'Tigers' fly colors high in Iraq

[thedrifter]

'Tigers' fly colors high in Iraq
Submitted by: 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing
Story Identification #: 20047865726
Story by Lance Cpl. Matthew Rainey



AL ASAD, Iraq(July 8, 2004) -- Shortly after arriving here, the leathernecks of Marine Attack Squadron 542, Marine Aircraft Group 16, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, discovered the need for a flagpole in order to properly display the national colors. Constructing a makeshift mast from materials they obtained, as well as modifying it to fly the American flag, the Marines lifted the pole to the roof of their headquarters building on June 28, where it was raised and permanently stationed. The squadron is currently deployed here in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/200478736/$file/040628-M-6285R-012542FLAGLR.jpg

(From left to right) Lance Cpls. Jared Kinnaman, a 20-year-old ordnance technician from Bridgewater, N.J., Joel Ellis, a 19-year-old ordnance technician from Katy, Texas, and Ryan Dillinger, a 20-year-old air frames technician from Hilliard, Ohio, take a moment to glance at the new flagpole and flag that they just completed raising, June 28 at Al Asad, Iraq. The flag, belonging to Marine Attack Squadron 542, Marine Aircraft Group 16, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, is now one of the highest-flying flags on the flightline. Photo by: Lance Cpl. Matthew Rainey

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/515FDE1DA2DCBCC785256ECB003C30F6?opendocument


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Iraqis laying building blocks of construction trade
Submitted by: 1st Marine Division
Story Identification #: 20047851447
Story by Cpl. Paula M. Fitzgerald



CAMP RAMADI, Iraq(July 6, 2004) -- Before beginning the Iraqi Construction Apprentice Program, Sabbar Motar Hommadee used to wake up every morning and spend his days at the local market soliciting any kind of employment he could find.

Since June 12, Hommadee and 14 fellow Iraqis have been learning the ins and outs of the construction world from Navy Seabees.

This is the first ICAP class in Ramadi.

The sailors are with Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 14, here supporting the 1st Marine Division's security and stabilization mission.

Navy Ensign Michael C. Brown, ICAP coordinator in Ar Ramadi, said most of the men who attend the 12-week course originally were trying to join the Iraqi National Guard but for various reasons were not accepted.

"About half of the students have prior construction experience," said Brown from Lake Worth, Fla. "The other fifty percent came to us with no skills whatsoever."

The first six to eight weeks of the course take place in the classroom, and attendees get hands on training. For the remaining weeks, students receive on-the-job-training from the Seabees.

One of the course's four instructors, Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Robert A. Dodd, said the Seabees teach all of phases of carpentry, plumbing and electrical work.

"We teach all the trades so the Iraqis will have well-rounded knowledge of construction," said Dodd, of Jacksonville, Fla.

Brown said by teaching these skills, Iraqi men will be better able to rebuild the country.

"It's better that the people here take ownership with the work that is done to Iraq," Brown explained. "It's better they do it themselves than someone else doing it for them."

During the on-the-job-training portion of the course, the students have been building a guard shack for the Iraqi National Guard training camp here.

The Seabees constructed the frame of the shack, and the students are responsible for everything else.

"They're putting in the doors and windows, the ladders, the paneling and the electrical system for the air conditioning unit," Dodd said.

He said the trickiest part of the training is teaching the men how to build everything with primitive equipment.

"They don't have the modern tools like we have back in the United States," Dodd explained. "Everything they have is very basic, and they don't even have proper safety equipment."

The Seabees, who have at least 80 years of construction experience amongst them, pay the men $25 per week for their efforts.

"The wage is pretty low, but it's better than nothing," said Jasim Mohammed Sharmot, one of the Iraqi students. "I can at least feed my family of ten. It's difficult to find jobs and training in Iraq."

The rampant lack of employment throughout the country drew most of the men to the course, but working with American forces is dangerous.

"We originally were supposed to have more men come to the course, but most of them were threatened by anti-Coalition fighters," Brown explained. "These men who are here today were trying to join the ING, so they are not afraid of the ACF."

Sharmot said he has not been threatened yet and is not worried about it happening. He's thankful to be getting any kind of training at all.

"I appreciate the Americans for teaching us what they know because now I can get more carpentry jobs when they're available," Sharmot said. "Even if I do get threatened, I will not leave the course because I need that $25 for my family."

After graduating the course, students will receive a certificate of completion and a tool belt donated by the Los Angeles-based charity Spirit of America.

The students will also have more opportunities for well-paying work.

"Eventually, any contractor working on a U.S.-funded project will be required to hire ICAP graduates," Brown said.

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/20047845312/$file/ICAP1lr.jpg

Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Larry L. Dickie, instructor for the Iraqi Construction Apprentice Program, shows students how to properly use a circular saw. Dickie and three other Seabees from Naval Mobile Construction Battalion are teaching the 12-week course. Students receive $25 per week to attend the class.
(USMC photo by Cpl. Paula M. Fitzgerald) Photo by: Cpl. Paula M. Fitzgerald

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/F531AC60B7D45FDC85256ECB0032CB0B?opendocument


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines go on patrol to seek out weapons and firing positions
By Rick Rogers
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

FALLUJAH, Iraq – The Marines, tired of getting shot at in their outpost here, decided to strike back.

As a red sun rose, a convoy of troops from Echo Company pulled on their body armor, loaded their weapons and pushed off to hunt the enemy.

Lately, insurgents have been launching hit-and-run mortar and rocket attacks on the unit's base camp. While the first efforts were almost laughably poor, with rounds routinely missing their mark, the enemy has become more proficient. Five Marines from the company have been wounded in recent days, including at least two who were nearly killed.

For the Camp Pendleton Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, enough is enough.

"We can't move and the enemy can," said Echo Company 1st Sgt. William Skiles. "And they can bracket us (with their firing) and get better and better shooting at us.

"Right now, our priority is the mortar men. We want to find these guys and kill them."

