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A Ranger team operating in the same area happened to be watching our live drone feed. We had a vast interconnected network across the battlefield, and it was necessary to collaborate. That they were watching was no secret. They didnt hear our conversations or know many of the details about our operations. Usually they just monitored our feeds for situational awareness and in case one of their aircraft needed to cross into our drones airspace.

Most times this interconnectedness worked.

Our special ops group didnt often hold specific territory. We went wherever we wantedunlike the Rangers, who were responsible for specific swaths of terrain.

Just to eliminate any problems, Max, the assault commander, had gotten the Ranger commander on the line to tell him that wed located Scarface in their operating area and that they should stand down.

Were good to go, Max had said to me. Theyre aligned with us.

On our monitors, the entire compound was now in view. Everyone had gone inside. The sun was out and there were no heavy winds or clouds on the horizon. Beautiful drone-flying weather. We were all set for a typical follow and began to wait it out.

I wondered if we should we bring in another asset just in case the one drone wasnt enough. Do we need a backup plan?

Another ten minutes went by, just waiting, the drone orbiting the compound as I skimmed through old files we had on Nasir, looking for anything.

Then Jake saw something flash out of the corner of the screen. Multiple vehicles are approaching the compound from the main road, he called out. What?

Theyre coming fast.

Shit, those vehicles look large. Zoom in to see what kind of vehicles they are.

The camera operator took us in.

What the fuck is this? Those are American Strikers. Whats going on?

Strikers were very distinct: eight big wheels, a rocket launcher, a manned turret. They were almost as large as tanks and built to carry troops into combat zones. Now there were four of them barreling toward the compound, speeding like they were going to conquer the territory, huge dust clouds rising in their wakes. One crashed right through the gate, while the other three followed behind and lined up in formation parallel to the house.

Who the hell were these guys?

In the Box, we stared in disbelief as the scene played out. Suddenly I had no control. It was scary. Not a situation anyone wants to be in. We watched as the Strikers rear door ramps dropped open and soldiers in full camouflaged combat gear jumped out, automatic weapons leveled at the compound and pressed up against the vehicles for cover.

Army Rangers.

The Predator camera operator confirmed: U.S. forces in the picture.

Son of a . . . someone yelled next to me.

We just confirmed that they werent going to be there, right? Right?

Everyone was looking around the room in agreement.

One of the soldiers had a loudspeaker pressed to his face and we could tell that he was yelling into it, probably calling for Scarface to come out.

Knowing him, he was not going to step out with his hands up. Meanwhile, Max was on the phone with the Ranger commander again. He was pissed, spitting into the mouthpiece. What the fuck, I thought we were on the same page with this? Why are your guys at the fucking compound?

After a brief, heated discussion, Max hung up. The Ranger commander blamed the whole thing on a breakdown of their comms system; he was unable to call his guys off before they showed up at the house.

Thats such bullshit, I said. I dont believe it. The comms systems dont just go down. It was clearly a case of the Rangers wanting to take credit for a big target. We were on their turf and they didnt want anyone showing them up, even if wed found the guy.

There was no time for bitching.

All right, guys, it is what it is, but we need to support them now. Switch the Predator to squirter control.

Squirters were people who scurried or squirted out the sides of a building or car or escaped an explosion.

The Predator now had a completely new mission to perform force protection of U.S. troops in the picture. Wed look for any threats to the Rangers and make sure no one escaped out the back.

But the compound was still quiet. For a solid five minutes or so no one came out, despite the megaphone.

Finally, a woman hesitantly walked out of the front door. She had three children by her side and her hands were full of something. The younger male walked out behind her. At the front of the house, the group came to a full stop.

Typically, people were asked to stop moving in a situation like this to ensure they didnt have any bombs or weapons.

The woman and children started to walk very slowly and carefully toward the soldiers and were then guided to places behind the Strikers. After a brief pause, one male followed, leaving one inside.

We all put our headsets on and switched to the Rangers radio frequency.

One guy was in the middle of explaining what they found out. The woman told us that the male in the house asked to have all the guns brought to him. He hugged them goodbye, gave them his phone and money, and told them to leave immediately. She said the man told her that he was not coming out.

Thats when the shots came.

