US ‘Extremely Concerned’ About ISIS Takeover of Iraq’s Most Dangerous Dam

[flamingdem]

Source: ABC

The U.S. government is “extremely concerned” about a brutal group of Islamist fighters seizing control of the Mosul Dam, a gargantuan, poorly-constructed dam in Iraq that, if breached, could launch a 65-foot-tall wall of water into one of the country's largest cities and send flood waters all the way to Baghdad.

After a day of conflicting reports about the status of the dam, which was guarded by well-respected Kurdish peshmerga troops, a State Department spokesperson told ABC News late Thursday night that the dam had indeed fallen into the hands of the extremist group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS. The group is still believed to be in control as of this report.

“The situation on the ground is fluid but the latest information is that [ISIS] had advanced on Mosul Dam and has taken control,” State Department spokesperson Michael Lavallee said. A second U.S. official and an Iraqi official familiar with the dam’s operations confirmed the ISIS takeover.

“We are extremely concerned by this development,” Lavallee said, “and we are coordinating with the Iraqi security forces and Kurdish peshmerga commanders to develop options to mitigate the threat that this poses.”

That threat is a severe one, according to U.S. government reports, officials and outside experts.


Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/us-extremely-concerned-jihadi-takeover-iraqs-dangerous-dam/story?id=24900290

---

Ut oh. US involvement looks inevitable.

[Renew Deal]

1. I don't care about promises about no ground troops

If this dam means the death of thousands, the world has to get involved.

[flamingdem]

2. Not only that but the records and arts of the Iraqi civilization

Hard to believe the leadership of Isis would go there though you never know.

[freshwest]

27. They've been destroying all signs of other religions just as the Taliban did.

Destruction of 6th Century Buddhas of Bamiyan at UNESCO World Heritage Site:



More at link, including how Al Queda looted to finance themselves, and it appears that what they do not destroy, they sell off:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhas_of_Bamiyan

ISIS destroys 3000 Year-old Assyrian Artifacts



More at link, including other artifacts and buildings destroyed and how they are selling them off as well:

http://hyperallergic.com/136800/isis-destroys-historic-sites-in-iraq-and-syria/

http://www.aina.org/news/20140619174729.htm

Both of those websites show a lot of the history of Iraq through ancient times. And I suspect ISIS, whom we are learning about, would indeed, 'go there.' They intend to build the world into their order of things based on their version of Islam, with no one to oppose them. The word is overused, but they sound sorta fascist to me...

[Cooley Hurd]

5. Have to agree. If the dam is breached, the subsequent humanitarian disaster will be huge.

[flamingdem]

7. Unthinkable

So I wonder how they can dislodge ISIS. That means a ground war.

If they leave this dam alone by itself it will start to fall apart. It needs constant attention.
Thus, action has to happen immediately.

[Cooley Hurd]

9. Not sure of the topography around the dam site...

... but if they could build another dam a bit downstream, that could resolve it. Of course, that would take years to even do.

I hope they're evacuating Baghdad as we speak...

[flamingdem]

10. There is another small dam before Baghdad but

doubts about whether it will hold.

[FloriTexan]

3. Kick

because I never thought I could support boots on the ground but it may be time to send in Seal Team 6 or some other specialists.

[flamingdem]

4. Just leaving the dam alone could cause 500,000 deaths

It wouldn’t even have to be sabotaged to fail – if an extremist group took control and wanted the dam to break, they may be able to simply do nothing.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/mosul-dam-control-terrifying-dam-iraq-life-death/story?id=24878057

The gargantuan dam, built in the mid-1980s, was constructed on “a foundation of soluble soils that are continuously dissolving, resulting in the formation of cavities and voids underground that place the dam at risk for failure,” said an urgent letter sent from David Petraeus, then commanding general of the U.S. Army, and Ryan Crocker, then U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in 2007.

The dam requires “extraordinary engineering measures” – namely constant grouting operations -- to fill in the holes and “maintain the structural integrity and operating capability of the dam,” according to a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) report from the same year.

For 30 years –- and through several periods of violent conflict -- the Iraqi government has managed to keep the dam upright by continuously pumping in literally tons of grout like an industrial version of the little Dutch boy, as a geotechnical expert who worked on the dam put it.

But the U.S. says any failure of the dam could be “catastrophic.”

“[T]he most severe impact of a dam failure would be [for] the City of Mosul, located 50 kilometers [31 miles] downstream of the dam,” Petraeus’ and Crocker’s 2007 letter says. “Assuming a worse [sic] case scenario, an instantaneous failure of Mosul Dam filled to its maximum operating level could result in a flood wave over 20 meters [65 feet] deep at the City of Mosul, which would result in a significant loss of life and property.” Mosul alone is estimated to be home to more than 1.5 million people. Flood waters, albeit at a lower level, could reach all the way to Baghdad, more than 200 miles further down the Tigris, depending on the performance of another smaller dam further downriver.

A 2011 report written by a USACE official and published in Water Power magazine estimated failure “could lead to as many as 500,000 civilian deaths.”

The Water Power article states that Iraq is “fully aware of the challenges facing the ageing structure,” but as USACE civil engineer David Paul told the magazine at the time, “there is no precedence for what they are trying to achieve” in finding a more permanent solution to the dam’s problems than never-ending grouting – including the proposed use of an incredibly large “cutoff wall” to help mitigate the seepage. There are other measures that can be taken, such as keeping the reservoir levels lower than the maximum to reduce pressure on the dam; that was one of several recommendations the U.S. government made in 2007.

But none totally fix the problem and the geotechnical expert who spoke to ABC News said that he didn’t have reason to believe the dam is any better off today than it was when the USACE report was published in 2007.

