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Please scroll down to read the Headlines; Then to read Entire News Article, further scroll down. URL's will not link on in the format recieved.GATES TRIP - 1. Gates Says U.S. Could Eye Expanded Afghanistan Role
(New York Times on the Web)...Reuters
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday the United States could consider taking over NATO's command in southern Afghanistan, where some NATO allies have been reluctant to provide combat forces.
- 2. Gates: Expanding US Command In Afghanistan Is Possibility
(Washingtonpost.com)...Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press
The idea of giving the U.S. military more authority in areas of Afghanistan now under NATO command is "worth taking a look at," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday.
AFGHANISTAN - 4. Narrow Mission For Marines In Lush Afghan Poppy Fields
(Houston Chronicle)...Jason Straziuso, Associated Press
...The British military is responsible for Helmand Province, but its 7,500 soldiers, along with 2,500 Canadian troops in neighboring Kandahar, hasn't been enough manpower to tame Afghanistan's south. So the 2,400-strong 24th Marines have come to help. The push into Garmser is their first mission since arriving from the U.S. last month, and it is the farthest south that American troops have been in several years.
IRAQ - 7. Ex-Qaida Sector Shows Safety Gains
(Arizona Daily Star (Tucson))...Wire Reports
...Residents credit the recent security gains to when U.S.-backed Iraqi forces entered the district in December and to the formation of an "awakening council," a U.S.-allied Sunni armed group that's charged with fighting al-Qaida in Iraq. Now all the area needs is better services, residents say: cleaner water, regular electricity, better-equipped hospitals and schools. And the recent signs of safety are meant to persuade the central government to provide just that.
- 8. Shi'ite Clerics Differ On Showdown
(Boston Globe)...Selcan Hacaoglu, Associated Press
Shi'ite clerics offered sharply different visions yesterday in the showdown between government forces and Shi'ite militias - one predicting that armed groups will be crushed in Baghdad and another calling for the prime minister to be prosecuted for crimes against his people.
- 9. Measuring Iraq's Security Forces
(Time)...Abigail Hauslohner
...Pentagon officials estimate that only two-thirds of Iraqi troops show up for duty at all. This bodes ill for Iraq's security environment, which has deteriorated sharply since the start of the year. Many of the gains of the surge have already been lost; suicide attacks are up, and the rate of Iraqi and U.S. casualties has climbed. American troops, stretched to the limit, need the Iraqis to do more of the heavy lifting.
- 10. Religious Freedom Group Mulls Downgrade Of Iraq
(Washington Times)...Agence France-Presse
A U.S. government watchdog on religious freedom yesterday expressed serious concern over violations in Iraq and was considering whether to place it on a blacklist with countries such as North Korea and Iran.
CONGRESS - 11. War-Funding Rift Intensifies
(Wall Street Journal)...John D. McKinnon and Sarah Lueck
The Bush administration warned it will start furloughing civilian Defense Department employees to save money unless Congress quickly passes a new round of funds for the Iraq war, escalating a clash that has risks for both parties.
- 12. Bush Requests $70 Billion In War Funding
(Philadelphia Inquirer)...Andrew Taylor, Associated Press
President Bush sent lawmakers a $70 billion request yesterday to fund U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan into next spring, which would give the next president breathing room to set his or her own war policy.
- 13. Air Force Tanker Project Clears Panel
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer)...Eric Rosenberg
A team of Northrop Grumman and EADS cleared a key legislative hurdle when lawmakers announced Thursday that the Senate Armed Services Committee has approved startup funding for a new fleet of Air Force tankers.
- 14. Snowe Seeks Help Transporting Troops
(Bangor Daily News)...Aimee Dolloff
U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe is calling on Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to deploy all available military aircraft, including the Maine Air National Guard, to bring home soldiers who have completed their tour of duty but temporarily are stranded in Iraqi and Afghan airports.
- 15. House Calls For Probe Of War Analysts
(Tampa Tribune)...Associated Press
Forty-one House members are calling on the Defense Department inspector general to investigate a public relations effort that relied on retired military officers to defend the administration's Iraq war policies.
ARMY - 16. Fort Huachuca To Get Wind-Power Plant
(Arizona Daily Star (Tucson))...Jack Gillum
A Massachusetts wind-power company announced this week that it will build a power plant at Fort Huachuca, part of a larger effort by the base to go "green" while cutting costs.
- 17. Soldier Released While Clemency Weighed
(Atlanta Journal-Constitution)...Moni Basu
...Pvt. Christopher Phillip Shore, 26, convicted of aggravated assault at a February court-martial, was serving out a 120-day jail sentence. But late Thursday, the commander of the 25th Infantry Division, Brig. Gen. Mick Bednarek, deferred the sentence until he issues a final decision on clemency for Shore.
- 18. Temporarily Spared Call-Up
(Buffalo News)...Lou Michel
James Raymond, the disabled Army veteran fighting to remain a student at the University at Buffalo, won a temporary reprieve Wednesday of an order that could send him to Iraq.
- 19. Army Corps Ruled Eligible For Flood Claims
(Washington Post)...Unattributed
The Army Corps of Engineers can be held liable for flood damage caused by a "hurricane highway," a navigation channel that is believed to have funneled Hurricane Katrina's storm surge into the city, a federal judge ruled.
- 20. Uranium-Tainted Sand Makes Way To Dump
(Atlanta Journal-Constitution)...Unattributed
Nearly 80 rail cars loaded with contaminated sand from a U.S. Army base in Kuwait are headed to a hazardous waste dump 70 miles southeast of Boise, Idaho, officials said. The sand from Camp Doha absorbed depleted uranium after ammunition caught fire.
MARINE CORPS NAVY - 23. USS North Carolina Ceremony Set
(Raleigh (NC) News-Observer)...Richard Stradling
The USS North Carolina, the NavyÃÔ newest nuclear-powered submarine, will be commissioned Saturday during a ceremony in Wilmington.
ASIA/PACIFIC - 25. Marines' Move To Guam May Be Delayed
(Japan Times)...Kyodo
A plan to relocate U.S. Marines to Guam from Okinawa Prefecture by 2014 is facing delays due to the new host site's lack of infrastructure and fiscal constraints on the part of both governments, a U.S. government agency said Thursday.
- 26. Japan: U.S. Serviceman Faces Sexual Assault Charge
(New York Times)...Reuters
The police in northern Japan arrested a 22-year-old United States serviceman and charged him with sexually assaulting a woman, in the latest in a string of such cases involving the American military that have angered the Japanese.
- 27. Pakistani Judges To Return May 12
(Philadelphia Inquirer)...Associated Press
Pakistan's new leaders have set May 12 as the date to restore judges ousted by President Pervez Musharraf, a top official said yesterday, further threatening Musharraf's already diminished grip on power.
- 28. Dalai Lama Envoys Ready For Talks
(Atlanta Journal-Constitution)...Unattributed
The Dalai Lama's envoys headed for China to hold the first talks with Chinese officials since violent protests erupted in Tibet. China has faced more calls to negotiate with Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, and many believe it agreed to the talks in a bid to ease the pressure ahead of the Beijing Olympics.
MIDEAST - 29. New Incentives Are Offered To Iran
(Wall Street Journal)...Jay Solomon
Following months of stalled nuclear talks with Tehran, the U.S. and other world powers are offering new economic incentives to Iran in the hope of gaining its willingness to freeze an accelerating program to develop a nuclear-fuel cycle, say U.S. and European officials.
- 30. Palestinian Recruits Hit Streets Unprepared
(Washington Post)...Griff Witte and Ellen Knickmeyer
The first class of Palestinian security officers trained under a multimillion-dollar U.S. program to strengthen the Palestinian Authority is deploying to one of the West Bank's most restive cities without promised supplies of body armor, helmets or even flashlights after Israel blocked a shipment of equipment.
- 31. Bomb Kills 18 Outside Mosque
(Washington Times)...Unattributed
A bomb rigged to a motorcycle blew up amid a crowd of worshippers leaving Friday prayers at a mosque in a rebel stronghold of northern Yemen, killing at least 18 people and wounding about four dozen, officials said.
AFRICA - 32. Islamist Insurgents Threaten Revenge
(Washington Times)...Unattributed
A U.S. air strike that killed the suspected al Qaeda leader in Somalia brought warnings of vengeance from Islamic insurgents yesterday and the threat of a boycott that could jeopardize peace talks with the U.N.-supported government.
