How hard was this? Should've moved diplomats from Irbil before ordering forces to defend them there

[bigtree]

Last edited Sun Aug 10, 2014, 05:50 PM - Edit history (1)

GuardianUS @GuardianUS · 57m
US moves staff from Irbil after air strikes hit Isis again http://trib.al/ocpS5lO @attackerman

President Obama should remove ALL American personnel from Irbil and Baghdad, as well, rather than use their presence as justification or pretext for direct military action in those areas of Iraq. We shouldn't support any direct military action in Iraq which has, as it's primary justification and effect, defense of our own opportunistic deployments or facilities.

here's the report:

Thus far, the vast majority of air strikes have targeted Isis positions threatening Irbil, as several US officials consider the advance of Isis into pro-US Iraqi Kurdistan an unacceptable outcome. Dozens of US special-operations advisers are stationed in Irbil, where the US also has a consulate, and the rationale of protecting that force provides Obama with diplomatic cover for attacks to halt the Isis advance on territory US officials believe must not fall to the Islamic extremists.

Later on Sunday the State Department said it had removed some staff from Irbil and Baghdad to Basra, in the south of Iraq, and to the Iraq Support Unit in Amman, Jordan. The US consulate in Irbil and embassy in Baghdad remained open, the department said . . .

Despite Obama’s description of the humanitarian crisis atop Mount Sinjar prompting the newly aggressive US posture, so far only on Saturday have US warplanes hit Isis vehicles harassing Iraqi Yazidis trapped without food or water . . .

The air strikes, described as somewhat less than a concerted campaign, have “at least given pause to Islamic extremists as they advance but much more effort will be required for a positive outcome”, retired US general Carter Ham told ABC News on Sunday.

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/10/us-air-strikes-isis-iraq-yazidi-refugees?CMP=twt_gu

also . . .

As US officials and their allies scrambled to work out a plan to get tens of thousands of Iraqi Yazidis besieged by Isis down from a mountain near the northern town of Sinjar – the UN said on Sunday that 15-20,000 refugees had so far escaped –


. . . in my own DU view:

. . . that exodus from the mountain retreats of Kurdish civilians is good news to me, obviously because of the humanity involved, but also because gets us closer to removing what I consider the most compelling justification or pretext for ordering or employing direct U.S. military action, or airstrikes.

I'm opposed to any direct military action in Iraq, because of the clear evidence that it is ultimately counterproductive to the aim of significantly lessening or eliminating armed and violent resistance to the U.S. or our interests in preserving the Maliki regime in place in Baghdad.

Further, I'm convinced, and so are Pres. Obama's own intelligence agencies, that our military presence and activity has the effect of attracting even more resistant violence to the U.S. aims, allies, and interests in Iraq; more than we will be able to put down, according to Bush's own intelligence agencies.

There's a predictable blowback effect on Iraqi civilians in response to the U.S.'s strikes, no matter the duration or intensity, which manifests itself after our planes and warships have turned away for home.

Is Basra next in line for a presidential order for airstrikes to defend American personnel relocated there?

[KoKo]

1. CNN said Friday we had thousands of Americans there in Irbil...

that was a shock.. I could see thousands in our huge embassy in Baghdad...but Irbil?

So...that's maybe why we couldn't evacuate them. It was Blitzer reporting and he never explained.

I think there's an awful lot we don't know about what we have or don't have in Iraq since it's been off the radar until ISIL showed up...if we have thousands of Americans in Irbil.

Thanks for all your posts, Bigtree, asking those important questions and pulling pieces together. Don't know if we will find the answers given the state of our MSM....but, your
effort is appreciated and we have to hope the truth will out elsewhere in the foreign press or with whistle blowers down the road.

[bigtree]

4. thank you for your support on this issue, KoKo

. . . it can feel like a strange wilderness for me here sometimes, even though I've made this board my virtual home since the Bush first decided to invade Iraq.

Thanks again for your support.

[KoKo]

11. BTW...if this is a Drone Base as poster below says...then

it's probably just more disinfo crap from CBS...putting it out there. They aren't evacuating a Drone Base if it's a crucial to our efforts in Iraq.

[Autumn]

19. Thousands? Are they oil contractors? Haliburton? WTF

How can we have thousands of Americans there.

