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 The Pentagon Early Bird 8 Jan 2008 January 8, 2008 placeRandomImg() Use of these news articles does not reflect official endorsement. Reproduction for private use or gain is subject to original copyright restrictions. Story numbers indicate order of appearance only. This is the single print version. Use the PRINT command in your browser to print the entire Early Bird as one document. (NOTE: This single file format is a long document and can use 50 or more pages of paper.) IRAN
New York Times January 8, 2008 Pg. 1 U.S. Describes Confrontation With Iranian Boats By Thom Shanker and Brian Knowlton WASHINGTON — Five armed Iranian speedboats approached three United States Navy warships in international waters in the strategic Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, then maneuvered aggressively as radio threats were issued that the American ships would be blown up, military officials said Monday. The confrontation, which ended after just under 30 minutes without damage, shots fired or any injuries, took place during daylight on Sunday as the three American ships were entering the Persian Gulf. On Monday, the senior Navy officer in the region, Vice Adm. Kevin J. Cosgriff, criticized the Iranian actions as “unnecessarily provocative.” Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said the Iranians had acted in a “reckless and dangerous” manner. Iranian officials played down the significance of the encounter. “This is an ordinary occurrence, which happens every now and then for both sides,” said Muhammad Ali Hosseini, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, as quoted by the state-run news agency IRNA. But several Pentagon officials said the commander of a Navy destroyer involved in the episode had been on the verge of issuing an order to fire on one of the small, high-speed boats sailing near the American naval convoy. The commander of the Hopper, a guided-missile destroyer, was “very close to giving the order to fire,” said one of the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for attribution. “We were perilously close to an incident where we would have taken out at least one of the Iranian small boats.” The Hopper had trained an M240 machine gun — which fires upward of 10 armor-piercing slugs per second — on one of the Iranian boats that had pulled to within 200 yards of the American vessel, well within the gun’s range, Pentagon officials said. But before the order to fire was issued, the Iranian boat suddenly steered away from the Hopper. The United States has conducted major war games to prepare for just the kind of event that unfolded over the weekend, because Navy officers have expressed concerns that the weaker Iranian fleet might choose to confront American warships by “swarming” with larger numbers of smaller craft. Admiral Cosgriff, commander of the Fifth Fleet, said the episode was “more serious than we have seen,” in particular because it occurred in an important maritime choke point vital to the global economy. “I am concerned with what I consider unnecessary and irresponsible maneuvering and behavior like this on the part of those patrol boats in, again, international waters in an area that’s traversed by numerous ships of all nations peacefully day in and day out,” he said during a video news conference from his headquarters in Bahrain. In addition to the Hopper, the American ships involved in the episode were the cruiser Port Royal and the Ingraham, a frigate. Commanders and crews sailing in the region are especially mindful of the damage small craft can inflict on American warships. In October 2000, 17 American sailors died when a small boat was detonated next to the destroyer Cole while it was docked for refueling in Yemen. This is a time of considerable tensions between the countries, as President Bush is to visit the region for a weeklong tour aimed both at encouraging Middle East talks and at conveying a message that Iran continues to pose a serious threat. Defense Department and military officials said that as the Iranian boats neared the American vessels, a radio threat was issued that the American ships would explode. The verbal warnings broadcast over the internationally recognized bridge-to-bridge radio channel said, “I am coming at you, and you will explode in a few minutes,” an American official said. Two of the Iranian boats also dropped boxes in the path of the final American ship in the maritime convoy. The boxes could have been mines or simply dummy boxes meant to test — and learn from — the reaction, officials said. Defense Department officials said the five speedboats belonged to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Traditionally, the Revolutionary Guards maritime forces have operated in a far more hostile manner than the regular Iranian Navy. In addition, the United States Government describes the Revolutionary Guards as being involved with unconventional weapons and its most elite organization, the Quds Force, as a supporter of terrorism. In Tehran on Monday, the news agency FARS, which is close to the Revolutionary Guards, wrote in an analysis that the accusations were baseless and aimed at depicting Iran as a threat ahead of Mr. Bush’s trip to the region. The White House warned Iran against any further confrontations. “We urge the Iranians to refrain from such provocative actions that could lead to a dangerous incident in the future,” said Gordon D. Johndroe, a White House spokesman. Admiral Cosgriff said that, in the past, relations with the regular Iranian Navy had been courteous and professional, and that many interactions at sea with the Revolutionary Guards vessels have been normal. But the allied navies operating in the region have been especially watchful since last March, when sailors believed to be from the Revolutionary Guards captured 15 British sailors in waters the British insisted were international, and held them for nearly two weeks. The Pentagon said last year that there were signs that Iran had turned command of its naval missions in the Persian Gulf over to the Revolutionary Guards Corps’ maritime forces, stripping Iran’s regular navy of that responsibility. Nazila Fathi contributed reporting from Tehran. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080108572070.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1554517_AEr PjkQAACANR4O2vQc5C1B8fGI&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080108aaindex_concat.html&cred=OzdDpqjWVuJWucQb _i8OfOjIZGgQac4F3UtjF4EJVGu5YhUO4iW6kz0avUwWKRBB#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Boston Globe January 8, 2008 Pg. 1 Iranian Boats Press US Ships Sailed within striking distance in Persian Gulf, top admiral says By Bryan Bender and Farah Stockman, Globe Staff Five Iranian gunboats threatened US warships in the Persian Gulf on Sunday, racing within striking distance of the three vessels before retreating, according to the US Navy's top officer, who called the provocative maneuvers "extremely unprofessional, unsafe, and unhelpful." Admiral Gary Roughead, chief of naval operations, also said that US officers commanding the three ships - a destroyer, a cruiser, and a frigate - picked up threatening radio transmissions after unsuccessfully trying to contact the Iranian vessels. "They came within a couple of hundred yards of the ships," Roughead said in an interview with the Globe yesterday. "They approached the ships in an aggressive manner and maneuvered close aboard." The confrontation, which occurred in international waters just days before President Bush is due to make a high-profile tour of the Middle East, prompted a strong reaction from US military leaders who are seeking to avoid an armed conflict with Iran. It also raised new concerns about the hair-trigger tensions in the region and the potential for a deadly miscalculation between two navies that have no official mechanism to communicate concerns. Over the radio, the admiral said, the US ves sels picked up comments "that were aggressive" and indicated the gunboats "were closing" in on the USS Hopper, USS Port Royal, and USS Ingraham. In a conference call with Pentagon reporters, Vice Admiral Kevin Cosgriff, commander of the US Fifth Fleet, said the transmissions were to the effect that the "US ships would explode" - sparking fears of a repeat of the suicide bombing of the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen in 2000 that killed 17 US sailors. But Roughead said it was unclear whether the radio warning came from Iranian vessels or from shore along the Straits of Hormuz, a narrow, 34-mile opening into the Persian Gulf, through which an estimated 40 percent of