Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
San Diego Union-Tribune
September 24, 2007 Smuggling routes hidden throughout
By Kim Gamel, Associated Press
ZURBATIYA, Iraq – The U.S. colonel had a simple question.
“Where are the signs you were supposed to get?” he asked the Iraqi border guard as they stood on a remote desert road believed to be a smuggling route from Iran.
The Iraqi officer pointed his flashlight at three signs that were intended to alert motorists to checkpoints. The signs were lying on a mound of sand.
“Why haven't you put them up?” Col. Mark Mueller asked during a late-night inspection. “All you have to do is pound the stakes into the ground.”
The Iraqi explained that he didn't have a shovel.
Such are the obstacles facing U.S. soldiers as they increase training of Iraqi border guards in this sparsely populated mountainous area southeast of Baghdad, believed to be a major route for weapons and fighters slipping into the country from Iran.
The former Soviet republic of Georgia sent 2,000 troops to help last month, but they haven't yet left a major base in the area. Mueller and his troops are also getting a late start, trying to secure the thinly patrolled border from scratch after it was largely ignored during more than four years of war.
The area has attracted new U.S. attention as the military steps up allegations that Tehran is aiding Shiite extremists who have killed hundreds of U.S. troops with bombs known as explosively formed penetrators believed to be brought in from Iran.
Mueller, 48, from Yorktown, Va., is the commander of the 3rd Infantry Division's border transition team at the heart of an intensified U.S. push to stop the smuggling.
The 900-mile border between the two countries is laced with ancient smuggling routes and tribes who spent decades bringing in weapons to fight Saddam Hussein's regime and are now believed to be making their living from Shiite militias.
Mueller acknowledges the virtual impossibility of securing such a border but said the U.S. forces can at least disrupt the flow of weapons into the capital. The centerpiece is a plan to build a base to house some 100 Georgian troops and as many as 66 Americans four miles from the Iranian border.
Commanders said the facilities – complete with Internet access, electricity and housing – will enable the troops to spend every day at the border. That's an improvement over making the dangerous, 50-mile commute in convoys from their regional hub near Kut, a violence-ridden city of 350,000.
Maj. Toby Logsdon, 34, of Litchfield, Ill., who is overseeing the $5 million project, said the aim is to have it operational by November.
But he conceded the deadline may be overly optimistic.
The problem has roots in the immediate aftermath of the 2003 invasion, when the U.S. military was focused on seizing Baghdad. The U.S. Marines received orders to send patrols to the area southeast of Baghdad – but not to the frontier itself, despite fears it was a tempting entry point for Islamic militants from Iran.
The Iranians took advantage by building a concrete wall separating the two countries at one of four border crossings. The wall blocked views of the trucks being searched and their cargoes loaded into Iraqi vehicles on their territory.
For the U.S. soldiers in the predominantly Shiite Wasit province, fighting the war means bolstering security at the Zurbatiya border crossing – a wire-enclosed maze through which as many as 1,200 Iranians a day can enter Iraq legally, most pilgrims headed to the Shiite holy cities of Karbala and Najaf. The number of Iraqis traveling to and from Iran is not limited, but they are screened and searched.
The Americans have made progress since arriving June 20, installing a computer system for their Iraqi counterparts to track wanted suspects, implementing a biometrics system to take iris scans and fingerprints, and building metal hangars and awnings to shield pilgrims as temperatures soar above 120 degrees.
They're providing X-ray machines for luggage, hiring porters to unload trucks and building a watchtower to allow better oversight of trucks being searched and loaded on the Iranian side.
U.S. teams spend shifts of two or three days patrolling the border entry point, but they have to set up cots outside to spend the night and risk running low on fuel and water. The new base will solve that.
“Right now it's very hard for us to do our job because we've got to drive an hour, 15 minutes and sometimes it's about 2½ hours up north, especially during the rainy season,” Mueller said during a recent interview at his office on the Forward Operating Base Delta, a former Iraqi air base that saw heavy use during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.
“We spend a lot of time drinking chai and exchanging pleasantries rather than working. So if we're there every day – after a while we're just part of the team,” he said.
