[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 53 (Wednesday, April 27, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4386-S4390]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ALBERT EISELE'S ARTICLES ON IRAQ
Mr. DAYTON. Mr. President, when I went to work in the Washington
office of then-Senator Walter Mondale from Minnesota as a young,
beginning legislative assistant in 1975, Al Eisele was a Washington
correspondent for the St. Paul Dispatch and Pioneer Press, Duluth
Herald and News-Tribune, and other Knight-Ridder newspapers. In 1976,
after Senator Mondale was elected as Jimmy Carter's Vice President, he
named Mr. Eisele as his press secretary and senior adviser, a position
that Mr. Eisele held for the next 4 years.
``He previously covered me as a Washington correspondent for
Minnesota newspapers during my 11 years in the Senate, so I obviously
know him well,'' Senator Mondale later explained. ``He was one of the
most well-respected and knowledgeable reporters in Washington, with a
reputation for even-handedness, incisive reporting, and personal
integrity, which is why I asked him to join my staff.''
After the Carter-Mondale administration, Mr. Eisele helped found the
Center for National Policy in Washington; was a fellow at the Institute
of Politics at Harvard; served as an assistant to Mr. William C.
Norris, the founder and chief executive officer of Control Data
Corporation in Minnesota; and started his own literary agency and
international consulting firm, Cornerstone Associates.
For the past 10\1/2\ years, this native Minnesotan has been
instrumental in the success of The Hill, a nonpartisan, nonideological
newspaper covering Congress, that he helped found. Indeed, the April
27, 2005, issue of The Hill includes the 500th column Mr. Eisele has
written since the newspaper's inaugural issue of September 21, 1994. In
addition, he has acted as a mentor for more than 50 young journalists
whom he helped train and who now work for many major newspapers,
magazines, and broadcast organizations.
Last month, Mr. Eisele traveled to Iraq to get, as he wrote, ``a
firsthand look at what the American military is up against in this
greatest projection of American power since Vietnam.''
With his customary dedication, he did not just visit Iraq; rather, he
traveled throughout the country for 10 days and interviewed everyone,
from generals to privates, high-ranking Iraqi officials to ordinary
citizens, visiting Members of Congress, fellow journalists covering the
war, and private contractors involved in rebuilding Iraq's
infrastructure.
His subsequent articles and columns in The Hill provided many
compelling accounts of personal realities there, as well as very
valuable insights.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that those articles be printed
in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Senators Encouraged by Progress in Iraq
Baghdad, Mar. 23, 2005.--Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid
(D-Nev.) led a bipartisan Senate delegation to Baghdad
Tuesday and left little doubt that the Senate will soon
approve an $81 billion supplemental appropriation passed by
the House last week, most of which will go to pay for
rebuilding Iraq's war-torn economy and countering insurgent
violence.
Reid and his six colleagues held a news conference at the
end of a whirlwind one-day visit during which they met with
top U.S. military and diplomatic officials in Iraq and
leaders of the three internal factions competing for control
of the government being established in the wake of the
January elections.
Reid, who was making his first trip to Iraq, said the
Senate will take up the supplemental appropriations bill when
it returns after the Easter recess, and indicated there is
little real opposition to it. He stressed the need for
continued U.S. support for reconstruction efforts, along with
training Iraqi security forces to replace U.S. military
personnel and help bolster the Iraqi economy and political
structure.
``Everyone understands that reconstruction is an important
part of the U.S. mission here,'' he declared.
Reid and his colleagues, who included four Democrats and
two Republicans, all indicated they are encouraged by signs
of progress in carrying out the three-pronged U.S. strategy
of support for bolstering Iraq's security forces, economy and
political system.
``One of the people we met with today called Iraq `an
infant democracy,' and we can't leave this infant alone,''
said Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.). ``I believe what we
are seeing here is good.''
Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah) compared this visit with an
earlier visit he made last year. ``I find a quiet optimism
instead of a cautious optimism,'' he said. He added, ``I
think that the elections and the strengthening of the Iraqi
security forces have given us hope that the seed of democracy
has been planted here. There's still a lot to do and we still
have a lot to worry about, but the signs are more optimistic
now than before.''
Even Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who has been a leading
critic of the Bush administration's Iraq policy, seemed
upbeat about the future of the new Iraq government.
Declaring that the success of Iraq's future stability
``greatly depends on the training of Iraqi security forces,''
she said, ``we got a very, very upbeat report'' from the top
U.S. military officials, including Gen. George Casey Jr., who
commands the multinational coalition forces, and Lt. Gen.
David Petraeus, commander of the NATO training mission here.
She added that it's essential that the new government,
which will be put together in the coming months, include all
elements of Iraqi society, especially women. ``I think it's
fair to say that all of us today gave that message'' to the
leaders of the three main ethnic factions in Iraq, the
majority Shiites, the minority Sunnis and the Kurds.
