and unified Iraqi government and Iraqi security forces that can bring both security and stability to the average Iraqi," says Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. In his view that transition will take five years to 10 years.

The question is whether progress will be interrupted or reversed once American combat power is gone.

The U.S. will have 50,000 troops in Iraq when the combat mission officially ends Aug. 31; they are scheduled to draw down to zero by Dec. 31, 2011. Until then, they will advise and train Iraqi security forces, and provide security and transport for the diplomats.

Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said in an interview to be broadcast Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" that he believes Iraq's security forces have matured to the point where they will be ready to shoulder enough of the burden to permit the remaining 50,000 U.S. soldiers to go home at the end of next year.

"My assessment today is they - they will be," Odierno said, according to an excerpt of the interview released Saturday by CNN.

"We continue to see development in planning, in their ability to conduct operations," he added. "We continue to see political development, economic development and all of these combined together will start to create an atmosphere that creates better security."

Once the U.S. troops are gone, the State Department will be responsible for the security of its personnel.

Obama administration officials say the diplomats are well prepared for what the State Department expects to be a three- to five-year transition to a "normal" U.S.-Iraqi relationship.

"We are fully prepared to assume our responsibilities as we move through this transition from a military-led effort to a civilian-led effort," department spokesman P.J. Crowley said.

Iraq watchers have their doubts.

Kenneth M. Pollack, a frequent visitor to Iraq as director of Middle East policy at the Brookings Institution, says the administration is in danger of underestimating the difficulty it faces.

"One of the biggest mistakes that most Americans are making is assuming that Iraq can't slide back into civil war. It can," Pollack said. "This thing can go bad very easily."

Pollack, who does not consider himself a pessimist on Iraq, said the historical record on civil wars around the globe shows that about half repeat themselves.

"So it is a huge mistake to assume it can't" happen in Iraq, whose civil strife in 2005-07 was so violent that many Americans assumed the war was lost and believed U.S. troops should give up and go home.

Pollack considers the State Department ill-suited for its new tasks - starting with the police training mission and including the complex developmental problems such as improving Iraq's water system.

"What the State Department is being asked to do isn't in their DNA," Pollack said.

The department has been strongly criticized for its past work in Iraqi police training. An October 2007 report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, Stuart W. Bowen Jr., said the State Department had so badly managed a February 2004 contract for Iraqi police training that the department could not tell what it got for the $1.2 billion it spent.

In May 2004 President George W. Bush put the Pentagon in charge of all security force development.

The newly departed U.S. ambassador to Baghdad, Christopher Hill, says he sees brighter days ahead for Iraq, but he also laments "woefully low" supplies of electricity and deeply ingrained tensions among the three main competitors for political power: Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.

"There is a mountain of mistrust," Hill said.

The diplomats' postwar task would have been much easier if, as the administration once hoped, Iraq had formed a new government by now, nearly six months after its March 7 national elections.

Instead, the political stalemate - with no end in sight - has created another hurdle to the central U.S. goal in Iraq: translating hard-fought security gains into stability.

Still, there is optimism in some quarters.

"While there are no guarantees, the prospects for Iraq's security and stability beyond 2011 look as good or better than they have at any time in the recent past," John Negroponte, who was U.S. ambassador to Iraq in 2004-05, wrote Thursday in a ForeignPolicy.com blog.

Another complication is the shake up of key U.S. players in Baghdad.

Odierno leaves Baghdad on Sept. 1 for a new assignment in the U.S., and Gen. David Petraeus, who was Odierno's boss as head of Central Command, switched last month to take command in Afghanistan. Hill was replaced in Baghdad this past week by James Jeffrey, who was the U.S. ambassador to Turkey.

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

US troops 'would only return to Iraq because of complete failure of security'

A “complete failure” of the Iraqi security forces would be the only situation where the US would resume combat operations there, according to the top American commander in Iraq.

Published: 10:44PM BST 22 Aug 2010

A column of U.S. Army Stryker armored vehicles cross the border from Iraq into Kuwait Photo: AP Gen Ray Odierno's comments came as an American soldier was killed in a rocket attack in southern Iraq, marking the first American fatality since the last combat unit pulled out of the country.

The Iraqi security forces have been doing “so well for so long now that we really believe we’re beyond that point,” Gen Odierno said.

On Thursday, the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division began crossing the border from Iraq into Kuwait, becoming the last combat brigade to leave Iraq. Its exodus, along with that of the approximately 2,000 remaining US combat forces destined to leave in the coming days, fulfils Mr Obama’s pledge to end combat operations in Iraq by Aug. 31.

About 50,000 US troops will remain in the country until the end of 2011 to serve as a training and assistance force, a dramatic drawdown from the peak of more than 170,000 during the surge of American forces in 2007.

US involvement in Iraq beyond the end of 2011, Gen Odierno said, probably would involve assisting the Iraqis secure their airspace and borders.

“My assessment today is they will be (ready),” Gen Odierno told CNN, speaking from Baghdad. “I think that they continue to grow. We continue to see development in planning and in their ability to conduct operations.

“The Iraqi people are resilient. They want this. They want to have a democratic country. They want to be on their own. They want to be moving forward and be a contributor to stability in the Middle East.”

While Iraq forces can handle internal security and protect Iraqis, Gen Odierno said he believes military commanders want to have the US involved beyond 2011 to help Iraqis acquire the required equipment, training and technical capabilities.

“If, for example, you had a complete failure of the (Iraqi) security forces. If you had some political divisions within the political forces that caused them to fracture, but we don’t see that happening,” he said.

“They have been doing so well for so long now that we really believe that we are beyond that point.”

He said Iraq’s security forces have matured to the point where they will be ready to shoulder enough of the burden to permit the remaining 50,000 soldiers to go home at the end of next year.

If the Iraqis asked that American troops remain in the country after 2011, Gen Odierno said US officials would consider it, but that would be a policy decision made by the president and his national security advisers.

[buglerbilly]

Odierno: Iraq’s Big Threat is External

August 23, 2010

Military.com|by Bryant Jordan

Iraq has the forces necessary to wage its ongoing battle against insurgents, yet lacks the muscle to defend itself against an external threat, according to the commander of U.S. and coalition troops there.

Army Gen. Ray Odierno, speaking in one of two nationally broadcast interviews yesterday, said Iraq has been taking over combat and security operations from the U.S. and other allies for more than a year, "and for the last four or five months they've had the lead."

But Iraq still has a ways to go before it can protect its own borders from an outside enemy, and so will likely depend on the U.S. for assistance even after a projected 2011 withdrawal of remaining forces, he told CBS' Bob Schieffer on the news show "Face the Nation."

Odierno didn't identify a potential external threat to Iraq to Schieffer, but in a "State of the Union" interview on CNN said that Iran is intent on making sure the fledgling Iraqi government does not get solidly on its feet.

"They still fund some Shia extremist groups that operate in Iraq," he told Candy Crowley. "They train them. They continue to try to improve their capabilities partially to attack U.S. forces -- partially to make sure everybody understands that they can have some impact in the country. They clearly want to see a certain type of government that is formed here."

Odierno says Iran wants a weak Iraqi government, not a strong, democratic Iraq.

Asked if U.S. forces are ready to move back into Iraq "in case something big happens," Odierno said the U.S. always has the capabilities to act but did not draw a line in the sand.

"I would just say I think that we always have capabilities if asked," he said. "We want to be someone who can help them if they have problems. But that will always be up to Iraq."

In both interviews, Odierno responded to a previously reported comment by the chief of staff of Iraqi forces, Lt. Gen. Babakir Zebari, that Iraq would need American assistance up to about 2020 -- well beyond the anticipated 2011 date for withdrawing the remaining American forces from the country.

According to Odierno, the Iraqi general was talking about helping Iraq get to where it can defend its own sovereignty, and not about the need to assist in ongoing internal operations.

"I think they're now capable of dealing with the internal security," he said. "They're able to take care of protecting the people for the most part so the government can move forward."

What the Iraqi general was talking about, he said, was about Iraq "technically developing, purchasing equipment, learning how to use it, learning how to redo operations. It's about protecting their airspace, their sea, their territorial waters, and their land borders."

Odierno said Iraq wants to see the U.S. involved in this way, and that Zebari believes this would go "beyond 2011."

"My answer to that is, we have arrangements with other countries in the region, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and others, where we continue to provide technical support. So if the government of Iraq requests that from us, we would certainly consider that and do all we can to continue to build their capacity."

[I]© Copyright 2010 Military.com. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

US Troops in Iraq Fall Below 50,000

August 24, 2010

Associated Press

BAGHDAD -- The number of U.S. troops in Iraq has fallen below 50,000 for the first time since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and ahead of the end-of-the-month deadline mandated by President Obama, the American military said in a statement Tuesday.

The number is a watershed in the more than seven years that the United States has been at war in Iraq. Under Obama's plan, American forces will no longer conduct combat operations but are instead to focus on training Iraqi troops.

"We've met our goal," Gen. Ray Odierno, the commanding general in Iraq, told reporters Tuesday. "But the story is not about 50,000. The story is that we are continuing to be committed to Iraq. But our commitment is going to change."

Odierno said that going forward, the focus will be on economic, political, cultural, and technological developments as opposed to just the military relationship.

There are currently 49,700 troops in Iraq and that number will remain level through next summer, Odierno said.

The drawdown comes at a fragile moment in Iraq's history when many are wondering whether the country's tenuous security and democracy gains are at risk of backsliding. The country has gone almost half a year without a new government following the March 7 parliamentary elections.

The elections failed to produce a clear winner to lead Iraq as American forces withdraw, and frequent attacks by insurgents are raising doubts about the ability of Iraqi forces to protect the country in the absence of American backup.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose State of Law Coalition garnered 89 seats in the election, has been battling to retain his office. A Sunni-backed coalition led by former prime minister Ayad Allawi, who is Shiite, won 91 seats in the balloting. But in Iraq's deeply fragmented political system that still adheres closely to sectarian politics, neither side has been able to pull together a majority coalition.

The political stalemate shows no signs of abating before Sept. 1, when Odierno will officially hand over responsibilities to Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin III. At that time, Operation Iraqi Freedom -- as the war has been called -- will officially be changed to Operation New Dawn.

American officials have said repeatedly that their decision to continue with the drawdown -- despite the absence of a new government in Iraq -- reflects the improved security situation in recent years and their confidence in the ability of Iraqi security forces to protect the country.

The U.S. troop presence in Iraq has fluctuated over the years, reaching a high of about 170,000 troops in 2007 as part of the surge of forces intended to combat the insurgency and then slowly tapering off beginning in late 2008.

More than 4,400 American troops have died in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion, although troop deaths tapered off significantly after the U.S. pulled back from the cities in June 2009, in line with an Iraq-U.S. agreement governing American troop presence in the country.

The drop in troop levels signifies an important step for Obama, who was elected partially on a platform of promising to end the war. After taking office, Obama announced a plan to cease combat operations and drop the number of troops in Iraq to 50,000 by the end of August 2010.

Under the agreement between the U.S. and Iraq, all American troops must be out of Iraq by the end of next year. The troops now remaining in the country will mainly be responsible for training Iraqi security forces.

The last of the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, which was officially designated the last combat unit to leave Iraq, drove out last week in their eight-wheeled Strykers, crossing into Kuwait early Thursday.

However, in an indication of how difficult it is to firmly draw a line between what is considered combat and what is not, the American military will still be taking part in such missions as counterterrorism operations, if U.S. help is requested by the Iraqis.

Also, the Americans will continue to have the right to defend themselves and their military facilities -- all actions that could still bring American troops into harm's way.

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

String of Iraq Attacks Kills Dozens

August 25, 2010

Associated Press



BAGHDAD - Bombers and gunmen launched an apparently coordinated string of attacks against Iraqi government forces on Wednesday, killing at least 50 people a day after the number of U.S. troops fell below 50,000 for the first time since the start of the war.

Insurgents have been stepping up their attacks on Iraq's security forces in recent months as the U.S. has trimmed its military presence in the country. More than half of those killed Wednesday - 27 - were Iraqi soldiers and policemen.

There were no claims of responsibility for the spate of attacks. But their scale and reach, from one end of the country to the other, underscored insurgent efforts to prove their might against security forces and political leaders who are charged with the day-to-day running and stability of Iraq.

The deadliest attack came in Kut, 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, where a suicide bomber blew up a car inside a security barrier between a police station and the provincial government's headquarters. Police and hospital officials said 19 people were killed, 15 of them policemen. An estimated 90 people were wounded.

"I rushed to the scene to help evacuate the people, and saw body parts and hands scattered on the ground and dead bodies of policemen," said government employee Yahya al-Shimari. "I also saw a traffic policeman lying dead on the ground. There were about 15 cars that were burnt."

At the Kut hospital, "there were so many wounded people that the hospital was not able to take all of them," said Dr. Walid Khalid.

A similar attack struck a neighborhood in north Baghdad, where a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb in a parking lot behind a police station.

Fifteen people were killed in that attack, including six policemen. Police and hospital officials said another 58 were wounded in the explosion that left a crater three yards (meters) wide and trapped people beneath the rubble of felled houses nearby.

Five others, including an Iraqi soldier and a police officer, were killed in small bursts of violence in Baghdad.

A senior Iraqi intelligence official raised the possibility that some of the attackers had inside help. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said the Baghdad suicide bombing bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida, but said unnamed political factions helped coordinate some of the other attacks. He refused to elaborate.

Since Iraq's March 7 elections failed to produce a clear winner, U.S. officials have feared that competing political factions could stir up widespread violence. Iraqi leaders so far have tried to end the political impasse peacefully.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said the stalled government, combined with the American troop withdrawal, created ideal conditions for insurgents to attack. Even so, he said the security situation was "under control."

"Here you have a government paralysis, you have a political vacuum ... you have the U.S. troop withdrawal," Zebari told The Associated Press. "And in such environment these terrorist networks flourish actually and would love to deepen divisions among Iraqi politicians to apportion blame on each other in order to create as much chaos as possible."

But U.S. and Iraqi officials alike acknowledge growing frustration throughout the nation, nearly six months after the vote, and say that politically motivated violence could undo security gains made over the past few years.

"What is going on in the country?" said Abu Mohammed, an eyewitness to a car bombing near Baghdad's Adan Square that killed two passers-by. "Where is the protection, where are the security troops?"

Still, some security forces proved to be on guard. Police in the northern city of Mosul said Iraqi soldiers shot and killed a suicide bomber Wednesday afternoon as he sought to blow up his car outside an army base.

From the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk to the holy Shiite shrine town of Karbala, scattered bombings killed and wounded scores more. They included:

-A local council building in Muqdadiyah, north of the capital, was hit with a car bomb. Three people were killed and 18 wounded, said Diyala police spokesman Maj. Ghalib al-Karkhi.

-In the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, police said a soldier was killed and 10 people wounded when a suicide bomber rammed his car into an Iraqi army convoy.

-Car bombs in Kirkuk, Iskandariyah, Dujail and Mosul killed six and wounded 29. A roadside bomb in Tikrit, Saddam Hussein's hometown, killed a policeman on patrol and wounded another.

-A car bomb near police station in Karbala wounded 28 people but no fatalities were immediately reported. Two people in the southern port city of Basra were also injured by a car bomb.

While violence has subsided significantly since the height of the sectarian bloodshed in 2006 and 2007, militants continue to target members of Iraq's nascent security forces, undermining their ability to defend the country as the U.S. ends combat operations.