I could see the muzzle of an AK-47 sticking out of a high window, spraying the ground in front of the house, like he had just blown threw a line of coke. The Rangers returned a blizzard of fire.

In our camera, we could see hundreds of bullets like little flashes of light, streaking the air, pummeling the house.

The barrage of bullets kept coming.

But the guy wouldnt die. The muzzle of his AK-47 still stuck out sporadically through different windows in the house, spraying rounds everywhere.

Then, out of nowhere, the Striker launched a rocket, demolishing the top corner of the house and opening a huge hole in the roof.

Switch to infrared, I said.

Now the drone camera operator zoomed into the corner to see if we could get a glimpse inside the house.

Within minutes another rocket hit the same top corner of the house, opening an even larger hole and damaging the complete exterior. Thats when we saw a body curled on the ground: lifeless and contorted in a way that a body should not be.

The Rangers eventually stopped firing and a quiet settled over the scene. It seemed like hours had passed because of the chaos. After a long waiting period, the Rangers moved into the house.

Was this Scarface? Or someone else? I worried that there were others in the building. But my biggest concern was that Scarface was wearing a suicide vest and was trying to draw them in.

The drone continued to maintain a solid orbit around the compound, the camera still looking for other signs of life or squirters. It took a good five minutes for the all-clear but we finally heard it come over the radio.

We have confirmed jackpot, one enemy KIA.

In the Box, we were conflicted. We were of course happy that Scarface wouldnt live to see through his attack on American forces. His death would be a big blow to the network. All that was good. But a part of me couldnt help but wish wed followed him for a few days or weeks longer. Manhattan and Brooklyn were still lurking out there.

Staring at the feed, I couldnt take my eyes off the lifeless body. Id found Scarface and brought the Rangers here. Intentionally or not, it was my first kill.

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My first drone kill: One of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq - Salon

The farming region of Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, is divided by one of Iraqs most turbulent fault lines of conflict, between the countrys Sunni and Shia tribes. A decade ago, this region of palm groves and irrigation canals was a violent al Qaeda stronghold known as the Triangle of Death. Yet for 2016, news reports and the United Nations accounting of nearly 7,000 or more civilian deaths across Iraq noted few attacks in this region, a reflection of its relative stability in recent years.

Ten years ago this month, the Armys 10th Mountain Division locked Mahmoudiya down with 3,500 troops running roadblocks and patrols. The divisions 2nd Brigade Combat Team had fought for months to loosen the grip of al-Qaeda and halt communal fighting. It lost 54 soldiers killed in 11 months of intensive operations.

Now, as Iraqi military forces fight in the city of Mosul to end the Islamic States last territorial hold in Iraq, the Mosul region and large swaths of Iraq face a similar threat of old communal conflicts flaring into another round of violence, intensified by the bloodshed during the extremist groups three years of brutal rule.

The United States urgently needs a strategy to secure the significant military gains against ISIS and prevent new cycles of violence that would further destabilize Iraq and potentially lead to the next generation of ISIS. No one wants to fight these battles a third time.

The good news is that a post-ISIS strategy need not be costly or led by U.S. forces. The relative stability of Mahmoudiya, and similar, recent successes by Iraqi peacemaking teams around the city of Tikrit and in other areas, shows that Iraqis, with time and some support, can solve their own conflicts at a local level. With this, they create greater resilience to conflicts fueled by national and regional divisions.

In Tikrit, mediators from an Iraqi non-governmental organization, Sanad for Peacebuilding, brokered a 2015 peace accord between Sunnis and Shia that averted revenge bloodshed following an Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) massacre. That accord paved the way for markets and businesses to restart, schools and hospitals to reopen and ultimately, the return of more than 380,000 displaced Iraqis thus far. Sanad last year facilitated similar accords to avert violence in the cities of Yathrib and Hawija.

These local agreements take months of arduous mediation by civil society groups and Iraqs reconciliation authorities, and require continued dialogue and vigilance to maintain. They are by no means a panacea. One ISIS suicide attack last year struck a soccer game in the Mahmoudiya region, killing at least 26 people.

But Iraqi peacemakers have built a track record in helping Iraqis resolve their local conflicts and build a sustainable peace. They have capabilities that will be essential in the aftermath of ISIS, especially in the complex stew of Mosuls overlapping ethnic and religious communities Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen, Sunnis, Shias, Christians and Yezidis. Without reconciliation among Iraqis, all other investments in the countrys progress remain vulnerable to future conflict.

