Goss prepares Ankara for strike on Iran

[RPankn]

On edit: Strike Syria from the title...was reading from the wrong thing.

Published: 12/13/2005

CICEK: “CIA HEAD’S VISIT IS A NATURAL OUTCOME OF DEVELOPMENTS”
There are important developments and movements in the region, so Turkey’s exchange of information with the CIA comes from this and is normal, said government spokesman Cemil Cicek on Monday about CIA Director Porter Goss’ recent visit to Turkey, adding that Turkey has expectations from US about the terrorist PKK. Speaking after a Cabinet meeting, Cicek said that Goss’ visit had not been discussed by the government ministers. Cicek indicated that intelligence organizations from other countries meet from time to time, adding, “This wasn’t the first time a CIA director has visited Turkey.” Cicek stated, “At many meetings that I took part in, especially on the fight against terrorism, the issue that many countries emphasize is that sharing intelligence on terrorist groups is the first step. This issue has priority. Therefore, Turkey shares information on intelligence with the US as well as other countries. This is natural.” /Cumhuriyet/

CIA’S GOSS REPORTEDLY WARNED ANKARA OF IRANIAN THREAT

During his recent visit to Ankara, CIA Director Porter Goss reportedly brought three dossiers on Iran to Ankara. Goss is said to have asked for Turkey’s support for Washington’s policy against Iran’s nuclear activities, charging that Tehran had supported terrorism and taken part in activities against Turkey. Goss also asked Ankara to be ready for a possible US air operation against Iran and Syria. Goss, who came to Ankara just after FBI Director Robert Mueller’s visit, brought up Iran’s alleged attempts to develop nuclear weapons. It was said that Goss first told Ankara that Iran has nuclear weapons and this situation was creating a huge threat for both Turkey and other states in the region. Diplomatic sources say that Washington wants Turkey to coordinate with its Iran policies. The second dossier is about Iran’s stance on terrorism. The CIA argued that Iran was supporting terrorism, the PKK and al-Qaeda. The third had to do with Iran’s alleged stance against Ankara. Goss said that Tehran sees Turkey as an enemy and would try to “export its regime.” /Cumhuriyet/

GEN. BUYUKANIT PROCEEDS TO WASHINGTON

Chief of General Staff Gen. Yasar Buyukanit, who arrived in New York on Saturday to pay an official visit at the invitation of US Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker, yesterday visited the West Point Military Academy, and then proceeded to Washington. Buyukanit is scheduled to meet with Schoomaker and Deputy Defense Secretary Eric Edelman and to visit military facilities. On Saturday, Buyukanit is expected to leave for Turkey. /Turkiye/

CHP: “THE FBI AND CIA VISITS WERE MEANT TO SOFTEN UP TURKEY AND MAKE IT ACCEPT THEIR DEMANDS”

Opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy group leader Ali Topuz yesterday charged that recent visits of CIA Director Porter Goss and FBI head Robert S. Mueller aimed to “soften up” Turkey and so make it accept Washington’s demands. “If they want to end terrorism, they should catch the terrorists in Kandil,” northern Iraq, added Topuz, referring to the PKK. /Milliyet/

RECTOR ASKIN’S TRIAL TO START TOMORROW

The trial of Yuzuncu Yil University Rector Yucel Askin is due to begin tomorrow in Van. Delegations from the Board of Higher Education (YOK) and main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) will attend the hearing. Askin and other nine suspects, including four professors, are charged with corruption in a 1998 medical equipment purchase. Askin was jailed in mid October. /Sabah/

NATO SECRETARY-GENERAL TO VISIT ANKARA

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer is due to arrive in Ankara on Sunday for a two-day official visit. During his stay, Scheffer is expected to talk with Turkish officials about a number of issues, including the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, NATO-European Union defense cooperation, and Iraq. /Hurriyet/

EU’S MIREL: “TURKISH-EU NEGOTIATIONS WILL BEGIN IN MARCH, AT THE LATEST”

