HUMINT: Kill the Messenger

http://humintel.blogspot.com/ ^ | 30 october 2006 | humint - voi

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HUMINT: Interpreters in Iraq have reason to be terrified. They’re the messengers of all news, good or bad. But should they be more worried for their lives than an average Coalition foot soldier? I tend to think so. My thinking on this developed because I’ve repeatedly been asked why I think terrorists in Iraq, AKA insurgents, are targeting Iraqis more so than American and other Coalition forces. I think they are murdering Iraqi civilians in cold blood for two primary reasons.

HUMINT: FIRST – the terrorists are trying to sever the bonds that form naturally between Iraqis and Americas through their daily interactions. These kinds of bonds are essential in Iraq. The kind of war American soldiers are fighting there can only be won when a healthy, symbiotic relationship forms between the people of Iraq and members of the armed forces serving there. To complete the mission in Iraq, both the liberated and the liberator must perceive themselves as connected to each other. The insurgents are desperate to disrupt those kinds of relationships. Without those relationships the terrorists will undoubtedly dominate the future… and what an ugly future it will be,

HUMINT: SECOND – Iraqis are softer targets. Coalition forces are better equipped and better trained than the insurgency. Meeting the Coalition head-on, outside of a planned hit and run ambush, is a guaranteed ass beating for terrorists. By my estimation, the vast majority of terrorists dumb enough to slug it out toe to toe with Coalition forces are already dead. Those that have managed to escape the hail of superior fire power – bullets, air strikes… – changed their tactics. Now they murder targets of opportunity, slowly bleeding the New Iraq to death. That said, the juiciest of the soft targets are the Coalition’s interpreters. Without them, the process by which new relationships form is dramatically retarded.

SOURCE

Voices of Iraq: Seventeen Iraqi interpreters kidnapped and killed in Basra - By Mohannad al-Saadi

Basra, Oct 29, (VOI) – Seventeen Iraqi interpreters working for the British forces in the southern Iraqi city of Basra were kidnapped and killed on Sunday as they were leaving a British base in western Basra, a security source in Basra said. "Unidentified gunmen in a vehicle kidnapped 17 people working as interpreters in the British base in al-Shu'iba (40 km west of Basra)," the source, who declined to be named, told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). "The kidnapping took place in front of the police academy in al-Shu'iba as the interpreters were leaving work in the British base," he added The bodies of all those kidnapped were found dumped in Shu'iba desert, the source said without elaboration. The official Al-Iraqiya TV earlier reported that 17 Iraqi policemen were kidnapped and killed in Basra.

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Iraqi National Police Sergeant Haider Shenshen, left, confers with an Iraqi interpreter, who keeps his face covered to disguise his identity. NPR

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Gunmen change tactics to kill 19 at British-run police school By Chris Johnston and Michael Evans, Defence Editor [EXCERPT] GUNMEN killed 17 Iraqi police instructors and two translators yesterday afternoon as they travelled home from work at a British-run police academy training school near Basra in southern Iraq. It was the first incident of its kind in the south of the country and resembled attacks on police in Baghdad. A senior British military source last night described the attack as “a complete change in tactics and not something we have seen down there before”.