[Rhodes22-list] Politics: Unabashed Politics. You Go Iraq!

brad haslett flybrad at yahoo.com
Mon Jan 31 08:31:10 EST 2005


For those of you who I've contacted off-list about the
Island Packet 35, I lost the bid by 10K.  They either
really did their homework or they're a fool.  On a
brighter note, freedom moves on!  We've lost over 1300
brave Americans for this day.  You missed 1776 but you
can catch a taste in 2005.  Let Freedom Ring!

  AFTER THE WAR
Happy Birthday
A roundup of the past two weeks' good news from Iraq.

BY ARTHUR CHRENKOFF
Monday, January 31, 2005 12:01 a.m.

"Iraqis Begin Voting After Rocket Blast Strikes U.S.
Embassy" read the four-column front-page headline in
yesterday's New York Times. In the print edition, the
lead story, by Dexter Filkins, bore the headline "2
Are Killed--More Attacks Are Vowed." Another
front-page story, by John F. Burns, was titled "The
Vote, and Democracy Itself, Leave Anxious Iraqis
Divided." The only good news to be found above the
fold was a piece by Marc Santora: "U.S. is Close to
Eliminating AIDS in Infants, Officials Say." When it
came to Iraq, the paper was playing the same old
familiar dirge.

Readers must've felt as if they'd gone through a time
warp if they picked up their paper Sunday morning
after watching the news on television. In scenes
unimaginable only two years ago--and unimaginable to
the press's professional pessimists two days
ago--millions of ordinary Iraqi men and women braved
terrorist violence and came out to vote in their first
free election.

The first to cast ballots were Iraqi expatriates
around the world, starting Friday. And the first
exiles to vote, thanks to the International Date Line,
were in my country, Australia. Kassim Abood, a senior
adviser to the out-of-country voting program, told
journalists outside a polling station in Sydney, "I
think a lot of Iraqis are very proud today. People
coming to me, shake [my] hand, hug me, kissing me and
tell me 'congratulations,' it's wonderful." London's
Daily Telegraph reported that "exiles danced in the
street as they cast their ballots at nine polling
stations in Australia. Turnout was high and some
proudly displayed the blue ink on their fingers which
proved that they had cast their ballots, calling it 'a
mark of freedom.' "

Iraqis also voted in Syria and Iran, two countries
whose citizens may start to wonder why their rulers
are unelected. Polling places were set up near five
U.S. cities: Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Nashville
and Washington. And although there were no polling
places in Israel, and some reports said Israeli-Iraqis
would not be allowed to vote, one of them made his way
to Amman, Jordan, where he cast a ballot. Overall, the
International Organization for Migration, which
coordinated the overseas vote, estimated that around
30% of Iraqis living outside of their country would
have voted.

Turnout in Iraq itself was considerably higher.
Millions came out to vote, despite well-advertised
threats of Election Day violence. Some three dozen
people around the country died in suicide, grenade and
mortar attacks, but vastly more Iraqis were stained
with ink than with blood.

As predicted, the turnout was highest in the Shia and
Kurdish parts of the country, moderate in mixed areas,
and lowest in Sunni strongholds, but everywhere it
exceeded expectations. The total turnout figures are
preliminary at this stage; Farid Ayar, the spokesman
for the Independent Electoral Commission says that
around 60%, or eight million, of those registered to
vote did so. Earlier unconfirmed figures put the
percentage even higher, at around 72%. Either figure
puts to shame the average election turnout in many
Western countries, where there is no danger that the
journey to the polling station could be your last.

Throughout Kurdistan, the turnout has been described
as "very high." In Kurdish Erbil, lines were long and
crowds turned up right from the start, despite the
early morning chill. In Basra, 90% turnout was
reported. In other part of the Shia south, enthusiasm
was just as palatable:

    Some rode on donkey-carts. Others piled into buses
laid on for voters. Most came on foot, steadying the
elderly and pushing the disabled in wheelchairs to the
ballot box. Voters in Iraq's Shi'ite Muslim holy city
of Najaf turned out in force on Sunday, many walking
for kilometres through filthy streets, to cast their
ballots in Iraq's first multi-party election in half a
century. . . .

    Some began trickling in as soon as the region's
240 polling centres opened at 7 a.m. By mid-morning
queues of voters snaked around schools used as voting
places, everyone holding their documents at the ready.
"It is a good feeling to experience democracy for the
first time," said Isra Mohammed, a housewife in the
black Islamic robe traditionally worn by women in
southern Iraq.

