Checkpoint Baghdad : Boots on the Ground

Iraq's National Soccer Team Gets Back on the Pitch

Larry Kaplow — Thu, 29 May 2008 19:39:46 GMT

Iraqis breathed a collective sigh of relief Thursday as they learned their beloved national soccer team would be allowed to keep playing. FIFA, world soccer's governing body, rescinded a decision to suspend the Iraqi squad from qualifying matches for next year's World Cup tournament. The national team is set to play Australia in Brisbane on Sunday, when you can expect all televisions to be tuned in any place in Baghdad that's getting its share of the seven hours of daily city electricity.

Iraqi soccer is often called the only big national success story since the U.S. invasion and fall of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003. Despite the country's chaotic mayhem, dysfunctional government and decrepit utilities, Iraq came in fourth at the 2004 Olympics and won the Asian championship last year. The wins repeatedly sent Iraqis into the streets with dances and celebratory gunfire that sometimes alarmed U.S. troops. The team–a mix mainly of Arab Shiites and ethnic Kurds with one Sunni Arab star (see The Official Younis Mahmoud Website)–unites Iraqis in its success and diverts attention from bloodier matters. But it has also gone through its own episodes of raw bloodshed, division and politics.

Hussein's son Uday ran the country's sports establishment for years before the war. He infamously had players jailed and beaten when they failed to bring home wins. He also stifled their requests to play abroad where they could make real money.

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After the war, retired soccer stars Ahmed Radhi and Hussein Saeed engaged in a public feud over control for the newly liberated soccer domain. I interviewed Radhi in 2003. He was young and handsome but with an athlete's naiveté and clearly doomed against Saeed, an older and educated former player who had already reached high positions in the soccer union under Uday. Baghdad soccer fans would buzz with rumors about Radhi having Saeed's house raked with machine gun fire (others said it was a hand grenade) but Saeed, who I saw at a team practice in 2004 as he was flanked by Kalashnikov-wielding bodyguards, was secure in his hold on soccer power and had good connections in the game internationally.

Even amid their early post-war success, players would complain that the soccer administration wasted or stole money that they should have gone for things like good soccer shoes (players bought their own) and health insurance. Granted, sports organizations worldwide have a pretty long record for corruption and mismanagement.

It was a decision by the Iraqi government that apparently touched off the latest off-field drama. The cabinet of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki disbanded the Iraqi Olympic Committee, claiming its leadership was corrupt and failing to hold required elections. The soccer federation, still run by Saeed, is under the committee's jurisdiction and was apparently also dissolved. FIFA, which held to a hands-off stance throughout much of Uday Hussein's sadistic rule of Iraqi soccer, pronounced this decision as illegitimate political interference. On Monday, it announced it would suspend the team's World Cup participation unless the Iraqi government reversed its action.

Widespread distress and news coverage ensued with frequent updates on the negotiations. The team arrived in Australia (they train outside Iraq for safety) on Tuesday. Coach Adnan Hamad, who steered the team through the 2004 Olympics, fretted that the controversy would prove a defeating distraction.

But Thursday the FIFA ban was reversed after the Iraqi government stipulated that it was not targeting the country's soccer federation in its move against the umbrella Olympic Committee. One of the first hints that a resolution was on the way came the night before in a report quoting none other than Ahmed Radhi, who for now appears to be back on workable terms with Saeed. Saeed assured him that the game would go and Australian officials were pushing to play the Sunday match so they would not lose the television revenues. Whatever the reason, now it's up to the players to overcome the chaos and win. They've done it before.

One Basra Militia Leader Taken Down

Larry Kaplow — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 17:44:42 GMT

There's one less player now on the chaotic streets of Basra, where the Iraqi government and contending parties and gangs are scrapping for control of Iraq's oil-rich second city. Reports have emerged in the last couple of days that government forces have detained Yussef al-Mussawi, leader of a shadowy fundamentalist group, Thar-Allah–"God's Revenge." Newsweek wrote about Mussawi last October, describing how local warlords exert more authority than the central government. He worked from a compound on the edge of the city, surrounded by his heavily armed aides.

Government officials say he is behind a string of assassinations, including the killings of professionals and women, the latter apparently because they were not maintaining strict codes for modest dress and behavior. They also accuse Mussawi of ties to Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps. But some see the recent wave of arrests as an attempt by leading government Shiite parties to neutralize Shiite rivals.

Iraq Violence Stats Update

Larry Kaplow — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 01:37:17 GMT

These three charts provided to NEWSWEEK by the military last week give a rough idea of how the violence in Iraq today compares to other times during the war. The military still does not attach figures to the charts but it is more forthcoming with comprehensive trends--released in close-to-real-time--than it used to be.

This chart shows that weekly attacks are in a low, nearly four-month plateau with fewer than 600 attacks of all kinds across the country per week. Attacks haven't been down at those levels for a sustained period since about spring 2005 (and they surpassed 1,500 attacks a week back in June of last year), according to the military's information.

