Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
September 9, 2008
Pg. 8
By Erica Goode
BAGHDAD — Gathered in the domed hall of a palace built by Saddam Hussein, Awakening Council leaders in the Adhamiya neighborhood met with Iraqi and American military officers on Monday to learn what the future holds for them once the Sunni-dominated citizen patrols begin reporting to the Iraqi government on Oct. 1.
About 75 leaders and rank-and-file members from the western side of the neighborhood listened and murmured as Brig. Gen. Tarek Abdul Hameed explained what would happen when responsibility for paying and directing 54,000 Awakening patrol members in and around Baghdad was transferred from the Americans to the Iraqi government.
The meeting, the Iraqi and American officers said, was called in part to quash rumors that there would be mass arrests of Awakening members and that American forces would no longer be involved with the patrols.
“People didn’t know what was happening, and there was some friction,” said Lt. Col. Michael Pappal, commander of the First Battalion, 68th Armor, which operates in the area.
Many American military officers say the councils have done as much to reduce violence in Iraq as the surge in American troops has, and maybe more. After the transfer is complete, it is unclear how much leverage the Americans will have with the Iraqi government in how it deals with the councils.
Tensions in Adhamiya, a Sunni stronghold, have been increasing as news of the pending transfer spreads. Some Awakening leaders have expressed fears that the Iraqi government may dissolve the councils and that their members will not be allowed to join the Iraqi security forces.
Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has said that about 20 percent of the roughly 99,000 Awakening members on the American payroll would be incorporated into the Iraqi Army, the national police and other security forces.
At the meeting on Monday, General Hameed told the Awakening members that they would be given application forms for jobs in the security forces. Those not accepted would be hired into civilian jobs in ministries or other government offices, he said. All Awakening members, General Hameed said, would continue to be paid the same amount the Americans paid them. They receive about $300 a month.
The security forces, he said, would accept only Awakening members born from 1977 to 1988 — from 20 to 31 years old — and the applicants would have to be literate and meet certain educational criteria.
“The Iraqi Army is not targeting the Awakening Councils, and the army will not conduct random raids or detentions of Awakening members,” General Hameed said. He said any Awakening member who broke the law in the future would be arrested.
The general said there would be some changes in the way the councils operated. In Adhamiya, for example, there would be only one large Awakening Council, divided into different sectors, instead of the several councils that now exist. The Awakening members would be asked to turn in all weapons except Kalashnikov rifles. And patrol members would not be able to “move freely with their weapons” or to arrest people “as they did before.”
“We are all Iraqis,” he told the Awakening members, asking them to unite to keep the neighborhood secure.
“The coalition forces are here for a temporary time,” General Hameed said. “One day they will leave for their homes and their families, and we will stay here working together.”
Colonel Pappal told the Awakening members that for now American forces would continue to work with the citizen patrols “as one team” and that they would help smooth problems with the transfer of control.
“If for some reason there is a problem with payments, we have a plan,” he said.
He said later in an e-mail message that the American forces had prepared contract extensions with the patrols to ensure that members would be paid even if there were administrative difficulties in the transfer of the payroll to the Interior Ministry.
Some Awakening leaders said they were encouraged by the meeting and reassured by the promise to take qualified members into the security forces. But others said they worried that the senior leaders who had founded the patrols were too old to meet the criteria and that those leaders would be isolated and separated from their men.
Bassim Muhammad, 22, who said he was in charge of a checkpoint on a major street in Adhamiya, said the Iraqi Army “has disrespected us from the beginning and they used to curse and harass us at checkpoints.”
He said he hoped “that from now on we can work as one army.” Still, he added, “We will never believe anything unless we see it with our own eyes.”
American military officials say the transfer of Awakening Councils in other regions will take place over the next few months.
Brig. Gen. James C. Boozer, the deputy commanding general for American forces in northern Iraq, said in a telephone interview on Thursday that he expected the councils in the northeastern province of Diyala to be handed over next. “We will see the same sort of transition occur in November and December, where the government of Iraq take over all of our current contracts in Diyala; that is about 9,000.”
Elsewhere in Iraq, a doctor was mistakenly killed by American forces east of Baquba while he was driving to work at a general hospital, a security official in Diyala said. The American military said in a statement that “a local national” was killed “while driving his car toward coalition forces,” but that it was not known whether he was a doctor.
The statement said “the driver ignored all signs to stop,” despite warning shots by the Americans.
In Babil Province, members of the provincial council accused Iraq’s central government of playing down a cholera outbreak in the province to hide the deterioration of water and other services. They said the number of cases was higher than the government had reported.
On Monday, Dr. Ihsan Jaafar, a spokesman for Iraq’s Health Ministry, said 27 cases of cholera had been confirmed in the country: 20 of them in Babil Province, 6 in Baghdad and 1 in Maysan Province. Three people died from the illness, he said.
Cholera is usually contracted by drinking contaminated water.
“We moved very fast to end [FONT=Times New Roman, Times]the[/FONT] outbreak of the epidemic,” Dr. Jaafar said, “but 60 percent of Iraq’s area is not covered with potable water.”
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times]Reporting was contributed by Mudhafer al-Husaini, Stephen Farrell, Atheer Kakan and Riyadh Mohammed from[/FONT] Baghdad, and Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Diyala, Babil and Qadisiya Provinces, Iraq.