The company this week has been searching rural areas daily for weapons caches and the firing positions used in this bloody thrust and parry.

Such patrols are an old, lonely kind of warfare. The Marines pace about 10 feet apart. There's little conversation. They pass cows, mud huts and abundant groves of apples, watermelons, pomegranates and palms.

The Marines wave at local farmers, who sometimes look on curiously and smile back. It is strangely peaceful.

The Marines aren't so worried about being suddenly attacked because they're confident they've got the firepower and discipline to fight the insurgents. What gets them is the frustration of working so hard and not finding those who are trying to kill them.

Their devoted dog Aaslan, a friendly Belgian Malinois, accompanies them to sniff out weapons and explosives.

Shortly after Monday's attack on the base camp, Lt. Nathan Chandler, 29, of Marietta, Ohio, led the patrol across land cross-stitched by canals. Just a few days earlier, Marines delivered truckloads of medical supplies to the nearby clinic in Saqlawiyah as part of the campaign to win popular support.

Somewhere in this area is where the shots were fired at their outpost, the Marines believe.

"They prefer to attack us with mortars and improvised explosive devices, when they can lay them, so they don't have to get too close," Chandler said. "They know that if they shoot at us with mortars that they can usually get away before we get out here."

But not always.

On Sunday, the Marines said, they wounded a man with a mortar tube strapped to his back. But he was whisked away in a car before they could capture him.

"Eventually, we'll catch them," said Cpl. Robert Shumate, 21, of Texarkana, Texas, as he walked along a canal, sweat dripping down his face. "It's a slow process. This is a lot harder battle to fight than the war."

In the past few days, the Marines have detained 13 people and found two weapons caches and equipment to make improvised explosives.

Chandler said that in one case, Iraqi police were about to release a carload of men suspected of firing on an oil convoy when his Marines arrived. Weapons were found in the search, and the men were detained for questioning.

The patrol ended in disappointment. Chandler and his Marines found nothing. Then, when they returned to the beleaguered outpost, they were mortared again.

However, Capt. D.A. Zembiec, Echo Company commander, said the patrols are fruitful even if they don't bring tangible results.

"We are making progress with the locals," said Zembiec, 31. "They are a little standoffish at first, but when we talk to them and (let them) know that we want to help them, they give us information."

Just another week in an ever-evolving conflict.

"They change tactics when we change," Skiles said. "It's cat-and-mouse. They're smart, too."



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Union-Tribune staff writer Rick Rogers and staff photographer Nelvin Cepeda are accompanying Camp Pendleton-based Marines in Iraq.


On patrol Photos
http://www.signonsandiego.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=patrol

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/iraq/20040707-9999-1n7patrol.html


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Marines testing new Kevlar shorts in Iraq
Submitted by: 1st Marine Division
Story Identification #: 20047845011
Story by Cpl. Paula M. Fitzgerald



CAMP RAMADI, Iraq(July 5, 2004) -- Marines here from 3rd Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment are currently testing lower body armor developed by the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory in Quantico, Va.

The Kevlar shorts were designed to repel razor-sharp shrapnel from improvised explosive devices detonated by anti-Iraqi fighters along transportation routes throughout the country.

According to Lt. Col. Lance A. McDaniel, battalion executive officer, the artillery unit received ten pairs of the shorts from the Warfighting Lab. The shorts arrived nearly a week ago and were distributed amongst the battalion's batteries.

"The gunners in our vehicles seem to be the most exposed to shrapnel," McDaniel said.
"We've had a lot of Marines receive injuries to their buttocks and upper thighs."

He said these shorts make the gunners, who man crew-served weapons on top of the vehicles, less vulnerable to serious injury during IED attacks.

"The Marines wear flak jackets which protect their backs and chests," McDaniel said. "It only makes sense to have protection for the legs,"

The one-size-fits-all shorts are worn over a Marine's uniform and are held up with built in suspenders. Each pair of shorts weighs close to 5 pounds.

Lance Cpl. Mike C. Suchevich and Pvt. Luis R. Mejia have both tried the shorts a few times.

"The other Marines made fun of me the first I put them on," Mejia said. "I guess they thought it was a joke. They are really funny looking."

The shorts have already acquired a few nicknames from the battalion. One Marine referred to them as "lederhosen," and others call them "fishing shorts."

Still, the two Marines said they are grateful to have the new gear.

"They're not very comfortable and they're hard to move in," Suchevich explained. "But
I do feel a lot more protected than before and that's definitely more important than comfort."

So far, the shorts have not been put to the test during any attacks, but the Marines believe it's just a matter of time.

"I think all gunners should have a pair," Mejia added. "I feel safer wearing them. They can't stop bullets, but they can stop shrapnel."

Several of Mejia's fellow gunners have been injured during IED attacks and he wants to avoid earning a Purple Heart here.

According to Mejia, the shorts take about a minute and a half to put on and the same to take off. He said if he could, he would make a few modifications.

"They're not too bad to wear," he said. "But if I could change anything, I would have quick release straps for the suspenders."

He also said the pants fit comfortably around his waist, but they are too loose near his knees.

McDaniel said the Warfighting Lab will solicit input from the Marines for an undetermined amount of time.

"If the idea proves to be a success," McDaniel explained, "I suspect they will be mass produced and sent out throughout the Marine Corps."