Eighty-year-old Mahdeya Saleh had this to say: "I had
often been forced to vote under Saddam Hussein. Today
I come out of my own will to choose freely the
candidate of my choice for the first and last time in
my life."

Meanwhile, in Baghdad:

    With private vehicles banned to prevent car bombs,
Iraqis took over the streets of Baghdad, playing
soccer and going for walks--even those in wheelchairs
were pushed along--as threats of catastrophic attacks
failed to materialize. "Why should I be afraid?" asked
Arifa Abed Mohamed, an elderly woman in a black abaya,
who was first to vote at dawn on one Baghdad polling
station. "I am afraid only from God."

Long lines were reported throughout Baghdad's
predominately Shiite Sadr City. Elsewhere:

    Western Baghdad polling stations were busy, with
long queues of voters. Most went about the process
routinely, filling in their ballots and leaving
quickly without much emotion. Others brought
chocolates for those waiting in line, and shared
festive juice drinks inside the voting station. Samir
Hassan, 32, who lost his leg in a car bomb blast in
October, was determined to vote. "I would have crawled
here if I had to. I don't want terrorists to kill
other Iraqis like they tried to kill me. Today I am
voting for peace," he said, leaning on his metal
crutches, determination in his reddened eyes.

Others went to great lengths to vote:

    Determined not to be marginalized, a woman who
gave her name only as Umm Ali, the mother of Ali, said
she moved for three days out of Doura, a district on
Baghdad's southern edge thick with insurgents, so she
could vote in relative safety. "I came here to
relatives, because in Doura there are many [insurgent]
operations," says Umm Ali, in broken English.
"Everyone in my neighborhood had left to vote. I have
no feeling of fear--Allah has won."

Throughout Baghdad, the turnout (reported as high as
95%) disappointed the boycotters:

    Asked if reports of better-than-expected turnout
in areas where Sunni and Shiite Muslims live together
indicated that a Sunni cleric boycott effort had
failed, one of the main groups pushing the boycott
seemed to soften its stance. "The association's call
for a boycott of the election was not a fatwa
(religious edict), but only a statement," said
Association of Muslim Scholars spokesman Omar Ragheb.
"It was never a question of something religiously
prohibited or permitted."

While many areas throughout the Sunni triangle (like
Tikrit and Samarra) were nearly deserted, elsewhere
throughout this restive area democracy could not be
completely kept down:

    Even in Falluja, the Sunni city west of Baghdad
that was a militant stronghold until a U.S. assault in
November, a steady stream of people turned out,
confounding expectations. Lines of veiled women
clutching their papers waited to vote. "We want to be
like other Iraqis, we don't want to always be in
opposition," said Ahmed Jassim, smiling after he
voted. In Baquba, a rebellious city northeast of
Baghdad, spirited crowds clapped and cheered at one
voting station. In Mosul, scene of some of the worst
insurgent attacks in recent months, U.S. and local
officials said turnout was surprisingly high.

To sample some of the joy of average Iraqis undiluted
by the media, read Iraqi bloggers. Mohammed and Omar
write in the aftermath of the vote:

    We could smell pride in the atmosphere this
morning; everyone we saw was holding up his blue
tipped finger with broad smiles on the faces while
walking out of the center. [We] couldn't think of a
scene more beautiful than that.

Read also blogger Ali's journey to the polling
station. Blogger Zeyad writes: "My mother was in tears
watching the scenes from all over the country." Aala
wrote about "suicide bombers versus suicide voters";
the latter have won the day. Hammorabi reported on
crowds demonstrating when some polling stations failed
to open on time in Mosul. And the Friends of Democracy
site is running firsthand reporting from around the
country.

Not only did the election turned out to be less bloody
than expected, but it also received a clean bill of
health from observers:

    A group that organised 10,000 independent
observers said there had been little fraud. "In
general the elections went ahead in an excellent way
and there was very little fraud or violations," a
spokesman for the Ain (Eye) non-governmental
organisation said.

The results will not be known for seven to 10 days.
The election itself, however, is only a start of a
long political journey for the people of Iraq. To find
out what's in store in the near future, including the
drafting of a new constitution. read this report.

Meanwhile, here are more underreported stories of what
has been taking place in Iraq over the past two weeks.

• Society. This is how the poll preparations and the
campaign unfolded over the two weeks up to Election
Day. By mid-January, the compilation of voter rolls
was finished, and copies were posted in hundreds of
locations around the country to enable people who
might not have been included to petition for
amendments, as well as to enable challenges to
validity of other names on the list. "Everything is on
track," Carlos Valenzuela, the U.N. official in charge
of the election preparation, said on Jan. 17. "It was
a very tight time frame. Luckily, there was no
slippage."