However, Boxer also indicated after the group's meeting
with the man who is expected to be Iraq's next prime
minister, Ibriham al-Jaafari, that he is not as upbeat about
the quality of the Iraqi police and security forces.
``My sense was that he was certainly in no rush to hand
over security to his new police force,'' she said.
Other members of the Senate delegation included Patty
Murray (D-Wash.), Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and freshman Ken
Salazar (D-Colo.).
Salazar, who was making his first visit to Iraq, said,
``This trip has enforced the enormity of the challenge in
Iraq and the need to help the Iraqi people.''
____
``Translators Are a Special Target''
Baghdad, Mar. 25, 2005.--After 38 years in the United
States, Paul Oraha is back in his native Baghdad and working
only a short distance from the neighborhood where he grew up.
But he's not about to look up any old friends who might still
be around.
``We are a target now,'' said Oraha, who works as a
translator for the U.S. Embassy and U.S.-led Multinational
Coalition. ``Translators are a special target because many
Iraqis feel we are traitors because we're working for
Americans against Iraq.
Oraha, 65, left Baghdad with his family in 1966 for
Detroit, where his father, a Mercedes Benz parts supplier,
found work in the auto industry. While his personal history
is different, Oraha's situation is the same as thousands of
other Iraqis whose lives are at risk because they work for,
or cooperate with, the Multinational Coalition.
Many Iraqi civilians, as well as military and security
personnel, government officials and civic leaders have been
killed or wounded by Iraqi insurgents and foreign Islamic
extremists since the March, 2003 invasion that ousted Saddam
Hussein.
Oraha, who later moved from Detroit to San Diego and served
in the U.S. Navy, returned to Iraq in July, 2004, now works
and lives in the heavily guarded international enclave in the
middle of Baghdad known as the Green Zone. A nearby bridge
that commemorates the bloody 1958 coup in which Saddam's
Baathist Party took power links the Karada neighborhood
across the Tigris River where he grew up.
And even though there are constant reminders of the
terrorist threat--several mortar rounds hit the bridge on
Monday night but did not injure anyone--Oraha feels the
security situation is improving.
``This area used to get hit almost every day, but now it's
almost every other week,'' he said while smoking a cigarette
and drinking coffee one recent morning outside the Rasheed
Hotel where and he and many other Americans and foreigners
live. ``Security is the biggest problem here, but I think
we're making tremendous progress because the attacks have
slowed down.
Oraha said he thinks most Iraqis ``want us to be here and
stay here. They're very appreciative that we got rid of
Saddam and they look forward to having a better life. But
they're very concerned about the security
[[Page S4387]]
situation. They feel if it improves, they will have an
opportunity to rebuild their country and enjoy the benefits
of democracy.''
However, Oraha cautioned that many Iraqis are concerned
that the U.S. will not take the drastic steps they feel are
needed to discourage future terrorist activity.
``They think the U.S. is not going to be tough enough in
dealing with the terrorists, that they're too concerned about
the human rights of terrorists who are blowing up people.
They feel they will take that as a sign of weakness and
operate with impunity.
He added, ``As an American, I believe in the Constitution
and its guarantees of the rights of those accused of crimes.
But I agree with Iraqis that we have to be tougher with
terrorists. Many Iraqis think some of these people should be
executed and the world should know about it.''
However, Oraha predicts that the new government that soon
will be elected ``is going to get tougher on terrorists
because they're going to have to answer to the Iraqi people,
who are tired of terrorism.''
____
Improvised Explosives Becoming More Deadly in Iraq
Mosul, Iraq, Mar. 28, 2005.--They're one of the worst
nightmares for American military personnel or anyone
traveling with them on the dangerous roads of Iraq, even if
you're surrounded by tons of armor plate and moving at high
speed.
They're called IED's, military speak for Improvised
Explosive Devices, and they're the devil's own invention.
These fearsome homemade weapons are responsible for many of
the more than 1,700 deaths and 15,000 plus casualties
suffered by U.S. and coalition forces since the invasion of
Iraq two years ago this month. And they're getting more
deadly and numerous.
``They've gone up exponentially in number and they're
getting more powerful all the time,'' said Lt. Col. Michael
Kurilla, whose 24th Infantry Regiment's First Battalion
patrols the western half of this northern Iraq city that has
the highest number of attacks by insurgents of any city in
Iraq.
Col. Kurilla was among some 50 Army officers who briefed
Gen. John Abizaid, commander of U.S. forces in the Gulf
region, and Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) on the military situation
in Ninevah province on Easter Sunday at a coalition base near
this city of two million, the third largest in Iraq.
Afterwards, the tall, handsome West Point graduate from Elk
River, Minn., explained the challenge these devilish devices
present to his 800-man unit.