[randome]

2. Oh, I think I'll trust Obama over an eyeball magnet.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]"If you're bored then you're boring." -Harvey Danger[/center][/font][hr]

[bigtree]

3. to some, any report supporting the President's initiative or prerogative in Iraq

. . . suffices for indisputable truth.

Go figure.

[randome]

5. Not me. But why does the Guardian think they know better?

As was pointed out, we don't even know how many citizens we have there so how can it be so 'easy' to armchair quarterback the situation?
[hr][font color="blue"][center]"If you're bored then you're boring." -Harvey Danger[/center][/font][hr]

[bigtree]

6. I've followed and read Spencer Ackerman's reports and insight since the Bush wars

. . .besides being a walking book on counterinsurgency, he's a remarkably insightful and knowledgeable expert on other foreign and military affairs.

That's why I think he might know better.

I believe the president was a student of constitutional law. His mentor on foreign affairs in the senate was Republican Dick Lugar.

What are you actually disputing in his Guardian article?

Is it his opinion or mine that you're seeking to discount? Why should pro-Obama reports or opinion be given any more consideration as accurate or informative?

[Dems to Win]

7. CIA drone base in Irbil. That's what is being protected. Any 'humanitarian bombing' talk is BS.

Everyone in Kurdistan knows there is a CIA drone base in Irbil, but it's kept 'secret' from the American public. Well, not really, since this was in McClatchy, but Obama won't just come out and tell Americans about it.

Someone provided a link yesterday (sorry I do not remember who) to this story:

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/07/11/233126/expansion-of-secret-facility-in.html

Expansion of ‘secret’ facility in Iraq suggests closer U.S.-Kurd ties
BY MITCHELL PROTHERO
McClatchy Foreign StaffJuly 11, 2014

IRBIL, IRAQ — A supposedly secret but locally well-known CIA station on the outskirts of Irbil’s airport is undergoing rapid expansion as the United States considers whether to engage in a war against Islamist militants who’ve seized control of half of Iraq in the past month.

Western contractors hired to expand the facility and a local intelligence official confirmed the construction project, which is visible from the main highway linking Irbil to Mosul, the city whose fall June 9 triggered the Islamic State’s sweep through northern and central Iraq. Residents around the airport say they can hear daily what they suspect are American drones taking off and landing at the facility.

snip

Peshmerga forces already are manning checkpoints and bunkers to protect the facility, which sits just a few hundred yards from the highway.

“Within a week of the fall of Mosul we were being told to double or even triple our capacities,” said one Western logistics contractor who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because he’d signed nondisclosure agreements with the U.S. government on the matter.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/07/11/233126/expansion-of-secret-facility-in.html#storylink=cpy

[bigtree]

8. I think the President was alluding to this, specifically, in his statement Saturday

President:

There’s key infrastructure inside of Iraq that we have to be concerned about. My team has been vigilant, even before ISIL went into Mosul, about foreign fighters and jihadists gathering in Syria, and now in Iraq, who might potentially launch attacks outside the region against Western targets and U.S. targets. So there’s going to be a counterterrorism element that we are already preparing for and have been working diligently on for a long time now.

Sounds like he fully intends to widen operations well beyond the defense of this one group of Kurds into some extension of Bush's (and his own) 'war on terror.'

[KoKo]

13. Recommend...

Some of us missed this report from McClatchy...and thanks for posting it. July Vacation family time...or whatever.

[cheapdate]

10. As the author suggests, one possible approach

is to cease the "somewhat less than a concerted campaign", withdraw all of our diplomatic and security personnel from the Kurdish region, and leave the Iraqi Kurds to fend off ISIS on their own.

I'm extremely conflicted.

[KoKo]

12. There's NO WAY we would be doing that...though.

We are too heavily invested now. And, the MSM Drumbeat to Extended War to wipe out ISIL before they "come to America" is now "full on" this weekend.

[cheapdate]

14. No, I don't think we would abandon Kurdish Iraq.

and I'm not sure that we should.

I'm hopelessly conflicted.

I don't seriously believe that this president will escalate the scope to wipe out ISIS. I think the president and his military advisers are aware of the tactical near-impossibility of that objective.

But I agree that the US will remain committed to providing Kurdish Iraq with every kind of military support short of US ground combat soldiers.