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/2004785111/$file/shorts1lr.jpg

Lance Cpl. Mike C. Suchevich, a gunner with Battery L, 3rd Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, wears his lower body armor. The shorts are made of Kevlar and were designed to repel shrapnel from improvised explosive devices.
(USMC photo by Cpl. Paula M. Fitzgerald) Photo by: Cpl. Paula M. Fitzgerald

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/20047851244/$file/shorts2lr.jpg

Pvt. Luis R. Mejia helps Lance Cpl. Mike C. Suchevich put on a pair of lower body armor shorts. Both Marines are gunners with Battery L, 3rd Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment. The battalion received 10 pairs of the experimental shorts, which are made from Kevlar, from the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory.
(USMC photo by Cpl. Paula M. Fitzgerald) Photo by: Cpl. Paula M. Fitzgerald

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/2004785731/$file/shorts3lr.jpg

Lance Cpl. Mike C. Suchevich, a gunner with Battery L, 3rd Battalion, 11th Marine Regiment, wears a pair of lower body armor shorts. The shorts are made of Kevlar and were designed to repel sharpnel from improvised explosive devices. The battalion received 10 pairs of the shorts and is currently testing them for the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory.
(USMC photo by Cpl. Paula M. Fitzgerald) Photo by: Cpl. Paula M. Fitzgerald

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/71BA6D406963C45085256ECB00308A74?opendocument


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Along for the ride to Baghdad

By Bettijane Levine, Times Staff Writer


If you want to know what it was like to race in a roofless, windowless, aging Humvee through open desert, under intense fire from front and side, from Iraqis hidden behind berms and in huts that dot the landscape, from pieces of pipe in the road that can explode under your wheels and rip off your limbs — in other words, if you want to know what the war in Iraq was like for those who led the invasion — the facts are all laid out in Evan Wright's new book, "Generation Kill."

Wright, 39, is now back in his Brentwood apartment after being embedded with the Marines for the first two months of the conflict. For all that time, the Rolling Stone writer and former Hustler film critic rode in the lead vehicle of the lead platoon at the front of the convoy that forged a path to Baghdad.

Nicknamed the "suicide battalion," the 70-Humvee convoy traveled 10 miles ahead of the main invasion force — a kind of exterminating advance team meant to find the positions and draw the fire of Iraqi hostiles waiting in ambush, to ferret out whatever, or whoever, might impede the progress of the main invasion.

Wright, a tall, hefty guy with pale eyes and hair, won easy acceptance from the troops because he not only fits the physical image of a Marine, he projects the same, unflappable calm and strength. And, he says, his credentials as a porn film expert didn't hurt.

"It was a huge plus, it was like kryptonite to these hardened guys who didn't want to mess with reporters." Having reviewed 8,000 films for Hustler won him "more inclusion" from the 23 enlisted men in his platoon, and the four in his Humvee, "than any press card from a prestigious newspaper or TV channel ever could have."

And he has paid them back with a book that should make them proud.

It is written from their perspective, he says — an enlisted man's eye view of the action. And it is a triumph of objectivity, with not a bit of tilt or spin. A warts-and-all word picture of what Wright saw and heard: The raw, dirty humor of young men on the edge, who get no sleep or change of clothes for days on end, whose every bodily function is discussed and analyzed, who find themselves intimately bound together in a series of unthinkable life or death situations.

The book is a shocker in unexpected ways. These gung-ho fighters, hyped up on instant coffee crystals and ephedrine pills to stay alert and awake, these Marines, ages 19-25 (from the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion out of Camp Pendleton), turn out to be awe-inspiring in their maturity and compassion, no matter what your perspective on this particular war, or on war itself.

Wright says he has long been obsessed with America's youth subcultures. It was his specialty, first at the L.A. Weekly and then at Rolling Stone. "I was known as their ambassador to the nation's underbelly," he says. Before his latest stint, he had infiltrated and written about groups like the young neo-Nazis of the Aryan Nation, inner-city gangbangers, environmental activists, even sorority girls.

"To me, the military was one more youth subculture to study," he says, and he approached his war assignment with an academic eye.

The book, which began as a series of articles for Rolling Stone, could just as aptly have been titled "Generation Thrill." The enlistees were not just up for battle, they were eager for mortal combat, hankering to "go get some" — a generation weaned on Grand Theft Auto and other shooter video games.

They were guys with nothing in common except modest backgrounds and tremendous unfocused talents — in Wright's words, guys who "were searching for something authentic in life. Something real, and dangerous, that won't be co-opted by their elders and turned into a Mountain Dew commercial. That's why they love the Marines. It's painful and dangerous and lonely — and they hunger for that."

He is troubled though by the unflattering "popular perception about the kind of people who enlist in the military" — a perception he found inaccurate.

"These guys were very sharp and smart. Many could have gone through college, could have qualified for scholarships" if their lives had led them to that. They were an elite enlisted team, picked for "their physical fortitude, their ability to think on their own, to memorize extremely complex weapons systems and commands."

But they had more than smarts, he says. They had moral courage. A desire to save lives of innocent Iraqis that matched the fierceness of their desire to fight to the death. Wright pulls out a mini-tape recorder he carried into battle. He clicks it on and you hear the bullets and shells whizzing, screeching, pinging, booming all around his Humvee, hitting and missing, thumping into doors and helmets and the flak jackets of the Marines inside.

Because the Humvee is packed high with ammunition, a direct hit would incinerate them all. Yet there are no sounds from the Marines inside the besieged vehicle. Wright says they were completely still, straining to hear the very calm, controlled voice of Sgt. Brad Colbert, who repeats again and again: "I have no targets. I have no targets." Meaning that the Marines must not return fire, must not shoot at where they think the enemy is hidden because they might hit civilians.

"It is not like the Hollywood movies, where guys under fire yell and scream," Wright says. "Calmness is the hallmark of a great warrior. Each man must focus on doing what he is assigned to do. He must trust the others to do their jobs too." He must believe in the man who calls the shots.

Wright explains the action on the tape: "There were six houses clustered together on a deserted road. We were under intense fire, taking multiple hits. You heard just three minutes of action of the kind that occurred almost every minute of every day — with the Marines not shooting when other people might have," Wright says.

He is worried that "this Abu Ghraib scandal has given Americans an image that enlisted people might all just be these yahoos" who commit outrageous acts simply because they can. "But that is not what I saw, it is not what occurred" among the men with whom he lived through so much trauma — men who had every chance to commit less-than-honorable acts, with some sense of justification — but who never did.

