Iranian trained special militias are biggest threat to Iraq

From the beginning, we have been a team, and our mission is to get rid of all the militias and all insurgents in Iraq, Major General Ali Salih Farhood Oothman, Commander of the 8th Iraqi Army Division, said through an interpreter during a live-via-satellite Pentagon press briefing from Camp Victory in Baghdad. Oothman, head of a division that covers 24% of Iraq consisting of five Iraqi provinces including the Iranian border and Saudi Arabian border, said that his responsibilities in the area are complex because of al-Qaida. However, al-Qaida is not his greatest threat.

The greatest threat according to Oothman is the special militias. In his area of operation, he has both al-Qaida and special militias. In the capital cities of the provinces, he says, there are the militias. The reason for the higher threat level, is that the special groups are trained and equipped by the Iranians. Those groups don’t face you, he said, they use IEDs (improvised explosive devices), or they “stab us in the back” with their politicians. Because the militias are not able to face the Iraqi Army directly, they go to Iran, where they are trained, equipped, and then sent back in to assassinate leaders.

Present as well was Army Major General Michael Oates, Commander of the Multi-National Division Center and the 10th Mountain Division. He agreed with Oothman’s assessment of the Iraq Army’s capabilities, stating that the Army, although much improved and better off than in 2006, demonstrates that there is a need to raise the comparable level of operations that they are responsible for. Four things, Oates said, are needed: we need to work on improving their [Iraqi Army] forces, civics courses need to be given to learn how to assess Iraq’s civilian needs, we need to go after AQI (al-Qaida in Iraq), and we need to reduce the Iranian influence within Iraq.

The topic brought up most frequently during the brief was the inadequate training and supplies. Oates pointed out that the Iraqi Army has been fighting “right out of the box” since the beginning, and was never able to be properly trained. Watching their [Iraqi] army operate, Oates said, he sees that they are very capable and they are seeking initiative in performing their own operations, but we [United States] still are providing valuable assistance. The Iraqi Army is “coming along” but they are not sophisticated with reconnaissance and surveillance. Professionalism is what is missing; the army went into combat with no training, they’ve been in constant combat since 2003, and it’s been tough for them to learn logistics.

Oothman said that since the beginning, they had to work to train their officers. They conducted several training services for their officers, and they send medics to learn some training and they are more professional than they used to be. But to be independent in this battle, Oothman said, we have to not only learn administrative and logistical duties, but we need something else: medical facilities and garages to maintain our vehicles. 80% of these needs are met by coalition forces, and there is currently no plan to build a hospital or a garage.

The Iraqi Army is showing initiative, Oates said, I’m proud to serve with them and I’m here to provide whatever assistance I can. They are making huge strides. We [the United States] should be proud of our soldiers, and they are performing magnificently.

Christians being targeted in Iraq

Congress members Anna G. Eshoo and Frank Wolf held a briefing today on the “Plight of Iraq’s Christians and Other Religious Minorities.” The guest speakers were the vice president of Resettlement of the International Rescue Committee, Bob Carey, the Middle East program officer of Mercy Corp, Emily Gish, the executive director of Chaldean Federation of America (CASCA), Joseph Kassab, and the senior fellow of Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute, Nina Shea.

Nina Shea started the briefing by resenting her experiences and the research that she has conducted in the Middle East. She talked about the injustices, discrimination and the atrocities carried out by various Muslim extremists in Iraq. Forty churches have been bombed, twelve priests killed, Archbishops murdered, Christian churches have and are being decapitated. Recently, ten days ago, a priest was killed in Baghdad. Mandeans, a Christian minority are being murdered; only few have remained. These cases are not being investigated or followed by the police or any other international organizations.
As a result of this, two-thirds of the Iraqi Christians have fled the country and found refuge in Syria, Jordan, Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon and elsewhere in the region. The remaining one-third lives in the North near the Kurdistan borders.

Shea also touched upon the fact that President Bush had never commented on this issue before, but he acknowledged, during the Papal visit, that Christians and other minorities in Iraq are being targeted for religious reasons. She continued by saying that acknowledgment is not enough and there should be a set U.S. policy to deal with this issue, which has not happened yet. The U.S. failure to adopt policies to help the minorities ranges from being indifferent to minor activities. According to Nina Shea, Iraq is becoming more and more homogeneous and the fear is, when/if the war will be over, minorities will be absent. She also said that the Christians are not the only ones who are being targeted, “the Jewish population is only on double digits if that.” The lack of militias or security in the Christian regions is making it easier for the extremists to carry out their violence against the minorities. Shea said that there are couple of people with no uniforms, who are truing to protect the people and the State Department stated that those men are going to be given uniforms soon. all the minorities in Iraq carry only 12-13 seats of the Parliament.

