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What the future holds, an article by Munawar Shariff of LOG Middle East about railway plans for the region.

There is an interesting article about Electronic Warfare in WW1 on the Landships website, in which Robert Robinson describes a somewhat obscure aspect of the Great War.

There is a common misconception that electronic warfare began with the Second World War but, even if it was not so labelled, it played a significant part in the First World War at both a strategic and a tactical level.

Fans of sound mirrors might be interested in the tale of how the Eiffel Tower was used to confuse Zeppelins.

“Deputy Dog” writes about The forgotten sound mirrors, with some pictures.

Another press story from the US military. This one was dated 18 March 2008.

Workers with the Iraqi republic railways clear debris, March 12, from the tracks on Camp Taji, Iraq. It has been four years since the tracks were last used and as a result they have fallen into disrepair. The yard at Taji is an important part of the railway’s future.

Cleanup Gets Rails Back on Track

By Staff Sgt. Bryant Maude
1st Sustainment Brigade Public Affairs

CAMP TAJI, Iraq – It has been four years since a train powered its way onto Camp Taji, Iraq, and at least that long since any care or attention has been paid to the rail yard. As a result, a crew of ten Iraqi Republic Railway’s workers started the rigorous task of cleaning and repairing the neglected tracks.

Today they are repairing switches, placing derailed train cars back onto the tracks, and clearing debris,” said Staff Sgt. Gilbert Torress, a native of Fresno, Calif., and the sergeant of the guard with Detachment 1, 1st Battalion, 143rd Field Artillery, a California National Guard unit attached to the 1st Sustainment Brigade. After this they will load containers on cars and test the tracks.”

These tracks are currently being renovated as part of an initiative to rebuild the railroad and it’s capabilities to move large volumes of cargo.

The trains pulling in here will carry mostly containers and Iraqi army materials bound for the maintenance facilities under the Taji National Depot,” said Maj. Ira Baldwin, a Laurinburg, N.C., native and mobility chief for the 1st Sustainment Brigade.

Every track cleaned and switch repaired is a step closer to a fully functioning railroad and the eventual creation of good paying jobs for Iraqi people.

A story from US military press services DVIDS, dated 10 March 2008.

Waving to spectators and honking the horn of his bright, green and red, locomotive, Mustapha the train conductor is the first Iraqi Republic Railways worker to make the journey along the old tracks between the central Baghdad rail yard in Baghdad and Camp Taji, in many years.

For the First Time in Several Years an Iraqi Republic Railways Locomotive Entered the Rail Gates at Camp Taji

By Staff Sgt. Bryant Maude
1st Sustainment Brigade, Public Affairs Office

CAMP TAJI, Iraq – Waving to spectators and honking the horn of his bright, green and red, locomotive, Mustapha the train conductor, was the first Iraqi Republic Railways worker to make the journey along the old tracks between the central Baghdad rail yard in Baghdad and Camp Taji, in many years.

This historical journey was part of a proof-of-purpose designed to rebuild the tattered railway and stimulate the young economy; it was one small step in that direction for sure.

“An increased use of the rail infrastructure will translate to big dinars for the Iraqi economy,” said Maj. Ira Baldwin, Laurinburg, N.C., native and mobility chief for the 1st Sustainment Brigade.

As far as coalition forces are concerned, the new train will enable large movements of cargo between the port at Um Qasar and Camp Taji, creating greater logistical economies-of-scale.

“Since Taji is the closest secured location nearest Logistics Support Area-Anaconda the trains will allow a faster movement between the two,” stated Baldwin. “This will reduce the costs of moving cargo as compared to over the road, but the greater benefit is that trains will take a great number of Soldiers off the road which translates to lives saved.”

This concern for safety translated to a heavy presence of security forces on Camp Taji. Soldiers from Macedonia were on hand to inspect, Soldiers from Battery A, 2nd Battalion, 11th Field Artillery Regiment opened the rail gates, and Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, Detachment 1, 143rd Field Artillery, 1st Sustainment Brigade, Soldiers provided over watch.

“We are on the lookout for any suspicious activities along the route line,” stated Spc. Justin Cox, a native of Visalia, Calif., and artilleryman with HHB, Det. 1, 143rd FA.

Although there was no call for security intervention, like all things in life, this exercise did not come without challenges.