When his battalion arrived in Iraq last October from Fort
Lewis, Wash., it didn't find a single IED while patrolling
the streets of Mosul. But in November, it found three,
followed by 15 in December, 50 in January, and 134 in
February. One of his soldiers was killed when one of his
unit's heavily armored Stryker vehicles was destroyed, and
many more have been injured.
``We're still getting plenty of detonations, it's almost
constant,'' said Col. Kurilla, whose battalion has already
earned 182 Purple Heart medals, given to those injured in
combat.
Sgt. Loren Kirk, a member of the 25th Infantry Division's
First Brigade Stryker combat team, described the constant
danger posed by the IEDs.
``We go all over Mosul and everybody gets hit, even in the
nice neighborhoods,'' he said. ``We can go a week without
getting hit. It just depends on where we are. We drive side-
by-side with cars on the street. They tend to give us a wide
berth, and because of VBEDS [Vehicle-based Explosive
Devices], we try to keep them at least 50 yards away.''
Kirk added, ``It's all timing. We could roll down the road
and drive by an IED and a minute later, a vehicle behind us
will get hit.''
Kirk, 37, took his unit's commander through the city's
crowded streets to the briefing from its base about 15
minutes away. ``Our mission is to get him where he needs to
go, safely, escort troops or check on soldiers at a
checkpoint.''
The heavily armed 36,000-pound, eight-wheel vehicles were
first introduced to Iraq in 2003 as a replacement for the
1980s era Abrams tanks and the less well-armored Hummers,
which many units are still using while they wait for Strykers
to be delivered.
Every one of the Strykers in Kirk's battalion has been hit
by an IED at least twice, according to Specialist Seth
Christie, who rides in a partially exposed position atop
Kirk's Stryker.
So what's it like to take a hit from an IED?''
It scares the s - - - out of you,'' said Christie, 24, who
was slightly injured when his vehicle was hit by an IED in
January and he was knocked back into the vehicle. ``You feel
it in your chest, you feel it in your teeth. Your lungs fill
with smoke and everything goes black.''
Christie's buddy, Specialist Donald Armino, also 24, agrees
that IEDs are more numerous and powerful than a few months
ago. ``They're getting a lot bigger and a lot more
sophisticated,'' he said, often concealing them more cleverly
and magnifying their power by tying a half dozen or more 120-
mm mortar shells together and setting them off by remote
control, or using shaped charges that can penetrate six
inches of steel.
An even more vivid description of the destructive power of
IEDs was provided by four young Marine reservists from
Chicago who were relaxing at the coalition's main base near
the Baghdad airport while preparing to return home last
weekend.
``What's it like?'' said Cpl. Johnny Lebron, 31, whose unit
driving armored Hummers found and disarmed 19 IEDs and was
hit by 21 during six-and-a-half months in the northern
province of Babil, a part of the Sunni triangle dubbed ``the
triangle of death.''
``Well, it really rattles your cage. It's an experience you
can't describe. For four or five seconds, time seems to stand
still.''
Sgt. Timothy Jensen, 26, added, ``The explosion hits and
then everything goes black and the breath is sucked out of
your lungs. You feel like you're dead, floating in timeless
space. The first thing you worry about is the Marine next to
you. Once I know my Marines are good to go, we act on our
objective.''
But Sgt. Jensen conceded that it's hard to find those who
place and detonate the IEDs. ``You're really not going to be
able to get on them because they use remote devices from a
distance, and they're really hard to find.''
Unlike the Marines, the soldiers in Mosul who are equipped
with the heavily armed Strykers are thankful they have them.
``The Stryker is a fantastic vehicle, much better than an
up-armored Hummer,'' said Sgt. Kirk. ``We're really lucky to
have them. I've got a lot of faith in this vehicle.''
____
U.S. Forces Thwart Major Escape in Southern Iraq
Camp Bucca, Iraq, Mar. 25, 2005.--U.S. military police
Friday thwarted a massive escape attempt by suspected
insurgents and terrorists from this southern Iraq Army base
that houses more than 6,000 detainees when they uncovered a
600-foot tunnel the detainees had dug under their compound.
``We were very close to a very bad thing,'' Major Gen.
William Brandenburg said Friday after troops under his
command discovered the tunnel that prisoners had
painstakingly dug with the help of makeshift tools.
Within hours of the discovery on the first tunnel, a second
tunnel of about 300 feet was detected under an adjoining
compound in the camp, which holds 6,049 detainees.
The discoveries came just hours before Brandenburg, who
commands Multinational Force detainee operations in Iraq,
toured the camp with Gen. George Casey Jr., the top Army
general in Iraq and commander of the Multinational Coalition,
who was making his first visit to this remote desert camp in
southwestern Iraq near the Kuwaiti border.
Brandenburg said the prisoners, who include Iraqis and
suspected terrorists from other Arab countries, probably were
waiting for the dense fog that often rolls in at night from
the nearby Persian Gulf before attempting their escape.''