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved

[buglerbilly]

More Unmanned Flights Expected in Iraq

By KRISTIN QUINN

Published: 26 Aug 2010 12:25

The withdrawal of American combat troops from Iraq will not correlate to a reduction in flights of unmanned aircraft, and in fact the flight hours will rise, according to U.S. Army officials speaking at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International conference in Denver.


An MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle returns from an Operation Iraqi Freedom combat mission. Army officials say that as troop levels in Iraq decline, the use of UAVs will rise. (U.S. Army)

"You've heard recently all combat units have pulled out of Iraq, but we have not seen any reduction in the number of [unmanned aircraft] flight hours. You will see an increase in flight hours in the next year. It's not going to slow down any time soon," said Col. Gregory Gonzalez, project manager for unmanned aircraft systems in the Program Executive Office for Aviation, Redstone Arsenal, Ala.

The Army will have a more precise assessment by October, said Col. Robert Sova, an unmanned aircraft systems capability manager with the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, but he also predicted flight hours will increase as the mission changes. "What we're seeing is a significant increase in the use of communications relay and communications extension," Sova said. "The need to cover a geographical area is still the same, but now we have less troops."

Tim Owings, deputy project manager for the Program Executive Office for Aviation, said as more troops leave Iraq, the need for surveillance increases in order to maintain peace-keeping operations.

Gonzalez added that the Army's use of UAS in Afghanistan is expected to increase as well. "Overall, we have more and more systems going into Afghanistan," he said.

[buglerbilly]

Lessons That Can Be Learned From Iraq

August 27, 2010

Associated Press

BAGHDAD -- They are different wars in different regions, with different challenges. But as the war in Iraq winds down, there is a lot the U.S. military can learn and apply to Afghanistan, from how to deal with contractors to when to draw down troops.

Many practices will need to be adapted to a different terrain and environment. Unlike Iraq, the war in Afghanistan is often fought in a rural, mountainous region with a decentralized leadership.

But the Pentagon has already shifted some of its strategy from Iraq to Afghanistan -- even down to installing Gen. David Petraeus as commander in Kabul after years of running the show in Baghdad.

"You need the population to believe that they will be protected," Gen. Ray Odierno, the departing U.S. commander in Iraq, told Pentagon reporters last month. "And how you do that in Afghanistan is probably different than how you do it in Iraq. But the way you go about it in doing the assessment is the same."

Here are some of the lessons the U.S. has learned, or can learn, from Iraq, according to interviews with the military, diplomats and experts.

1. Be Careful about Contractors.

In September almost three years ago, private security guards with Blackwater Worldwide opened fire in Nisoor Square in Baghdad with what U.S. prosecutors called little or no provocation, killing 17 Iraqis. It was a symbol of contracting spun out of control in Iraq, and it led the Pentagon and Congress to crack down on the extent to which war-zone duties could be outsourced to private firms.

It's not feasible to operate entirely without private contractors -- the U.S. used them even in World War II, and contractors have saved many lives in both Iraq and Afghanistan. But the U.S. is learning that they need to be better vetted and regulated, and possibly reduced in number.

Already, contractors in Afghanistan are subject to local law, while in Iraq foreign contractors were immune from prosecution under local law for years. There are about 95,000 contractors in Iraq and 112,000 in Afghanistan, of which private security guards make up between 10 and 15 percent.

Paying for private security guards also is becoming a point of contention in Afghanistan, where President Hamid Karzai often complains about civilian killings by security contractors -- some of whom run "recon by fire" patrols of shooting into hostile villages to prevent attacks.

Between 2003 and 2009, the latest data available, U.S. taxpayers paid $5.9 billion for private security contractors to protect Defense and State department employees in Iraq, according to government auditors. A similar cost analysis is under way in Afghanistan.

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2. Build partnerships with locals.

One of the biggest successes of the Iraq war was to turn Sunni insurgents against al-Qaida by creating and funding local militias that allied with U.S. troops. These Sahwa -- Arabic for Awakening, or commonly known as the Sons of Iraq -- brought terrorist networks to a heel in key battlegrounds in 2007 and 2008 in part by putting a local face on military actions.

Petraeus is now trying to bring that strategy to Afghanistan, in part by forming local police forces to let villagers protect themselves against the Taliban in areas where soldiers can't be spared.

But carrying out and maintaining the strategy is shaky in both places. Al-Qaida is tempting Sahwa to abandon posts with payments of about $100 a month more than what the Iraqi government is paying them. And critics fear local police will fall under the control of Afghan warlords and question the wisdom of handing out weapons in the middle of a war.

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3. Train local troops.

Training and equipping Iraqi forces, a $22 billion endeavor so far, has been a vigorous part of the U.S. mission almost from the beginning of the war. The aim is to minimize civilian casualties, as well as spend more time on the streets and less at checkpoints, as part of building more trust between Iraqi security forces and the communities they protect. Doing so could make tipsters out of residents, and in turn, help local forces collect more intelligence on insurgents.

U.S. commanders in Afghanistan also are following that tack, although they did not focus on rebuilding local forces until about a year ago.

They are trying to recruit Pashtuns to even out the overwhelming number of Tajiks in security forces. That's a careful plan to avoid the mistake of the U.S. deBaathification policy that forced thousands of Sunni soldiers out of the Shiite-dominated Iraqi army and into unemployment lines -- and some into the insurgency.

"Emerging Afghan forces will in time assume responsibility for their own security," said John Nagl, president of the Center for a New American Security in Washington and an Iraq war veteran. "Getting to that point will be no easier in Afghanistan than it was in Iraq, but it can be done."

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4. Watch the Clock.

The Iraq surge worked as well as it did because it invigorated the Sahwa movement and gave people the courage to break with insurgents. If the deadlines are too early, the insurgents wait you out and local partners can't handle the situation.

A security agreement between Baghdad and Washington calls for all U.S. troops out of Iraq by the end of 2011. That's led President Obama to independently order this month's troop drawdown to 50,000 Soldiers. Similarly, Obama has called for U.S. troops to start coming home from Afghanistan by summer 2011.

Such deadlines ultimately aim to end the U.S. military presence in both countries -- giving respite to stretched-thin troops while pacifying Democrats in Obama's base who didn't want to ramp up in the first place. But they also give insurgents a timeframe to wait out the departures and launch more attacks.

In Iraq, despite plans to draw down in 2003 and again in 2006, the U.S. reversed itself with the surge that put nearly 170,000 troops on the ground at the end of 2007. That show of commitment, combined with commanders telling tribal leaders that the U.S. was staying, helped persuade Sunni tribal leaders to break with al-Qaida.

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5. Treat prisoners like people.

One of the biggest failures in Iraq -- and the one that most hurt the U.S. worldwide image -- was detainee abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad. Pictures of grinning U.S. Soldiers posing with naked men on leashes or in painful and sexually humiliating positions helped insurgents recruit followers for revenge.

Congress since has banned harsh interrogation techniques of detainees and expanded some legal rights for detainees swept up on battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan, since they are not considered by the U.S. to be prisoners of war.

The review process of Afghan detainees held at the Bagram Air Field prison is far more transparent than it initially was in Iraq. To be sure, much of what happens to high-value detainees held in U.S. facilities remains secret, and only recently have prisoners been given access to lawyers. Officials now are considering holding trials to end the indefinite imprisonment of Afghans suspected of insurgent ties.

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6. Sign up more Soldiers sooner.

The U.S. now has three times as many forces in Afghanistan -- nearly 100,000 -- than it had at the start of 2009. It's clear to most analysts that both wars should have been fought with more troops early on. It wasn't until the 2007 surge in Iraq -- going from 137,000 troops to a peak of 166,300 in 10 months -- that the war finally began to turn in favor of the U.S.

The dusty western Iraqi town of Haditha illustrates the need for enough military troops upfront to stay and fight rather than go back later.

U.S. Marines thought they had all but rooted out al-Qaida from Haditha in 2004, and pulled out of the city to let the local police forces take over. But insurgents crept back within months, launching unending attacks and executions and devastating the police force. That forced U.S. troops to return to Haditha in large numbers, hunkering down for years until the violence was under control.

The lesson played out on a bigger stage in Afghanistan, where U.S. forces were successful in defeating the Taliban in their initial 2001-02 push but pulled back too early to make the victory stick. Distracted by the Iraq invasion, the Pentagon took its focus off Afghanistan, giving the Taliban ample room to quietly return. As a result, 30,000 more troops have been sent to keep the Taliban from turning Afghanistan back into an al-Qaida haven.

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7. Keep expectations low.

Then-President George W. Bush took a pounding in 2003 when, under a "Mission Accomplished" banner, he declared major combat operations in Iraq were over, only six weeks after the invasion. More than seven years later, President Obama is hoping to mark that milestone this month.

The war in Iraq has been longer, costlier, bloodier and far more unpredictable than most people expected. Even so, many Americans forget that Afghanistan is the longer war, having started shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Petraeus' strategy is always to ratchet down expectations -- he emphasizes the difficulty of operations, so that it's easier to then look successful. In Afghanistan, the Obama administration has shied away from even using the term "winning the war," underscoring uncertainty if it can be done or even what a victory might look like.

That may be one enduring legacy of Iraq -- that the U.S. has learned to be far more careful before declaring victory.

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

Iraq is still many years away from stability, whatever Obama says

PAUL McGEOUGH IN BAGHDAD

August 28, 2010


It is over for some … a father is welcomed home from Iraq. Photo: AP

The double whammy of Ramadan and August - almost an entire nation fasting in the biting, 50-degree heat of high summer - might be expected to stupefy this entire nation. But on the US east coast the President had no such excuse. Barack Obama staged a less theatrical version of his predecessor's ''Mission Accomplished'' claim about the war before retreating to Martha's Vineyard for a family holiday.

The Vineyard is a long way from Baghdad. Arriving in the Iraqi capital the day after insurgents thumbed their noses at the departure of what was billed as the last column of US combat troops - with a spectacular series of co-ordinated bombings - the air was heavy with dust and anxiety.

Obama is to address the nation on the Iraq war on Tuesday - the formal deadline by which all bar 50,000 of the US forces stationed in Iraq were to go home. Perhaps the speech will be an opportunity to rephrase lines from last week in which he seemingly cast the Iraq mission as a job done.

"Today, I'm pleased to report that … our combat mission will end this month, and we will complete a substantial drawdown of our troops," Obama said. "As Iraqi security forces take responsibility for securing their country, our [remaining 50,000] troops will move to an advise-and-assist role … Meanwhile, we will continue to build a strong partnership with the Iraqi people with an increased civilian commitment and diplomatic effort."

But you can touch the sides of the vacuum in Baghdad. Five months after national elections, there still is no government; a country that floats on about 20 per cent of the world's oil and gas reserves is in the grip of a budget and energy crisis; and as the insurgents demonstrated on Wednesday, they can operate at will around the country.

Terrorising 13 centres from the north, through the capital and down to the south, they struck with hit-and-run shootings, roadside mines and more than a dozen car bombs. More than 50 people died, taking the death toll for this month to more than 500.

Hinting at a return to the bloody sectarian violence in the years after the US-led invasion of Iraq, an insurgency website declared: "The countdown has begun to return Iraq to the embrace of Islam and its Sunnis, with God's permission."

Billing Obama's comments as a ''Mission Accomplished Mark II" moment, Anthony Cordesman of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington acknowledged that the President had not used an aircraft carrier or a ''Mission Accomplished'' banner as George Bush had done, "[but it was] just as wrong and irresponsible as the one given by President Bush".

Arguing that Obama needed to make clear that Iraq was still at least seven to 10 years away from anything that could be called ''stable'', and decades away from full development, Cordesman argued that the President had failed to prepare Americans to understand that they would continue to make a major commitment to Iraq.

"He should have warned them that US forces are withdrawing from a country with a massive budget crisis, grossly inadequate quality of governance and rule of law, an economy crippled by 30 years of crisis and mismanagement and with security forces that are still some years away from the counterinsurgency capabilities they need and as much as decade away from building up all of the military forces they need to defend against a threat like Iran," he said.

"He should have been honest about Iraq's near political paralysis, ongoing violence and need for help in dealing with potentially explosive differences between Sunni and Shiite, Arab and Kurd."

In the Beirut Daily Star, the prominent regional commentator Rami Khouri wrote: "The Middle East and the world are far more unstable, violent and dangerous today than they were a decade ago, partly as a result of the Iraq war and partly because of other indigenous factors - including assorted thug-based regimes like the one Saddam Hussein ran in Baghdad for nearly 30 years. The American combat troops leaving Iraq should remind us, above all, of the many and terrible consequences of their having entered Iraq in the first place."

[buglerbilly]

Iraq special report: 'American soldiers sacrificed a lot. But we sacrificed more'

In 2003, a month after coalition troops invaded, Jonathan Steele reported from across the country on how ordinary people had reacted to the toppling of Saddam. Before the last US combat troops pulled out last week, he returned to track down the people he had met – and ask how their lives had been affected by the war

Jonathan Steele guardian.co.uk, Friday 27 August 2010 22.00 BST


Road to normality … A Baghdad marketplace that used to be a haven for militias and violent gangs. Photograph: Graham Crouch for the Guardian

In Saddam Hussein's home town of Tikrit, the ruins of the Farouk palace, one of his many mansions, stand bereft and strewn with rubble. It seems only yesterday that I walked through them with the first Iraqi looters in April 2003.

During the night Hellfire missiles from US Cobra helicopters had knocked huge holes in the facade above the Tigris, bringing a triumphant end to the three-week invasion 96 hours after the fall of Baghdad.

Their guns slung, US troops were wandering through the wreckage like tourists, as amazed as we were by the gold-plated bathtaps and marble spiral staircase. Others were too tired to bother, lying on the grass beside their armoured vehicles.

Seven years later little has changed. The taps and furniture have gone, but soldiers' jubilant graffiti remain on the stuccoed walls. "1-10 ADA Ft Hood Texas … Killers," says one. "We weren't the first and we won't be the last," says another.

Surrounded by razor wire and guarded by the new Iraqi police force, the ruins are a reminder of an Iraq that is gone but not forgotten. Everywhere you go in this battered country Iraqis compare their life with what it was under the dictator's rule. The comparison rarely favours the mokhtalin, the word for invaders or occupiers that many use instead of "the Americans" or "the British".

With US combat troops leaving Iraq, I am trying to trace people I spoke to in April 2003. Some have died in sectarian violence. Some joined the exodus of two million refugees abroad or were among the two and a half million forced to flee their homes to safe havens elsewhere in Iraq. Some are hard to find because Iraq had no mobile phone network in those early postwar days and my old notebooks contain only names, ages, job descriptions and a few vague addresses to guide me.

I start in Tikrit, the symbolic capital of Saddam's tightknit family rule. When I visited him in 2003, Dr Bashar al-Duleimi, an ophthalmologist at the main hospital, was protecting the building from looters alongside a team of colleagues. The assault on the nearby Farouk palace had blown in most of the hospital's windows. "If the Americans are ready to offer protection, they can. But we will not ask them," he told me with stiff patriotic pride.

Now, he sits in front of shelves of medical books – mainly in English – and sums up the record of the US presence in Iraq: "We expected more – better infrastructure and better services, yet electricity supply is still only a few hours a day. Petrol is a disaster, with long, long queues."