the world's oil supply is shipped. Sunday's incident occurred at 8 a.m. local time when the three American vessels were entering the Persian Gulf through the straits. "In that part of the Gulf, who was saying what [is] sometimes very difficult to determine," Roughead said. Cosgriff also said that two of the Iranian boats dropped white "box-like objects" that floated in the path of the Ingraham, the final ship in the formation, but caused no damage. Roughead said it was unclear whether the five so-called "fast attack" craft, which are outfitted with small-caliber weapons but not anti-ship missiles, were operated by the Iranian Navy or by the more aggressive Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps or by both. US officials described the incident as the most significant since the Iranian Navy temporarily took 15 British sailors hostage last year after alleging their vessel entered Iranian territorial waters in the northern Persian Gulf. They suggested that the US ships were only moments away from firing on the Iranian naval vessels before the Iranians retreated. Reaction to the incident from the White House and the State Department was muted. "We urge the Iranians to refrain from such provocative actions that could lead to a dangerous incident in the future," said Gordon Johndroe, a White House spokesman. Mohammad-Ali Hosseini, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, said the Iranian vessels merely made a routine acknowledgement of the US ships. Iranian officials said they had no knowledge of any boxes or radio communication threatening explosions. But Navy officers, who have frequent, businesslike radio interactions with individual vessels in the Iranian Navy, were concerned about the incident. Iran controls the eastern side of the Strait of Hormuz, and Iranian Navy officers make contact with ships that pass through, asking them to identify themselves and state their course and speed. US naval officers respond by giving the name of their ship, the speed, and their course through international waters. Sunday's incident, where it occurred and the hostile nature of the Iranian boats' maneuvers, are what "made this one so unusual," Roughead said. "Professional navies do not operate that way," he said, during an interview with Globe reporters and editors. "That to me is an issue that does not help the security and stability in that part of the world. It is a very constrained passage, a very critical passage for so many countries. That sort of behavior is extraordinarily unhelpful." The move follows a period of relative calm in the heated rhetoric between the United States and Iran. US military officials in Iraq recently have noted that the number of Iranian-made weapons entering the country has declined. Meanwhile, the latest National Intelligence Estimate determined Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003. As Bush makes his first visit to the region, analysts said, the incident may have been intended as Iran's warning that it will not be isolated or ignored. The confrontation may have also been a signal for Arabic states in the Gulf, "who have to make their continuing decisions about aligning more closely with the United States, or accommodating the Iranians," said Paul Pillar, a former CIA analyst now at Georgetown University. "Whatever ideas the US may have to push Iran around, Iran has options to push back." Others said they believe the Iranians may have been probing the United States' willingness to engage their military. "I think it was an effort to test the US reaction," said Kenneth Katzman, a specialist on the Persian Gulf at the Congressional Research Service, the research arm of Congress. Katzman has written a book on Iran's Revolutionary Guard. "I think in the wake of the release of the US intelligence estimate, they were probing to see how the US rules of engagement might have changed, whether US contemplation of military action is more or less likely," he said. The strategic waterway has been a flashpoint before. In what came to be known as the 1987 Tanker War, Kuwaiti oil tankers sailed under US flags after the Iranian Navy mined the strait and fired on ships at the height of the Iran-Iraq war. The next year, US forces destroyed two Iranian offshore military installations after 10 American sailors were injured by a mine that Iran was believed to have planted. After another US warship was damaged by a mine, Americans sank two Iranian warships and several armed speedboats. The one-day battle severely damaged the Iranian Navy. Several security experts insisted yesterday the Iranian vessels are no serious threat to the American warships. They also doubt that the Iranians would want to shut down the straits, which are critical to their own economic well-being. John Pike, who runs the think tank GlobalSecurity.org, noted that the Iranian gunboats that menaced the US warships lack heavy firepower and do not pose a significant threat, unless they are used in suicide attacks. By contrast, Pike said, the US ships are armed with sophisticated, large-caliber guns that would "just shred" the Iranian craft. The Iranians, he added, "can do whatever they please to unarmed oil tankers, but why would they want to? Their financial situation is more precarious than everyone else's." Nevertheless, Admiral Roughead said he worried such behavior could have escalated unintentionally into a military confrontation before either side could call for a halt. "I do not have a direct link with my counterpart in the Iranian Navy," he said. "I don't have a way to communicate directly with the Iranian Navy or Guard." Stockman reported from Washington and Bender from Boston. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080108571954.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1554517_AEr PjkQAACANR4O2vQc5C1B8fGI&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080108aaindex_concat.html&cred=OzdDpqjWVuJWucQb _i8OfOjIZGgQac4F3UtjF4EJVGu5YhUO4iW6kz0avUwWKRBB#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Washington Post January 8, 2008 Pg. 15 U.S. Expresses Alarm After Iranian Boats Threaten Three American Vessels By Robin Wright and Ann Scott Tyson, Washington Post Staff Writers We're coming at you, the Iranian radio transmission warned. Your ships will explode in a couple of minutes. The United States and Iran reached the verge of a military confrontation early Sunday after five Iranian patrol boats sped toward the USS Port Royal and two accompanying ships as they crossed the Strait of Hormuz into the Persian Gulf. The Iranian vessels, manned by the Revolutionary Guard Corps, broke into two groups and "maneuvered aggressively" on both sides of the U.S. ships, coming as close as 500 yards, recounted Vice Adm. Kevin J. Cosgriff, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command. After the radio transmission, two of the Iranian boats dropped "white box-like objects" into the water, Cosgriff said. The U.S. ships responded with evasive maneuvers, radioed warnings to the Iranians and sounded ships' whistles, while ordering increased readiness of their own vessels. After their messages were not heeded, the U.S. ships prepared to fire in self-defense, but the Iranians abruptly turned and sped north toward their territorial waters. The incident, which lasted less than 30 minutes, comes on the eve of President Bush's trip to the Middle East, in which he is expected to seek support from Gulf nations for a tougher stance against Tehran. The Bush administration called the episode a serious provocation and warned Iran about the dangers of such actions. "I found the action by the Iranians quite troubling, actually, and a matter of real concern," Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday while visiting the USS New Orleans in San Diego. "This is a very volatile area, and the risk of an incident . . . escalating is real. I can't imagine what was on their minds." Gates said the incident "is a reminder that there is a very unpredictable government in Tehran," adding that "it would be nice to see the Iranian government disavow this action and say that it won't happen again." U.S. and Iranian naval vessels have been involved in two or three similar events over the past year, but they were "not quite as dramatic as this one," he said. Yesterday, Iran played down the encounter as a "regular and natural issue." "That's something normal taking place every now and then for each party and it is settled after identification of the two parties," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency. Similar incidents in the past were resolved when the two sides identified each other, he said. U.S. officials disputed the