In fact, in one of the most bizarre aspects of Wright's tale, it was often the enlisted men who were more astute than some of their senior officers — a seeming cuckoo's nest of oddballs.

There was the company commander they dubbed Encino Man, after the dimwitted caveman in the movie of the same name. Encino Man had "a seeming inability to understand the basics, like reading maps," Wright says. Worse yet, he "actually attempted to call in an artillery strike virtually on top of the heads of his own men" to rain down artillery on his own Humvees. He had no idea that his men's proximity to the enemy could make such a strike lethal to his own troops.

On the first night of the invasion, Encino Man decided that his Humvee (one of the few with windows) would be harder for the enemy to spot if he duct taped all the side windows, shielding the light from his computer screen. Of course, once he taped the sides, he couldn't see anywhere but straight ahead.

"So when the entire convoy went right, Encino Man went left. The entire invasion of Iraq was halted until we could find Encino Man and get him back."

Then there's the unforgettable officer nicknamed Captain America, who commanded the other advance platoon with which Wright's platoon traveled. From Day 1 of the invasion, he revealed an unfortunate tendency to become hysterical at any sign of danger. On one embattled night, he screamed on the radio, "We're all gonna die, we're all gonna die"— a message transmitted to all his men.

"He always ran around with his bayonet ready, like Rambo," Wright says.

And he once tried to use it on a bound Iraqi prisoner, yelling, "We should cut his throat." Then he leaped out of the darkness and kicked his own sergeant in the groin, in a failed attempt to kick the prisoner.

Wright says that at one point, Captain America led his men on a treasure hunt for discarded Iraqi helmets — ridiculous on its face, but especially so in an area suspected to have landmines. "The most obvious thing to booby trap is a helmet lying on the ground," an irate Marine told the author.

Of course, the Marines' biggest problems were from enemy insurgents. It was always difficult to tell exactly where they were firing from, Wright says. Often, they would be in or behind houses, shooting and launching rocket-propelled grenades.

The Marines had the firepower to evaporate the dwellings, possibly killing the shooters where they hid. But that meant they might also kill innocent civilians inside. That was against the rules of engagement, he says, but more important, it was against the moral code of the outwardly tough enlisted Marines. They could not have lived with themselves if they did that, he says. "They truly cared about who they hit."

continued..........

[thedrifter]

At roadblocks, when it was impossible to see who was in the cars and SUVs that approached, they suffered agonies over whether to shoot. If the car contained enemy suicide bombers, it could blow them up as it came near. If it contained militants trying to reach the main force behind them, it would be folly to let them through. But if they shot at the car without knowing, they might be killing the very people they were sent to protect.

At one point in a roadblock, the men in Wright's group fired warning shots at an oncoming car. It was night and the shots arced high overhead. "The driver panicked and accelerated. He heard the gunfire, didn't understand what it meant and couldn't see the Marines on the road ahead."

The Marines, with no idea why the car was speeding toward them, were forced to shoot until the car stopped. Out came an unarmed farmer, a father, who carried his 3-year-old daughter in his arms. The gunfire had blown off the top of her head. The image of the shattered man limping away with his dead daughter will haunt them the rest of their lives, he says.

It is one of dozens of incidents that each Marine could recount, where they tried their best to protect and save — and wound up doing the opposite.

"These Marines were all jaded and cynical when they entered the war," Wright says. "They weren't all romantic about what they were fighting for. But I think they discovered new layers of innocence to lose in Iraq."

The Marines in his Humvee survived without major injury. The next group to use that vehicle wasn't so lucky. One Marine died and two suffered critical injuries. The Humvee was blown up April 6 in Fallouja.

Wright, a Vassar College graduate who studied medieval and Renaissance history, says his next book will be about the radical Christian right, which he is approaching, he adds, "with no agenda."

He also says he is neither pro- nor antiwar. And neither is "Generation Kill."

He says what he's learned from his Iraq experience may be a cliché but it's true: "War should be undertaken with a very heavy heart." He says it doesn't matter what the reason is for the war, what politicians are in power or how good the warriors are.

"Even the most high-tech, best-trained army in the world will always come down to the same thing: a bunch of guys on the ground, shooting at each other from 150 feet away and accidentally shooting civilians and dropping bombs on the wrong houses. Chaos and horror. This is just what war is."

He is not saying it's never justified, he cautions. He just feels it's often misunderstood.

"There's one thing I know for sure. I know these Marines care. I think that if a serious peace movement ever does develop, the most serious proponents of it will be veterans of this war."

http://www.latimes.com/la-et-levine7jul07,1,5033274.story


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Falluja Pullout Left Haven of Insurgents, Officials Say
By DEXTER FILKINS

Published: July 8, 2004


CAMP FALLUJA, Iraq, July 6 - American and Iraqi officials say that a decision in April to pull back American forces from Falluja inadvertently created a safe haven for terrorists and insurgents there. But officials are reluctant to send American troops back into the city for fear of touching off another uprising.

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The officials say they are unsure how to proceed, but agree they merely postponed the problem when the Americans halted an attack in April, brokering a deal to keep Americans out of Falluja and allow local Iraqis to police the city instead.

Iraqi and American officials say they would prefer to re-enter the city with a sizable force of Iraqi soldiers, perhaps backed up by Americans. But they concede that an Iraqi force capable of mounting an effective assault on Falluja, a city of 250,000 people, is months or even years away.

As a result, the Americans and the new Iraqi government are faced with a growing danger that - as long as they adhere to the agreement to stay out of the city - they are nearly powerless to confront.

"There is no question that Falluja is a safe haven," said Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, until last week the head of all military forces in the country. "At some point it is going to have to be dealt with."

American and Iraqi intelligence reports suggest that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian believed to be responsible for scores of attacks here, is using Falluja as a base for operations. He is thought to be working with dozens of hard-core Islamist fighters, many of them from outside the country, and former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party.

Iraqi officials say the terrorists are using the city to assemble car bombs and other such weapons before sending them to Baghdad and other cities.

