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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Lack of proper equipment hinders Iraqi border patrols |
| 2004-09-29 |
| With an expansive gesture towards his crumbling border checkpoint, Ra'ad Samarrai expounds upon the digital, paperless future he says lies in store for Iraqi customs control. "Next month, there will be no paper here only computers," he proclaimed during a visit by U.S. marines to his crumbling concrete offices on the Iraqi-Syrian border. As head of the al-Waleed customs post on the Iraq-Syrian border, a frontier identified as a major illegal entry point for foreign insurgents joining the anti-U.S. struggle in Iraq, his enthusiasm goes down well with the visiting troops. It does not yet appear to have infected his colleagues, a collection of middle-aged men behind creaking wooden desks who show few signs of life apart from flicking away a passing fly or reaching for another cigarette. With few light bulbs let alone computers in offices falling apart after more than a decade of sanctions against Saddam Hussein's Iraq, Samarrai's goal of securing his country's borders with technology is at best a fanciful ambition. So far, the only computer visible in the checkpoint is used to identify stolen cars. "We don't have any connection to Baghdad," said Ibtissem Hussein, the new machine's operator, tucked away in her booth next to the customs hall. "Somebody has to come along with a new disc once a week so we can update our data." After being shot at three times in the last month alone, Samarrai admits he is facing an uphill struggle in a border outpost where the smuggling of anything from people to petrol has been a way of life for centuries. "Do people round here want to stop the foreign fighters? If I'm honest, no," he said. No one knows the number of potentially al Qaeda-linked foreign insurgents now in Iraq. Whatever their total, their impact is high. Securing Iraq's borders through the wastes of desert once trodden by the caravans of the ancient Silk Route is no easy task. In many cases the frontier, which runs for 800 km (500 miles) in the western province of al Anbar alone, is little more than a waist-high sand embankment frequently broached by vehicle smugglers. Besides patrols by U.S. marines, equipped with heavy machine guns, night vision goggles, helicopters and armoured vehicles, the task since the handover of sovereignty in June 2004 is falling increasingly on Iraq's fledgling border security forces. In al-Anbar, there are plans for 32 castellated border forts in time for Iraq's planned democratic elections in January, but already, there are signs of trouble. Of eight forts already completed, two have been attacked and destroyed. Morale among the border police, most of them teenage recruits who have been pushed through a crash course by the U.S. marines, is low. Receiving about 240,000 Iraqi dinars a month in pay, they complain they are worse off than their urban counterparts. Holed up in a makeshift, dusty training camp, they are also woefully short of basic equipment such as boots, let alone machine guns and night vision goggles. "Each time we go out on patrol, we are only given five rounds of ammunition," one recruit complained to the U.S. marine delegation. "I have to pay for the fuel myself." The Americans, meanwhile, appear to have only one concern. "So, are you guys keeping out the foreign fighters?" the visiting marine commander asked the recruits the moment he arrived. The U.S. military admits the situation is far from perfect, but says tightening up Iraq's borders, to be able to monitor who and what is coming in and out, is vital to improving overall security and preventing the insurgency intensifying. "Right now it's real thin," said one senior military official. "If they get through here, they're in." With the freedom of movement Iraqis now enjoy, the need for reform is more pressing than ever. Al Waleed, one of the smaller checkpoints on the Syrian border, sees as many as 2,000 vehicles and 20,000 people crossing each week -- flows unimaginable in the time of Saddam, when only merchants were allowed travel permits and even then had to go through a bureaucratic rigmarole to leave the country. Foreigners are occasionally picked up -- five Afghans were intercepted at Al Waleed last month, according to police major Maher Dib -- but a nationwide recruitment drive to boost the total number of 16,000 border officials to 24,000 is hitting red tape and cash shortfalls, he said. At al-Waleed, border officials also complain about a lack of cooperation from Syrians, who "come and see us only when they want a cigarette," said Dib. All visitors to Iraq are now meant to obtain visas in advance, to try to make it harder for foreign militants to enter the country. In reality, until border posts such as al-Waleed are properly wired up with passport scanners and online databases, there is little to stop the likes of Zarqawi getting in on a tourist visa. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #8 good points - I'm only conveying my understanding from reports.... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-09-29 11:33:27 AM |
| #7 FG: ZF - sounds like there's a substantial number of non-Iraqi fighters....30-40% ? Saddam's security apparatus numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Where the heck are they? I can't believe they all decided to actually work for a living. Many of the American commanders have indicated that most of the guerrilla dead are Iraqi fighters. If most of them were foreigners, why bother taking their dead with them? It's not like they would have any intelligence value for the coalition, given its inability to freely question people in Muslim countries. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-09-29 11:27:48 AM |
| #6 More to the point, these border guards are pretty much just sentries. They're not expected to do any fighting. Giving these guys sophisticated equipment would be like casting pearls before swine, right before they sell it off to the mujahideen. The fact that these guys are getting little ammunition and equipment may also be an indicator that our GI's don't really trust them, but are too diplomatic to say so out loud. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-09-29 11:25:00 AM |
| #5 ZF - sounds like there's a substantial number of non-Iraqi fighters....30-40% ? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-09-29 11:23:58 AM |
| #4 If Iraq's borders are so porous, why are most of the fighters either fresh Iraqi Shiite recruits for Sadr or Saddam's former security men trying to regain their former perks? The reality is that this is (mainly) a home-grown insurgency. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-09-29 11:20:58 AM |
| #3 All visitors to Iraq are now meant to obtain visas in advance, to try to make it harder for foreign militants to enter the country. Oh yeah, that'll put a wrench into their plans. "Walid! We can't get a visa, so how in the hell are we going to get into Iraq to make jihad now?" |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2004-09-29 10:26:23 AM |
| #2 Rooters By Ed Cropley. Glad you were there Ed. Or were you? Weren't you really safe at a bar in the green zone in Bagdad many many miles away. Isn't this all a pack of lies. How would we know either way? No picture of you with the folks you were interviewing. Just "quagmire" BS and racist, defeatist blather. What I said about you Mr Cropley is just as apt to be true since you have no pictures or other evidence to prove you were even there. Please forgive me for not trusting your liberal commie ass or reporting. OK. Maybe some Marine will do us a favor and have a firearms "accident" right behind your ear. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2004-09-29 2:59:01 AM |
| #1 I tried unsucessfully to find the link from a couple of months ago where the Coalition was rebuilding 20 or so border stations from scratch - I think they were on the Syrian border. This Rooters story looks should be weighed against the information available at this link. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-09-29 2:22:19 AM |