SECRET AUSTEO Report Declassified: Australia's Iraq Preparation Problems 2002

As a contrast to the usual submarine matters, here is an Australian Report partly about Australia’s “SEALs” officially known as the “Clearance Diving Team”.

Also mentioned is that Australians were quietly training in the Middle East in 2002 for the invasion of Iraq - a year before the actual invasion. 

A problem identified by the Report is that the poor treatment of the divers "SEALs" "is blamed on an international private contractor that "prioritised its clients by profit potential"."

The news article (below) is by Australia’s government owned ABC News dated November 26, 2018 and its link: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-26/iraq-war-secrets-revealed-in-newly-declassified-report/10553150   

 

PHOTO: A member of the Australian Navy's Clearance Diving Team 3 [aka: “SEALs”] in Iraq in 2003. (Photo courtesy the Australian War Memorial via ABC News.)

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"Australian Defence Force's Iraq war secrets revealed in newly declassified report

By ABC defence reporter Andrew Greene November 26, 2018

A secret Army study has detailed the widespread logistical problems faced by Australian forces in Iraq 15 years ago.

“Key points:

·       An elite Navy diving team had three sets of clothes and no laundry for three months

·       A combat support squadron was deployed "without … combat body armour and camouflage clothing"

·       Professor says the secrecy of the planning around Australia's involvement in Iraq led to issues”

 The report, obtained by the ABC and marked "for Australian eyes only", revealed how frontline troops were often without crucial supplies for battle and military commanders struggled to get the personnel required.

According to the 156-page document there were also deep concerns about a vaccination program for soldiers that was described as "poorly thought out".

The research, to be declassified today, was compiled by Albert Palazzo of the Australian Army's Land Warfare Studies Centre.

Dr Palazzo's report, completed in 2008, concludes the Navy's elite Clearance Diving Team 3 endured the worst logistical support, and its members were treated like "second-class citizens".

University of New South Wales Professor Clinton Fernandes, who first secured the secret study, said it detailed how ADF personnel were quietly dispatched to US CENTCOM headquarters in Florida in 2002 to begin planning the Iraq war, a year before [Australian Prime Minister] John Howard announced Australia's involvement.

"What the document shows is that the Howard Government had decided early in 2002 that it was going to join the United States in any operation in Iraq whatever it might be, but it couldn't admit this to the public or even to the Australian Defence Force (ADF) at large," he said.

"So only a few people within a very tight planning compartment were told about it.

"They had to plan in seclusion from the rest of the defence force — as a result there were lots of logistical problems."

No camouflage gear for combat support squadron.

Getting Australian personnel and equipment to the Middle East proved difficult, according to the report, because of the RAAF's "complete lack of strategic transport capability"
[Pete Comment: Australia did not acquire C-17A Strategic transport aircraft until 2006. The Hercules available in 2002 lacked sufficient range/speed/carrying capacity.] 
and the government's "inability to provide the ADF with a clear indication of its intentions and a timetable for the commitment of forces".

"By failing to make a timely announcement on the nation's participation, the Howard government succeeded in boxing itself into a corner, while at the same time abdicating one of its few strategic decision opportunities to the United States," Dr Palazzo wrote in his report.

The report describes how "commanders also encountered problems in getting the staff they wanted", often because the people with the "optimum skills" did not have valid [often diplomatic] passports and visas .

[Pete Comment: similar visa/exemption problems which required diplomatic passports for Australian Defence Force personnel recurred as a controversial issue as late as 2014].

Dr Palazzo describes force preparation as "inconsistent" and notes that units were deployed with "different levels of equipment".

"The Expeditionary Combat Support Squadron deployed without key personnel items including individual protection equipment, combat body armour and camouflage clothing," the report reads.

No laundry or fresh clothes for 'second-class' divers

According to Dr Palazzo, "the unit with the most poorly thought-out logistic plan, and the recipient of the worst support during the deployment" was the Royal Australian Navy's elite Clearance Diving Team 3.

His report said it did not take the divers long to get the "impression that they were second-class citizens as far as logistics were concerned".

Much of the poor treatment of the divers is blamed on an international private contractor that "prioritised its clients by profit potential". 

[Pete comment: For that important information see page 100 of the Report - unfortunately Totally Redacted I'm afraid :-) As revealing this information would breach Section 33(a)(iii) of “FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 1982 - 

SECT 33 [being]

Documents affecting national security, defence or international relations

A document is an exempt document if disclosure of the document under this Act:

(a)  would, or could reasonably be expected to, cause damage to:

       (i)  the security of the Commonwealth;

      (ii)  the defence of the Commonwealth; or

      (iii)  the international relations of the Commonwealth [of Australia];”]

 "During their three months in Iraq, the divers did not receive a change of cloths (sic)," the report reads.

"They deployed with three sets of camouflage and lived in them for the duration. There were no laundry facilities at any of their locations in Iraq."

The "controversial and poorly thought-out" vaccination program to protect Australian personnel from biological weapon attacks is also heavily scrutinised in the document.

"News of the inoculation program came as a surprise to most of the troops awaiting deployment or already in the Gulf," the report reads.

"For some it caused considerable angst." [Article Text Ends]

See the actual declassified 156 page Report at Document Reader (at the bottom of the ABC News article) on which the ABC News article is based. Report is [Freedom of Information] FOI 027/18/19 declassified from SECRET AUSTEO report by Albert Palazzo “DEPLOY, SUSTAIN, RETURN AUSTRALIAN LOGISTICS AND THE WAR IN IRAQ” [Australian Army] Land Warfare Studies Centre, January 2008, at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-26/iraq-war-secrets-revealed-in-newly-declassified-report/10553150