- 33. Sudan: Officials Killed In Plane Crash
(New York Times)...Reuters
Southern SudanÃÔ minister of defense, Dominic Dim, and a presidential adviser, Justin Yak, were among at least 23 people killed in a plane crash near the southern town of Rumbek, officials of the southern government said.
LEGAL AFFAIRS - 34. Feds In New York: Afghan Tribal Chief Had Strong Links To Taliban
(Arizona Daily Star (Tucson))...Associated Press
An Afghan tribal chief facing heroin smuggling charges in New York tried to improve his lot after his arrest by giving investigators information about the whereabouts of the supreme leader of the Taliban, the government said in court papers.
VIETNAM WAR - 35. Returning To His Band Of Brothers
(Philadelphia Inquirer)...Tom Infield
For nearly 40 years, Cpl. Michael Crescenz had lain beside a quiet road in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery just over the border from Philadelphia. Yesterday, beneath bright sunshine, and escorted by a phalanx of police officers and Vietnam veterans riding motorcycles, Crescenz began a journey that will take him to a new resting place at Arlington National Cemetery.
BUSINESS - 36. Pentagon Clears Lockheed Program
(Washington Post)...Unattributed
The Defense Department gave Lockheed Martin the green light to continue work on a $6.1 billion cruise missile program that has been hindered by cost overruns and performance shortfalls.
- 37. Checklist
(Washington Times)...Unattributed
KBR Inc., the military and engineering contractor, said its first-quarter profit more than tripled to $98 million (58 cents), helped by a gain from an arbitration award. The former Halliburton subsidiary remains the Pentagon's biggest private contractor in Iraq.
OPINION - 38. The Truth About Iraq's Casualty Count
(Wall Street Journal)...Max Boot
...The ongoing operations could still fail. But if they succeed, the result would be greater fracturing of the Mahdist forces and more government control of Sadr City, an area of some two million people that has been effectively run by the Sadrists since 2003. This would represent a major achievement, because, as al Qaeda in Iraq has lost strength in the past year (thanks in large part to the surge), the Shiite extremists have become the major remaining threat.
- 39. The Half-Won, Half-Lost War
(Washington Times)...Victor Davis Hanson
The gloomy election-year refrain is that America is mired in Iraq, took its eye off Afghanistan, empowered Iran and is losing the war on terror. But how accurate is that pessimistic diagnosis?
- 41. Russia: The Missing Debate
(International Herald Tribune)...Stephen F. Cohen
None of the U.S. presidential candidates has seriously addressed, or seems fully aware of, what should be America's greatest foreign-policy concern - Russia's unique capacity to endanger or enhance U.S. national security.
- 42. The View From Kabul -- (Letter)
(New York Times)...Humayun Hamidzada
...It is absolutely vital that we continue our collective military operations to root out the sworn enemies of Afghanistan and the civilized world. Our partnership with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force and coalition forces remains strong and unwavering.
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New York Times on the Web
May 2, 2008
Gates Says U.S. Could Eye Expanded Afghanistan Role
TEXARKANA, Texas (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday the United States could consider taking over NATO's command in southern Afghanistan, where some NATO allies have been reluctant to provide combat forces.
But Gates said the Pentagon would consult closely with NATO allies, particularly those countries with combat forces in the southern region, before making any decision to alter its military role in the country.
Southern Afghanistan, which has seen the worst of a rising tide of Taliban violence, is now under NATO command. Britain, Canada, the Netherlands and Australia all have forces in the region.
"This is a matter that's going to be looked at over probably some period of time primarily because it requires consultation with our allies," Gates told reporters when asked to comment on discussion at the Pentagon about the possibility of taking over command in southern Afghanistan.
"It certainly is worth taking a look at," he added.
The United States has 34,000 troops in Afghanistan under two commands.
About 16,000 soldiers under U.S. European Command serve as part of a 47,000-strong NATO force. A further 18,000 U.S. troops are in the country separately under U.S. Central Command.
Gates was speaking during a visit to the Red River Army Depot in Texarkana, where the U.S. Army refurbishes and re-equips fighting vehicles for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
"We need to look also at some of our own command and control arrangements. For example, does it continue to make sense to have two combatant commands involved in one country?" the defense chief said.
"We're basically just trying to see how do you best provide for unity of command, how do you have the most effective operations possible in Afghanistan," he added.
Violence in Afghanistan has risen sharply over the past two years to the highest level since U.S.-led forces invaded the country in 2001 and toppled the Taliban government in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
The United States has begun to increase its troop presence in the south where some NATO countries have been reluctant to send forces.
Canada threatened briefly to withdraw its 2,500 soldiers from southern Afghanistan unless more NATO troops were sent to the region.
The Canadians relented last month when France offered several hundred additional soldiers. But the French forces will go to eastern Afghanistan, allowing some of the U.S. troops deployed there to reinforce the Canadians in the south.
About 2,000 of 3,200 U.S. Marines the Pentagon decided to send to Afghanistan earlier this year on a temporary deployment are also assigned to combat duties in the southern region.
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Washingtonpost.com
May 2, 2008
Gates: Expanding US Command In Afghanistan Is Possibility
By Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press
TEXARKANA, Texas -- The idea of giving the U.S. military more authority in areas of Afghanistan now under NATO command is "worth taking a look at," Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday.
It was the first time Gates had indicated he was receptive to the idea, which has not yet been developed into a formal proposal but is under active discussion in the Pentagon.
Gates spoke to a group of reporters outside the Red River Army Depot, where he was getting a firsthand look at the Army's work restoring and repairing vehicles, like the Humvee, that are used heavily in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Taliban resistance has stiffened in southern Afghanistan since NATO took command there in mid-2006. Some in the Pentagon believe the fight against the Taliban could be strengthened if the U.S., whose span of control is now limited to eastern Afghanistan, were also in charge in part or all of the south.
The internal Pentagon discussions reflect concern at a lack of continuity among NATO forces and a view that, in the long run, NATO may be better off focusing mainly on areas of Afghanistan, like the north and west, where there is less fighting but a great need for noncombat aid.
Changing the command structure to give a U.S. general more control in the south would, in effect, mark a partial "re-Americanization" of the combat mission. That could be politically controversial, given U.S. interests in maintaining close ties with NATO in fighting terrorism.
NATO now has overall responsibility for the mission in Afghanistan, and that would not change if a U.S. general were put in charge in the southern sector. But it would give the Americans a greater degree of control.
Gates indicated he did not expect the idea of changing some of the command arrangements to lead to final decisions any time soon.
"I think that this is a matter that is going to get looked at over probably some period of time," he said. "It will require consultation with our allies, particularly our partners in regional command south," referring to an area of southern Afghanistan that is currently under the command of a Canadian general and is due to switch to a Dutch commander before the end of this year.
Gates said there are other aspects of the command arrangement in Afghanistan that should be reviewed.
"We need to take a look also at some of our own command and control arrangements," he said. "For example, does it make sense to have two combatant commands involved in one country?" Gates was referring to the fact that Afghanistan itself is in the command area of U.S. Central Command, although the U.S. European Command is also involved because of the presence of NATO forces.
Gates was asked whether political sensitivities in NATO might make it impossible to agree on a wider U.S. command role.
"We are basically just trying to see, how do you best provide for unity of command? How do you have the most effective operations possible in Afghanistan?" he replied. "We won't do anything without prior consultation with our allies."
AP Military Writer Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report. http://ebird.afis.mil/ebfiles/e20080503598254.html <A href="http://68.142.200.12/us.f318.mail.yahoo.com/ya/securedownload?clean=0&fid=Inbox&mid=1_1820649_AED PjkQAAFBDSB0Qyg1JrVW%2BZDw&pid=2&tnef=&prefFilenam e=e20080503aaindex_concat.html&cred=a7fb2l8PA3xIKf 2PG6C8G825jqP7g50xwZ39XovDm_iNYLH.prPG3JWMjJr6VF#T OP">
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New York Times
May 3, 2008
Pg. 6
Pentagon Considers Adding Forces In Afghanistan To Make Up For NATO Shortfall
By Steven Lee Myers and Thom Shanker
WASHINGTON The Pentagon is considering sending as many as 7,000 more American troops to Afghanistan next year to make up for a shortfall in contributions from NATO allies, senior Bush administration officials said.