His hospital has a large generator but ordinary citizens who rely on the public grid and suffer from constant power cuts suffer in the colossal heat. The only improvements are the increased salaries of government employees and access to advanced medical equipment, he says.

The collapse in security is the biggest change since Saddam's time and, like most Iraqis I speak to, he sees the US departure as irrelevant. "I'm happy to see them go. Security won't be worse," he says. Iraq's bloodshed can only be stemmed by Iraqis.

In Tikrit the sectarian violence of 2006 and 2007 was one-sided and rapid. The city had a tiny minority of Shia. Fifty were killed and the rest fled, I was told by a Shia building worker who moved his family to Kirkuk and comes back alone during the week.

What worried Dr Duleimi was the violence within the Sunni community in those years. Some were accused of collaborating with the mokhtalin. Others were targeted for being well-off. "They phoned me and warned I would be kidnapped if I didn't pay. They tried to evacuate Tikrit of all its doctors. Many left but I stayed. They told me the money was needed for the jihad. I said it's illegal and if you were true Muslims you wouldn't do this. But every doctor paid up."

Who the "they" were he could not say, reluctant to name al-Qaida. "Who knows if it's al-Qaida? We don't want to exaggerate their strength. Al-Qaida could be only 500 people. In 1963 the Ba'athists took power in a coup with only 700," he says.

My next stop is Falluja, a city that was heavily damaged and sealed off by US and Iraqi forces for four years. Outsiders can now enter only with permission. I need to alert the police in advance and for my security have a police escort vehicle with mounted machine guns in the back as I drive around.

In no other Iraqi city do Sunnis feel such a sense of conflict. They were trapped in the heartland of resistance to Iraq's new arrivals: first the Americans, and a year later al-Qaida, who were never present in Iraq in Saddam's time.

I first visited the city a day after the first mass shooting of civilians by the Americans anywhere in Iraq. On 28 April 2003 they killed 13 protesters who had been calling for US troops to leave a primary school that they had taken over as a billet. Named The Leader after Saddam, the still dilapidated school in a dusty suburb is now dubbed The Martyrs.

Khalid Ismail, who runs a family carpentry business, was one of the protesting parents. "Someone from behind the crowd fired and the US troops were tense and nervous and fired heavily back," he says. Some analysts saw the incident as the spark that started the nationwide armed insurgency, launching a series of IED attacks on US troops.

In April and November 2004 US troops assaulted the town with overwhelming force on the ground and from the air. Almost every building along the main street is still scarred by multiple bullet holes. Many private houses that were damaged or destroyed have been rebuilt at their owners' expense. The Americans promised some help for public buildings but little materialised, residents say.

Ismail fled with his wife and six children to relatives in Baghdad. He repeats what is to become a refrain in my conversations: security, electricity supply, water and other services have got worse since Saddam; only the economy is better.

The attack in November was approved by Ayad Allawi, a secular Shia and former Ba'athist who defected in the 1970s, and was appointed by the Americans as prime minister in June 2004. "He had no other choice," says Ismail, who, like most Sunnis, voted for Allawi in this year's election. The resistance in April 2003 was "nationalist and honest", but by the end of the year the city had been taken over by "intruders" linked to al-Qaida.

He wants the Americans to stay in Iraq, even though "they humiliated us and made us hate them". The reason? "No one accepts their country to be occupied but we want the US to limit Iran's interference in Iraq. Iran already controls the government in Baghdad." He mentions Iranian troops' brief seizure of a disputed oilfield on the border last December.

Taha Bidawi, a non-Ba'athist chosen as mayor by local people before the Americans entered Falluja, was glad Saddam had been toppled when I talked to him in April 2003. But he found US behaviour provocative, with their checkpoints and patrols, and he wanted US troops to leave the city to Iraqis.

Seven years later, he reflects the confusion and despair of many Sunnis. No longer the dominant group, they feel victims of discrimination by Iraq's new Shia rulers, who often behave as though every Sunni supported Saddam.

Scarred by Saddam's eight-year war with Iran and the relentless state propaganda that went with it, today's fear of Iran is sometimes shorthand for anxiety over the Shia parties that are blocking Allawi from forming the next government, even though his party won the most seats.

But the biggest Sunni traumas of recent years have been the political murders within the Sunni community and the harsh dilemmas of peaceful versus armed resistance. When does co-operation with the mokhtalin become treachery? "The two mayors who followed me were killed," says Bidawi. "The terrorists or people who call themselves mujahideen killed clerics and educated people because they were working within this political process with the Americans. Our people are poor and illiterate. Poverty undermines religious principles and people can become killers. They are told that killing a foreigner is not a sin."

By extension, killing a collaborator amounts to the same thing.

The Shia community was largely spared this internal agony. Shia militias never targeted their own elite on the same scale. With their demographic majority, Shias became the group in charge over time. They could outplay the Americans. For Sunnis it was different.

Bidawi met people from al-Qaida when they arrived in Falluja. He says he told them Iraqis knew better how to resist the Americans "but al-Qaida had an agenda of provoking civil war". He praises al-Sahwa (the Awakening Council), the movement of local tribal leaders who turned against al-Qaida, were paid by the Americans and, at least until last year, put al-Qaida on the defensive.

In November 2004, the Americans detained Bidawi's three sons on suspicion of working with the armed resistance. Two were released when the US assault was over but the elder one spent seven more months in captivity. Bidawi went to the Americans and pleaded for their release. "An American major told me their arrest might help me, and it was partly true," he says. It minimised suspicions that their father was a collaborator.

Although he feels almost everything is worse than under Saddam – unemployment, security, services – he wants the Americans to stay: "We don't have a strong enough army to defend Iraq. Turkish and Iranian planes violate our airspace. Who will help us?"

We meet in Falluja's dilapidated public library, sheltering from the ferocious 44C heat beside a flimsy fan. While we talk, two shots ring out, clearly very close. We take cover in a side room. Four more shots are heard. My driver is in the front yard and realises the shots were fired on the other side of the wall where street vendors have stalls. The last four shots came from police firing into the air to disperse onlookers. One of the first two shots had felled a policeman.

Senior police officers later give us three explanations of the incident: a policeman challenged a vendor for his licence, firing into the air and sending a second bullet into his own neck by accident. Explanation number two has the suspected illegal vendor shooting the policeman. Finally, we are told the vendor is a "terrorist" recently released from US custody. The family of one of his victims had gained a warrant for his arrest by the Iraqis. The shot policeman was trying to exercise it. In the fog of rival stories the only certainty is that a gunman escaped and a policeman is dead. Amid Iraq's continuing violence it is a lesson on the difficulty of discovering motives even for minor clashes.

On to Baghdad, where my trail takes me to a Shia mosque in a middle-class neighbourhood called al-Beyaa on the city's southern edge.

In western minds the dominant image of April 2003 is US marines pulling down Saddam's statue. For Iraqis, an equally dramatic sign of change and the imminent shift of power was the sight of more than a million Shias filling the highway to Kerbala on the annual pilgrimage to the shrine of their revered seventh-century Imam Hussein. Under Saddam pilgrims were forced to use side roads so as not to form potentially political crowds, and they were never shown on television.

Sheikh Mohammed al-Fadhli is one of the clerics I watched in April 2003, doing his best to end the looting in the occupation's early days. At a makeshift checkpoint outside the Ali al-Beyaa mosque his team were stopping and searching vehicles. Goods identified as stolen from government shops were returned. Food was stored in the mosque to be given to the poor.

Today high concrete walls shield the mosque from the main road and a largely Sunni district on the opposite side. The only entrance is guarded by Iraqi troops. But Fadhli says sectarian tensions have eased, many Sunnis have come home to Beyaa, and the militias have gone to ground.

What's the balance sheet of the last seven years, I ask. "This is a time of freedom and democracy," he says. "We used to be limited to holding prayers. Now we're free to give people advice and criticise the government. But there are negatives – sectarianism, civil war, the delay in forming a new government and the explosions. These have become less in recent years.

"Although the Iraqi army is not yet ready to protect us in terms of numbers, equipment and training, it's right for the US to leave," he says. "We want them to leave altogether at the end of next year."

The best protection from sectarian violence, he thinks, would be a strong and inclusive government, a coalition of Allawi's Sunni-supported party along with the two big Shia groups. "Tehran will accept that," he says. "The Iranians exert influence, they have an agenda, but they are not a threat." Saudi Arabia also wants to bring Iraq under its control, he adds.

I hear similar views from Raid Abdul Reda, an archaeologist at the Iraq Museum. I remember him fuming seven years ago after US troops refused to keep a tank outside the building to deter looters. "Yes," he says when I recall the episode, "I asked the American soldiers to chase the looters out and they came in and did, but when I urged them to stay on guard, they refused. 'We are army, not police,' they said. When they left, the robbers returned."

Sectarian violence forced most Sunnis out of Harir, his area of Baghdad. He is a Shia. Although he blames the murders and expulsions on the Mehdi army militias loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr, the nationalist cleric who became the most outspoken critic of the occupation, he voted for Sadr in March. Sadr had eventually persuaded the militias to halt their attacks on Sunnis. He is content with the US withdrawal: "It makes no difference. There were gunmen and explosions before the withdrawal. They will continue afterwards. We need a strong government like Saddam Hussein. We should make people afraid of government."

He blames the Americans for creating insecurity by disbanding the Iraqi army and police in 2003, dividing Iraqis into Sunni and Shia and helping them to turn on each other. He was not happy that the US toppled Saddam. "I expected the occupiers would destroy our country and our civilisation and the evidence is what happened to our museum," he says bitterly.

Like many Iraqis, he sees the country as a victim. "I feel nervous about the influence of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Kuwait. They all want to see Iraq destabilised."

Paradoxically, one person who suffered a major family blow was among the least resentful towards the Americans. On a visit to Kadhimiya hospital in those early postwar days I came across five-year-old Ali Mustafa with a leg wound and bandages across his eyes. Playing outside, he had picked up an unexploded US cluster bomb and lost his sight when it detonated.

In the sectarian violence of 2006 his father lost his job in a government office because he could not get to work. The sound of gunfire and bombs terrified the small, blind child. The family left Baghdad for Amara in south-eastern Iraq.

On the phone Mustafa Ghalib, his father, tells me that life has improved since Saddam's time. "We feel freedom and democracy. Under Saddam we couldn't say what we thought, even in front of the family," he says. But the US troops have stayed long enough. "Security will improve when the US withdraws. The foreign forces caused many problems, including making my son blind."

In the narrative of the US military and the Republican party, the war in Iraq has been an American success, crowned by a surge of extra troops in 2007 that is said to have ended sectarian killing and defeated al-Qaida. As I go through my notes I realise that none of my Iraqi interviewees has mentioned the surge, let alone thanked the Americans.

When he sums up their seven-year endeavour in a speech from the Oval Office on Tuesday night, Barack Obama will no doubt be smart enough to find a way of praising US forces while not resiling from his opposition to the war and his criticism of the surge. He could steal the words of Enas Ibrahim, the Iraqi reporter who accompanied me on the trip to Tikrit.

At one point a vast convoy of armoured American trucks carrying containers and military hardware trundled southward in the opposite lane. "How do you feel when you see that?" I ask her.

"I feel happy for them," she answers. "They sacrificed a lot but Iraqis sacrificed more."

[buglerbilly]

Dangers of war persist for soldiers left in Iraq


Life in Iraq: For soldiers, dangers persist
Fewer troops are left, but American soldiers say Iraq remains a battleground, even if they are no longer kicking down Iraqi doors.

By Leila Fadel
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, August 28, 2010; 12:13 AM

FORWARD OPERATING BASE WARHORSE, IRAQ - Col. Malcolm Frost knew there would be questions. The official end to the U.S. combat mission in Iraq was approaching, but his soldiers, operating in two of Iraq's most dangerous provinces, would still be here.

He sat down and penned a letter to the soldiers' families. "01 Sept. 2010 does not mean a light switched on or off in Iraq," the brigade commander wrote. ". . . The weight of responsibility upon our shoulders is great, because we must follow through to the very finish."

For the soldiers in Frost's brigade, Sept. 1 will mark an arbitrary milestone. There are fewer troops here, just under 50,000 now, consistent with an Obama administration pledge, and the troops leave base less often. But Americans still die in Iraq, and the fight for stability is far from over.

Iraq remains a battleground, American soldiers say, even if they are no longer kicking down Iraqi doors.

Instead of carrying out combat missions, Frost's unit has been designated an "advise and assist" brigade, like five other American brigades left behind in Iraq. Its task is to train Iraqi security forces, gather intelligence, assist Iraq's fledgling air force, and, ultimately, close up shop and go home. The lower-profile approach under Operation New Dawn is the latest step in a transition that began more than a year ago when American soldiers were pulled back from Iraq's urban centers and for the most part retreated into their bases.

But less than two months into the unit's deployment, two of Frost's men have already been killed. The mission still involves risks as the soldiers escort commanders and trainers to appointments with Iraqi officials. Around them, assassinations and violence seem to be on the rise, although at drastically lower levels than during the darkest days of Iraq's civil war, between 2005 and 2007.

Last week, as news reports in the United States hailed the departure from Iraq of the last designated combat brigade, family members eagerly called their loved ones here, asking whether they too were headed home. No, the soldiers told wives, mothers, fathers and grandmothers. They have more than 300 days left in Iraq.

The day after other troops celebrated their exit from Iraq, soldiers at FOB Warhorse mourned the passing of Sgt. Jamal Rhett, a young medic killed on Aug. 15. A grenade was lobbed into his vehicle as he and his platoon left federal police headquarters in Baqubah, northeast of Baghdad. They were escorting a police training team.

Despite their new title, soldiers know that the battle is not over, not for them and not for Iraq. The names of Rhett and 1st Lt. Michael L. Runyan, both from the 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, were added to a memorial of the fallen that spans at least five concrete blast walls at the base.

At the trailers where the Charlie Company of the 1st Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment lives, Staff Sgt. Gilbert Ayala, 28, limped to the showers. Shrapnel ripped into his side and legs about two weeks ago, when Rhett was killed.

Ayala said it doesn't matter to him what the mission is called. This is his third deployment, and he has been wounded and lost friends before. But this wound was the deepest, this loss the hardest.

"I find new holes in me every day," Ayala said. He scoffed at the idea that the war was over. "It can't be, because things like this are still going down. Boom, and my friend is gone, right in front of me."

"On a lighter note, we got coffee," joked Staff Sgt. Rick Penkala, 32, nervously trying to change the subject.

"I just hope we leave this place better than when we came," added Staff Sgt. Paul Roderick Jr., 29.

A 'tactical taxi'

In many ways, Iraq is better, the soldiers said. There are more Iraqi forces, they are better equipped, and the violence is down compared with the days of the U.S. troop surge, when U.S. casualties spiked and Iraqis were being killed in far greater numbers. But the soldiers' interactions with the community are limited, and they see very little of what happens outside their bases.

First Lt. Mike Makrucki briefed his men outside their Stryker armored vehicles. "Yesterday there was a [car bomb] in Baqubah that killed two and wounded 12 others. The [Explosives Ordinance Team] disabled another bomb targeting the provincial government," he said. "Assassination attempts are running rampant."

Their mission on this day was to escort their captain, Burt Eissler, to a meeting with an Iraqi commander in Muqdadiyah, just outside the provincial capital. The road was new for them, and Makrucki warned that roadside bombs were prevalent. He told the soldiers to keep their heads inside the vehicles as much as possible.