This chart shows violent civilian deaths down in January to just above 500 a month, the lowest figure in about two years:

The third shows Iraqi security forces and U.S. military deaths per month--with an uptick for U.S. deaths in January while Iraqi deaths dropped:

No Snow, But Weather Glitches Complicate Travel in Iraq

Larry Kaplow — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 19:58:10 GMT

It's dust storm season in Iraq and the unruly weather is knotting up the vital helicopter travel in ways that rival the effects snows have on North American commercial aviation. Over the past week there has often been an ugly slate sheen on the skies, with low-visibility, winds that whip the palms around and the fine sand that leaves cars, windows and plants with a thin coat of beige. You can smell and taste the dirt, even inside.

True, in Iraq they don't make you sit for hours in your helicopter waiting for take off like a big airliner might, but things can get inconvenient or even interfere with military operations. It was five years ago during the invasion that the march of U.S. troops toward Baghdad was briefly suspended for dust storms. Tonight we can tell from the unusual silence around the capital that the helicopters that support troops on the ground have been grounded for hours.

One of the similarities between interruptions in helicopter travel here and airline travel in the United States is that passengers rarely know what's going on--though it seems somewhat more excusable in a war. Last night NEWSWEEK colleague Silvia Spring and an Iraqi photographer were headed to embed with a Marine unit in western Iraq. Their "show time," the military equivalent of a check in time, was 9:30 p.m. (flights usually leave an hour or two later). She was skeptical they would make it out. When they arrived to the helicopter landing zone inside the Green Zone--an expansive pavement with a few hangers and a trailer for a check-in office--it was the quietest she'd ever seen. The benches outside, usually packed with soldiers and their gear, were empty, and the small indoor office and waiting area were also quiet. The white board used for tracking flights was wiped clean of schedules, and scrawled across it was "ALL FLIGHTS ON WEATHER HOLD." They were told that they wouldn't know for sure that their delayed flight was canceled until 4 a.m.

It was time to settle in for some satellite television. Appropriately, a cop movie called "Murphy's Law" came on. At least it had Arabic subtitles so our photographer could follow along. The desk manager told Spring, "If it was an Army flight, I'd tell you to go home right now . . . But with the Marines, you never know." One of the three soldiers still hoping for flights had already taken the only US Weekly in the pile of old magazines, leaving a September issue of NEWSWEEK. At 12:30, the desk manager put "Casino Royale" in the DVD player. Just after 2 a.m., salvation came in the form of a new weather warning that would almost surely ground all flights the following day as well. She could at least come back to the bureau for some sleep.

I was in a similar jam at an Army base in the Iraqi north last week. Soldiers on patrol were keeping track on their radios for whether they could count on helicopters to keep an eye on their routes or evacuate them if injured. I heard about other reporters in limbo at various bases or, for those at air bases, being wait-listed on airplane flights that were also getting packed with stranded would-be helicopter fliers. Some were waiting days. My flight out was in doubt.

Two generals, including Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner, a senior Army spokesman, came to visit the small base. They ended up getting grounded for the evening. That meant I had to give up my guest trailer for them and move into a small wood shack with a bed and some piles of boxes – and a good heater, fortunately. But it was all worth it. In the morning I was able to hitch a ride with Bergner back to Baghdad, who had extra seats (they were talking about bumping someone for my other route out). On arrival, the landing pad was crowded with soldiers and contractors trying to score a flight amid a short break in the weather.

Slowly, Baghdad Opens to Business

Silvia Spring — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 14:54:52 GMT

Al-Eid Road Group is looking for business. And what better place to do it than the opening day of the Baghdad Business to Business Expo? The construction company's 31-year-old commercial manager, Taham Lifta, smartly dressed in a maroon v-neck sweater over a silvery-blue tie, was there to speak to potential clients, but he took the time to show me a couple slide shows from Al-Eid's recent projects on his laptop. As part of a U.S. Army contract last year, it re-bricked cracked sidewalks on Baghdad's still tense Haifa Street. ("It was a battlefield," Lifta says, meaning it literally.) And the company recently finished building the Baghdad Zoo a new set of bathrooms. Yet so far for 2008, Al-Eid, worth $2.5 million, has no work scheduled. "But there has been a lot of interest today," says Lifta hopefully. "And we can work in hot zones."

Around 260 exhibitor booths like Lifta's took over the Rasheed Hotel's ground floor this morning, each manned with company representatives handing out promotional brochures, fliers and gifts. (I walked out with two 2008 wall calendars, a notepad, two packs of Iraqi-made Sumer brand cigarettes and a mini candy bar.) The the variety of companies was impressive—banks, hotels, tobacco growers, soda makers, pre-fab home builders, security and construction contractors. According to the Iraqi American Chamber of Commerce, the host organization of the Expo, nearly 8,000 business people registered to attend. Its popularity is no surprise: Baghdad has not hosted anything like this in nearly a decade.

Even U.S. Commerce Secretary, Carlos Gutierrez, was plugging the event when he visited Baghdad last week. While praising what he called Iraq's "flourishing entrepreneurialism," Gutierrez noted that there were 30,000 registered businesses in Iraq in 2007, up from just 8,000 in 2003. About 100,000 micro-loans have been granted with a repayment rate of 100 percent. Exports last year totaled $28 billion; four years before, they had added up to just $8.5 billion. "This is a window of opportunity," Gutierrez told a group of Iraqi and American reporters. "I believe Iraq can be one of the fastest growing economies in the world."