For the United States, promoting such an outcome requires no expensive surge of its resources, but rather a consistent policy of leading cost-effective, international investment in helping Iraqis build peace.

Amid war-torn Iraq, the continued, relative stability at Mahmoudiya underscores the cost-effectiveness of helping local people negotiate their own peace. After 31 tribal sheikhs signed their peace accord 10 years ago, 3,500 troops of the 10th Mountain Division were able to leave, replaced by a follow-on force of just 650 soldiers a reduction of 80 percent in the number of U.S. troops required. That represented a U.S. cost savings of $150 million per month, achieved by a peace accord that cost about $1.5 million to achieve.

The 10th Mountain Division faced the challenges of Mahmoudiya with courage and grit. They learned quickly how to fight with different approaches in a tough environment. More importantly, they understood the urgency of securing their gains. We owe it to our national security and to the brave members of our military to heed the lessons afforded by the Triangle of Death and invest in a partnership with Iraqi civil society and local leaders to sustain the peace from the ground up as an essential part of the way forward.

Nancy Lindborg is the president of the U.S. Institute of Peace.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.

Link:
To stabilize Iraq after ISIS, try a method that worked - The Hill (blog)

In the violent Middle East, Lebanon looks like a miracle. A mix of Christians and Sunni and Shiite Muslims who have fought a brutal civil war, and have weathered aggressive outside interference, Lebanon is still puttering along as a semifunctioning democracy. To encourage and strengthen the Lebanese Armed Forces, the U.S. has given more than $1 billion over the last decade.

But looks are deceiving. In Lebanon, despite Americas help, Iran has won.

People watch Lebanons Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah as he appears on a screen during a live broadcast to speak to his supporters at an event marking Resistance and Liberation Day in Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, May 25, 2017. REUTERS/Hassan Abdallah

Step back a few decades and remember the pitched battles of the Lebanese civil warSunni vs. Shiite vs. Christian. The kidnapping and killing of countless innocents; the murder of the CIA station chief in Beirut; and finally, the end of the civil war with the 1989 Taif Accords, a rare Arab-led initiative, which dictated terms that enabled weary Lebanese fighters to lay down their arms.

The full piece will be posted on Monday, July 3. To read the complete piece at WSJ.com, click here.If you are not a Wall Street Journal subscriber, you may access the full piece via WSJs Twitter profile here.

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Iran Won in Lebanon. What About Iraq? - American Enterprise Institute

A federal judge in Detroit on Monday put a temporary hold on the deportation of scores of Iraqi nationals swept up in immigration enforcement raids around the country in recent months.

U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith had already issued a 14-day stay of removal Thursday for at least 114 Iraqis most of them Chaldean Christians detained in the Detroit area, saying he needed time to weigh whether he has jurisdiction over the case.

On Monday, he granted a request from lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union and other immigrant rights advocates to extend the order nationwide to prevent Immigration and Customs Enforcement from deporting people they said could face persecution, torture or death in Iraq.

Such harm far outweighs any interest the government may have in proceeding with the removals immediately, Goldsmith said in a written decision.

The order applies to more than 1,400 Iraqi immigrants who have been issued final orders of removal, either for overstaying a visa or because of a criminal conviction.

In many cases, those orders were issued years ago, the ACLU said in its petition. But Iraq refused to accept them, so the government eventually released them, often under supervision orders. Some have now lived in the U.S. for decades and have spouses or children who are citizens.

The roundups began after an agreement was reached with Iraq in March to take back its nationals, said Khaalid Walls, a spokesman for the ICE field office in Detroit. In addition to those immigrants detained in Detroit, at least 85 others have been taken into custody around the country since May, he said.

They include Ghassan Kassab, who was picked up at his Detroit home in late May.

Kassab was 5 years old when his family fled Saddam Husseins brutal government in Iraq. He has lived most of his life 47 years in the U.S. But he now faces the threat of being sent back to a country where he has no ties and where his family fears his Christian faith could get him killed.

He does not know how to read Arabic, and he does not remember anything from that country, said Kassabs niece, Marvit Bahoura, 38. Its like they are throwing him to his death sentence.

