Months before war was declared, a covert team of CIA paramilitaries and Green Berets slipped unnoticed into northern Iraq. They surveyed the battlespace, struck a deal with the enemy — and foresaw the disaster to come.
On March 20, America will be celebrating — if that’s the right word for it — the 15th anniversary of our invasion of Iraq, one of the most well-executed projections of U.S. military might in history. Despite fears that we were underestimating Saddam Hussein’s capabilities (not to mention an elaborate $250 million dress rehearsal during which the team playing the enemy quickly decimated the U.S. fleet), a coalition including American, British, Australian and Polish armed forces managed to seize control of the country within a mere 21 days, with relatively few casualties on eitherside.
Leaving aside the difficulties presented by the subsequent occupation, Operation Iraqi Freedom was an impressive feat of warfighting, arguably every bit the “cakewalk” that one widely mocked column predicted it would be.
But while military textbooks attribute the campaign’s success to careful planning and coordination, an ability to improvise, superior personnel, air supremacy, and the deployment of overwhelming force, less commonly acknowledged is the role of a minuscule advance team made up of CIA special activities division forces and special forces operators, who spent nine full months in Iraq before the Tomahawks started flying, carefully preparing the battlespace. Meanwhile, they also got a preview of the U.S. military’s misguided view of the Iraqi Army, which would later lead to the undoing of so much good work.
The invasion’s success was attributable to careful preparation, Sam Faddis, the former CIA operative who led the first team into Iraq told Task & Purpose. “In the north, the Iraqi military didn’t put up a fight,” he explained. “They left their barracks and went home. But that didn’t just happen. We had been working them for a long time, destabilizing the regime.”
Faddis ran a eight-man CIA team allied with the Kurds. Four of them, working under Faddis’s deputy, embedded with the PUK in Sulaymaniyah, while Faddis established a base with the KDP in Erbil. Each group was eventually joined by three Green Berets belonging to Operational Detachment Alpha 066 of the 10th Special Forces Group. Others followed as the invasion drew nearer.
The operation had no official title, but the participants came up with their own name, Operation Hotel California, based on the famous lodging in the Eagles song from which you can check out but never leave. “That was our dark humor,” Faddis said. Fifteen years on, it appears to have been a prophetic choice.
Much of the team’s work consisted of what Sid Crews, a former Special Forces detachment commander from the Second Battalion, called “snoopin’ and poopin’,” Vietnam-era slang for covert ops. One key goal was to determine the best routes by which the Fourth Infantry Division could come in from the north — a point that became moot when Turkey briefly denied U.S. forces use of its territory. (They later reversed the decision.) “I was focused on surveying bridges, looking at airfields. developing the battlespace, establishing the conditions, determining the arrayal of enemy forces — classic advance force operations,” Crews said. They spent their downtime holed up in a safe house, “writing reports like crazy.”
Of course, the advance team was also tasked with hunting WMDs — the administration’s primary reason for launching the war. But they mostly came up dry. While the CIA did find some modest chemical and biological weapons factories, they belonged to Ansar al-Islam (AAS), the Al Qaeda-linked insurgent group operating in Kurdistan, which had no ties to Hussein. Once it became clear AAS was a serious threat, and that a contingent of Al Qaeda fighters had snuck into the country after the U.S. invaded Afghanistan, Faddis and his team developed a plan to destroy both groups in August of 2002. But when they requested SOCOM assets, they were turned down cold, marking, Faddis says, the second missed opportunity to take out Al Qaeda (the first being in the mountains of Tora Bora, Afghanistan, the year before).
As time went on, they increasingly concentrated their efforts on picking up sources — men with information about the regime who were eager to share it with U.S. intelligence. Since no Americans were officially operating in Iraq at the time, such operations involved a fair amount of risk. Crews was fond of comparing his job to that of a rodeo clown. “The Agency guys were the ones riding the bull,” he said, and the commandos “were the ones running in front making sure they didn’t get hurt. We were the trigger pullers on the ground.”
