Iraqs Inconvenient Truth :: Iraq War News Updates

Thursday, 15 November 2007 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division

FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU — A Concerned Local Citizens (CLC) group found a large weapons cache in Arab Jabour, Nov. 12. The cache was so large that three controlled detonations were needed to destroy it.

A CLC reported a buried weapons cache to Company A, 1st Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division. The CLC led Company A Soldiers to the location of the cache where several barrels containing the munitions were buried.

The cache consisted of (24) 60mm rounds, (25) 82 mm mortar rounds, two 120 mm mortar rounds, three 122 mm projectiles, three rifle grenades, one 60 mm mortar tube, (20) bundles of propellant, (20) pounds of homemade explosives, (40) feet of detonation cord and an anti-tank mine.

After assessing the cache, an explosive ordnance disposal team was called to destroy it.

Throughout Iraq, the CLC groups have made a noticeable impact on the insurgency. The information they provide results in more weapons found and terrorists captured every day.  These brave volunteers are taking a stand for the stability, safety and development of their country.

Wednesday, 14 November 2007 Multi-National Force-Iraq, Multi-National Corps-Iraq release

BAGHDAD — Coalition forces detained (16) suspects, including three wanted individuals, during recent operations to disrupt al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) and foreign terrorist operations in central and northern Iraq.

During an operation in southern Baghdad, Coalition forces captured a wanted individual believed to be involved in the car-bombing network in the Rusafa and Karkh areas. Reports indicated the suspect was associated with several of the network’s senior leaders and allegedly tried to reestablish operations after significant degradation by Coalition forces.

An operation northeast of the capital city netted an individual believed to be tied to foreign-terrorist facilitators and other senior AQI leaders operating in Salman Pak. Coalition forces entered the target area and called for a building’s occupants to come out. They complied without incident. The suspect identified himself to the ground forces and was detained.

Farther north in Mosul, Coalition forces captured another wanted individual believed to be involved in the city’s terrorist propaganda network. The ground force isolated the target building and called for the building’s occupants to come out. During the operation, Coalition forces found significant AQI propaganda believed to be for distribution as part of the media network. The wanted individual identified himself to the ground forces and was detained.

In three separate operations near Salman Pak, Beiji and Mosul, Coalition forces detained eight suspects while targeting alleged foreign-terrorist facilitators, couriers, associates of senior level AQI members, and planners of improvised explosive device (IED) attacks against the Iraqi people.

“These captures are another step forward in disrupting al-Qaeda networks,” said Army Maj. Winfield Danielson, a Multi-National Force-Iraq spokesman.

In another series of raids, Coalition forces detained (10) suspects during operations to disrupt AQI in central and northern Iraq.

Coalition forces captured a wanted individual during operations northeast of Baghdad targeting an alleged AQI financier. Reports indicated the wanted individual was an associate of senior terrorist leaders in the region, and his sons were believed to be snipers for the terrorist network. Upon entering the target area, Coalition forces called for a building’s occupants to come out, and the occupants complied without incident. The ground force found multiple weapons and detained five other suspects on site.

Meanwhile, south of Mosul, Coalition forces captured a wanted individual believed to be a military commander familiar with IED attacks and an associate of senior AQI leaders in the area.

In other operations in the Beiji area, Coalition forces detained two suspects while targeting foreign-terrorist facilitators, media networks and AQI leaders responsible for IED attacks in the region. “We are continuing to take the fight to the enemy,” Danielson said. “Iraqi and Coalition forces are diminishing al-Qaeda’s ability to attack the Iraqi people.”

Elsewhere in Iraq, Soldiers with 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, joined with Iraqi National Police officers in recovering a weapons cache in eastern Baghdad. The find, made by Soldiers of Company C, 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry

Regiment, and officers of 1st Battalion, 4th Brigade, 1st Iraqi National Police Division, consisted of two mines and eight magazines, along with one radio. This was the sixth time in three weeks that Iraqi security forces had recovered a cache in eastern Baghdad.

Thursday, 15 November 2007

COMBAT OUTPOST CLEARY — “My brigade must fight the enemy, communicate with the people of Salman Pak, and bring back public service all at once,” Col. A’amer Khamees Hameed, commander of the 1st Brigade, 1st National Police (NP) Division, said at a meeting with leaders from the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, Nov. 13.“This meeting is the first step in all three directions,” Hameed said through a translator.

The leaders met at the 1st NP brigade headquarters in Salman Pak, to welcome the new commander. Hameed took command of the unit in early November, assuming command from Brig. Gen. Hassan.

“Our purpose here is to observe the transfer of authority,” said Lt. Col. Jack Marr, from Minneapolis, commander, 1st Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment. “When Col. Hameed meets with his battalion commanders, he will get an impression of the readiness of his brigade.”

Maj. Steve Delgado, from Los Angeles, the executive officer of the 1-15th Inf. Regt., said the meeting also affords the regiment the opportunity to strengthen the rapport, communication and trust with the unit’s Iraqi counterparts.

“Every joint effort improves our communication and helps us establish common standards when working together to disrupt and destroy insurgents and to secure the populace,” Delgado said. “The more we communicate, the more we strengthen our personal and professional relationships. The more we do that, the better our joint operations become.”

During the meeting, the group discussed future joint operations involving Iraqi and Coalition forces.

Hameed’s battalion commanders encouraged their new boss and offered advice on how to run the brigade.

“Rely on God,” one NP battalion commander said. “Always do the right thing and you will be fine.”