They said the step would push the number of American forces there to roughly 40,000, the highest level since the war began more than six years ago, and would require at least a modest reduction in troops from Iraq.
The planning began in recent weeks, reflecting a growing resignation to the fact that NATO is unable or unwilling to contribute more troops despite public pledges of an intensified effort in Afghanistan from the presidents and prime ministers who attended an alliance summit meeting in Bucharest, Romania, last month.
The shortfalls in troop commitments have cast doubt on claims by President Bush and his aides that NATO was stepping up to provide more help in Afghanistan, where the government of President Hamid Karzai faces a resurgent threat from the Taliban and remnants of Al Qaeda.
The increasing proportion of United States troops, from about half to about two-thirds of the foreign troops in Afghanistan, would be likely to result in what one senior administration official described as ÅÕhe re-Americanization of the war.
ŵhere are simply going to be more American forces than weÃ×e ever had there, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing future military planning.
A dozen NATO countries have pledged a total of about 2,000 troops, according to senior NATO officials, who provided the information on condition of anonymity according to standard diplomatic rules. Senior alliance commanders in Afghanistan have said they need about 10,000 more troops.
Only one country so far has actually begun preparing more troops to deploy: France, which is sending 700 to Afghanistan, NATO officials said.
Few of the additional troops are expected to arrive any time soon, the officials added.
Officials stressed that no formal new American deployment plans for Afghanistan had been presented to the Pentagon or the White House, and that the decision could be left to the next president, though they would not rule out the prospect that Mr. Bush would order a troop increase.
Mr. Bush has long faced criticism that the Iraq war distracted the country from confronting the Qaeda threat in Afghanistan, and Democrats as well as Republicans have expressed general support for shifting more attention to Afghanistan.
There are about 62,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, about 34,000 of them American, up from just 25,000 American troops in 2005. The American troops are divided into a force of 16,000 who operate under NATO command and 18,000 who conduct counterterrorism and other missions under American command outside the NATO structure, according to Pentagon statistics. The initial planning under way would send about two additional brigades of American forces, or about 7,000 troops, to Afghanistan next year. That would meet two-thirds of what commanders have portrayed in recent months as a shortfall of three brigades, or about 10,000 troops, including combat forces, trainers, intelligence officers and crews for added helicopters and troop carriers.
Bush administration officials initially argued that NATO should fill that void, because the American military was overextended in Iraq. And publicly, the administration has remained mostly supportive of the alliance effort, with the national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, declaring at the NATO meeting last month that in addressing the problems in Afghanistan, ůATOÃÔ answer today is help is on the way.Æû/P>The weeks leading up to the meeting included intense lobbying to increase troop commitments and lift some restrictions on how national troops operate and where. Over a private dinner in Bucharest, Mr. Bush and other leaders listened to their counterparts make their pledges. Only France announced its pledge publicly.
According to an accounting of the pledges compiled by NATO officials at the end of the meeting, Georgia, whose application for a fast track to membership was rebuffed, pledged 500 troops. Poland pledged 400 in addition to the 1,000 there now to operate and maintain eight helicopters. The Czech Republic pledged 120 special operations soldiers.
Italy, Romania and Greece made promises for military or police training teams. Azerbaijan, not a member of NATO, offered to more than double its current force, adding 45 troops. New Zealand offered ÅÂ modest increase to support a civil provincial reconstruction team. Two other nations promised to consider contributions but asked NATO leaders not to disclose their pledges because of their domestic political situations.
The results of the NATO session disappointed commanders in Afghanistan. A NATO military spokesman issued a diplomatically worded statement this week. Ūn the run-up to and during the Bucharest meeting, nations added extra contributions, the statement from Kabul said. Å©owever, shortfalls still exist.Æû/P>Julianne Smith, director of the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a nonpartisan policy institute, said the meeting did not live up to the expectations or the public celebration during the session.
Ūf you look at what the NATO commanders got, itÃÔ hard to see the silver lining, she said.
As with previous shortfalls in NATO commitments, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates could be prompted to fill the void, perhaps deploying other American forces to replace the 3,200 marines who arrived in recent weeks in what was described as a one-time, seven-month stop-gap deployment.
Mr. Gates did say publicly last month that the United States was prepared to commit additional forces to Afghanistan in 2009, but he put no number on the anticipated American troop increase.
A senior Pentagon official said Mr. Gates made the announcement after consulting with Mr. Bush, arguing for a public statement that would prove to NATO allies that the United States remained wholly committed to the Afghan mission despite strains of the war in Iraq.
Senior officials said the 7,000 troops were about the most the American military could add to Afghanistan in 2009.
After the offensive to rout Al Qaeda and its Taliban sponsors in Afghanistan following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, American forces steadily rose to about 5,000 by March of 2002, according to government statistics. American deployments increased to 16,000 by March of 2003, and then dropped for a year during the initial phase of combat in Iraq. The American commitment to Afghanistan rose again, to about 25,000, in 2005.
Officials said preliminary discussions were under way within the Pentagon as to whether, and how, the command structure in Afghanistan might be altered to fit the new reality of a greater American presence. But officials stressed that these talks were also in their initial stages.
Representative Adam Smith, a Democrat from Washington who recently toured Afghanistan, complained that NATOÃÔ commitment was ÅÔtill not what it should be. But he praised the deployment of the 3,200 marines, who have been operating in volatile areas near Kandahar. ŵhat is potentially a game changer, he said in an interview.
Mr. Bush, at a Rose Garden news conference this week, appeared to be laying the groundwork for a long-term mission in Afghanistan.
Ū wish we had completely eliminated the radicals who kill innocent people to achieve objectives, but that hasnÃÕ happened yet, he said Tuesday. Å¢nd so I think itÃÔ very much in our interests to continue helping the young democracy. And we will.Æû/P>
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Houston Chronicle
May 3, 2008
Narrow Mission For Marines In Lush Afghan Poppy Fields
Troops battle Taliban, leaving alone illegal crops, in skirmishes in the volatile south
By Jason Straziuso, Associated Press
GARMSER, AFGHANISTAN Gunfire zings in near Sgt. Dan Linas' patrol, pinning his squad down against a dirt berm. The Marines peer across the field to their left, at three mud huts and a grove of trees, searching for the muzzle flash. Then they cut loose with their M-16s.
The sun is barely up, but for the men of Bravo Company's 2nd Platoon, the firefight proves just the first in a series of skirmishes Friday that will see Marines unleash earsplitting barrages of machine-gun fire, mortars and artillery, most of which land just 600 yards away.
To the east, north and south lie bountiful fields of opium poppies, to the west an unseen enemy.
Airstrikes and artillery have thundered around this southern Afghan town since several companies of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit took the offensive before dawn Tuesday and swept into Garmser, which sits in Taliban territory where no NATO troops had ventured.
Moving into the south
The British military is responsible for Helmand Province, but its 7,500 soldiers, along with 2,500 Canadian troops in neighboring Kandahar, hasn't been enough manpower to tame Afghanistan's south. So the 2,400-strong 24th Marines have come to help.
The push into Garmser is their first mission since arriving from the U.S. last month, and it is the farthest south that American troops have been in several years. Most of the 33,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan operate along the border with Pakistan.
Some of the men in the 24th Marines have seen combat in the toughest parts of Iraq, and their commanders hope that experience will help calm the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.
The Marines in Garmser do not plan a long stay. Their only mission is to open the road for a Marine convoy. They sit and defend the 10-foot-wide lane of dirt.
After returning fire from the berm across the empty field, the men under Linas a 21-year-old from Richmond, Va. jog 100 yards to the platoon command center, where Marines in the lookout post provide covering machine-gun fire.
The platoon mortar team then dials in coordinates and fires off shells in high arcs toward the suspected location of Taliban fighters, throwing up puffs of smoke in the field. There is no way to tell if any militants are hit.
In the foreground, perhaps 40 yards from the Marines' post, a half dozen Afghan men work in their illegal poppy fields, slicing the bulbs to coax out opium resin that will be used to make heroin. They look up as the mortars boom out, then go back to work.
Mere moments later, the Marines hear a rocket being fired in the distance. Everyone rushes for cover, pushing themselves up against mud walls or down into trenches. The boom of exploding missile rattles the outpost but it's a couple hundred yards off target.
'Pure harassment'
A wave of gunfire rings out as Marines react, until sergeants shout for the men to cease fire. One Marine infantryman with a team still on the berm states the obvious: "They missed."