“There were at least two attempts prior to the successful engine proof of purpose,” said Baldwin. “The conductor’s house was raided and his son was arrested the night prior to the first scheduled POP; then later, there was another train carrying petroleum originating from Bajyi that was high jacked.”

In spite of the challenges, the train movement was a success. Compared to what occurred repeatedly back in 2004 at the height of the insurgency where seemingly every train was a moving target.

“The Multi-National Corps-Iraq future operation cell, the 316th Expeditionary Sustainment Command, the Taji Base Defense Operations Cell, and the Soldiers of the 1st Sustainment Brigade came together and proved that joint efforts do work with close coordination and rehearsals,” stated Baldwin. “I am very proud of what the Iraqi people want to reestablish in regards to improving their lives.”

This increased use of the IRR will equate to increased income generated by local, national, and eventually international trade; overall, the rail industry will provide solid jobs for the Iraqi people as exampled by the conductor Mustapha who has been employed by the IRR for over 27 years.

“I am very lucky to be a part of history in the making by helping to make a train run through,” stated Baldwin.

This week a Kuwaiti official has described plans for a 165 km, four-line metro to be built within six years. Perhaps now Dubai has one almost finished, everyone wants one?

Not only that, but there will be a 505.5 km rail system, eventually linking Saudi Arabia with Iraq, presumably somewhere near Basra. And it might even have links on to Iran, as well.

There have been rumours in the past of proposals for a railway to get supplies from the docks to US bases in Kuwait, taking lots of lorries off the emirate’s roads.

A letter by Mark W Hemphill, former US advisor to Iraqi Republic Railways, was published by the Pitsburgh Tribune Review on 17 January 2007 in response to some scaremongering about chemical trains. It gives some background to how things went wrong for IRR after the invasion.

‘Terror’ off the tracks IV

As the U.S. government’s senior railway adviser to the Iraqi Republic Railways (IRR) from February 2005 to August 2006, I am qualified to point out a major error of fact and a greater error of logic Carl Prine made in his “Terror on the Tracks” series.

The factual error is this: After Mr. Prine observed the Iraqi Republic Railway at a standstill in Anbar Province, he concluded terrorists brought it to a standstill. In fact, the IRR was at a standstill in Anbar because the U.S. military decided the railway didn’t need to operate!

It decided the railway was of such secondary importance to Iraq’s economy and the U.S. mission in Iraq that it could seize railway marshalling yards, stations and maintenance shops to convert them to U.S. military bases and tear gaps through the track to make roads for its vehicles. As a result, the economy in Anbar Province, consisting of heavy industry dependent upon railway transportation, had to also shut down — and there went the jobs and family incomes.

How does Mr. Prine know that militants have learned how to slice open tank cars in Iraq? In fact, they haven’t bothered to try.

From late 2003 to the present there have been several hundred attacks on IRR track, trains and employees by bandits. These attacks are variously designed to demonstrate the ineffectiveness of the central government, to encourage the railway to pay “protection” to local criminal gangs and to gin up work for local labor contractors.

As far as an attack on IRR tank cars carrying hazardous commodities designed to cause mass casualties of Iraqi civilians, not one has been attempted. This even though the IRR moves entire trainloads of highly explosive commodities — from predictable origins to predictable destinations on predictable schedules — in tank cars labeled clearly as to their contents.

Meanwhile, Iraqi civilians are being slaughtered by the hundreds with simple homemade bombs delivered in taxis and trucks to markets, bus stations and mosques.

If our experience with terrorists in Iraq predicts our vulnerability in the U.S., it is that the terrorists have decided that railway tank cars carrying hazardous materials are an unattractive target.

Mark W. Hemphill
Washougal, Wash.

A correspondent e-mails to say that he first discovered the sound mirrors when he saw pictures on the CD booklet/cover art of a Bass Communion album. They are great images, done by Carl Glover of Aleph Studios, showing a view up the 200 foot mirror at Denge.

Bass Communion is a project by Steven Wilson, leader of the band Porcupine Tree. According to the Bass Communion website, it specialises in recordings in an ambient and/or electronic vein, sometimes in collaboration with other artists. Most of the pieces are experiments in texture made from processing recordings of real instruments and field recordings.

The March 2003 album Bass Communion (remixed) contains Reconstructions and recycling of Bass Communion music by artists from the experimental, electronic and ambient music scenes.