Target Centermass

Category: War on Terror

  • U.S. Fears Iranian Influence in Iraqi Elections

    The Iranians, along with the Syrians, have been promoting and assisting the instability in Iraq, knowing the danger of a successful democracy next door. Now, it seems that Iran is also working on an insurance plan — pouring people and resources into Iraq to influence the elections they seem unable to stop.

    Kicking off his country’s first democratic election campaign Wednesday, Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi declared his own candidacy, saying the country can handle the challenge.

    But as Iraqis register to vote, the United States worries that the real winners could be the ayatollahs in neighboring Iran. U.S. intelligence sources tell NBC News that 1 million Iranians have already poured across the border to register to vote in Iraq. And Iran is spending as much as $100 million to elect its favored slate of candidates in Iraq — and may have thousands of spies in Iraq.

    “They’re putting money into Iraq,” says Danielle Pletka, an Iraq expert at the American Enterprise Institute. “They’re promoting candidates. They’re sponsoring terrorist groups that are pressuring people in Iraq. They’re doing everything they can.”

    And while Iraq’s defense minister warned Wednesday that both Iran and Syria are cooperating with Iraq’s No. 1 terrorist — Abu Musab al-Zarqawi — the United States has no proof of that.

    On Wednesday, President Bush, after a White House meeting with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, told Iran and Syria to stay out.

    “We will continue to make it clear to both Syria and Iran — as will other nations in our coalition, including our friend, the Italians, that meddling in the internal affairs of Iraq is not in their interest,” said the president.

    But, it is not clear what the United States can do.

    The United States says Iran is funding the leading Shiite candidate Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, who is expected to emerge as the country’s most powerful figure. A new Shiite government could oppose controversial military operations, like Fallujah, or even demand a rapid U.S. withdrawal.

    “I think we have to accept it might not be an outcome that we particularly desire, but if it’s a free and clear election, then that’s what our policy has been all about,” says Geoffrey Kemp, an Iranian expert at the Nixon Center.

    U.S. officials hope that Iraqi voters will resist Iran’s influence and remember that less than 20 years ago, Iran was their enemy in a brutal war.

    The rulers in Iran know they are sitting on a powderkeg next to an open flame. A sizable and restless portion of their country’s population stirs with a desire for democracy. The thought of a successful democracy taking root in neighboring Iraq without strong Iranian influence could only mean a growing threat of instability at home.

  • ‘Hitler Figure’ Could Rise from Iraq’s Instability

    Okay, wrapping up the flood of quick-hits for the night with this.

    The Iraqi president, Ghazi Yawar, yesterday warned that long-term instability in his country could give rise to an “Iraqi Hitler” if citizens continued to feel humiliated and despondent.

    Mr. Yawar also criticised the US-led coalition for dismantling Iraq’s security services too soon after the war and accused neighbouring states of doing nothing to stop the insurgency.

    Agreed, but it’s nice to see that this guy shares the trait of 20/20 hindsight with John Kerry, the former presidential candidate and occasional senator.

    The Iraqi president said bombings and kidnappings had plagued the country since last year’s invasion toppled Saddam Hussein, while the relentless Sunni-led insurgency had crippled reconstruction and development projects.

    “This could in the long term create an environment in which an Iraqi Hitler could emerge like the one created by the defeat of Germany and the humiliation of Germans in the First World War,” Mr Yawar said in an interview with the London-based newspaper Asharq al-Awsat.

    Perhaps we should round up any corporals who fought in the first Gulf War.

    Iraq’s interim leaders have come under fire for failing to reach out to some alienated factions and US-led offensives on rebel-held cities have led to further divisions.

    Mr Yawar — a Sunni Muslim who was chosen for the largely symbolic post of president in June — urged Iraq’s neighbours to break their “negative silence” about attacks in Iraq and play a positive role in helping stabilise the country.

    “When a fire breaks out in your neighbour’s house you should act quickly to put it out, not only for the sake of your neighbour but also so that you are not forced to put it out in your own home when it spreads there,” he said.

    Earlier this month, Iraq and its neighbours made vague promises to improve security co-operation after a meeting in which Iraqi officials voiced frustration that neighbouring states were not doing enough to halt the flow of people, arms and funds linked to guerrilla violence in Iraq.

    Agreed, the Syrians and Iranians cast a pall on the whole neighborhood. Not that anybody else has been much help, though. How much motivation does anybody in the region have for a free, democratic Iraq? Not much without a ton more pressure applied.

