Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
October 26, 2007 By James Glanz and Andrew Kramer
BAGHDAD, Oct. 25 — Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker said Thursday that Iraq should disrupt supply lines and develop a “lookout list” of senior leaders for the Kurdish guerrillas who use the northern Iraqi mountains as a safe haven for attacks inside Turkey.
But Mr. Crocker, the American ambassador here, stopped short of supporting Turkish demands that Iraq take military action against the guerrilla group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known as the P.K.K., or extradite its leaders to Turkey. The Turkish government has repeatedly threatened to make incursions into Iraq to strike at the fighters.
Any Iraqi military expedition, Mr. Crocker said, would run into the geographic fact that the northern mountains, called the Qandeel range, are remote and inaccessible. “I don’t think it’s realistic to expect that the Iraqis are going to march up that mountain and take on the P.K.K. and arrest their leaders,” Mr. Crocker said. “This is in the hard-to-do category.”
It was unclear whether the new American demands would be enough to keep Turkey from crossing the border.
The Iraqi government was also working furiously to avert an incursion, as a delegation of senior Iraqi officials traveled to Ankara for talks on Friday. Iraq’s foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, on Thursday urged Turkish authorities to accept steps that sounded similar to the ones being demanded by Mr. Crocker.
Mr. Zebari said in a telephone interview that the delegation to Ankara would offer “practical steps and measures to be taken by the Iraqi government to pacify, isolate and disrupt P.K.K. activities.”
The delegation would not be authorized to discuss approving any Turkish military actions inside Iraq, said Mr. Zebari, who is himself a powerful Iraqi Kurdish politician. The Iraqi officials, he said, would offer to stop arms supplies and logistical assistance to the rebels.
Mr. Zebari conceded that the offer fell short of Turkish demands, but said that it represented the best possible proposal from the Iraqi side.
Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, asked the United States on Thursday to take action along with Turkey in the struggle against the guerrillas, saying that the United States had taken action against Iraq with less immediate provocation.
“One would question why America has come to Iraq from thousands of miles away,” he said at a news conference during an official visit to Romania. “We have a disturbance. What kind of disturbance did the United States have with Iraq? Right now, the United States, as our strategic ally, is in a position to act along with us. We acted along with them in Afghanistan.”
With public anger rising after months of attacks in Turkey by the Kurdish rebels, the Turkish Parliament approved a measure earlier this month to allow troops to cross the border to fight them. But the United States has intensified diplomatic efforts to ward off an incursion that could destabilize one of the few relatively peaceful regions of Iraq.
Mr. Erdogan insisted that the decision was up to Turkey, not the United States. “They can suggest that a military operation not be conducted,” he said, “but we make the decision whether we need to do it or not.”
Mr. Crocker, meeting with Western reporters at the American Embassy in Baghdad, also made extensive remarks on Iran and, for the first time, on the Sept. 16 shooting on Nisour Square in Baghdad involving Blackwater USA, a private security firm that protects American diplomats. According to the Iraqi government, 17 Iraqis were killed in that incident and 24 were wounded.
Just before the Nisour Square shooting, Mr. Crocker had strongly defended the use of security contractors like Blackwater in testimony to Congress. Asked Thursday if he now thought better of those comments, Mr. Crocker at first said: “These guys guard my back. I have to say they do it extremely well.
“That said, the incident in September was a horrific one,” Mr. Crocker continued. He expressed serious concern over what happened but did not address whether the shooting was justified. As the chief official at the Embassy, Mr. Crocker said, “I’m responsible,” but he said that he would wait until an F.B.I. investigation is finished to draw conclusions.
Mr. Crocker reiterated assertions by the United States that Iran was providing support to armed groups in Iraq, and raised a new concern that elements of the Mahdi Army, which is nominally under the control of the radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, have moved from militant activities to financially profitable activities such as gas stations and basic services in neighborhoods.
That shift suggests, Mr. Crocker said, a “Hezbollahzation” of parts of Iraq: an emphasis not just on military force but also on social networks, the hallmark of Iranian-supported Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Finally, he made clear that that there was strong American support for at least some of the demands being made on the Iraqi government by Turkey. “We have been registering our support, our sympathy for their losses and their outrage, which we share,” he said.
Sebnem Arsu contributed reporting from Ankara, Turkey.
