[PEN-L:33307] Iraq: Away to you, close to us!

[Sabri Oncu <soncu@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

So was one of the slogans in the antiwar demonstrations in
Istanbul. Iraq, or, Irak as we spell it, means "away" in my
language.

As the war drums are getting louder and louder, it seems we are
heading towards a new map of the Middle East.

Don't know what to say!

Fuck you Bush, fuck you!

Sabri

+++++++


December 22, 2002
U.S. Said to Ready Iraqi Kurd Areas for Possible War
By C. J. CHIVERS


DOHUK, Iraq, Dec. 21 ? As the United States and Iraq publicly
spar over the degree of Iraqi compliance with United Nations
weapons inspections, an array of American war preparations is
under way here in the independent north.

American intelligence officials have been working alongside
Kurdish officials in recent weeks, and recruiters for an
American-sponsored opposition group have been selecting
candidates for a program to train scouts and translators that one
day may help American forces inside Iraq, according to Kurdish
and Western officials.

American military planners have visited secluded corners of the
country to examine potential basing sites for use in a war,
according to a Western analyst familiar with the activity.

No American military forces are based here yet, Kurdish officials
say, and recent Turkish and Arabic news reports of sizable
military deployments appear unfounded.

But teams from the Central Intelligence Agency have been working
with the principal political parties in the Kurdish region ? the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in the east, and the Kurdistan
Democratic Party in the west ? for upward of two months. The
C.I.A. teams have become a familiar sight for Kurds, who see them
traveling in convoys with armed local guards.

One team appeared Thursday at the local supermarket here,
arriving as a New York Times photographer stepped outside with
his purchases. The Americans were accompanied by Kurdish gunmen
who wore the distinctive red-and-white headdress of the Barzanis,
the ruling clan in the Kurdistan Democratic Party.

Kurdish officials say the Americans have interviewed members of a
Muslim militant group who have been captured by Kurdish security
forces, looking for links to Al Qaeda. The group, Ansar al-Islam,
has been waging holy war against the secular Kurdish government,
with some tactical success.

Other duties of the Americans are less clear. But local officials
say that after a long absence, the American teams have been
analyzing the political and military situation in the autonomous
zone and meeting important figures, deepening Washington's
understanding of the region. They are also building relationships
that would be valuable if the United States leads a war against
Mr. Hussein's government and later occupies this historically
unstable land.

The independent northern zone is a tenuous entity, existing with
scant economic and military resources in territory once
controlled by Mr. Hussein. His forces have ruthlessly killed
civilians here in the past.

It is also ringed by neighbors ? Iran, Turkey and Syria ? who
express deep misgivings over the intensifying Western involvement
with the Kurds, and with the possible spread of Kurdish democracy
to their own independence-minded Kurdish minorities.

It is no surprise then that the American presence, welcomed by
many Kurds, has caused palpable discomfort elsewhere.

In one testy exchange this month, the head of the Iranian
intelligence office in the eastern city of Sulaimaniya visited a
deputy of Jamal Talabani, the leader of the Patriotic Union, to
register a complaint. The Iranian official protested Kurdish
cooperation with the C.I.A., according to a Kurdish official
familiar with the exchange. "He said, `Why have you invited them
here? We should not have these Americans in the region,' " the
official said.

"He was told, `This is a free society. We need them here, and we
like them here. We are free to invite anyone's assistance as we
choose.' "

Local officials say that apart from the C.I.A presence, there has
been the American-sponsored effort to recruit guides, civil
affairs specialists and translators to work with Western forces
should they enter Iraq.

Yura Mossa, chief of the minority Assyrian Democratic Party in
the northwestern city of Zakho, said senior party officials had
met with an unspecified group of Americans and then had asked
local party offices to select applicants. The program,
underwritten by the United States Congress as part of Iraq
Liberation Act of 1998, would provide training, perhaps in
Hungary, for the recruits.