Another 20, 000 Iraqi Christians have been forced to evacuate due to threats. The U.S. has been very passive about this, not even developed a mechanism, they are not aware of if aid is being reached to the people on the region. for instance, when the Mendean family was “wiped down” two weeks ago, there was no one to investigate. Shea emphasized the importance of the U.S. developing a way of contact with the civic leaders of the minority communities; she added that that particular act is in the U.S. interest, since the minorities are the bridge between the East and the West.

Bob Carey talked about the needs and the challenges for the Iraqi Christians. He presented the activities of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in the region. The

IRC has held meetings with U.N., Syrian and Jordanian officials, even the President of the Bashar el Assad, to find a solution for the refugees present in those countries. Carey emphasized that more than 70 percent of the families have witnessed a death of a family member. They have experienced personal threats, received notes on public and notes on bodies. There is a need of an urgent medical care, the community is suffering from different sicknesses and people who have cancer are not able to get meditation. Carey talked about his experience of meeting 3 translators, all of them under the age of twenty four, who have severe physical injuries and were not treated until their arrival to the U.S.

Today, the IRC has 4 million projects operating in the Iraq and the host countries of the refugees. Carey urged the people to contact their congress representatives to add the fund to the Refugee Crisis Act, which will be spent on the refugees and the countries helping them.


Joseph Kassab talked about the operations of CASCA in the U.S. and Iraq. Kassab and his co-workers traveled to the affected regions in March. He started off by showing a map of the Christian areas. The region extended from near Mosul to the frontiers of the KRG in the North. Three different forces protect the region. Firstly, Kurds who are financed by the government, secondly, private security force funded by the Finance minister of Kurdistan and lastly, former police with uniform in very small numbers. Kassab said that the three forces are creating confusion amongst the people, because they do not know who to trust and who to talk to. To make matters more difficult, the forces themselves are not well-organized. they are heavily armed, but do not know how to use their weapons. There is another issue as well, Kassab said that the civilians are willing to volunteer to protect the region, but they are being offered to go to different areas of Iraq and not stay in the region.
Migration is another important issue to tackle. There are 3000 students who attend the University of Mosul, have not been able to go to school last year, because of the fear and lack of security in the city. Mosul is one of the most dangerous areas when it comes to this situation. This circumstance in mind, the youth is worried about their future, no jobs, no school. As the first opportunity of moving out of the country arises, they are acting on it.
People fleeing from their homes and coming to the Christian areas is establishing another problem in the community. 85 percent of these refugees are Christians, who have been “kicked out of their areas”. There are two three families living together in one household as a result of this. People are even living in graveyards. Community councils in the area are not able to report on the exact on goings of the region, intimidated by the other council members.
The homes of the families who have fled are being taken by the “murderers” and when the refugees decide on going back, they are referred to as betrayers, infidels and statements such as “you do not belong here.”
in order to gather information, CASCA talked to the people directly and then went to the authorities to find a solution to this problem.
Although the region is very fertile, the economic state of the area is very horrifying. Due to security reasons and fear for their lives, they cannot sell their products in the bigger cities, such as Baghdad and Mosul. Ironically, they cannot sell it in the North, due to certain rules and regulations.
Kassab concluded his statement by identifying the key problems of the IDP (people who fled their homes). Firstly, lack of shelter and housing, secondly, lack of essential food items, lack of jobs, lack of humanitarian and financial support, lack of education and lack of hygiene.

Lastly, Emily Gish touched upon the discrimination against women, children and the disabled. She talked about how women are not allowed to work, even if it is up to them to support their families because their brothers and fathers have been murdered and killed due to the bombings. She talked about the children and their psychological state. Many children, especially in the Christian areas are suffering from psychological illnesses, due to the excessive amount of moving and fleeing. No stable homes are being provided for these children. Mercy Corps has started different programs for these children in the region to keep them preoccupied. Lectures, sports, are only coupe of the projects of Mercy Corp in the region. The organization is even teaching women about their rights. Different projects have been started to minimize and finally demolish the discrimination against the disabled. Activities that bring the both counter parts together to “demolish the stigma.”