Capt. Charles O'Neill, the company commander, says all-day potshots by Taliban fighters are little more than nuisance attacks. The militants use binoculars and have forward observers with cell phones to try to aim better at the Marines, he says.
"This is pure asymmetric harassment," he says. "They'll pop out of a position and fire a rocket or mortar."
The Marines don't move into the field to take on the Taliban at close range. Their mission is to open the road that goes through Garmser, and nothing more. NATO troops are not authorized to eradicate poppy crops, and the Marines have assured farmers their fields won't be touched.
At the end of the day, no Marines are hurt or wounded. The Taliban casualty count is not known.
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Christian Science Monitor
May 2, 2008
What Ready Looks Like: Training The Afghan Army
Linchpin In Afghan Security: A Better Police Force
The US is stepping up police training to change a force that has a reputation among Afghans as corrupt and often ineffective.
By Gordon Lubold, Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Sham Muqeem, Afghanistan - It took months to build the modest brick schoolhouse out here on the edge of these isolated flatlands, but only one night for militants to try to burn it down.
When Afghan police accompanied US police advisers to investigate the next day, they learned the attackers had succeeded only in temporarily sabotaging the project, tying up a handful of construction workers before burning the wooden window frames and a few wheelbarrows.
Moving around amid the charred steel and burned rubber, the local police attempted to interview witnesses inside the school's courtyard. But it was the US advisers working just outside the school who buttonholed the school principal to determine who might really have been responsible.
Such work is not the most sought-after assignment for American troops deployed to Afghanistan. But it has become a crucial one, as recognition emerges that the US has to step up the training of police as part of a broader effort to stabilize the country in the face of a resurgent Taliban.
Six years into the fight here, American and NATO forces say they have put the Afghan National Army on a track toward success. But the police seen by some as more important to taming an insurgency still lag far behind. Now coalition forces are trying to make up for lost time, and training the police has become a top priority.
The urgency of the task is felt by instructors here. The just-released annual US State Department report about the Taliban's impact, citing UN-compiled figures, said militants staged some 140 suicide bomb attacks this year that inflicted large civilian casualties. Militia groups that include the Taliban, the report stated, have begun to kidnap foreigners and target nongovernmental organizations, UN workers, and others.
The report also noted insurgents' attacks on schools, teachers, and students especially girls. Indeed, American officials say two other schools near here were targeted in recent weeks.
But the investigation of the incident at the school here in Logar Province, south of the capital of Kabul, illustrates the overwhelming challenges of the effort.
"Our goal is to create independence," Maj. Mark Bidwell, a member of the Michigan National Guard who commands the embedded police advisory team that investigated the burned school, says later. "The challenge is giving them the confidence."
Image of corruption
Unlike the Army, in which the public has much confidence, the police have been seen as weak, ineffectual, and corrupt.
"They are thieves," gripes one taxi driver in Kabul. The police often lack weapons or proper training and don't always get paid on time. And until now, they have been a tactical afterthought in the web of competing efforts to make Afghanistan safer.
"We owe them better than this," says Maj. Gen. Robert Cone, who heads the American command that oversees training and equipping of the security forces. "We owe them a fighting chance against the Taliban."
US officials, who took over most of the train-and-equip effort some two years ago, have tried to reinvigorate the police with new initiatives and a fatter budget to put them on par with the more capable Afghan Army. Many police ranks are now paid the same as Army soldiers, who had traditionally received more pay. Coalition troops, some of whom thought they would train the Army, are being diverted to mentor police. That includes a battalion of Marines who arrived in the south last month.
Back to police school
In an indication of the new commitment, one initiative aims to build the police force from the ground up by sending officers who are already trained back to school. Known as the "focused district development program," police are pulled from their provincial, district, and local police stations, revetted and retrained for several weeks, and then returned home. During the process, some lose their jobs, some are promoted, some are demoted, and still others are asked to retire.
The new program only has the capacity to work with a handful of Afghanistan's 364 districts at a time. Five districts are complete and another nine are under way. General Cone says that by 2010, he can have finished training 172 districts. "When you look at this pace and see all the issues and problems that you have, you have to start somewhere and say, 'I'm going to build this thing solid,' " says Cone.
But as advisers like Major Bidwell await that kind of formalized training, they are making do with what they have.
Bidwell arrived here 15 months ago and was told that he would lead a small team of embedded police advisers to help grow the provincial police force. With virtually no advance knowledge of what he was getting into, it became a pickup game. Bidwell soon learned how little the local population was connected to its government.
But recognizing that key to battling an insurgency is making that connection, Bidwell set about inventing the wheel. That meant turning a weak local police force into confident leaders who could enforce laws, help defeat enemies, and convince residents that the police are there to help them.
Bidwell's team created an ad hoc effort to give the police enough basic skills to get by. Local forces of 15 to 20 students are brought in to live at a small base for two weeks. They learn how to perform basic tactical patrols and engage an enemy.
And they have to learn how to shoot.
An Afghan told one American trainer he had had a fair amount of shooting practice, but the trainer had to laugh when he heard where it had been.
"It turned out he was shooting firearms at a wedding," says Spec. Justin Goggans, with the 82nd Airborne, Fort Bragg, N.C.
Morning meeting
Early each morning, the Americans meet with local Afghan police, Army, and intelligence officials at the small base near here.
It's an opportunity for the US trainers improve understanding of how these three entities can coordinate, something that is critical if they are to strengthen the link between them and the local population.
Sitting around a table inside a yellow cement-block building, the men meet to discuss the previous day's events: what enemy activity was spotted, how effective local forces were in patrolling their area, what lessons have been learned.
At one such meeting last month, the Afghan police representative reported solemnly that everything was normal no incidents to report. But American intelligence officials knew there had been a 45-minute firefight at a bridge nearby between Afghan police and enemy militias. One militia member may have been killed.
Lt. Col. Joel Price, who will be Bidwell's replacement, pushed the police representative for details the officer was disinclined to give.
Later, Colonel Price explained that the Afghans are still trying to shed the skin of a Soviet-model chain of command in which information was hoarded at the top and rarely shared with the bottom, where it was most needed. Afghan Army officers seem to understand this more instinctively, many officials say.
Now it's a matter of teaching the police at all levels that this information must be shared so that local militias don't get the upper hand.
"As a mentor, what I'm trying to get these guys to do is to report up from their own men," says Price, a National Guardsmen from Boise, Idaho. "Sometimes, I have to say it every day."
Beyond conventional
Early in the mission under NATO, the German military had assumed primary responsibility for training the police, creating a comprehensive training academy for senior officers. The approach was premised on building a conventional force capable of conducting routine criminal investigations and traffic stops.
But to US officials and others, this didn't address the root cause of police corruption and malfeasance found at the bottom rungs.
That will take years to build. The US funds most of the training but shares the task with a handful of European nations. Kai Eide, the new special representative for Afghan reconstruction under the UN, said Monday that the US needed more assistance. "The US efforts are good, but I would still like the Europeans to do more," he said in Washington.
Corruption remains a central challenge and, some believe, requires nuanced expectations, like the broader effort of training forces here.
One American officer draws a distinction between a police commander who might steal in order to provide for the men under his command, and another commander, who might tip off the Taliban in advance of a particular coalition operation.
That kind of corruption, he insists, can't be tolerated.
"There is functional corruption," he says, "and then there is dysfunctional corruption."
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Los Angeles Times
May 3, 2008
Military's Patience Wears Thin At Baghdad Checkpoint
U.S. soldiers face obstacles of their own at a roadblock on the edge of the militia stronghold of Sadr City.
By Tina Susman, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
BAGHDAD On a smog-choked stretch of "Route Pluto," a street haunted by snipers and bombs on the edge of Sadr City, Army Lt. Matt Vigeant was out in traffic looking for a white Opel.
A suspected Shiite Muslim extremist was expected at a funeral for one of his own, so Vigeant had set up an ad hoc roadblock in hope of nabbing him or other militants expected to be among the mourners.
He grew more frustrated with each passing car.
Frustrated that drivers were breezing through the orange traffic cones he had set up rather than slowly curling around them; frustrated that he had to yell above the belching engines and honking horns to get his soldiers' attention; frustrated that he and his men were risking their lives doing a job more likely to infuriate passers-by than yield results.
