[A-List] Iraq: an uncharted destination on the "roadmap"

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Israel trains US assassination squads in Iraq

Julian Borger in Washington
Tuesday December 9, 2003
The Guardian

Israeli advisers are helping train US special forces in aggressive
counter-insurgency operations in Iraq, including the use of assassination
squads against guerrilla leaders, US intelligence and military sources said
yesterday.

The Israeli Defence Force (IDF) has sent urban warfare specialists to Fort
Bragg in North Carolina, the home of US special forces, and according to two
sources, Israeli military "consultants" have also visited Iraq.

US forces in Iraq's Sunni triangle have already begun to use tactics that
echo Israeli operations in the occupied territories, sealing off centres of
resistance with razor wire and razing buildings from where attacks have been
launched against US troops.

But the secret war in Iraq is about to get much tougher, in the hope of
suppressing the Ba'athist-led insurgency ahead of next November's
presidential elections.
US special forces teams are already behind the lines inside Syria attempting
to kill foreign jihadists before they cross the border, and a group 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 being
conceptualised here. This is a hunter-killer team," said a former senior US
intelligence official, who added that he feared the new tactics and enhanced
cooperation with Israel would only inflame a volatile situation in the
Middle East.

"It is bonkers, insane. Here we are - we're already being compared to Sharon
in the Arab world, and we've just confirmed it by bringing in the Israelis
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 a
letter to Army magazine in July about the Iraq counter-insurgency campaign.

"We recently travelled to Israel to glean lessons learned from their
counterterrorist 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 the West
Bank and Gaza with the US armed forces, but said he could not comment about
cooperation in Iraq.

"When we do activities, the US military attaches in Tel Aviv are interested.
I assume it's the same as the British. That's the way allies work. The
special forces come to our people and say, do debrief on an operation we
have done," the official said.

"Does it affect Iraq? It's not in our interest or the American interest or
in 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 of
Pentagon policy in Iraq, said yesterday there was nothing wrong with
learning lessons wherever possible.

"When we turn to anyone for insights, it doesn't mean we blindly accept it,"
Col Peters said. "But I think what you're seeing is a new realism. The
American tendency is to try to win all the hearts and minds. In Iraq, there
are just some hearts and minds you can't win. Within the bounds of human
rights, if you do make an example of certain villages it gets the attention
of the others, and attacks have gone down in the area."

The new counter-insurgency unit made up of elite troops being put together
in the Pentagon is called Task Force 121, New Yorker magazine reported in
yesterday'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 church
congregation in Oregon that the US was at war with Satan, who "wants to
destroy us as a Christian army".

"He's been promoted a rank above his abilities," he said. "Some generals are
pretty good on battlefield but are disastrous nearer the source of power."