"We're a tactical taxi now," said Spec. Joshua Johnson, 25, the gunner on one vehicle, as he put on his gear and assumed his position. On most of their missions they escort people to their destination and sit outside.

"Pray for the best," he told the four other soldiers in the vehicle. They rolled out of the base. Halfway to their destination they stopped and waited for an Iraqi police escort before continuing. Eissler went in to meet an Iraqi army commander as most of the soldiers waited outside. They rolled down the hatches of their vehicles and took off their helmets.

"We're pretty safe in here now," said Staff Sgt. Justin Austin, 23, as he gestured toward the towering concrete walls surrounding the area. "Muqdadiyah is one of the worst spots in Iraq right now. The war may be over, but combat is definitely not. People still die here."

Sudden violence

Since the death of their brother-in-arms the soldiers have been more careful. They train their weapons on people to scare them away, he said.

"It was a lucky day for them and unlucky for us," Austin said. "It's kind of a slap in the face to see on the news that all combat troops are out. We're infantry guys, and that's just a name change. It means nothing."

"We're going to do our mision, no matter what," Johnson added.

"It seems a lot better. The Iraqi security forces seem a lot better," Austin said. "But honestly I don't really care. I just care that we go home."

Then a powerful blast rocked the vehicle, and Austin threw on his helmet.

"Start the truck," he yelled to the driver. They closed the hatch, and the soldiers rolled out to see what had happened. "I don't know what's going on right now," Johnson said. "It's a car bomb, I think."

At the time they didn't know that Sunni insurgent groups were setting off bombs in at least a dozen towns and cities across the country in what seemed to be a message that they were still here as U.S. troop numbers dwindled.

The soldiers stayed in their vehicles and waited for the bomb squad. A half-hour later, another explosion ripped through an Iraqi army truck in front of them. A man was carried away. "At least it's not us this time," said Pfc. Stephen James Lapierre, 23. Rhett had been his roommate.

They waited in their vehicles and watched as people walked by, cars drove around them and Iraqi security forces blocked off the area. After the bomb squad had finally come and gone, they left.

Johnson handed Lapierre a slab of wood.

"Knock on it for luck," he said.

[buglerbilly]

Iraq on Highest Alert for Terror Attacks

August 28, 2010

Associated Press



BAGHDAD -- Iraq's prime minister put his nation on its highest level of alert for terror attacks, warning of plots to sow fear and chaos as the U.S. combat mission in the country formally ends on Tuesday.

The Iraqi security forces who will be left in charge have been hammered by bomb attacks, prompting fears of a new insurgent offensive and criticism of the government's preparedness for the American troop drawdown.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Friday that Iraqi intelligence indicated an al-Qaida front group and members of Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath party are collaborating to launch attacks "to create fear and chaos and kill more innocents."

"We direct the Iraqi forces, police and army and other security forces, to take the highest alert and precautionary measures to foil this criminal planning," al-Maliki said in a statement to state-run television.

A senior Iraqi intelligence official said security forces believe suicide bombers have entered the country with plans to strike unspecified targets in Baghdad by month's end. The official did not know how many bombers or where they would attack, and spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

President Obama, meanwhile, used his weekly radio address to reaffirm his campaign promise to end the war in Iraq and refocus on Afghanistan as home to the top threats against America.

"The bottom line is this: the war is ending," Obama said from the Massachusetts island retreat of Martha's Vineyard, where he was on vacation. "Like any sovereign, independent nation, Iraq is free to chart its own course."

Al-Maliki said insurgents would try to exploit widespread frustration with years of frequent power outages and problems with other public services by staging riots and attacks on government offices.

"They will also work on taking advantage of some of the crises of services ... to spread chaos," he said.

Hours after his remarks, the al-Qaida-linked Islamic State of Iraq claimed responsibility for more than two dozen bombings and shootings across the nation this week that killed 56 people -- more than half of them Iraqi soldiers and policemen.

In a statement posted on a militant website Saturday, the group said the coordinated attacks targeted the "headquarters and centers and security barriers for the army and the apostate police."

Insurgents have intensified attacks on Iraqi police and soldiers, making August the deadliest month for Iraqi security personnel in two years: On average, five were killed each day.

Under a security agreement between Washington and Baghdad, all U.S. troops are to be out of Iraq by the end of 2011. Last year, as a benchmark toward that deadline, Obama ordered the end of unilateral U.S. combat missions and the return of all but 50,000 troops by Aug. 31. After that, the U.S. military will focus on training and advising Iraqi troops, although Americans can still go on combat patrols with Iraqi soldiers and police if asked.

But the primary responsibility for protecting the nation is in the hands of an Iraqi security force that has largely failed to win the country's confidence.

In a major embarrassment this month for Iraq's U.S.-trained forces, a suicide bomber was able to walk up undetected to an army recruitment station crowded with hundreds of applicants and kill 61 people. The Aug. 17 attack was the single deadliest act of violence in the capital in months.

More than half of the 445 Iraqi security personnel killed this year -- including soldiers, police, police recruits and bodyguards -- died between June and August, according to an Associated Press count.

The prime minister seemed to recognize that security forces alone would not be able to stop the attacks, and he appealed to citizens to be vigilant.

"We call on the nation to have open eyes to monitor the movements of those terrorists and keep such criminal gangs from halting the progress of our nation."

Al-Maliki is locked in a power struggle to keep his job nearly six months after a parliamentary election that failed to produce a clear winner.

The political coalition led by al-Maliki, a Shiite, narrowly came in second place to a Sunni-backed alliance in the March 7 vote.

Iraq's political factions have been battling since to work out a power-sharing agreement. U.S. and Iraqi officials fear the political impasse could lead to increased violence.

Iraqi military spokesman Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi said the prime minister's statement aimed to embolden security troops who "will face challenges after the withdrawal of the American combat forces."

"The terrorist groups are intending to escalate their terrorist operations during the coming days to influence the process of the American withdrawal, to cast doubt on the ability of the Iraqi forces taking charge of the security and to take advantage of political instability," al-Moussawi said.

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

Obama Marks Formal End of Iraq Combat

August 28, 2010

Associated Press

VINEYARD HAVEN, Mass. -- President Obama said Saturday the end of combat operations in Iraq doesn't just reaffirm the country's sovereignty, but also makes good on one of his principle campaign pledges.

Obama used his weekly radio and Internet address to highlight Tuesday's formal end to U.S. combat missions in Iraq -- the realization of a promise he made as a candidate in the 2008 election.

Remaining troops will assume a backup and training role, a shift Obama will underscore with a visit to Fort Bliss, Texas, and an Oval Office address to the nation on Aug. 31, the date he targeted last year for the change in focus. U.S. troop strength dropped below 50,000 this week, a milestone also highlighted by the administration.

"In the months ahead, our troops will continue to support and train Iraqi forces, partner with Iraqis in counterterrorism missions and protect our civilian and military efforts," Obama said, a day before ending his 10-day Martha's Vineyard vacation to travel to New Orleans and mark another somber date: the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Driving home his point, the president said, "The bottom line is this: The war is ending. Like any sovereign, independent nation, Iraq is free to chart its own course. And by the end of next year, all of our troops will be home."

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said while "much hard work remains" in Iraq, "U.S. combat forces in Iraq have done everything their country asked of them over the past seven years. We owe them our deepest gratitude for all they have done, are doing, and will continue to do in defense of our nation."

Yet, the end to U.S. combat action in Iraq falls short of the "mission accomplished" moment that bedeviled former President George W. Bush, given the continuing violence and political instability in Iraq and the ongoing commitment of remaining U.S. troops. But Obama seized on it as an opportunity to show he's making good on a promise that was a driving force for his presidential campaign, before his term in the White House was overtaken by economic issues.

"As a candidate for this office, I pledged I would end this war. As president, that is what I am doing," Obama said. "We have brought home more than 90,000 troops since I took office. We have closed or turned over to Iraq hundreds of bases. In many parts of the country, Iraqis have already taken the lead for security."

Obama also pledged continued support for veterans and the Veterans Affairs Department, noting that the Iraq and Afghanistan wars produce different injuries than past conflicts.

"Too many suffer from traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder -- the signature injuries of today's wars -- and too few receive proper screening or care. We're changing that," Obama said, calling it a "moral obligation."

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

US Wasted Billions in Rebuilding Iraq

August 30, 2010

Associated Press

The whole Civilian Infrastructure programming was crap! Nothing was thought of prior to invasion and little constructive was thought of for 12-18 months afterwards. Allie that to some efforts that could only be viewed as dodgy if not corrupt in a bunch of cases and you almost have a concerted effort to piss off the local populace...........IF it had been handled well we would have had FAR LESS of a problem in Iraq............

KHAN BANI SAAD, Iraq -- A $40 million prison sits in the desert north of Baghdad, empty. A $165 million children's hospital goes unused in the south. A $100 million wastewater treatment system in Fallujah has cost three times more than projected, yet sewage still runs through the streets.

As the U.S. draws down in Iraq, it is leaving behind hundreds of abandoned or incomplete projects. More than $5 billion in American taxpayer funds has been wasted -- more than 10 percent of the some $50 billion the U.S. has spent on reconstruction in Iraq, according to audits from a U.S. watchdog agency.

That amount is likely an underestimate, based on an analysis of more than 300 reports by auditors with the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. And it does not take into account security costs, which have run almost 17 percent for some projects.

There are success stories. Hundreds of police stations, border forts and government buildings have been built, Iraqi security forces have improved after years of training, and a deep water port at the southern oil hub of Umm Qasr has been restored.

Even completed projects for the most part fell far short of original goals, according to an Associated Press review of hundreds of audits and investigations and visits to several sites. And the verdict is still out on whether the program reached its goal of generating Iraqi good will toward the United States instead of the insurgents.

Col. Jon Christensen, who took over as commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region District this summer, said the federal agency has completed more than 4,800 projects and is rushing to finish 233 more. Some 595 projects have been terminated, mostly for security reasons.

Christensen acknowledged that mistakes have been made. But he said steps have been taken to fix them, and the success of the program will depend ultimately on the Iraqis -- who have complained that they were not consulted on projects to start with.

"There's only so much we could do," Christensen said. "A lot of it comes down to them taking ownership of it."

The reconstruction program in Iraq has been troubled since its birth shortly after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. The U.S. was forced to scale back many projects even as they spiked in cost, sometimes to more than double or triple initial projections.

As part of the so-called surge strategy, the military in 2007 shifted its focus to protecting Iraqis and winning their trust. American Soldiers found themselves hiring contractors to paint schools, refurbish pools and oversee neighborhood water distribution centers. The $3.6 billion Commander's Emergency Response Program provided military units with ready cash for projects, and paid for Sunni fighters who agreed to turn against al-Qaida in Iraq for a monthly salary.

But sometimes civilian and military reconstruction efforts were poorly coordinated and overlapped.

Iraqis can see one of the most egregious examples of waste as they drive north from Baghdad to Khan Bani Saad. A prison rises from the desert, complete with more than two dozen guard towers and surrounded by high concrete walls. But the only signs of life during a recent visit were a guard shack on the entry road and two farmers tending a nearby field.

In March 2004, the Corps of Engineers awarded a $40 million contract to global construction and engineering firm Parsons Corp. to design and build a prison for 3,600 inmates, along with educational and vocational facilities. Work was set to finish in November 2005.

But violence was escalating in the area, home to a volatile mix of Sunni and Shiite extremists. The project started six months late and continued to fall behind schedule, according to a report by the inspector general.

The U.S. government pulled the plug on Parsons in June 2006, citing "continued schedule slips and ... massive cost overruns," but later awarded three more contracts to other companies. Pasadena, Calif.-based Parsons said it did its best under difficult and violent circumstances.

Citing security concerns, the U.S. finally abandoned the project in June 2007 and handed over the unfinished facility to Iraq's Justice Ministry. The ministry refused to "complete, occupy or provide security" for it, according to the report. More than $1.2 million in unused construction material also was abandoned due to fears of violence.

The inspector general recommended another use be found for the partially finished buildings inside the dusty compound. But three years later, piles of bricks and barbed wire lie around, and tumbleweed is growing in the caked sand.

"It will never hold a single Iraqi prisoner," said inspector general Stuart Bowen, who has overseen the reconstruction effort since it started. "Forty million dollars wasted in the desert."

Another problem was coordination with the Iraqis, who have complained they weren't consulted and often ended up paying to complete unfinished facilities they didn't want in the first place.

"Initially when we came in ... we didn't collaborate as much as we should have with the correct people and figure out what their needs were," Christensen said. He stressed that Iraqis are now closely involved in all projects.

One clinic was handed over to local authorities without a staircase, said Shaymaa Mohammed Amin, the head of the Diyala provincial reconstruction and development committee.

"We were almost forced to take them," she said during an interview at the heavily fortified local government building in the provincial capital of Baqouba. "Generally speaking, they were below our expectations. Huge funds were wasted and they would not have been wasted if plans had been clear from the beginning."

As an example, she cited a date honey factory that was started despite a more pressing need for schools and vital infrastructure. She said some schools were left without paint or chalkboards, and needed renovations.

"We ended up paying twice," she said.

In some cases, Iraqi ministries have refused to take on the responsibility for U.S.-funded programs, forcing the Americans to leave abandoned buildings littering the landscape.

"The area of waste I'm most concerned about in the entire program is the waste that might occur after completed projects are handed over to the Iraqis," Bowen said.

The U.S. military pinned great hopes on a $5.7 million convention center inside the tightly secured Baghdad International Airport compound, as part of a commercial hub aimed at attracting foreign investors. A few events were held at the sprawling complex, including a three-day energy conference that drew oil executives from as far away as Russia and Japan in 2008, which the U.S. military claimed generated $1 million in revenues.

But the contracts awarded for the halls did not include requirements to connect them to the main power supply. The convention center, still requiring significant work, was transferred to the Iraqi government "as is" on Jan. 20, according to an audit by the inspector general's office.

The buildings have since fallen into disrepair, and dozens of boxes of fluorescent lightbulbs and other equipment disappeared from the site. Light poles outside have toppled over and the glass facade is missing from large sections of the abandoned buildings.

Waste also came from trying to run projects while literally under fire.

The Americans committed to rebuilding the former Sunni insurgent stronghold of Fallujah after it was destroyed in major offensives in 2004. The U.S. awarded an initial contract for a new wastewater treatment system to FluorAMEC of Greenville, S.C. -- just three months after four American private security contractors were savagely attacked. The charred and mutilated remains of two of them were strung from a bridge in the city.

An audit concluded that it was unrealistic for the U.S. "to believe FluorAMEC could even begin construction, let alone complete the project, while fierce fighting occurred daily." The report also pointed out repeated redesigns of the project, and financial and contracting problems.

The Fallujah wastewater treatment system is nearly complete -- four years past the deadline, at a cost of more than three times the original $32.5 million estimate. It has been scaled back to serve just a third of the population, and Iraqi officials said it still lacks connections to houses and a pipe to join neighborhood tanks up with the treatment plant.

Desperate residents, meanwhile, have begun dumping their sewage in the tanks, causing foul odors and running the risk of seepage, according to the head of Fallujah's municipal council, Sheik Hameed Ahmed Hashim.

"It isn't appropriate for the Americans to give the city these services without completing these minor details," Hashim said. "We were able to wipe out part of the memories of the Fallujah battles through this and other projects. ... If they leave the project as it is, I think their reputation will be damaged."