The Iraqi officials say the security force formed to police the city, called the Falluja Brigade, has had little or no effect in breaking up the terrorist networks inside the city. The brigade is made up largely of former Baathists and some insurgents.

Senior Iraqi officials say the government in Falluja has been effectively replaced by a group of insurgent leaders, many of them Islamist extremists, who dominate most decisions affecting the city. Former members of the Baath Party are using the city as a base to regroup, and recently held a meeting to plot a strategy to return to power, the Iraqi officials said.

The Americans say they could regain control of Falluja by military means, but likely at a cost of hundreds of Iraqi lives. They fear that significant bloodshed could spark the same sort of backlash as in April, when reports of as many as 600 people being killed inside the city became a rallying cry around Iraq and the Middle East and seriously strained relations with the Iraqi government.

For now, the Americans are effectively at an impasse. American officers say that, under the terms of the agreement, they cannot even return fire when insurgents fire mortars and rockets at their troops from inside the city. Instead, the Americans have limited themselves almost exclusively to airstrikes, which are having uncertain effects. In recent weeks, American forces have mounted at least four air strikes on buildings inside Falluja that they say killed dozens of terrorists associated with Mr. Zarqawi's network. The claims are impossible to verify.

Western reporters have been able to move into the city only at the greatest risk, since one of Falluja's most powerful clerics, as well as the chief insurgent leader there, last month publicly banned reporters from the city.

Iraqi officials say they vehemently opposed the agreement that turned over Falluja to the insurgents, yet concede that they lack the resources to take control of the city on their own. Late last month, Mr. Zarqawi issued a statement in which he said he would try to kill Iyad Allawi, the prime minister.

"Our intelligence says that Zarqawi is in Falluja," said Mowaffak al-Rubaie, the national security adviser. "Our intelligence also says they are constructing bombs in the city and sending them into Baghdad. There is a regular traffic. We are going to have to go back in."

There are other indications that Mr. Zarqawi's group, called Unity and Holy War, is operating near or inside Falluja.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/08/international/middleeast/08fall.html?hp


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Iraqi Army Soldier: A story of common courage

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A little more than a year ago, shortly before President Bush flew onto the USS Lincoln off the coast of San Diego and announced the end to the war in Iraq, Soldiers of the old Iraqi Army were already on their way home resigned to defeat and an uncertain future.

Also uncertain has been the understanding of exactly what Soldiers in the new Iraqi Army have gone through since that time. There are no stories of Iraqis with medals pinned to their chests like armor plating. There are no stories of courageous actions of Soldiers taking hills and enemy machinegun positions. The true story of Iraq is that of a nation that will one day do well by that standard. And stories like that of Iraqi Army Lt. Col. Ahmed Lutfi Ahmed Raheem - an officer in this country's newly rebuilt army.

Ahmed hasn't stormed any enemy positions lately. But he shows up for work everyday, like a lot of Soldiers in this army. And in this country, being typical is a standard that "courageous" never met.

For Ahmed, the decision to serve his country again began more than a year ago - 7,731 miles, and three weeks before the announcement on the USS Lincoln.

"April 9, 2003," Ahmed said. "I don't forget this day."

"I was on my way home to Baghdad after my brigadier boss had told me the war was over and to go home," Ahmed said, describing his last moments as a major in the old Iraqi Army air defense unit he had been with for nine years. "He said it was an order," he added.

"So I walked home from our station in Al Hillah, south of Baghdad, but I didn't change my clothes," Ahmed said, "And I came to a Marine checkpoint on a bridge in Baghdad. And I still had my uniform on and the Marine sergeant stopped me ..."

"'Where are you going?' he asked me," Ahmed said in his accented but surprisingly good English.

"And I tell him, 'I am a major in the Iraqi Army and I was ordered to go to my house'" Ahmed said, finishing the backdrop to a life-defining moment he had not seen coming; and on what was supposed to be just a long 50-plus mile walk home to his wife and five children.

The encounter would prove to be a pivotal one for the military veteran because for the next two anxious minutes, Ahmed went through what must be emotions impossible to describe to someone who has never known he was about to die. It was more the result of the 33-year-old's lifetime of experience with the ways of Saddam Hussein.

Ahmed, though, was actually two minutes away from a rebirth of sorts.

"He looked at me for a while and I thought he was going to kill me," Ahmed said. "But he didn't kill me," he added.

"Instead he came to the position of attention and saluted me as an officer," Ahmed said, "And said, 'Sir you can go.'"

"I took a few steps and began to cry," he said, "Because I think, 'Why do I fight these people for ten years?

"This moment changed me from the inside," Ahmed said. "What he did was kill me without pistol. He killed the old major in the Iraqi Army who fought America from 1993 to 2003.”

Ahmed was advised by a U.S. Army officer to apply at the recruiting center in Baghdad and was ushered into the army a short time later as an "officer candidate." After training, he was commissioned a lieutenant colonel in the new army having made the cut for promotion from his former rank in the old army.

Ahmed's story, though, doesn't end there. The now 34-year-old engineering graduate from the University of Baghdad and career Iraqi Army officer has since endured great personal tests in his first year of service in the new Iraqi Army that have reaffirmed his commitment to serving his country.

In February 2004, Ahmed, a Soldier whose face belies his real age with the tell-tale signs of a man who has lived a hard life, was at the Baghdad Recruiting Center when a blast killed more than 47 earlier in the year. The psychological toll was great, but he came back.

Several weeks ago, he saw the aftermath of the latest blast at the center only minutes after the attack that left another 35 dead. The wounds were re-opened, but he came back.

And a little more than a month-and-a-half ago on May 15, he was kidnapped by members of the Shiite Muslim Cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi army on a bridge in Baghdad when a vehicle filled with five armed men forced his truck to the side of the road before forcing him into the front seat of their car for transport to a hidden safe-house.