[KoKo]

15. It's hard NOT to be conflicted these days...n/t

[bigtree]

16. Carbon dioxide emissions from Keystone pipeline would be 4 times what Obama administration claims

AP Politics ‏@AP_Politics 8h
Study: Carbon dioxide emissions from Keystone pipeline would be 4 times what feds figure, reports @borenbears: http://apne.ws/1B6yBik

WASHINGTON (AP) — The much-debated Keystone XL pipeline could produce four times more global warming pollution than the State Department calculated earlier this year, a new study concludes.

The U.S. estimates didn't take into account that the added oil from the pipeline would drop prices by about $3 a barrel, spurring consumption that would create more pollution, the researchers said.

Outside experts not connected to the study gave it mixed reviews. The American Petroleum Institute found the study to be irrelevant because regardless of the pipeline, the tar sands will be developed and oil will be shipped by railroad if not by pipeline, spokeswoman Sabrina Fang said.

The researchers estimate that the proposed pipeline, which would carry oil from tar sands in western Canada to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast, would increase world greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 121 million tons of carbon dioxide a year . . .


read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/study-keystone-carbon-pollution-more-figured

[joshcryer]

17. We've had a secret base in Irbil for some time now.

It's likely they don't want a Benghazi redux so they're being safe and evacuating the civilian "advisers" (really intelligence agents).

I'm glad that you seem pleased that the job is being accomplished, though. But don't expect us to leave the Kurds alone as we have strategic interests having cooperation with them in that area of the world.

[bigtree]

18. the CIA isn't just in Irbil to protect the Kurds

. . . the CIA and their drone launches in Irbil are part of an expanding U.S. counterintelligence/counterterrorism operation for the region which more serves the administration's co-opting of Bush's 'war on terror' against the specters of al-Qaeda than its merely part of a no-fly zone defense of the Kurds.

Read something beyond the administration propaganda. It's naive, beyond belief to think that the base there isn't directed toward Syria or other administration prerogatives to further their counterterrorism goals. That facility and CIA establishment represents a wider ambition than just defense against ISIS/ISIL in the Kurdish region.


President Obama, Saturday Aug. 9:

There’s key infrastructure inside of Iraq that we have to be concerned about. My team has been vigilant, even before ISIL went into Mosul, about foreign fighters and jihadists gathering in Syria, and now in Iraq, who might potentially launch attacks outside the region against Western targets and U.S. targets. So there’s going to be a counterterrorism element that we are already preparing for and have been working diligently on for a long time now

.

. . . tell you what, about yours and other's defense of this - we're not dumbing-down out here for you.

[KoKo]

20. It's About the Oil and Here's Some Stuff I Found Today on Search:

Exxon, BP Evacuate Iraq Workers as Oil Drilling Continues
By Nayla Razzouk, Bradley Olson and Kadhim Ajrash Jun 19, 2014 5:36 AM ET


Exxon Mobil Corp. and BP Plc began removing employees from Iraq, OPEC’s second-largest oil producer, after Islamist militants seized cities north of Baghdad and attempted to capture a refinery.

Exxon evacuated some workers from the West Qurna oil field, according to a person familiar with the company’s Iraq operations. BP Plc removed non-essential workers, Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley said June 17. Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional Bhd. moved 28 of its 166 Iraq employees to Dubai, the company said by e-mail yesterday. Royal Dutch Shell Plc isn’t evacuating staff yet and is ready to do so, Andy Brown, head of Shell Upstream International, said in an interview in Moscow.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-18/isil-battles-elite-iraq-troops-for-nation-s-biggest-oil-refinery.html

Related:

------------
Oil Odyssey Offers Glimpse of Kurdish Independence in Iraq
By Selcan Hacaoglu, Jack Fairweather and Nayla Razzouk Jun 19, 2014 2:02 PM ET




A tanker containing a million barrels of crude oil is floating around the Mediterranean, and any buyer will be helping Iraq’s Kurds to win greater independence.

The oil aboard is available at half-price, an official involved in the trade told Bloomberg, an assertion denied by the Kurdish administration. It's at the center of a fight over ownership between the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan, which pumped and shipped the crude from its territory in northern Iraq, and the central government in Baghdad, which claims the rights to all oil revenue.

Kurdish Peshmerga armed forces took control of northern Iraq’s key oil hub, Kirkuk, after militant Islamists routed the Baghdad government’s army last week. The oil dispute has raised the possibility of the Kurdish region achieving financial self-sufficiency to go with the expanding territory.

