Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
November 29, 2007 By Cara Buckley
BAGHDAD, Nov. 28 — The American military expects to add roughly 10,000 Iraqis to its roster of unofficial security guards who act as paid neighborhood sentries here, and will then cap the program, a military official said Wednesday.
The guards were hired by the tens of thousands earlier this year, when American forces offered tribal sheiks money in exchange for information about terrorist and criminal activities. About 77,000 people, who are alternately called volunteers, concerned local citizens, or members of awakening councils, have joined, the vast majority of them Sunnis.
The program has been credited with helping to drive violence down sharply nationwide, but also stirred concerns among Shiites that the Sunnis would use the money and training to re-form militias. About 60,000 of the guards are paid $300 a month, while the rest are still being enrolled, said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a spokesman for the multinational forces.
“Our intent was not to send the message that this was a job creation program,” Admiral Smith said Wednesday. The program was expected to grow by another 10 percent to 15 percent at the most, he said. The military said it wanted to keep the number below 100,000. Earlier this week the Iraqi government announced that it would take over from the Americans next year the obligation of paying the guards’ salaries.
“It is an Iraqi responsibility, this is the right thing to do, it is not an American responsibility,” said Ali al-Dabbagh, a government spokesman, said Monday. “And at the same time, the loyalty of these people should be to Iraq.”
The American military also wants the program to act as a bridge to funnel people into jobs with the Iraqi Army or the police. About a third of current enlistees have expressed interest in doing so, said Admiral Smith, though just 2,000 have so far.
Also on Wednesday, 20 busloads of returning Iraqi refugees arrived in Baghdad from Syria, though the exact number of the refugees was not clear. Mr. Dabbagh, the government spokesman, put the figure at 800 people; the Baghdad City Council said the number was closer to 200. The International Organization for Migration said about 300 people had returned on the buses.
There have been varying reports about the number of displaced people who are returning to Iraq or to their homes within Iraq. Earlier this month, an Iraqi official said roughly 46,000 people returned from other countries in October, evidence, he said, of improved security conditions here. But that figure included all Iraqis who crossed the borders, not just the displaced who were returning.
There are also concerns about how smoothly the resettlement is going. Roughly a third of the people who have come to Iraq have discovered squatters living in their homes, said Dana Graber Ladek, the International Organization for Migration’s Iraqi displacement specialist.
“Property claims could be a tremendous issue that the government of Iraq will need to address,” Ms. Ladek wrote in an e-mail message.
In another development, Unicef warned that Baghdad might be facing a cholera outbreak, with 101 new cases reported in recent weeks. Cholera is a waterborne disease that often appears when sanitary conditions are poor, and the capital, where raw sewage flows into many waterways, accounts for nearly 80 percent of the country’s new cases, the agency said. The increase is of particular concern because the rainy season is approaching, and, according to agency figures, Iraq’s sewage treatment plants are working at less than one-fifth of their capacity.
November 29, 2007 By Cara Buckley
BAGHDAD, Nov. 28 — The American military expects to add roughly 10,000 Iraqis to its roster of unofficial security guards who act as paid neighborhood sentries here, and will then cap the program, a military official said Wednesday.
The guards were hired by the tens of thousands earlier this year, when American forces offered tribal sheiks money in exchange for information about terrorist and criminal activities. About 77,000 people, who are alternately called volunteers, concerned local citizens, or members of awakening councils, have joined, the vast majority of them Sunnis.
The program has been credited with helping to drive violence down sharply nationwide, but also stirred concerns among Shiites that the Sunnis would use the money and training to re-form militias. About 60,000 of the guards are paid $300 a month, while the rest are still being enrolled, said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, a spokesman for the multinational forces.
“Our intent was not to send the message that this was a job creation program,” Admiral Smith said Wednesday. The program was expected to grow by another 10 percent to 15 percent at the most, he said. The military said it wanted to keep the number below 100,000. Earlier this week the Iraqi government announced that it would take over from the Americans next year the obligation of paying the guards’ salaries.
“It is an Iraqi responsibility, this is the right thing to do, it is not an American responsibility,” said Ali al-Dabbagh, a government spokesman, said Monday. “And at the same time, the loyalty of these people should be to Iraq.”
The American military also wants the program to act as a bridge to funnel people into jobs with the Iraqi Army or the police. About a third of current enlistees have expressed interest in doing so, said Admiral Smith, though just 2,000 have so far.
Also on Wednesday, 20 busloads of returning Iraqi refugees arrived in Baghdad from Syria, though the exact number of the refugees was not clear. Mr. Dabbagh, the government spokesman, put the figure at 800 people; the Baghdad City Council said the number was closer to 200. The International Organization for Migration said about 300 people had returned on the buses.
There have been varying reports about the number of displaced people who are returning to Iraq or to their homes within Iraq. Earlier this month, an Iraqi official said roughly 46,000 people returned from other countries in October, evidence, he said, of improved security conditions here. But that figure included all Iraqis who crossed the borders, not just the displaced who were returning.
There are also concerns about how smoothly the resettlement is going. Roughly a third of the people who have come to Iraq have discovered squatters living in their homes, said Dana Graber Ladek, the International Organization for Migration’s Iraqi displacement specialist.
“Property claims could be a tremendous issue that the government of Iraq will need to address,” Ms. Ladek wrote in an e-mail message.
In another development, Unicef warned that Baghdad might be facing a cholera outbreak, with 101 new cases reported in recent weeks. Cholera is a waterborne disease that often appears when sanitary conditions are poor, and the capital, where raw sewage flows into many waterways, accounts for nearly 80 percent of the country’s new cases, the agency said. The increase is of particular concern because the rainy season is approaching, and, according to agency figures, Iraq’s sewage treatment plants are working at less than one-fifth of their capacity.