We get fog after midnight in which you can't see 100
feet,'' he said. ``I think they were waiting on poor
visibility and I think there was a good chance they would
have gotten out of the camp.''
Brandenburg, whose command also includes the better known
but smaller Abu Ghraib camp near Baghdad, said soldiers in
charge of Camp Bucca suspected that an escape attempt might
be in the offing because they had found a small tunnel in
another part of the camp about five days ago, and had been
told by detainees that other tunnels were being dug.
Brandenburg also said that in recent days there were
``people outside the camp who we're not used to seeing,''
which was another indication that ``something was going on.''
Brandenburg, who was spending the night at the nearby
Basrah airport while waiting for Gen. Casey to arrive from
Baghdad Friday morning, said he was awoken at 1:30 a.m. by an
officer from Camp Bucca who said, ``Sir, you won't believe
what we've found.''
When Brandenburg and Casey arrived at Camp Bucca, they were
shown the tunnel's exit point, which was outside the chain
link fence and concertina wire that surrounds the camp's
eight compounds, each of which contains more than 600
prisoners, and several smaller compounds.
The prisoners had used a cut-away five-gallon gas can
attached to a 60-foot-long rope to haul the sandy soil out of
the tunnel. They apparently used makeshift tools to dig and
reinforce the tunnel, and covered the entry point inside the
compound with a false floor made from wooden slats from their
beds, which in turn they concealed under two feet of dirt.
The detainees disposed of the dirt they had dug from the
tunnel by flushing it down their latrines, which gave camp
officials another clue that something was amiss when workers
emptying the latrines complained that the filters on their
trucks were getting jammed.
Col. James Brown, the commander of the 18th Military Police
Brigade that is in charge of Camp Bucca and Abu Ghraib, said
two detainees tried to escape 10 days ago but were caught. He
said the latest escape attempt was clearly planned to allow
more than 100 prisoners to flee the camp.
Brown said it is reasonable to assume that other tunnels
will be discovered in other parts of the camp.
Col. Brown said he made his troops view the movie, ``The
Great Escape,'' starring Steve McQueen, about a group of
American prisoners in a World War II German POW camp, so they
would think like people who were bent on escaping from his
facility.''
It's a great movie,'' he said. ``The trouble is we tend to
view life through the lens of who we are and not who somebody
else is. There are a lot of good lessons for us there.''
[[Page S4388]]
During Casey's tour of the camp, thousands of the prisoners
watched silently and sullenly as he and his entourage walked
past them, and as he climbed a watchtower for a panoramic
view.
As Casey walked past the compound where the second tunnel
was discovered, a soldier drove a large backhoe into the camp
and began digging up the tunnel.
Camp officials also showed Casey a large collection of
makeshift weapons taken from the detainees, including knives,
slingshots, and even a fake flak jacket made from Muslim
prayer shawls that resembled the real thing.
``I am never amazed at what I see,'' Brandenburg said of
the ingenious technique used by the detainees in their escape
attempt.
At the end of his tour, Casey presented a special medal to
the young woman soldier, Specialist Lisa Wesson of Asheville,
N.C., who discovered the larger tunnel during a routine
investigation.
Camp Bucca is almost twice the size of Abu Ghraib, which
was the scene of last year's prisoner abuse scandal that has
prompted widespread changes in the handling of detainees.
There are 3,243 detainees at Abu Ghraib, and another 114
after a camp near Baghdad International Airport, where Saddam
Hussein and members of his deposed government are being held
pending trials for crimes against humanity.
____
Embed Cavallaro Sees War From the Inside
Baghdad, Mar. 31, 2005.--After four trips to report on the
war in Iraq, no one understands the pluses and minuses of
being embedded with the U.S. military better than Gina
Cavallaro.
On the one hand, the former congressional aide and staff
writer for the Army Times knows it would be impossible to do
her job without relying on the military for logistical
support and protection in the dangerous combat zones she
routinely visits.
At the same time, she knows that the bonds she forms with
soldiers and Marines make it more difficult to be an
objective reporter, especially when one of them is killed or
wounded.
So it's not surprising that the 45-year-old Hillary Swank
look-alike was still trying to come to grips last week with
the death of a 20-year-old soldier who had become her
``buddy'' and ``little brother.'' Spc. Francisco Martinez, a
forward observer in a field artillery unit, was killed by a
sniper the day before while she was standing a few feet away.
``I haven't processed much of it yet,'' she said,
struggling with her emotions as she prepared to return to
Washington after nine weeks in Iraq.
``It's very difficult to write about. When we go out on a
patrol, I feel that I need to get on the ground with the
soldiers, and I have done that dozens of times, knowing it
was dangerous. But I always know I'm here voluntarily, and
the last thing I wanted to see was a soldier getting
killed.''
But Martinez, who was with a Second Infantry Division
brigade combat team that was transferred from Korea last
September, wasn't just another soldier.