[elias49]

6. Fear always works with Americans...

but we know there are/were no WMDs in Iraq. Let's talk about a wall of water!!
Send in the clowns...

[flamingdem]

8. Obama doesn't want to go in

You'll see attempts to recruit other players. The threat is real this round. The US public certainly is cynical but if left to their own devices Erbil will be taken by ISIS and the US Embassy overrun.

[elias49]

11. I didn't even know there WAS an embassy in Erbil!

I wonder how many more there are besides the megalithic thing they built for the cost of the annual budget of most large cities?
And I don't know any more whether what Obama wants makes much difference, sadly.

[dipsydoodle]

13. Its a Consulate

The point to help ensure another Benghazi doesnt occur. Nothing else.

[BlueEye]

18. Well, the difference here is that the WMDs didn't exist.

The dam does exist, you can see it on Google Earth, along with the massive lake being held up by it. The dam's engineering problems are well documented. And we know from prior disasters that dam breaks can have terrible consequences.

So I think this is a little different than Colin Powell's little vile of white powder.

[Loudly]

30. That's a great little unintentional pun on vial.

And it only works when written!

[DeSwiss]

32. +1000

- Send in the clowns indeed.....

[TwilightGardener]

12. This will be a Special Forces mission.

[colorado_ufo]

14. They will likely hold the dam as hostage.

Threaten to oust them, and the dam is gone.

[flamingdem]

15. Some saying the dam was taken using US

made M1 Abram tanks. Jeez

[SunSeeker]

16. Remember when McCain posed for pictures with ISIS "Freedom Fighters"?

http://wonkette.com/552931/heres-a-picture-of-john-mccain-hanging-out-with-isis-freedom-fighters-in-2013

[flamingdem]

20. Wow, I forgot about that

Lucky Gramps isn't the potus imagine the number of wars we'd be in plus he would've armed his buddies to the teeth.

[freshwest]

29. Whoa they don't look so wacked out next to McInsane:

Putting on their purty faces to get some money, huh?

So Johnny likes Islamic extremists. Wonder how that plays back in AZ.

Wait, they all loved Putin, too, didn't they?

No sweat!

[Kelvin Mace]

17. The dam will be breached

and the side responsible will blame the other.

If Russia can simply shot down a civilian airliner, knocking over a dam is a "no brainer".

[BlueEye]

19. MH17 and the death of 298 people was terrible, no doubt.

But sabatoging the dam would be an atrocity on a whole different level. The death toll would likely exceed that of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. I would imagine our government would want to stop that from happening by all means necessary.

[flamingdem]

21. If Isis wants power they'll want to control the dam

but that means they have to have the dam operators consenting to operate and fix the dam.

How will anyone know the status of the dam -- I can't see any reporters going near Isis

[PersonNumber503602]

24. The only reporter I know of that's been near ISIS is Medyan Dairieh from Vice News...

If you haven't seen their recent videos about what's going on there, they're worth checking out.

[Kelvin Mace]

22. Perhaps, hard to say these days

with so many war mongers in government. But this is a fight by proxy and neither side has a very good handle on their proxies.

[PersonNumber503602]

23. Why are these ISIS such jerks?

I know it's not all propaganda either, because they freely release videos of them doing horrible things and detailing their twisted world vision. They are horrible people.

[freshwest]

31. They have a vision of world peace, the Caliphate. To them, it's breaking eggs for their omelette.

Gotta be stopped, but no one, and I mean NO ONE except the Kurds want us involved - and they most likely only want our money, not us, there.

[quadrature]

25. I'm getting tired of this crap

the Maliki regime had plenty of warning,
so as to let the water out.

blow up the dam, so the water is let out slowly.
but get rid of the dam.

clearly, that won't happen, as no one is
thinking more that ten minutes ahead.

[freshwest]

26. Behind the scenes to allow the Peshmerga to protect the area is best, IMO.

[Rapillion]

28. Not clear

If IS floods Musul, they will be flooding their own army and several hundred thousand Summi Muslims.

Dam maintenance is another matter, though.

[DeSwiss]

33. How predictable.

They know exactly which buttons to push and like Pavlov's canine's the predictable lot is salivating for a WAR they'll never see, never fire a shot in and never put their ass at risk for.

We've lost over 4,000 troops there. We languished there for ten years most of which we here at DU clamored for us to get the hell out! We spent over a trillion dollars ''fixing'' Iraq and it's infrastructure that we had bombed to smithereens, and this is what has come of it.

- So what the hell makes anyone think a few more bombs in just the right places, is gonna do the trick -- this time?

[Dems to Win]

34. ISIS will try to blow the dam if they are being routed, in retreat, imo

Until then, I don't think it's a concern that they will deliberately try to blow it and kill a half million Sunni Muslims in Mosul. ISIS is the first spreadsheet rebel group -- they will want the income from the dam, as well.

Who will try to push ISIS out of Iraq and out of Mosul? Certainly not the Iraqi Army.

The Sunnis living in the area seem to prefer being ruled by ISIS rather than Maliki, so it's hard to see who will be pushing ISIS out of the area any time soon.

I expect that ISIS will try to maintain the dam, as they are trying to establish a functioning government in the areas they control. Maybe there are Sunni engineers willing to work for them.

I agree with other posters that we may well see the Seals sent in to retake the dam. It will be quite the risky mission, if one assumes that ISIS has rigged all the tunnels in the dam with (US manufactured and shipped to the region) explosives and weapons. Which they probably will do, to be blown if they are attacked.

Twenty four years of US military intervention in Iraq has resulted in predictable chaos and bloodshed. So tragic for the people who just want to live their lives in the area.