Because Kassabs parents didnt speak English, she said, the family never applied for U.S. citizenship. They found the process too confusing. So when Kassab was convicted on a marijuana possession charge more than a decade ago, he was issued a deportation order.

Bahoura said her uncle served three years in prison and had been reporting regularly to ICE ever since.

Hes worked at the same landscape company for 23 years, she said. Hes a hardworking man.

Detroit is home to more than 100,000 Chaldean Christians, one of the largest populations outside of Iraq. Many fled their war-torn homeland decades ago and fear persecution by extremist groups such as Islamic State if they return.

They thought they had found a haven in the U.S., but with the threat of deportation looming over hundreds of families, many are questioning their place in a country which no longer seems so welcoming.

The Iraqi Chaldean community is shocked and dont understand why this is happening, said Wisam Naoum, an attorney and Chaldean community leader in Detroit. We feel a bit betrayed. Its a direct assault on our community.

Many of the citys Iraqi Christians were staunch supporters of President Trump, who in January tweeted, Christians in the Middle East have been executed in large numbers. We cannot allow this horror to continue! The did not expect to get swept up in Trumps crackdown on immigration.

My entire family voted for him because he said he would help protect Christians, Bahoura said.

The possibility that her uncle will be deported now has her fearful not only for his safety, but for her health. She suffers from a debilitating autoimmune disorder and received a bone marrow transplant from her uncle this year.

Theres a 70% chance that if my body rejects the bone marrow, Ill need another one, Bahoura said. But if they deport Kassab, theres a slim chance Ill be able to find another match.

Many of those detained in Detroit were picked up on June 11 near churches and restaurants favored by the Iraqi Chaldean community, according to immigrant rights advocates. Others were detained at their homes or at one of their regular appointments with ICE.

It was early in the morning when six ICE agents showed up at the door of Brittany Hamama, 20. They were there for her 47-year-old father, Usama Hamama, who she said left Iraq as a child.

They said hell be back tomorrow, she recalled, but I didnt believe them.

The threat of deportation has loomed over the family since he was convicted of aggravated assault in a road-rage incident. But that that was 30 years ago, his daughter said.

My dads roots are in the U.S., he knows nothing else, she said. This doesnt seem real.

Rebecca Adducci, the Detroit field office director for ICEs Enforcement and Removal Operations, said the agency targeted those with criminal convictions for removal.

The operation in this region was specifically conducted to address the very real public safety threat represented by the criminal aliens arrested, she said in a statement. The vast majority of those arrested in the Detroit metropolitan area have very serious felony convictions, multiple felony convictions in many cases.

The Department of Justice argued that the detainees should make their request to remain in the U.S. in immigration court, not U.S. district court. But the ACLU said they might be deported before an immigration judge could consider their requests.

At least eight detainees have already been sent back to Iraq, and the ACLU said others could be deported as soon as Tuesday.

Its never been U.S. policy to send people back where they could be persecuted, said Nadine Yousif Kalasho, an attorney from Code Legal Aid, a Michigan-based nonprofit that was a party to the petition. The court understands whats at stake in terms of applying this nationwide and saw the urgency.

Attorneys for the government said they would exam the judges ruling before deciding their next steps.

I cant say we are surprised, said Daniel Lemisch, acting U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. Its an extraordinary opinion, but these are very unusual circumstances in Iraq.

melissa.etehad@latimes.com

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Detroit judge halts deportations of Iraqi immigrants nationwide - Los Angeles Times

Lots of people become entrepreneurs because of an unexpected career shock, such as a corporate acquisition or layoff. Dawn Halfaker's military career was ended by an explosion and a catastrophic injury, in Iraq, in 2004. Yet Halfaker would eventually recover and form Halfaker and Associates, an Arlington, Virginia-based contractor in data analytics, cybersecurity, software engineering, and IT infrastructure for the federal government, including the Navy, the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Defense. --As told to Kimberly Weisul

From an early age, I wanted to get a scholarship to play basketball. I was contacted by West Point about playing basketball there and becoming a cadet. At first I dismissed it. I didn't have a good understanding of what West Point was.

