Iraqi Officers Visiting US Go AWOL

O Brother Where Art Thou R-U-N-O-F-T A number of Iraqi officers in the United States for training have R-U-N-O-F-T, Sara Carter reports.

Numerous Iraqi military and law-enforcement officials brought to the U.S. as part of special intelligence and training programs have run away and are seeking asylum in this country or disappeared altogether, The Washington Times has learned.

Intelligence officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity, say nearly a dozen Iraqis fled military training facilities in the U.S., including a brigadier general who went to Canada with his family earlier this year.

Army officials yesterday confirmed that five Iraqi military personnel whom the Army had been training disappeared between 2005 and 2007. They did not know how many other Iraqis sponsored by the Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy may have done the same.

“Nothing that this command is aware of would suggest that any of those students who departed from their training or returned back to Iraq pose any threat to the United States,” said Harvey Perritt, civilian spokesman for U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), which oversees all the schools the Army has in the continental U.S. “We don’t know the reasons why they elected not to return to Iraq,” he said.

Well, given the conditions in Iraq, it wouldn’t be hard to speculate.

Without knowing how many Iraqi officers have been brought to the US over the time period, there’s not much perspective here. My strong guess is that the number who have taken off is comparatively trivial.

Still, if we can’t track Iraqi generals on our Army bases, it’s no wonder we haven’t gotten a handle on 20 million-odd illegal aliens.

Via Stacy McCain

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. Nick says:

    We had the same problem in Belgium with the training of Congolese officers.