Ahmed was beaten and pistol-whipped before being knocked unconscious only to be interrogated later by the insurgent terrorists for his association with the new Iraqi Army and the Coalition.

Ultimately he was told not to work with the Coalition anymore and released by the militiamen, but not before they stripped him of his uniform, weapon, cell phone and the vehicle that had been issued to him by the Coalition.

"I said, 'Sir I lost my pistol, my mobile, my uniform and my vehicle,'" Ahmed said, describing the humiliating moment he faced upon returning to the OST headquarters later that day to report the catastrophe.

He had begged the militiamen to kill him thinking the loss of equipment was the end of his military career. But when the Coalition officer Ahmed worked with found out that everything he had been issued had been lost that morning, the officer's response surprised Ahmed.

"And when he saw me crying," Ahmed said, "He stood up and gave me another key to a vehicle. And gave me another pistol and another mobile phone."

"'Don't worry, we trust you,' he said," Ahmed said.

"I really love America for this," Ahmed said. "This is what I wish I could tell every Iraqi."

Ahmed, like so many others in the Iraqi Security Forces that show up for work everyday, knows that security and protection from the individuals bent on denying Iraq its chance at freedom is paramount to his country's future.

"I want to provide security to my country," Ahmed said.

"Saddam Hussein didn't just destroy the buildings and the streets," Ahmed said. "He destroyed something inside of all Iraqis. He destroyed the truth and something inside us.

"You know what Saddam Hussein did inside us from 1979 to 2003?" asks Ahmed. "He was president of Iraq for 25 years. In this period of time what did he teach Iraq? What did Saddam teach Iraq? Fight. Take your rifle. Take your pistol and fight. Fight, fight. Fight for what? Eight years with Iran - fight for nothing. And he told us to go to Kuwait and steal. And he laughed. He taught the people how to steal. He made people forget Islam and the Al Koran.

"So now inside of all Iraqis it is just to 'fight,'" Ahmed said. "And now we're fighting between us.

"I do my best, though," Ahmed said. "I do my best to protect my country and to give my country its security."

And he does one more thing that doesn't earn medals in any army on earth: he continues to show up for work.

And in the face of suicide bombings, targetings, and abductions and beatings, in Iraq, this is just the typical story common to all the 230,000-plus Iraqi Army Soldiers and police service officers choosing to serve their country.

It's not a story of the courageous actions of Soldiers storming enemy machinegun positions. And there are no medals awarded for the simple act. But it's a typical story of valor in this country.

And a standard that courage never met.


Release #040705b

http://www.cjtf7.com/media-information/july2004/040705b.htm


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Pentagon Deputy's Probes in Iraq Weren't Authorized, Officials Say

By T. Christian Miller, Times Staff Writer


WASHINGTON — A senior Defense Department official conducted unauthorized investigations of Iraq reconstruction efforts and used their results to push for lucrative contracts for friends and their business clients, according to current and former Pentagon officials and documents.

John A. "Jack" Shaw, deputy undersecretary for international technology security, represented himself as an agent of the Pentagon's inspector general in conducting the investigations, sources said.

In one case, Shaw disguised himself as an employee of Halliburton Co. and gained access to a port in southern Iraq after he was denied entry by the U.S. military, the sources said.

In that investigation, Shaw found problems with operations at the port of Umm al Qasr, Pentagon sources said. In another, he criticized a competition sponsored by the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority to award cellphone licenses in Iraq.

In both cases, Shaw urged government officials to fix the alleged problems by directing multimillion-dollar contracts to companies linked to his friends, without competitive bidding, according to the Pentagon sources and documents. In the case of the port, the clients of a lobbyist friend won a no-bid contract for dredging.

Shaw's actions are the latest to raise concerns that senior Republican officials working in Washington and Iraq have used the rebuilding effort in Iraq to reward associates and political allies. One of Shaw's close friends, the former top U.S. transportation official in Iraq, is under investigation for his role in promoting an Iraqi national airline with a company linked to the Saddam Hussein regime.

The inspector general's office — which investigates waste, fraud and abuse at the Pentagon — has turned over its inquiry into Shaw's actions to the FBI to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, the sources said.

The FBI also is looking into allegations, first reported by the Los Angeles Times, that Shaw tried to steer a contract to create an emergency phone network for Iraq's security forces to a company whose board of directors included a friend and one of Shaw's employees.

Shaw, who held top positions in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, declined to comment for this article. In previous interviews, he has denied any financial links to the companies involved or receiving any promises of future employment or other benefit.

Shaw justified his investigations under a special agreement with the Pentagon inspector general, Joseph E. Schmitz. The August agreement created a temporary office headed by Shaw called the International Armament and Technology Trade Directorate. Its mission was to cooperate with the inspector general on issues related to the transfer of sensitive U.S. technologies or arms to foreign countries.

Shaw frequently cited the agreement in his dealings with reporters and the military, telling them it allowed him to "wear an IG hat" to conduct investigations. In a recent letter to the inspector general, he said the agreement gave him "broad investigatory authority."

That contention is the subject of dispute, however. The agreement states that Shaw "may recommend" that the inspector general initiate audits, evaluations, investigations and inquiries, but it does not appear to give him investigative powers.

"Jack Shaw was never authorized to do any kind of investigation or auditing on his own," said one source close to Schmitz. "The agreement was not for that. He's trying to cram more authority into that agreement than it gives him."

Schmitz canceled the agreement two weeks after Shaw was first accused of tampering with the emergency phone network contract. Schmitz declined to comment, but in his letter canceling the arrangement, he praised Shaw for "outstanding leadership."

Shaw used the agreement to win permission to visit Iraq last fall. In an Oct. 28 letter to Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, head of the U.S. Central Command, Shaw said he wanted to "investigate those who threatened the national security of the United States through the transfer of advanced technologies to Iraq."

Specifically, Shaw said he planned to identify countries that had smuggled contraband weapons into Iraq and catalog existing conventional weapons stockpiles.