claim. "It was reckless and dangerous activity on the part of the Iranians," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman. "It could have escalated potentially to the level at which they would have posed a hostile threat and would have required further action." The U.S. government "expects an explanation, and we clearly expect the Iranians to cease these activities that are dangerous," he said. U.S. military officials said U.S. ships are well marked and well known. The Port Royal is an Aegis cruiser, and the two accompanying ships were the USS Hopper, a destroyer, and the USS Ingraham, a frigate. "Based on all the information that is available to me," Gates said, "this is a one-sided provocation." Iran engaged in a showdown with Britain in the Gulf last spring, when Revolutionary Guard naval vessels seized 15 British sailors and Marines patrolling for smuggled goods in the Persian Gulf. The Britons were held in Tehran for 12 days. The United States is also sensitive about the intentions of small speedboats following the 2000 attack by a single craft on the USS Cole during a refueling stop in Yemen, resulting in the deaths of 17 American sailors. Tensions between Washington and Tehran have escalated in the past year over Iranian aid to Shiite militants in Iraq as well as Tehran's controversial nuclear energy program. The United States and its allies remain particularly concerned about Tehran's refusal to heed two U.N. resolutions demanding that Iran suspend uranium enrichment, a process that can be used for peaceful nuclear energy and to develop a nuclear weapon. A U.S. intelligence report last month concluding that Iran suspended its weapons program in 2003 has not defused the issue. In October, the Bush administration imposed tough unilateral sanctions on the Revolutionary Guard and the Quds Force, as well as Iranian banks and businesses linked to weapons proliferation. The administration is pressing to get similar measures passed this month in a third U.N. resolution. Iran has in turn blasted the Bush administration for interfering in the Middle East. "America has not been successful in isolating Iran," the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said Sunday. "We are witnessing the expansion of Iran's relations with different countries." Iran's media have focused heavily on Bush's impending visit. "American officials are extremely worried about how things are unfolding in the Middle East, and the only way they found to cover the failure of American plans is to arrange for the American president to go on a boisterous visit to the Middle East so the razzmatazz and propaganda surrounding this visit overshadows their serious failures in the region," the conservative Jomhuri Eslami editorialized over the weekend. Yesterday, two U.S. Navy fighter jets collided in flight and crashed into the Persian Gulf, but all three pilots on board ejected and were rescued in "good condition," said Cosgriff of Central Command. The pilots were undergoing medical checks on the USS Harry Truman, the aircraft carrier from which they operated, he said. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080108572114.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1554517_AEr PjkQAACANR4O2vQc5C1B8fGI&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080108aaindex_concat.html&cred=OzdDpqjWVuJWucQb _i8OfOjIZGgQac4F3UtjF4EJVGu5YhUO4iW6kz0avUwWKRBB#T OP">RETURN TO TOP San Diego Union-Tribune January 8, 2008 Pg. 1 Persian Gulf Run-In Raises Specter Of Past Mission Naval experts are stunned over Iran's aggressiveness By Steve Liewer, Staff Writer Retired Rear Adm. Guy Zeller of Coronado knows something about going muzzle to muzzle with the Iranian navy. Zeller led a battle group aboard the aircraft carrier Enterprise in the Persian Gulf during the late 1980s, when Iranian warships routinely harassed U.S. Navy and merchant vessels and planted mines in the strategic waterway. Zeller commanded a battle group for Operation Praying Mantis after one of those mines crippled the Navy frigate Samuel B. Roberts and wounded 10 sailors in 1988. The retaliatory mission, which sank two of Iran's naval ships and three armed speedboats and destroyed two of its oil platforms, remains the largest U.S. naval engagement since World War II. Through two more wars in the Middle East, including the current Iraq war, the U.S. Navy has never lost its supremacy in the Persian Gulf. Which is why it stunned Zeller to learn that five Iranian gunboats reportedly charged three U.S Navy ships in the gulf Sunday. Members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard “maneuvered aggressively” to within 500 yards of the cruiser Port Royal, the destroyer Hopper and the frigate Ingraham, said Vice Adm. Kevin Cosgriff, commander of U.S. 5th Fleet, which patrols the gulf and is based in nearby Bahrain. Pentagon officials said crews from two of the Iranian gunboats dropped white, boxlike objects that floated and resembled mines. “Mining in international waters is an act of war,” Zeller said. “Somebody would have to do something about it, and that somebody would be the United States.” The warships passed by the boxes without harm. They didn't retrieve them, so Pentagon officials don't know whether the boxes posed an actual threat. At another point during the confrontation, the warships received a threatening radio call from the Iranians, “to the effect that they were closing (on) our ships and that the ... U.S. ships would explode,” Cosgriff said. The U.S. commanders took a series of defensive steps, including making radio calls to the Iranians that went unheeded. As they prepared to fire warning shots, Cosgriff said, the Iranians fled toward their shore. The entire standoff lasted about 30 minutes. The incident increased friction between Washington and Tehran as President Bush prepared to depart today for the Middle East. Tensions between the United States and Iran have grown in recent years over Washington's charge that Tehran has been secretly seeking to develop nuclear weapons and supplying and training Iraqi insurgents using roadside bombs, the No. 1 killer of U.S. troops in Iraq. On Sunday, the three warships were heading into the gulf through the Strait of Hormuz on what the Navy called a routine passage inside international waters. The five gunboats approached them about 8 a.m. Pentagon officials said the warships were about three miles outside Iran's territorial waters, which extend 12 miles from its shores. Navy ships routinely have contact with Iranian naval vessels without confrontation, Cosgriff said. The three U.S. warships involved in Sunday's incident had earlier exchanged normal communications with Iranian shore stations and a passing Iranian naval ship, he added. In Tehran, Iran's Foreign Ministry suggested the Iranian boats had not recognized the U.S. vessels. Spokesman Mohammed Ali Hosseini played down the incident, saying it was “similar to past ones.” “That is something normal that takes place every now and then for each party, and (the problem) is settled after identification of the two parties,” he told the state news agency IRNA. During a tour of San Diego-area military facilities yesterday, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates urged Iran to avoid provocative military acts. “The risk of an incident or an incident escalating is real,” Gates said, describing the Tehran regime as very unpredictable. “I can't imagine what was on their minds.” Gates said there had been two or three similar incidents – “maybe not quite as dramatic” – over the past year in the gulf. He offered no further details. Sunday's incident brought back unsettling memories of the U.S.