Israeli advisers are helping train US special forces in aggressive
counter-insurgency operations in Iraq, including the use of assassination
squads against guerrilla leaders, US intelligence and military sources
said yesterday.
This is basically an assassination program...It is bonkers,
insane. Here we are - we're already being compared to Sharon in the
Arab world, and we've just confirmed it by bringing in the Israelis
and setting up assassination teams. 
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Former senior US intelligence
official |
The Israeli Defense
Force (IDF) has sent urban warfare specialists to Fort Bragg in North
Carolina, the home of US special forces, and according to two sources,
Israeli military "consultants" have also visited Iraq.
US forces in Iraq's Sunni triangle have already begun to use tactics
that echo Israeli operations in the occupied territories, sealing off
centers of resistance with razor wire and razing buildings from where
attacks have been launched against US troops.
But the secret war in Iraq is about to get much tougher, in the hope of
suppressing the Ba'athist-led insurgency ahead of next November's
presidential elections.
US special forces teams are already behind the lines inside Syria
attempting to kill foreign jihadists before they cross the border, and a
group focused on the "neutralization" of guerrilla leaders is being set
up, according to sources familiar with the operations.
"This is basically an assassination program. That is what is being
conceptualized here. This is a hunter-killer team," said a former senior
US intelligence official, who added that he feared the new tactics and
enhanced cooperation with Israel would only inflame a volatile situation
in the Middle East.
"It is bonkers, insane. Here we are - we're already being compared to
Sharon in the Arab world, and we've just confirmed it by bringing in the
Israelis and setting up assassination teams."
"They are being trained by Israelis in Fort Bragg," a well-informed
intelligence source in Washington said.
"Some Israelis went to Iraq as well, not to do training, but for
providing consultations."
The consultants' visit to Iraq was confirmed by another US source who
was in contact with American officials there.
The Pentagon did not return calls seeking comment, but a military
planner, Brigadier General Michael Vane, mentioned the cooperation with
Israel in a letter to Army magazine in July about the Iraq
counter-insurgency campaign.
"We recently traveled to Israel to glean lessons learned from their
counterterrorist operations in urban areas," wrote General Vane, deputy
chief of staff at the army's training and doctrine command.
An Israeli official said the IDF regularly shared its experience in the
West Bank and Gaza with the US armed forces, but said he could not comment
about cooperation in Iraq.
"When we do activities, the US military attaches in Tel Aviv are
interested. I assume it's the same as the British. That's the way allies
work. The special forces come to our people and say, do debrief on an
operation we have done," the official said.
"Does it affect Iraq? It's not in our interest or the American interest
or in anyone's interest to go into that. It would just fit in with
jihadist prejudices."
Colonel Ralph Peters, a former army intelligence officer and a critic
of Pentagon policy in Iraq, said yesterday there was nothing wrong with
learning lessons wherever possible.
"When we turn to anyone for insights, it doesn't mean we blindly accept
it," Col Peters said. "But I think what you're seeing is a new realism.
The American tendency is to try to win all the hearts and minds. In Iraq,
there are just some hearts and minds you can't win. Within the bounds of
human rights, if you do make an example of certain villages it gets the
attention of the others, and attacks have gone down in the area."
The new counter-insurgency unit made up of elite troops being put
together in the Pentagon is called Task Force 121, New Yorker magazine
reported in yesterday's edition.
One of the planners behind the offensive is a highly controversial
figure, whose role is likely to inflame Muslim opinion: Lieutenant General
William "Jerry" Boykin.
In October, there were calls for his resignation after he told a church
congregation in Oregon that the US was at war with Satan, who "wants to
destroy us as a Christian army".
"He's been promoted a rank above his abilities," he said. "Some
generals are pretty good on battlefield but are disastrous nearer the
source of power."
© Guardian Newspapers Limited
2003