By contrast, the Basra children's hospital -- one of the largest projects undertaken by the U.S. in Iraq -- looks like a shining success story, with gardeners tending manicured lawns in preparation for its opening. But that opening has been repeatedly delayed, most recently for a lack of electricity.

The construction of a "state-of-the-art" pediatric specialist hospital with a cancer unit was projected to be completed by December 2005 for about $50 million. By last year, the cost had soared above $165 million, including more than $100 million in U.S. funds, and the equipment was dated, according to an auditors' report.

Investigators blamed the delays on unrealistic timeframes, poor soil conditions, multiple partners and funding sources and security problems at the site, including the murder of 24 workers. Bechtel, the project contractor, was removed because of months-long delays blamed on poor subcontractor performance and limited oversight, the special inspector general's office said. A Bechtel spokeswoman, Michelle Allen, said the company had recommended in 2006 that work on the hospital be put on hold because of the "intolerable security situation."

In an acknowledgment that they weren't getting exactly what they hoped for, Iraqi officials insisted the label "state of the art" be removed from a memorandum of understanding giving them the facility. It was described as a "modern pediatric hospital."

Hospital director Kadhim Fahad said construction has been completed and the electricity issue resolved.

"The opening will take place soon, God willing," he said.

Residents are pleased with the outcome. One, Ghassan Kadhim, said: "It is the duty of the Americans to do such projects because they were the ones who inflicted harm on people."

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

Fearing Future, Few Iraqis Cheer US Exit

August 31, 2010

Associated Press

BAGHDAD - As Vice President Joe Biden presides over the formal end to U.S. combat operations in Iraq, few Iraqis are cheering the American exit.

Iraqis, who for years have railed against the U.S. occupation, are generally happy to see that the American presence won't be endless. But there is also considerable trepidation about whether Iraq can go it alone.

"It's not the right time," said Johaina Mohammed, a 40-year-old teacher from Baghdad. "There is no government, the security is deteriorating, and there is no trust."

Just under 50,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq - down from a peak of nearly 170,000 at the height of the military surge in 2007. Those troops will be focused on training and assisting the Iraqi military, and will no longer be allowed to go on combat missions unless requested and accompanied by Iraqi forces.

Underscoring the shift, Biden was making a new appeal to Iraqi leaders Tuesday, including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, to end the political deadlock and seat a new government. March 7 parliamentary elections left Iraq without a clear winner, and insurgents have since exploited the uncertainty to hammer Iraqi security forces.

Iraqi forces are vastly improved and attacks have plummeted since the dark days of 2006 and 2007. But rarely a day goes by without some loss of life, and spectacular attacks such as the violence on Wednesday that killed 56 people still happen with disturbing regularity.

Biden and U.S. officials have downplayed suggestions they are abandoning Iraq at a crucial time. The vice-president Tuesday said militants' attempts to again wreck havoc in Iraq have been unsuccessful.

"Notwithstanding what the national press says about increased violence, the truth is, things are still very much different, things are much safer," Biden said Tuesday in comments to al-Maliki.

In an address to the nation to mark the end of combat operations, al-Maliki said Iraqi forces were capable of handling security and protecting people from attacks after U.S. combat troops pull out.

He characterized attacks that continue to plague the country as a "desperate attempt by al-Qaida and remnants of the former (Saddam Hussein) regime to prove their presence."

"I assure you that the Iraqi security troops are capable and qualified to shoulder the responsibility," he said in televised comments broadcast live on Iraqi state television.

The end of combat operations, according to al-Maliki, was a basic step in restoring Iraq's sovereignty. The prime minister also promised a full withdrawal of American troops next year.

But many Iraqis do not share the optimism demonstrated by the vice president and the prime minister.

The fear of political divisions, aggravated by the struggle for control of Iraq's oil potential, is ever present. Some Iraqis worry that without the American soldiers, their country will revert to a dictatorship or split along religious and ethnic fault lines.

"They should go, but the security situation is too fragile for the Americans to withdraw now," said Mohammed Hussein Abbas, a Shiite from the town of Hillah south of Baghdad. "They should wait for the government to be formed and then withdraw."

U.S. military officials say the reduction in troop numbers doesn't hinge on Iraq forming a new government, but on the ability of Iraqi forces to handle security on their own.

The decision to draw down to 50,000 troops was made by President Barack Obama, and is not part of the security agreement between Iraq and the U.S. Under that agreement, all American troops are to be out of Iraq by the end of 2011, a timeline Obama vowed during a weekend address to follow.

The dwindling U.S. military presence has deepened concerns that Iraq will be taken over by its neighbors - namely Iran - who many think is waiting to fill the power vacuum created by the departing Americans.

"The U.S. withdrawal will put Iraq into the lap of Iran," said Ali Mussa, a 46-year-old engineer from eastern Baghdad. Iran and Iraq are both majority Shiite countries. And Iran has already capitalized on the U.S.-led overthrow of its arch enemy Saddam to secure greater leverage in Iraq, using centuries-old religious and cultural ties.

Even former Sunni insurgents in Fallujah, who supported armed resistance against two American assaults on the city in Iraq's western province of Anbar, are dismayed at U.S. troops leaving after they joined forces and fought extremists together.

"Of course we were against the occupation, but in 2007 the Americans came up with a good plan for fighting al-Qaida, not Iraq," said Col. Abdelsaad Abbas Mohammed, a Fallujah commander in the government-supported Sunni militia, known as the Awakening Councils. "Americans have committed many mistakes, but they did not go into houses and chop people's heads off."

In the three provinces that make up the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, the American military departure is also cause for concern. The Americans have often been perceived as the protectors of the minority Kurdish population, which was repressed under Saddam, but later carved out a relative oasis of stability in northern Iraq.

Othman Ahmed, 38, and a lawyer from the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah, said Iraqi politicians would like to return Iraq to the strong centralized government of the former regime - meaning the Kurds' hard-won autonomy could be at jeopardy. The friction between the Kurds and the central government is considered a potential flashpoint. Both claim a wide swath of territory stretching from the Syrian to the Iranian border, which includes the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

Many Iraqis also had higher hopes for their quality of life after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, especially after years cut off from the rest of the world under Saddam. Now people have access to the Internet, satellite television and an assortment of consumer goods such as new cars, laptop computers, and mobile phones. But they struggle with constant shortages of electricity and water, the capital is crisscrossed with concrete barriers and parents worry about their children's education after thousands of teachers fled the country.

To many Iraqis, the U.S. drawdown and emphasis on the end of combat operations looks to many Iraqis as if Obama is playing to domestic politics instead of assessing what is truly right for Iraq,

"The Americans should think about the door they're walking out of," said Sheik Ali Hatem Sulaiman al-Dulaimi, an influential tribal leader from Anbar province. "This is the destiny of a nation."

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

White House: Iraq Troops Are Coming Home In 2011. Period.

By Spencer Ackerman August 31, 2010 | 5:17 pm



When President Obama announces tonight that the remaining 50,000 U.S. troops in Iraq are going to all come home by the end of 2011, that endpoint for the Iraq war will be set in bureaucratic and diplomatic stone, according to a top adviser.

Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes waves off recent media speculation that the U.S. and the Iraqi government might renegotiate a 2008 bilateral accord governing the ultimate exodus of U.S. troops from Iraq. “We’re going to honor that agreement,” Rhodes tells Danger Room during a conference call this afternoon. “Our view is that both of our governments are bound to it.”

Obama will announce at 8 p.m. eastern times that Operation Iraqi Freedom, the combat mission in Iraq that began on March 19, 2003, has ended. In it’s place: a year-long residual mission geared around training Iraqi forces and the odd Special Forces-led counterterrorism hit. But the insurgency, though far less lethal than before, has still proven able to carry out coordinated attacks, giving rise to some fears that the 600,000-strong Iraqi army and police aren’t yet capable of taking over. Still, according to a “time horizon” that the Iraqi government compelled the Bush administration to accept in 2008 in the so-called Status of Forces Agreement, the U.S. military’s presence in Iraq runs out on December 31, 2011.

Just this week, Ambassador Ryan Crocker, the U.S.’s top diplomat during the surge, urged Obama to be receptive to any requests from the Iraqis for “U.S. military presence beyond the end of 2011.” An architect of the war, former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, issued a similar call in the New York Times today. Without endorsing it, the outgoing commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, General Ray Odierno, acknowledged the possibility of the Iraqis asking us to stay in a Sunday interview.

Rhodes isn’t buying it. “The Iraqis have not asked us to renegotiate it, and certainly, it would be up to the Iraqis” to initiate re-negotiations, he says. “Any talk of that is premature. All the internal planning of the U.S. government is our troops will all be out of Iraq by the end of 2011, consistent with that agreement.”

It’s true that the Iraqis have not formally asked the U.S. for any such amendment to the Status of Forces Agreement. But in Washington last spring, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki left the rhetorical door open just a little bit to asking the U.S. to maybe extend its stay. Judging from Rhodes’s remarks, if Maliki or his successor issues any such formal request, he’s not going to find a White House receptive to rekindling a war that has taken over 4400 American lives.

Credit: DoD

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[buglerbilly]

Iraq To Spend $13B On U.S. Arms, Equipment

By JIM MICHAELS, USA TODAY

Published: 1 Sep 2010 05:55

BAGHDAD - Iraq is preparing to buy as much as $13 billion in American arms and military equipment, a huge order of tanks, ships and hardware that U.S. officials say shows Iraqi-U.S. military ties will be tight for years to come.

"It helps to build their capabilities, first and foremost; and second, it builds our strategic relationship for the future," said Army Lt. Gen. Michael Barbero, the ranking U.S. officer responsible for training and advising Iraq forces.

With combat operations officially ended, Vice President Biden and Iraqi officials will gather today at a ceremony at the main U.S. base near Baghdad Airport to mark U.S. troops' transition to an advisory role that focuses on assisting Iraqi security forces. The number of U.S. service members has dropped below 50,000. All U.S. forces are scheduled to leave Iraq by the end of next year.

Military sales, which often include lengthy maintenance and training contracts, are part of U.S. efforts to maintain a relationship with Iraq. About half the $13 billion in sales are finalized contracts, and the rest are still in negotiations.

The sales will make Iraq among the world's biggest customers for American military arms and equipment. The Iraq Defense Ministry intends to transform the country's degraded conventional forces into a state-of-the-art military.

"It's going to be a modern and fairly sophisticated military," Barbero said.

Part of the planned purchase includes M-1 tanks, the main battle tank for the U.S. military. Iraq wants to buy 140 of the tanks, and Iraqi crews have already started training on them.

Iraqi forces saw firsthand the effectiveness of America's M-1 tank during the Persian Gulf War in 1991, when the U.S. Army obliterated the slower and less sophisticated Iraqi tanks.

Iraq's conventional weaponry came largely from the Soviet Union and was ravaged by Saddam Hussein's war with Iran in the 1980s and the Gulf War led by the United States. The Iraqi air force was practically wiped out in the wars. Later, United Nations sanctions after the Gulf War prevented Saddam from maintaining his military.

In addition to the $13 billion purchase, the Iraqis have requested 18 F-16 Falcon fighter jets as part of a $3 billion program that also includes aircraft training and maintenance. If approved by Congress, the first aircraft could arrive in spring 2013. Under the plan, the first 10 pilots would be trained in the U.S.

Recent success in battling the Islamist insurgency has allowed Iraq to shift from a lightly equipped counterinsurgency force to a conventional force capable of securing its borders and repelling threats, Barbero said.

"They're at a point now where they're starting to make changes to focus on these conventional capabilities that they need," he said.

[buglerbilly]

US Forces Still in Fight in Iraq

September 02, 2010

Associated Press

HAWIJA, Iraq -- Even as President Obama was announcing the end of combat in Iraq, American Soldiers were sealing off a northern village early Wednesday as their Iraqi partners raided houses and arrested dozens of suspected insurgents.

While the Obama administration has dramatically reduced the number of troops and rebranded the mission, the operation in Hawija was a reminder that U.S. forces are still engaged in hunting down and killing al-Qaida militants -- and could still have to defend themselves against attacks.

That reality was front and center at a change-of-command ceremony in one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces outside Baghdad that the American military now uses as its headquarters. Officials warned of a tough road ahead as the U.S. moves into the final phase of the 7 1/2-year war.

Of paramount concern is Iraqi leaders' continued bickering, six months after parliamentary elections, over forming a new government -- a political impasse that could further endanger stability and fuel a diminished but still dangerous insurgency.

"Iraq still faces a hostile enemy who is determined to hinder progress," Gen. Lloyd Austin, the newly installed commander of the just under 50,000 U.S. troops still in Iraq, told the swelling crowd that was clad in military fatigues and political suits. "Make no mistake, our military forces here and those of the Iraqi nation remain committed to ensuring that our friends in Iraq succeed."

Vice President Joe Biden presided over the gathering at al-Faw palace, Saddam's gaudy former hunting lodge replete with fake marble walls and a huge chandelier made of recycled plastic.

The remaining U.S. forces in Iraq would be "as combat ready, if need be, as any in our military," Biden said, flanked by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen for the 75-minute ceremony, which also changed the U.S. mission's name from "Operation Iraqi Freedom" to "Operation New Dawn."

Three years ago, about 170,000 U.S. troops were in Iraq. Of those who remain, fewer than 10 percent -- or 4,500 -- are special forces who will regularly go on raids and capture terrorists, albeit alongside Iraqi troops.

Obama ordered the end of combat missions by Aug. 31 in a step toward a full withdrawal of American forces by the end of next year that was mandated in a U.S.-Iraqi security agreement.

Violence also has declined dramatically since early 2007, when the Pentagon poured tens of thousands more troops into Iraq over a matter of months to quell a Sunni insurgency that had lured the country to the brink of civil war. Additionally, a Sunni revolt against al-Qaida in Iraq and a Shiite militia cease-fire have helped tamp down attacks, although bombings and shootings across Iraq continue on a near-daily basis.

But Iraqi forces are heavily dependent on U.S. firepower, along with helicopters, spy data and other key tools for combating terrorists that they won't be able to supply on their own for years to come.

"Every Soldier I have knows that fighting is not over because there are groups here that still want to hurt us," Maj. Gen. Tony Cucolo, commander of U.S. troops in Iraq's volatile north, told The Associated Press recently. "But clearly combat operations is not in our mission statement."

In Hawija, once a hub for Sunni militants and Saddam's disaffected allies located 150 miles north of Baghdad, roughly 80 U.S. Soldiers teamed up with more than 1,000 Iraqis to arrest about 60 terror suspects in the early morning raid Wednesday.

From checkpoints and command centers to helicopters hovering overhead, the Americans were on hand at the request of Iraqi police. But it was the Iraqis who went into houses and arrested suspected insurgents -- including two considered high-value targets -- while the U.S. watched the operation from afar.

Hours before the raids, Lt. Col. Andy Ulrich gave his Soldiers a pep talk to counter concerns they weren't on a worthwhile mission.

"You all are combat troops not doing a combat mission, although it looks smells and feels and hurts a lot like combat," Ulrich said.

"Don't worry about what the politicians are saying because we have a mission," he added. "The bad part is, we can't go kicking the doors ourselves and get these guys. We've got to kind of convince Iraqis to do it, but the good part is, they're kind of willing to do it."

