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Iraq-Jordan
WND: Iraqi guards at Abu Ghraib demonstrate questionable loyalties
2004-06-06
Excerpted from a WND piece by Paul Sperry
EFL'd some more, RTWT as they say. AoS.
Buried in the middle of the scathing Army report on Abu Ghraib prison abuses is an unrelated item that has received little attention in the press, but one that is no less disturbing. "The Iraqi guards at Abu Ghraib demonstrate questionable loyalties, and are a potentially dangerous contingent," wrote Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba in the 53-page executive summary to his investigative report. "These guards have furnished the Iraqi criminal inmates with contraband, weapons and information," he said. "Additionally, they have facilitated the escape of at least one detainee." U.S. military intelligence officials say spies have infiltrated local security forces, and have tipped off the insurgents to U.S. convoy routes and even the locations of visiting U.S. officials. And they question the wisdom of forging closer partnerships with local forces.
We don’t have much of a choice.
Nonetheless, the administration is pushing ahead with plans to train a total of about 260,000 Iraqi soldiers, police and other security personnel by the first quarter of next year to help stabilize the country and eventually start replacing U.S. troops.
If we don't do that, we'll never turn their country over to them. Or if we do, somebody else will take it away from them.
But U.S. officials warn that some local forces may view their American trainers as the enemy, not the insurgents; and sharing too much information with them could expose American soldiers to even more treachery. Some 80 percent of the 816 GIs killed in Iraq have died since major combat operations were declared over in May 2003. Nearly half of the casualties have occurred since Saddam Hussein’s capture.
Not often does WorldNetDaily sound like WaPo.
They say the Pentagon is even planning to share intelligence-gathering and interrogation techniques with Iraqi defense forces. "Handing over our interrogation techniques to the IDF is insane," one official told WorldNetDaily, "because we all know the Iraqi forces are rife with Baathists and former ISS," or Iraqi Intelligence Services members, who could leak the tactics to the enemy.
I doubt we're giving them everything. We don't give most of our own guys everything...
The loyalty of local Arabic interpreters is also an issue. A new Army training course warns soldiers gathering intelligence in Iraq to be wary of their interpreters and limit the amount of operations information shared with them. "If your interpreter is a local national, he may be providing information on your operations to someone else," say the course materials obtained by WorldNetDaily. "Operations security is paramount, so even if he seems to be a nice guy, limit what you tell him."
I don’t have a problem with that. It sounds like we’re going in with our eyes open. Maybe if we had more Idaho natives that could speak fluent Arabic with a Baghdadi accent.
In an internal report prepared last year by the Center for Army Lessons Learned in Fort Leavenworth, Kan., investigators in Iraq observed that local interpreters seemed to be holding back information from soldiers during interrogations of detainees. "The foreign national would give a 10-minute answer, and the interpreter would translate ’yes’ or ’no,’" said the trip report, authored by Lt. Col. Robert L. Chamberlain, a top Army intelligence trainer. "Who knows what agenda the interpreter has?"
So tape each interrogation and excerpt the detainees answer to each questionable translation. By excerpt, I mean remove both the question and the suspect interpretation. Play the detainee for two other randomnly selected interpreter and compare the answers. Convert interpreters into detainees based on the results.
Posted by:Super Hose

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