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Iraqi Leader Calls on U.S. to Help Fight Terror Threat As Security Deteriorates at Home, Iraqi Leader Arrives in U.S. Seeking Aid
(about 2 hours later)
WASHINGTON — Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki said on Thursday that Iraq once again faces a terrorist threat and that additional American weapons and intelligence are needed to roll it back. WASHINGTON — When Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq last visited the White House, he and his host painted a glowing picture of the situation in Iraq after the withdrawal of American forces.
“We shed blood together,” Mr. Maliki said, referring to the nearly nine-year Iraq war. “We came to Washington to consolidate the partnership.” “The prime minister leads Iraq’s most inclusive government yet,” President Obama said in a joint news conference with Mr. Maliki in December 2011. “Violence remains at record lows.”
“We want an international war, a global war against terror,” he added. Nearly two years later, however, many of the political and security gains that Mr. Obama acclaimed have been reversed. Bombings in Iraq have drastically increased. Al Qaeda in Iraq has been rejuvenated, and the terrorist group in Iraq has expanded into Syria to fuel the civil war there.
In an animated speech at the United States Institute for Peace, the prime minister attributed the rise of Al Qaeda in Iraq to chaos in neighboring Syria and the collapse of state structures as a result of the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011. When Mr. Maliki meets with Mr. Obama on Friday he will be appealing for military aid — Apache helicopter gunships, more American intelligence and other forms of counterterrorism support.
Many critics, including prominent American lawmakers, have said that Mr. Maliki shares much of the blame for the renewed violence, asserting that his failure to share power with the Sunni minority had provided a fertile ground for appeals from Al Qaeda. And to win over a Congress and American public reluctant to revisit the past in Iraq, he will be helped by a prominent Washington lobbying firm: the Podesta Group, which the Iraqi government is paying $960,000 a year. An Iraqi embassy official said that the group has provided advice on how to get Iraq’s message across as well as “feedback” on a recent Op-Ed article Mr. Maliki wrote for The New York Times.
But Mr. Maliki did not acknowledge that political tensions in Iraq or that his own often authoritarian governing style had contributed to the problem. In their public comments, Mr. Maliki and senior American officials have portrayed Iraq largely as a victim of circumstances — mainly the disorder that is spilling over from neighboring Syria and from states that have been upended by the turmoil of the Arab Spring.
To be sure, many jihadists who have come to Syria to wage war against the government of Bashar al-Assad have been repurposed by Al Qaeda’s regional affiliates to serve as suicide bombers in Iraq. But experts say that ambivalent policies in Washington and Baghdad have also contributed to the rapidly deteriorating security situation.
Mr. Maliki has been reluctant to openly ask for United States support. A former American official said that in 2012 Mr. Maliki was on the verge of asking the United States to fly reconnaissance drones over Iraq to help pinpoint the growing terrorist threat but backed off at the last moment when request became public.
Mr. Maliki’s reluctance to share power with a Sunni minority and his authoritarian bent, critics say, have also provided a fertile ground for Al Qaeda’s appeals.
“He basically froze out most of the Sunnis and has allowed the judicial and police authorities to run amok,” said James Jeffrey, a former American ambassador to Iraq during the Obama administration.
Another factor, according to a classified C.I.A. analysis, is corruption with Iraq’s security forces and Justice Ministry. That has helped Qaeda operatives bribe their way their checkpoints and carry out prison breaks.
But the Obama administration’s refusal to be drawn into a conflict it has publicly declared to have ended has also been a factor. Administration officials insist that the State and Defense Departments as well as Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who was Mr. Obama’s point man on Iraq, have not lost their focus on the country. But some former officials said the administration’s involvement has been episodic at best.
“We just haven’t been engaged with Iraq at a high level,” said Ryan C. Crocker, the former American ambassador to Iraq during the Bush and Obama administrations. “Kerry made the one visit, and that was the first secretary of state visit in five years and there hasn’t been another one.”
Since the withdrawal of American forces, the United States Embassy in Baghdad has maintained an office of security cooperation, which has had the mission of facilitating arms sales and, significantly, mentoring Iraqi officers. But under budgetary pressure, it is shrinking its staff size to 59 by fiscal year 2015 from its original 260.
A September report by the Defense Department’s inspector general said the office has been plagued by disagreements between the State and Defense Departments on its mission and questioned whether security cooperation could be adequately carried out with a staff of 59.
Michael Knights, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who recently returned from a trip to Iraq, said security there had seriously deteriorated. In 2010, he said, there was a multicity synchronized bombing attack about every four months; now, he said one occurs about every 10 days.
The growing presence of Qaeda affiliates in Iraq’s western presence, he said, makes them an inviting target for American drone strikes. But any serious consideration of that option has been impossible given the reluctance of Mr. Maliki to ask for it and the administration’s reluctance to re-engage militarily.
However, the White House is weighing Mr. Maliki’s requests for additional counterterrorism and military aid at time when a resurgent Al Qaeda is building new camps, training facilities and staging areas in western Iraq, administration officials said.
American intelligence and counterterrorism officials say they have effectively mapped the locations and origins of these new Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant networks, and are sharing that information with Iraqis.
“As this threat has really accelerated over the last, say, six to eight months, we’ve tried to work even more closely with the Iraqis to develop their sight picture in a better way,” a senior administration official said without elaborating.
