[antimedia] antimedia: Today's Iraq report

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Posted by antimedia:
Today's Iraq report
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1146714743.shtml


   Major Gen. Lynch, in his April 20^th briefing, provided the following
   information.

     Operations continue across Iraq. Two hundred and fifty million
     trained and equipped -- correction -- 250,000 trained and equipped
     members of the Iraqi security force conducting operations in Iraq
     as we speak. We've now reached the point where there are two
     divisions, 16 brigades, and 58 battalions that have the lead in
     counterinsurgency operations in their respective areas of
     operation: two divisions, 16 brigades, and 58 battalions. That is a
     marked improvement over what we had a year ago, which is only three
     battalions that led operations in their respective area of
     operations.
     So the Iraqi security force continues to make a dominate
     contribution for operations across Iraq. And we are at the point
     now where at least 25 percent of the day-to-day
     company-level-and-above operations are Iraqi independent
     operations. They plan them, they execute them, they review them at
     the conclusion -- 25 percent.
     And think about this. We've talked about Scales of Justice now many
     times -- the operation to create a secure environment in Baghdad as
     we establish this national unity government with the Iraqi people.
     Yesterday there were 1,162 patrols in Baghdad alone, and 60 percent
     of those patrols were Iraqi security force independent patrols. And
     candidly, as I've said before, Iraqi security force independent
     operations are very fruitful for a variety of reasons. One is
     they're effective. Two is they're very familiar with the local
     surroundings. And three is the people of Iraq are willing to come
     forward to the Iraqi security forces and give actionable
     intelligence.

   None of this gets reported by the news media. Why is that?

     We believe that 90 percent of the suicide attacks in Iraq are
     conducted by foreign fighters -- al Qaeda, Zarqawi commissioning
     foreign fighters to conduct these suicide attacks.
     Last year this time, across Iraq, we were averaging about 75
     suicide attacks a day. Now we're averaging about 24 a day.
     One of the reasons for that drawdown is not that Zarqawi and al
     Qaeda doesn't want to do it anymore, but effective border
     operations have been capturing foreign nationals at the border.
     And I talked you through last week in great detail what's happened
     on the Iraqi border. Last November the Iraqi government declared
     initial control of the borders, and over time they've placed
     Department of Border Enforcement personnel -- 20,000 people, on the
     borders, 258 border camps -- to stop this flow of foreign nationals
     into Iraq, some of which are coming in to be used as suicide
     bombers.
     So if you look closely at what's happened, just before the first of
     the year, we were averaging about 44 captured foreign nationals per
     month, and now we're down to less than half of that.
     The effect of that is reduction in the number of suicide attacks in
     Iraq: over 70 a year ago, 24 now.

   So it must be a civil war then, right?

     Q Nelson Hernandez with The Washington Post.
     GEN. LYNCH: Hi, Nelson.
     Q There was two days of sort of what seemed like open street
     battles in the Baghdad neighborhood of Adhamiya this week. I was
     wondering, is it any more clearer, now that a few days have passed,
     what exactly happened there?
     GEN. LYNCH: Yeah. I worry about comments like "open street battle."
     There are clearly acts of violence across Iraq. And on the 17th and
     18th of April in the area that you identified there were indeed
     attacks. And what we know to be true, early in the morning that
     day, an Iraqi checkpoint was attacked by anti-Iraqi forces. Now,
     who did that, whether it was Zarqawi and al Qaeda in Iraq or local
     insurgents, we're not sure. And as a result of that attack, gunfire
     ensued. The insurgents themselves displaced to mosques and local
     buildings, and there was indeed a period of time when attacks
     continued. And that period of time was about five hours. But when
     that five hours completed, there were five insurgents killed and
     two Iraqi army or Iraqi police members wounded.
     So what I'm seeing is a representation that that was a five-hour
     Dodge-City kind of activity where continuous gunfire took place.
     And that's not what happened.
     The next morning, again anti-Iraqi forces, and we're not sure,
     about 20 conducted an attack. And as a result of that attack, QRF
     was launched and the situation was stabilized with minimal
     casualties. So that attack took place, but at the level I just
     described.

   I challenge you to find the correction in the Post.

     Q Oftentimes -- just following up on that question -- we hear from
     Iraqis that rogue elements in the security forces are conducting
     death-squad-like operations. Repeatedly the Interior Ministry has
     come out and said that that is not the case, that these are people
     wearing false uniforms. I know that people in uniform -- in
     American uniforms have talked a lot about cleaning up the police.
     Has anything really been done about this issue? And how much truth
     is it? What -- can we get an idea of the percentage of -- even if
     it's rough -- about how -- how much percentage of the Iraqi forces
     can be trusted, how much are rogue elements, how much is being done
     to contain them?
     GEN. LYNCH: Thank you for that. Because we have this going on all
     the time -- allegations that members of the Iraqi security force,
     particularly members of the Ministry of Interior forces, are
     conducting these kinds of attacks, the death squad phenomenon, if
     you will. And each time we get an allegation, we do an
     investigation to confirm or deny that that indeed happened.
     And in the period of time over the last six months, if you will,
     the only one that we can confirm was rogue elements of the Iraqi
     security force was the highway patrol incident, where members of
     the Iraqi highway patrol were trying to assassinate a Sunni.
     And then, there was one other incident where there was allegation
     that a Public Order Brigade commander was indeed using his office
     to do wrong things. The highway patrol was investigated, and four
     of those people are still detained four months later by the Iraqis.
     And the Public Order Brigade commander was immediately removed. His
     replacement went in and looked at the situation and fired 60 people
     on his staff that he believed had ties to insurgency.
     So the two things we can confirm, Richard, are the two that we've
     taken action against with the Iraqi security forces. We continue to
     hear these allegations that the militia has infiltrated the
     Ministry of Interior Forces, and we can't confirm that.
     Q Just so I have it right, I mean, because we hear these incidents
     every single day.
     GEN. LYNCH: Sure. All the time. Right.
     Q And you're saying in the last -- how long would that be? Four
     months?
     GEN. LYNCH: Yes. Over the last four months.
     Q (In) four months, you can only confirm two incidents. So that
     seems like quite a vote of confidence in the Iraqi Interior
     Ministry forces, unlike previous statements we've heard from senior
     American officers who have been much more skeptical and also people
     in the -- on the political front who keep saying that there has to
     be new leadership of the Interior Ministry that isn't sectarian.
     But it sounds like you're giving them quite a ringing endorsement.

   That's not what you've heard, I'll bet. In fact we keep hearing these
   claims, even though the media knows they are untrue. Why? Because they
   don't believe our military spokesmen are telling the truth. Instead,
   they choose to believe unproven rumors.
   The gatekeepers of the news are hard at work, aren't they?