"Last week, US officials in Washington acknowledged that only a small number of the 171,500 Iraqi soldiers and police so far recruited are currently able to fight insurgents alone."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050724/pl_afp/iraquscoalition Joint US-Iraqi task force to set terms for US troop exit Sun Jul 24, 6:03 PM ET A joint US-Iraqi committee is to set the conditions under which US troops will hand over security in the war-torn country to Iraqi forces, paving the way for a US exit, the US embassy said. "The joint task force will establish criteria and conditions that will help determine when Iraqi security forces ... will be capable of assuming full responsibility to secure Iraq," ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said in a statement. "This task force will establish no timeline; but, instead, identify conditions sanctioned by the leadership of the Iraqi government and the multi-national coalition," Khalilzad said following a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari. "As these conditions are met, transfers of security responsibility will be implemented progressively and noticeably to the Iraqi people," he added. US President George Bush has refused to set a timetable for the withdrawal of the 138,000 US forces from Iraq, but has said that US forces would stand down as Iraqi forces gradually take over. The joint task force will be headed by Jaafari's national security advisor Muaffak Rubaie, and will including representatives from coalition forces, along with those from the Iraqi interior and defence ministries. "The prime minister has directed that the task force meet within the next week and report back to him with their plan in 60 days," the ambassador said. US and Iraqi officials will also set up four more joint task forces to deal with budgetary issues, reconstruction efforts, infrastructure protection from insurgent attacks and detainees. Last week, US officials in Washington acknowledged that only a small number of the 171,500 Iraqi soldiers and police so far recruited are currently able to fight insurgents alone. -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