    Mr Yawar has said elections should go ahead on time on 30 January. But he told the BBC yesterday that he expected more violence aimed at derailing the polls. He said the security situation could not be solved unless Iraqi forces became efficient.

    Most parties representing Sunnis have called for the elections to be postponed for up to six months, saying a fair poll could not be held amidst the violence, most of which is affecting Sunni areas.

    Mr Yawar said some former army and police officers with clean records should be reinstated, adding that Washington had made a mistake when it dissolved the defence and interior ministries.

    I’m trying to be sarcastic, but this guy is making a lot of sense.

  • Captured: Saddam Hussein, One Year Later

    Anniversaries are meant to be cherished.

    One year ago today, the ace of spades in the infamous deck of 55 cards representing the most-wanted people in Iraq, was taken into custody. Saddam was found by American forces, hiding in a hole not far from where the former dictator was born.

    The world learned of the capture of the most wanted man in Iraq, when former American Administrator in Iraq Paul Bremer told a news conference in Baghdad, “Ladies and gentlemen, we got him.”

    Arab and Iraqi reporters attending the news conference, stood and cheered for several minutes.

    Iraqis began celebrating in the streets of the capital.

    Baghdad University college student Alia Hadi, remembers.

    The second-year college student says she was very glad to see Saddam Hussein on the television, looking confused from hiding in a hole. She says this was the last right of all Iraqis, to see their God punish him like he punished the Iraqis. She says he should be prosecuted and put to death.

    At about 8:30 at night, the once defiant 66-year-old former dictator was found hiding in a small hole, near a farmhouse about 15 kilometers south of his hometown, Tikrit.

    His arrest occurred as the result of information provided by former bodyguards and relatives of people close to the former Iraqi president.

    In his possession was $750,000 in cash, two AK-47 machine guns and a pistol . But, he gave up without a fight. One of the American commanders involved in the capture says Saddam Hussein was “caught like a rat.”

    With long hair and a long graying beard, Saddam Hussein looked confused and very tired. Within hours of his capture, a videotape was released, showing a doctor examining the former dictator, including an examination of his teeth. It was not an image most Iraqis ever expected to see.

    The general manager of Radio Dijla, a station that broadcasts the views and opinions of Iraqis, is Karim Yousef.

    Mr. Yousef says many Iraqis were saddened to see Saddam Hussein captured in this way. He says Saddam held the power of Iraq for 35 years and many people considered him to be a brave and powerful man. He says it was sad to see Saddam looking so confused, with his long hair and beard.

    Such images of the former dictator angered some Iraqis, who saw the video as an attempt to embarrass Saddam Hussein. However, Baghdad University political-science professor Abdel Jabbar Abdullah, says he believes the images of Saddam were broadcast in an attempt to send a message.

    “They deliberately show us this picture in order to send some message, not to the Iraqi people, to all Arab homelands to tell them this is the future of your ruler, unless you cooperate with the American strategy in this region,” he says.

    Pentagon officials said it was necessary to show proof to the Iraqi people that Saddam Hussein had been taken into custody, because many Iraqis were afraid the former dictator would, one day, return to power.

    Today, the former Iraqi leader sits in a jail cell in the Baghdad area. He is expected to go before an Iraqi war crimes tribunal some time in the coming year.

    Iraqi officials who have seen the former leader have say he remains unapologetic to the Iraqi people.

    But, according to potential future candidate for prime minister of Iraq, Nadim al-Jabbri, whether Saddam Hussein ever apologizes makes very little difference.

    Mr. al-Jabbri says he knew that God would create this destiny for Saddam Hussein because he killed so many Iraqis. He says God has always intended to punish Saddam, just as Saddam punished his own people.

    What is the traditional gift for former dictators on their one-year anniversary of captivity? Paper? A death certificate would’ve been nice.

  • U.S. Mounts Fresh Attack on Taliban

    Fresh off the successful election and swearing its first democratically-elected president, Afghanistan is now the site of a new effort to keep pressure on Taliban remnants.

    The US-led military coalition in Afghanistan has begun a big offensive against militants loyal to the ousted Taliban regime in an attempt to quash any attempt to disrupt parliamentary elections next spring.

    Operation Lightning Freedom, which involves the entire 18,000-strong force, is designed to target Taliban remnants during the snowy winter months, when militants traditionally lie low and prepare for a spring offensive, said Major Mark McCann, of the coalition, in Kabul.

    The coalition credited a similar operation, Lightning Resolve, which was launched in July last year, with preventing attacks during the October 9 presidential election.