Iraqi forces across Baghdad appeared to be on heightened alert, aiming to reassure the populace and ward off insurgent attacks to coincide with the change in command.

Intelligence officials had warned al-Qaida in Iraq might use the U.S. military's shifting mission to launch suicide bombings around the capital in the days leading up to Wednesday's ceremony. However, the day was relatively quiet, except for a roadside bomb in eastern Baghdad that police said killed one person.

At the Baghdad ceremony, Gen. Ray Odierno, the outgoing commander, formally ended his nearly five-year tour in Iraq on a reflective note.

"This period in Iraq's history will probably be remembered for sacrifice, resilience and change," Odierno said. "However, I remember it as a time in which the Iraqi people stood up against tyranny, terrorism and extremism, and decided to determine their own destiny as a people and as a democratic state."

Then, wistfully using his military call sign one last time, Odierno ended his remarks: "Lion 6 -- out."

Obama ordered the refocusing of the U.S. mission last year to fulfill a campaign promise of ending what he once termed "a dumb war" and one that Gates acknowledged Wednesday was launched without justification. In an address Tuesday night Obama announced the end of American combat, but made clear that this was no victory celebration.

"Of course, violence will not end with our combat mission," the president said.

Defining the front lines in a war where Soldiers who are attacked while delivering supplies could just as easily return fire as Marines while on a raid to round up suspected insurgents has never been easy. Some of the key ongoing threats to the safety of American forces are the same as they've always been: rockets, mortars and roadside bombs.

U.S. military officials have said Iranian-backed militias are stepping up their attacks against targets in Baghdad, trying to make it look like they're driving out the Americans. Since arriving in Iraq, the battalion taking part in the Hawija raids has been hit by rocket and grenade attacks on their patrols and on their base almost every other day.

In the western Iraqi city of Ramadi before the ceremony, Gates told reporters the U.S. would consider keeping some military forces in place past next year, if the Iraqi government requests it.

Asked whether the U.S. was still at war in Iraq, Gates answered succinctly, "I would say we are not."

He was less definitive about whether the 7 1/2-year war was worthwhile. More than 4,400 American troops and an estimated 100,000 Iraqis have been killed since the 2003 invasion, and billions of dollars have been poured into the war effort.

Claiming that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction, then-President George W. Bush ordered the invasion with approval of a Congress still reeling from the 9/11 attacks. Bush's claims were based on faulty intelligence, and the weapons were never found.

"The problem with this war, I think, for many Americans, is that the premise on which we justified going to war turned out not to be valid," Gates said. "Even if the outcome is a good one from the standpoint of the United States, it'll always be clouded by how it began."

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

Despite Combat End, US Joins Baghdad Battle

September 06, 2010

Associated Press



BAGHDAD -- Days after the U.S. officially ended combat operations and touted Iraq's ability to defend itself, American troops found themselves battling heavily armed militants assaulting an Iraqi military headquarters in the center of Baghdad. The fighting killed 12 people and wounded dozens.

It was the first exchange of fire involving U.S. troops in Baghdad since the Aug. 31 deadline for formally ending the combat mission, and it showed that American troops remaining in the country are still being drawn into the fighting.

The attack Sunday also made plain the kind of lapses in security that have left Iraqis wary of the U.S. drawdown and distrustful of the ability of Iraqi forces now taking up ultimate responsibility for protecting the country.

Sunday's hour-long assault was the second in as many weeks on the facility, the headquarters for the Iraqi Army's 11th Division, pointing to the failure of Iraqi forces to plug even the most obvious holes in their security.

Two of the four attackers even managed to fight their way inside the compound and were killed only after running out of ammunition and detonating explosives belts they were wearing.

The American troops who joined the fight and provided cover fire for Iraqi soldiers pursuing the attackers were based at the compound to train Iraqi forces, said U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Eric Bloom. Iraqi forces also requested help from U.S. helicopters, drones and explosives experts, he said. No American troops were hurt, Bloom said.

Under an agreement between the two countries, Iraq can still call on American forces to assist in combat and U.S. troops can defend themselves if attacked.

In Sunday's assault, six militants wearing explosives vests and matching track suits and armed with machine guns and hand grenades pulled up at a checkpoint with an explosives-laden car, said a senior Iraqi military intelligence official who was inside the building at the time.

The six assailants left the car and started shooting, killing a soldier at the checkpoint, he said. Guards at an observation tower returned fire, killing four militants, while two entered a building in the military compound.

Iraqi soldiers shot and killed a seventh attacker who was driving the vehicle, causing the car bomb to explode, the official said. The blast left behind a gaping crater in the ground.

The fighting came to an end after the two assailants who breached the compound ran out of bullets and detonated their explosive vests, the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.

Two weeks earlier, an al-Qaida-linked suicide bomber waded into a crowd of hundreds of army recruits outside the building and detonated a blast that killed 61 people. That was the deadliest act of violence in Baghdad in months.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Sunday's attack.

Baghdad has been on high alert since President Barack Obama declared the official end to U.S. combat operations on Wednesday, setting up more checkpoints, intensifying searches of people and vehicles and handing out more guns and bullets to troops guarding the capital.

The number of U.S. troops has fallen from a high of 170,000 to just under 50,000 this August; all U.S. troops must be out of Iraq by 2012.

The remaining American Soldiers have a non-combat role and mostly assist Iraqis in stabilizing the country. However, U.S. forces can still help Iraqi forces hunt down al-Qaida and other militants and can defend themselves or their bases against attacks.

Insurgents have intensified their strikes on Iraqi police and soldiers to mark the change in the U.S. mission.

Iraq's political instability now appears to be threatening the country's security. Six months after an inconclusive election, Iraq still has no new government. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, is struggling to keep his job after his political coalition came in a close second to a Sunni-backed alliance in the March 7 vote.

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

Al-Qaida in Iraq Turns to Extortion

September 07, 2010

Agence France-Presse

Al-Qaida has increasingly turned to extortion and organized crime to fund its activities, with businesses bearing the brunt of intimidation, U.S. and Iraqi commanders in northern Iraq told AFP.

While the number of attacks in Mosul and the surrounding province of Nineveh has dropped and the smuggling of weapons across Iraq's western border with Syria has declined, threats and coercion targeting locals remain commonplace.

"Everyone pays, and no one objects or delays because their vehicles will be seized and their shops closed, until they pay up," said Abdullah Ahmed Ali, who owns a market stall in the Prophet Younis neighbourhood of central Mosul.

Trucks carrying food from Syria or Baghdad are levied a $200 charge, while smaller vehicles incur a $100 fee. Outright refusal is not an option, the 44-year-old Ali said.

"Those who refuse to pay," he added, "end up like Abu Mohammed" a fellow shopkeeper who, according to Ali, reputedly declined to hand over money to the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), al-Qaida's front group.

Abu Mohammed was shot dead, and his son was injured, six months ago.

Tales of similar intimidation abound in Mosul -- which translates loosely as "the junction" in Arabic, and for centuries has been a Middle East trading hub.

The city, however, is now better known as a center for the smuggling of illicit goods from Syria -- mostly innocuous items such as cigarettes, but also occasionally weapons.

Capt. Keith Benoit, U.S. commander of the 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment's Apache Troop, which jointly patrols much of western Nineveh with Iraqi army and Kurdish Peshmerga soldiers, compared organized crime there to a well-known scene in the 1972 film "The Godfather."

"It's like the horse's head in the bed," Benoit said, while on a joint patrol of the village of Ayn-Zalah north of Mosul. "They'll threaten you -- 'cooperate with us, or we'll kill you.' "

Iraqi police also confirmed the ISI's use of extortion tactics.

"They either get taxes from people by force, or they get help from [people in other] countries to fund their attacks," said Col. Hamid Abdullah, who works in a combined U.S.-Iraqi-Kurdish military center on Contingency Operating Site Marez, a U.S. Army base on Mosul's outskirts.

According to U.S. figures, attacks are sharply down in Nineveh -- 24 roadside bombs were reported from February to April, but just six were counted in the subsequent three months.

Violence in Mosul has also dropped in the longer term, according to figures from Iraq Body Count -- a British non-governmental organization -- though the city remains on IBC's reckoning much more violent than Baghdad and the rest of Iraq on a per capita basis.

Mosul saw its lowest death toll last year since 2006, which is as far back as the IBC data goes, and the first six months of this year saw 20 percent fewer fatalities than the same half-year period in 2009.

"They are mutating into a completely criminal, monetarily driven organization with very, very loose ideological drive and purpose," said Col. Charles Sexton, commander of the U.S. Army's 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, on COS Marez.

"Their primary focus is to gain money for their leadership and their underlings, and what we're seeing is people attempting to better themselves economically as opposed to any kind of ideological, religious bend."

During a July 27 patrol of west Mosul's Maaj market, traders complained of extortion to the commander of Iraq's 3rd Federal Police Division, Staff Maj. Gen. Mohammed Latif, according to U.S. Lt. Col. Dan Reid.

"General Mohammed pulled all the shop owners out [and told them] ... 'Call me directly if anybody tries to extort money from you because the money that is being extorted is going either towards organized crime or towards terrorist activities,' " Reid said.

"The results of that have been a few phone calls from these guys, a little bit more information, but no big catches or anything like that, yet."

Reid, who leads a team of U.S. military advisers, said cooperation and the sharing of intelligence among the city's various security forces remains poor, hampering wider efforts to quell crime.

"Nobody trusts anybody here," he said. "If you're not wearing the same uniform as me, then you're not trustworthy, is kind of the thought process."

Mistrust also exists between traders and the security forces.

Ameen Jameel Ahmed, who operates a neighborhood generator in Mosul, said he had to pay $50 a month to insurgents claiming to be from ISI.

He has no option but to do so.

"Local officials know very well what is going on," the 37-year-old said. "If there was a strong security force with good intelligence, they would be able to arrest them. No one refuses. Everyone pays."

[I]© Copyright 2010 Agence France-Presse. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

Military Logic MIA in Iraq Troop Levels

By Spencer Ackerman September 7, 2010 | 12:01 am



Scenario One: Iraqi stability unravels over the next year, overwhelming the government’s 600,000 soldiers and cops. Scenario Two: Iraqi stability maintains its not-great-but-not-awful levels, and those soldiers and cops continue to need logistical and support aid. Does keeping 50,000 U.S. troops in Iraq make sense in either scenario?

In the first case, 50,000 soldiers — troops that mostly stay on their bases — aren’t going to be enough to beat back a revived insurgency. In the second, 50,000 troops seems like way too many for a training mission. That’s why strategists are having a hard time finding the military logic behind a force that’s simultaneously too large and too small.

It’s not clear how rapidly the U.S. will pull those troops out of Iraq ahead of the full December 2011 withdrawal. But for the time being, “in terms of a purely train-and-advise [mission] for a military that’s got its feet on ground, it does seem to be a whole lot,” says Steven Metz of the U.S. Army War College.

Adds retired Major General Paul Eaton, who served in Iraq during the war’s early years, “50,000 is a nice round number, and it’s attractive to [use] 50,000 simply for that reason.” Surprise, surprise: the U.S.’ continued involvement in Middle Eastern politics does more to explain the current force size than military necessity.


An undisclosed number of Special Operations Forces are staying in Iraq to hunt terrorists. But for the most part, seven Army brigades comprise the U.S.’s remaining force in Iraq: the First, Second, Third and Fourth Brigades of the 3rd Infantry Division; the First Brigade, 1st Armored Division; the Second Brigade, 25th Infantry Division; and the Fourth Brigade, 4th Infantry Division. They’ve been re-purposed into a new and unfamiliar formation called “Advisory and Assistance Brigades.”

What’s that mean for their ability to engage in combat if things start going badly? Colonel Thomas Collins, an Army spokesman, says we should consider about two-thirds of the troops to be trigger-pullers, with the rest serving as headquarters staff, logistics and other functions. (Though everyone in uniform carries a weapon, of course.)

That’s a high proportion of shooters. Usually, notes the Council on Foreign Relations’ Steve Biddle, a brigade deployed to a war zone consists of about half combat troops and half support troops. And it’s especially surprising since the troops aren’t supposed to be engaging in combat, after all. But the figure highlights what Biddle calls the “tremendous amount of ambiguity in these missions.”

An example: for years, training the Iraqi security forces involved bringing them along on U.S. combat operations. But as the Iraqis gotten better, training is less intense. U.S. trainers now focus largely on helping the Iraqis master their logistics, maintain their equipment and bolster their intelligence capabilities. “In terms of actual combat units — shooters — the need for American trainers and advisers is minimal,” Metz assesses.

According to Collins, the number of troops ready to prevent Iraq from unraveling is closer to 33,000. But even if the unraveling occurs, expect that force to take a back seat to the Iraqi soldiers and police, who have been protecting Iraq’s cities since last June. U.S. troops are “not going back to leading a counterinsurgency again,” Metz assesses. Nor is there any appetite in the Obama administration for re-surging troops to Iraq, as a top White House adviser indicated to Danger Room on Tuesday — something that would probably be necessary if the Iraqis are overwhelmed by a revived insurgency. If it took 150,000 troops years to tamp down the insurgency, 33,000 troops — a figure on its way down to zero — don’t stand much of a chance.

“To be perfectly honest,” Biddle says, “I think the most important function the troops are serving is more psychological than technically, concretely military.”

That is, they’re there in that number as a political reassurance to Iraqi Sunnis and Kurds that the Shiite majority isn’t going to go all Saddam Hussein on them. Even if the U.S. isn’t visible on the streets of Iraqi cities anymore, their nearby presence helps steady Iraq’s shaky post-civil war political balance. It’s like the NATO peacekeeping role in the Balkans, Biddle contends, allowing “the parties to become accustomed to living together without having their minds focused on the moment of [U.S.] withdrawal.” (That’s why Biddle says he’s increasingly worried about the full U.S. pullout next year.)

Peter Mansoor, a former brigade commander in Iraq who served as General Petraeus’s executive officer during the troop surge, agrees that peacekeeping is the real mission of the residual force, even if the Obama administration and the generals don’t put it that way. “The most important, albeit unstated, function of the U.S. forces remaining behind is not to advise and train security forces, but to serve as honest brokers to keep the peace between the various Iraqi sects and factions,” says Mansoor, who now teaches military history at the Ohio State University. “The number of troops currently in Iraq is adequate for this purpose.”

Metz adds another point. Those 50,000 troops are a check on additional regional meddling in Iraq. The Iraqi military is built around light and mobile forces that can provide internal defense against insurgents. It doesn’t have a large armored corps or a mature air force that can deter an invasion, especially from traditional rival (turned quasi-sponsor) Iran.

For the next year-plus, U.S. troops are a “tripwire, as much of a symbol of commitment as anything,” Metz says. “We do not have the numbers there to actually fight off an invasion, but it’s enough that the U.S. is committed” to deter one.

For the last seven years, at every stage of the Iraq war, troop levels looked woefully insufficient to some military analysts and provocatively large to others. Who would have thought that both critiques would apply simultaneously as the war enters its terminal phase?

Credit: Nathan Hodge

Read More http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/09/military-logic-mia-in-iraq-troop-levels/#more-30216#ixzz0yr2t2uXT

[buglerbilly]

Iraqi Soldier Fires on US Troops, Kills 2

September 08, 2010

Associated Press



BAGHDAD -- An Iraqi soldier fired a barrage of bullets at American troops protecting one of their commanders during a visit to an Iraqi army base Tuesday and killed two of them, the first U.S. servicemen to die since President Obama declared an end to combat operations in the country last week.

