Monday, September 10, 2007
Pentagon to build base near Iranian border in Iraq
Security
(Reuters) - The Pentagon is preparing to build a military base near the Iraq-Iran border to try to curtail the flow of advanced Iranian weaponry to Shiite militants across Iraq, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday in its online edition.
Quoting Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the commander of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, the Journal said the Pentagon also plans to build fortified checkpoints on major highways leading from the Iranian border to Baghdad, and install X-ray machines and explosives-detecting sensors at the only formal border crossing between the two countries.
The base will be located about four miles from the Iranian border and will be used for at least two years, according to the report. U.S. officials told the paper it is unclear whether it will be among the small number of facilities that would remain in Iraq after any future large-scale U.S. withdrawal. The report comes on the same day the top U.S. commander in Iraq and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker present a progress report to Congress on the war.
U.S. President George W. Bush, under mounting pressure to change course in Iraq, plans a prime time speech on the war this week. He is unlikely to unveil a major shift in strategy in the 4-year-old war that has claimed the lives of more than 3,700 U.S. troops and tens of thousands of Iraqis.
Early Monday morning, Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Withington told Reuters he could not comment on the specifics of the report, but said: "Coalition and Iraqi partners will continue to put pressure on the enemy, including disruptions of any supply lines, in an effort to reduce violence and to protect the Iraqi people."
Lynch told the paper, "We've got a major problem with Iranian munitions streaming into Iraq. This Iranian interference is troubling and we have to stop it." U.S. officials accuse Iran of fomenting violence to destabilize Iraq and of seeking to build nuclear weapons under cover of civilian nuclear program, charges Iran denies.
Maj. Toby Logsdon, the U.S. officer overseeing the project, told the Journal that the new outpost will have living quarters for at least 200 soldiers, who could arrive in November. "Iran will know this is here -- they will have to rethink how they do things, and the smugglers will have to rethink how they do things," Logsdon told the Journal.
Quoting Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the commander of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, the Journal said the Pentagon also plans to build fortified checkpoints on major highways leading from the Iranian border to Baghdad, and install X-ray machines and explosives-detecting sensors at the only formal border crossing between the two countries.
The base will be located about four miles from the Iranian border and will be used for at least two years, according to the report. U.S. officials told the paper it is unclear whether it will be among the small number of facilities that would remain in Iraq after any future large-scale U.S. withdrawal. The report comes on the same day the top U.S. commander in Iraq and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker present a progress report to Congress on the war.
U.S. President George W. Bush, under mounting pressure to change course in Iraq, plans a prime time speech on the war this week. He is unlikely to unveil a major shift in strategy in the 4-year-old war that has claimed the lives of more than 3,700 U.S. troops and tens of thousands of Iraqis.
Early Monday morning, Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Withington told Reuters he could not comment on the specifics of the report, but said: "Coalition and Iraqi partners will continue to put pressure on the enemy, including disruptions of any supply lines, in an effort to reduce violence and to protect the Iraqi people."
Lynch told the paper, "We've got a major problem with Iranian munitions streaming into Iraq. This Iranian interference is troubling and we have to stop it." U.S. officials accuse Iran of fomenting violence to destabilize Iraq and of seeking to build nuclear weapons under cover of civilian nuclear program, charges Iran denies.
Maj. Toby Logsdon, the U.S. officer overseeing the project, told the Journal that the new outpost will have living quarters for at least 200 soldiers, who could arrive in November. "Iran will know this is here -- they will have to rethink how they do things, and the smugglers will have to rethink how they do things," Logsdon told the Journal.
Labels: Iran-Iraq border, Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, Maj. Toby Logsdon, Pentagon
Monday, August 06, 2007
190,000 weapons missing in Iraq
Security
(BBC) - The US military cannot account for 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols given to the Iraqi security forces, an official US report says. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) says the Pentagon cannot track about 30% of the weapons distributed in Iraq over the past three years. The Pentagon did not dispute the figures, but said it was reviewing arms deliveries procedures.
About $19.2bn has been spent by the US since 2003 on Iraqi security forces. GAO, the investigative arm of the US Congress, said at least $2.8bn of this money was used to buy and deliver weapons and other equipment. Correspondents say it is now feared many of the weapons are being used against US forces on the ground in Iraq.
The GAO said weapons distribution was haphazard and rushed and failed to follow established procedures, particularly from 2004 to 2005.
