Iraqi Officers Missing in U.S.

Apparently some of them are seeking asylum, though who knows what some of those who've disappeared are up to. There needs to be some accountability here.

Iraqi officers go missing in U.S.

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.

Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, says the national security implications are serious and the Bush administration must do more to ensure that those brought to the U.S. are properly accounted for.

"The trainees are given access to highly sensitive information intended to help in the stabilization of Iraq. Proper screening for entry into the program and strict controls during the training are necessary to protect both our national security and our soldiers overseas," said Mr. Smith, who first inquired about missing trainees last year.

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