It will likely take more than a Business Expo to make Gutierrez's prediction come true. But achieving the organizers' ambitious goal to generate $500 million in new business activity and create more than 10,000 new jobs this year would certainly be a big step forward. And there are positive signs. Basim Abdul Qader, a financial services agent, opened up his wallet to show me the first Iraqi bank-issued MasterCard. (Even if peace is something money can't buy, it's useful for everything else.) Qader is hoping to boost their use by selling wireless card readers, which many Expo attendees stopped to hear more about. Given that there is no shortage of streets in Baghdad that need re-paving, companies like Al-Eid shouldn't have to wait too much longer to find work this year.

The New Sons of Iraq

Babak Dehghanpisheh — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 15:27:36 GMT

In the U.S. military's long history of creative wording (think collateral damage), the moniker Concerned Local Citizens stands out as a gem. The Citizens, or CLCs for short, are the former Iraqi insurgents now on the U.S. payroll in Baghdad and some of the outlying areas. The name was first used by the military in press releases last fall and was quickly picked up by the Western press. That may soon change. In recent days, the U.S. military has started referring to these fighters as the Sons of Iraq, carefully noting that they were "formerly known as Concerned Local Citizens." In western Iraq, the military still refers to similar groups as the Awakening. It's enough to make Prince's head spin.

Turns out military leaders are trying to tweak the name for a better Arabic translation. "I asked [our translators] 'Why don't you call it CLCs?' Well, CLC doesn't really translate well. It means worried people," says Brigadier General Mark McDonald who works with the groups. "If you think about what these people are doing they're not worried people. These people are out there getting after it." There has also been a deliberate effort to stay away from political and paramilitary sounding names. Most Iraqis still call the groups sahwa, or awakening, after the tribal groups that initiated the movement in Anbar province.

Whatever they're called, the fighters are now a formidable group: there are roughly 85,000 across the country. They get about three hundred dollars a month now to aim their guns away from American and Iraqi security forces. But so far the Iraqi government has only absorbed about 6,000 of them into the local security forces. Gen. McDonald estimates that roughly thirty percent of these fighters will eventually be taken into the fold. That may leave more than 50,000 armed and irked Sons of Iraq out in the cold. The current plan is to steer some toward a U.S.-funded civil service program and others may be accepted into a vocational training program funded by the Iraqi government. But one thing is almost certain, if the pace of hiring isn't stepped up, these men will go back to what they were: insurgents.

Spot the Difference: 'Concerned Citizens' vs. Militia

Kevin Peraino — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 20:38:36 GMT

Yesterday I took a day trip with Gen. David Petraeus – one of his frequent "battlefield circulations" – to a small farming village near the Iraqi town of Yussefiya, about 30 miles southwest of Baghdad. These kinds of excursions are generally dog-and-pony shows: day-long spin sessions that involve a fair amount of theatrics from American officers going on about how much progress has been made. (Yesterday was no exception; the climax came when the four-star general passed out soccer balls to Iraqi kids as flashbulbs flickered.) Still, I try to tag along for them when they come up; you never know when you might come across some news. And I admit I never miss the chance to ride on a Blackhawk helicopter over Iraq – which, even after dozens of trips, is still the cheapest thrill in the Middle East.

I also happened to be interested in the topic yesterday: the military's new "concerned local citizens" programs. American diplomats and officers love to talk about this new strategy of relying on local strongmen for security – "government from the ground up," as they put it. In the short term the project has produced some noteworthy results in reducing attacks on American troops. Yet in the long term it also presents some significant risks. Two weeks ago I wrote a story for the magazine that looked at the dark side of this phenomenon, which, in practice, includes the rise of dozens of American-supported warlords. Since the story appeared, a couple of things reminded me just how difficult the balancing act will be.

One of the problems for Iraqi sheikhs is that taking money from Americans opens them to accusations of being collaborators -- a serious charge in this part of the world. "They're selling their souls, and they're not respected for it," says Peter Harling, an Iraq expert at the International Crisis Group. "Their strength is temporary." That point was illustrated vividly to me the day after I finished reporting on the warlord story. I was in Tikrit and a U.S. officer had arranged for me to have dinner – the traditional Ramadan fast-breaking – with one of the Iraqi tribal leaders who was participating in the program, Sheikh Moawiya Jebara. Yet shortly before the iftar was to begin, I got word that my dinner partner would not make it. He had been assassinated that afternoon.

The second reminder came yesterday, as I rode in a Humvee in Petraeus's convoy through the farmland around Yussefiya. As we drove by, Iraqi gunmen wearing crimson headscarves and fluorescent-orange mesh vests cradled Kalashnikovs and crouched in the high grass along the side of the road. These were the "concerned local citizens" – and they looked very much like militiamen to me. As I reported in the warlord story, U.S. State Dept. officials complained that the military's "citizens" should not be allowed to carry weapons outside their homes, for fear that they would evolve into American-supported militias. The "citizens" sometimes clash with Iraqi police units, which are often stacked with sectarian loyalists. The problem is, when the "citizens" open fire, it is generally the police who are on the right side of the law – even if the police are themselves infiltrated by religious or ethnic extremists.