Even with a list of suspects and their vehicles and photographs in front of him, Vigeant was doubtful that a big fish would be foolish enough to approach a U.S. checkpoint, especially so close to Sadr City, the sprawling Shiite district where the funeral was being held.
Any militia leader wanted by security forces probably was holed up deep in the neighborhood, where the U.S. military has no permanent presence and, Vigeant said, people are too afraid of cleric Muqtada Sadr or too swayed by his anti-U.S. rhetoric to turn in anyone fighting in his name.
Vigeant's frustration was symbolic of the dilemma facing the U.S. military as it tries to quell violence in Sadr City without further inflaming Sadr loyalists, who want to drive the United States out of Iraq. The military knows that if it pushes too hard, Sadr could cancel a truce he called in August. If it doesn't push hard enough, it risks allowing extremists to continue their attacks.
Whatever it does, it faces the distrust of many Iraqis whose lives have been upended by five years of war, and who see the soldiers more as threats than as do-gooders.
"Some people are grateful, but the closer you get to Sadr City, the more obvious they make their feelings," said Vigeant, who made a point of thanking each driver he stopped and apologizing for the inconvenience. Most responded with polite nods. Some smiled.
"You try to show them you're friendly," he said. "You do all these things to show them we're not here as crusaders, but it gets really frustrating. JAM just has that popular support," he said, using the Arabic-based acronym for Sadr's Mahdi Army, which holds sway in Sadr City.
Attacks have declined since an offensive against Shiite militias launched in late March by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki sparked fierce fighting in the area. But the situation on Route Pluto, as the military calls the multi-lane street where Vigeant set up traffic cones, remains extremely dangerous. In the early days of the offensive, Vigeant said, insurgents dumped piles of trash and concrete slabs along the street to conceal bombs. The closer you got to Sadr City, he said, the worse were the piles.
Vigeant's platoon sergeant was injured in a bomb blast in late March.
"Sometimes I wonder if the people really appreciate what we're trying to do," Vigeant said as traffic zoomed by. "I risk my life every day on the street. My guys risk their lives every day."
As he spoke, Vigeant frequently reminded his men to keep moving to reduce their chances of being hit by sniper fire.
Though they weren't operating in Sadr City, their mission was a direct result of the fighting in the neighborhood. Earlier in the day, Iraqi police had notified U.S. forces that they planned to stake out the funeral of a mid-level militia fighter and could use backup. The U.S. responded with the roadblock on Route Pluto.
The results were at times comic, and at times suspenseful.
Vigeant put two sets of cones about 100 feet apart and then watched in frustration from his Humvee as traffic began driving through them at regular speed.
He got out of the Humvee and walked about 25 feet to an Iraqi police patrol with an interpreter, who explained the cones' purpose and asked for help getting the traffic to go around them, not through them.
Back in the relative security of the Humvee, Vigeant watched as the police officers began stopping each vehicle, creating an instant traffic jam. He got back out, knowing the tie-up would anger motorists and create tensions.
"I want people to get through. I just don't want them to speed. Like him," Vigeant told the Iraqi police as a minivan whizzed between the cones.
Returning to the Humvee, Vigeant had a telephone handset against each ear. One kept him in touch with battalion headquarters, the other with troops at the second set of cones. Two soldiers in full battle gear stood in the street motioning for drivers who matched the suspects' descriptions to pull over.
"Stop that white Toyota truck!" Vigeant shouted urgently to the soldiers nearest his Humvee as a vehicle matching the description of a suspect's truck passed the checkpoint. The soldiers appeared not to hear. Vigeant jumped from his Humvee and dashed down the street after the truck, which stopped before reaching the second set of cones.
The truck was clean, as was its driver.
The next vehicle of interest seemed more promising. It was a white sedan, and again Vigeant hollered for it to pull over.
His temper was wearing thin as the men under his command moved slowly toward the car. A man sat inside, with a woman holding a child in the passenger seat.
It too was clean.
"Is everyone deaf today?" Vigeant shouted as he headed back to his Humvee. He grabbed his phone and sternly lectured the soldier in the other Humvee. "Me having to tell people to do specific things, like, 'Hey come here and search this trunk' -- that's not my job."
The lecture worked, and traffic of interest began gliding to the side of the road under the watch of the U.S. troops. Vans carrying young men were of interest, as were white Opels -- like the car belonging to the suspected extremist.
Elderly drivers were waved on. "Let this one go -- he's too old," Vigeant said as a white sedan with a white-haired man behind the wheel was pulled over.
A call came in that a white Opel was coming down the road. Vigeant was ecstatic. A big catch seemed possible after all.
"I want that more than I've wanted anything else today," he said gleefully, demanding that the vehicle be sent his way.
As it approached, his mood changed.
"That wasn't an Opel!" he bellowed into the handset, and he waved the driver away.
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Arizona Daily Star (Tucson)
May 3, 2008
Ex-Qaida Sector Shows Safety Gains
By Wire Reports
MADAIN, Iraq Just a few months ago, two to three people a day were dying in the Madain district, once a stronghold of al-Qaida in Iraq.
Ammer Abdulrazaq Hamod never left the area, in the southeastern part of Baghdad province, but he was concerned about safety especially for his three children. But now Madain residents are coming out of their homes. Children ride their bikes, and residents mingle downtown.
"My children, they live a normal life," Hamod said. "They are in the street, playing soccer games, going here and there."
Residents credit the recent security gains to when U.S.-backed Iraqi forces entered the district in December and to the formation of an "awakening council," a U.S.-allied Sunni armed group that's charged with fighting al-Qaida in Iraq. Now all the area needs is better services, residents say: cleaner water, regular electricity, better-equipped hospitals and schools. And the recent signs of safety are meant to persuade the central government to provide just that.
"After only one month, terrorist attacks stopped," said Hamod, a member of the council, which is mixed with Sunni and Shiite Muslims, rare among the awakening councils.
Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi, the head of the government's services committee, visited the area Thursday as part of a publicity tour to bring better services into Baghdad's neighborhoods. He led a similar tour in eastern Baghdad's Sadr City.
"The task is monumental, but we have money. We have the support of the U.S. to make it work," Chalabi said.
Other Iraqi officials agreed with Chalabi but were critical of his approach.
Mithal al-Alusi, a secular Sunni lawmaker, said people need hope and jobs to survive.
"We don't need a politician like Ahmad Chalabi telling us this," Alusi said. "We need the government acting on this issue."
Safety in Madain has been shaky for the past few years. A bus targeting awakening council members exploded and killed three people in February. Suicide bombers also have killed people, and insurgents bombed a building, killing several civilians. Several bodies have been found in the area.
But on Thursday the streets of Madain were full of energy. Vendors lined the streets selling food, clothes and toys. A barbershop was open for business, and men waited for haircuts. Women and girls were wandering the streets. Children were playing together apart from adults all over downtown. And filling the streets were men, and even young boys, carrying AK-47 rifles.
Despite the progress, the past danger has had lasting effects.
Residents complained that of the 25 schools in the area, 10 have been destroyed. The hospital has 17 doctors, but most live outside Madain and don't enter the area because of security concerns. There are no beds in the hospital, little equipment and most of the clinics are closed, they said. Electricity a problem in all areas of Iraq is available only from about 8 p.m. until the morning. Many residents were displaced or moved out of the area entirely.
Differing view from clerics
Shiite clerics offered sharply different visions Friday in the showdown between government forces and Shiite militias one predicting that armed groups will be crushed in Baghdad and another calling for the prime minister to be prosecuted for crimes against his people.
The contrasting views given during weekly sermons showed the complexities and risks in the five-week-old crackdown on Shiite militia factions. The clashes have brought deep rifts among Iraq's Shiite majority and have pulled U.S. troops into difficult urban combat in the main militia stronghold in Baghdad.
But Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, shows no indication of easing the pressure on groups including the powerful Mahdi Army led by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
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Boston Globe
May 3, 2008
Shi'ite Clerics Differ On Showdown
At odds over Maliki, outcome
By Selcan Hacaoglu, Associated Press
BAGHDAD - Shi'ite clerics offered sharply different visions yesterday in the showdown between government forces and Shi'ite militias - one predicting that armed groups will be crushed in Baghdad and another calling for the prime minister to be prosecuted for crimes against his people.