To make the poll happen, between 50 million and 60
million forgery-proof ballot papers were supplied to
Iraq by Australia and Canada, as were 90,000 ballot
boxes. On Jan. 25, the electoral commission started
publishing the names of candidates.

The authorities put the following security
arrangements in place for polling: Election Day itself
was declared a holiday; restrictions were imposed on
automobile traffic around polling stations to
safeguard against car bombs; travel between provinces
was restricted. Iraq's land borders were also sealed,
and the Baghdad airport closed.

In the run-up to the vote, many concerns were
expressed about the level of Sunni participation in
Iraq's democratic process. Those who focused on the
likely turnout were likely to miss the bigger picture:

    111 "entities" are running for office in the
National Assembly. Some of the entities are political
parties, some are coalitions of political parties,
some are single candidates or handfuls of candidates.
In many of the cases, Sunnis and Shiites are on the
same slate, including the slate being offered by
interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. In that regard,
say officials, even if Sunnis don't go to the polls in
some areas, Sunnis will be represented nationally.

In any case, the election itself was only a start:

    Sunni Arab leaders who have been the most vocal in
calling for a boycott or postponement of the coming
elections say they intend to get involved in politics
after the vote, including taking part in writing a
permanent constitution. There is too much at stake,
with the constitution to be drafted by August 2005 and
full-term elections held by year's end, for Sunni
groups to reject the political process, the leaders
say, even if they are sticking to their denunciation
of the elections.

As for the question of election violence, the U.N.'s
Valenzuela, himself a veteran of many a dangerous
election throughout the developing world, had this to
say:

    [Conditions] are not the best and certainly far
from ideal, but if the security measures work there is
a very good chance that the elections that take place
will take place successfully . . . and will be
accepted as legitimate. . . .

    There has been violence in the run-up and it is
likely that there will at least be attempts at
violence on the day. . . . But violence does not
necessarily disqualify the elections.

Despite these concerns, public support for the
election continued to be high during the run-up:

    Two thirds of Iraqis would like to have the
elections on schedule, according to a survey by a
Baghdad University's research center. . . . Of those
questioned, 64.2% said they believed the elections
"are the best way to select a new government."

    When they were asked whether the elections will
bring stability and peace to the country, 34.3% said
any new government will find it hard to restore
normalcy. . . .

    More than half of the respondents (59%) agreed
that the January vote would boost the democratic
process and lead to enhanced popular participation in
decision-making. . . . Almost two thirds of those
surveyed said they believed the elections will bring
"qualified officials" to lead the country. . . .

    More than half of the respondents (54.9%) said the
elections will bring "economic prosperity" while 45.1%
thought the opposite.

    According to the survey 4.2% of Iraqis think
elections "are a concept which is strange to our
traditions" while the rest believed Iraqis can handle
their affairs in a democratic way.

    More than half of the respondents said there was
no problem to have democratic elections under foreign
occupation. 

This should remind us that the true heroes of this
process were the Iraqi people themselves, braving many
dangers and challenges in order to elect their own
government. Some of their stories bear recalling, if
only to also show the variety of the experiences
throughout the country.

Among those who registered to vote was Samir, the
Iraqi translator who first identified Saddam Hussein
after he was captured near Tikrit. "It was like a
special day, a very special day," he says of the
ex-dictator's capture. "That's the man that destroyed
millions of lives in Iraq. He was in my hand,
actually. I grabbed him. I was there." Democracy can
be the best revenge.

On the other end of the spectrum:

    Abdullah Hussein was once a loyal general in
Saddam's army. He cast a Yes vote in a carefully
staged referendum for the dictator just five months
before the war and fought against the US and British
invasion until the day the Iraqi regime fell on April
9 2003.

    Nearly two years later, Mr Hussein has cautiously
embraced the new American authorities in Iraq. He is
now deputy provincial governor in his hometown Tikrit,
the staunchly Sunni Muslim city 100 miles north of
Baghdad that was also Saddam's home and tribal
heartland. On Sunday he intends to cast his vote in
parliamentary elections and will even stand for a seat
on the provincial council. 

This Baghdad bookshop also offered a glimpse into the
thoughts of some in the capital:

    In a country wrecked by violence, a tiny bookstore
in a dusty mall offers a quiet corner where customers
can escape the misery and the owners can dare to sound
hopeful. Here students too poor to finance their
studies can borrow books for a week at 20 cents each,
and the two men who own the Iqra'a bookstore can
indulge their conviction that their business is also a
mission.

