Thread: U.S. Border Patrol helping Iraqis set boundaries

U.S. Border Patrol helping Iraqis set boundaries
Web Posted: 06/23/2005 12:00 AM CDT
http://www.mysanantonio.com/specials/ba ... 20690.html
Hernán Rozemberg
Express-News Immigration Writer

As part of nation-building efforts in Iraq, U.S. forces have been tapped to perform duties that go beyond their regular military training.

But establishing order at the country's out-of-control borders proved too difficult a task for soldiers, so the Defense Department is looking to other uniformed experts for a little help.

"We recognized early on that we just don't have those types of talents and skills," said Lt. Col. Fred Wellman, spokesman for the Multi-National Security Transition Command in Baghdad.

For nearly a year, U.S. Border Patrol and Customs agents, both now working under U.S. Customs and Border Protection, have been quietly dispatched to help establish Iraq's new Department of Border Enforcement.

"The Border Patrol guys make all the difference. We let them do their job so we can do ours," Wellman said.

The missions are voluntary and the contingents are small, officials said. They wouldn't disclose the exact number of agents involved, citing operational security. Some are members of BORTAC, the Border Patrol's specialized tactical unit that deploys all over the country and even overseas.

Establishing border control in Iraq has been a matter of going back to basics.

For decades, Saddam Hussein's troops were in charge of border protection. Official ports of entry were old, poorly maintained structures with no trained immigration or Customs officers.

Needing some expertise, the military called Sam Snyder. An administrator with U.S. Customs and Border Protection's office of international affairs, Snyder helped put the border-assistance program together and runs it.

The first group of agents was sent to reopen Baghdad's international airport in the summer of 2003. But security concerns quickly put an end to that mission and since have hampered the ultimate goal of re-establishing control of Iraq's 21 ports of entry.

"You want to help build a democratic state, and securing the border is one of the first things you need for national security," Snyder said.

Security concerns also moved the set-up of a new training center from Iraq to safer ground in Amman, Jordan.

Since opening nearly a year ago, 3,700 Iraqis have been trained in basic border and Customs skills, such as how to operate ports of entry, control traffic, set up border checkpoints and conduct searches, Snyder said.

Instructors quickly learned that even the concept of national borders was a foreign idea to many people in the area.

"The borders came well after many tribes were there," Snyder said. "You have to tell people that you can't just walk across the border."

Even with its obvious limits, the program already has produced results, he said.

Traffic flow has improved dramatically at some spots such as the Syrian border, where lines of waiting vehicles have been reduced from about 22 miles to 6 miles.

Though most training has taken place inside classrooms in Jordan, small contingents of Border Patrol agents, members of the SWAT-like BORTAC unit, have been rotating in and out of three remote ports of entry doing field training with Iraqi recruits.

The four-member "border support teams" are sent to set up new ports of entry.

Doug Eckhardt, a supervisor at BORTAC headquarters in El Paso, has participated as a classroom instructor and has conducted field training at Iraq's border with Jordan and Syria.

The border-crossing point at Trebil, on the Jordanian border near Turkey, had been closed for years, Eckhardt said. An empty building stood next to a pole closing off the road.

Four weeks later, Eckhardt said, it had been reopened with Iraqis manning the post.

"We had a huge success. We reorganized the port, cut down on the corruption and allowed commerce to come through again," he said.

The program hasn't gone without criticism. Some politicians and leaders with the Border Patrol's national union have argued that agents are badly needed at U.S. borders, not abroad.

Snyder insisted the number of agents is minimal and in no way depletes domestic efforts. Besides, he noted, they're still participating in the overall U.S. effort to stamp out terrorism.

"These are no cushy assignments," Snyder said.

The border support teams will be dispatched as long as the military says they're needed, he added. The military has no plans to call them off anytime soon, Wellman said.



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hrozemberg@express-news.net

Hmm, US military guarding the borders. TOO BAD IT IS NOT THE US BORDER! WHAT ARE THEY WAITING FOR?

This is exactly what I mentioned here:

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-5352-.html

Mentioned Sixx, too ...