Date: Tue, 09 Dec 2003 11:50:15 -0600
From: VFP National
< veteransfp at sbcglobal.net >
Subject: [vfp-all]
Courtesy Of: Utah.edu
Israel Trains US Assassination Squads In Iraq
http://www.nowarforisrael.com/
Israel Trains Assassination Squads In Iraq
Julian Borger in Washington
Tuesday December 9, 2003
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Israeli advisers are helping train US special forces in aggressivecounter-insurgency operations in Iraq, including the use of assassinationsquads against guerrilla leaders, US intelligence and military sources said yesterday.
The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) has sent urban warfare specialists to FortBragg in North Carolina, the home of US special forces, and according totwo sources, Israeli military "consultants" have also visited Iraq.
US forces in Iraq's Sunni triangle have already begun to use tactics thatecho Israeli operations in the occupied territories, sealing off centres ofresistance with razor wire and razing buildings from where attacks havebeen launched against US troops.
But the secret war in Iraq is about to get much tougher, in the hope ofsuppressing the Ba'athist-led insurgency ahead of next November'spresidential elections.
US special forces teams are already behind the lines inside Syriaattempting to kill foreign jihadists before they cross the border, and agroup focused on the "neutralisation" of guerrilla leaders is being set up,according to sources familiar with the operations.
"This is basically an assassination programme. That is what is beingconceptualised here. This is a hunter-killer team," said a former senior USintelligence official, who added that he feared the new tactics andenhanced cooperation with Israel would only inflame a volatile situation inthe Middle East.
"It is bonkers, insane. Here we are - we're already being compared toSharon in the Arab world, and we've just confirmed it by bringing in theIsraelis and setting up assassination teams."
"They are being trained by Israelis in Fort Bragg," a well-informed intelligence source in Washington said."Some Israelis went to Iraq as well, not to do training, but for providing consultations."
The consultants' visit to Iraq was confirmed by another US source who was in contact with American officials there.
The Pentagon did not return calls seeking comment, but a military planner,Brigadier General Michael Vane, mentioned the cooperation with Israel in aletter to Army magazine in July about the Iraq counter-insurgency campaign.
"We recently travelled to Israel to glean lessons learned from theircounterterrorist operations in urban areas," wrote General Vane, deputy chief of staff at the army's training and doctrine command.
An Israeli official said the IDF regularly shared its experience in theWest Bank and Gaza with the US armed forces, but said he could not commentabout cooperation in Iraq.
"When we do activities, the US military attaches in Tel Aviv areinterested. I assume it's the same as the British. That's the way allieswork. The special forces come to our people and say, do debrief on anoperation we have done," the official said.
"Does it affect Iraq? It's not in our interest or the American interest orin anyone's interest to go into that. It would just fit in with jihadist prejudices."
Colonel Ralph Peters, a former army intelligence officer and a critic ofPentagon policy in Iraq, said yesterday there was nothing wrong withlearning lessons wherever possible.
"When we turn to anyone for insights, it doesn't mean we blindly acceptit," Col Peters said. "But I think what you're seeing is a new realism. TheAmerican tendency is to try to win all the hearts and minds. In Iraq, thereare just some hearts and minds you can't win. Within the bounds of humanrights, if you do make an example of certain villages it gets the attentionof the others, and attacks have gone down in the area."
The new counter-insurgency unit made up of elite troops being put togetherin the Pentagon is called Task Force 121, New Yorker magazine reported inyesterday's edition.
One of the planners behind the offensive is a highly controversial figure,whose role is likely to inflame Muslim opinion: Lieutenant General William"Jerry" Boykin.
In October, there were calls for his resignation after he told a churchcongregation in Oregon that the US was at war with Satan, who "wants todestroy us as a Christian army".
"He's been promoted a rank above his abilities," he said. "Some generalsare pretty good on battlefield but are disastrous nearer the source ofpower."
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