When our convoy stopped yesterday I asked Petraeus about the gunmen I had seen crouching by the side of the road. "They have to have weapons" outside their homes, the general insisted. "We don't arm tribes. They're already armed." Still, Petraeus told me: "This is not a place where you can go outside with a cell phone." That balancing act is one more reason the military's "concerned citizens" program is trickier than it sometimes appears from looking at casualty figures alone.

Are Contractors Above the Law?

Larry Kaplow — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 21:36:40 GMT

There's probably little legal clout to the Iraqi government's vow Monday to expel the security firm that protects American diplomats. But that should not diminish the importance of the incident the day before, in which eight Iraqi civilians were allegedly killed by diplomatic guards, or the ongoing controversy about the conduct of the U.S. Embassy's security force. In addition to the personal tragedy for those cut down while passing through a busy Baghdad square, this was a setback for the very interests American diplomats are trying to promote, and it is largely of America's own making.

That's because the dispute isn't really about whether the gunners for Blackwater USA were at fault for the deaths that occurred when a convoy of SUVs reportedly returned fire from unidentified gunmen in Nusoor Square. First accounts are often wrong and the full story may never be told. The question is whether anything would happen to the guards even if they did kill innocent people. Through multiple decrees by past American administrators in Iraq, later imposed on the Iraqi government, contractors are largely immune from prosecution for the force they use here against Iraqis. There are some 20,000 to 30,000 private security contractors here now, presumably about the same as their presence over the past three years, and none has been prosecuted for the use of excessive force against local residents.

Iraqis know this and point it out constantly with stories of deaths involving contractors. A notorious one in the Green Zone was the allegedly unprovoked killing of a guard for an Iraqi vice president by a Blackwater employee on Christmas Eve. (U.S. officials acknowledged a killing occurred and promised to investigate.) Iraqi politicians cry out for changes in the Iraqi law to end what they see as the impunity of the contractors and note the contradiction it poses amid American efforts to promote the rule of law by the Iraqi government. U.S. soldiers who commit crimes here can be punished and have been jailed under military codes, but those don't apply to contractors. They often just get a flight out of the country when they get in trouble.

Even Monday, a day after the incident, it seemed the U.S. Embassy did not understand the depth of the local resentment about the issue. Embassy officials held the routine Monday conference call for reporters and got hammered with questions about the Blackwater case. They gave few answers, repeating that the embassy would investigate and that it was discussing Blackwater's future with Iraqi officials. But there was little else: no answer on Blackwater's legal standing in Iraq, on whether the company has a license (which the Iraqi government said it was revoking), or how the company could be held accountable. (While security companies in Iraq need to register with the Iraqi government if they work for commercial firms, there apparently is not the same requirement for companies working for the U.S. government or military.)

They said they could not even state the number of Blackwater employees working for the embassy because it would compromise security. It wouldn't, since Blackwater is just one group in an array of private and government organizations protecting the world's largest U.S. Embassy. For the record, a Congressional report from July has the numbers and they were supplied by the state department. As of May, Blackwater USA had 987 employees on the embassy contract, including 744 American citizens.

Blackwater has highly skilled veterans who have paid a heavy price in Iraq, with around 30 of its employees being killed. The most prominent were the four killed and dragged through the streets of Fallujah on March 31, 2004. Five Blackwater employees were killed in January when one of the company's helicopters went down in a Baghdad neighborhood and came under fire. So its guards have reason to fear for their lives and the safety of their clients, the embassy staff. But the company is also known as one of the most aggressive in a war theater where convoys--private, Iraqi, American, or military--sometimes open fire on cars that simply get too close. Some security workers criticize these tactics and say they would welcome more regulation.

The facts in this case are still unclear. In a statement late Monday, a Blackwater spokeswoman said the convoy came under attack and "the 'civilians' reportedly fired upon by Blackwater professionals were in fact armed enemies and Blackwater personnel returned defensive fire." The company said the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior had not moved to revoke its license. It said the company's guards "heroically defended American lives."

And what would happen if the facts were sorted out? There are specialized U.S. laws that could be employed to investigate and prosecute crimes by Americans overseas, but they have rarely been used against contractors in Iraq: the Congressional report cited as the only successful prosecution a case against a contractor caught with child pornography. The U.S. military has been criticized for lax prosecution of its troops, but it has at least held several high-profile cases in which soldiers received long prison sentences. Each time, military officers stress the importance of showing Iraqis that Americans believe in justice for all. Iraqis don't see why that shouldn't include those guarding American diplomats.

Crocker Disappointed With Progress

Larry Kaplow — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 20:46:04 GMT

U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker hasn't yet written the report to Congress he is supposed to give, along with General David Petraeus, in mid-September on the state of Iraq. Things change so quickly here, he said, that "Lord knows" what the landscape will look like by then. But he acknowledged that, as of now, the work on the political "benchmarks" that American leaders demand of Baghdad "has been extremely disappointing, frustrating to all concerned, to us, to Iraqis to the Iraqi leadership itself." The assessment came with the usual explanations Crocker has stated in the past that the problems facing Iraqi leaders are excruciatingly complicated and difficult and that the U.S. continues to support Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. But he also repeats his warning that the support is "not a blank check."

