Lies, damned lies and statistics......

[PartTimePongo]

U.S. says 100 fighters a month enter Iraq from Syria

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Up to 100 foreign fighters cross into Iraq from Syria every month, the U.S. military said on Monday, as Syria's foreign minister held talks with Iraqi leaders to pledge his country's help in tackling insurgents.

U.S. and Iraqi officials have long accused Damascus of doing little to stem the flow of Islamist fighters and weapons across the long, porous border. Syrian officials say sealing the border is impossible and Iraq must do more to patrol its side.

"We don't know how much they (Syria) are assisting this effort, but we don't know how much they are trying to preclude it either," U.S. military spokesman Major General William Caldwell told reporters in Baghdad.


"We still see foreign fighters coming, between 70 and 100 a month coming across the Syrian border into Iraq," he said, figures in line with those of the past year.

He said U.S. and Iraqi soldiers had killed 425 foreign fighters so far this year and captured 670.Twenty percent of them were Syrian, a similar percentage Egyptian, and most of the rest from Sudan and Saudi Arabia

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem met Iraqi officials including Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on the second day of a landmark visit. Iraq and Syria severed ties when Syria sided with Iran during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.

Moualem pledged Syria's cooperation in tackling violence that has raised the specter of civil war, saying it was prepared to work "hand in hand to achieve the security of brother Iraq".

Continues here

My topic header is not to accuse the good General of lying, far from it.

It's the fact that Syria may not be the biggest provider of foreign fighters, and nothing is being said publicly about the nation where a lot of foreign fighters are coming from.

Now why is that?

 

[armchair_jihad]

Well prehaps it the same reason that it was not mentioned after 911 either, sooner or later though the House of Saud will fall and then we will be seeing fun and games

 

[Brick]

"We don't know how much they (Syria) are assisting this effort, but we don't know how much they are trying to preclude it either," U.S. military spokesman Major General William Caldwell told reporters in Baghdad.

"We still see foreign fighters coming, between 70 and 100 a month coming across the Syrian border into Iraq," he said, figures in line with those of the past year.

To which my response if I were the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs would be 'Hey, so how's that whole securing your border with Mexico thing going?' or something similar.

Now why is that?

Because Sudan isn't eeevil like Syria is - well they at least keep their naughty stuff nicely internal so it can officially be politely ignored, or they're sitting on a metric ass-tonne of natural resources that our economies are dependent on. That and they can be incredibly touchy on certain subjects. Witness the current brouhah resulting from the ongoing fraud investigations into BAE Systems's alleged Al-Yamamah shenanigans.

 

[DrStealth]

i still say the wrong middle east nation was invaded.

 

[Outstanding]

Where as I think that no middle east nation should have been invaded, it was exactly what ALQ wanted.

 

[PartTimePongo]

Because Sudan isn't eeevil like Syria is - well they at least keep their naughty stuff nicely internal so it can officially be politely ignored

Shurely shome mistake?

But yes, it's hard to really point the finger , when they keep your SUV's in cheap(ish) gas.

Which makes me wonder if someone somewhere had a plan that went something like....

"Well, we can't exactly roll down R****h High Street , so why don't we start some sh*t on the doorstep , this will drag all the radical elements out , and they'll come and fight us on a patch of our choosing. No need to worry about our backs, the Iraqis will be so glad we're there, we'll have a permissive environment to operate in. It's a winner"

Or words to that effect?

 

[bowman_guru]

Once the there has been a change in administration in America, there might well be a different view on certain Middle East countries. It will certainly be something to look forward to.
We know where the fighters are coming from, yet nothing is being done about it as it would further de-stabilise the region. There is no easy solution to the problem.
Everyone is keen to control the oil, but those that don’t have the power to control it will fight till they have their little share. As soon as the coalition pulls out of Iraq there will be an implosion of power, bordering countries scrabbling to seize control and any number of crimes against humanity. That is when you will see all sorts on nationalities fighting in the country and the Iraqi people pleading with the coalition to come back and help.

 

[whitecity]

U.S. says 100 fighters a month enter Iraq from Syria

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Up to 100 foreign fighters cross into Iraq from Syria every month, the U.S. military said on Monday, as Syria's foreign minister held talks with Iraqi leaders to pledge his country's help in tackling insurgents.

U.S. and Iraqi officials have long accused Damascus of doing little to stem the flow of Islamist fighters and weapons across the long, porous border. Syrian officials say sealing the border is impossible and Iraq must do more to patrol its side.

"We don't know how much they (Syria) are assisting this effort, but we don't know how much they are trying to preclude it either," U.S. military spokesman Major General William Caldwell told reporters in Baghdad.


"We still see foreign fighters coming, between 70 and 100 a month coming across the Syrian border into Iraq," he said, figures in line with those of the past year.

He said U.S. and Iraqi soldiers had killed 425 foreign fighters so far this year and captured 670.Twenty percent of them were Syrian, a similar percentage Egyptian, and most of the rest from Sudan and Saudi Arabia

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem met Iraqi officials including Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on the second day of a landmark visit. Iraq and Syria severed ties when Syria sided with Iran during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.

Moualem pledged Syria's cooperation in tackling violence that has raised the specter of civil war, saying it was prepared to work "hand in hand to achieve the security of brother Iraq".

Continues here

My topic header is not to accuse the good General of lying, far from it.

It's the fact that Syria may not be the biggest provider of foreign fighters, and nothing is being said publicly about the nation where a lot of foreign fighters are coming from.

Now why is that?

Don't you just love the deliberate manipulation of words to place emphasis on some parts of the story, and ommission to bury others... For instance, "Up to 100 foreign fighters cross into Iraq from Syria every month" may well be true. But how many are crossing from Jordan, from Saudi, from Iran, from Turkey or from the Caucuses? Wouldn't surprise me if the numbers were larger in some of these...

And if we unpick the headline numbers: "Twenty percent of them were Syrian, a similar percentage Egyptian, and most of the rest from Sudan and Saudi Arabia" - the words imply that the percentages from Sudan and Saudi are higher than 20% - so why highlight the Syrian figure, which is, at best only 3rd in the list!

Also, one begins to wonder if there is some sort of 'terror franchising' going on out there. If the 4 countries Saudi, Egypt, Sudan and Syria are providing 90%+ of the foreign fighters in Iraq, that leaves very few from the other main suppliers such as Pakistan, Jordan, Yemen and so on. I guess we can assume Pakistanis are franchised to Afganistan, and a recent UN report noted about 700 Somalis in Lebanon...

And finally, apart from the mention of a diplomatic visit, not a whiff of Iran in the article. So, is the only accusation against Iran now the 'bomb' one, or is it still accused of exporting terrorism? Oooops! See note above, maybe they've bought into the same franchise as Pakistan - Afghanistan.