The contrasting views - given during weekly sermons - showed the complexities and risks in the five-week-old crackdown on Shi'ite militia factions. The clashes have brought deep rifts among Iraq's Shi'ite majority and have pulled US troops into difficult urban combat in the main militia stronghold in Baghdad.
But Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shi'ite, shows no indication of easing the pressure on groups including the powerful Mahdi Army led by anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Iraqi and US forces are pressing deeper into Sadr City, a slum of 2.5 million people that serves as the Mahdi Army's base in Baghdad. Maliki also is seeking to increase leverage on Iran, which is accused of arming some Shi'ite militia groups.
A five-member Iraqi delegation was sent to Tehran this week trying to try to choke off suspected Iranian aid to militiamen.
Haider al-Ibadi, a lawmaker from the Iraqi prime minister's Dawa party, said the envoys presented a "list of names, training camps and cells linked to Iran" but the "Iranians did not admit anything."
A key aide to Sadr told worshipers that Maliki is following the same path as Saddam Hussein, who persecuted Shi'ites and others seen as threats.
"Al-Maliki should be tried for the crimes he committed against his people," Shi'ite Sheik Asaad al-Nassiri said in a sermon in the city of Kufa, near the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf. Sadr is currently in the Iranian seminary city of Qom.
Nassiri accused the government of "slipping into the same trench the tyrant [Hussein] had slipped into by shedding innocent blood."
Dozens of civilians have been killed in the clashes in Sadr City, which picked up after Sadr threatened last week to wage "open war" on US-led troops and refused to disband the estimated core of 60,000 Mahdi Army fighters.
Maliki, in turn, has accused the militias of using civilians as human shields.
"The government will liberate Sadr City and clear it from gunmen," prominent Shi'ite cleric and lawmaker Jalaleddin Sagheer said during prayers at the Buratha mosque in Baghdad. "Those criminals have stocks of ammunitions but they will run out of ammunition within days."
Sagheer also predicted the government would root out militias controlling other Baghdad neighborhoods. Four Shi'ite extremists were killed yesterday in the western district of Hay al-Amil, a religiously mixed area in southwest Baghdad, police said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to the media.
The US military, meanwhile, blamed Al Qaeda in Iraq for a double suicide bombing Thursday that killed at least 36 people during a wedding procession as people cheered the bride and groom in Balad Ruz, a town northeast of Baghdad.
Al Qaeda insurgents - mostly Sunnis - raked a police car yesterday with automatic weapons, killing eight Iraqi police officers in the town of Qaim on the Syrian border, police said.
In Washington yesterday, President Bush sent lawmakers a $70 billion request to fund US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan into next spring, which would give the next president breathing room to make his or her own war policy.
Yesterday's request fills in the details of the $70 billion placeholder that the White House asked for when it sent its budget to Congress in February. The money is for the budget year that begins Oct. 1.
Congressional analysts say Bush's request would bring the total spending since Sept. 11, 2001, to fight terrorism and conduct the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to $875 billion.
The request comes as Democrats on Capitol Hill are struggling to move Bush's pending $108 billion request for the current year. Democratic leaders say they are likely to add the $70 billion for next year to that measure, which would allow them to avoid a politically painful vote on war funding in the heat of campaigning for the November elections.
Antiwar Democrats are frustrated at their inability to force the president to scale back war operations and hate to vote to keep the Iraq war going. At the same time, Bush has promised to veto the war funding bill if Democrats add money for domestic programs and present him with a bill over his request.
The bulk of the new money, $45 billion, would fund US combat operations, but there is also $3 billion to deal with roadside bombs and $2 billion to cope with rising fuel costs.
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, Congress has provided $526 billion for the Iraq war alone, with the two pending requests coming on top of that. Operations in Afghanistan have cost $140 billion.
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Time
May 12, 2008
Measuring Iraq's Security Forces
By Abigail Hauslohner, Baghdad
Lieut. Colonel William Zemp is full of praise for the 700 Iraqi troops who have been helping bring peace to the countryside around Mahmudiya, a town 20 miles (30 km) south of Baghdad. As he leads his troops on patrol through a farming village, Zemp notes that less than six months ago, the area was prime insurgent territory and U.S. patrols routinely came under attack. On this April day, however, children poke their heads out of mud-brick doorways to wave, and two families even invite the troops to join in their modest midday meals. None of this would have been possible, Zemp says, without the efforts of the Iraqi army.
But where are the Iraqi troops that Zemp was hoping to bring along on this 7 a.m. sweep of the village? Stopping by the Iraqi base on the way to the patrol, Zemp finds that most of the Iraqi troops have not yet awakened. Zemp doesn't seem surprised or especially perturbed. "The [Iraqi] army is very good at what they do," he explains. "They just have a problem with sleeping in."
For months now, top U.S. military commanders have been trumpeting the growing strength of Iraq's 559,397-strong security forces, trained and armed by the U.S. military at a cost of $20.4 billion. Iraqi military competence is critical to U.S. plans to withdraw by July the last of five combat brigades sent to Iraq as part of General David Petraeus' "surge" strategy. But on the battlefield, the Iraqis are frequently found wanting and often have to be rescued by U.S. troops. A damning April 25 report by the Department of Defense's special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction says the Iraqi forces are still years away from being able to independently defend their country. Among other things, the report says, Iraqi security forces are still relying heavily on coalition forces for logistical support, and the shortage of officers "at all operational and tactical levels" is so severe that it could take a decade to address. Pentagon officials estimate that only two-thirds of Iraqi troops show up for duty at all.
This bodes ill for Iraq's security environment, which has deteriorated sharply since the start of the year. Many of the gains of the surge have already been lost; suicide attacks are up, and the rate of Iraqi and U.S. casualties has climbed. American troops, stretched to the limit, need the Iraqis to do more of the heavy lifting.
That's not happening yet. The inadequacy of Iraqi forces has come under a harsh spotlight since March, when Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki launched an offensive in the southern city of Basra against Shi'ite militias loyal to the rebel cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. The operation, named Saulat al-Forsan (Charge of the Knights), was an opportunity for the Iraqi troops to show just how far they have come as an independent force. But barely a day into the offensive, al-Maliki had to call for backup as his troops ran into resistance from the militias. British and American warplanes bombed ground targets on behalf of the Iraqi troops and ferried in everything from medical supplies to bottles of water. In disarray, some Iraqi troops refused to fight or surrendered; some switched sides and joined the militias. According to the Iraqi government, 1,300 soldiers deserted. As the offensive widened to include operations in al-Sadr's strongholds in Baghdad, it became clear that Iraqi forces could not press the campaign on their own.
Top U.S. commanders continue to offer assurances that Iraqi forces are up to the challenge, emphasizing progress made over the recent setbacks. "As we look to [Basra] ... we see a much improved Iraqi security force," Lieut. General Lloyd Austin, the No. 2 military commander in Iraq, told journalists in Baghdad on April 23. But soldiers working with Iraqi units on the ground say the praise is exaggerated. In Hilla, a dusty town south of Baghdad where a bloody battle raged in the streets at the end of March, some soldiers of the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, say their efforts were largely credited to an Iraqi force that did little. One soldier told Time the Army had publicly commended the Iraqi troops for taking the lead in the battle. "But we did all the work," he said.
Even where Iraqi troops are not in the thick of battle, their U.S. partners complain of incompetence and poor discipline. At a small desert outpost in the largely pacified Anbar province, an Iraqi police truck recently fired so close to a group of U.S. Marines that the round of bullets missed one Marine by only a few feet. After chasing down the truck, the lieutenant in charge of the Marines was shocked to learn the reason for the shooting. "Evidently, a car passing through the checkpoint in the other direction had honked its horn at the gun truck," he said. "The gunner felt the need to retaliate with a burst [of gunfire]."
Infiltrated by the Militias
Not all Iraqi forces are so inept; several army brigades in the north, especially those composed of Kurds, have performed well on the battlefield. For the rest, the most charitable explanation is that it's unreasonable to expect a brand-new army and police force to stand up in such a short time. Iraqi soldiers get just six weeks' basic training, cops only eight--hardly the best preparation to do battle with a bewildering array of enemies, ranging from al-Qaeda terrorists and Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias to well-armed criminal gangs. Motivation is another problem: soldiers get starting salaries of $375 a month, policemen $95 a month. Iraqi commanders also complain that they are poorly equipped: they lack airpower and heavy weapons.
