IHEC BABIL REP CONCERNED ABOUT US MILITARY PRESENCE DURING

C O N F I D E N T I A L HILLAH 000049 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 8/26/2019 TAGS: PGOV ASEC MARR ATRN AMGT SUBJECT: IHEC BABIL REP CONCERNED ABOUT US MILITARY PRESENCE DURING ELECTIONS CLASSIFIED BY: Rick Roberts, PRT Babil Team Leader, PRT Babil, DOS. REASON: 1.4 (b),(d) (U) This is a PRT-Babil Cable. ¶2. (U) Action request in para 5. ¶3. (SBU) On August 26, PRT Deputy TL and IPAO discussed the upcoming national elections with Hussein Abed Ali Khulaif, the Director of Babil's Governorate Election Office. Khulaif welcomed the idea of international observers for the elections, but his expectations of how we would conduct monitoring conflicted with the realities of PRT Babil travel after the move to Kalsu. The GEO Director said that military in uniform would not be allowed near polling stations, and indicated that he was expecting us to conduct election monitoring much in the way we had previously, using RSO vehicles parked 200 ft from the polling stations with one civilian with an appropriate observer badge carrying a concealed weapon and accompanying the civilian monitoring team into the polling site on foot. PRT staff pointed out to him that the Babil PRT would be operating out of Kalsu by the time of the elections, and would in future be traveling in military vehicles including MRAPS and not RSO vehicles. PRT staff also mentioned the post June 30 requirement that Iraqi forces escort all US military moves, and asked Khulaif whether he thought Iraqi forces would be available to escort us to polling stations given that they would also be responsible for securing those sites. He said it was too soon in the planning process to say. ¶4. (C) Comment: PRT Babil is concerned that we will not be able to safely and effectively conduct election monitoring given the post June 30 restrictions on military moves. Polling stations would be choice targets for IEDs and other violent acts on election day, and we are not comfortable with walking 200 feet from where our vehicles are parked to the polling stations in the current security environment. Given the restrictions on military approaching the polling stations, we would need a TDY RSO staff to accompany each monitoring team and provide an armed escort. In the last elections, we fielded seven monitoring teams, and we would envision fielding up to seven this time depending on the capacity of the US military, RSO Baghdad, and Iraqi forces to provide needed support for this activity. Please advise. ¶5. (C) Action request: Request guidance soonest on Embassy expectations of PRTs in monitoring the upcoming elections in light of post June 30 requirements for military moves. Can RSO provide TDY support and vehicles to provide monitoring teams with armed escorts, and if so how many TDY RSO staff can we expect in Babil? ROBERTS