Although he did not mention it in the letter, Shaw also was interested in investigating operations at the port of Umm al Qasr.

Last summer, Shaw was visited by Richard E. Powers, a longtime friend and lobbyist. Powers was representing SSA Marine, a Seattle-based port operations company that had won a controversial limited-bid contract in the early days of the war to manage the troubled port.

He also was representing a small business owned by Alaskan natives called Nana Pacific. Under federal regulations, small companies owned by Alaskan Native Americans can bypass the normal process and receive unlimited, no-bid contracts.

Powers suggested there were serious problems with dredging at the port that could be quickly remedied by having a no-bid contract awarded to Nana, which then could subcontract to SSA Marine, sources said.

Powers did not respond to requests for comment. Public lobbying records show that Nana and SSA Marine paid Powers $80,000 last year for his work.

In December, Shaw flew to Kuwait to inspect the port. The military refused to allow him into the facility, however, because of the danger involved, Pentagon sources said.

Shaw and several staffers then went to the port dressed like employees of KBR, the Halliburton subsidiary that has a contract to supply the military with food and other items.

In a KBR hat, Shaw and his staff spent less than an hour at the port, taking pictures and talking with soldiers, current and former Pentagon sources said. The group documented well-known problems there, including the presence of unexploded mines.

A Defense official in Shaw's office acknowledged that they had entered the port despite the military's concerns. He described the disguise as an attempt to conceal Shaw's status, for safety reasons.

He said the military's negative reaction to the proposed visit convinced him that there was serious trouble at the port.

"This Army two-star said, 'We won't let you in the country.' I said, there's something there," said the Defense official, who did not want to be identified. "Everybody had declared victory at the port…. We looked at the port and there were still tremendous problems."

When coalition officials learned that Shaw was at the port, they made a frantic effort to locate him, but didn't reach him until after his return to Kuwait.

"I get this call from [the U.S. military command in Iraq] that said: 'We have an undersecretary of Defense roaming the countryside. We need to locate and secure him,' " recalled a former CPA official. "He's in the country illegally, but we can't arrest him, so we let him finish the tour."

Shaw spent about a week in Iraq, meeting with top U.S. and Iraqi officials. He told several officials that the trip to Umm al Qasr had convinced him that work at the port had to be accelerated. He then suggested that the work could be expedited by awarding the contract to Nana, several former CPA officials said.

"The only time I heard Nana's name was when [Shaw and his team] were in Baghdad," said a former CPA official involved in the ports. "The notion was that this might well be a vehicle where you could in fact get things moving quickly that needed to be done, such as dredging and so forth."

Soon after Shaw's visit, the CPA granted Nana a construction and communications contract worth up to $70 million. Nana then subcontracted $3.5 million in work to SSA Marine, which recently completed the dredging.

Nana also is linked to Shaw's other investigation.

Late last year, Shaw began looking into the award of cellphone licenses in Iraq after receiving complaints from a longtime friend, Don DeMarino, who had worked under Shaw at the Commerce Department.

DeMarino was a director of a consortium called Liberty Mobile, one of the losing bidders in the contest that awarded the cellphone licenses, potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars, to three other firms.

Relying on information from DeMarino and Liberty Mobile's president, Declan Ganley, Shaw cast doubt on the validity of the awards by leaking to several media outlets information that he said showed corruption in the process, said current and former Pentagon sources. He also provided the evidence he had gathered to the inspector general.


continued............

[thedrifter]

In December, the inspector general's office released a report saying that no basis had been found for Shaw's accusations. The office referred part of the complaint to the British government for further investigation of two British CPA officials involved in the licensing process, according to a copy of the report obtained by The Times.

British authorities exonerated the men. Later, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz wrote to the British ambassador clearing them.

"The British ambassador in the U.S. has received notification that no British citizens are under investigation by the U.S." in the contract matter, a British Embassy spokesman said.

Soon after Liberty Mobile lost the bidding war last fall, Shaw began pushing Nana to win a no-bid contract to build a communications system for the Iraqi police, fire and security forces, according to officials with the now-dissolved CPA and documents obtained by The Times. He then tried to change the language of the contract to allow the creation of a cellphone network, according to interviews and documents.

Nana planned to subcontract the construction of the communications system to a company called Guardian Net. Guardian Net's board of directors was nearly identical to that of Liberty Mobile. It included DeMarino, Ganley and Julian Walker, who works for Shaw as a researcher, according to the documents.

Ganley and DeMarino have acknowledged participating in the attempt to win a cellphone license. Walker could not be reached for comment.

When CPA officials reported their concerns about the Guardian Net plan to Pentagon investigators, Shaw stepped up his investigation of the role of the CPA officials in the licensing process, Pentagon sources said.

Even after the Pentagon canceled the agreement that Shaw had used to justify his probe, he unilaterally continued the investigation, Pentagon sources said.

On May 11, Shaw delivered his report, which concluded that there was "serious, credible evidence of criminal wrongdoing by U.S. government employees pertaining to taking official acts in exchange for bribes."

He acknowledged that the report "directly conflicts" with the December report by the inspector general, which he dismissed as "worthless."

Shaw's report, which The Times has reviewed, claims evidence of a conspiracy to take over Iraq's cellphone service led by Nadhmi Auchi, a British businessman who has been accused of links to Hussein and who was convicted last year in a French court in an unrelated kickback scheme. Auchi maintains his innocence and is appealing.

Auchi, according to the report, paid bribes through a series of surrogates to win the three cellphone licenses and gain control of Iraq's cellular system.

A spokesman for Auchi denied Shaw's claims. He acknowledged that Auchi has an indirect, minor stake in Orascom, one of the cellphone operators. He denied any ownership interest in the other phone companies.

Shaw's report relies mainly on newspaper articles, rumors and secondhand conversations reported by the losing bidders or anonymous sources and "the Arab street," which Shaw calls "a reasonable sounding board for accepted truth."