All of the speakers highlighted the seriousness of the area and the need to act soon.

House Committee hearing on U.S. Response to Iraqi Refugee Crisis

At the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on "Neglected Responsibilities: The U.S. Response to the Iraqi Refugee Crisis," Chairman Gary L. Ackerman, (D-NY) said Congress increased to 5000 the number of Special Immigrant Visas available to Iraqis who worked for the United States. However, in terms of refugees, only 1,608 were resettled during Fiscal Year 2007. In order to reach the goal of 12,000 refugees resettled during this Fiscal Year, he said, the Administration would have to triple the number of refugees processed each month. A year later, and we have yet to "seize the moment" in terms of rehabilitating the image of the United States in the Middle East.

Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) said that is it not the job of the United States to subsidize refugees in Jordan or anywhere else, if they are able to go home. We should do our best, he said, in our ability to help assist them in Iraq.

Congressman William Delahunt (D-MA) said the reality of Iraqis living outside of Iraq is they cannot return because conditions do not exist for their return. They cannot go home, he said, or they'd be killed. Our response should also work to prevent further erosion of how we are viewed in the Middle East. If we are concerned about terrorism, he said, it's in our national interest to "step up." If the vast numbers of refugees are not treated with respect, it will be the new "breeding ground" for terrorists.

James B. Foley, Senior Coordinator of Iraqi Refugee Issues, U.S. Department of State, said third country resettlement is for the desperate people that cannot go home even if they want to. However, he said, we can begin "in country" processing, thanks to a more secure Iraq. About one hundred Iraqis are being processed in Baghdad currently. A second reason we can begin processing is that Syria has recognized that humanitarian goals need to be reached. We are doing everything we can, he said, and we are committed to processing refugees right where they are located in Iraq. On a large scale it is daunting in regards to logistical steps and security, he said, but they will move as fast as possible.

Current and former commdanders give outlook of slow progress in Iraq

Iraq was the topic of the day at the Pentagon, where current and former commanders took time to update the press on operations in Iraq and the outlook for troop levels and military strategy in the future.

Gen. James Dubik, commander of Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq, explained about the transfer of power from Coalition to Iraqi security forces. He explained the substantial growth in the forces that has occurred between June and December of 2007. While limited number of Iraqi security units, army and national police, are conducting and, in some cases, leading operations, the coalition, and primarily the United States remains responsible for weapons and logistical support, or what Dubik called enabling forces. He said that the challenge of handing over the capabilities and of speeding up the vetting process for growing the ranks remains.

Another important appearance was made by former second-in-command in Iraq Gen. Ray Odierno. Odierno has been moved out of Iraq and replaced by Gen. Lloyd Austin as Multinational Corps commander. Odierno was able to draw some conclusions for the press corps about the progress in Iraq over his 15 months as a commander. He said that there have been large security gains on account of the surge, though he said that these gains have not reached a point where they are totally irreversible. However he did say that he was comfortable with planned troop reductions and that that point where gains were irreversible did not have to be reached before the troop dawn downs could continue as scheduled. Within the next week the number of brigade combat teams will be reduced to 18 and then down to 15 by July of 2008.

Odierno did take a rare step into politics saying that any presidential candidate should consider the strategy of assessment of all conditions before acting on draw down. Odierno said it was too early to talk about what specific withdrawal plans from the candidates would look like because as he said, "a lot can change in Iraq in 10 months."



Odierno has insight on the subject of Iran, specifically president Ahmadinejad's recent visit to Baghdad. When U.S. visitors have come to Baghdad in the past there is often some kind of security situation, specifically rocket attacks by what Odierno called "Iraninan surrogates." The reason why Ahmadinejad was able to walk around more freely, said Odierno, was because those militant groups were not attacking. He said he hopes that Iraqis will continue to see Iranian meddling and recognized that it is their training and directions to surrogate militant groups that are causing problems for Iraqis.

He said that overall the surge was a success, not only because of the increase in numbers but the change in tactics. He credited the decrease in abilities of al-Qaida in Iraq to the fact that coalition forces were in the neighborhoods and that the Sons of Iraq program had made supporters of coalitions forces more recognizable.