[CTRL] Iraqi rebels to get special weapons

[William Shannon]

Iraqi rebels to get special weapons
by ELI J. LAKE� Copyright 2001 by United Press International 2/12/01

WASHINGTON, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- In the next month, a handful of Iraqi rebels are
scheduled to go to College Station, Texas, for their first round of weapons
training from federal lawmen and members of the military's Special Forces
under a U.S. plan to support insurgency activities inside Iraq.

The Iraqi National Congress, the coalition of Iraqi dissidents and rebels
supported by the United States officially since 1998, are in the final stages
of completing a $98,000 contract with the Guidry Group, a consulting firm
comprised of ex-secret service agents. Under that contract, INC security
officers will learn the fine art of diplomatic security.

What distinguishes this training from previous courses for the INC, is that
the rebels attending the five-day seminar will also learn how to use pistols,
Kalishnikov rifles, 12-gauge shotguns and a variety of other fire-arms.
Previous U.S.-backed training for the INC has been limited to "non-lethal"
activities, such as emergency medical care, public relations and war crimes
investigations, according to an INC adviser.

While the State Department still considers this assistance to be of the
non-lethal variety, the INC clearly does not. "This is important because this
is the first time we are receiving lethal training with the United States
government funding," said Francis Brooke, the Washington adviser for the INC.

Retired Gen. Wayne Downing, the commander of the joint special operations
task force during the Gulf War, concurred. He told United Press
International, "This is significant because this is the first lethal
training. It is designed to protect, so the significance is that this is the
first time they are being trained to do anything on this level."

But State Department officials disagree. One official said, "This is not
lethal assistance. The skills involved are purely protective and defensive in
nature of the type necessary for the Iraqi National Congress to protect any
non lethal presence or activities inside Iraq."

The debate over lethal assistance marked the INC's fiercest battle with the
Clinton Administration. The lethal aid promised in the 1998 legislation that
authorizes $98 million for the group was never delivered largely under the
premise that the INC was not ready to challenge Hussein militarily.

But this thinking may change under the Bush administration. While Secretary
of State Colin Powell has carefully avoided making any comments on the
military aspect of the Iraq Liberation Act, his counterpart at the Pentagon,
Donald Rumsfeld is a long time supporter of a plan to oust Hussein through
U.S. backed rebels.

Both Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz signed a letter to President
Clinton in 1998 that spurred the creation of the Iraq Liberation Act.

The Feb. 18, 1998 letter states, "Iraq today is ripe for a broad-based
insurrection. We must exploit this opportunity." It goes on to outline a
series of steps the government should take to aid the INC, including
positioning "U.S. ground force equipment in the region so that, as a last
resort, we have the capacity to protect and assist the anti-Saddam forces in
the northern and southern parts of Iraq."

The $98,000 contract with the Guidry group is tucked into a larger $4 million
aid package -- separate from the Iraq Liberation Act funding -- aimed at
establishing an alternative Iraqi media through radio transmitters, satellite
television stations and newspapers. The plan, approved initially in September
by the Clinton administration, also sets aside money for INC members to go
inside Iraq to collect information on war crimes, Iraq's military and
political changes.

One of the INC's principal leaders, Ahmad Chalabi, speaking to reporters and
analysts Friday at the American Enterprise Institute, said he believed his
group could attract a number of defectors from Iraq's military if they
established a presence inside the country.

"The Iraqi army is unwilling to defend Saddam, but they are too weak to
overthrow him," Chalabi said, estimating that 40 percent of Iraq's elite
Republican guard is absent without leave.

To be sure, the five-day security seminar is a far cry from the battle field
training and American military support envisioned by Chalabi and his
supporters in Washington. Chalabi on Friday said he hoped the Pentagon would
change the rules of engagement for American aircrafts patrolling the no-fly
zone in northern and southern Iraq, to allow fighters to attack Iraqi army
battalions when they were moving against civilian targets.

Downing, who has worked as an adviser on a volunteer basis with the INC for
three years, called the security training in the State Department aid package
a "drop in the bucket."

"This is not the training they will need to put together a liberation army.
There you would need individual training, basic training, weapons training,
involving anti tank weapons, machine guns, rockets and that sort of thing,"
he said. Downing estimates this sort of training would take six to eight
months and could be provided by either the U.S. military or the CIA.

INC officials will meet with the acting assistant secretary for Near East
affairs, Edward Walker, Tuesday to discuss the remaining details of the $4
million aid package.