Pierre Mirel, a senior official of the European Commission’s Enlargement Office, said yesterday that Turkey would be able to begin the talks phase of its accession negotiations with the bloc in March at the latest. Speaking at a seminar in Ankara, Mirel said that the commission foresees starting negotiations in earnest with Turkey in February or March. Turkish and EU experts have so far concluded the preliminary screening phase on four chapters of the 35: science and research, education and culture, public tenders and competition policy. The screening process is meant to prepare for accession negotiations between the EU and a candidate country. /Star/

KRETSCHMER: “THE ROLE OF THE ARMED FORCES IN TURKEY IS DIFFERENT FROM IN EU MEMBER STATES”

Speaking to reporters in Konya yesterday, European Commission Turkey Representative Hansjoerg Kretschmer said that the role of the armed forces in Turkey was different from the role the military plays in European Union member states, adding that Ankara needed to do much in this area. “Recently we’ve seen progress in this area,” he said. “I’m sure Turkey will reach EU standards in the coming years.” /Hurriyet/

COMMISSION MEETS TO SET MINIMUM WAGE

The state commission charged with setting a minimum wage to take effect at the beginning of next year held its second round of meetings in Ankara yesterday. During the one-and-half-hour gathering, economic figures were evaluated. The next meeting will be held on Friday. /Turkiye/

TURKISH AIR FORCES TO TRAIN ITALIAN PILOTS ON F-16s

The Turkish Air Forces is due to train Italian pilots on F-16 fighter jets under an agreement signed between the General Staff and the Italy’s Defense Ministry which was approved by the Cabinet last month. The agreement will be in effect for a year. Last year, the Turkish Air Forces trained United Arab Emirates pilots on F-16s under a protocol signed between the two countries in 2000. /Milliyet/

MORGAN STANLEY: “IN THE THIRD QUARTER, THE TURKISH ECONOMY GREW ABOVE EXPECTATIONS”

International investment bank Morgan Stanley yesterday announced that in the third quarter of this year, the 7.3% growth of the Turkish economy surpassed the bank’s expectations of 6.8%. The bank predicted that if this growth trend continues, then growth for the end of this year would be 6.2% and the Turkish economy would grow 6.5% next year. /Aksam/


www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=89033

[Moses]

What a coincidence that the Israelis made the puzzling announcement that Iran could be attacked by a force consisting of US, UK, and Turkey. Israel speaks and the USraeli government acts.

[Moses]

Posted on Tue, Dec. 27, 2005

Kurds in Iraqi army proclaim loyalty to militia
]BY TOM LASSETER
Knight Ridder Newspapers

KIRKUK, Iraq - Kurdish leaders have inserted more than 10,000 of their militia members into Iraqi army divisions in northern Iraq to lay the groundwork to swarm south, seize the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and possibly half of Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, and secure the borders of an independent Kurdistan.

Five days of interviews with Kurdish leaders and troops in the region suggest that U.S. plans to bring unity to Iraq before withdrawing American troops by training and equipping a national army aren't gaining traction. Instead, some troops that are formally under U.S. and Iraqi national command are preparing to protect territory and ethnic and religious interests in the event of Iraq's fragmentation, which many of them think is inevitable.

The soldiers said that while they wore Iraqi army uniforms they still considered themselves members of the Peshmerga - the Kurdish militia - and were awaiting orders from Kurdish leaders to break ranks. Many said they wouldn't hesitate to kill their Iraqi army comrades, especially Arabs, if a fight for an independent Kurdistan erupted.

"It doesn't matter if we have to fight the Arabs in our own battalion," said Gabriel Mohammed, a Kurdish soldier in the Iraqi army who was escorting a Knight Ridder reporter through Kirkuk. "Kirkuk will be ours."

The Kurds have readied their troops not only because they've long yearned to establish an independent state but also because their leaders expect Iraq to disintegrate, senior leaders in the Peshmerga - literally, "those who face death" - told Knight Ridder. The Kurds are mostly secular Sunni Muslims, and are ethnically distinct from Arabs.