In the marble-lined palace housing most of the U.S. Embassy staff on Tuesday, around a table with the coffee, bottled water and cookies offered at these briefings, it was unclear exactly why Crocker wanted to hold the briefing, which was scheduled a few days ago. He gave no opening statement before throwing it open to questions that he answered in characteristic modesty--noting when he had doubts or didn't have answers. He likely wants to downplay the emphasis and expectations around the September report. Crocker said that even if the Iraqi government had tackled all the benchmark issues, the country could still be headed in the wrong direction. And even if it tackles none of them, but leaders are talking, bonding and building their capacity for peaceful politics, Iraq could be on the right track.

Downplaying Expectations? Ambassador Crocker, speaking to Baghdad store owners this past weekend, says just about everyone is unhappy with work on the ‘benchmarks’.

Crocker, five months into his job here, pointed to the items you'll probably hear repeated in September as glimmers of hope--but each had a counterpoint the ambassador was also willing to point out. Sunni tribes in western Iraq have turned against al Qaeda and parallel steps are seen in other Sunni areas. But he said that goes on separately from the Sunni-Shiite reconciliation that is so key and lacking in resolving the country's violence. Sectarian violence in Baghdad, he claimed, has dropped since the American troop build-up started in February--though Iraqis in some neighborhoods have reason to dispute that. But he allowed that Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi militia was still active and that southern Iraq is seeing "mafia-type" violence among Shiites themselves.

Crocker said Iraq's top political leaders are meeting face-to-face daily for hours on end to try to resolve their disputes. But in a comment that I thought spoke to the veteran diplomat's awareness of the pitfalls facing people in his job, Crocker said he might be finding "silver linings where you shouldn't."

He wouldn't directly address the comments made by Sen. Carl Levin, who said that if there is not political progress soon the Iraqi parliament should vote Maliki out of office. While saying Maliki is genuinely trying to move his country forward and is as frustrated as anyone else by the political and government chaos, he said, "In a parliamentary system, no government is forever."

For those tallying the growing list of U.S. allegations of Iranian meddling in Iraq, Crocker almost hinted that the Islamic Republic might have been behind the recent assassinations of southern Iraqi governors. He said he did not have any evidence, but it couldn't be ruled out as part of a "Hezbollization" strategy in Iraq's Shiite heartland. That could be a word we hear again in the September report, as Crocker warns of the dangers if America quits Iraq. And for anyone who remembers the "Year of the Police," in 2006, in which U.S. military officials repeatedly touted the progress of the Iraqi force, Crocker stated what most Iraqis have long known to the contrary. He said it might take years to reverse the fear and mistrust of the Shiite dominated police, rife with corruption and militia infiltration, and referred to the "fairly awful experiment" of building a national, rather than locally based, police force.

Digging In

Joe Cochrane — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 17:55:57 GMT

Visiting a U.S. military base in Iraq can feel a little like a trip down Alice’s Wonderland rabbit hole. Inside the barbed-wire fences and flood lights, and just past the tanks and attack helicopters, is a slice of Americana. In between their dangerous duties, soldiers talk about the latest sporting events back home, work out in fully equipped gyms, go to the movies, and eat Pop-Tarts and Baskin Robbins ice cream in mess halls adorned with state flags and university banners as Fox News blares in the background.

It’s almost like home, these forward operating bases, known in military jargon as FOBs. (And those whose duties do not require them to leave the base are known as Fobbits.) Clearly, the ambience is no accident. Back in Washington, D.C., the Congress and White House are heatedly debating when to bring the troops home from Iraq. But a visit to one of these FOBs seems to suggest something else: the troops are digging in for a long stay.

From what I’ve seen, the U.S. military’s continuing infrastructure expansion at some forward operating bases, especially those with landing strips for fixed-wing aircraft, clearly signals that Iraq will be America’s South Korea or Germany of the 21st century. Bush administration officials have hinted as much. Sure, U.S. soldiers will rotate in and out, but the armed forces are here to stay.

A cursory look at one of the hundreds, if not thousands, of buildings on FOB Speicher in northern Iraq provides some interesting anecdotal signs. During my last evening on a recent embed there, one of my Navy escorts took me to a brand-new mass hall, where we used real crockery and cutlery--quite an upgrade from the normal plastic ware. Eventually, Speicher will be handed over to the Iraqi Army because it’s not considered one of America’s “legacy” bases-- meaning long term--but that didn’t stop them from adding new infrastructure.

The same goes in other parts of Iraq. A recent report in The Washington Post said the Pentagon plans to spend $738 million on 33 “critical” construction projects in Iraq and Afghanistan, and intends to continue building up military infrastructure in the Persian Gulf and Horn of Africa. Given that Balad Air Base in Iraq is the busiest military airport in the world, it’s easy to visualize where the biggest U.S. military footprint will be for the next decade.

The House of Representatives passed a bill on July 25 banning permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq. This is part of the Democrats’ strategy to bring the troops home. Good luck. The bill’s language is so vague that President George W. Bush likely won’t even have to veto it if it gets to his desk. What in Iraq even qualifies as “permanent” these days?

Congress is fooling itself. They want U.S. military operations in Iraq limited to border security, counterterrorism and training the Iraqi Army. That alone, according to various analysts, would require that at least 75,000 American troops remain in Iraq indefinitely. However much they dress up the bases, those soldiers are still going to be a very long way from home.

