Posted on 05/23/2007 5:08:34 AM PDT by nuconvert
Report: 70 Percent of Insurgents in Iraq Come From Gulf States Via Syria
May 23, 2007
KUWAIT CITY — Seventy percent of insurgents fighting in Iraq come from Gulf countries via Syria where they are provided with forged passports, an Iraqi intelligence officer alleged in a published report Wednesday.
"They, according to their own confessions, gather in mosques in the said (Gulf) states to travel to Syria using their passports, taking with them phone numbers of individuals waiting for them there," Brig. Gen. Rashid Fleih, the assistant undersecretary for intelligence of Iraq's Interior Ministry, told Kuwait's Al-Qabas daily in an interview.
Fleih did not provide more specific details about the alleged insurgents or which countries they come from. But he said once in Syria, the alleged insurgents are transported to the al-Qaim border area. Individuals provide the men them with new passports after destroying the old ones, Fleih alleged in an interview from Baghdad.
American and Iraqi officials claim Syria does not do enough to prohibit people of different nationalities from crossing its 380-mile border with Iraq to join the ranks of Al Qaeda and other insurgent or terrorist groups there. Damascus denies the allegations and says it is doing all it can to stop them.
The Iraqi intelligence officer did not say where the other 30 percent of insurgents come from. Iraq's other neighbor Iran, is suspected of aiding Iraqi Shiite fighters with training, money and weapons. Tehran denies the accusations.
Once in Iraq, the insurgents are provided with forged Iraqi documentation and "lots of money which they use to buy cars and booby trap them," Fleih told the newspaper.
He also accused Baathist followers of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein of offering the foreign insurgents information about targets.
"In brief, there is clear intelligence cooperation between them,"
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Iraq is going to have to do two things:
First is to step up the talking points about Arabs from other countries coming there to make trouble.
The second is to show in no uncertain terms how they handle trouble makers.
I assume the first point you make is what happened in their meeting a couple weeks ago with the other arab states.
They need to follow up as you suggest.
save
Unfortunately, The Bush administration has no interest in confronting Iran or Syria militarily.
ping for later, thanks for the post.
Pelosi probably saw them when she was in that Damascus market...
We knew this back in 2003 from the captured cellphones & GPS devices. al Doury’s been running the show from Syria since Baghdad fell.
Not possible. Syria is now an ally thanks to our new Secretary of State, Ms. Pelosi. This guy is lying. EXTREME Sarc
I don't think that is a fair statement.
He doesn't however, have public support or Congresses support for doing so.
Nor do our allies support doing so.
However, since the AP is actually reporting this, maybe the media is starting to end (or loosen up on) their relentless attack on anything they think they can bash Bush with, and start giving a more accurate picture of what is happening in Iraq.
If the media starts showing the truth, and the public starts directing it's displeasure over the mess in Iraq more at Syria and Iran, Bush might have enough backing that Syria at least might start doing more to close it's borders to insurgents. Syria has been susceptible to such pressure in the past, more so than Iran.
If we can put our administration back in a position where they have the backing to even order limited strikes on Syria and Iran, it would likely have a large effect on Iraq.
Right now Syria and Iran are operating with very little fear of reprisal for their actions.
Seems like we should deploy some troops to close the borders with Iran and Syria. If they can’t get into Iraq, they can’t cause trouble.
The Iraqis need to be the one yelling about how people from other countries are coming there to kill their citizens.
And, the Iraqis are the ones who need to take care of the trouble makers in a style well known in the ME.
ping
Roach motel.
Iranian is developing a nuclear device and trying to undermine our currency. Are we going to wait until the ‘magic mushroom’ appears before we act??
Since these insurgents are basically “undocumented immigrants” maybe the Iraqi parliment can follow in the footsteps of our senate, and provide them with an “Immigration Reform Bill.”
If it is done like ours, not only would the insurgents be able to stay in Iraq legally, they could then apply for citizenship after paying a fine and going back to wherever they came from to reapply for legal entry into Iraq, that way it would legitimately become a civil war.
Non-Iraqi Arabs have non-Iraqi Arabic accents. That's how they've been identified in the past.
Like a New Yorker in Nashville.
(1) There is no civil war in Iraq and there never has been.
(2) The Gulf States are using Iraq as a way of burning off their homegrown radicals.
“And, the Iraqis are the ones who need to take care of the trouble makers in a style well known in the ME.”
What, lionize them?
Although a full scale civil war is not currently underway, there’s no way to verify where this 70% number derives from.
The once 20% of Sunnis in Iraq was easily the largest group of insurgent forces and even with the number perhaps halved, there is still not enough foreigners to exceed the number of Baathists and crimminals in Iraq one would suspect.
This Iraqi person’s 70% is for poliitical purposes deemed for an international audience. And we are that audience.
The only person who has the credibility to state this publicly would be Gen. Petraeus and most likely he will not do so.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.