Their strategy mirrors that of Shiite Muslim parties in southern Iraq, which have stocked Iraqi army and police units with members of their own militias and have maintained a separate militia presence throughout Iraq's central and southern provinces. The militias now are illegal under Iraqi law but operate openly in many areas. Peshmerga leaders said in interviews that they expected the Shiites to create a semi-autonomous and then independent state in the south as they would do in the north.

The Bush administration - and Iraq's neighbors - oppose the nation's fragmentation, fearing that it could lead to regional collapse. To keep Iraq together, U.S. plans to withdraw significant numbers of American troops in 2006 will depend on turning U.S.-trained Kurdish and Shiite militiamen into a national army.

The interviews with Kurdish troops, however, suggested that as the American military transfers more bases and areas of control to Iraqi units, it may be handing the nation to militias that are bent more on advancing ethnic and religious interests than on defeating the insurgency and preserving national unity.

A U.S. military officer in Baghdad with knowledge of Iraqi army operations said he was frustrated to hear of the Iraqi soldiers' comments but that he had seen no reports suggesting that they would acted improperly in the field.

"There's talk and there's acts, and their actions are that they follow the orders of the Iraqi chain of command and they secure their sectors well," said the officer, who refused to be identified because he's not authorized to speak on the subject

American military officials have said they're trying to get a broader mix of sects in the Iraqi units.

However, Col. Talib Naji, a Kurd serving in the Iraqi army on the edge of Kirkuk, said he would resist any attempts to dilute the Kurdish presence in his brigade.

"The Ministry of Defense recently sent me 150 Arab soldiers from the south," Naji said. "After two weeks of service, we sent them away. We did not accept them. We will not let them carry through with their plans to bring more Arab soldiers here."

One key to the Kurds' plan for independence is securing control of Kirkuk, the seat of a province that holds some of Iraq's largest oil fields. Should the Kurds push for independence, Kirkuk and its oil would be a key economic engine.

The city's Kurdish population was driven out by former Sunni Arab dictator Saddam Hussein, whose "Arabization" program paid thousands of Arab families to move there and replace recently deported or murdered Kurds.

"Kirkuk is Kurdistan; it does not belong to the Arabs," Hamid Afandi, the minister of Peshmerga for the Kurdistan Democratic Party, one of the two major Kurdish groups, said in an interview at his office in the Kurdish city of Irbil. "If we can resolve this by talking, fine, but if not, then we will resolve it by fighting."

In addition to putting former Peshmerga in the Iraqi army, the Kurds have deployed small Peshmerga units in buildings and compounds throughout northern Iraq, according to militia leaders. While it's hard to calculate the number of these active Peshmerga fighters, interviews with militia members suggest that it's well in excess of 10,000.

Afandi said his group had sent at least 10,000 Peshmerga to the Iraqi army in northern Iraq, a figure substantiated in interviews with officers in two Iraqi army divisions in the region.

"All of them belong to the central government, but inside they are Kurds ... all Peshmerga are under the orders of our leadership," Afandi said.

Jafar Mustafir, a close adviser to Iraq's Kurdish interim president, Jalal Talabani, and the deputy head of Peshmerga for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, a longtime rival of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, echoed that.

"We will do our best diplomatically, and if that fails we will use force" to secure borders for an independent Kurdistan, Mustafir said. "The government in Baghdad will be too weak to use force against the will of the Kurdish people."

Mustafir said his party had sent at least 4,000 Peshmerga of its own into the Iraqi army in the area.

The Kurds have positioned their men in Iraqi army units on the western flank of Kirkuk, in the area that includes Irbil and the volatile city of Mosul, and on the eastern flank in the area that includes the Kurdish city of Sulaimaniyah.

The Iraqi army's 2nd Division, which oversees the Irbil-Mosul area, has some 12,000 soldiers, and at least 90 percent of them are Kurds, according to the division's executive officer.

Of the 3,000 Iraqi soldiers in Irbil, some 2,500 were together in a Peshmerga unit previously based in the city. An entire brigade in Mosul, about 3,000 soldiers, is composed of three battalions that were transferred almost intact from former Peshmerga units, with many of the same soldiers and officers in the same positions. Mosul's population is split between Kurds and Arabs, and any move by Peshmerga units to take it almost certainly would lead to an eruption of Arab violence.

