US Forces in Iraq Detain 61 Al-Qaeda Members

Anadolu News Agency ^ | March 02, 2006

[jmc1969]

American forces in Iraq have reportedly detained 61 people linked to al-Qaeda Iraq led by Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Spokesman of multinational forces in Iraq, General Rick Lynch said in a statement announced earlier today the detained al-Qaeda members were captured during an operation on a training camp near the city of Felluce (Fallaujah) on Monday.

The US forces conduct regular operations in the Al Anbar region, a popular area for sheltering many foreign insurgents.

[Recovering_Democrat]

Huh. I'm waiting for the good news reports in the LameStream Media about this capture of the Al Qaeda terrorists.....

[ChadGore]

bttt

[ChadGore]

good news BUMP.

Score one for the good guys.

[Spunky]

"a care package of panties is on the way"

A pair of these over the head should make them spill the beans.

[ottersnot]

More proof we are losing. THere would not be this many Al Queada (sp?..who cares) members in Iraq if we were winning.

or something along these lines soon from your favorite Drive-by media outlet.

[gotribe]

a training camp? they are able to setup and operate a training camp in Fallujah?

My thoughts, too. And why weren't several 2000-pound JDAMs used? That would have made the Fallutins think.

[greyfoxx39]

Quick, put underwear on their heads and take pictures of them!!!

Before the ACLU files to set them free!

[wingman1]

"...they are able to setup and operate a training camp in Fallujah?"

Not "in". Near.

[Straight Vermonter]

I just wonder if the Iraqi army had not been disbanded if things might have gone a bit easier.

Obviously we could not keep all of the same officers in place but it would have been easier to build a military if we were working from a pre-existing structure. Just from an intelligence perspective we (or rather they) could have been in much better shape.

If I had to point to one critical failure in Iraq that is the one I would choose.

[Marine_Uncle]

"I just wonder if the Iraqi army had not been disbanded if things might have gone a bit easier. "
Some reasons that was not possible at the time.
1) As we remember, before Bremmer took charge, I cannot remember the generals name now that was running the show, then through Bremmer's watch, it was clearly delinated by the Iraqi interim government, IIG, gee tis been a while ah. That we where not permitted to allow any Baathist to be involved in government, or be employed in that early attempt at forming an Iraqi police force and fledging army units we where then starting to train.
2). During those early days of attempting to work with many factions of the Iraqi leadership, we must recall, the insurgency as we now define it, simply was not in existence, at least not as was soon to be discovered to be much more sinister then at first acknowledged. So there was less need for us to push the point of trying to at least salvage some of the Saddamist military folk. The Shia whom we mostly had contact simply refused to allow such a thing.
3). We have to consider from our military's viewpoint just how successfull that recruitment might have been. Surely you and I could have sat at meetings with the general staffs and offered an array of difficulties that would have surfaced had a program been put in place. Who could be trusted. Who would out of cunning remain loyal to Saddam, who would end up crippling those early on efforts to start forming a new army. The list as your aware, is quite long in the negative.
4). Only as time went by and the new enemy became more mature and visible, members of Saddams Fedayeen etc., being shown to be feeding the insurgency, along with old Iraqi army intellegience officers, and of course guys like Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri arranging with the Syrian goons and al-Qaeda to unleash the fully put in place insurgency, was it fully apparent few if any Iraqi ex military could be trusted.
However. As we have come to see, even in those early days some officers where fully vetted and where employed in ways we shall read about in books some day to start the budding Iraqi Army into what it is now.
I have had talks with my nephew, a Marine in Intel that on his second tour to the pit had been deployed to Al Anbar. Talks upon his return, revealed that even as late as the summer of last year, found our guys not trusting many of the fledging Iraqi units. He told me about a few excellant Iraqi officers he worked with that truely proved their reliability, as well as the units under them where showing increased effeciency, as well as trust, e.g. check my six.
Now how did this all come to be? Well it came to be from a year and a half of training by our soldiers and Marines, creating boot camps to trained them "our way", which for the most part was found to be totally different then in how they where trained. We had to start from scratch with building an officer corps, where a few excellant articles as where found at the Adventures of Chester's site (blog by a Marine Officer) to give in detail how different the old Iraqi army officer corps where. Nothing like what we have built them into. They had no feel for verticle responsibility. They lorded over the conscripts. They would never share info, nor responsibility, everyone was in it for themselve, call it self preservation. In short SV, an army built on typical ME way of doing things and managed by the Russians, not much better quite frankly.
Their enlisted/conscripted where except for the highly trained security forces, Saddams death squads, ill trained, low in moral etc.. They had to serve. An almost rag tag army in some respects. And it showed when they would flee in most cases when our forces moved in to town. I realize our superior air and ground gave them few choices but never the less except for a few hardened units they ran, if they where able to, took off their uniforms and ran in their undershirts.
So with these few remembrances, as to what went down, we must at least give our military some slack in my opinion in not deciding to just enlist former army. All Iraqi who have joined up go through the basics,then advanced training courses, much like our guys go through. Officers and now the budding NCO's are even sent to the US in some cases for furhter training. They are the leaders that will run the show when we are gone. I have for a year plus on occasions used the term Esprit de corps, I know I do not have to tell you the significance of what it means. We have built from ground up a new Iraqi army, that the whole ME is looking on in wonderment whether they care to admit it or not. When those Iraqi soldiers fight in Ar Ramadda side by side with our guys and our guys don't have to think about who has their six, you can see where we had to start from scratch.
Lastly. As you are aware some early experiments where done by our Airborne boys in training some of those very early groups. Sadly when the rubber hit the road, it was found they just went home to mama in most cases.
So I hope I have at least brought out a few things that show why we could not have used the original Saddam folks from day one. They where still in many cases hoping Saddam was going to arise and with Izzat at his side retake the country .

[cookcounty]

"I just wonder if the Iraqi army had not been disbanded if things might have gone a bit easier.

1. The Iraqi army was not "disbanded." They deserted as they saw the US taking Baghdad. They all went home. We didn't have their addresses.

2, It was an army with an all-Sunni officer corps that regularly had their (Shi'a) troops beaten and tortured.

3. Along with #2, an army is much much more than a bunch of guys that have had target practice. There is a leadership and discipline structure that takes years to develop. The fastest way to get it done in the Iraqi situation was to start over.

[Straight Vermonter]

Read this

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A63423-2003Nov19?language=printer

[FreeReign]

a training camp? they are able to setup and operate a training camp in Fallujah?

Apparently not.

[cologne_blood]

The real problem has been the lack of security forces in western Iraq, we are just starting to get enough to make a difference, but there was far far too few from 2003-2005.

Right!
And thats Rummies fault

[HKMk23]

Knees?

Nah. Work inward from the extremities.

[StarCMC]

ROFLMBO!!!

[StarCMC]

Dead men don't tell tales. You have to get them alive so you can learn something from them.

[StarCMC]

BTTT

[milemark]

Will they be attending Yale or working at the ports?

[jmcenanly]

The idea of using a resort to hold prisoners is good but not original. Here is a better place for them.