-Iranian confrontation in the Persian Gulf during the 1980s. At the time, Iran was at war with Saddam Hussein's Iraq, which the United States then supported. Six months after the frigate Samuel B. Roberts struck the mine in January 1988, the U.S. cruiser Vincennes shot down an Iranian civilian airliner, killing 290 passengers. The Navy said it was an accident, but Iran's leaders said the ship targeted the plane. During that period, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard frequently harassed ships under Rear Adm. Zeller's command. “The Revolutionary Guards are known as being hotheads,” Zeller said. Some Navy officials viewed them as bullies. “When you stand up to them, they tend to back off,” said Tony Less, a retired vice admiral who was the senior Navy commander in the Persian Gulf region during Operation Praying Mantis. The commanders of Navy ships have broad authority to defend themselves in an attack, Zeller and Less said. “You're going to protect your ship,” Less said in a telephone interview from his home in Clifton, Va. Navy ship commanders must absorb lots of historical lessons. They remember the nearly unarmed spy ship Pueblo, surrounded and seized 40 years ago in international waters off North Korea, its crew tortured into making phony confessions during 11 months in captivity. They also remember the destroyer Cole, attacked during a port call in Yemen by al-Qaeda suicide bombers in a small boat. Seventeen sailors died in the blast. The Navy should give no quarter when it comes to protecting so crucial a waterway as the Persian Gulf, said independent naval analyst Norman Polmar of Alexandria, Va. “My feeling is, just blast the hell out of them,” Polmar said. “You attack a (U.S. Navy) destroyer or a cruiser, you can expect to get killed.” At the same time, military experts said acting aggressively could lead to disaster. “If you're too rambunctious with protecting your ship,” Less said, “you stand a chance of not only embarrassing yourself, your Navy and your government, you also stand a chance of wreaking havoc.” Staff writer Greg Gross and The Associated Press contributed to this report. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080108571963.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1554517_AEr PjkQAACANR4O2vQc5C1B8fGI&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080108aaindex_concat.html&cred=OzdDpqjWVuJWucQb _i8OfOjIZGgQac4F3UtjF4EJVGu5YhUO4iW6kz0avUwWKRBB#T OP">RETURN TO TOP New York Times January 8, 2008 Pg. 4 Chief Of U.N. Nuclear Agency To Meet With Iran's Leaders VIENNA (AP) — Mohamed ElBaradei, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear monitoring agency, will visit Iran this week, his spokeswoman announced Monday. Diplomats, meanwhile, said Iran had begun sharing information about past programs that the United States says were attempts to make weapons. Dr. ElBaradei will be in Tehran on Friday and Saturday “with a view of resolving all remaining outstanding issues and enabling the agency to provide assurance about Iran’s past and present activities,” said Melissa Fleming, his spokeswoman. She said Dr. ElBaradei would meet with top officials, but gave no details. But a diplomat familiar with Dr. ElBaradei’s itinerary said he was expected to meet with Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was confidential. The trip comes at a time of renewed efforts by the United States to keep the pressure on Iran on the nuclear issue. A recent United States intelligence assessment that Iran had a clandestine weapons program but that it stopped working on it four years ago has hurt American efforts to have the United Nations Security Council impose a third set of sanctions on Iran for failing to halt enrichment. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. The United States and its allies say Iran could use its enriched uranium to make nuclear payloads for missiles. An Israeli Defense Ministry official said Monday that Israel would urge President Bush, who is to visit the Middle East this week, to reassess the American conclusion that Iran stopped nuclear arms development in 2003. The defense minister, Ehud Barak, is expected to tell Mr. Bush that Israeli intelligence analysts have concluded that Iran is still trying to produce nuclear arms, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was barred from publicly commenting on the talks in advance. Part of past evidence presented by the United States to close allies and the I.A.E.A. to back its accusations was material on a computer reportedly smuggled out of Iran. In 2005, United States intelligence assessed that information as indicating that Iran had been working on details of nuclear weapons. Iran has long dismissed such claims as propaganda and refused to talk about them. But on Monday, diplomats familiar with the Iran file said Iran had begun substantial discussions with I.A.E.A. experts on some issues linked to “weaponization,” as part of the agency’s investigation of Iran’s nuclear activities. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080108571987.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1554517_AEr PjkQAACANR4O2vQc5C1B8fGI&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080108aaindex_concat.html&cred=OzdDpqjWVuJWucQb _i8OfOjIZGgQac4F3UtjF4EJVGu5YhUO4iW6kz0avUwWKRBB#T OP">RETURN TO TOP ABC, CBS, CNN January 7, 2008 TV News Coverage From Pentagon Correspondents World News With Charles Gibson (ABC), 6:30 PM CHARLES GIBSON: We’re going to turn next to a confrontation at sea. We learned today that five Iranian speedboats confronted three U.S. Navy ships in the Persian Gulf. Before the incident ended, U.S. and Iranian tensions came closer than they have in years to actual shooting. Our senior national security correspondent Jonathan Karl reports. JONATHAN KARL: The three U.S. Navy ships were entering the Persian Gulf when five speedboats bearing Iranian flags and mounted machine guns swarmed them. The Americans received this radio message in English: “I’m coming at you. You will blow up in a couple of minutes.” The Navy ships warned the Iranians not to come closer. The commander of the destroyer USS Hopper issued a “prepare to fire order.” Two of the Iranian boats dropped unidentified boxes into the water, forcing the Navy ships to maneuver out of the way. Senior defense officials say the Americans were within seconds of firing when the Iranians suddenly pulled back. One of the Iranian speedboats had come within 200 yards of the U.S. ships. The whole incident lasted less than 30 minutes. DEFENSE SECRETARY GATES: This is a very volatile area. The risk of an incident and of an incident escalating is real. KARL: Some Pentagon officials told ABC News they were surprised the Iranian boats were allowed to get so close. BRUCE RIEDEL [Saban Center at Brookings Institution]: If these five boats had been five martyrdom boats filled with TNT and one of them had hit one of our destroyers, it could have done considerable damage. KARL: But senior Navy officials say one of their biggest fears is being provoked into a conflict with Iran, and that explains why the ship’s commander was reluctant to fire. Terse statement, the Iranian foreign ministry called the incident ordinary. Whatever it was, it brought those Navy ships to the brink of military confrontation with Iran. As one senior official told me, those Iranian speedboats came within a heartbeat of being blown up. Charlie? GIBSON: Jonathan Karl reporting tonight from the Pentagon. CBS Evening News, 6:30 PM KATIE COURIC: There was a dangerous confrontation over the weekend between U.S. and Iranian forces. It happened in the Strait of Hormuz and nearly led to a battle at sea. More from Bob Orr at the Pentagon. BOB ORR: High seas hostilities have been building for months, with heavily armed speedboats carrying Iran’s Revolutionary Guard darting near U.S. ships patrolling the dangerous waters of the Persian Gulf. Now, one senior Pentagon official says an incident early Sunday was the most provocative we’ve seen so far. Three U.S. warships were passing through the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic oil shipping channel, when five small fast boats sped toward their right flank. The boats, one flying an Iranian flag, raced directly at the U.S. ships, dropping unidentified white boxes in the water. A warning crackled over the ships’ radios. “We’re coming at you,” a voice said. “You’ll blow up in a couple of minutes.” Military sources say the U.S. ships began taking evasive actions, and at least one of them came extremely close to firing just before the Iranian boats sped away. VICE ADMIRAL KEVIN COSGRIFF [Commander, U.S. 5th Fleet]: When they act that way, it raises the possibility of a miscalculation on their part that somebody might take it just too far. ORR: This is at least the third time in six months that Iranian boats have harassed U.S. ships in international waters. And just last March, 15 British sailors were captured in the Persian Gulf and held for two weeks by the Revolutionary Guard. Now, U.S. officials are warning Iran in polite terms to knock it off before someone gets hurt. Bob Orr, CBS News, the Pentagon. Lou Dobbs Tonight (CNN), 7:00 PM LOU DOBBS: One of the most dangerous confrontations in years between the U.S. Navy and Iran's Revolutionary Guard. Five Revolutionary Guard boats speeding toward three of our warships in the Persian Gulf in what the Navy says was an aggressive and threatening manner. The Iranian boats turned away just as our warships were about to open fire. Barbara Starr reports from the Pentagon. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: A potentially deadly military confrontation with an old enemy, Iran that all came close to becoming a shootout. It all happened Sunday morning in the Persian Gulf when three U.S. Navy warships were routinely sailing through the Strait of Hormuz. It was 7:40, suddenly five boats from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard approached at high speed. The Iranians' actions had the U.S. Navy ready to open fire. VICE ADMIRAL KEVIN COSGRIFF, U.S. NAVAL FORCES CENTRAL COMMAND: These are, in my mind, unnecessarily provocative. STARR: According to a timeline provided by the military to CNN, at 7:45 the Iranians swarmed around the U.S. ships. Two Iranian boats made a direct run at the USS Hopper the lead ship coming within 200 yards; 7:47, a threatening radio transmission is received saying, I am coming at you, you will explode in a couple of minutes; 7:49, the Iranians dropped white boxes in the water. The U.S. doesn't know if they contained explosives; 7:50, the Hopper's captain ordered a machine gun to be turned on the Iranians. At that point, the Iranians turned around and left. The senior U.S. admiral in the region says there have been encounters with the Iranians in the past. COSGRIFF: I take this incredibly seriously and I expect the commanding officers will successfully defend their ships and their crews at all times in this theater. STARR: According to Iranian news agencies, the Revolutionary Guard denied any aggression against the U.S., but experts have long warned these tense waters can quickly spiral out of control. JOSEPH CIRINCIONE, CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS: This is the most dangerous possibility of all that a war starts by accident, by a miscalculation, by the Revolutionary Guard going a little too far and the U.S. firing back. (END VIDEOTAPE) STARR: Lou, U.S. military commanders say this was one of the most provocative incidents with the Iranians in years, and, yes, they were within minutes of shooting the Iranians out of the water -- Lou. DOBBS: To be clear here, Barbara, those five lightboats of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard actually encircled the warship and came -- how close to that warship? STARR: Well we said in that piece about 200 yards. Now, in the last couple of hours, the Navy said, well, maybe it was 500 yards. It really doesn't matter. What you're talking about is that real hair trigger. And the problem for the U.S. Navy, Lou, is to walk that fine line between being very tough on any Iranian provocation and not getting sucker-punched by them into a shooting war that they don't want. Today, they came out lucky. They're worried about what's going to happen next. DOBBS: Luck should play no part in what the United States Navy is doing in that region, as you document. It is a tense and understandably tense region. That those craft could get that close to a U.S. Navy vessel is troubling for everyone. What are the rules of engagement? STARR: Well, to be clear, we don't know, because the rules of engagement, as you say in those very tense waters, are classified. There are a number of escalator procedures. We do know that the commander of the Hopper was in the process of giving the shoot-to-kill order when the Iranians turned back. When I say luck, Lou, you know nobody wants to start World War III out there unless they absolutely have to. DOBBS: And one of the ways in which it seems to me it might be prevented, Barbara, and I would love to hear what the United States general staff has to say about this, would make it very clear to Iran what the rules of engagement are and the distance at which we will tolerate their vessels approaching a ship of the line. This is an absurdity, it seems to me. STARR: Well a lot of people are asking that very question because even the Navy today wanted to remind people about the USS Cole, which was bombed and several Navy sailors killed during a small boat attack. That's a big problem out in those waters. Those small boats come along very fast. And I must tell you, Lou, I suspect the facts are still unfolding as to what exactly transpired here. DOBBS: Well they're discomforting facts at best to this point, although thank goodness nothing did happen of a violent nature as a result. Thank you very much, Barbara Starr from the Pentagon. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080108572045.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1554517_AEr PjkQAACANR4O2vQc5C1B8fGI&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080108aaindex_concat.html&cred=OzdDpqjWVuJWucQb _i8OfOjIZGgQac4F3UtjF4EJVGu5YhUO4iW6kz0avUwWKRBB#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Los Angeles Times January 8, 2008 Gates Hears From Southland Troops On his visit to Camp Pendleton and San Diego, the Defense secretary meets with sailors and Marines and recognizes their families' sacrifice. By Peter Spiegel, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer SAN DIEGO — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Monday made his first official visit to Southern California since taking the post, kicking off his second year in office by presenting awards to 17 sailors, including several Navy SEALs, who recently returned from Iraq. Gates spent 141 days on the road last year, mostly on high-profile overseas trips to regional hot spots and world capitals. And like those foreign travels, Gates took several hours out of his schedule here to meet privately with dozens of enlisted personnel -- either deploying or returning from war zones -- to gauge their views on issues affecting the military. Pentagon officials said the Defense secretary had also attempted to use a series of lower-profile domestic trips to express gratitude to family members of troops who have been deployed overseas. During his daylong stay, which included a tour of naval facilities in San Diego and an afternoon trip to Camp Pendleton near Oceanside, Gates made repeated mention of the sacrifices parents and spouses make during the ongoing deployments to war zones. In a short news conference after touring the amphibious assault ship New Orleans, Gates singled out the San Diego area -- home to one of the highest concentrations of military personnel in the U.S. -- for particular gratitude. "I don't think there's a community in America that's more supportive of our men and women in uniform than San Diego," he said. Pentagon officials have grown increasingly concerned that, even as retention rates within the military have remained high throughout the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, family "influencers," particularly wives and mothers, are exerting increasing pressure on soldiers to stop reenlisting. Gates has made improved treatment of military families one of his priorities, and he is considering a wide range of measures, including the expansion of education benefits to family members, to win over wavering spouses. The issue came up repeatedly in talks with Navy and Marine personnel here, according to service members who attended the meetings with Gates, one of which was held aboard the New Orleans and two others at Camp Pendleton. According to Marines who met with Gates at Camp Pendleton, most of whom recently returned from Iraq's western Anbar province, the Defense secretary expressed optimism that the decrease in violence in Anbar -- a onetime insurgent hotbed -- can be replicated elsewhere in the country. But, they said, Gates also was concerned such advances could be reversed. "He knows that progress is escalating," said Marine Cpl. Dan Ristow, 21, of Alaska. "But he told us it's all about timing and pacing, and it's important that we don't get excited and jump the gun" and withdraw too quickly, he said. Added Lance Cpl. Chad Crawford, 21, of Oklahoma: "It's good to know that somebody in the government supports us." About 330 Marines from Camp Pendleton and an additional 112 from the Twentynine Palms base have been killed in Iraq, according to the independent website icasualties.org. No Marines from Pendleton have been killed in the last two months, a fact Marine leadership interprets as showing they have been able to "suffocate" the insurgency. Times staff writer Tony Perry contributed to this report from Camp Pendleton. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080108572090.