"The Parliament must solve the issue of Kurdistan. If not, we know how to deal with this: We will send Kurdish forces to enforce Kurdistan's boundaries, and that will have to include the newly liberated areas such as the Kurdish sections of Mosul," 1st Lt. Herish Namiq said. "Every single one of us is Peshmerga. Our entire battalion is Peshmerga."

Namiq was riding in an unarmored pickup in an Arab neighborhood in eastern Mosul where Sunni Arab insurgents frequently shoot at his men. As he leaned out the window with his AK-47, scanning the streets, he said, "We will do our duty as Peshmerga."

Firas Ahmed, the assistant to the head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party office in Mosul, invited a Knight Ridder reporter to inspect the local Peshmerga brigade, motioning to a compound across the street.

It housed the headquarters of the 4th Brigade of the Iraqi army's 2nd Division.

"We cannot openly say they are Peshmerga," Ahmed said. "We will take you to see the Peshmerga, but they will be wearing Iraqi army uniforms."

Ahmed's boss, Khasrow Kuran, grinned and chimed in: "We cannot say `Peshmerga' here."

The 4th Brigade soldiers who met Ahmed at the front gate saluted him and said, openly, that they reported to Afandi, the Kurdistan Democratic Party's Peshmerga commander.

Col. Sabar Saleem, a former Peshmerga who's the head intelligence officer for the 4th Brigade, said he answered to the Peshmerga leadership. He also said he had little use for most Sunni Arabs.

"All of the Sunnis are facilitating the terrorists. They have little influence compared with the Kurds and Shiites, so they allow the terrorists to operate to create pressure and get political concessions," Saleem said. "So they should be killed, too ... the Sunni political leaders in Baghdad are supporting the insurgency, too, and there will be a day when they are tried for it."

To the east, in the Iraqi army's 4th Division, is a brigade of about 3,000 troops in Sulaimaniyah that's also a near-replica of a former Peshmerga brigade.

Because of a U.S. military mandate, the 4th Division battalion serving in Kirkuk is about 50 percent Kurdish, 40 percent Arab and 10 percent Turkmen. The battalion on the outskirts of Kirkuk is about 60 percent Kurdish.

Capt. Fakhir Mohammed, a former Peshmerga and the operations officer for the battalion on Kirkuk's edge, said he wasn't concerned that the Kurds had only a simple majority in the two Kirkuk battalions: "It's not a problem, because we have an entire brigade in Sulaimaniyah that is all Kurd. They would come down here and take the Kurdish side."

Sgt. Ahmed Abdullah agreed.

"There are thousands of us Peshmerga, and it is our duty to protect the borders of Kurdistan ... we will fight to hold Kirkuk at any price," Abdullah said. "We will fight that battalion (in Kirkuk) if they stand in our way."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
© 2005 KRT Wire and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
www.duluthsuperior.com

[Moses]

[/b], and no American news organization, he writes, "wants to burden us with such complex and challenging details. You never know what might happen—viewers might switch to another channel."
[/ul]

The Press: The Enemy Within

[Moses]

Targets are Iran and Syria

Source:By Nilgun GULCAN, JTW


By Nilgun GULCAN

ANKARA (JTW) - First heads of the FBI and the CIA visited Turkey. Americans said that there is no significant reason for the visits. “Visits that took place in recent days have nothing to do with Iran and Syria. These visits are [contributions] towards strengthening bilateral relations [between Turkey and the United States]” said similarly Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul. However both the FBI and CIA asked about Iran and Syria. Particularly intelligence sharing and possible impact of a military operation were on the agenda of the meetings. Another issue was naturally Iraq. The Americans were wondering Turkey’s position regarding the Kurds in Iraq. It is obvious that the Washington needs Turkey in Iraq and a possible American withdrawal from Iraq would mean Turkey’s strongly entrance to Iraq. The problem is the Kurdish issue. Turkey is not happy with the independent Kurdish state plans in Northern Iraq. The Kurds seek to include Kirkuk (Kerkuk) city to the Kurdish region, though the majority of the city is not Kurdish. FBI in particular asked the Turkish head of the MIT and Police Intelligence about the possible Turkish attitude if the Kurds ‘capture’ the Kirkuk city. Turkey said almost nothing. Turkey follows wait-and-see policy.