Even after the U.S. dramatically reduced the number of troops and rebranded its mission in Iraq, the attack was a reminder that Americans still have to defend themselves in a dangerous country where Iraqi forces have only a tenuous hold on security. Nine Americans were wounded in Tuesday's shooting.

The attack also showed that even inside the bases of U.S.-trained Iraqi forces, American Soldiers can still face danger. Just on Sunday, Americans training Iraqi forces at a military headquarters in the heart of Baghdad had to help fight off a squad of suicide attackers, two of whom managed to breach the compound in an hour-long battle. U.S. helicopters and drones joined the fight, but no American personnel were hurt in that assault.

The Americans attacked on Tuesday were providing security for a commander attending a meeting with Iraqi military personnel at a base near the city of Tuz Khormato, about 130 miles (210 kilometers) north of Baghdad.

The assailant opened fire after an argument and was killed in the shootout that followed, said the city's police chief, Col. Hussein Rashid. He did not provide details on the nature of the argument.

"This is a tragic and cowardly act and is certainly not reflective of the Iraqi security forces," said Maj. Gen. Tony Cucolo, the American commander in charge of U.S. forces in northern Iraq.

Cucolo stressed during the Sept. 1 ceremony marking the formal change in the American mission that his Soldiers know the fight is not over. "There are groups here that still want to hurt us," he said last week.

The U.S. military is investigating Tuesday's shooting, and the names of the slain Soldiers were being withheld until their families were notified.

At least 4,418 U.S. military personnel have been killed in Iraq since the war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

The American military has reduced its footprint in the country from a one-time high of 170,000 troops to just under 50,000 as of Aug. 31. American troops pulled out of Iraqi cities in the summer of 2009, and soon after U.S. casualties fell significantly.

Under an agreement between Iraq and the United States, all American forces are to leave the country by the end of next year.

The U.S. troops remaining in Iraq until then are tasked with training Iraqi security forces, providing security for some State Department missions and assisting the Iraqi forces in hunting down insurgent groups. But they can be drawn into combat missions if Iraqi forces request their help.

There are also just under 5,000 Special Forces troops who assist in training and will team up with Iraqi troops on counterterror raids.

U.S. troops in Iraq still carry weapons and are able to defend themselves and their bases. They are also still hit by roadside bombs and mortar and rocket fire on a near daily basis.

U.S. military officials have said Iranian-backed militias are stepping up their attacks against targets in Baghdad in an attempt to make it look like they are driving the Americans out.

While the focus is supposed to be on training, Vice President Joe Biden vowed last week during a trip to Baghdad that the remaining American troops are "as combat ready, if need be, as any in our military."

In Tuesday's attack, however, the danger came from within, when U.S. troops were surrounded by the men they are supposed to be training to take over security for the country.

U.S. troops often work very closely with Iraqi forces, sometimes living and working on the same small bases to improve relations, facilitate training and foster trust between both sides.

That was the case at the Baghdad military headquarters attacked on Sunday by six assailants wearing explosives vests and armed with rifles and grenades.

In a statement posted on a militant website, an al-Qaida front group known as the Islamic State of Iraq claimed responsibility for the attack on the headquarters of the Iraqi Army's 11th Division.

It was the second assault on the complex in less than a month and revealed the punishing gaps that remain in Iraqi security at even the most obvious insurgent targets.

© Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

[buglerbilly]

America in Iraq: Power, Hubris, Change


US Army soldier provides overwatch security during a patrol in Mosul, Iraq.

07:34 GMT, September 8, 2010 The zealous attitudes and fevered misjudgments that drove United States policy towards Iraq in 2003 could yet have a second life over Iran, Paul Rogers writes for openDemocracy.

The announced end of the United States combat-troop presence in Iraq on 31 August 2010 marks an important moment in the story of Washington’s involvement in the country since the armed overthrow of the Saddam Hussein regime in early April 2003. It also highlights the profound mismatch between the expectations of the George W Bush administration that led the invasion and Iraqi realities, then and now.

The core conviction of the war’s architects was that Iraq’s path to becoming a pro-western free-market state would be both easy and rapid. In this respect the claim still made by some analysts that planning for the post-war period was minimal is wrong; in fact, the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) and its head Paul Bremer had very clear plans for Iraq - the problem was that they were driven by hubris and impossible to implement.

The CPA explicitly intended to impose on Iraq a radical economic model whose pillars were the complete privatisation of state assets, unregulated financial markets, and a flat-rate tax system. The result would be to transform Iraq along pure free-market lines - in a way that was unfeasible in the United States (because of resistance by trade unions and other annoying civil-society institutions) but which the crushing of the Iraqi state and society would make possible.

A pivotal month

The refusal of complex Iraqi realities to conform to hardline United States ideological certainties became apparent almost immediately, with the development in mid-2003 of an insurgency that was to embroil the US and other coalition forces in a bitter and intractable war. In many ways the events of August 2003 - as discussed in a column in this series published exactly seven years ago - marked the turning-point.

In July 2003, the CPA was still confident that - considerable violence notwithstanding - the old regime was gradually losing any remaining influence. The killing of Saddam’s sons, Uday and Qusay Hussein, on 22 July reinforced this sense of momentum. August proved otherwise.

A number of serious incidents were especially significant in these weeks. The bombing of Jordan's diplomatic compound on 7 August led some states to begin to distance themselves from US policy and leadership. The truck-bomb attack twelve days later on the provisional United Nations headquarters, which killed the special envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello and twenty-one other officials and visitors, persuaded several agencies (the UN, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and numerous NGOs) to withdraw most of their staff. Then, on 29 August, a massive car-bomb in Najaf killed the leading Shi’a cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Baqr al-Hakim and over 100 others; and Baghdad’s police headquarters was also attacked.

During this period too, the number of American military casualties was steadily rising. The George W Bush administration sought to minimise the media impact, but details of the almost-nightly flights of dead and injured soldiers back to the United States gradually emerged. The steady arrival of C-17 transport-aircraft at Andrews air-force base near Washington DC meant that a sports-hall and a community-centre were taken over to serve as medical-reception centres. By late September 2003, six months after the war began, over 1,300 soldiers and marines had been airlifted home with serious injuries; another 4,500 were returned on account of physical or mental illness.

A triple failure

Indeed, the military response of United States forces to their own casualty-rate proved to be the first of three factors which had a major effect on the evolution of the war in Iraq. The very technological improvements surrounding the soldiers - better body-armour, battlefield medicine and rapid evacuation - meant that hundreds of troops were surviving who would earlier have died - but often with grievous injuries to face, throat and groin, and loss of limbs. The young soldiers and marines who remained on the ground faced intense urban warfare against determined insurgents, a form of combat for which they were scarcely trained. They responded with their only major combat advantage: vastly superior firepower.

This on occasion included punitive reprisal raids, such as the Fallujah attack of April 2004; but more commonly it involved calling in artillery-support or airpower to destroy buildings, a tactic that frequently led to civilians being killed. The losses the American military were taking and the soldiers’ deep frustration at their predicament help to explain the response; but the impact was undoubtedly to alienate Iraqis even more and to aid the insurgents.

The second factor which shaped the course of the war from this time was the US’s failure to persuade significant allies to aid the military effort. In July 2003, the signs of an escalating war led the Bush administration urgently to seek major new military partners. Turkey had already proved immovable. India, also with a large professional army, was another obvious candidate; the then prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was also supportive of the American position.

It proved to be a lost cause. Washington wanted a reinforced Indian army division of 17,000 troops to assume security for the Kurdish area of northeast Iraq, thus freeing US troops to focus on the war-torn centre of the country. But Indian public opinion was vehemently opposed to the Bush administration in general and the Iraq war in particular, such that Vajpayee and his centre-right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - facing important state elections in December 2003 and a general election in spring 2004 - would have committed political suicide by acceding to the request. As a result, the US had to increase its own troop-deployments and the multinational coalition slowly became even more an American-dominated endeavour.

The third factor entered here, as the US military turned to a close ally with the right kind of experience for the conflict it was embroiled in: Israel. In late 2003 and the early months of 2004, American and Israeli military strategists forged even deeper links in which the former absorbed the lessons of Israel’s suppression of successive Palestinian uprisings.

These connections - covering equipment, training and tactics - were little reported in the west (beyond the specialist military media); but they were well known across the middle east. They provided fuel to the potent evolving narrative (embraced by the Iraqi insurgents and the wider al-Qaida movement alike) of a Christian-Zionist military conspiracy to control the heartland of the Arab-Islamic world.

A common element in each of these three areas - US firepower against Iraqi civilians, Turkey and India, and Israel - is that the George W Bush administration failed utterly to recognise the consequences of its actions. It was not acknowledged that Washington’s links with Israel had a profound impact across the region - a factor which underlines the importance of such a recognition by senior US military personnel; the importance of the Turkish and Indian refusals was not registered; and the use of massive firepower and the resulting civilian deaths were not understood for what they were - gifts to the insurgent enemy that could more easily portray the Americans as not liberators but occupiers.

A new target

Seven years on, these disastrous misjudgments of what was then still referred to as the “post-war” period (in fact the early stage of a much longer war) remain relevant in the Barack Obama era.

True, the new president has kept to the declared timetable of withdrawal, whereby the departure of the last combat-troops by 31 August 2010 leaves just 50,000 still based in Iraq; they too will leave by the end of 2011, even if many will be replaced by heavily-armed private contractors. And the mindset of Obama’s administration is very far from that of the dogmatic ideologues who believed in Iraq’s magical transformation along free-market lines, in a way that would reverberate across the region.

But if the personnel have changed, neo-conservative ideas are still entrenched in influential parts of the United States’s political spectrum. The absolutist and zealous instincts evident in the Tea Party movement and in Glenn Beck’s Washington rally on 28 August 2010 are reflected and recycled - and thus lent legitimacy - by many of the country’s leading power-structures, not least the media.

Even to the extent that Barack Obama represents change from his predecessor, two terms (and even more) of clear liberal administration will be needed to set United States politics - in domestic and foreign policy alike - on a new course. That political direction could indeed guarantee a long-term and profound shift in the direction of a better society at home and sustainable security abroad. If it fails, the near-certain result will be a renewed embrace of the ideology that drove Washington to seek to impose its will on Iraq in 2003 - this time with Iran as the target.

----
By Paul Rogers for openDemocracy.net

* Paul Rogers is professor of peace studies at Bradford University, northern England. He has been writing a weekly column on global security on openDemocracy since 26 September 2001.

[buglerbilly]

Government had no plan for Iraq war, Tim Collins says

Britain's Government and military leaders had ''absolutely no idea'' what to do in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq, according to Colonel Tim Collins, a prominent veteran of the 2003 war.

Published: 10:25AM BST 14 Sep 2010


Col Collins said the US military appeared better able to learn from mistakes in Iraq than the British. Photo: REUTERS

Col Collins, who became famous worldwide for his inspirational eve-of-battle address to his men in the Royal Irish Regiment, said the Chilcot Inquiry into the war should recommend action to end a culture of ''obsequiousness'' among senior military officers which led to them telling politicians what they wanted to hear.

He was speaking as the inquiry team visited the Army base in Tidworth, Wiltshire, to hear evidence from troops who served on the frontline in Iraq about the conditions they found there.

Asked if he had a clear understanding of the reasons for war as he prepared his troops for the invasion, Col Collins told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: ''Absolutely not. I don't think anybody had any idea why it was we were going to do this.''

Former prime minister Tony Blair and US president George Bush had given Saddam Hussein ''an offer he couldn't understand'' and even the Iraqi dictator probably did not know what he was required to do to avoid war, said Col Collins.

''I rather thought that there would be some sort of plan and the Government had thought this through and I was clearly wrong,'' he said.

''When I gave my now notorious talk to the Royal Irish, I was trying to rationalise for those young men what was going on from my standpoint. As it turned out, it had a wider appeal because nobody had any idea why this was happening.

''It became very apparent to me shortly after crossing the border that the Government and many of my superiors had no idea what they were doing.''

Col Collins said it was left to units like his at a local level to make plans for restoring order to Iraq, which he tried to do by forging links with local people who advised him on how to keep schools, shops and markets open.

''That was all done at a local level by the Irish brigade with no instruction whatsoever coming from above,'' he recalled.

''There was no preparation. They had absolutely no idea what to do. We turned up, took away a country's infrastructure and its law and order with absolutely nothing to put in its place.''

Looting on a ''biblical'' scale which took place shortly after the invasion was ''the fault of the coalition for not providing that help'', he said.

Asked what result he was hoping for from the Chilcot Inquiry, Col Collins said: ''I think it has to look at the way in which Government controls its armed forces and takes these decisions.

''And it has to look at the higher ranks of the Army and the armed services to weed out incompetence and obsequious behaviour, so people are giving sound advice to Government, not telling them what they want to hear, which is what they were doing.

''Anyone who lost anyone dead in that conflict should feel angry about that.''

Col Collins said the US military appeared better able to learn from mistakes in Iraq than the British.

And he was backed on this point by another veteran of the war, author Patrick Hennessey, who told Today: ''Chilcot has no remit to brand Tony Blair a war criminal, which is clearly what some people want, but what it can do is say we need to be better institutionally - the military and everybody - in learning from mistakes.''

[buglerbilly]

Seven civilians killed in US-Iraqi raid

Azhar Shalal

September 16, 2010 - 1:49AM

Seven civilians were among 18 people killed in Iraq on Wednesday, shot dead as US and Iraqi troops tried to nab a top Al-Qaeda leader in Fallujah, sparking public anger in the former rebel base.

Two Iraqi soldiers were also killed in the firefight west of Baghdad, while a roadside bomb in northern Iraq claimed the lives of nine other troops travelling home on leave.

The latest violence comes two weeks after Washington declared an official end to combat operations here, and with no new government having formed since elections in March.

The early morning shootout in Fallujah -- long a base for Sunni Arab rebels who waged attacks against US forces and the Iraqi government -- left nine people dead overall.

Major General Baha Hussein al-Karkhi, police chief for Anbar province, where Fallujah is located, said "a joint force from Baghdad was ordered to raid a terrorist's house in Jbeil (central Fallujah).

And Major Rob Phillips, a US Army press officer, said the raid had been conducted to catch a "senior AQI (Al-Qaeda in Iraq) leader." He could not say whether the individual targeted had been killed, captured or had escaped.

Karkhi said seven civilians were killed and four wounded, and that two Iraqi soldiers also died.

Others sources gave different tolls.

Phillips said six people were killed, while Fallujah police director Brigadier General Faisal al-Essawi and the city's media chief Mohammed Fathi put the death toll at eight civilians.

Essawi said of the eight killed were two women and two children, while the other four included a former colonel in the Iraqi army during the rule of now executed dictator Saddam Hussein.

The raid sparked public anger in Fallujah, with the municipal council labelling it a "provocation".

"This brutal operation is an act of provocation against the population of Fallujah and the city's security forces," said a statement issued by the council and read out by council member Ahmed al-Dulaimi.

It called for an investigation into the shootings, and declared three days of mourning.

A vehicle ban was imposed on Fallujah, and the area that was raided was cordoned off by security forces.

A US Army press officer, Major Bryan Woods, said an inquiry would be started into the shootings.