Of Faith and Football

Joe Cochrane — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 15:44:27 GMT

For one day at least, soccer took priority over faith in Iraq. Despite an order from one of the country’s most revered Islamic clerics against firing weapons in the air, bullets rained down on Baghdad and elsewhere after the Cinderella Iraqi national soccer team won the Asia Cup on Sunday.

Iraq beat neighbor and bitter rival Saudi Arabia 1-0 to cap one of the most improbable runs in Asian soccer history. Gunfire could be heard across the capital despite a security curfew aimed at preventing a repeat of the deadly bombings that occurred last Wednesday after the team, dubbed the “Lions of the Two Rivers,” beat South Korea to reach the final in Jakarta. Today, with the entire nation, U.S. military forces, foreign journalists and contractors cheering in front of television sets and radios, the Iraqi team put on a dazzling display of skill and sheer guts to lift one of the world’s most prestigious soccer trophies without losing a single match.

The story seems pure Hollywood: An underdog team from a divided, war-torn country creates the first real good news here in months. A Muslim country, no less, which eclipsed traditional soccer giants such as Japan, South Korea, and Australia. Team captain Younis Mahmoud, a Sunni on a team dominated by Shiites, once again scores the winning goal. Post-Saddam Iraq, the setting of a proxy war among Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia, teaches its neighbors a thing or two about unity and passion. To steal a phrase uttered about the U.S. hockey team at the 1980s Olympics: “Do you believe in miracles?”

It remains to be seen what affect – if any – this stunning victory will have on Iraq. Let’s not forget that the curfew imposed here today was to prevent suicide bombers from al Qaeda in Iraq, Sunni insurgents, and Shiite militiamen from using the euphoria to kill scores of people. The country’s main political parties remain as divided as ever, and the Iraqi government is barely functioning. “At least they’re united [with soccer], unlike the government and political process,” Zalmay Khalilzad, the former American ambassador to Iraq, said during an interview on CNN’s “Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer.” On the other hand, who cares? The Iraqi people have been through so much that they deserve to spend Sunday night celebrating a victory that truly is one for the entire nation. I’m a huge football fan myself, and ironically, am based in Jakarta. I missed the Cup Final because I’m here in Iraq – and I couldn’t be happier.

I hope that Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, isn’t too upset today. The revered Shiite cleric issued a religious decree – or fatwa – prior to the match ordering the faithful not to fire weapons into the air because people were killed by falling bullets after previous tournament wins. Few people obeyed, if the gunfire outside the Newsweek bureau was anything to go by. People in many countries celebrate by firing weapons into the air, and it’s a habit not easily broken. But for the Iraqis, at least there’s something to celebrate in this bloody, unfortunate land. Let’s hope the hangover is a long one.

Of Security, Soccer and a Sand Fly

Joe Cochrane — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 17:19:07 GMT

The aftermath of the truck bomb blast in Armali on July 8. AFP-Getty Images

It was clearly bad luck. A sand fly buzzing around Amman’s international airport on Saturday got trapped on a commercial flight bound for Baghdad. As I sat in seat 1C watching the insect bounce pointlessly against the window as the plane’s door closed, I could only shake my head and smile. The poor little fly’s lifespan was probably only month or less, and it was going to spend its final days in an increasingly dangerous Iraqi capital.

Of course, I was going to Baghdad as well, and the fly’s misfortune rubbed off on me. My suitcase never arrived at baggage claim, and I was told by a colleague that it could take weeks before it was found. I barely had time to ponder the implications of wearing the same clothes for that time in 100-plus degree heat before more important issues came to light. The biggest: the continuing deterioration of security since my first assignments here in 2003 and today.

The Green Zone, the only place that seemed to promise guaranteed security in Baghdad, cannot boast that anymore. The proliferation of “duck and cover” shelters like fast food restaurants, to protect people from the daily mortar and rocket attacks, are testament to that, as is the tripling or even quadrupling of security checks and body searches inside the perimeter. Jogging or even walking out of doors is not advisable, though some continue to do so amid the occasional sirens warning of incoming projectiles.

I also needed to get my head around the latest with the U.S. military “surge” and the Iraqi political process, the latter of which, all sides agree, is the only way to secure a lasting peace here. It’s been 22 months since my last assignment here, but it’s clear that things are not going well. Consider events just this past weekend: Car bombs in and around Baghdad killed at least 220 people; some Shiite and Sunni political parties continued to boycott both cabinet and parliament sessions; there was renewed opposition to a draft bill governing Iraq’s oil industry, whose passage is one of the progress “benchmarks” set by the United States, and rumors of a pending no confidence vote against Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, with whom the Bush administration has pinned its hopes for political reconciliation and progress.

The political situation was grim back in the U.S. too. Republican Senators appearing on Sunday talk shows openly broke with the Bush administration about the “surge” strategy and a sobering New York Times editorial called on the U.S. government to pull out all troops without delay. Some have labeled such statements as defeatist and traitorous, but the fact is that things on the ground in Iraq are far more complex than most people in America realize. It’s easy to say that Al Qaeda is thwarting political reconciliation between Shiites and Sunnis or that all Iraqis are full of hate, but it’s a simplistic way to think.

