Israel Ex-commandos Training Kurds in North Iraq

[donsu]

http://www.islamonline.org/English/News/2005-12/01/article05.shtml


Dozens of former Israeli commandos have been training Kurdish security forces in northern Iraq, supplying them with equipment worth millions of dollars, Yedioth Aharonot newspaper reported Thursday, December1 .

Over the past 18 months, these ex-commandos, who were sent to Iraq by several Israeli corporations, have been training special security units as part of a program organized by the Kurdish authorities, said Israel's top-selling daily.

Operating from a secret desert stronghold dubbed Code Z, the ex-Israeli soldiers, all with elite-unit experience, have been training the Kurds in weapons, self-defense and anti-terror techniques.

-snip-

The New Yorker veteran investigative reporter Seymour Hersh said Israeli intelligence and military operatives were quietly at work in northern Iraq, providing training for Kurdish commando units and running covert operations inside Kurdish areas of Iran and Syria.
-snip-
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and there is this interesting bit of news:

"According to the Israeli daily, Motorola Israel and Magalcom Communications and Computers won contracts with the Kurdish government to the tune of hundreds of millions of US dollars."


what bug is it that sucks the life out of it's victum and leaves a husk? that's all america is nowadays, a husk.

[still_one]

1. I am very disappointed in Israel if they are doing this

The Turks are going to be very unhappy about this, and they are friendly toward Israel

[chicagiana]

2. I'm ambivelent ...

This will rile the Turks, but Kurds are the ONLY reliable US ally in Iraq. I support arming them to the teeth.

The Turks themselves have been consistently tipping more into Islamic Fundamentalism. Sometime in the future, we may really value a strong alliance with the Kurds if the Fundamentalists ever DO take over Turkey and switch to dealing with Iran.

In that eventuality, we will likely be funding the Kurds in insurgent conflicts in southern Turkey, Western Iraq, and Eastern Syria.

Dammit, those people deserve their own country.

[Ian David]

3. Agreed. Free Kurdistan! n/t

[still_one]

5. Boy do I disagree with you

Turkey IS A SECULAR COUNTRY, unlike what we will have made Iraq before we leave

My point was that WE SHOULD NOT BE INVOLVED IN SO-CALLED NATION BUILDING, unless of course you want to send your children

to fight this hundred years war

Israel should be concerned with its own issues, JUST AS THE U.S. SHOULD. Iraq WAS NOT INVOLVED IN 9/11, and hussein had NO alliance with al queada

what we have effectively done is cause a shift in some moderate Muslims toward the radicals, and destablized the middle east

We are in the middle of a civil war that will ONLY kill more Americans and more Iraqiis, and the sooner we are out the better

As far as "those people deserve their own country", that my friend IS NONE OF OUR BUSINESS, unless of course you are willing to give the U.S. back to the native AMERICANS

[Wordie]

6. Will this strengthen those fundamentalist elements in Turkey?

I understand your sentiments, but the net effect of all of this, imho, will be to bring horrible bloodshed to an even larger region.

Why is it so important that the Kurds have their own country, but not the Palestinians? It would seem to me if the Israelis are so darned interested in supporting efforts for national independence, they should start in their own backyard (which is arguably, really Palestinian territory).

[still_one]

8. Turkey is ONE OF THE MOST SECULAR countries

in the area, and your point about strengthening the fundamentalist elements in Turkey is not only right on, but it will extend throughout the whole region, mostly because of our invasion of Iraq

Your second point is also well considered, as well as we should have minded our own business and NOT invaded Iraq, when 9/11 and al queada had nothing to do with Iraq

[RaleighNCDUer]

9. The Kurds are the Montagnards of the middle-east.

And they will wind up being treated just as the Montagnards were in SE Asia -- even further marginalized, pariahs in their home nations, and abandoned by their US handlers.

[theoldman]

4. There is no doubt in my mind as to what the Kurds want.

They want a country of their own and this is what the Turks fear. The Israelis are smart enough to know that the Kurds are the most democratic people in that area.

[still_one]

7. It is more complicated then that

the area they occupy also contains a lot of oil

Incidently, the Turks controlled the whole area for 400 plus years until western colonialism after WWI

As far as the Kruds being the most "democratic" in the area you are misinformed. Mark my words, we will be the cause of a civil war, and who knows what else in that region. The U.S. is encouraging this because the Turkish parliment did NOT give the U.S. the launching platform from their country to invade Iraq, the worst mistake the U.S. has ever made.

Obviously we have learned NOTHING FROM HISTORY, and we will be burned BIG TIME by this, along with our children

[Coastie for Truth]

10. Israelis are good teachers

The fire department in the next county north of us has Israelis teaching their "Urban Search and Rescue Teams."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=5693878&mesg_id=5706562> - and follow the links.

[barb162]

11. And I saw a piece today on security where USA security

teams are training in Israel