With terrorist violence rising in the country, Iraq has also stepped up its request for a range of weapons from the United States, including Apache helicopters and the Hellfire missiles they fire — weapons that American officials say are not effective against insurgents without detailed intelligence of the enemy’s location.
Mr. Maliki has urged Congress to expedite the sale of many of the weapons, include the Apaches. But in meetings on Capitol Hill this week, influential senators sharply questioned the Iraqi prime minister over what they said was his failure to adequately incorporate Sunnis and Kurds into the country’s Shiite-dominated government, as well as acquiescing to Iran’s use of Iraqi airspace to fly weapons and supplies to the Syrian government.
An hourlong meeting on Wednesday with the two top senators on the Foreign Relations Committee went badly, and the lawmakers refrained from endorsing the Apache sale.
“It felt like we were talking past each other,” said Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the senior Republican on the panel. “I did not feel like he seemed to internalize at all the concerns that we had, and was somewhat dismissive.”
Senator Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat who heads the committee, said he was “extremely disappointed” in the meeting, adding, “I got a sense there was no acknowledgment of any of the challenges facing Iraqi society today.”
Mr. Maliki’s speech at the United States Institute of Peace on Thursday did little to assuage his critics.
The prime minister expressed alarm about the growth of terrorism in Iraq but did not acknowledge that political tensions in Iraq or that his own governing style had contributed to the problem.
“There is no problem between Sunnis and Shiites,” he said. “The constitution is ruling in Iraq.”“There is no problem between Sunnis and Shiites,” he said. “The constitution is ruling in Iraq.”
Mr. Maliki asserted that as a young democracy, Iraq was still building its political system. But he insisted that any political problems were “under control” and were being worked out under the constitution. Among many Iraq analysts, it is a foregone conclusion that Mr. Maliki is seeking to consolidate power and continue as prime minister. In fact, some saw his visit to Washington as an attempt to secure American political support before he campaigns.
During a question-and-answer session after his speech, the prime minister said he would seek a third term if the public wanted him to stay on the job.During a question-and-answer session after his speech, the prime minister said he would seek a third term if the public wanted him to stay on the job.
“This is something that is up to the Iraqi people,” he said. “It is a very, very difficult job.”“This is something that is up to the Iraqi people,” he said. “It is a very, very difficult job.”
Among many Iraq analysts, it is a foregone conclusion that Mr. Maliki is seeking to consolidate power and continue as prime minister. In fact, some saw his visit to Washington as an attempt to secure American political support before he campaigns.
Mr. Maliki was last in Washington in December 2011. During a joint press conference then, President Obama praised Mr. Maliki for leading Iraq’s most inclusive government to date and boasted that violence was at “record lows.”
The last of the troops from the United States left Iraq that month, and the White House and the Maliki government were eager to portray Iraq as a nation that was largely capable of safeguarding itself.
Since then, security has deteriorated. Al Qaeda in Iraq has mounted a comeback, bombings have dramatically increased and political tensions within Iraq between Mr. Maliki’s Shia-dominated government and Sunni politicians have grown.
During a three-day visit here, Mr. Maliki and his large delegation are meeting with lawmakers and senior American officials. He met with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Thursday morning and wasscheduled to meet with Mr. Obama on Friday.
The United States is weighing Mr. Maliki’s requests for counterterrorism and military aid at a time when a resurgent Al Qaeda is building new camps, training facilities and staging areas in western Iraq, administration officials said.
“Some of these Al Qaeda networks that are coming in from Syria and that are based in Iraq now really have heavy weapons,” a senior administration official told reporters in a conference call on Wednesday. “Iraqi helicopter pilots that we have trained have been killed by heavy machine gun weaponry. And so they’re trying to take this threat – take on this threat with equipment that isn’t really geared towards doing it effectively.”
American intelligence and counterterrorism officials said they had mapped the locations and origins of these new Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant networks and were sharing that information with the Iraqis.
“As this threat has really accelerated over the last, say, six to eight months, we’ve tried to work even more closely with the Iraqis to develop their sight picture in a better way,” the senior administration official said.
To help combat the threat, Iraq has requested a range of weapons from the United States, including Apache helicopters.
Over the summer, the Obama administration told Congress it planned to sell Iraq a major new air defense system, which would eventually allow the Iraqis to exercise control of their airspace. The system is still months away from being installed.
Mr. Maliki has urged Congress to expedite the sale of many of the weapons, include the helicopters. But in meetings on Capitol Hill this week, influential senators and Mr. Maliki jousted over his failure to adequately incorporate Sunnis and Kurds into Iraq’s government.
An hourlong meeting Wednesday with the two top senators on the Foreign Relations Committee went badly, and some prominent lawmakers emerged from the closed-door session without endorsing the helicopter sale.
“It felt like we were talking past each other,” said Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the senior Republican on the panel. “I did not feel like he seemed to internalize at all the concerns that we had, and was somewhat dismissive.”
Mr. Corker said he was rethinking his previous support for the Apache sale.
Senator Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat who heads the committee, said he was “extremely disappointed” in the meeting with Mr. Maliki. “I got a sense there was no acknowledgment of any of the challenges facing Iraqi society today.”
Mr. Menendez, who already had reservations about the helicopter sale, said that Wednesday’s meeting “made me even more concerned about such approval.”
In addition to their concerns that Mr. Maliki’s government was not sufficiently inclusive, both senators said the prime minister had not assuaged their concerns about Iranian flights of weapons to Syria through Iraqi airspace.