Hameed said his plan is to isolate terrorists and separate them from the citizens of Salman Pak.

“Terrorists cause a lot of problems,” he said. “They interfere with the people’s personal lives, and they are always trying to recruit.”

The 1-15th Inf. Regt. is assigned to the 3rd HBCT, 3rd Infantry Division from Fort Benning, Ga., and has been deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom since March.

(Story by Sgt. Natalie Rostek, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division)

In Other Recent Developments Throughout Iraq:

•  TIKRIT — Iraqi Army and Police units involved in Operation Iron Hammer discovered weapon caches containing more than (2,900) liters of nitric acid, a car bomb factory, and more than (340) mortar and artillery rounds of various caliber in addition to large quantities of military equipment in the al Jazeera desert, Western Salah ad Din Province, Nov. 10.

•   BAGHDAD — Coalition forces killed (25) suspected terrorists and detained (21) suspects, four of whom were wounded, late Tuesday and early Wednesday during operations targeting senior terrorist leaders in central Iraq.

The following story is an absolute must-read. If you can’t read it right now, come back to it later. It’s that important.

I have highlighted some points for emphasis, but one really stands out.

CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, makes this astounding statement:

“…the mapping of Muslim communities…seems premised on the faulty notion that Muslims are more likely to commit violent acts than people of other faiths.”

When I appealed to you yesterday to join us in this effort by becoming a monthly contributor, it’s because I know this is what we’re up against. (If you missed yesterday’s email and want to support our efforts, please click here.) We must ACT! Now to protect America before it’s too late.

Once you have read this story, please forward it to everyone you know.

Thank you.

Brigitte Gabriel

ACLU, Muslim Groups Resist
Anti-terror Measures Again

by Robert Spencer
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=23371&s=rcmc

The Los Angeles Police Department announced plans Thursday to map Muslim communities, hoping to identify people who might be liable to succumb to – as Deputy Chief Michael P. Downing put it – “violent, ideologically based extremism.” Downing said that the LAPD would work with a Muslim partner, and added: “We want to know where the Pakistanis, Iranians and Chechens are so we can reach out to those communities.”

The ACLU of Southern California, an association of Muslim lawyers called Muslim Advocates, the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California and the Council on American Islamic Relations wrote to Downing that “singling out individuals for investigation, surveillance, and data-gathering based on their religion constitutes religious profiling that is just as unlawful, ill-advised and deeply offensive as racial profiling.” And also, “the mapping of Muslim communities…seems premised on the faulty notion that Muslims are more likely to commit violent acts than people of other faiths.” [emphasis added]

Of course they aren’t: that’s why we see Presbyterians blowing themselves up in crowded restaurants, Buddhists flying planes into buildings, and Amish waving placards crowing that they will soon dominate the world. The mapping of Muslim communities is sensible in light of the violent acts committed around the world – over 9,000 separate attacks since 9/11 – in the name of Islam. But political correctness has kept law enforcement officials (and the media) from asking the hard questions they should ask of Muslim leaders in the United States. Absurdities abound. One police official lamented: “We’ll come back from a Kumbayah meeting with a local mosque and realize that these guys who just agreed to help us are in our terror files!” Cleveland Muslim leader Fawaz Damra signed the Fiqh Council of North America’s condemnation of terrorism — and was later deported for failing to disclose his ties to terrorist groups. [emphasis added]. Damra was never expelled from his communities in Brooklyn, New York, or Cleveland despite having said at a 1989 Islamic conference that “the first principle is that terrorism, and terrorism alone, is the path to liberation.”

Peaceful American Muslims have not moved to expose, expel, or separate themselves from those who hold such sentiments. [emphasis added]. There is no wall of separation in the American Muslim community between Muslims who accept American pluralism and want to live ordinary lives and those who hold to the ideology of jihad and the subjugation of infidels held by Osama bin Laden. And authorities have not investigated the presence of such sentiments at all, despite the fact that they could be a reliable indicator of who might commit violent acts in the future and who might not.

Are there really jihadist sympathizers in American mosques? Yes. Sahim Alwan, a onetime leader of the Yemeni community in Lackawanna, New York and president of the mosque there, has the distinction of being the first American to attend an Al Qaeda training camp. Maher Hawash’s transition from secular Intel exec to jihadist was accompanied by an increase in his Islamic fervor and frequent mosque attendance.

This doesn’t mean that every Muslim in the United States is secretly plotting a jihad attack. But would it really be wise to risk everything on the assumption that none are?

The outrage of the ACLU and the Muslim groups over “the faulty notion that Muslims are more likely to commit violent acts than people of other faiths” founders on the fact that many Muslim groups have actually declared their desire to commit violent acts in the United States. We would be foolish – suicidally so – not to take all necessary steps to protect ourselves accordingly. If American Muslim groups were genuinely concerned about the unfair targeting of Muslims, they could direct their efforts to making concerted efforts to work with law enforcement officials to identify and apprehend jihadists in the United States, and to turn Muslims in America away from the jihad ideology and Islamic supremacism. [emphasis added].

The fact that they do not do this, and instead work against genuine efforts to protect this country from a catastrophic attack, is revelatory. Despite their complaints, this mapping should continue, and expand.

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ACT for America
P.O. Box 6884
Virginia Beach, VA 23456
www.actforamerica.org

ACT for America is an issues advocacy organization dedicated to effectively organizing and mobilizing the most powerful grassroots citizen action network in America, a grassroots network committed to informed and coordinated civic action that will lead to public policies that promote America’s national security and the defense of American democratic values against the assault of radical Islam.