Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Philadelphia Inquirer
September 30, 2008
By Vanessa Gera, Associated Press
BAGDHAD -- Iraq has bought 12 new U.S.-built reconnaissance planes to monitor militants and the borders, the Defense Ministry said yesterday, a small step in the country's effort to reassert itself in U.S.-controlled airspace.
A ministry spokesman, Maj. Gen. Mohammed al-Askari, said six King Air planes had been delivered and the other six were expected soon.
He said they would be used to track "terrorists' movements inside or outside cities, plus detect any infiltration across Iraq's borders."
The King Airs are small aircraft equipped with advanced aerial video technology enabling them to cover wide areas and send live feeds to ground control centers, the Defense Ministry says.
The twin-turboprop aircraft are produced by Hawker Beechcraft Corp., based in Wichita, Kan.
Iraq once had a formidable air force, but it has been largely incapacitated since the 1991 Gulf War, which followed Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait.
Defense Minister Abdul-Qadir al-Obeidi said Sunday that "these planes have been bought with Iraqi money," but he did not disclose the price. The planes already have been flown over Baghdad by trained Iraqi pilots, according to the statement.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government hopes to regain control of the country's skies as it eventually takes over authority from the Americans.
In an interview yesterday, Maliki said that Iraq still needed American troops and that despite opposition from all around, his government was determined to reach a new security accord with the United States, to replace a U.N. mandate that runs out Dec. 31.
"We regard negotiating and reaching such an agreement as a national endeavor, a national mission, a historic one," he said.
Supporters of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr oppose the accord, arguing U.S. forces should leave Iraq as soon as possible. Neighboring Iran also has been speaking out vociferously against a long-term U.S. presence in Iraq.
"Pressures are coming from east and west and north and south," Maliki said, "but we are determined to rise above all these difficulties and pressures because we want this agreement to be passed, and we will go ahead despite all that is being said."
Maliki also noted with gratitude the high cost paid by American taxpayers, the U.S. military, and the forces of other coalition members to secure Iraq's freedom.
"We appreciate and we respect their sacrifices," he said of the U.S. troops killed, adding that their deaths would act as a bridge between the two countries.
Maliki said a compromise was near on the thorny issue of legal jurisdiction over U.S. forces. He said it would involve an offer of limited immunity for American forces.
"We have proposed that the legal jurisdiction would be . . . with the Americans . . . when the troops are performing military operations," he explained. "When they are not performing a military operation, they are outside their camps, the legal jurisdiction would be in the hands of the Iraqi judiciary."
He added: "I think we are getting near to a compromise on this issue. I think the atmosphere is positive, and once we manage to find a solution for this issue, other issues will be easy to deal with."
September 30, 2008
By Vanessa Gera, Associated Press
BAGDHAD -- Iraq has bought 12 new U.S.-built reconnaissance planes to monitor militants and the borders, the Defense Ministry said yesterday, a small step in the country's effort to reassert itself in U.S.-controlled airspace.
A ministry spokesman, Maj. Gen. Mohammed al-Askari, said six King Air planes had been delivered and the other six were expected soon.
He said they would be used to track "terrorists' movements inside or outside cities, plus detect any infiltration across Iraq's borders."
The King Airs are small aircraft equipped with advanced aerial video technology enabling them to cover wide areas and send live feeds to ground control centers, the Defense Ministry says.
The twin-turboprop aircraft are produced by Hawker Beechcraft Corp., based in Wichita, Kan.
Iraq once had a formidable air force, but it has been largely incapacitated since the 1991 Gulf War, which followed Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait.
Defense Minister Abdul-Qadir al-Obeidi said Sunday that "these planes have been bought with Iraqi money," but he did not disclose the price. The planes already have been flown over Baghdad by trained Iraqi pilots, according to the statement.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government hopes to regain control of the country's skies as it eventually takes over authority from the Americans.
In an interview yesterday, Maliki said that Iraq still needed American troops and that despite opposition from all around, his government was determined to reach a new security accord with the United States, to replace a U.N. mandate that runs out Dec. 31.
"We regard negotiating and reaching such an agreement as a national endeavor, a national mission, a historic one," he said.
Supporters of anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr oppose the accord, arguing U.S. forces should leave Iraq as soon as possible. Neighboring Iran also has been speaking out vociferously against a long-term U.S. presence in Iraq.
"Pressures are coming from east and west and north and south," Maliki said, "but we are determined to rise above all these difficulties and pressures because we want this agreement to be passed, and we will go ahead despite all that is being said."
Maliki also noted with gratitude the high cost paid by American taxpayers, the U.S. military, and the forces of other coalition members to secure Iraq's freedom.
"We appreciate and we respect their sacrifices," he said of the U.S. troops killed, adding that their deaths would act as a bridge between the two countries.
Maliki said a compromise was near on the thorny issue of legal jurisdiction over U.S. forces. He said it would involve an offer of limited immunity for American forces.
"We have proposed that the legal jurisdiction would be . . . with the Americans . . . when the troops are performing military operations," he explained. "When they are not performing a military operation, they are outside their camps, the legal jurisdiction would be in the hands of the Iraqi judiciary."
He added: "I think we are getting near to a compromise on this issue. I think the atmosphere is positive, and once we manage to find a solution for this issue, other issues will be easy to deal with."