The CIA and FBI visits were followed by the Israelis. Israeli Army Chief Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz arrived in Turkey in a week. According to the Israeli officials the reason for the visit is to develop the dialogue and co-operation between Turkey and Israel. However the questions were similar to those of Americans. Iran, Syria and Iraq were the foremost priorities. The Israeli Army Chief further asked permission for training the Israeli commandos in Turkey’s Bolu and Hakkari mountains. Halutz said “our commandos cannot see snow, the whether in Israel is quite hot. If they can be trained in Turkey they would be ready for the winter conditions”. Turkey provides Israeli Air Force training opportunities in Konya Valley. The problem is why Israel wants to be ready for the mountain and winter circumstances? There is no cold neighboring country around Israel. The only places Israeli commandos could use their training are Turkey, Iran and Northern Iraq. According to the Turkish experts, Israeli Army focuses on Iran and Kurdish regions in the Middle East. Three weeks ago Israeli Yedioth Aharonot reported that dozens of former Israeli commandos have been training Kurdish security forces in northern Iraq, supplying them with equipment worth millions of dollars. And now the Israelis want to come to the other side of the border. The Hakkari Mountains are on Turkey-Iraq and Turkey-Iran borders and the surrounding region is sensitive Kurdish populated areas.

It is reported in Turkish media that Ankara is full of spies in recent days. The high ranked Western politicians, security chiefs and bureaucrats have been visiting Ankara. It is obvious that something is happening. The Turkish politicians and military warn Israel and US that any plan to intervene in Iran would be very risky for the future of the volatile Middle East, and that diplomacy should be the preferred solution. However the Israelis and Americans seem decisive. While Iranian leader Ahmedinejad threatens Israel, Washington and Tel Aviv studies on the military operation plans against Iran.

Journal of Turkish Weekly
27 December 2005




Copyright © 2005     Journal of Turkish Weekly     www.turkishweekly.net/news.php?id=24155

[Moses]

Israel Ex-commandos Training Kurds in North Iraq: Report



Operating from a secret desert stronghold, the Israeli soldiers have been training the Kurds in weapons, self-defense and anti-terror techniques.

CAIRO, December 1, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) - Dozens of former Israeli commandos have been training Kurdish security forces in northern Iraq, supplying them with equipment worth millions of dollars, Yedioth Aharonot newspaper reported Thursday, December 1.

Over the past 18 months, these ex-commandos, who were sent to Iraq by several Israeli corporations, have been training special security units as part of a program organized by the Kurdish authorities, said Israel's top-selling daily.

Operating from a secret desert stronghold dubbed Code Z, the ex-Israeli soldiers, all with elite-unit experience, have been training the Kurds in weapons, self-defense and anti-terror techniques.

The newspaper showed photographs of men it said were Israelis, their faces concealed, training Kurds in the use of weapons at an unknown location and preparing vehicles at an airport.

The New Yorker veteran investigative reporter Seymour Hersh said Israeli intelligence and military operatives were quietly at work in northern Iraq, providing training for Kurdish commando units and running covert operations inside Kurdish areas of Iran and Syria.

Israeli Arms
According to the Israeli daily, Motorola Israel and Magalcom Communications and Computers won contracts with the Kurdish government to the tune of hundreds of millions of US dollars.

As part of the program, the firms have supplied the Kurds with tones of Israeli-manufactured equipment, including dozens of motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles, sniffer dogs, devices for upgrading Kalashnikov rifles, flack jackets, uniforms and helmets.

They have also been involved in the secret construction of a major airport near the northern town of Arbil, known as "Hawler International".

