-Caveat Lector- Dave Hartley http://www.Asheville-Computer.com http://www.ioa.com/~davehart ============================= NY Times October 28, 1999 U.S. to Aid Iraqi Opposition to Develop a Military Cadre By STEVEN LEE MYERS WASHINGTON -- The Administration has authorized the first direct military training for opponents of President Saddam Hussein of Iraq, senior officials said Wednesday. Starting next week, four Iraqi rebel leaders, including two former officers in Iraq's armed forces, will attend a 10-day training course at the Air Force's special-operations headquarters in Florida, where American officials will school them on how to organize a military in an emerging state. Other courses are being prepared. The Administration has also approved its first contribution of surplus Pentagon equipment intended to help foster the overthrow of President Hussein, offering the main Iraqi opposition groups $2 million worth of office supplies. While the initial assistance is modest -- and, the officials emphasized, "nonlethal" -- it reflects the sharp shift in policy toward overt support of what amounts to an insurgency against Hussein's Government. In that sense, it recalls American support in the 1980's for the contra rebels in Nicaragua and for the mujahedeen guerrillas who resisted the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The training and equipment, which includes computers, fax machines and file cabinets, represent the first portion of $97 million in aid authorized by Congress last year to bolster the fractious groups intent on deposing President Hussein. "The notion here is to help people associated with the opposition to think about a plan for the country after Saddam Hussein," a military official who has worked closely with the Iraqi opposition said Wednesday. Ever since four days of American and British air strikes against Iraq last December, the Administration has openly stepped up contacts with Iraqi opposition leaders. So far, those efforts appear to have had little impact on dissent inside Iraq, and officials at the Pentagon, in particular, remain deeply skeptical of the viability of Hussein's opponents. The Administration, however, has been under increasing pressure from Republicans and even some Democrats in Congress to do more to support the opposition with equipment and possibly arms. Representative Benjamin A. Gilman of New York, the Republican chairman of the House International Relations Committee, today accused the Administration of having "a lethargic approach" and called for more significant assistance. "I can't imagine that Saddam Hussein would be worried about being overthrown by Iraqi exiles trained in civil affairs brandishing fax machines," Gilman said. Iraqi opposition leaders, however, strongly welcomed the support. Dr. Salah A. Shaikhly, a spokesman for the Iraqi National Congress, a coalition of exiles, said the equipment and training would be "vital to our work in Iraq." " 'Nonlethal' doesn't mean not useful inside Iraq," he said in an interview today in Washington. Administration and military officials said they hoped this first installment would strengthen the credibility of the opposition. The Administration made its decision on the eve of a large gathering of opposition groups in New York City this weekend. They are looking to the gathering as a chance to forge a unified front against President Hussein, something that has been sorely lacking because of infighting among his many opponents. "The United States Government wants to hear from a unified Iraqi popular leadership just how it can proceed to support the people of Iraq in promoting the change of regime, as it is the right of you, the Iraqi people, to do," the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Thomas R. Pickering, wrote to the leaders of seven opposition groups on Monday. The aid comes during a troubling period in the Administration's handling of Iraq. There have been no inspections of Iraq's reported nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs since the Government expelled United Nations inspectors 15 months ago, leading to the punitive attacks in December. And while the Administration says Hussein remains isolated, diplomatic efforts to set up a new inspection system, as called for under the terms of the cease-fire that ended the gulf war in 1991, have foundered. Senior Pentagon officials also fear that Iraq has quietly rebuilt much of what American and British warplanes destroyed in December, including missile factories. And while American and British jets patrolling no-flight zones over Iraq regularly attack Iraqi air-defense sites, including a strike today against missile sites in northern Iraq, those attacks have not put an end to President Hussein's defiance nor eroded his grip on power. In the absence of significant diplomatic progress, the main focus of Administration policy on Iraq has become fomenting opposition inside and outside the country. The first military training will take place at Hurlburt Field, near Pensacola, where the four Iraqis will attend a regular Air Force course for officers from Arab and Central Asian countries. Officials emphasized that the course does not include combat training. The Administration and Iraqi opposition groups declined to identify the four Iraqis. "They are going to go back into Iraq," Dr. Shaikhly said. "We don't want Saddam Hussein to know who they are." The four include a former captain and a former major in the Iraqi armed forces who defected after the gulf war and took part in the failed uprisings that followed. The other two also took part in those uprisings and are now civilian members of opposition groups. While the Pentagon provides training to scores of officers from around the world, it is highly unusual to offer courses to people who are not backed by sovereign governments. The officials said they expected to offer space to more Iraqis in other Pentagon courses. They also said they are considering additional equipment, including communications gear. While the Central Intelligence Agency has provided covert support to Iraqi dissidents in the past, this is the first overt military assistance. Administration officials said they had not ruled out providing weapons, but they said they want to move slowly to be sure that Hussein's opponents build a viable foundation before attempting a military challenge. "We have not ruled out future lethal assistance," the State Department's spokesman, James P. Rubin, said today. "But at this time we believe that providing such assistance would do more harm to the Iraqi opposition than to the regime." The wariness reflects the history of infighting among the opposition groups, which include Kurdish factions in northern Iraq, Shiite rebels in southern Iraq and exile groups like the Iraqi National Congress, which is based in London. While the groups share the objective of overthrowing Hussein, they have been torn by their own rivalries. What unity did exist collapsed completely in 1996, when Iraqi forces pushed into northern Iraq on behalf of one Kurdish faction, the Kurdistan Democratic Party, fighting another, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. That operation also allowed President Hussein's forces to crush a cell of dissidents supported by the C.I.A. Administration officials said they welcomed the groups' progress in renewing the common cause. "They started near zero," a senior Administration official said. "A year ago there were only the remnants of the Iraqi National Congress, and those remnants could not and would not meet with each other. They've come a long way from that point." _____________________________________________________________ ================================= *** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. *** DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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