Robin's Iraq Report: 2003-12-15

by Robin Burk at December 15, 2003 4:20 AM

Welcome! Our goal is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from Iraq that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. Our "Winds of War" coverage of the global War on Terror is a separate briefing today, and both are brought to you by guest blogger Robin Burk. Note that these entries are a private effort, and do not represent the official position of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

TOP TOPICS

Other Topics Today Include: Task Force 121; Jordanian help; Israeli help; New army on strike; Chinese support for Saddam; Trying Saddam; Drying up the funding for insurgents; Prime contracts for Iraq reconstruction; Iraqi debt forgiveness; A journalist war hero; The Marines return; The disloyal opposition; WMD warheads for RPG launchers.

REPORTS FROM THE FIELD

  • The US has organized a number of Special Forces groups including Task Force 121, involved in the capture of Saddam. Does their mission include direct assasination of ex-Baathists?
  • Interrogations of captured insurgents led to Saddam's hiding place, but infiltrating networks of terrorists is notably difficult to do. Is the US organizing a new Iraqi intelligence force, with Jordanian help?
  • The Coalition is considering a pay raise for the New Iraqi Army after over 1/3 of recruits leave the Freedom Battalion shortly before it was due to be deployed, complaining about the level of pay.
  • Heroism can be found in unexpected places. TIME magazine correspondent Micheal Weisskopf, 57, likely saved the lives of his companions, including two U.S. soldiers, by attempting to toss away a grenade thrown into their vehicle before it exploded. Sadly, he lost his right hand doing so, but he is reported in stable condition. The soldiers and a second TIME correspondent travelling with him in the Humvee had minor shrapnel wounds.
  • And as the U.S. Marines get ready to head back to the Sunni Triangle, they're planning for a different approach than the one used by the U.S. Army, reports blogger and ex-Army officer Phil Carter.

RECONSTRUCTION & THE ECONOMY

  • Deputy Secretary of Defense Wolfowitz announced a list of countries whose companies can bid as prime contractors on reconstruction work funded by the US. Those left off the list (and protesting mightily) include China, France, Germany, Russia and Canada. The EU's Chris Patton and Kofi Annan are among the predictable critics pushing for the UN to manage reconstruction.
  • International trade lawyers (Financial Times, registration required) are also examining the announcement, but the Government Procurement Agreement, to which the US is a signatory, specifically exempts "procurement indispensable for national security or for national defence purposes". Wolfowitz invoked Coalition security in the decision. However, the office of the US trade representative suggested that the US might instead defend this decision, if it is protested to the World Trade Organization, on the grounds that that the Coalition Provisional Authority was not covered by the WTO rules, and therefore the CPA was free to discriminate in contracts as it saw fit. Expect more fuming and actions by the EU - as blogger Bjorn Staerk notes, Europeans are crowing about their "brass balls" in "forcing" Bush to back off of the steel tarrifs.
  • President Bush has sent former Secretary of State James Baker III to open negotiations on Iraqi debt forgiveness. Baker is a tough, savvy and effective negotiator and this should be seen as a clear signal that the US will not allow reconstruction of Iraq's economy to be held hostage to the inefficiencies of the UN or to political grandstanding aimed at obstructing the US in that country.

INTERNATIONAL STAGE

  • The repercussions from the capture of Saddam Hussein have yet to be felt in Iraq, but Iraqis are already demanding that they themselves be allowed to try him in their own tribunal, not an international court.
  • Everyone else wants to get into the act, though. Canada's new PM insists on an international trial in order for the trial to be "just" and "credible". Somehow I doubt the Iraqis will take well to the suggestions that they are not competent to try their own fallen leader, though.
  • Nor are they likely to heed Amnesty International's concerns that Saddam might face the death penalty. Funny, I just don't remember Amnesty mounting a huge campaign about the abuses of human rights under his regime.
  • JK: Marine Lance Cpl. Guardiano writes about his experiences in Hillah, and believes the capture of Saddam will make it difficult for the media to keep denying the accomplishments in Iraq. No, Lance Cpl., it will not. Those who are hostile (and that is the correct word) will remain so, regardless of any accomplishment or fact you may throw at them.

WMD HUNT

  • Former Lieutenant Colonel Lieutenant Colonel al-Dabbagh told British press that his air defense unit was issued WMD warheads designed to be fired from RPG launchers during Gulf II and that he provided this information to British intelligence in the runup to the war. He may have been the source cited in the infamous British intelligence brief stating Iraq could deply WMD in 45 minutes if it chose. He also believes that some of these warheads may still be in the hands of the Saddam Fedayeen. With luck, the capture of Saddam will lessen the likelihood that they would be used against Coalition forces. In any case, a WMD warhead fired from an RPG launcher seems likely to be a martyrdom action given their short range of fire, but that might not stop some from attempting such an attack. No comments from either the British and US governments or their critics so far on this claim.

N.B. Al-Dabbagh had spied for the Iraqi National Accord, a London-based exile group, for several years before the war and is now working as an adviser for the Iraqi Governing Council. Al-Dabbagh is also the source of the story cited above about Chinese involvement in Iraqi air defense planning during the runup to the war. Expect more intelligence sources to go public with their claims, some of which will be solid and some of which might be shaky.

ETCETERA

  • The troops are still there. So is the Winds of Change.NET consolidated directory of ways you can support the troops. American, British and Australian. Anyone out there with more information, incl. the Poles and Czechs? [updated Dec. 1, 2003]
  • We try to close on a lighter note if possible. Yesterday brought reports of the first Iraqi baby to be named after Paul Bremer. I'm waiting for a spate of Rummies myself ....

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