> [It's the sound of shit hitting a fan.]
>
This article appeared in our local paper today. The police are taking US
money and then giving it to the insurgents. The author
is a Canadian military analyst - the first 2 parts of this series
describe his being taken hostage in Tal Afar.
Owen http://www.herald.ns.ca/stories/2004/09/20/fOpinion197.raw.html -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Harrowing days in Iraq
Scott Taylor <mailto:staylor at herald.ca> ON TARGET
FROM SEPT. 7 to 11, I spent four harrowing days as a hostage of the Ansar al-Islam terrorist group in northern Iraq. Originally captured in the embattled enclave of Tal Afar, I spent a lot of my captivity being transported between various safe houses, farms and hideouts before eventually being released beside a highway in the city of Mosul.
Although I spent a lot of that time blindfolded and bound, I was still able to get a first-hand view of the Iraqi resistance and how it operates.
According to the Turkish intelligence official who debriefed me after my release, the Ansar al-Islam organization has never before freed a westerner, so I realize that such insight is extremely rare. The most startling observation that I made was that members of the mostly American-funded, newly constituted Iraqi Police Service are working openly alongside the resistance.
It was a police officer at the Tal Afar checkpoint who first instructed me to climb into a car full of masked gunmen. I had falsely presumed that if a dozen uniformed Iraqi police were present, then those wearing the hood must be some sort of special-force unit allied with the American and government forces. Only when it was too late did I realize that the police had handed me over to the Ansar al-Islam - the very same mujahedeen that the Americans are paying the Iraqi police to eliminate.
I saw several other similar examples of police collusion over the next few days. As we drove through checkpoints, the mujahedeen in our six-car convoy made no attempt to hide their Kalashnikovs and rocket-propelled grenades from view. The other prisoners and I were in the back seats, our bonds clearly visible, but the police on duty made no effort whatsoever to intervene. In fact these "cops" displayed broad smiles as they shouted encouragement to the resistance fighters and offered them cigarettes.
"They support the Emir (resistance leader) in Mosul," I was told by one of my captors. "Many of the police here donate part of their U.S. salaries to our cause. So, indirectly, America is paying to fund the Iraqi resistance."
It was also readily apparent that it is not only the police who support those who have taken up arms against the "occupiers." On the road out of Tal Afar, we encountered small groups of young boys and men who gathered to cheer the mujahedeen. The fighters shook hands with the well-wishers and took from them gifts of food, cigarettes and water.
Another thing I found amazing was the sheer enormity and complexity of the resistance network. The Tal Afar fighters were an Islamic fundamentalist group composed mostly of Iraqi Turkmen. However, during the course of my captivity, these mujahedeen received support and assistance from ethnic Kurdish groups and former Baath party members. In the end, we were handed over to members of an Arab cell who referred to themselves as "the pupils," and it was these fundamentalist extremists who tortured and threatened me with beheading.
From what I could determine, the various factions in Iraq - regardless of ethnicity or religious basis - are all working together toward the common goal of battling the American occupation. Munitions and hostages seem to be easily transferred among the different groups, along with the provision of safe houses.
From the setup at the house where I was tortured, the facility must have been frequently used for this purpose as all the necessary equipment - batons, rods, ropes, blindfolds, etc. - were carefully stored in the small anteroom that served as the torture chamber. And I noticed that the gear was carefully stored after its use on me.
The building itself was a large unoccupied house in a wealthy district of Mosul's northern suburbs. The crew of pupils that entered to prepare the facility for our interrogations seemed to know exactly what was expected of them. They moved quickly through the house, covering the windows with blankets.
Similarly, the last home where I was taken before my release was also well stocked with all the necessary equipment to house and guard a prisoner: handcuffs, chains, shackles, blindfolds, duct tape and various handguns - not exactly your average household accessories.
Travelling with the resistance, I also had the opportunity to see just how limited the Americans are in terms of being able to contain the widening insurgency. On two separate occasions, our convoy and safe houses were approached by American helicopter gunships and armoured vehicles. The mujahedeen had displayed no alarm under these circumstances and, in both instances, the American forces turned away without investigating the convoy's presence.
"We know exactly where and when they will patrol," said one of the mujahedeen. "They see only what we want them to see."
The stockpiles of ammunition and weaponry stored in the bunker in Tal Afar indicated to me that before this latest offensive, the resistance conducted a long-term buildup and that they are fully capable of mounting a protracted struggle against the Americans. As for the heretofore-quiet city of Mosul, this appears to be a ticking time bomb set to explode against an already over-stretched American garrison.
It looked to me as though the Americans have yet to realize they are sitting on top of a bustling anthill of Iraqi resistance. More than ever, I'm convinced now that the U.S. army cannot possibly win this peace.
And having seen things from the inside, I would say that things will only get worse, much worse, for the Americans in Iraq in the months leading up to the proposed January 2005 elections.
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