But there are also other, more worrisome reasons for the poor quality of Iraqi forces. Although the U.S. military has been training and fighting alongside the Iraqis for five years, many American officers and soldiers say they don't trust their Iraqi counterparts. In the main, this is because Iraqi forces are rife with sectarian loyalties. Many soldiers and policemen were recruited from the very militias they are now being asked to kill or capture. "While in general they are prepared to fight, if you put them into a sectarian battle, you still have to wonder if their commitment to the country is greater than their commitment to their own sectarian group," says Michael O'Hanlon, a military scholar at the Brookings Institution.
Throughout southern Iraq, members of the police and army are drawn largely from the Badr Organization, the chief rival of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. That's why it was no surprise, said Lieutenant Ryan Lawson, who is based in Hilla, that the Shi'ite town's Badr-dominated forces were "chomping at the bit to go after [the Mahdi Army]" in recent fighting. In areas where al-Sadr's militia dominates, many soldiers simply deserted, either out of loyalty to the cleric or out of fear. "Most of the officers are scared that if they attack the militias and the Mahdi Army today, they'll pay for it tomorrow," says a senior Interior Ministry official. "Power could flip, and the Mahdi Army could be in control. Then anyone who is fighting them now will end up in jail, accused of war crimes."
American commanders would like to see more Sunnis in the Iraqi forces and are pressing al-Maliki to recruit more of the former insurgents to fight alongside U.S. troops; there are now some 90,000 such fighters, and their salaries, paid by the U.S., start at $300 a month. But the Iraqi government regards their loyalties as suspect and has dragged its feet in recruiting them.
Back in the village outside Mahmudiya, Zemp doesn't wait around for the Iraqi troops that are catching the extra z's. He continues with his patrol, bolstering his U.S. platoon with a handful of Iraqis in mismatched uniforms and a secondary commander. When the other members of the contingent arrive hours later, they march down the dirt path that has already been patrolled by U.S. troops, only to be called back and redirected. Their commander greets Zemp with a shrug. "I was sleeping," he says nonchalantly. For the U.S. military, however, the Iraqi battlefield performance in recent weeks should serve as a wake-up call.
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Washington Times
May 3, 2008
Pg. 3
Religious Freedom Group Mulls Downgrade Of Iraq
By Agence France-Presse
A U.S. government watchdog on religious freedom yesterday expressed serious concern over violations in Iraq and was considering whether to place it on a blacklist with countries such as North Korea and Iran.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom said in a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that it was "seriously concerned" about religious freedoms in Iraq, where widespread persecution of Christians has been reported.
The independent commission last year placed Iraq on its "watchlist," but its 10 members were divided on whether Iraq should be maintained in that category or dumped to a "country of particular concern" blacklist, officials said.
"There is some contention; the debate is whether it should go up or down," one official told the news agency Agence France-Presse, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
The commission said in the letter to Miss Rice, together with its annual recommendations on the status of religious freedom worldwide, that its members would travel to Iraq later this month to study the issue further. It planned to make the "appropriate designation" for Iraq in the "near future."
"The letter speaks for itself," commission Chairman Michael Cromartie told a news conference when asked about the rare omission of the entire Iraq chapter from its 338-page annual report.
It would be an embarrassment for the administration of President Bush if the influential commission recommends to the State Department that Iraq be downgraded as a country of particular concern.
The State Department's latest religious freedom blacklist comprises North Korea, China, Iran, Burma, Sudan, Eriteria, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan.
These were countries whose governments were considered to have "engaged in or tolerated systematic and egregious" violations of religious freedom or belief.
The commission's divisions over the draft Iraq chapter were reportedly along Republican and Democratic lines.
According to sources familiar with the drafts, the first draft, favored by the panel's Democrats, contained a larger critique of the overall U.S. troop surge in Iraq and counterinsurgency strategy supported by Mr. Bush and Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, the New York Sun reported.
The Republicans on the commission drafted a dissent accusing the Democrats of partisanship, the report said.
In its recommendations, the commission also told Miss Rice to reinclude Vietnam on the blacklist of religious freedom violators, as well as Pakistan and Turkmenistan.
It said dozens of individuals who advocate religious freedom reforms in Vietnam, which was removed from the State Department blacklist in 2006, were imprisoned or detained while ethnic minority Buddhists and Protestants were harassed, beaten or detained.
The commission also put Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, Indonesia and Nigeria on its watchlist.
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Wall Street Journal
May 3, 2008
Pg. 2
War-Funding Rift Intensifies
White House Threat Of Pentagon Layoffs Pressures Congress
By John D. McKinnon and Sarah Lueck
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration warned it will start furloughing civilian Defense Department employees to save money unless Congress quickly passes a new round of funds for the Iraq war, escalating a clash that has risks for both parties.
The threat sets the stage for a likely fight over Iraq funding starting as soon as next week, when House leaders are expected to introduce their own version of the bill.
President Bush may risk appearing rigid with his insistence that the bill be kept free of nonsecurity spending. But Democratic lawmakers could seem insensitive to the military if they push too hard to add their spending priorities to the measure. They also could frustrate their vocal antiwar base if they cave in too readily to White House demands.
So far, it has been slow going. Last year, Democrats tried and failed to use earlier war-funding bills to impose a timeline for troop withdrawals. This time, they are planning to spend more time highlighting the costs of the Iraq war and what they say is its negative impact on U.S. military preparedness and the economy. But coming up with legislative language reflecting those points has been tricky.
On top of that, there is considerable pressure in Democratic ranks to demand troop withdrawals, even though there is little chance of success.
At the same time, the war supplemental bill is emerging as the only major funding bill likely to pass this year, as lawmakers delay action on regular appropriations bills, possibly until after the November elections. Now, many lawmakers want to add domestic-spending proposals to the war-funding bill despite Mr. Bush's threats to veto it. Ideas being debated privately include assistance for unemployed workers and major revisions to military educational benefits, as well as narrower spending plans.
The White House is losing patience. In an interview Friday, White House budget director Jim Nussle said, "They see this as an opportunity to leverage, hold hostage the troop funding for what they want," he said. "They're angling, it appears, toward what they know is a veto."
Meanwhile, defense officials have said furlough notices will start going out around Memorial Day if the bill hasn't become law, he said. A furlough could affect as many as 200,000 civilian defense workers, raising political pressure on lawmakers.
Democrats blasted the threatened furloughs. Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, called it "cheap posturing designed solely to score political points."
Kirstin Brost, a spokeswoman for the House Appropriations Committee, said furloughs will be unnecessary because Congress will act "in plenty of time." She called it "obscene" that Mr. Nussle "would toy with people that way, threatening their jobs in a political stunt."
Still, there are some signs both sides could find a compromise. Friday, the administration sent up a $70 billion addition to the supplemental, on top of the $108 billion request that is already pending. Adding the new funding, which would keep money flowing through the winter, would let lawmakers avoid another supplemental-funding debate later this year.
In addition, some top Democratic leaders have been quietly signaling that they don't want another high-profile defeat over the Iraq war. "The leadership has decided to try to avoid a confrontation," a high-ranking Senate aide said recently. "It's a strategic decision to avoid picking a fight where he [President Bush] wants to pick a fight."
To be sure, House and Senate lawmakers are likely to add a number of provisions they know the White House will oppose, such as extending unemployment benefits. In doing so, Democrats hope to illustrate that Republicans are more interested in the war than in economic struggles back home.
"The problem here is that the president doesn't want to see a nickel go to anything domestic," Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.) said this past week. "I mean, the president's priorities are so out of touch that it is mind-boggling."
But in the end, when lawmakers decide on a final bill, it is possible many of those provisions will be stripped out, in an effort to avoid either a Republican filibuster in the Senate or a presidential veto.
One reason for their caution is that Democrats don't want to go through the time and effort of putting together a war-funding bill twice. Another reason relates to the political landscape in an election year. While the economy has topped Iraq as a concern lately, national security remains a powerful factor in voters' minds too.
House Democrats hope to bring the bill to the floor late next week, after weeks of meetings with Senate counterparts. Pulling the legislation together has been difficult, as leaders try to tamp down calls for big spending while making sure the bill can attract needed votes. The most likely domestic spending items are an extension of unemployment benefits and expanded education benefits for veterans. A delay in Medicaid rules that would cut funding to states is also under discussion.