``There's always one gregarious soldier who hangs out with
reporters,'' she said. ``He was my buddy, my shadow, my
escort. He was like a little brother. He stuck by me to make
sure I was safe. He was so young and so outgoing, and so
proud of what he was doing.''
She added, ``I only knew him for a couple of days, but we
had a lot in common. We both grew up in Puerto Rico, and when
you are with someone in a combat environment, it doesn't take
long to get to know them.'' The two often conversed in
Spanish and talked about life in their native Puerto Rico.
Cavallaro had spent eight days with Martinez's unit in
Ramadi, a hotbed of insurgent resistance 75 miles west of
Baghdad in an area the soldiers call the ``Wild West.'' While
she was there, an IED (Improvised Explosive Device) killed
four soldiers in an armored Humvee. ``It was huge, a big
bomb,'' she said. ``They are using more and more of them, and
they are also more snipers. I have to admit, I felt in danger
out there. I felt I was also a target.''
It was a routine patrol on a Sunday afternoon as Alpha
Company searched a dangerous neighborhood for a sniper who
had killed three soldiers and wounded several more. Cavallero
was taking a photograph when she heard a shot, very close by.
``I was probably six feet in front of him,'' she said. ``I
turned around and was horrified to see him lying on the
ground.''
Martinez was wearing body armor, but the bullet seemed to
go under it, on the right side of his back. He was bleeding
heavily and told her he couldn't feel his legs.
Medics quickly put Martinez in an armored Humvee and took
him to an aid station only minutes away. Cavallera rode with
him, holding his hand and pleading with him in Spanish to
keep breathing and not fall asleep.
The medics told her Martinez probably would make it and she
watched as a medical evacuation helicopter took him to a
field hospital. But a few hours later, she learned that he
had died.
``It was a little bit more of an exclamation point to this
trip than I wanted,'' she said. ``It just hurts when you lose
a friend. It really hurts.
For Cavallero, who visited Iraq twice in 2003 and once in
2004, it was a brutal reminder of how much more dangerous
Iraq has become for both soldiers and embedded journalists.
``Absolutely, it's become more dangerous,'' she said.
``When I first came here, the IED's hadn't started and the
insurgency didn't exist in any substantial way. I may be out
of line saying this, but I agree with the military that only
a small percentage of people are disrupting things here, but
they're doing a pretty good job of it. There's never not a
combat patrol. Whenever you go on patrol, it's always a
combat situation.''
Cavallaro, who writes for a predominantly military
readership, has mixed feelings about journalists being
embedded with troops.
``I don't know,'' she said when asked if it affects how she
and other journalists report on the military. ``I just think
it makes it more difficult. I find the media is afraid to get
around on its own in Iraq, and rightly so. They're relying
more on the military to get them where they want to go, and
as a result, the military is getting smarter about getting
its own story told. It almost seems like a little bit of quid
pro quo.''
She added, ``I don't necessarily consider that a bad thing.
The military will get you around but it always wants to show
you its new sewage plant.''
Cavallaro was a reporter for the San Juan Star when she got
a job as press secretary to then-Del. Carlos Romero Barcelo
(D-P.R.), but decided her heart was still in reporting and
answered an ad in the Army Times.
She says she still hears complaints from soldiers about
negative coverage of the war. ``The most frequent question I
get is, `Do people back home care about us? Do they know
we're still here?'''
Asked for her view of how the war is going, Cavallaro says
she's ``not in a position to judge, but I do see the concept
of Iraqi security forces being the key to what happens
here.''
However, she added that ``there are some really impressive
Iraqi army troops and some really shoddy ones. But I've seen
some American soldiers who get it. They're taking the Iraqis
by the hand and showing them what the right looks like.''
If there's one aspect of war reporting that Cavallaro is
critical of, it's television. ``I don't know why it is, but
most soldiers tend to get their news from TV. Images are so
strong. They are projected in chow halls all over Iraq, but
it takes a dedicated effort for a soldier to look up news on
the Internet.
And when Cavallaro returns to her newspaper's Springfield,
Va., office, what will she be thinking about her last
assignment?
``How much I hate leaving those soldiers behind,'' she
said. ``You can't be here and be embedded with soldiers and
not care about them, no matter how hard core you are. It
would take a really cynical person not to see them as
individuals.
``I've seen reporters who are clearly anti-military, and I
don't begrudge them that. It's their right. But in my writing
and reporting here, I consider my readership--what would be
of interest to the soldiers' families and relatives? I get a
lot of emails from readers who want me to go hug their
kids.''
When she returns home, Cavallaro will continue to
concentrate on the lives of the men and women in uniform she
has left behind. ``I see myself as chronicling their time
here--their triumphs, their tragedies, their quality of life.
I find the military as a fascinating theme for a writer. The
stakes and risks are high, but it's incredibly rewarding.''
