Excite News: "U.S. Tries to Stem Iraqi Army Desertions | Dec 13, 8:03 AM (ET) | By HAMZA HENDAWI

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - The U.S.-led coalition will reconsider the pay scale for members of the new Iraqi army after about half of the recruits deserted, the U.S. general in charge of Iraqi military operations said Saturday.

Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, speaking at a news conference, said the major reason for the defections was pay, specifically allowances for married soldiers who were struggling to support their families on $60 a month.

"We're working to review the pay scales and I think we'll have a decision in the coming weeks," Sanchez said.

But he said the setbacks shouldn't harm the overall goal of training 40,000 members of light infantry battalions by next October. That contradicts reports that the U.S. military had scaled back that goal. ...
- posted by Editor @ 5:53 AM

Exclusive: Cheney and the ‘Raw’ Intelligence | By Mark Hosenball and Michael Isikoff | NEWSWEEK | Dec. 15 issue —

A memo written by a top Washington lobbyist for the controversial Iraqi National Congress raises new questions about the role Vice President Dick Cheney’s office played in the run-up to the war in Iraq.

THE MEMO, obtained by NEWSWEEK, suggests that the INC last year was directly feeding intelligence reports about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and purported ties to terrorism to one of Cheney’s top foreign- policy aides. Cheney staffers later pushed INC info—including defectors’ claims about WMD and terror ties—to bolster the case that Saddam’s government posed a direct threat to America. But the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies have strongly questioned the reliability of defectors supplied by the INC.

For months, Cheney’s office has denied that the veep bypassed U.S. intelligence agencies to get intel reports from the INC. But a June 2002 memo written by INC lobbyist Entifadh Qunbar to a U.S. Senate committee lists John Hannah, a senior national-security aide on Cheney’s staff, as one of two “U.S. governmental recipients” for reports generated by an intelligence program being run by the INC and which was then being funded by the State Department. ...
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Hannah did not respond to a request for comment. But another Cheney aide insisted that the memo was misleading, and flatly denied that the vice president received “raw” intelligence from the INC. Hannah discussed only Iraqi political issues with INC representatives, not intelligence, the aide said. Francis Brooke, another D.C. lobbyist for the INC, said he often orally discussed Iraqi issues—including claims about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and Saddam’s terrorist connections—with Hannah, Luti and Cheney’s chief of staff, Lewis (Scooter) Libby. But he insisted he talked with them only about INC intelligence matters that had already been reported in the media. A Pentagon official also denied Luti directly got INC intel reports, suggesting the author of the memo was just “dropping names” to drum up support for the INC on Capitol Hill.
- posted by Editor @ 3:56 PM

WMD: Mission Distraction | NEWSWEEK | Dec. 15 issue — —Mark Hosenball

Over the past two months, U.S. intelligence analysts have come to believe that Saddam Hussein made elaborate plans for a postwar guerrilla campaign in the event of a U.S. invasion of Iraq—plans now being carried out. Some Pentagon officials have begun to argue that too few U.S. intelligence resources in Iraq are being devoted to the hunt for insurgents, while the 1,400-odd intelligence personnel assigned to the CIA/CENTCOM Iraqi Survey Group are continuing their hunt for Saddam’s alleged stockpiles of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

DEFENSE SOURCES say that several weeks ago, Pentagon policymakers were asked to approve an order that would formally expand the mission of the survey group to include counterterrorism-intelligence collection. But some Defense officials complain that top Pentagon brass has been slow to approve the order. Administration officials confirm the survey group’s main mission remains hunting WMD, but say local commanders can temporarily shift team members to counterterrorism in emergencies.

Some Pentagon cynics think the Bush administration may not want to publicly alter the survey group’s mission, since it might be seen as an admission that the WMD hunt was fruitless. A Defense official conceded that few U.S. intelligence analysts now believe the survey group is ever likely to find any significant Iraqi WMD stockpiles.
- posted by Editor @ 3:51 PM

U.S. Said Eyeing Israeli Tactics for Iraq Insurgents | Excite-Reuters | Dec 9, 4:25 pm ET | By Dan Williams

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - Mass assaults by covert squads of soldiers to confound guerrillas and swoops by troops posing as Arabs are among Israeli tactics U.S. forces are studying for use in Iraq, Israeli security sources said on Tuesday.