“If that tanker docks, Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government will take an important step toward independence,” Nihat Ali Ozcan, an analyst at the Economic Policy Research Foundation in Ankara, said by phone on June 13.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-18/half-price-kurdish-oil-threatens-iraq-breakup-with-turkish-help.html

---------------

Turkey’s Role

Turkey, the conduit for the Kurdish oil, also sees Kurdish crude oil exports through its Mediterranean port of Ceyhan as “entirely legitimate” and will continue as long as oil is sold, Turkey’s Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said in an interview in Moscow today. The next shipment is scheduled for June 22, he said at the World Petroleum Congress.

“At the moment, 100,000 barrels to 120,000 barrels of oil flow from northern Iraq per day,” Yildiz said. “About 2.3 million barrels of oil are stored in Ceyhan.”

Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said on Iraqiya television on June 17 that Turkey and the KRG are mistaken if they’re calculating that the current chaos in Iraq will leave the Baghdad government unable to defend its interests.

“The Iraqi people won’t forget those who conspired against them during tough times,” al-Shahristani said. “Turkey should be aware that this is like playing with fire. This is plundering the wealth of Iraq.”
U.S. Mediation

Brett McGurk, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs, reiterated U.S. opposition to any oil exports that aren’t approved by Baghdad. The U.S. has “informed all interested parties that any such transactions exposes them to potential legal risks,” and proposed a compromise plan to both sides, he wrote on Twitter on May 23.
Photographer: Onur Coban/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Kurdish Peshmerga forces stand guard in Kirkuk.

As the Kurds went ahead with pumping the oil, the Baghdad government announced it was suspending the accord under which 17 percent of all oil revenue goes to the Kurdish authorities in their regional capital, Erbil.

“The U.S. failed totally to mediate between Erbil and Baghdad on this issue,” and their standoff has now sparked “growing U.S. fears that Kurdistan is headed for independence,” David Ottaway, senior scholar in the Middle East program at the Wilson Center in Washington, said June 10.
Oil Price

The violence in Iraq since last week has amplified such concerns and pushed oil prices higher. Brent crude posted the biggest jump in almost a year last week. It rose above $115 a barrel in London today, reaching a nine-month high.

Militants of the Sunni Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant seized Mosul, the largest northern city, on June 10 and have captured other towns. As Baghdad’s armed forces fled, the Kurds advanced into Kirkuk, which they’ve long claimed should be part of their autonomous region. Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM), BP Plc (BP/) and Turkey’s state oil company TPAO began removing employees from Iraq, OPEC’s second-largest oil producer, as the insurgents attempted to capture a major refinery.

Even without Kirkuk, the Kurdish region has crude reserves it estimates at 45 billion barrels, a quarter of Iraq’s total. Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, the KRG has claimed the right to handle shipments from its territory.

In 2004, a year after the U.S. invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, the KRG struck an agreement with the central government in Baghdad to share oil revenue. The deal left key questions unresolved, including the fate of Kirkuk and how to share untapped oil fields.
Turkish Storage

Since 2011, KRG has attracted four big oil companies -- Chevron Corp. (CVX), Exxon Mobil Corp., Hess Corp. (HES) and Total SA (FP) -- as well as 30 or so smaller ones. Tony Hayward, chief executive office of Genel Energy Plc (GENL), the biggest oil and gas operator in Kurdistan, was among those who risked the wrath of the Iraqi government to truck Kurdish oil to Turkey.

Trucks have been superseded since January by a new Kurdish link to the main northern pipeline, which runs from Kirkuk to Turkey’s Mediterranean oil terminal at Ceyhan. Turkey agreed to handle the shipment and store it separately from the main Iraqi crude. It allocated seven of 12 storage tanks at Ceyhan for Kurdish oil.

The Iraqi government initiated legal action against Turkey, taking the case to the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris. Asim Jihad, an Iraqi oil ministry spokesman, said a lawsuit has also been filed domestically against the KRG’s Ministry of Natural Resources.
Higher Fees
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-18/half-price-kurdish-oil-threatens-iraq-breakup-with-turkish-help.html

[bigtree]

21. fascinating info

. . . thanks, KoKo, for the info and the support you've given this issue.