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1554517_AEr PjkQAACANR4O2vQc5C1B8fGI&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080108aaindex_concat.html&cred=OzdDpqjWVuJWucQb _i8OfOjIZGgQac4F3UtjF4EJVGu5YhUO4iW6kz0avUwWKRBB#T OP">RETURN TO TOP San Diego Union-Tribune January 8, 2008 Gates Stops By To Chat With Enlisted Ranks Defense secretary pays a visit to county military bases By Rick Rogers, Staff Writer Secretary of Defense Robert Gates took off his suit jacket, poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down at a table full of young Marines and sailors yesterday afternoon at Camp Pendleton. “Thank you for coming,” he told 19 wide-eyed servicemen before launching into what a Pentagon spokesman said was a favorite part of Gates' job: engaging in unscripted conversations with lower-ranking, enlisted members of the military. “We didn't brief the Marines on what to say. Secretary Gates wanted to hear what they have to say,” said Maj. Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, commander of the 1st Marine Division. He was one of several generals who waited outside while Gates and the troops talked. After the session, which was not open to the media, Gates held another private chat with about 30 enlisted Marines. He later traveled to a firing range on the base to observe boot-camp recruits going through training. His activities at Camp Pendleton capped a daylong visit to military installations in the county, including Navy bases in San Diego. It was Gates' first stop in the region since becoming defense secretary. Marines who spoke with Gates said he seemed intent on hearing their views. Topics included when base officials would fix damage caused by the Horno wildfire in October, and whether Gates would allow the Marine Corps to swap its increasingly nation-building mission in western Iraq for an expeditionary combat role in Afghanistan. Gates answered each question fully and carefully, the round-table participants said. Sgt. Kevin Knight said the meeting energized his faith in the highest reaches of the military. “I think (it) says a lot about our leaders' caring about the opinions of young Marines and the military in general,” said Knight, a member of the 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment. Knight asked Gates why it took years to build urban combat simulators when such training methods might have saved more Marines on the battlefield. “He gave a great answer – that no one could have predicted how long the war was going to last,” Knight said. Gates began his swing through the county with a stop at the Naval Amphibious Base in Coronado, where he pinned Bronze Stars on 10 members of an explosives-disposal unit and half a dozen Navy SEAL commandos who fought in Iraq. He also spoke to a class of sailors training to become SEALs. Gates praised the bomb-disposal experts, some of whom have served three tours during the Iraq war, for their work in disarming roadside bombs and for setting up an operating base from scratch in southern Baghdad. He thanked SEAL combat veterans for their “secret reconnaissance and direct-action missions against some of the world's most ruthless and dangerous killers.” The SEALs, Gates said, saw heavy action in Ramadi and Habaniyah, Iraq. They established outposts, foiled ambushes by insurgents and trained Iraqi soldiers and police. Gates described how one of the Bronze Star recipients used grenades to flush out insurgents who were firing on his position – after taking a bullet in the chest that was stopped by his body armor. “Stories of SEALs' grit and sacrifice are usually unknown and untold,” he said. Gates then went to San Diego Naval Station, where he joined a private lunch with 25 sailors from the amphibious transport dock ship New Orleans. “Each of them asked me a question,” Gates said, “and a couple of them gave me advice.” Staff writer Greg Gross contributed to this report. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080108571938.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1554517_AEr PjkQAACANR4O2vQc5C1B8fGI&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080108aaindex_concat.html&cred=OzdDpqjWVuJWucQb _i8OfOjIZGgQac4F3UtjF4EJVGu5YhUO4iW6kz0avUwWKRBB#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Washington Post January 8, 2008 Pg. 1 New Leaders Of Sunnis Make Gains In Influence U.S.-Backed Fighters Find Empowering Role By Sudarsan Raghavan, Washington Post Foreign Service MADERIYAH, Iraq -- Saad Mahami wanted more firepower. He didn't trust the Iraqi government to give him support, so inside Patrol Base Whiskey, at the edge of this village south of Baghdad, he told U.S. commanders that his 71 Sunni fighters needed additional weapons to fight the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq. As he listened to Mahami's demand, Capt. David Underwood reminded his superiors that Mahami's men -- all members of a U.S.-backed Sunni paramilitary movement called Sahwa, or "Awakening" -- were already buying arms with U.S. reward money for finding enemy ammunition dumps. "And as we confiscate weapons, we hand them to Saad Mahami," Underwood told Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the top commander in the region, during their meeting with the Iraqi. The United States is empowering a new group of Sunni leaders, including onetime members of former president Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, intelligence services and army, who are challenging established Sunni politicians for their community's leadership. The phenomenon marks a sharp turnaround in U.S. policy and the fortunes of Iraq's Sunni minority. The new leaders are decidedly against Iraq's U.S.-backed, Shiite-led government, which is wary of the Awakening movement's growing influence, viewing it as a potential threat when U.S. troops withdraw. The mistrust suggests how easily last year's security improvements could come undone in a still-brittle Iraq. "We feel we are more in control," said Safah Hassan, 28, one of Mahami's fighters. "The Americans have encouraged us to stand up for our society. We never thought this would happen." When Hussein was toppled, Sunnis felt their power waning, and their sense of dispossession hit bottom when Hussein was executed a year ago. Now the Awakening movement is given credit for helping to reduce violence, and the new Sunni role shows that they remain a linchpin of stability. Initiated by tribes in Anbar province, the Awakening movement spread across Iraq last year, as growing numbers of Sunnis turned against the extreme tactics of al-Qaeda in Iraq, a mainly homegrown and predominantly Sunni group that U.S. officials say is led by foreign fighters. U.S. military commanders rapidly entered into risky alliances with tribal leaders and onetime members of other insurgent groups, which included men who had killed U.S. soldiers. Today, the Awakening forces -- also known in many areas as "concerned local citizens" -- number nearly 71,000 fighters, and have pushed al-Qaeda in Iraq out of areas it once controlled. Ali Hatem Ali Suleiman, who leads one of the largest Anbar tribes, described al-Qaeda in Iraq as a nail in the side of the U.S. military and Iraqi forces. "We broke that nail," Suleiman said. "What other way does the prime minister or the American president have? They have to accept the way we have drawn." In interviews over the past month, several Awakening leaders and foot soldiers said they wanted to ensure their community's survival by bringing services and economic development to their areas. They are hardening their grip over Sunni enclaves throughout the country, weakening the central government's authority. In Baghdad's Fadhil neighborhood, signs proclaim the power of Adil Mashadani, known to be a former member of Hussein's Republican Guard and a onetime insurgent who controls Fadhil's Awakening Council. In Babil province, Sabah al-Jenabi is now the mayor of the town of Jurf a-Sakr -- less than four months after he signed his first contract with the Americans. The Jenabis are a preeminent tribe that thrived under Hussein and later backed the insurgency. So far, however, the new leaders have secured little more than guns, money and the support of U.S. military officers, but those gains help men such as Mahami keep their vows to protect their territories, not only from al-Qaeda in Iraq, but also from Shiite militias and Iraq's Shiite-dominated security forces. The U.S. commanders in Maderiyah knew little about Mahami -- only that he was a lawyer and a community leader. Most of his men were from the Islamic Army, an insurgent group that broke away from al-Qaeda in Iraq last year, Underwood said. Mahami told the U.S. commanders that he needed more than weapons. He also wanted radio equipment and a car. He looked at Lynch, the U.S. regional commander, and asked him to blow up four nearby bridges to prevent al-Qaeda in Iraq from entering the village. "We will be very happy to do it," Lynch replied. 