____
A Second Triangle Is Built in Iraq
Baghdad.--Much of the violence that has plagued Iraq in the
two years since U.S. forces toppled Saddam Hussein has been
planned and carried out by insurgents and terrorists based in
the Sunni triangle north and west of this city of seven
million people.
But another triangle, which had its origins in a chance
meeting in Washington last June, appears to be paying off for
the Bush administration's effort to create a fledgling
democracy in Iraq, after Sunday's election of a prominent
Sunni Arab as speaker of the newly elected national
assembly. The meeting between the two men who were
preparing to take over as America's top military and
diplomatic officials in Baghdad set in motion a three-
pronged strategy involving the U.S.-led coalition forces,
the American Embassy and the Iraqi government.
The men are Gen. George Casey Jr., the Army vice chief of
staff who had just been named commander of the multinational
forces in Iraq, and John Negroponte, who was about to trade
his job as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations for that of
U.S. ambassador to Iraq.
Casey spoke about the meeting late last month. He was
returning to Iraq after a short vacation that ended with him
briefing President Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald
Rumsfeld at the White House. Casey flew back to Iraq aboard a
12-passenger C-37, the military version of the business jet
favored by corporate CEOs and celebrities.
``Right after I found out I was going to Iraq, John was in
town and we agreed to get together,'' Casey said. ``He stayed
over on a Saturday, and we met in the morning at the
Pentagon.''
The purpose of their meeting was to develop a plan to build
on the Jan. 20 national assembly elections that would restore
a measure of stability, allow the Iraqis to create a post-
Saddam democratic government and begin to rebuild their
devastated economy and infrastructure. They agreed to focus
on the elections as the organizing point for their plan.
When Casey arrived June 28 at Camp Victory, the sprawling
coalition headquarters
[[Page S4389]]
base outside of Baghdad, the first thing he and Negroponte
did was put together a ``red team'' composed of top aides
from Casey's staff, the U.S. Embassy, the State Department
and the Central Intelligence Agency and its British
counterpart.
``We felt we had to have a firm understanding of the enemy
and the war we were fighting,'' Casey said. ``I had our staff
working on a plan that focused on the same basic questions,
the nature of the enemy and its capabilities and intentions.
After about 30 days, we both came up with a product and we
merged them together and they pretty much reinforced each
other.''
The end result, Casey explained, was a plan that consisted
of four elements.
First, it was decided that ``the greatest threat, apart
from the insurgents and foreign fighters, was people hoping
for a return to Sunni dominance'' of the Shiite majority and
Kurdish minority. But it was clear that threat couldn't be
eliminated by military force alone.
``You don't win a counterinsurgency [war] by military
means,'' Casey said. ``You win by integrating the political,
economic and military to produce a common outlook, by cutting
off the insurgents from popular support.
A second element was to build up the Iraqi security forces,
which called for creating 27 Iraqi Army battalions. The first
phase of that plan, ``a huge training and equipping operation
that is still going on,'' Casey said, was completed last
month, and the next phase, creating the Iraqis' own command
structure, is under way.
``We felt we had to bring the insurgency to a level that
could be contained by Iraqi security forces while we helped
them build a sufficient capacity to deal with it. But it was
clear that Iraqi security forces were not ready to do that.''
The third part of the plan was aimed at rebuilding Iraq's
ruined economy.
``On the economic side, we inherited a hugely complicated
and bureaucratic--I don't want to use the word `mess,' but I
guess I will. There were so many different [U.S.] agencies
that had their fingers in it, we felt we had to get ourselves
organized to deliver on the $18 billion aid package''
approved by Congress. ``I'm not being critical of these guys,
but they put the package together in Baghdad without
consulting the people in the field.''
The Casey-Negroponte plan increased the 230-plus economic
aid and reconstruction projects that existed in June, 2004 to
more than 2,000 last month, and Casey predicts projects to
spend all $18 billion will be in place by this fall.
The fourth part of the plan was a two-part communications
strategy. ``One was to drive a wedge between the insurgents
and the population, to demonstrate that the insurgents and
terrorists have nothing good to offer for Iraq,'' Casey said.
``The other part was to try to change the image of the
population toward the Coalition.
``People always want to know, are we winning the hearts and
minds of the Iraqi people, and I say, `No, that's not what
we're here to do.' The people of Iraq will never welcome an
occupying force. What we need is their consent.''
Casey added, ``All four of these lines of operation are
working together in an integral way between us, the embassy
and the Iraqi government. That triangle--we actually have a
triangle in our plan--has the Iraqi government at the top, us
at one corner and the embassy at the other.
But while Casey said he is encouraged by early progress in
carrying out the ``triangle strategy,'' he cautioned that
success is far from certain. Casey, who earlier commanded the
1st Division in Kosovo, said he asked his predecessor, Lt.
Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, to compare the two countries.
``He said Iraq is 10 times harder.''