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of the main northern city of Mosul, nine Iraqi soldiers were killed when the minibus they were travelling in was struck by a roadside bomb. Another six were wounded, a police official said.

All were members of the Iraqi Third Division and were headed home on leave.

Mosul and surrounding Nineveh province remain among the most violent areas of Iraq, even as attacks in the rest of the country have dropped off after peaking in 2006 and 2007 during a brutal sectarian war.

US forces said combat operations in Iraq had concluded at the end of August but nearly 50,000 soldiers remain in the country with a mission to train Iraqi soldiers and police, and conduct joint counter-terror operations.

They are also allowed to fire in self-defence.

Since the September 1 declaration, US troops have shot at insurgents in Baghdad and restive Diyala province, north of the capital, and two American soldiers were killed by an Iraqi comrade after a row on an Iraqi base.

Violence appears to have risen again in recent months, with July and August recording two of the highest monthly death tolls since 2008, according to Iraqi government figures.

© 2010 AFP
This story is sourced direct from an overseas news agency as an additional service to readers. Spelling follows North American usage, along with foreign currency and measurement units.

[buglerbilly]

Iraq Has Deadliest Day Since US Drawdown

September 20, 2010

McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

BAGHDAD -- A string of bombings killed 37 people Sunday in Iraq's deadliest day since President Obama officially announced the end of the U.S. military's combat mission on Aug. 31.

Twin car bombs exploded within moments of each other around 11 a.m. in Baghdad -- one near a facility housing federal police, which killed 19 people, the other a few miles away at a busy intersection in the Mansour neighborhood, killing 10, Iraqi authorities said. More than 110 people were injured.

Hours later, a suicide bomber drove into an Iraqi army checkpoint in central Fallujah, a heavily guarded city 40 miles west of Baghdad. Three soldiers and three civilians were killed, and 14 others were injured.

In a separate incident, a bomb stuck to a minibus exploded on a highway near the Ghazaliyah section of Baghdad, killing a father and his son.

The bombings underscored the dangers still posed by insurgents as American troops cede control over security to Iraqi forces. The U.S. military has drawn down to fewer than 50,000 Soldiers who now serve in what officials describe as an advisory role, although they've continued to engage in military operations alongside Iraqi forces.

Although Iraqi military and police now man the country's ubiquitous checkpoints, they remain vulnerable to attack and have failed to win public confidence.

The attack in Fallujah was particularly brazen because Iraqi security forces guard all entrances to the city and bar nonresidents from entering. While no group immediately claimed responsibility, the attack might have been in response to last week's joint U.S.-Iraqi military raid on a suspected insurgent's residence, which left seven people dead, including a fifth-grade boy.

Insurgents also appear to be exploiting a power vacuum in Iraq as negotiations over forming a new government remain deadlocked six months after national elections.

The Iraqiyah political bloc led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, which won a narrow plurality of parliamentary seats in March, issued a statement expressing "deep concern at the deterioration of security in Iraqi cities" and denouncing the loss of life in the Fallujah raid.

Two mortar shells struck the U.S. Embassy inside the fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad but caused no injuries, according to Iraqi police. As a policy, the U.S. Embassy wouldn't confirm whether there'd been an attack.

© Copyright 2010 McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

[buglerbilly]

U.S. Air War Soars in ‘Post-Combat’ Iraq

By Noah Shachtman September 20, 2010 | 4:09 pm



Combat operations are officially over in Iraq. But don’t tell the U.S. Air Force, which is still flying tens of thousands of missions over Iraq.

American pilots have been continously operating in the Iraqi skies since the 1990 Gulf War. And they’re likely to fly there for years to come; while Iraqi ground troops have steadily taken a bigger and bigger role in the country’s security, its air force is still lagging far behind. As of this spring, the active fleet consisted of only 36 transport, 19 surveillance, and three attack planes. The Iraqi Air Force academy opened its doors just last week. “Let us be frank, we don’t have the combat or jet fighters or intercepting planes or air defense systems,” Iraqi Air Force commander Staff Lt. Gen. Anwer Hamad Amen Ahmed told the AP in April. “We are still far from an air force’s full potential. We will need the U.S. long after 2011.”

Through the first seven months of 2010, according to statisitics supplied by the U.S. Air Force, American pilots flew 4,620 “close air support” missions over ground troops in combat. The airmen only fired their weapons only 10 of those flights — compared to 1650 such sorties in 2007. But the number of surveillance flights has soared: with 6,200 sorties through July 31st, American planes could surpass 2007’s total by 40 percent or more. In addition, U.S. aircraft ferried 470,000 passengers, and hauled 52,700 tons of cargo.

While American air operations in Iraq show little sign of letting up, the U.S. air war over Afghanistan continues to escalate, military statistics indicate. Last month, U.S. pilots went on 3,200 “close air support” sorties over Afghanistan, about 30 percent more than August, 2009’s total. Those airmen dropped bombs or fired weapons on 500 different missions, a 25 percent increase from last year.

Photo: USAF

Read More http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/09/u-s-air-war-soars-in-post-combat-iraq/#more-31271#ixzz107OmxnA4

[buglerbilly]

Children of al-Qaeda in Iraq pay for sins of their fathers

By Leila Fadel
Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, September 21, 2010; 3:24 AM

IN BAQUBAH, IRAQ Zahraa is a rambunctious toddler. She still sucks on a pacifier, and her mother dresses her in pink. But according to the government, she does not exist.

The daughter of an al-Qaeda in Iraq militant who forced her mother into marriage and motherhood, then disappeared, Zahraa is one of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of children whose births amid the anarchy and insurgent violence of Iraq were never legally recorded.

Without the paperwork to prove that she is the child of an Iraqi man and that her parents were joined in a legitimate marriage before her birth, Zahraa and others like her have no rights as Iraqi citizens, legal experts say. They do not have birth certificates, passports or national identification cards and will be unable to go to school or hold a government job.

These children, a little-noticed legacy of more than seven years of war, are paying for the sins of their fathers.

"It's dangerous because in the future they might hurt the society that hurt them," said Ahmed Jassim, director of the Nour Foundation, a nongovernmental organization working to improve the lives of the militants' offspring in the northeastern Iraqi province of Diyala.

The children are products of a time when al-Qaeda in Iraq controlled large swaths of the nation after the U.S.-led invasion. The legal system broke down, institutions stopped functioning and an insurgency raged. Some Sunni Muslim communities gave sanctuary to the men, Iraqi and foreign Arabs, believing they would help rid them of a foreign army. But al-Qaeda in Iraq quickly grew brutal, overpowered other Iraqi insurgent groups, declared an Islamic state and enforced a severe form of Islamic law.

Communities slowly turned on the group, and the men of al-Qaeda in Iraq were jailed or killed, or are lurking in the shadows. The undocumented children they left behind are now between 1 and 4 years old.

Jassim has identified at least 125 families in Diyala province alone with children from forced al-Qaeda in Iraq marriages. Many of the women don't know the real identities of their absent husbands and fear that if they fight for the rights of their children, they and the men of their families will be scorned or jailed for a connection to the outlawed organization.

The country's political void has not helped. More than six months after the national parliamentary elections, a government has yet to be formed. Many of the women are Sunni Arabs and worry that a Shiite-led government would lack sympathy and consider them accomplices in the crimes of their missing husbands.

Officials in the Interior Ministry tasked with assisting victims of the Iraq war said the women are not considered victims of rape and, although the situation is unfortunate, there is nothing they can do.

"Helping them could encourage al-Qaeda in Iraq," said Fadhil al-Shweilli, a ministry official who deals with victims of war.

Legal experts said the easiest solution would be to give the children to orphanages or forge their birth certificates with the name of a fake father.

Naheda Zaid Manhal, a parliament member from the largely Sunni-backed Iraqiya coalition, said she will fight on behalf of the children once the government is formed.

"These children are guilty of nothing," she said.

This account of Zahraa's birth and life is based on interviews with her mother - who goes by Umm Zahraa - her grandmother and other relatives, but it could not be independently verified and they would not allow their full names to be used for fear of repercussions. In addition to their legal problems, mothers such as Umm Zahraa say they feel ostracized in a culture that sees out-of-wedlock births as taboo.

One night in summer 2008, six militants from al-Qaeda in Iraq burst into Umm Zahraa's home in Buhroz, just outside Baqubah. Shiite Arabs had already been forced out of the neighborhood or killed by al-Qaeda in Iraq during Iraq's civil war from 2005 through 2007. Residents were too scared to turn against al-Qaeda in Iraq, despite its waning influence in other areas of the country.

A man who identified himself only as Abu Zahraa - father of Zahraa - and the others told Umm Zahraa's brother he had three choices: join them, be killed or give them his mother, Umm Hassan, and his younger sister, then a striking 18-year-old with dark eyes.

The women relented and the marriages were performed by one of the armed men, though no marriage contract was signed. Abu Zahraa then forced the teenager to have sex, and for the next three months, he and the others would arrive late at night, the women said. They always left before sunrise. Umm Zahraa's husband never gave his real name, the family said. Umm Zahraa says she never saw the face of the man who stole her virginity.

"I hate him. He took the dearest thing in a woman's life," she said.

When she became pregnant, the young woman considered aborting the baby or killing herself. But she believes in God, she said, and Islam sanctions neither act. By the time she gave birth, the baby's father had been gone for months, having disappeared without a trace.

But she named her daughter Zahraa, in case he returned.

Now Umm Zahraa's family lives in Baqubah, the capital of Diyala province.

They told their new neighbors that the baby was an orphan they had taken into their home. But Umm Zahraa knows the neighbors whisper about her and wonder why Zahraa calls her "Mama.''

Umm Zahraa will not go to court to pursue the rights of her child, now 11/2 years old. She worries that people will fault her for the marriage and the child that resulted, she said.

The family can't afford the $100 to $300 for a forged birth certificate with a fake father's name. With her husband killed, Umm Hassan, Zahraa's grandmother, volunteers at a local hospital and lives off tips. When she gets tips, they eat, but when she doesn't, they don't. Around her is the evidence of a life in poverty: pink cracked walls, no furniture, a son in jail, accused of kidnapping. Despite her meager earnings, Umm Hassan hopes to save enough to bribe the midwife and buy Zahraa a forged birth certificate.

For now, Umm Zahraa does not leave the house. At 20, she bears the burden of someone much older, her face drawn with sadness. She is conflicted about her past, abused by the father of her child and guilt-ridden because she could not stop him.

Every day she searches her daughter's face and wonders whether the features come from the child's father. She wonders whether her daughter will ever have a chance here.

"No one will understand," Umm Zahraa said. "No one will say I'm a victim."

Special correspondents Jinan Hussein and Hassan Shimmari contributed to this report.

[buglerbilly]

Iraqi-U.S. Cost-Sharing: Iraq Has a Cumulative Budget Surplus, Offering the Potential for Further Cost-Sharing

GAO-10-304 September 13, 2010

Full Report (PDF, 78 pages)

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d10304.pdf

Obviously this is a cough-up more cash or else "warning" indirectly to Iraq..............

Summary
Since 2003, the United States has reported obligating $642 billion for U.S. military operations in Iraq and provided about $24 billion for training, equipment, and other services for Iraqi security forces. To assist Congress in overseeing efforts to encourage the Iraqi government to contribute more toward the cost of securing and stabilizing Iraq, this report provides information on (1) the amount and availability of Iraq's budget surplus or deficit, (2) the amount of Iraq's financial deposit balances, and (3) the extent to which Iraq has spent its financial resources on security costs. To conduct this audit, GAO analyzed Iraqi financial data, reviewed U.S. and Iraqi documents, and interviewed U.S. and Iraqi officials.

GAO analysis of Iraqi government data showed that Iraq generated an estimated cumulative budget surplus of $52.1 billion through the end of 2009. This estimate is consistent with the method that Iraq uses to calculate its fiscal position. Adjusting for $40.3 billion in estimated outstanding advances as of September 2009 reduces the amount of available surplus funds to $11.8 billion. In April 2010, a senior Ministry of Finance official stated that advances should be deducted from the budget surplus because they are committed for future expenditures or have been paid out. According to this official and Board of Supreme Audit reports on Iraq's financial statements, advances include funds for letters of credit, advance payments on domestic contracts, and other advances. However, Iraq's Board of Supreme Audit has raised concerns that weaknesses in accounting for advances could result in the misappropriation of government funds and inaccurate reporting of expenditures. Furthermore, the composition of some of these advances is unclear; about 40 percent of the outstanding advances through 2008 are defined as "other temporary advances." Under the terms of a February 2010 International Monetary Fund (IMF) arrangement, Iraq agreed to prepare a report on its outstanding advances, which will identify those advances that are recoverable and could be used for future spending, and set a time schedule for their recovery. This Iraqi report is to be completed by September 30, 2010. Another means of assessing Iraq's fiscal position is to examine its financial deposit balances. Iraqi government data and an independent audit report show that, through the end of 2009, Iraq had accumulated between $15.3 billion and $32.2 billion in financial deposit balances held at the Central Bank of Iraq, the Development Fund for Iraq in New York, and state-owned banks in Iraq. This range reflects a discrepancy between the amount of government-sector deposits reported by the Central Bank of Iraq to the IMF and the amount that the Ministry of Finance asserts is available for government spending. In November 2009, the Ministry of Finance reclassified $16.9 billion in state-owned banks as belonging to state-owned enterprises and trusts, leaving $15.3 billion of $32.2 billion available to the Iraqi government for other spending. The IMF is seeking clarification on the amount of financial deposits that is available for government spending. Under the terms of Iraq's 2010 arrangement with the IMF, the Ministry of Finance is required to complete a review of all central government accounts and return any idle balances received from the budget to the central Iraqi Treasury by March 31, 2010. As of August 2010, according to the IMF, this review was still under way. Iraqi government data show that Iraq's security ministries--the Ministries of Defense and Interior--increased their spending from 2005 through 2009 and set aside about $5.5 billion for purchases through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program. However, over this 5-year period, these ministries did not use between $2.5 billion and $5.2 billion of their budgeted funds that could have been used to address security needs. The administration is requesting $2 billion in additional U.S. funding in its fiscal year 2011 budget request to support the training and equipping of Iraq's military and police. GAO believes that Congress should consider Iraq's available financial resources when reviewing the administration's fiscal year 2011 budget request and any future funding requests for securing and stabilizing Iraq. Also, GAO recommends that the Departments of State and the Treasury work with the Iraqi government to further identify available resources.

Recommendations
Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Joseph A. Christoff
Team: Government Accountability Office: International Affairs and Trade
Phone: (202) 512-8979

Matters for Congressional Consideration

Recommendation: To ensure that Iraq continues to spend its own resources on security costs, Congress may wish to consider Iraq's available financial resources when reviewing (1) a fiscal year 2011 budget request and (2) potential future funding requests to support the Iraqi security forces.

Status: In process

Comments: When we determine what steps the Congress has taken, we will provide updated information.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Recommendations for Executive Action

Recommendation: The Departments of State and the Treasury should work with the Iraqi government to further identify Iraqi resources available for future spending. This should include assisting Iraq in completing two reviews required under Iraq's arrangement with the IMF. First, State and Treasury should assist Iraq in completing a review of its outstanding advances to determine whether some of these advances may be recoverable and available for future spending. Second, State and Treasury should help Iraq complete a review of its central government accounts so that it can return any idle balances to the central Iraqi Treasury.

Agency