'We Rely on Ourselves' Riyadh Hadi is the field commander of the Lions of Adhamiyah, the Awakening force in a middle-class Sunni neighborhood in Baghdad. Tall with a long, goateed face, the 37-year-old Hadi said he commands 1,400 fighters, 700 of whom receive a $300 monthly salary from the U.S. military. He described himself only as a metalworker and "a son of Adhamiyah" who rose up against al-Qaeda in Iraq after the group killed his brother. Residents and insurgents said he is a former Baathist who was a member of several militant groups, including the 1920 Revolution Brigades, which once had strong links to al-Qaeda in Iraq. "Our men know who the al-Qaeda are," he said with pride, referring to its members. "Our men can catch them before they can do anything." Many leading Sunnis joined the insurgency after U.S. administrators dismantled Hussein's system in the wake of the 2003 invasion. Adhamiyah, in particular, turned into an insurgent stronghold, and by 2004, a sanctuary for al-Qaeda in Iraq. But last year, many insurgents turned against the jihadists, who many Sunnis felt had undermined the image of the Sunni resistance and imposed Islamic laws that were too restrictive. The Lions emerged on the streets of Adhamiyah on Nov. 10. Their forces quickly engaged in two clashes against mostly Shiite policemen, who were stunned to see the Sunni fighters now taking over the enclave. In the first clash, Hadi was taken into custody and beaten by police officers who declared their loyalty to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, Hadi recalled. "We are Sunnis," he said. "It was a direct challenge." He spent 30 minutes in a cell before U.S. troops arrived and set him free. Brig. Gen. Hussein al-Dulaimi, an Adhamiyah police commander, described the clashes as "a misunderstanding." One day last month, Hadi's men were stationed at nearly every intersection. They checked vehicles at the entrances to the neighborhood, which was protected by tall blast walls. Elsewhere the fighters were much less visible. "Under Saddam Hussein, there was no army in the streets. He used intelligence men, his Baathists, he was controlling everything, like what we are doing now," Hadi said. The area was brimming with cars and shoppers. Laughing children played in a small amusement park with a creaking Ferris wheel that had recently reopened. Some women walked across a busy traffic circle without head scarves, past grim buildings disfigured by war. "Al-Qaeda killed a girl over there for not wearing a hijab," said Ali Salim, 25, a resident, pointing at a baby-blue complex pocked by bullet holes and referring to the head covering worn by many Muslim women. "Now, there's a big difference." "We rely on ourselves to protect our community," said one of Hadi's fighters, Abu Omar, 42, eyes twinkling through his oval glasses. "This is the best we Sunnis can hope for under this government." Last week, Hadi's men attempted to stop Iraqi army troops from conducting house raids with U.S. troops, prompting a firefight. Al-Qaeda in Iraq still poses a threat. On Monday, Riyadh al-Sammarai, an Awakening leader who backed Hadi's men, was killed in a suicide bomb attack, one of several recent attacks against Awakening forces. Not all residents trust Hadi's men. Abu Youssef, a 47-year-old Sunni taxi driver, fled the enclave last year after al-Qaeda in Iraq accused him of spying. Today, he fears returning to Adhamiyah "because many al-Qaeda members have joined the Awakening. . . . I have no confidence because of their history." "The Shiite militias were police in the morning and criminals in the night," added Abu Youssef. "What is the point of replacing the Shiite militias with Sunni militias?" Scrawled on a wall, near graffiti that hailed the "Adhamiyah Heroes," was an ominous sign of a future battle: "Death to the Mahdi Army." Past the minarets of Adhamiyah's Abu Hanifa mosque, Iraq's holiest Sunni shrine, the Bridge of the Imams arches over the Tigris River toward the Shiite neighborhood of Kadhimiyah. There, the Mahdi Army, led by Shiite cleric Sadr, rules. In a region awash in sectarian currents, many Awakening leaders are suspicious of Iran's growing power, convinced that it backs Shiite militias and its intentions are to control Iraq's government and undermine the Sunni world. "If they don't cleanse Iraq from Iranian influence, at any moment we can be attacked," Hadi declared. A half-hour later, he stared across the barricaded bridge toward Kadhimiyah. "Of course, we will fight them if they choose to come over here," Hadi said. "Even children will fight the Mahdi Army. Even the Americans will join us." Salah al-Obaidi, Sadr's chief spokesman in Najaf, said the government and U.S. military were "opening the doors for al-Qaeda followers and killers of Shiites" to reemerge as the Awakening movement. "It will lead Iraq into more trouble," Obaidi warned. A Community 'Up for Grabs' Suleiman, the Anbar tribal chief, and other Awakening leaders are trying to leverage their community's growing street power into political clout in Baghdad. Under U.S. pressure, the government has hired 23,000 Anbar fighters into the police force. But Suleiman is expecting a lot more in return. "We're asking the Americans and Iraqi government, 'Where is the reconstruction?' " Suleiman said. Last month, the Awakening's political arm recommended 15 people to fill ministerial positions left empty by the Tawafaq, the main Sunni political bloc, which pulled out of the government in August. "We're at a period when the Sunni community is a bit up for grabs right now in terms of leadership," said a senior U.S. diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity. The tribal chiefs view the Tawafaq politicians as outsiders because many were in exile during Hussein's reign. The Tawafaq bloc is also widely believed to have insurgent links. "The Tawafaq are not able to represent the needs of the people," said Hameed al-Haies, a burly Anbar tribal leader who survived three assassination attempts by al-Qaeda in Iraq. The latest left a bullet scar on his chest. "The people like us a lot. They think we are the spark that helped Iraq." Tawafaq leader Adnan al-Dulaimi said that his group's members welcomed the Awakening's political involvement but added that the 2005 elections, in which Tawafaq won 44 parliamentary seats, were proof that the bloc had "wide support among the Sunni society." "No side can say it alone represents all Sunnis," he said. The Awakening movement itself is divided, along lines of tribe, territory, ideology and personality. Not all the Awakening forces report to Suleiman's group. The tribal leaders are wary of the former insurgents once aligned with al-Qaeda in Iraq or former Hussein loyalists. One such person is Abu Abed, a 35-year-old former Hussein-era army sergeant and intelligence officer who controls Baghdad's Amiriyah neighborhood with his Knights of Mesopotamia force. When asked about Abu Abed, Rasheed Jubair, a senior Anbar Awakening leader, said: "If he does something wrong, I will break his back. We don't accept anyone to go beyond the law." Mutual Lack of Trust The future of the Sunni community, perhaps of Iraq itself, will likely be shaped by men such as Hassan, the Awakening fighter in Maderiyah. For the past few months, he has tried to join the Iraqi security forces, but he has had no response. Neither have his comrades or Hadi's men. "I do not trust this government," Hassan said. "It is based on religion, ethnicity, and they just do not want to share power with us." The government is worried that the Sunni fighters could turn against it when U.S. troops pull out of Iraq. In public statements, government officials warned they would not permit the Awakening movement to become "a third force" alongside the police and army. If he does not get a government job, Ahmed Nadji, a 20-year-old Awakening fighter, predicted this scenario: "We will quit. Al-Qaeda will come back again. Adhamiyah will go back to chaos again. The Iraqis who have returned from Syria will go back again. Everything will collapse again." Yet that grim scenario is also why his community's newly empowered leaders are optimistic. "The government has no choice but to accept us," Suleiman said. "They have seen what we have done, how strong we are on the land. The political process cannot run without us." Special correspondent Zaid Sabah in Baghdad contributed to this report. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080108571958.