September 9, 2008
Pg. 8
By Erica Goode
BAGHDAD — Gathered in the domed hall of a palace built by Saddam Hussein, Awakening Council leaders in the Adhamiya neighborhood met with Iraqi and American military officers on Monday to learn what the future holds for them once the Sunni-dominated citizen patrols begin reporting to the Iraqi government on Oct. 1.
About 75 leaders and rank-and-file members from the western side of the neighborhood listened and murmured as Brig. Gen. Tarek Abdul Hameed explained what would happen when responsibility for paying and directing 54,000 Awakening patrol members in and around Baghdad was transferred from the Americans to the Iraqi government.
The meeting, the Iraqi and American officers said, was called in part to quash rumors that there would be mass arrests of Awakening members and that American forces would no longer be involved with the patrols.
“People didn’t know what was happening, and there was some friction,” said Lt. Col. Michael Pappal, commander of the First Battalion, 68th Armor, which operates in the area.
Many American military officers say the councils have done as much to reduce violence in Iraq as the surge in American troops has, and maybe more. After the transfer is complete, it is unclear how much leverage the Americans will have with the Iraqi government in how it deals with the councils.
Tensions in Adhamiya, a Sunni stronghold, have been increasing as news of the pending transfer spreads. Some Awakening leaders have expressed fears that the Iraqi government may dissolve the councils and that their members will not be allowed to join the Iraqi security forces.
Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has said that about 20 percent of the roughly 99,000 Awakening members on the American payroll would be incorporated into the Iraqi Army, the national police and other security forces.
At the meeting on Monday, General Hameed told the Awakening members that they would be given application forms for jobs in the security forces. Those not accepted would be hired into civilian jobs in ministries or other government offices, he said. All Awakening members, General Hameed said, would continue to be paid the same amount the Americans paid them. They receive about $300 a month.
The security forces, he said, would accept only Awakening members born from 1977 to 1988 — from 20 to 31 years old — and the applicants would have to be literate and meet certain educational criteria.
“The Iraqi Army is not targeting the Awakening Councils, and the army will not conduct random raids or detentions of Awakening members,” General Hameed said. He said any Awakening member who broke the law in the future would be arrested.
The general said there would be some changes in the way the councils operated. In Adhamiya, for example, there would be only one large Awakening Council, divided into different sectors, instead of the several councils that now exist. The Awakening members would be asked to turn in all weapons except Kalashnikov rifles. And patrol members would not be able to “move freely with their weapons” or to arrest people “as they did before.”
“We are all Iraqis,” he told the Awakening members, asking them to unite to keep the neighborhood secure.
“The coalition forces are here for a temporary time,” General Hameed said. “One day they will leave for their homes and their families, and we will stay here working together.”
Colonel Pappal told the Awakening members that for now American forces would continue to work with the citizen patrols “as one team” and that they would help smooth problems with the transfer of control.
“If for some reason there is a problem with payments, we have a plan,” he said.
He said later in an e-mail message that the American forces had prepared contract extensions with the patrols to ensure that members would be paid even if there were administrative difficulties in the transfer of the payroll to the Interior Ministry.
Some Awakening leaders said they were encouraged by the meeting and reassured by the promise to take qualified members into the security forces. But others said they worried that the senior leaders who had founded the patrols were too old to meet the criteria and that those leaders would be isolated and separated from their men.
Bassim Muhammad, 22, who said he was in charge of a checkpoint on a major street in Adhamiya, said the Iraqi Army “has disrespected us from the beginning and they used to curse and harass us at checkpoints.”
He said he hoped “that from now on we can work as one army.” Still, he added, “We will never believe anything unless we see it with our own eyes.”
American military officials say the transfer of Awakening Councils in other regions will take place over the next few months.
Brig. Gen. James C. Boozer, the deputy commanding general for American forces in northern Iraq, said in a telephone interview on Thursday that he expected the councils in the northeastern province of Diyala to be handed over next. “We will see the same sort of transition occur in November and December, where the government of Iraq take over all of our current contracts in Diyala; that is about 9,000.”
Elsewhere in Iraq, a doctor was mistakenly killed by American forces east of Baquba while he was driving to work at a general hospital, a security official in Diyala said. The American military said in a statement that “a local national” was killed “while driving his car toward coalition forces,” but that it was not known whether he was a doctor.
The statement said “the driver ignored all signs to stop,” despite warning shots by the Americans.
In Babil Province, members of the provincial council accused Iraq’s central government of playing down a cholera outbreak in the province to hide the deterioration of water and other services. They said the number of cases was higher than the government had reported.
On Monday, Dr. Ihsan Jaafar, a spokesman for Iraq’s Health Ministry, said 27 cases of cholera had been confirmed in the country: 20 of them in Babil Province, 6 in Baghdad and 1 in Maysan Province. Three people died from the illness, he said.
Cholera is usually contracted by drinking contaminated water.
“We moved very fast to end [FONT=Times New Roman, Times]the[/FONT] outbreak of the epidemic,” Dr. Jaafar said, “but 60 percent of Iraq’s area is not covered with potable water.”
[FONT=Times New Roman, Times]Reporting was contributed by Mudhafer al-Husaini, Stephen Farrell, Atheer Kakan and Riyadh Mohammed from[/FONT] Baghdad, and Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Diyala, Babil and Qadisiya Provinces, Iraq.