TEL AVIV — A military analyst for Israel's Haaretz newspaper wrote that "the salvation of U.S. President George W.
Bush is in large measure dependent" on Israeli military intelligence and technology to help combat Iraqi improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
But the Bush administration was said to have limited such cooperation
with Israel to avoid an Arab backlash.
The U.S. help has been requested by Brig. Gen. Joseph Votel, the
director of a Defense Department joint task force to fight IEDs. Israeli sources
said Votel has been in steady contact with Israeli commanders as well as
weapons researchers.
On Nov. 12, Haaretz reported that Votel sent an urgent
request to the Israeli military for a "top-secret item" developed by Israel
against IEDs. Haaretz said Votel did not relay the request — issued at the
end of October — through the U.S. military attache in Tel Aviv.
"Within a record time of five days, the items in question and their
manuals were on a plane headed overseas," Haaretz military analyst Amir Oren
wrote.
"It may sound exaggerated, unfounded, or at least pretentious," Oren
wrote, "but at the end of 2005, the salvation of U.S. President George W.
Bush is in large measure dependent on the military intelligence of Israel:
the ability of the IDF [Israel Defense Forces], the Defense Ministry and the
defense industries to help the Americans thwart the IED attacks in Iraq is
becoming the tipping
point on which the Bush administration is tottering."
A senior U.S. congressional aide agreed. The aide said the U.S. Army has
held intensive contacts with counterparts in the Israeli military regarding
IED technology, expertise, tactics as well as military intelligence.
"The Pentagon asked for Israeli help even before the war in Iraq," the
aide said. "The help included everything from military equipment,
technology,
interrogation tactics and urban warfare training. The hot issue is now
IEDs."
Israeli sources said the military has supplied technology and components
for development of IED solutions to the U.S. Army. They said the U.S.
requests have increased in recent weeks in wake of an assessment that the
Iranian-sponsored Hizbullah supplied IED technology to Sunni insurgents.
"More than anybody else, we know Hizbullah tactics and technology," a
military source said. "This has become the key to helping the U.S. troops in
Iraq.
The sources said Votel's panel has been briefed by experts from the
Israeli military's Engineering Corps as well as Rafael, Israel Armament
Development Authority. Rafael has been developing a range of products to
help detect and foil IEDs, particularly those used by Hizbullah in Lebanon
in the late 1990s.
The aide said the Bush administration has limited Pentagon cooperation
with Israel regarding IED and other systems. He said the White House has
opposed the use of Israeli-produced systems in Iraq in an attempt to avoid
an Arab backlash. Instead, the administration has demanded that such systems
be produced in the United States by American contractors.
Sen. John McCain, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said
Israeli intelligence officials have also provided expertise on interrogation
techniques of Arab prisoners. McCain said the Israelis persuaded U.S.
military officials that psychological techniques were more effective than
torture.
"The Israeli defense officials who I have discussed this with say this
[torture] does not work and they use psychological techniques," McCain told
the American Enterprise Institute on Nov. 10.
Over the last few months, Sunni insurgents have made IEDs a leading
tactic in urban warfare. In Operation Steel Curtain, currently taking place
in the Qaim area along the Iraqi-Syrian border, Al Qaida fighters have
scattered hundreds of IEDs in Karabilah in an effort to slow down the
U.S.-led
operation. Al Qaida has also employed a new tactic of booby-trapping houses.
Votel was also said to have visited Israel Army units that deal with
IEDs. They included units from the Paratrooper Brigade, Engineering Corps
and Logistics and Technology Directorate.
Haaretz said U.S. Central Command, responsible for Iraq but not Israel,
sent three officers to the Jewish state for briefings on IEDs. The newspaper
said the Israeli military also allowed dogs from the canine unit to help
detect IEDs in Iraq.
"In the area of combating explosive devices, and in other areas as well,
the IDF and sophisticated defense corporations in Israeli industry are so
far ahead of their American counterparts that self-admiration needs to be
cooled with a doze of modesty," Oren wrote.