Before long, the operational tempo called for near-daily pickups and interrogations of would-be sources. The CIA, Crews said, “was leaning really far forward, trying to get a lot of information very quickly.” In exchange, they threw around a lot of money, and as a result, the intel they got was not always accurate. Crews remembered one guy who offered information on Iraqi communications. But when they laid a map on the table in front of him and asked him to pinpoint the key sites, “It was like a hog looking at a wristwatch,” Crews said. The guy knew nothing. He was “more of a pain in the ass than anything else.” He was one of many they wound up cutting loose, which naturally entailed a new danger. “Our worst fear is that he would go back south of the line and tell someone the Americans have a safe house.”
The solution: scare the living hell of of him. “That was our job,” Crews explained. “Put the fear of God into them,” usually by threatening to turn them over to the Kurds, the Egyptians or someone else. “That was usually enough to keep folks from being stupid.”
Eventually, the Iraqi intelligence service got wise to the Americans operating in their midst. “They started running agents against us,” Faddis recalled. “The idea was, ‘We’re going to feed you so much sexy stuff you’ll agree to meet this guy some place riskier.’” Wise to the plan, the Americans successfully apprehended a half a dozen double-agents or more. “I’ve lost track of the number,” Faddis said.
The most important project of the advance team is one that was ultimately thwarted by our own military. After months of effort, one of Faddis’ team members working in collaboration with Peshmerga Gen. Babakir Zebari managed to win a verbal agreement from the commander of the Iraqi Army’s Fifth Corps as well as the mayor of Mosul and a group of tribal chiefs to make a formal surrender. Fifty thousand enemy soldiers were to defect en masse and come over to our side. The city of Mosul would be in American hands without a shot being fired. And, Faddis believed, the rest of the Iraqi Army in the north would likely follow suit. But since the CIA had been forbidden by the DOD from accepting a surrender, the job fell to Lt. Col. Robert Waltemeyer, Second Battalion Commander, 10th Group Special Forces, who insisted on a number of unnecessary terms, according to Faddis, and insulted the tribal chiefs. The senior Iraqi commander balked — indeed, he killed the Peshmerga fighter who’d delivered the request — and the deal fell apart.
Robert Waltemeyer, now the director of the office of management at the Veterans Benefits Administration, did not respond to a request for comment.
Although the Fifth Corps, like most of the Iraqi Army, ultimately dissolved anyway when U.S. forces arrived in the country, Faddis and Crews both insist that keeping key elements the military intact and using them during the occupation would have helped prevent the insurgency that emerged in the ensuing months.
“You remove the top Baathist guy, promote the guy below him and keep the structure the way it was, and you could have avoided this power vacuum that allowed ISIS and all these other folks to come in,” Crews said. “Tactically it was not that big of a deal, but operationally and strategically it was a very big deal.”
Both men saw the incident as a forerunner of the order by the Coalition Provisional Authority just six weeks later, following the successful conclusion of combat operations, to officially disband the entire Iraqi military. This move is now widely considered to have set the stage for the insurgency. “You could have reconstituted that military in our employ in a heartbeat,” Faddis said, “and instead of 160,000 Americans trying to be police, firemen and everything else, you would have had the Iraqi military running checkpoints and we never would have had all the chaos. The only job of the U.S. military at that point would have been to make sure the Iraqis would follow orders.”
Although Faddis, now an author, is hard at work on a book about the experience (a follow-up to his 2009 tome, Operation Hotel California), the story of the handful of Americans who secretly lived and worked in northern Iraq, quietly preparing the ground for the invasion, is largely unknown. In part, that’s because it remained classified for years.
But Crews admits that the tale also lacks the cinematic punch exhibited by, say, the CIA-Special Forces team that led the invasion of Afghanistan, the subject of the book Horse Soldiers and the recent film adaptation 12 Strong. “People want to see guys on horseback shooting at tanks with M-4s,” he said. “But those stories are all bullshit. It never looks like that on the ground. It’s not Hollywood, it’s not sexy. It’s the down and dirty — guys doing what had to be done.”
∫∫∫ This always seems to be the Great Divide: were these “mistakes” by “inept bureaucrats” or was it willful dark intent?