Consider the Elam neighborhood in southwest Baghdad. Until two months ago, Shiites and Sunnis lived side by side in relative peace. Then one day the Mahdi Army, the militia loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric and political figure, drove into the neighborhood blaring a pro-Sadr song on their car stereo, fired weapons into the air and wrote “Death to Sunnis” on a wall. A few days later, a young Sunni man was shot to death in the neighborhood. Later, a Sunni resident was kidnapped and then released under orders to tell fellow Sunnis in Elam to leave or face death. Many took the warning and fled, their homes now occupied by Shiites who now pay rent money to the Mahdi Army or the local mosque. A U.S. military patrol entered Elam after the murder and passed out phone numbers for residents to call if any militia members showed up. Then they drove away. “The Americans, they come and go but they don’t make any changes,” complained one resident. “The Mahdi Army is always there.”

Therein lies the problem. Political and security events unfolding across Iraq are largely beyond the control of U.S. and Iraqi forces and the national government. Take the strategic southern port city of Basra, which according to a recent report by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, has seen the collapse of the state apparatus and is now a “case study” in multiplying forms of violence. “These often have little to do with sectarianism or anti-occupation resistance,” the report says. “Instead, they involve the systematic misuse of official institutions, political assassinations, tribal vendettas, neighborhood vigilantism and enforcement of social mores, together with the rise of criminal mafias that increasingly intermingle with political actors.” That’s hardly the black-and-white scenario that some pundits in America think we’re facing here.

Is there any hope for Iraq? Maybe, but not before a long period of continuing violence and power struggles that could just as easily lead to national disintegration. It’s not beyond hope that the country can unite. It did so just last Saturday, when the Iraq national team played its opening match of the Asian Football Cup in Bangkok. After scoring the equalizer in what would end as a 1-1 draw against Thailand, Iraqi striker Younis Mahmoud pulled out and kissed a small Iraqi flag that was hidden in his pocket. For the millions of Iraqi soccer fans watching the match on TV, it didn’t matter whether Mahmoud was a Shiite, Kurd or Sunni. Given the hoopla here surrounding the team, I’m sure this solidarity will continue throughout the three-week tournament. That may not seem long to us, but it’s nearly a lifetime for a sand fly.

High-Tech Hunt for Hostages

Melinda Liu — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 22:52:02 GMT

Two high-profile abduction incidents in Iraq recently--three soldiers near Mahmoudiya last month and five British civilians in Baghdad this week--have focused attention on the U.S.-led Coalition's search and rescue operations. The Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) at an air base in Southwest Asia--the nerve center for U.S. Central Command air ops--utilizes full-motion video captured by aerial drones and internal chat rooms showing communications at various command levels to help support the recovery of missing personnel. Although for security reasons he declined to disclose details of ongoing operations, CAOC's Col. Gary Crowder spoke on the phone with NEWSWEEK's Melinda Liu about the use of air assets in such efforts. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: Tell me about important innovations in your work.
Gary Crowder: First let me explain how personnel recovery efforts are organized. Each service branch is responsible for its own people. But each component does not necessarily have the maximum set of assets, so there could be a joint personnel recovery center for the theater. Our responsibility is to work with all components [using] standardized procedures. Among other things, we use and monitor chat rooms for Internet command and control, with communications open all the time. There might be a dozen or two dozen chat rooms going at various levels [of the command structure.] Here at CAOC we monitor these chat rooms to hopefully see things before people need to ask for help. Our communications tools and methodologies have grown just like the Internet has developed. I have six computers with five networks going at any given time.

What sorts of physical assets are used?
Each service branch has medical evacuation capabilities. However Air Force personnel--and I guess I'm biased here--are especially trained to fight their way into bad-guy land and pick up a pilot, so they're relatively better equipped. In the beginning, there's an immediate need for intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance by UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles]. Marines have the Scan Eagle. The Army has Hunter and Shadow UAVs. The Air Force has Predators, which are flown beyond line of sight; although the craft might take off from places in Iraq, they're directed via satellite from bases in California, Arizona, New Mexico and so on. There are also signals-collection activities [monitoring] radio signals and the beacons used on ground vehicles.

When three U.S. soldiers went missing after an attack on their position not far from Mahmoudiya in May, a Predator was on the scene within 15 minutes of the assault. Is it unusual to be able to respond so quickly?
We generally maintain quite a number of Predators in Iraq at any one time. These are valuable collection assets, and every day--or even every hour--each has a prioritized list of requirements. Personnel-recovery efforts or troops in contact [with the enemy] are top priority. A Predator--which can at nearly 100mph--often gets to the scene very fast. And there could be 15 to 20 or more people on several continents observing what it sees.

The body of one of the missing soldiers has been recovered. What can you tell me about the search for the other two?
In the beginning it's important to respond as rapidly as possible. Later it becomes a more sustained activity, such as what you see now in southern Iraq. This is run by small units relying a lot on HUMINT [human intelligence], very much like cops on a beat in a big city. The air assets used are mainly signals and full-motion video from Predators that can be streamed right down to battalion or brigade ops centers.

When five British citizens were abducted from a Finance Ministry building in Baghdad this week, the kidnappers used as many as 19 vehicles. Could a Predator have recorded this convoy of SUVs?
In general, the likelihood of capturing something like that in real time is low. Full-motion video can "stare" at a site and that staring capacity helps develop knowledge and context. And there might be 20 or 30 Predators over Baghdad. But it's a city of 5 million people; it's huge. Now the effort is more like detectives on a hot case in a big metropolitan area, following lead after lead after lead.