In the conclusion to his report, Shaw recommends that all the cellphone licenses be canceled and that the contract be awarded to one of the original bidders — as long as the bidder uses a technology known as CDMA, which Shaw describes as superior to other cellular technologies.

Shaw sent his report to the inspector general's office, which turned it over for further investigation to the FBI. An FBI official confirmed that the agency had received the report and had just begun looking into the allegations of bribery.

"While some of the evidence in this report is fragmentary, the dots are connected in convincing and important ways," Shaw said in the report. "Below the deadly serious efforts to restore security and legitimacy to Iraq lies a muted gold rush mentality."

http://www.latimes.com/la-fg-probe7jul07,1,7961627.story


Ellie

[thedrifter]

Issue Date: July 12, 2004 <br />
<br />
General: More troops may hasten stability <br />
New coalition commander in Iraq to assess required U.S. force levels <br />
<br />
By Vince Crawley <br />
Times staff writer <br />
<br />
The Army...

[thedrifter]

Pentagon Outlines Troop Rotation Plan for Iraq
New units, to be deployed over several months, will include more reservists. The Army denies it is being stretched too thin.

By Esther Schrader, Times Staff Writer


WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is planning for the "worst-case" scenario in Iraq over the next year, preparing to send in more armored units to battle an unrelenting insurgency, a senior Army official told Congress on Wednesday.

Defense officials laid out a detailed roadmap of how they plan to deploy troops over the next year, replacing 140,000 soldiers and Marines now in Iraq with 135,000 troops being sent from bases in the U.S. and Europe in a third rotation of forces starting in November and lasting four months.

The proportion of reservists in Iraq will increase — from 39% to 42% of U.S. forces — as commanders try to bolster critical specialties where they are short and where civilian contractors can no longer be used because of the dangers. Other gaps will be plugged with the call-up of more than 5,600 recent military retirees.

Meanwhile, commanders are looking for ways to fill thousands of openings in military intelligence operations. Overall, of troops going to Iraq beginning this fall, a majority — 55% — will be serving a second time.

Taken together, the plans presented to members of the House Armed Services Committee portrayed a military scrambling to meet future troop needs for the conflict in Iraq and confronting the recurring criticism that they are trying to do too much with too little.

Gen. Richard A. Cody, the Army's new deputy chief of staff, and other defense officials testified that the Army did not want or need a permanent troop increase, saying they could make do with the soldiers they have.

Lawmakers continued to question that assessment, with Rep. Ike Skelton of Missouri, the committee's ranking Democrat, calling the Pentagon's announcement last week that it is calling up 5,600 members of the Individual Ready Reserve of military retirees a sign that the Pentagon is "wearing our people out." The troops, Skelton said, "are not pawns on a chessboard. They are our treasure."

Rep. John Kline (R-Minn.) called the number of reservists fighting in Iraq "just too high," saying employers of called-up reservists had complained to members of Congress.

But Pentagon officials defended the use of the ready reserve, a pool of roughly 118,000 former soldiers who are not members of a specific reserve unit and do not train regularly, yet who have unexpired obligations to complete their military service. Ready reserve soldiers have not been called up in significant numbers since 1990, amid preparations for the Persian Gulf War.

"The fact that its use is rare does not mean that it is inappropriate," David S.C. Chu, undersecretary of Defense for personnel and readiness, told the committee.

Chu said that of the 5,674 Individual Ready Reserve members mobilized to deploy to Iraq, he expected about 4,000 would go. He said the Pentagon opted to mobilize more troops than it needs because of the likelihood that some of the former service personnel, who had not been undergoing training since they left the service, would not be prepared for combat.

The military officials acknowledged that the Army had to scramble to "backfill" in some areas where it is short of qualified people.

"Our entire force," Cody testified, "is doing missions other than what we designed them for."

The most acute shortages, he said, are in military intelligence units, where Army planners calculate they are short 9,000 specialists to man the Army's new Reconnaissance, Surveillance and Target Acquisition units, as well as its new unmanned aerial vehicles.

"We're looking for some relief there," Cody said.

The increasing dangers of being in Iraq have also made it more difficult for Army planners to hire contract workers to drive trucks and repair vehicles, Cody said, forcing the Army to reach deeper into the pool of reservists and individual ready reservists.

He said the planned troop rotation was a "worst-case plan" that required more work from combat service support troops, such as heavy-equipment drivers and engineering units.

"We had to keep more engineer units over there because of the roads as well as some of the bridges, and we had to keep more truck drivers over there because the level of violence was such you couldn't get the civilian contractors to do some of that stuff," Cody said.

That, "quite frankly, is what drove us to have to go back to more transportation units … that we had not planned on; more engineer units the second time that we hadn't planned on" in the past several months, Cody said.

With the insurgency making duty in Iraq more dangerous for U.S. troops, Pentagon planners have chosen to outfit the force rotating into the conflict with 200 additional tanks, more than 6,000 Humvees specially equipped with armor plating, and dozens more Bradley Fighting Vehicles.

"The divisions going in will be more lethal," Cody said.

The 3rd Infantry Division, for example, which fought to take Baghdad and is slated to begin returning to Iraq in November, will be outfitted this time with 48 Apache helicopters, up from 18 the first time around, along with 38 Black Hawk and 12 Chinook helicopters.

Also slated to join the fight in Iraq is the 10th Mountain Division's 2nd Brigade; two Marine expeditionary units; a Marine expeditionary force; the Army's 1st Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division, outfitted with new Stryker wheeled vehicles; the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment; and several National Guard combat brigades, including the 42nd Infantry Division from New York, the 155th Armored Brigade from Mississippi and the 29th Brigade from Hawaii.

*



Troop rotation

Starting in November, 135,000 troops will be sent to Iraq from bases in the United States and Europe, replacing 140,000 soldiers and Marines in Iraq. Here's a look at when and where the troops will be deployed:

http://www.latimes.com/la-na-troops8jul08,1,2992484.story


Ellie