The Israelis entered Iraq through its northern border with Turkey posing as construction engineers and agricultural experts, the paper said.

Yedioth Aharonot added that a company owned by Israeli entrepreneur Shlomi Michaels is in full business partnership with the Kurdish government, providing strategic consultation on economic and security issues.
The company was initially established by former Mossad chief Danny Yatom and Michaels, yet Yatom sold his shares upon his election to the Knesset.

A shroud of secrecy has been imposed on the project for fear the Israelis could be targeted by Iraqi resistance groups.

The Kurds, who make up 15-20 percent of Iraq's population and live mostly along the borders with Iran and Turkey, have enjoyed broad autonomy since the 1991 Gulf War.

Despite assurances from both sides, Turkey has repeatedly raised concerned about the reported presence of Israeli operatives in northern Iraq and their cooperation with the country’s Kurdish community.

[Moses]

In case you missed it:

SEYMOUR M. HERSH: PLAN B:

Ehud Barak, the former Israeli Prime Minister, who supported the Bush Administration’s invasion of Iraq, took it upon himself at this point to privately warn Vice-President Dick Cheney that America had lost in Iraq; according to an American close to Barak, he said that Israel “had learned that there’s no way to win an occupation.” The only issue, Barak told Cheney, “was choosing the size of your humiliation.”
www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040628fa_fact

[Moses]

December 28, 2005
THE FIGHT FOR IRAQ
DOW JONES REPRINTS



Some Conservatives Return
To Old Argument
Outside Advocacy Group Aims
To Rally Support by Backing
Bush's Initial Claims on Iraq
By YOCHI J. DREAZEN and JOHN D. MCKINNON
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
December 28, 2005; Page A4


WASHINGTON – The television commercials are attention-grabbing: Newly found Iraqi documents show that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, including anthrax and mustard gas, and had "extensive ties" to al Qaeda. The discoveries are being covered up by those "willing to undermine support for the war on terrorism to selfishly advance their shameless political ambitions."

The hard-hitting spots are part of a recent public-relations barrage aimed at reversing a decline in public support for President Bush's handling of Iraq. But these advertisements aren't paid for by the Republican National Committee or other established White House allies. Instead, they are sponsored by Move America Forward, a media-savvy outside advocacy group that has become one of the loudest -- and most controversial -- voices in the Iraq debate.

While even Mr. Bush now publicly acknowledges the mistakes his administration made in judging the threat posed by Mr. Hussein, the organization is taking to the airwaves to insist that the White House was right all along.

Similar to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth -- the advocacy group that helped derail John Kerry's presidential campaign -- Move America Forward has magnified its reach by making small television and radio ad buys and then relying on cable- and local-television news outlets to give the commercials heavy coverage. Move America Forward has no discernible formal ties to the White House or the Republican National Committee, and the group says it operates independently from the Republican Party establishment. Still, the organization provides a clear benefit to the administration by spreading a pro-war message that goes beyond what administration officials can say publicly.

The effect of the ads hasn't been measured. Amid a simultaneous flurry of speeches by the president and a ramped-up RNC effort aimed at boosting the war, polls show that Mr. Bush's job-approval ratings, specifically his handling of the Iraq situation, have risen this month from all-time lows.

"The White House has really done a poor job of getting the message out, which is why we've had to step into the breach," says California-based Republican political strategist Sal Russo, one of the group's three founders. "They should do a better job of coordinating with those willing to get out and tell the story. We shouldn't be the only ones out here fighting."

The White House didn't return several calls seeking comment. A Republican National Committee spokesman declined to comment.

Move America Forward has raised more than $1 million, mainly in small donations, over the past two years. The group grew out of the successful 2003 effort to recall Democratic California Gov. Gray Davis. It was officially founded in 2004 by Mr. Russo, whose company provides office space for the organization; Melanie Morgan, a conservative San Francisco radio host; and Howard Kaloogian, a Republican former state assemblyman seeking the congressional seat of former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, who resigned recently after admitting to taking bribes from defense contractors.