"We have registered some names, and we have told them we are
ready to register some other names, and to send young people to
help America," Mr. Mossa said. "In the case of ousting Saddam
Hussein, all the people of Iraq ? Kurds, Assyrian, Arabs ? will
be ready to help."

Mr. Mossa said that none of the men his office had signed up had
departed for training and that they were awaiting further
instructions.

A similar effort has occurred in Sulaimaniya, where a former head
of the Iraqi Communist Party has been registering names and
circulating a questionnaire as a sort of job application. His
activities have been reported in the local media and in The
Christian Science Monitor, and have angered Kurdish political
parties.

"He is a clown," said one Kurdish official. "He had no local
reputation and no money, and all of a sudden he has a new office
and an Internet connection, and he's handing out these letters.
The Americans should not work with him."

A Western analyst familiar with the region said the recruiting
was coordinated by the Iraq National Congress, an opposition
group based in London, and was unrelated to the C.I.A. teams
here.

That led a Kurdish official to say that American government
agencies often seem split in their agendas, and that sometimes it
was not possible to determine the direction and shape of American
policy.

Kurdish leaders are generally supportive of the American
presence, and are grateful for protection provided by American
and British warplanes since the United Nations northern no-flight
zone was established in 1991. But Kurds also remember engagements
with the United States that ended in what they consider betrayal.

The United States encouraged Kurdish uprisings in 1975 and 1991,
then withheld support while local guerrillas were routed.

An American-encouraged coup attempt against Mr. Hussein in 1996
also ended badly. Iraqi security services discovered the plan and
sent security agents into Kurdish neighborhoods to kill
opposition members.

As planning goes forward, Kurdish officials worry that Mr.
Hussein might use the American presence as grounds for a
pre-emptive strike. Several Kurdish cities are within artillery
range of the Iraqi Army.

"We have to be very careful," one senior official said. "If there
are people who want to overthrow Saddam Hussein, we do not want
to be too far from them. But we do not want to provoke Saddam
Hussein in any way. We know him, and we are responsible for our
people, and must be very careful about what we say and do."

The sense of uncertainty briefly deepened this week, when Turkish
and Arab media reported that 50 military trucks entered Iraq at
the border crossing near Zakho, ferrying American troops and
equipment into village bases. Some reports said American soldiers
were improving airfields in anticipation of war.

Turkish military officials and Western diplomats said the reports
were false, and Kurdish officials investigated and then dismissed
them as baseless. "Until now I have not seen these military
trucks," said Akher Shekh Jamal, Zakho's mayor. "If American
troops came to Kurdistan, we would see them. We would have
witnesses."

One Western analyst said military activity had been limited to
surveys of airfields some weeks ago by American planners near the
villages of Bamarni and Harir in northern Iraq. Tours of northern
villages appeared to confirm a low level of activity.

The Turkish Army has operated inside northern Iraq since the
late-1990's, under an agreement with the Kurdistan Democratic
Party. The deployments are part of the army's counterinsurgency
against the Kurdish Workers Party, or P.K.K., which has engaged
in a long campaign for Kurdish rights in Turkey.

With their armored vehicles, including American-made M60 tanks,
Turkish soldiers were visible on Thursday near the airfield in
Bamarni and at the mountaintop village of Amadiya, both roughly
15 miles south of the Turkish border.

But villagers said the Turks were part of deployments that began
in 1997, and have not recently changed in size or composition.
The troops seemed lazily deployed, with few guards. Most of their
tanks were idled and under tarps. Fighting positions had clearly
been dug long ago.

Moreover, the dirt-and-gravel airstrip at Bamarni showed no signs
of improvement. It had drainage problems, was littered in places
with melon-sized stones, and in sections had shin-high shrubs.

"We haven't seen American forces come here," said Nori Fatah
Abdullah, of Bamarni, looking down from a hilltop at the Turkish
tanks. "We would like it if they came, because they are good
people, but they are not here yet."

Article at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/22/international/middleeast/22IRAQ
.html