    Col. David Lamm, chief of staff for US forces in Afghanistan, said the military would continue to squeeze the Taliban while offering moderates the option of turning themselves in under an amnesty.

    Kabul has been in talks with moderate Taliban leaders for more than a year but has yet to announce an official mechanism whereby low-level militants could come in from the cold.

    Zalmay Khalilzad, US ambassador to Kabul, said this month foot soldiers could lay down their arms without fear of capture or retribution from the military.

    Afghanistan is scheduled to form a new parliament through elections in April, though many local and foreign officials believe the vote will have to be put off because of the complexity of organising it, and because about 25,000 irregular militia have yet to be disarmed.

    Despite complaints during the U.S. election campaign, the Afghani theater has never been ignored by American forces, strategists and leaders.

    Such pressure kept the Taliban and their terrorist allies impotent in the election that brought the Afghans a president. Similar pressure in the winter months, when the allies are far more mobile, supplied and organized than the ousted Taliban, could very well again bring success to April’s parliamentary election in most or all of the country.

  • Marine ‘Hostage’ Faces Desertion Charges

    I refrained.

    And then I refrained again.

    Now this.

    A U.S. Marine who disappeared in Iraq and then showed up in a purported hostage video before later appearing as a free man in Lebanon, is being charged with desertion, Pentagon officials said Thursday.

    Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun will also be charged by the Marine Corps with larceny and wrongful disposition of military property in connection with his service-issued 9 mm handgun that disappeared with him and never turned up, officials said.

    ….

    If found guilty of desertion, he could receive a dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of pay and allowances, and five years’ confinement for each specification.

    Maximum punishment for each specification of larceny and for the wrongful disposition charge is a dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of pay and allowances and 10 years’ confinement.

    ….

    Military investigators re-opened the Hassoun case last month after several personal items — including his military ID and civilian passport — were found in Falluja, the city from which he disappeared in June.

    “The circumstances of his alleged capture and subsequent return to military control are still being investigated,” the Marines said in a statement.

    Hassoun reappeared July 7 in Lebanon, where he was born and has relatives.

    What happened to Hassoun is a mystery to military investigators.

    After the initial report that Hassoun was missing, military officials assumed he had walked away from camp. He was listed as a deserter.

    His status was changed to captured after the release of a videotape that showed him blindfolded with a sword suspended above his head. A few days later, a posting to three Islamist Web sites claimed Hassoun had been beheaded.

    Hassoun denied being a deserter and staging his own kidnapping.

    A Marine Corps official said representatives of the Naval Criminal Investigative Services did not interview Hassoun until after he completed his 30-day home leave, following his repatriation back to the United States. Its report was submitted to Hassoun’s command November 30.

    I will still refrain. Innocent until proven guilty, right? Let the processes of the UCMJ run their course, right?

    Yeah, I’ll refrain again. Just enough to say that, if this sonofabitch is found guilty, I want him punished to the abso-freaking-lute maximum.

  • The Terrorists are Coming!

    One if by land,
    two if by sea.

    Okay, substitute “bioterrorism” for “land” and it works, though not poetically.

  • More U.S. Soldiers Survive War Wounds

    Perhaps the most deserving and most unheralded story of the current war is the astonishing success of the military’s medical cadre.

    For every American soldier killed in Iraq, nine others have been wounded and survived — the highest rate of any war in U.S. history. It isn’t that their injuries were less serious, a new report says. In fact, some young soldiers and Marines have had faces, arms and legs blown off and are now returning home badly maimed.

    But they have survived thanks, in part, to armor-like vests and fast treatment from doctors on the move with surgical kits in backpacks.

    “This is unprecedented. People who lose not just one but two or three extremities are people who just have not survived in the past,” said Dr. Atul Gawande, a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston who researched military medicine and wrote about it in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine.

    ….

    By mid-November, 10,369 American troops had been wounded in battle in Afghanistan or Iraq, and 1,004 had died — a survival rate of roughly 90 percent. In the Vietnam War, one in four wounded died, virtually all of them before they could reach MASH units some distance from the fighting.

    Please go read this examination of the effects of advancements in both the protection of soldiers and the treatment of casualties. The story also highlights the courage, determination and skill of our medical personnel. I’ve never met a medic I didn’t like. Apparently, it’s a calling that summons a better, stronger person than I am.

    There is the other side of the story, though.

    “This war is producing unique injuries — less lethal but more traumatic,” he said.

    In one traumatic case, Gawande tells of an airman who lost both legs, his right hand and part of his face. “How he and others like him will be able to live and function remains an open question,” Gawande writes.