MISSING IRAQ WEAPONS
AK-47 rifles: 110,000
Pistols: 80,000
Body armour pieces: 135,000
Helmets: 115,000
During this period, security training was led by Gen David Petraeus, who now commands all US forces in Iraq.
The GAO reached the estimate - 111,000 missing AK-47s and 80,000 missing pistols - by comparing the property records of the Multi-National Security Transition Command for Iraq against records maintained by Gen Petraeus of the arms and equipment he ordered.
Deputy Assistant Defence Secretary Mark Kimmitt told AFP the Pentagon was "reviewing policies and procedures to ensure US-funded equipment reaches the intended Iraqi security forces under the Iraq program". The report comes as a political battle rages in Washington over the progress of the war in Iraq.
Gen Petraeus and US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker are scheduled to report to Congress by mid-September on the success of efforts to halt sectarian violence and return Iraq to viable self-governance. Meanwhile, at the end of July, the US Defence Department admitted that the US-led coalition in Iraq had failed to deliver nearly two-thirds of the equipment it promised to Iraq's army.
The Pentagon said only 14.5m of the nearly 40m items of equipment ordered by the Iraqi army had been provided. The US military commander in charge of training in Iraq has asked for help in speeding up the transfer of equipment. Iraq's ambassador to the US said the delays were hindering the fighting capacity of its armed forces.
About $19.2bn has been spent by the US since 2003 on Iraqi security forces. GAO, the investigative arm of the US Congress, said at least $2.8bn of this money was used to buy and deliver weapons and other equipment. Correspondents say it is now feared many of the weapons are being used against US forces on the ground in Iraq.
The GAO said weapons distribution was haphazard and rushed and failed to follow established procedures, particularly from 2004 to 2005.
MISSING IRAQ WEAPONS
AK-47 rifles: 110,000
Pistols: 80,000
Body armour pieces: 135,000
Helmets: 115,000
During this period, security training was led by Gen David Petraeus, who now commands all US forces in Iraq.
The GAO reached the estimate - 111,000 missing AK-47s and 80,000 missing pistols - by comparing the property records of the Multi-National Security Transition Command for Iraq against records maintained by Gen Petraeus of the arms and equipment he ordered.
Deputy Assistant Defence Secretary Mark Kimmitt told AFP the Pentagon was "reviewing policies and procedures to ensure US-funded equipment reaches the intended Iraqi security forces under the Iraq program". The report comes as a political battle rages in Washington over the progress of the war in Iraq.
Gen Petraeus and US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker are scheduled to report to Congress by mid-September on the success of efforts to halt sectarian violence and return Iraq to viable self-governance. Meanwhile, at the end of July, the US Defence Department admitted that the US-led coalition in Iraq had failed to deliver nearly two-thirds of the equipment it promised to Iraq's army.
The Pentagon said only 14.5m of the nearly 40m items of equipment ordered by the Iraqi army had been provided. The US military commander in charge of training in Iraq has asked for help in speeding up the transfer of equipment. Iraq's ambassador to the US said the delays were hindering the fighting capacity of its armed forces.
Labels: GAO, General David Petraeus, Iraq, missing weapons, MNSTC-I, Pentagon, Ryan Crocker
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Pentagon confirms it is working with Turkey to stop PKK
Region
(The Guardian) - The Pentagon confirmed yesterday that it is working closely with the Turkish government to stop Kurdish guerrillas operating from bases in northern Iraq. But it refused to comment on a report that the US is planning a covert operation to send special forces into action to try to neutralise the leadership of the Kurdistan Workers party (PKK), which has been mounting attacks inside Turkey.
The US is trying to persuade the Turkish army against taking matters into its own hands by invading northern Iraq, where the Kurds have established an autonomous region. Washington, faced with a myriad of problems in Iraq, does not need a new front opening up in the country.
Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, would neither confirm nor deny that a covert operation was being planned. But he said yesterday: "We recognise that the PKK is a serious problem and we're working closely with both the government of Iraq and the government of Turkey to resolve this."
In the Washington Post, the veteran columnist Robert Novak, disclosed that Eric Edelman, an undersecretary of defence and former ambassador to Turkey, told selected congressmen in private last week about the planned covert operation. The administration is required by law to inform Congress of any such operations.