[Photo shows an unmanned American drone in Iraq. AP Photo/Sgt. Kimberley Snow]

Three Missing, One Unidentified Body

Larry Kaplow — Wed, 23 May 2007 20:39:28 GMT

The body search on the Euphrates. Photo: AP

As reports emerged Wednesday from Iraqi ranks that a body found in the Euphrates River was believed to be one of three soldiers missing nearly two weeks, U.S. officials were studiously avoiding any confirmation about the identity of the body.

Iraqi police in the central region of Hilla were telling reporters that they had found the corpse, shot in the head and chest, of a Western-looking man in a partial U.S. military uniform. That was in the Euphrates River near the city of Musayyib, roughly 30 miles south of the site where the three men were abducted after an attack on their two-vehicle patrol May 12. They were parked on a road doing surveillance, according to the military, about half a mile from the river.

As of late Wednesday in Iraq, there was no confirmation from the military about whether the body had been identified. The military is careful not to name any soldiers killed until their relatives are notified. Sometimes the process can take days, as spouses and parents, possibly living in different locations, are found by soldiers specially trained in breaking the tragic news face to face. In the meantime, entire bases can shut down soldiers' Internet and phone access to prevent gossip from reaching the home front.

After the soldiers were abducted, officers in their unit told reporters that special teams had been assigned from their home base in Fort Drum, N.Y., to keep the families informed of progress in the huge, 4,000-soldier search under way.

The Army has identified the three missing soldiers as Pfc. Joseph J. Anzack Jr. of Torrance, Calif., Specialist Alex R. Jimenez, of Lawrence, Mass., and Private Byron W. Fouty, of Waterford, Mich.

A Desperate Hunt

Larry Kaplow — Sun, 13 May 2007 18:34:30 GMT

It's one of the U.S. military's core beliefs. All soldiers carry it stamped into the metal dog tags around their necks: "I will never leave a fallen comrade."

On Sunday, 4,000 U.S. troops conducted ground searches in one of Iraq's most dangerous regions--looking for three Americans who went missing after their convoy was attacked the day before. The apparent ambush took place roughly 12 miles west of Mahmoudiya, a place U.S. troops can expect to find little sympathy. Lying about 20 miles south of Baghdad, it is part of the capital's continuous sprawl of workshops, stores and scrappy one- or two-story houses. It straddles a major highway and forms part of the belt of Sunni towns around Baghdad known to Westerners as the Triangle of Death. Last June, three soldiers were killed in the vicinity; insurgents released video showing the mutilation of two of them. The insurgents said they were avenging the rape of an Iraqi girl by U.S. troops who killed her family to cover up the crime.

The latest ambush came about 4:44 a.m. Saturday. According to the military, troops at an outpost heard a loud explosion and launched a surveillance drone that found two burning U.S. vehicles 15 minutes later. A "quick reaction force"--ground troops who stay at the ready for emergencies--was sent to the location and arrived there in about 40 minutes, according to Lt. Col. Christopher C. Garver, a military spokesman in Baghdad. He said the response team was slowed because it found and cleared a roadside bomb in its path. When the team arrived, it found five dead, including four Americans and one interpreter--a soldier in the Iraqi Army who was working with them.

But three soldiers are still missing. The military has not identified them or their unit in part because it could lead to the public identification of the dead before relatives can be notified. Wire services reported Sunday that the Al Qaeda-related Islamic State of Iraq issued a statement claiming that it holds some of the U.S. soldiers. Garver noted that the use of the roadside bomb to target troops responding to the attack is a common "Al Qaeda tactic." The area is cordoned off, and the military is sifting through tips from residents.

The U.S. military is famously dedicated to finding missing soldiers or their remains--as evidenced by the decades spent searching for soldiers who went missing during the Korean and Vietnam wars. Asked about the depth of that commitment, Garver showed his dog tags and a card he and other soldiers carry in their wallets with the "Warrior Ethos." In addition to the vow to never leave a comrade, they pledge "I will never quit" and "I will always place the mission first." The tags and cards carry one-word "Army Values" as well, including LOYALTY, DUTY and RESPECT.

But Iraq's complexities often confound both the Army's ideals and its overwhelming force. The military has already deployed helicopters, jets, drones and satellites to look for the missing troops in Mahmoudiya. But finding hostages requires precise, well-timed tips from locals--and those are often in short supply.

A case in point came Oct. 23 last year when Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie, an Iraqi-American soldier in the U.S. Army was kidnapped after leaving the fortified Green Zone to visit in-laws in the nearby Karrada district of the capital. In contrast to restive Mahmoudiya, Karrada is a relatively small, stable and friendly area. Hours after the kidnapping, it was scoured by 2,000 U.S. troops and for a couple days the area buzzed with low-flying helicopters; roads were choked by checkpoints.

The Army reported receiving some 240 tips from locals and detaining 32 people in the first 10 days. Shiite militants later announced they had Taayie, and the military believes he was taken to the Sadr City area just a few miles away from where he was grabbed. He is still missing, and presumed alive.