    We now face a new generation of injured combat veterans, many of whom would not have survived their wounds in times past. We, as a nation, must welcome and care for them. We must thank them and help them hold on to their humanity and rebuild their lives.

    We owe that to them. And to their caregivers.

  • U.S. GIs Hit Rumsfeld With Hard Questions

    In a time of war, this disgusts me on many levels.

    In a rare public airing of grievances, disgruntled soldiers complained to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Wednesday about long deployments and a lack of armored vehicles and other equipment.

    “You go to war with the Army you have,” Rumsfeld replied, “not the Army you might want or wish to have.”

    Spc. Thomas Wilson had asked the defense secretary, “Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles?” Shouts of approval and applause arose from the estimated 2,300 soldiers who had assembled to see Rumsfeld.

    Rumsfeld hesitated and asked Wilson to repeat his question.

    “We do not have proper armored vehicles to carry with us north,” Wilson, 31, of Nashville, Tenn., concluded after asking again.

    Wilson, an airplane mechanic whose unit, the 278th Regimental Combat Team of the Tennessee Army National Guard, is about to drive north into Iraq for a one-year tour of duty, put his finger on a problem that has bedeviled the Pentagon for more than a year. Rarely, though, is it put so bluntly in a public forum.

    First, media coverage of such an event should be better controlled, if not completely banned. I have no problem with top brass getting feedback from the lower echelons, but this should be an opportunity to exchange information, concerns and reassurances, not a chance to create political footballs. That was the fault of those in charge.

    The soldier’s question was out of line in a public forum. Grumbling and complaining are more than a soldier’s right — they’re practically an obligation. However, said grumbling and complaining is not to be done in a manner to cast an ill effect upon morale. Especially in a war zone. Rumsfeld’s response was correct — ya fight with what ya got. We fought in World War II with tanks tragically inferior to those of the Germans. Such shortcomings are made up for in other areas until they can be feasibly addressed. This improper questioning, this verbal poison, was the fault of the soldier. Why did it have to be a freakin’ Guardsman?!

    As to the “shouts of approval and applause,” I saw video of this and, while some shouting and clapping occurred, it was a very small percentage of those present. That this was presented in the manner above was an attempt to politicize and enhance the negativity of the story. That is the fault of the media.

    What is the actual armor situation?

    Rumsfeld said the Army was sparing no expense or effort to acquire as many Humvees and other vehicles with extra armor as it can. What is more, he said, armor is not the savior some think it is.

    “You can have all the armor in the world on a tank and a tank can (still) be blown up,” he said. The same applies to the much smaller Humvee utility vehicles that, without extra armor, are highly vulnerable to the insurgents’ weapon of choice in Iraq, the improvised explosive device that is a roadside threat to Army convoys and patrols.

    U.S. soldiers and Marines in Iraq are killed or maimed by roadside bombs almost daily. Adding armor protection to Humvees and other vehicles that normally are not used in direct combat has been a priority for the Army, but manufacturers have not been able to keep up with the demand.

    …

    At the Pentagon, spokesman Larry Di Rita said production of armored Humvees had increased from 15 to 450 a month since fall 2003, when commanders in Iraq started asking for them because of insurgents’ heavy use of roadside explosives.

    Overall, there are 19,000 armored Humvees in the Iraqi theater. Some were built with additional armor, others had it added on later. That’s, 2,000 short of what commanders are asking for, Di Rita acknowledged.

    Military policy is that troops driving into Iraq in Humvees drive only in armored ones, Di Rita said. Some $1.2 billion has been included in the defense budget to pay for armored vehicles, he said.

    Any other complaints, troops, while you have the SecDef and the cameras here?

    Wilson and others, however, had criticisms of their own — not of the war but of how it was being fought.

    During the question-and-answer session, another soldier complained that active-duty Army units seem to get priority over National Guard and Reserve units for the best equipment used in Iraq.

    “There’s no way I can prove it, but I am told the Army is breaking its neck to see that there is not” discrimination of that kind, Rumsfeld said.

    Shut up, do your job and quit embarrassing the Guard and Reserves. Regarding this and other such embarrassments, Stryker has created an entire Reservist category on his Digital Warfare site. As a former Guardsman, I don’t blame him one freaking iota.

  • AWOL Soldier Seeks Canadian Help

    An American is making headlines for deserting and begging our neighbor to the north for refuge.

    An American soldier who fought in Afghanistan two years ago but deserted and fled from the United States before he could be sent to Iraq has launched a long-shot bid for political refuge in Canada.