One of their early efforts was a campaign supporting John Bolton's contentious nomination as United Nations ambassador. Another involved backing U.S. detention policies at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by selling "I [Heart] Gitmo" bumper stickers.

When the White House was caught flat-footed this summer by the emergence of Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a fallen soldier turned vocal administration critic, Move America Forward sent pro-war protesters to her camp in Texas and mounted a parallel bus tour of war supporters that culminated in a large rally in Washington. The counter-Sheehan campaign showed how the organization has raised its profile by staging well-publicized rallies and public events that attract substantial media coverage, even if the number of participants is relatively low.

In July, with the administration facing a torrent of negative media coverage of the war in Iraq, Move America Forward sent five conservative radio-talk-show hosts to U.S. military bases in Baghdad for a week of upbeat broadcasts. Ms. Morgan says that, during her time in Iraq, she rode up and down the so-called highway of death leading from Baghdad's airport seven times to prove to her listeners that it wasn't as dangerous as media reports suggested.

In addition to his Iraq political work in the U.S., Mr. Russo has an open-ended political-advertising contract with the Kurdish Regional Government in northern Iraq for whom he produces advertisements that run in the U.S. seeking investment in Kurdistan. Some critics accuse him of having a vested financial interest in prolonging the U.S. presence there.

Liberals question how the group has maintained its status as a tax-exempt nonprofit organization, which requires strict nonpartisanship, given the anti-Democratic tone of its campaigns. The group's Web site, www.moveamericaforward.org1, for example, attacks the current chairman of the Democratic National Committee, referring to "Howard Dean types who only see a future of failure for this country."

"When you have people participating in partisan activities with nonprofit dollars, that's really something the IRS needs to look at," says Tom Matzzie, the Washington director of the liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org, another frequent target for Move America Forward's rhetoric. "An organization with a shady tax status participating in partisan activities and saying things that aren't true is a rogue element in American politics."

An Internal Revenue Service spokeswoman declined to address the issue, saying that it is agency policy not to "comment on individual taxpayers or organizations." MoveOn is a "political action committee," meaning its donations aren't tax-deductible and must be disclosed.

Move America Forward officials acknowledge that the group's leadership is conservative, but insist they are nonpartisan and point out that the organization also has criticized Republicans. They say that the organization has no connections to the Bush administration or the Republican Party and has been unable to get meetings with White House personnel. And they say there is no conflict between the organization's advocacy work and Mr. Russo's financial ties to the Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq.

"If you consider being pro-America and pro-troop to be Republican, then we'll proudly take that label," Ms. Morgan says. "But we've never been embraced by the White House or made part of a secret-right wing conspiracy."

Indeed, Ms. Morgan says she is baffled that the White House no longer makes the case that Mr. Hussein had WMDs. The White House dropped the claims after a variety of investigators found no evidence to substantiate them. But Ms. Morgan says her ads are justified, based on documents given to her in Iraq by an Iraqi general she identified as Abdul Qader Jassim, and on information from U.S. officials involved in the hunt for weapons there. She believes Mr. Hussein possessed WMDs, and that those weapons remain in Iraq today. It couldn't be ascertained that Mr. Jassim is a general and he couldn't be reached for comment.

The organization has kept up a steady drumbeat of pro-military and pro-war commercials in recent weeks. Its newest radio ads, timed to the holiday season, feature parents of service people killed in Iraq or on their way back to the country. In one spot, a woman described as military parent Deborah Johns observes that the "the terrorists know they can not defeat our military -- they can only win by beating down the morale of the American people."

Several Move America Forward officials hope to participate in the Iraq debate more actively than through mere advocacy. Mr. Kaloogian has an early fund-raising lead in the crowded field of Republicans hoping to succeed Mr. Cunningham, the former U.S. representative who resigned after admitting taking bribes. And Move America Forward Executive Director Robert Dixon, furious over a recent troop withdrawal resolution passed by the Sacramento City Council, is weighing a run for a seat in the hopes of getting the declaration reversed.

Write to Yochi J. Dreazen at [e-mail]2 and John D. McKinnon at [e-mail]3
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