____
For Rhode Island's Reed, Codels are Solitary Affairs
Kuwait City, Apr. 6, 2005.--During the Easter Week recess,
when three other congressional delegations, consisting of 21
senators and House members, were visiting Iraq, the codel led
by Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), was conspicuous for several
reasons.
First, Reed, a West Point graduate and former company
commander in the 82nd Airborne, was the only member of
Congress in his codel.
Second, instead of traveling with a battalion of aides like
those with the other codels, he was accompanied only by his
legislative assistant for military and foreign affairs,
Elizabeth King; Lt. Col. Vic Samuel, an Army legislative
liaison officer; and John Mulligan, the Washington bureau
chief of the Providence Journal.
Third, instead of flying into Baghdad for a few hours of
official briefings and then flying to Jordan or Kuwait at
day's end, Reed spent the better part of four days
hopscotching across Iraq, often aboard Blackhawk helicopters
manned by National Guard units from Rhode Island; meeting
with troops in some of the most dangerous parts of Iraq; and
questioning top U.S. military and diplomatic officials, and
Iraqi security forces as well.
Fourth, Reed--unlike Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-
Nev.)--wasn't making his first visit to this war-torn
country, where some 150,000 American troops and 24,000 troops
from 23 other member nations of the U.S.-led multinational
coalition are battling Muslim insurgents and terrorists
while trying to help create a new government and rebuild
Iraq's shattered infrastructure.
And finally, none of the other congressional visitors can
claim to have attended the U.S. Military Academy with Gen.
John Abizaid, the overall commander of U.S. forces in the
Persian Gulf region, or served in the Army with Maj. Gen.
William Brandenburg, who oversees detainee operations in
Iraq, including the infamous Abu Ghraib prison.
This was the fifth visit to Iraq for Reid, a 55-year-old
Harvard lawyer and former instructor at West Point. All but
the first, in 2002, have been solo affairs. And it may have
been that one that convinced Reed to shun multimember codels.
He was traveling with a half-dozen other senators to
Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan and nearing the end of the
long, exhausting trip when the other members decided they
didn't want to get up early the next morning to visit an Army
special forces unit near the Pakistan border.
But Reed insisted they go, he recalled during an early-
morning interview here before returning to the United States
on Monday. ``I got a little annoyed because these troops were
expecting us to come.''
Reed said he feels he can learn more about the actual
progress, or lack of it, by traveling alone.''
You can see a lot of places you couldn't necessarily go
with others'' because of security needs, he said as he wolfed
down a breakfast of baked beans, scrambled eggs, fried
potatoes and olives. ``It helps me to be able to do it on my
own. You can't substitute firsthand experience.''
He added, ``I like to characterize myself as someone who
comes out here on a fairly frequent basis to look at what's
happening on the ground and then reach judgments about what
we can do to succeed.''
Reed always makes it a point to visit troops from his
native state. There are about 400 in Iraq, and he visited
many of them, including Army troops in Baghdad, Marines in
Fallujah, the helicopter crews and a field artillery unit in
Mosul, and soldiers at a remote desert base in Kuwait.
Reed, a member of the Armed Services Committee, makes no
apologies for being a critic of the administration's policy
in Iraq, and to a lesser extent, Afghanistan.
``My job is to be critical about what's going on and what
needs to be improved,'' he said, adding, ``I think my
criticism has been accurate, certainly in the operations in
the region, in that we didn't organize ourselves for the
appropriate occupation and stabilization'' after Saddam
Hussein was toppled, which happened two years ago this month.
``It took a long time to get the needed equipment in here
for our troops. We made some serious errors in terms of de-
Baathification efforts, rather than trying to incorporate the
Sunnis, and disbanding the Iraq Army. There's a litany of
problems.''
And although Reed has high praise for the military effort
here, he added, ``You have to understand that this is not
over yet, militarily. And the notion that everything's fine
disregards the resilience of this insurgency and the deep-
seated political, historical and social forces that are at
work.
``I think one of the greatest errors and misjudgments would
be at this point, so to speak, to get out, because the area
has one or two months of relative quiet--this is a long-term
effort, and, in a way, the hardest part, even now, is to
revamp an economic and political structure that doesn't have
that many democratic tendencies.''
Reed said Iraq has been ``brought right back to almost
where we began two years ago. And now we have the obligation
to reinforce military success with political and economic
progress, and the question is, do we have the resources and
the capability to do that?''
Reed also said he feels that civilian agencies haven't done
enough to rebuild Iraq's battered infrastructure by providing
``the soft power that you need to stabilize the country.''
``This is a major effort,'' he declared. ``We've got to get
it right. There are things that we're doing very well and
again I'd say that if we don't, if we take our eye off the
ball, we could find ourselves right back where we were six
months or a year ago. This place has the annoying habit of
every time you turn the corner, there's another corner. We
might be turning the corner, but watch out.''