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1554517_AEr PjkQAACANR4O2vQc5C1B8fGI&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080108aaindex_concat.html&cred=OzdDpqjWVuJWucQb _i8OfOjIZGgQac4F3UtjF4EJVGu5YhUO4iW6kz0avUwWKRBB#T OP">RETURN TO TOP New York Times January 8, 2008 Pg. 9 Suicide Bomber Kills Key Sunni Leader By Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Mudhafer al-Husaini BAGHDAD — Militants assassinated two key leaders of American-backed neighborhood militias in northern Baghdad over the past two days, highlighting the militants’ strategy of eliminating militia commanders who have embraced partnerships with American forces but who themselves remain vulnerable to attack. On Monday morning, a suicide bomber on foot killed Col. Riyadh al-Samarrai, a founder of the Sunni Awakening Council in Adhamiya, a Sunni stronghold that until recently was a haven for insurgents. The Awakening Councils are groups of Sunni — and in some cases Shiite — fighters who have renounced ties to insurgents and are now on the payroll of the American military, standing guard in areas that not long ago were controlled by militants. The bomber struck at the offices of the Sunni Endowment, one of the most powerful Sunni institutions in Iraq and an influential backer of the new Sunni alliances with American forces. The suicide blast and a nearly simultaneous car bombing just yards away killed 14 people and wounded 18 others. On Sunday, gunmen riding in a single car and brandishing pistols with silencers killed a founder of the Awakening movement in Shaab, Ismael Abbas, an Interior Ministry official said. Shaab is a large and predominantly Shiite district in northern Baghdad that is near Adhamiya. Over the weekend, militants distributed leaflets in Shaab warning that Awakening members would be killed for “protecting” the Americans. The killings punctuated a wave of violence that has unfolded in the capital and left more than 30 people dead over the past two days, chipping away at the relative lull the city enjoyed late last year. On Monday alone there were eight other bombings — in addition to the Adhamiya attacks — that killed at least four people and wounded 23. Gunmen kidnapped eight Awakening Council guards in Shaab, and over the past two days the police have discovered the bodies of 13 men strewn about the city who all appeared to have been killed at close range. Attacks are rising on Awakening Council members — fighters whose presence in volatile neighborhoods has been credited with helping bring about a sharp decline in violence. In another such assassination, gunmen on Sunday burst into the home of an Awakening leader in the volatile city of Baquba, north of Baghdad, killing him and his wife, according to the police in Diyala Province. “The suicide attacks will go on, because the enemy does exist and no one can neglect this truth,” said Bassim al-Azawi, a senior member of the Adhamiya Awakening Council. He vowed that despite Colonel Samarrai’s death, the “work of the Awakening will go on.” While there is no concrete evidence pointing to who is carrying out the attacks, the string of assassinations has come on the heels of Osama bin Laden’s condemnation of Awakening Councils and his warning that their members will lose “this world and the afterlife.” The most striking of the recent attacks was Monday’s killing of Colonel Samarrai. The militants were able to kill a skilled and experienced commander who had been entrusted with providing security for one of the most powerful Sunni leaders in Iraq. In addition to leading the Adhamiya Awakening Council, Colonel Samarrai was a close aide and security adviser to the leader of the Sunni Endowment, Sheik Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samarrai. The sheik has angered hard-line Sunni leaders in recent months by openly promoting Sunni Awakening groups. Colonel Samarrai was also in charge of a detachment of government forces who guard the offices of the Sunni Endowment, which administers Sunni mosques throughout Iraq. According to witnesses and Awakening officials, Colonel Samarrai’s assassin, who appeared to be acquainted with the colonel, waited patiently inside the main gate of the offices of the Sunni Endowment. When Colonel Samarrai emerged from a meeting inside the building, the killer walked up, began to embrace him, and then yanked the trigger on his hidden explosive belt. Witnesses said the colonel’s bodyguards did not try to stop the bomber, suggesting that he was known to people at the endowment, and raising fears of complicity from within. “He reached him easily and was about to shake hands and hug him,” said Tariq Abed, a laborer at the endowment offices who suffered wounds to his face and shoulder. He said that judging by the ease of the assassin’s approach, he must have been friends with the colonel. The attack was closely coordinated with a car bombing minutes later outside the gate that killed several people who had rushed to the scene, and damaged trucks carrying victims of the first bombing to the hospital. Sheik Ghafour told Iraqi state-run television on Monday night that he believed Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia was responsible for the attacks. Numbering well into the thousands, the members of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia are overwhelmingly Iraqi, but American intelligence officials say they believe that the group has foreign-born leaders. Last week, Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner, chief American military spokesman in Iraq, said the pace of attacks against Awakening fighters was “perhaps one of the clearest indications of the importance that these Awakening movements and concerned local citizens are having on improving the security situation in Iraq.” Victims of the two blasts were taken to Numan Hospital in Adhamiya. Squads of Awakening fighters followed closely behind in pickup trucks. They removed wooden coffins and carried them inside the hospital to gather the remains of their friends. Fears ran high that another bomber would attack, and Awakening guards blocked even anxious relatives from entering the hospital. Family members stood outside, sobbing or talking on cellphones. One woman pleaded to see her son Ahmed, who she said was being treated inside. “He’s a young guy, and he’s never done anything bad,” she said. One of the Awakening guards did not want to tell her the grim news. “Poor woman,” he said, when she was out of earshot. “I took him to the hospital myself and he was already dead.” Reporting was contributed by Khalid al-Ansary, Karim Hilmi, Abeer Mohammed and Qais Mizher. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080108572081.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1554517_AEr PjkQAACANR4O2vQc5C1B8fGI&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilename= e20080108aaindex_concat.html&cred=OzdDpqjWVuJWucQb _i8OfOjIZGgQac4F3UtjF4EJVGu5YhUO4iW6kz0avUwWKRBB#T OP">RETURN TO TOP Los Angeles Times January 8, 2008 Bomber Kills Security Figure In Baghdad The leader of a citizens group allied against insurgents is among at least 18 slain in eight blasts in the capital. By Kimi Yoshino, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer BAGHDAD — The suicide bomber walked straight to the Sunni Arab leader of a group battling Al Qaeda in Iraq, shook his target's hand and detonated the explosives wrapped around his body. Minutes later, as survivors were being moved to safety, witnesses said a second suicide attacker drove into the north Baghdad compound and set off his explosives. The apparently coordinated attack killed at least 14 people, including Col. Riyadh Samarrai, commander of the Adhamiya neighborhood's citizens security group, police and government officials said. The U.S. military immediately denounced the attack on the American-backed neighborhood group, blaming Al Qaeda in Iraq for finding "new depths of depravity" to fight those who reject its ideology. By evening, eight bombs had exploded in Baghdad neighborhoods east of the Tigris River, killing at least 18 people and injuring more than three dozen. Some officials put the death toll as high as 25 and the injury count at more than 50. In a separate incident, 20 gunmen ambushed a security checkpoint manned by members of another neighborhood patrol in northeastern Baghdad, kidnapping eight of them, Iraqi government officials said. Samarrai's assassination in the Sabaa Abkar area just outside of Adhamiya comes as the U.S. military has been heralding the rise of citizens groups, known as Awakening Councils, as a key reason for a reduction in violence. The attack came nine days after Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden threatened to punish those who aid Americans. Since Bin Laden's threat, the attacks have been hitting the capital almost daily. A suicide bomber targeted a funeral, killing at least 34 people on New Year's Day. On Sunday, at least three Iraqi soldiers were killed in the middle of an Army Day celebration, moments a |