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This is Chris Redgrave for Zions Bank Speaking on Business. How could herbs that have been on Planet Earth forever not be beneficial for us? Melanie Skelton has been studying natural remedies for years, and this education of herbs is what lead to the start of her business, SkinTastic Creations. Over 20 years ago Melanie started this as a hobby business and five years ago got serious and launched a full-blown business, and is now shipping her product across the nation. Her commitment is so strong, she graduated as a master herbalist last summer. SkinTastic Creations is known for their line of skin care products, made with herbs and other natural ingredients, many harvested from Melanie’s garden and handcrafted by Melanie and her family, which started at the kitchen table and now happens in the back of their new storefront in Tooele, which is supporting SkinTastic Creations. She loves calendula, comfrey and chickweed because they promote healthy skin. With botanical oils, the herbs are used as ingredients in balms, lotions and serums. The top-selling item for SkinTastic Creations is bath bombs made with essential oils, like lemongrass, which is the most popular, and a de-stress bath bomb is in the works. A year ago, she introduced a popular natural deodorant, as well as the TensionTamer to get rid of headaches, which is a customer favorite. Find her products online at skintasticcreations.com. For Zions Bank, I’m Chris Redgrave, speaking on business. SkinTastic Creations 768 N. Main St. Tooele, UT 84074 435-830-8883 www.skintasticcreations.com
House of Marley has carved out a place for itself in the audio market with a unique look and a products with a distinct voicing for modern music. Today we’re looking at the Get Together Mini Bluetooth speaker. The unit is a mid-sized Bluetooth speaker with a bass-focused sound and 10 hours battery life. You can pick it up for $109 USD (£100, $161 AUD).
The House of Marley Get Together Mini is a cutdown version of the original Get Together BT. The Mini still packs plenty of punch though, with a 2 x 2.5” Woofer and 2 x .75″ Tweeters. You get an integrated mic, 45 ft wireless range and the ability to pair two units for stereo sound. House of Marley have included a USB-out port which allows you to charge a device using the speaker. If for whatever reason you don’t want to use Bluetooth, you can also run audio to the speaker via the 3.5mm auxiliary port.
House of Marley products generally aim to please the average music fan rather than audiophiles and the Get Together Mini is true to form. It’s a very modern-sounding Bluetooth speaker with a big bass push. It’s the type of speaker you’d reach for if you wanted to pump some hip hop, R&B or EDM at a party. The bass can be a bit much for certain styles. It wouldn’t be ideal if you mostly listen to guitar-based rock or folk music for example. But if you want thick, punchy bass, then it’ll deliver it in spades. The response of the speaker seems more designed for larger rooms and higher volumes than low volume listening in a bedroom.
The most distinctive feature of the speaker is the bamboo faceplate and matching rear bass panel. The wood looks gorgeous, although the added weight is pretty substantial. The speaker is also finished with hemp/organic cotton/recycled plastic fabric.
The weight means the Get Together Mini isn’t a particularly portable Bluetooth speaker. It’s not waterproof either, so it’s not going for the sports crowd. It does look excellent though and gets pretty loud, so it’s most suited for use throughout the house or in the backyard.
The only accessories you get with the Get Together Mini is a 1m charging cable and the accompanying wall charging plug. The charger has four interchangeable wall plugs for different regions, while the cable is a tough fabric design.
The Get Together Mini pumps pretty loud already, but if you want bigger then you can always get the original Get Together BT ($120), which has larger speakers (2 x 3.5″ woofers and 2 x 1″ Tweeters). The Bag of Riddim ($250) has the same speaker set-up as the Get Together BT, but it adds removable straps for easy portability. House of Marley also have three smaller sports speakers: The Chant Sport BT ($68), Chant BT ($65) and Chant Mini BT ($42). The Chant Sport BT is rated IP67 for water/dust resistance, while the other two Chant speakers are rated at IPX4 for splash resistance.
The House of Marley Get Together Mini is a bass-focused, fun sounding Bluetooth speaker. It’s definitely tuned to pump hip hop, EDM and pop music, so audiophiles need not apply. It’s on the heavy side so it’s best suited for use around the house, and with its bamboo faceplate it looks the part too.
The House of Marley Get Together Mini is a bass-focused, fun sounding speaker that's great for use around the house.
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