Battered Fallujah Key to Iraq
Fallujah, Iraq, Apr. 7, 2005.--This devastated former
insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad, where some of the worst
violence--and one of the grisliest scenes--of the two-year
war in Iraq took place, is shaping up as the key to the
success or failure of the Bush administration's historic
effort to reinvent Iraq.
That was evident last week as James Jeffrey, deputy chief
of mission of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, came here to
confer with the commander of the 23,000 Marines who still
patrol this dangerous region and to meet with some two dozen
local police and government officials, Arab sheiks and Sunni
clerics.
``This is the future of Iraq,'' Lt. Gen. John Sattler,
commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force that drove
Iraqi insurgents and foreign Muslim fighters out of the city
in an epic 11-day battle last November, told the local
leaders as Jeffrey stood by.
The salty-tongued Sattler, who was reassigned to Camp
Pendleton, Calif., at the end of March, portrayed Fallujah as
a crucial test of the U.S.-led multinational coalition's
[[Page S4390]]
ability to provide security, assure political stability and
rebuild Iraq's shattered urban centers.
``If you can make Fallujah work, it becomes a status symbol
and the whole Arab world will be looking at what they have
done for Fallujah,'' he said.
Sattler and Jeffrey also made it clear that the prospects
of reducing and eventually ending the commitment of some
175,000 U.S. and coalition troops in Iraq will be greatly
enhanced if Iraqi security forces can be trained and equipped
in sufficient numbers.
At the same time, they said, hundreds of millions of
dollars must be spent in Fallujah on economic reconstruction
by creating jobs and restoring basic services, including
water, sanitation facilities and electricity.
``We're at the very beginning stages now,'' Sattler said.
He and about a dozen other senior Marine officers gave
Jeffrey an update on the military situation in their region
and, in turn, heard Jeffrey describe the political situation
and economic reconstruction effort before they met with the
local leaders.
The meetings in Fallujah came almost exactly a year after
the world was subjected to the ghastly scenes of the charred
remains of several American contractors whose bodies were
hung from a Fallujah bridge. The scene was the prelude to the
bloody battle in November that drove insurgents from their
fortified and well-armed base in Fallujah.
Jeffrey is running the U.S. Embassy until the arrival of
Zalmay Khalilzad, the current ambassador in Afghanistan whom
President Bush nominated Tuesday to replace John Negroponte
as ambassador to Iraq. Jeffrey gave the Marines an update on
the overall military, political and economic situation in
Iraq.
He said coalition forces have made ``tremendous progress''
toward defeating the insurgent and al Qaeda elements in most
areas of Iraq, although the violence directed against
coalition forces and Iraqis who are cooperating with the
coalition ``is still very worrisome.''
And he said that 100 50-man units of Iraqi Army and
security forces, including local police, are in place, of
which about 50 are ready to be deployed nationwide. ``That's
a huge difference and huge investment,'' he said, with
between $5 billion and $6 billion already spent and about an
additional $10 billion committed by the end of this year.
But it's not the money, he said, ``it's the mentoring and
training that are important.''
On the political front, he said the successful outcome of
the Jan. 30 elections has provided important momentum, but he
expressed concern about the vacuum that exists until the
newly elected national assembly and its leaders are chosen.
The problem, he said, is that ``the old government is not
willing to take action, and the new government doesn't exist
yet. We're a bit frustrated, but that's democracy.''
Finally, on the economic reconstruction front, Jeffrey said
$100 million has already been spent on Fallujah, with another
$100 million in the pipeline.
``Let's face it: We're winning,'' he said. ``It needs to be
said that we are winning. This is a very, very, very
difficult thing we're undertaking, but we're winning and we
need to continue pouring resources into Fallujah.''
Sattler acknowledged the difficulty of finding the right
local officials and working with them. ``There's dust on
everyone here,'' he said. ``So you have to go down until you
find somebody without blood on his hands. That's the person
you have to deal with.''
But one Agency for International Development official said
more and more local leaders are willing to cooperate in the
rebuilding effort.
``We're beginning to see them at the table now, and they're
beginning to ask questions. We're shifting from one level to
another. We're dealing with the Iraqi mind and not the U.S.
mind. We're trying to deliver the goods, but it's going to be
a long process. It's water running into one more house. It's
electricity going into one more house.''
Sattler pointed out that more than 2,000 government workers
showed up for work in Fallujah the day before and ``15,000
people came into town yesterday. There were less than a
thousand in December.''
A few days later, Sattler repeated his message while
hosting Gen. John Abizaid, commander of all U.S. forces in
the Persian Gulf region, and Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.).
``A year ago, we had an insurgency that operated with
impunity inside Fallujah,'' Sattler said. But now there's a
growing partnership between U.S. troops and Iraqi security
forces that he said bodes well for the future.
Sattler said, ``We get a lot of visitors here, but you
haven't visited Iraq if you haven't visited Fallujah.''
____________________