The minute I stepped onto the West Point campus, I knew it was the place for me. I was drawn to the intensity and sense of purpose. There was nothing that set any of the other schools I was considering apart--they were all about where you were going to party and hang out.

Part of the great thing about West Point was that I didn't fully understand what I was getting into. I didn't know what the plebe year was all about. It was probably better that way. The basketball coaches paint a rosy picture. Being there was a huge surprise and a culture shock. It was four years of just trying to survive.

After West Point, my first duty station was in Korea. Then I went to Fort Stewart, in Georgia, and deployed from there to Iraq in February 2004.

Our focus was on rebuilding the Iraqi police force. We were working hand in hand with Iraqis, training them, equipping them, going on missions with them. We were responsible for the security of the police station, and for protecting our area of operations from insurgents.

That's where things got a little messy. We were going on missions to flush out insurgents who were planting IEDs, shooting rockets at the embassy, or blowing up the police stations. On one of our patrols, near Baqubah, our Humvee drove into an ambush and was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. I remember being loaded into a medevac helicopter. When I woke up from the coma, my parents and doctors had to explain what had happened--and that I'd lost an arm.

I spent my 25th birthday in the hospital thinking that my life was over. It wasn't just that I'd lost an arm. It was that I no longer had a career. I had been physically fit, mentally fit, at the top of my game, and I went from that to a state of feeling basically useless. I was terrified about being just cast aside while everybody else moved on. That's what fueled me to go into business and to want so desperately to stay connected to the military and the mission.

I was constantly in pain, and I always had to think of a different way to do things. I worried about having to get in line at Starbucks and buy a coffee and get change and carry it back and open the door. Those were the things that plagued my mind, more than the bigger picture of what was going on with my life.

When you think of a wounded warrior, you think of a young male in a wheelchair. I had a hard time identifying as a veteran and fitting in as a female who was wounded in combat. People weren't laughing to my face--it was mostly probably in my head. But I look different. Whenever you're different, you're kind of vulnerable. I did an internship on Capitol Hill. It was really discouraging. There were very important issues that Congress had to deal with. Do the soldiers have the right helmets? Do we have the right equipment? Are vets getting the right care? I was amazed at how many times the debate became partisan, and people were willing to ignore the common-sense solution.

Then I thought I'd maybe work as a contractor focused on supporting the military. That's when I realized there was a big disconnect between what was going on in Washington and what was happening downrange. There were so many people who didn't have combat experience trying to make decisions and influence policy. I thought, you know what? I can do this better. I could start a company. I could hire people who have the right expertise, and provide the support myself.

When I was at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, there was a colonel who wanted me to help him better understand how technology innovations could be used in the field. I was able to leverage that experience and other relationships to learn the industry and start positioning myself for a career, and to begin building the infrastructure of my company in the background.

There's no question that my military training helped me become a better entrepreneur. You go through so much training in the military, but from that first year as a plebe, what the military is teaching you is how to be resilient. You plan your mission, and you execute, but nothing ever goes according to plan. Your job as an officer is to continue to lead in not-ideal circumstances, and you're probably underresourced. Being an entrepreneur and getting something started, you never have everything you need, and things never go according to plan.

You also learn that the people who can make things happen are the ones who are challenging the status quo. There are people who figure out how to make the whole system work for them, as opposed to being a follower. From the start of my company, I recognized there were other people in my situation. As my company grew, I knew I could bring in other wounded warriors.

Hiring other veterans affects my company in a positive way. There's a similar value system, a similar understanding of the mission. Then there's the skill set to do data analytics and IT infrastructure. For the type of work we're doing, we need people who understand the military, so that's critical. But as the company grows, we value diversity. We need to make sure that employees who are not veterans can still do well here. It's something I'm aware of. I don't want to create this in-group.

Certifications help tremendously, especially in my industry, where there are hardly any medium-size companies. You're not going to compete with Lockheed Martin. But you can leverage the set-asides to have an opportunity to show what your company can do. Once you're able to do that, then eventually you can compete with Lockheed Martin. I'm not in any rush to do it. We're still finding our sweet spot and trying to refine that before we say we're the best at what we do and we can beat anybody. That's the goal.

Read the original here:
This Iraq Veteran Lost Her Arm--but Found New Purpose as an Entrepreneur - Inc.com