Novak wrote the US forces would "behead the guerrilla organisation by helping Turkey get rid of PKK leaders that they have targeted for years". The PKK has been fighting for the breakaway from Turkey of the large Kurdish population in the east of the country. Some of the members of Congress informed were alarmed by the development at a time when they are working to find ways of stabilising Iraq and withdrawing US forces.
Two weeks ago, the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, threatened a military incursion inside the Iraqi Kurdish area. This followed a build-up of Turkish forces along the Iraqi border. The 250,000-strong Turkish force on the border is confronting an estimated 4,000 PKK fighters.
The US is trying to persuade the Turkish army against taking matters into its own hands by invading northern Iraq, where the Kurds have established an autonomous region. Washington, faced with a myriad of problems in Iraq, does not need a new front opening up in the country.
Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, would neither confirm nor deny that a covert operation was being planned. But he said yesterday: "We recognise that the PKK is a serious problem and we're working closely with both the government of Iraq and the government of Turkey to resolve this."
In the Washington Post, the veteran columnist Robert Novak, disclosed that Eric Edelman, an undersecretary of defence and former ambassador to Turkey, told selected congressmen in private last week about the planned covert operation. The administration is required by law to inform Congress of any such operations.
Novak wrote the US forces would "behead the guerrilla organisation by helping Turkey get rid of PKK leaders that they have targeted for years". The PKK has been fighting for the breakaway from Turkey of the large Kurdish population in the east of the country. Some of the members of Congress informed were alarmed by the development at a time when they are working to find ways of stabilising Iraq and withdrawing US forces.
Two weeks ago, the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, threatened a military incursion inside the Iraqi Kurdish area. This followed a build-up of Turkish forces along the Iraqi border. The 250,000-strong Turkish force on the border is confronting an estimated 4,000 PKK fighters.
Labels: Bryan Whitman, Pentagon, PKK, Turkey, U.S.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Pentagon does business with Iraqi factories
Business
(AP) - In an Iraq jobs program, the Pentagon has helped reopen three factories shuttered after the 2003 invasion, seeding the ground by buying uniforms and armored vehicles from two of them. Reopening state-owned factories that produced everything from cement to buses for Saddam Hussein's regime is among efforts President Bush hopes will boost the economy and help salvage a violent Iraq. His controversial strategy of increasing troops there to try to calm violence is meant to buy the Iraqi government time to move forward on political reconciliation and reconstruction.
In a program started nearly a year ago, the Defense Department has reopened a large textile factory in Najaf by buying uniforms for Iraqi soldiers and police that the U.S. has been training, and has reopened a vehicle factory south of Baghdad by buying armored vehicles, said Paul Brinkley. He is deputy undersecretary of defense in charge of Pentagon business modernization efforts and has been running the program.
Officials helped find other customers for the third restarted factory, in Ramadi, which makes ceramic products the U.S. has no need for in Iraq. An American company has agreed to buy 120 trucks from the transport company and another is expected to buy clothing from the textile factory that Brinkley said could be on American shelves by fall. Brinkley declined to name the companies, saying they are still negotiating.
Brinkley said the program will reopen private as well as government factories. Military commanders have long seen employment as one of the keys to slowing the violence. Of some 200 large factories that made up Iraq's former industrial base, Brinkley said the Pentagon believes 140 are potentially viable and has identified ways to get 56 of them running again, hopefully this year.
In a program started nearly a year ago, the Defense Department has reopened a large textile factory in Najaf by buying uniforms for Iraqi soldiers and police that the U.S. has been training, and has reopened a vehicle factory south of Baghdad by buying armored vehicles, said Paul Brinkley. He is deputy undersecretary of defense in charge of Pentagon business modernization efforts and has been running the program.
Officials helped find other customers for the third restarted factory, in Ramadi, which makes ceramic products the U.S. has no need for in Iraq. An American company has agreed to buy 120 trucks from the transport company and another is expected to buy clothing from the textile factory that Brinkley said could be on American shelves by fall. Brinkley declined to name the companies, saying they are still negotiating.
Brinkley said the program will reopen private as well as government factories. Military commanders have long seen employment as one of the keys to slowing the violence. Of some 200 large factories that made up Iraq's former industrial base, Brinkley said the Pentagon believes 140 are potentially viable and has identified ways to get 56 of them running again, hopefully this year.
Labels: Iraqi factories, Najaf, Paul Brinkley, Pentagon, Ramadi