    Jeremy Hinzman, 26, has appeared before Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board, claiming he would face persecution if sent home to the US.

    Mr. Hinzman testified that while his comrades regarded him as a “soldier’s soldier”, he realised over time that he could not kill another human being.

    I wonder if the brave troops Hinzman left behind still consider him a “soldier’s soldier.” Actually, no, I don’t. I think his former comrades could come up with more colorful terms now.

    The South Dakota-born soldier of the 82nd Airborne Division is claiming refugee status based on his contention that he was right to refuse to fight in the war in Iraq, which he says is illegal and violated human rights.

    Mr Hinzman said he had requested conscientious objector status in the US in 2002.

    But his case failed and he was sent to Afghanistan, where he eventually made 18 combat parachute jumps.

    Late last year he learned he was to be deployed to Iraq, prompting him to flee to Canada early this year with his Laotian wife Nga Nguyen and two-year-old son, Liam.

    His case, and that of two other fugitive American soldiers, has stirred sympathy in Canada, which opposed the Iraq war.

    But it has also raised fears that a positive ruling could spark a flood of US deserters across the border, as the toll of the Iraq war and occupation deepens, having already cost more than 1000 US lives.

    The chances of Mr Hinzman getting refugee status are seen as slim. No such decision has ever been made in Canada.

    ….

    He testified that his growing awareness that killing was wrong was partly born from an interest in Buddhism and attendance at Quaker religious meetings.

    Outside, a knot of anti-war supporters, waved banners reading, “Let him stay.”

    Yes, please let him stay, Canada. We’ll keep the red, white and blue, and y’all can coddle our yellow.

    Should he remain in Canada as a deserter, Hinzman’s citizenship should be revoked if possible. If it can’t be, that’s a shame that I would love to see corrected. Should any such deserters elect to return, I would like to see Hinzman and his ilk given a choice: prison or finish service in one of the historical roles of conscientious objector, such as a medic or chaplain’s assistant. See, I have a heart, especially for Quaker Buddhists.

  • Afghanistan Swears in First Democratic Leader

    There is more than infamy to the date December 7. Today, history added a glorious achievement born from the war against Islamic terror.

    For 30 years coups, assassinations and invasions were the usual means of power transfer in Kabul. But yesterday Hamid Karzai broke with bloody tradition and assumed office with a simple formula of words.

    Laying a hand on the Qur’an, Afghanistan’s first democratic president swore his allegiance inside the former royal palace that was once the scene of thunderous gunbattles but has since been renovated to welcome 600 guests.

    “We have left a hard and dark past behind us, and today we are opening a new chapter in our history,” said the blue-blooded Pashtun leader, who has led his country since the US-led invasion in 2001.

    But the perils of power reverberated silently during the short, simple ceremony, which opened with a reading of Islamic verses and songs from a children’s choir.

    Beside Mr Karzai sat Zahir Shah, the king who went into exile in 1973 after being deposed by his cousin. Outside the palace, US, Afghan and European soldiers buckled a tight security perimeter designed to deter Taliban attacks.

    Several streets were sealed off, surveillance helicopters droned overhead, and German peacekeepers patrolled on foot.

    But yet again the fundamentalists failed to deliver on threats of violence and mayhem, lending credence to suspicions that their insurgency has lost its potency.

    That triumph will have pleased the US vice-president, Dick Cheney, who flew in with the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, to salute the Bush administration’s pet foreign policy success.

    Earlier, Mr Cheney rallied American troops in a speech at Bagram airbase, north of Kabul. “Freedom still has enemies here in Afghanistan, and you are here to make those enemies miserable,” he said.

    There is a long way to go to achieve enduring success in Afghanistan. Karzai is on record as desiring to end the power of both the local militias and the opium trade. In this endeavor, he will acquire a great many enemies, which only compounds the peril of radical Islamists and terrorists.

    Despite this, the swearing in of a democratically elected president is a testament to the hopes of the Afghan people and it should be celebrated. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer published an opinion piece doing that to a degree, along with a good look at what lies ahead.

    But an election is just one step. Now the country must move forward on the real difficult tests, such as creating a democratic identity and sustainable economy.

    It’s critical that the world (and especially the United States) present Karzai the resources to combat the Taliban and terrorist elements and to limit the drug trade. This is a tall order. The United Nations reports Afghanistan contributes 87 percent of the world’s opium and heroin.

    Democracy is an experiment; Afghanistan’s test is about to begin.

    If the Afghan people fail the test, it absolutely must not be from the neglect or half-measures of the U.S. and its allies.