September 24, 2007 Smuggling routes hidden throughout
By Kim Gamel, Associated Press
ZURBATIYA, Iraq – The U.S. colonel had a simple question.
“Where are the signs you were supposed to get?” he asked the Iraqi border guard as they stood on a remote desert road believed to be a smuggling route from Iran.
The Iraqi officer pointed his flashlight at three signs that were intended to alert motorists to checkpoints. The signs were lying on a mound of sand.
“Why haven't you put them up?” Col. Mark Mueller asked during a late-night inspection. “All you have to do is pound the stakes into the ground.”
The Iraqi explained that he didn't have a shovel.
Such are the obstacles facing U.S. soldiers as they increase training of Iraqi border guards in this sparsely populated mountainous area southeast of Baghdad, believed to be a major route for weapons and fighters slipping into the country from Iran.
The former Soviet republic of Georgia sent 2,000 troops to help last month, but they haven't yet left a major base in the area. Mueller and his troops are also getting a late start, trying to secure the thinly patrolled border from scratch after it was largely ignored during more than four years of war.
The area has attracted new U.S. attention as the military steps up allegations that Tehran is aiding Shiite extremists who have killed hundreds of U.S. troops with bombs known as explosively formed penetrators believed to be brought in from Iran.
Mueller, 48, from Yorktown, Va., is the commander of the 3rd Infantry Division's border transition team at the heart of an intensified U.S. push to stop the smuggling.
The 900-mile border between the two countries is laced with ancient smuggling routes and tribes who spent decades bringing in weapons to fight Saddam Hussein's regime and are now believed to be making their living from Shiite militias.
Mueller acknowledges the virtual impossibility of securing such a border but said the U.S. forces can at least disrupt the flow of weapons into the capital. The centerpiece is a plan to build a base to house some 100 Georgian troops and as many as 66 Americans four miles from the Iranian border.
Commanders said the facilities – complete with Internet access, electricity and housing – will enable the troops to spend every day at the border. That's an improvement over making the dangerous, 50-mile commute in convoys from their regional hub near Kut, a violence-ridden city of 350,000.
Maj. Toby Logsdon, 34, of Litchfield, Ill., who is overseeing the $5 million project, said the aim is to have it operational by November.
But he conceded the deadline may be overly optimistic.
The problem has roots in the immediate aftermath of the 2003 invasion, when the U.S. military was focused on seizing Baghdad. The U.S. Marines received orders to send patrols to the area southeast of Baghdad – but not to the frontier itself, despite fears it was a tempting entry point for Islamic militants from Iran.
The Iranians took advantage by building a concrete wall separating the two countries at one of four border crossings. The wall blocked views of the trucks being searched and their cargoes loaded into Iraqi vehicles on their territory.
For the U.S. soldiers in the predominantly Shiite Wasit province, fighting the war means bolstering security at the Zurbatiya border crossing – a wire-enclosed maze through which as many as 1,200 Iranians a day can enter Iraq legally, most pilgrims headed to the Shiite holy cities of Karbala and Najaf. The number of Iraqis traveling to and from Iran is not limited, but they are screened and searched.
The Americans have made progress since arriving June 20, installing a computer system for their Iraqi counterparts to track wanted suspects, implementing a biometrics system to take iris scans and fingerprints, and building metal hangars and awnings to shield pilgrims as temperatures soar above 120 degrees.
They're providing X-ray machines for luggage, hiring porters to unload trucks and building a watchtower to allow better oversight of trucks being searched and loaded on the Iranian side.
U.S. teams spend shifts of two or three days patrolling the border entry point, but they have to set up cots outside to spend the night and risk running low on fuel and water. The new base will solve that.
“Right now it's very hard for us to do our job because we've got to drive an hour, 15 minutes and sometimes it's about 2½ hours up north, especially during the rainy season,” Mueller said during a recent interview at his office on the Forward Operating Base Delta, a former Iraqi air base that saw heavy use during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.
“We spend a lot of time drinking chai and exchanging pleasantries rather than working. So if we're there every day – after a while we're just part of the team,” he said.