In the House, leaders have had to deal with competing factions, from liberals who aren't expected to vote for any Iraq funding to conservative Blue Dogs who are urging fiscal restraint. In the Senate, the timing of the supplemental spending bill is unclear.
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Philadelphia Inquirer
May 3, 2008
Bush Requests $70 Billion In War Funding
Analysts say that lifts antiterror, Afghan and Iraq spending since 9/11 to $875 billion.
By Andrew Taylor, Associated Press
WASHINGTON - President Bush sent lawmakers a $70 billion request yesterday to fund U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan into next spring, which would give the next president breathing room to set his or her own war policy.
Yesterday's request fills in the details of the $70 billion that the White House asked for when it sent its budget to Congress in February. The money is for the budget year that begins Oct. 1.
Congressional analysts say Bush's request would bring the total spending since Sept. 11, 2001, to fight terrorism and conduct the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to $875 billion.
The request comes as Democrats on Capitol Hill are struggling to move Bush's pending $108 billion request for the current year. Democratic leaders say they are likely to add the $70 billion for next year to that measure, which would allow them to avoid a politically painful vote on war funding in the heat of campaigning for the November elections.
Antiwar Democrats are frustrated at their inability to force the president to scale back war operations and hate to vote to keep the Iraq war going.
At the same time, Bush has promised to veto the war-funding bill if Democrats add money for domestic programs and present him with a bill over his request.
The bulk of the new money, $45 billion, would fund U.S. combat operations, but there is also $3 billion to deal with roadside bombs and $2 billion to cope with rising fuel costs.
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, Congress has provided $526 billion for the Iraq war alone, with the two pending requests coming on top of that. Operations in Afghanistan have cost $140 billion.
The request yesterday also contains $770 million in additional food aid and other assistance to try to ease the global food crisis. Also included is $2.6 billion to airlift new mine-resistant vehicles into the war zone and maintain them there.
The Afghan military would receive $3.7 billion for counterinsurgency efforts; the Iraqi military would get $2 billion for the same purpose.
Bush also asked for $1.7 billion for infrastructure, social programs, and economic-development initiatives in Iraq and Afghanistan under a program designed to win the support of local populations.
Pakistan, a key ally in fighting terrorism, would receive $193 million in aid.
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Seattle Post-Intelligencer
May 2, 2008
Air Force Tanker Project Clears Panel
Dicks vows effort to block contract funding in House
By Eric Rosenberg, P-I Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- A team of Northrop Grumman and EADS cleared a key legislative hurdle when lawmakers announced Thursday that the Senate Armed Services Committee has approved startup funding for a new fleet of Air Force tankers.
"This is great news for the tanker project," said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., a committee member whose state stands to gain employment from the program. EADS plans to build a tanker-manufacturing facility in Mobile, Ala.
Supporters of The Boeing Co.'s losing bid to build the planes have said they will try to halt the program through congressional action.
But Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate committee, said Thursday that he would not support any such action before the Government Accountability Office rules in mid-June on the merits of an appeal from Boeing. Chicago-based Boeing claims that the Air Force erroneously selected the EADS team for the multibillion-dollar program.
"We are not going to prejudge the (tanker) debate," Levin told reporters. "We need the GAO to reach an independent decision on the (Boeing) appeal. Everybody ought to wait for that."
Sen. John Warner, R-Va., a senior Republican on the committee, said that any effort by Boeing supporters to eliminate tanker funding when the full Senate takes up the committee bill later this month would be "vigorously opposed."
The Air Force stunned the aerospace industry Feb. 29, by choosing a team of Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. and Los Angeles-based Northrop Grumman to build a fleet of new midair refueling tankers.
The initial program is valued at around $35 billion but could grow to $100 billion if the consortium wins future Air Force orders.
Boeing's appeal to the GAO -- the investigative arm of Congress -- centers on its claim that the Air Force switched airplane size requirements, initially seeking bids for a medium-size tanker but later selecting a much larger aircraft based on the Airbus A330 commercial jet.
The Senate panel's tanker provision was included in a $542.5 billion military spending bill for next year that was approved behind closed doors.
Boeing supporters in the House hope that they will have more success in their efforts to halt the EADS tanker project.
Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., said last month that the House defense appropriations subcommittee -- of which he is the vice chairman -- will intervene to halt the tanker contract.
"We are going to try to eliminate the funding" for the tanker, Dicks said, and push to "start this thing over again."
Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., also a member of the House defense appropriations panel, said last month that "I don't think the current contract can go forward."
The Pentagon has warned Boeing supporters against trying to remove tanker money just because their favored contractor did not win.
"These are slippery slopes and dangerous precedents," said John Young, the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics.
"It is going to be dangerous to set aside valid source selections on a political basis," Young said. "Do we have the California delegation kill a program because the Georgia delegation won? Where does that stop?"
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Bangor Daily News
May 1, 2008
Pg. C9
Snowe Seeks Help Transporting Troops
By Aimee Dolloff
U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe is calling on Secretary of Defense Robert Gates to deploy all available military aircraft, including the Maine Air National Guard, to bring home soldiers who have completed their tour of duty but temporarily are stranded in Iraqi and Afghan airports.
When ATA Airlines filed bankruptcy and discontinued all operations in early April, the company said in a press release that, "A primary factor leading to these actions was the unexpected cancellation of a key contract for ATA's military charter business, which made it impossible for ATA to obtain additional capital to sustain its operations or restructure the business."
This resulted in a shortage of military air transportation and the need to reschedule flights that has led to some soldiers experiencing a delay of two to six days when trying to return home.
A spokesman at Snowe's office was unsure how many soldiers were experiencing delays, or if there were any Maine soldiers among those waiting to return home. But later her office provided more information from the military.
"Passengers traveling in the Defense Transportation System are experiencing some flight delays resulting from a decrease in commercial passenger airlift capacity during April and May. This decrease is due to the recent ATA bankruptcy, and that our commercial partners, who have been in surge operations for the past 5 months, are now accomplishing deferred maintenance on their aircraft," said Lt. Cmdr. Clay Mason, U.S. Transportation Command Legislative Affairs
"The United States Transportation Command is coordinating solutions with U.S. Central Command, Air Mobility Command and commercial airlines to meet these challenges. Using our commercial airline partners, the commercial ticket program and DOD organic capacity, we are adding capacity to mitigate the effect of the ATA bankruptcy and other capacity constraints. We currently estimate that about 2,000 to 3,000 DOD passengers of the approximately 100,000 passengers moving worldwide during April and May will be affected.
"We assess that some of the troops redeploying from Kuwait may be delayed from two to six days through the month of May. No units are being delayed indefinitely nor beyond this two to six day window," Mason added.
ATA officials couldn't be reached Wednesday for comment, and the U.S. Department of Defense referred all questions to the U.S. Transportation Command at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois.
"Ninety percent of passengers are moved globally by commercial air," Cynthia Bauer, media officer for the U.S. Transportation Command, said Wednesday. "The situation now with ATA, plus some regularly scheduled maintenance, has caused some delays within the system with getting folks home. We're doing everything we can to get folks home as close to when they're supposed to be as we can. No one is being delayed indefinitely."
In a press release Wednesday, Snowe implored Gates to use the Maine Guard to bring home the soldiers who have been delayed.
"After serving on the brutal front lines of Iraq and Afghanistan, the men and women of our armed forces deserve quick and safe passage back home to their families," Snowe said in the release. "They stand ready to help and our troops and their families have waited long enough."
Located at Bangor International Airport, the Maine Air Guard is about 18 minutes' flying time from one of the most heavily used air corridors. Known as the MAINEiacs, the Maine Air Guard servicemen and women are part of the Integrated Total Force with several missions, including the transportation of personnel.
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Tampa Tribune
May 3, 2008
House Calls For Probe Of War Analysts
WASHINGTON - Forty-one House members are calling on the Defense Department inspector general to investigate a public relations effort that relied on retired military officers to defend the administration's Iraq war policies.
"When the Department of Defense misleads the American people by having them believe that they are listening to the views of objective military analysts when, in fact, these individuals are simply replaying DoD talking points, the department is clearly betraying the public trust," the lawmakers wrote in a joint letter to Defense Department Inspector General Claude M. Kicklighter on Friday.
Retired officers who acted as military analysts for major news outlets were given plum access to the Pentagon, with regular briefings by then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and a sponsored trip to the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba.
--Associated Press
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The Pentagon Early Bird May 3, 2008