Israeli measures have been honed against a three-year-old Palestinian revolt in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Washington is watching, and has sent military brass to consult with its chief Middle East ally.

"The Americans now realize their forces are in Iraq for the long haul, and are reorganizing accordingly," a senior Israeli security source said.

"Israel has been providing advice on how to shift from a reliance on heavy, armored occupation troops to mobile forces that are more effective in quelling urban resistance and cause less friction with the general populace."

U.S. forces already have toughened up in Iraq, arresting relatives of insurgents and destroying buildings used to plan attacks against allied troops.

Although the tactics are reminiscent of those employed by Israel in the Palestinian territories, U.S. officials have denied they are modeled on them.

At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Tuesday that they were not personally aware of any consultations between the U.S. and Israeli militaries aimed at adopting Israeli tactics for counter-insurgency in Iraq.

But Myers made clear that U.S. troops in Iraq would not don civilian disguises. "U.S. soldiers will be dressed up as U.S. soldiers when we do our business," he said. ...
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Israeli commandos disguised as Palestinians regularly swoop on populated areas of the West Bank and Gaza to capture or kill fugitive militants. Such missions are aided by Arabic-speaking Bedouin and Druze volunteers serving alongside Jews.

While Israeli operations have gutted the Palestinian militant infrastructure, they have not stopped the uprising and may even have fueled militancy.
- posted by Editor @ 3:39 PM

NEWSWEEK: Gingrich Speaks Out Against Administration's Policy in Iraq, Saying The U.S. Went 'Off A Cliff' | Posted Monday, December 8, 2003

NEW YORK, Dec. 7 -- In an exclusive interview with Newsweek, former House speaker Newt Gingrich, a quiet confidant of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, says the U.S. went "off a cliff in Iraq." In the December 15 issue (on newsstands Monday, Dec. 8), Gingrich talks about the shortcomings of the Bush administration's policy in Iraq, saying that "Americans can't win in Iraq. Only Iraqis can win in Iraq."
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The real key in Iraq, he says, "is not how many enemy do I kill. The real key is how many allies do I grow," he says. "And that is a very important metric that they just don't get." He contends that the civilian-run Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) is fairly isolated and powerless, hunkered down inside its bunker in Baghdad. The military has the money and the daily contact with the locals. But it's using the same tactics in a guerrilla struggle that led to defeat in Vietnam.

Gingrich faults the Americans for not quickly establishing a legitimate Iraqi government, however imperfect. "The idea that we are going to have a corruption-free, pristine, League of Women Voters government in Iraq on Tuesday is beyond naivete," he scoffs. "It is a self-destructive fantasy."

The former speaker indicates it would be a huge mistake for American troops to leave Iraq by next November's election, a rumor that has been circulating in the Pentagon. The only "exit strategy," says Gingrich, "is victory." But not by brute American force. "We are not the enforcers. We are the reinforcers," says Gingrich. "The distinction between these two words is central to the next year in Iraq."
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... "I'm told over there that CPA stands for 'Can't Produce Anything'," says Gingrich. ...
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Gingrich argues that the administration has been putting far too much emphasis on a military solution and slighting the political element.
- posted by Editor @ 1:22 PM

US, Britain pressed on Iraq arms hunt | Yahoo- AFP | Tuesday December 9, 8:21 AM

The United States and Britain came under pressure at the UN Security Council on Monday to hand over confidential information on the search for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq.

UN sources said fellow permanent council members France and Russia led the charge for the handover of the unseen parts of the interim report from the Iraq Survey Group, a team of around 1,400 experts coming the country for WMD.

Controversy has raged over whether the Baghdad regime had WMD, cited as a main reason for the US-led war that ousted Saddam Hussein earlier this year. The Iraq group's report in October said none had been found so far.
- posted by Editor @ 1:09 PM