October 26, 2007 By James Glanz and Andrew Kramer
BAGHDAD, Oct. 25 — Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker said Thursday that Iraq should disrupt supply lines and develop a “lookout list” of senior leaders for the Kurdish guerrillas who use the northern Iraqi mountains as a safe haven for attacks inside Turkey.
But Mr. Crocker, the American ambassador here, stopped short of supporting Turkish demands that Iraq take military action against the guerrilla group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known as the P.K.K., or extradite its leaders to Turkey. The Turkish government has repeatedly threatened to make incursions into Iraq to strike at the fighters.
Any Iraqi military expedition, Mr. Crocker said, would run into the geographic fact that the northern mountains, called the Qandeel range, are remote and inaccessible. “I don’t think it’s realistic to expect that the Iraqis are going to march up that mountain and take on the P.K.K. and arrest their leaders,” Mr. Crocker said. “This is in the hard-to-do category.”
It was unclear whether the new American demands would be enough to keep Turkey from crossing the border.
The Iraqi government was also working furiously to avert an incursion, as a delegation of senior Iraqi officials traveled to Ankara for talks on Friday. Iraq’s foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, on Thursday urged Turkish authorities to accept steps that sounded similar to the ones being demanded by Mr. Crocker.
Mr. Zebari said in a telephone interview that the delegation to Ankara would offer “practical steps and measures to be taken by the Iraqi government to pacify, isolate and disrupt P.K.K. activities.”
The delegation would not be authorized to discuss approving any Turkish military actions inside Iraq, said Mr. Zebari, who is himself a powerful Iraqi Kurdish politician. The Iraqi officials, he said, would offer to stop arms supplies and logistical assistance to the rebels.
Mr. Zebari conceded that the offer fell short of Turkish demands, but said that it represented the best possible proposal from the Iraqi side.
Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, asked the United States on Thursday to take action along with Turkey in the struggle against the guerrillas, saying that the United States had taken action against Iraq with less immediate provocation.
“One would question why America has come to Iraq from thousands of miles away,” he said at a news conference during an official visit to Romania. “We have a disturbance. What kind of disturbance did the United States have with Iraq? Right now, the United States, as our strategic ally, is in a position to act along with us. We acted along with them in Afghanistan.”
With public anger rising after months of attacks in Turkey by the Kurdish rebels, the Turkish Parliament approved a measure earlier this month to allow troops to cross the border to fight them. But the United States has intensified diplomatic efforts to ward off an incursion that could destabilize one of the few relatively peaceful regions of Iraq.
Mr. Erdogan insisted that the decision was up to Turkey, not the United States. “They can suggest that a military operation not be conducted,” he said, “but we make the decision whether we need to do it or not.”
Mr. Crocker, meeting with Western reporters at the American Embassy in Baghdad, also made extensive remarks on Iran and, for the first time, on the Sept. 16 shooting on Nisour Square in Baghdad involving Blackwater USA, a private security firm that protects American diplomats. According to the Iraqi government, 17 Iraqis were killed in that incident and 24 were wounded.
Just before the Nisour Square shooting, Mr. Crocker had strongly defended the use of security contractors like Blackwater in testimony to Congress. Asked Thursday if he now thought better of those comments, Mr. Crocker at first said: “These guys guard my back. I have to say they do it extremely well.
“That said, the incident in September was a horrific one,” Mr. Crocker continued. He expressed serious concern over what happened but did not address whether the shooting was justified. As the chief official at the Embassy, Mr. Crocker said, “I’m responsible,” but he said that he would wait until an F.B.I. investigation is finished to draw conclusions.
Mr. Crocker reiterated assertions by the United States that Iran was providing support to armed groups in Iraq, and raised a new concern that elements of the Mahdi Army, which is nominally under the control of the radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, have moved from militant activities to financially profitable activities such as gas stations and basic services in neighborhoods.
That shift suggests, Mr. Crocker said, a “Hezbollahzation” of parts of Iraq: an emphasis not just on military force but also on social networks, the hallmark of Iranian-supported Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Finally, he made clear that that there was strong American support for at least some of the demands being made on the Iraqi government by Turkey. “We have been registering our support, our sympathy for their losses and their outrage, which we share,” he said.
Sebnem Arsu contributed reporting from Ankara, Turkey.