Brothers Gas Jurf

[Ken Reels]

CrispinSmith is an associate at a Washington-based national security law group, focusing on Iraqi security, human rights, and law of armed conflict issues. He is a cofounder of the Militia Spotlight platform.

In the early hours of January 19 (Iraq time), the muqawama propaganda channels in Iraq began agitatedly reporting that airstrikes had caused a large explosion at the Kataib Hezbollah (KH) base area of Jurf al-Sakhar, speculating that a number of individuals were dead and wounded. Tensions were high, with the clock running out on the Trump administration and militias on high alert for a last-minute U.S. strike by the outgoing president.

It was subsequently revealed that a large electricity pylon was destroyed west of Jurf al-Sakhar on January 18 by some kind of explosion. Sabereen-affiliated Telegram channels quickly blamed the Islamic State and posted photographs of the damage. One shared statement read:

Known Sabereen-affiliated channels reposted similar messages. The network appears to recognize that the image of U.S. strikes on Jurf al-Sakhar needed to shift to a (rather implausible) U.S. strike on a pylon in the middle of nowhere. Yet the messaging was not perfectly unified.

According to Kataib Hezbollah military spokesman Jaafar al-Husseini: The criminal sabotage operations that affected electricity transmission towers north of Babylon bear the hallmarks of criminal gangs with malicious motives, not much different from ISIS. The criminal operation took place during a suspension of operations by our brothers in the Iraqi army. The bombing of the pylons coincided with heavy enemy drone activity."

Whether the fake January 19 story was started by jumpiness or deliberately, the KH-affiliated Unit 10,000 kept stoking that narrative even after KH seemingly realized it had not been attacked. Middle Eastern journalists are increasingly in the habit of citing muqawama outlets like Unit 10,000 as credible security sources, which then puts the story into mainstream Arabic media, with potential feedback into global media. Then Unit 10,000 quietly removed its fingerprints from the original seeding of the disinformation.

CE: How did UTEP prepare you for your career?

DL: I got a wonderful foundation in going through the engineering degree at UTEP. I was proud that UTEP encouraged me and provided an avenue for me to become a professor of practice in engineering, which is a professor whose field experience goes towards their credit for teaching. UTEP recognized that not only my experience, but my degree was valuable for teaching up-and-coming engineers. I was very pleased that UTEP recognized the value in experience and honored me with that privilege.

CE: What projects in the El Paso area have you worked on?

DL: With the US Army Corps of Engineers, I worked at the Sergeants Major Academy at Fort Bliss where my experience was with military construction. Then, I worked for the United States Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission (USIBWC) for almost 16 years. I worked on cooperating with the city of El Paso and other water entities in developing a comprehensive plan on water usage in the El Paso area. As part of the USIBWC, I also worked on two major wastewater treatment plants, the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant in the San Diego area, and one in Nogales, Arizona. Both were certainly fascinating engineering projects.

CE: How has your work affected the lives of everyday El Pasoans?

DL: In 1997 I was selected as Principal Engineer (PE) of Engineering in the USIBWC, I was the first female to fulfill the role as PE. One of the first projects under my direction was that of the Environmental Assessment for the El Paso - Las Cruces Regional Sustainable Water Project. The purpose of the project was to secure future drinking water supplies from surface sources for the El Paso-Las Cruces region. I am proud that the USIBWC took on this project to help address future water supplies, plan for a sustainable water supply, and identify many environmental commitments for implementation for the region.

CE: How did UTEP prepare you for your career?

IV: I think UTEP and going through school made me accountable. They made me hard-working and resilient and helped me work with people, with teams, and to become a better communicator.

CE: What projects in the El Paso area have you worked on?

IV: One of the largest projects that I worked on was the $4.8 billion Fort Bliss expansion. On that project, we designed all the infrastructure from underground up, which was the water system, sewer systems, gas systems, electricity, communications, storm roadways, and landscaping. This was for a 2,500-acre site, similar to a small city like Las Cruces or Rhode Island. So, we pretty much designed the infrastructure for a small city.

CE: How has your work affected the lives of everyday El Pasoans?

IV: I'm currently the Managing Principal for the El Paso office at a full-service architectural engineering firm. We do the design of infrastructure projects and as I mentioned, water sewer, storm sewer, roadways, highways, and buildings. We just finished the design of the new administrative offices for the El Paso Independent School District. I need to make decisions, either minor or major, on those types of projects.

CE: Why did you become a civil engineer?

BG: I always had a technical mind. I used to like to build and/or take things apart and also liked drawing and inventing. I just like the profession, everything about engineering drove me in that direction. I've also always wanted to be an owner of a company and the company I am president of now, Quantum Engineering Consultants, I bought from Gilbert Meza. It was history from there. That was in July 2001, and I've been in business for 20 years since.

CE: How did UTEP prepare you for your career?

BG: I can't say enough about what UTEP has given me and the reasons I give back the way I do. I love UTEP, if it weren't for UTEP I wouldn't be where I am today. I appreciate the opportunity I was given, the professors, the admin, everything. I was Alumni Association president in 2018 and I gave back to the university in that respect. I do a lot of stuff in the Department of Civil Engineering in terms of giving lectures on hydraulics and hydrology, which I love. I'm also a mentor to students and am a senior design judge. I'm going to continue to give to UTEP as long as they'll have me.

CE: What projects in the El Paso area have you worked on?

BG: The crown jewel of all the projects I've ever done is the campus transformation project which was probably the most challenging project I ever worked on in my career. We had to make sure that whatever we were proposing was going to work, we had a budget and soil and site characteristics that were very challenging. I can say though, of all the projects I've ever worked on, that was probably the most interesting and most exciting. I spend a lot of time on campus and it's nice to see the final product. There were also a couple of soccer fields in a pond below the Spaghetti Bowl that occurred as a result of Storm 2006. That was another challenging project. The unfortunate thing is that due to the floods, there were several families displaced. The final product was something good that came out of it. We're happy to have been a part of something good for the community.

CE: How has your work affected the lives of everyday El Pasoans?

BG: At the end of the day, every project that leaves this office has my stamp and seal or signature on the design documents. So, everything we design has to look out for the health and welfare of the general public. For every decision we make as a collective team, we have to make sure to critically consider safety at all times.

CE: Why did you become a civil engineer?

YC: I became an engineer because of my father. In 1971, my father established the engineering firm Conde Inc. One of my brothers went into engineering, then into law, and my other two brothers weren't going to be engineers. So, I felt it was my responsibility to become an engineer. My father was ecstatic that I took it upon myself to follow in his footsteps.

CE: How did UTEP prepare you for your career?

YC: The main way it prepared me is that I learned how to meet, accept, and supersede challenges. The research and engineering background UTEP provided me with taught me how to apply what I learned and persevere no matter what.

CE: How has your work affected the lives of everyday El Pasoans?

YC: Whatever project I work on that gets designed, implemented, and constructed, is advantageous to El Pasoans. The stormwater infrastructure benefits everybody because it takes the water off the street and safely into retention basins or channels. The utility infrastructure we design provides water, sewer, electricity, and gas in concert with utility companies.

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