    Such positive attitudes set Mohammed Hanash Abbas
and Attallah Zeidan apart in a country where the
prevailing mood has been shaped by three wars since
1980, almost 13 years of crushing sanctions, the
humiliation of foreign occupation and the brutality of
the insurgency.

    "I don't just see light at the end of the tunnel,
I see light at the start and throughout the tunnel,"
says Abbas, 41, in a typically upbeat remark. His
partner Zeidan, 39, agrees. "We must live like other
people," Zeidan says. "Let a million of us die. That's
the price of freedom. Have you heard of any society
that gained freedom without sacrifices?" . . .

    While their openly upbeat attitude is unusual,
their views are not uncommon among the many Iraqis who
have neither taken up arms against the Americans nor
actively cooperated with them. 

Those risking the most were the election officials
who, despite great personal risks, were trying to make
the election possible. They were people like
"Mohammed," who worked to set up a polling station and
10 substations in Baghdad:

    My family asked me many times to quit, but I
always tell them it's not for the money, it's for the
future of Iraq and I'm serving my country. The salary
itself is not worth it. It's only $200 (£106) a month.
. . . I took this job because I believe it's our
redemption from all the tragedies and terrorists, and
at the end of all this we will have an elected
government. . . . Of course I'm afraid, like any other
person in Iraq, but I feel a responsibility to my
country, to which I'm devoted.

Or people like 22-year-old Ziad Al-Dulaimi, "an
idealistic election worker in Baghdad whose father is
Sunni and mother is Shiite, hates his parents'
generation for acquiescing to Saddam's authoritarian
rule. Al-Dulaimi says now is the time for a fresh
start.":

    "You continue to cling to the present," he says,
after dropping off ballot material in the
U.S.-protected Green Zone. "I'm clinging to the
future. Our fathers made the mistake and made Saddam
look great. And we paid for it. We don't want to
repeat the mistake. Let the men and women die (trying
to vote) in order to give new life to the kids."

Among the candidates, the presence of women notable,
especially in conservative Shia areas.

Despite violence and threats, the spirits of many
Iraqis proved hard to break:

    Evidence that at least some Iraqis are willing to
risk a great deal for the Jan. 30 election can be
found at a small station called Radio Diyala. When the
general manager of the station, in eastern Iraq near
Iran, began criticizing insurgency efforts to scare
Iraqis into not voting and urging Iraqis to
participate in selecting new rulers, credible death
threats came his way. . . . As a result, he now lives
at the station under heavy guard. And reporters at the
station, which came under attack again Monday, have
paid a physical price for their independent work. . .
.

    Shaker Mahmoud, a reporter who suffered minor
wounds to his head and legs, said he and others won't
let the insurgency intimidate them into giving up
their free speech rights. "Some of my neighbors tell
me that I am working for the Americans," Mahmoud said.
"I tell them that we are not working for the
Americans. I am working to defeat the terrorists--all
of them." 

Thanks to the Alhurra TV station, the Iraqi audience
(61% of which watches the channel, according to
research conducted last year) were given a chance to
witness the first televised election debate in Iraq's
history. The three-hour program provided a forum for
six candidates representing the major parties and
lists to explain their political program and answer
questions from a panel of Iraqi journalists.

German-financed Election Radio also hit in the airways
in the run-up to the vote. The program used Iraqi
correspondents on the ground around the country using
MP3 recorders and emailing their segments to Germany
for editing and broadcast.

Then there were the ad campaigns:

    Amid television ads being shown in Iraq promoting
candidates in the nation's January 30 election are
those of a different kind--ones promoting a united
Iraqi nation.

    One of the ads, run by a group calling itself the
Future Iraq Assembly, shows three armed groups of
people--Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis--marching toward a
crossroad.

    Their angry faces and the banners they hold speak
of hatred, anger and a history of conflict and
discord. Then, in slow motion, little boys emerge from
the back, push the adults away, run toward each other
and warmly hug.

    As an emotional Arabic tune plays, the men look
down in shame, drop their weapons and greet one
another under the Iraqi flag The ad ends with the
message, "Divided We Won't Conquer."

    Advertisements similar to this have been running
on broadcast outlets for several months and are posted
on the Internet as well. 

More on the advertising campaign here:

    By the time the polls open this Sunday for Iraq's
historic elections, almost everyone in the country
will be familiar with the well-crafted advertising
campaign being run by the Independent Electoral
Commission and other agencies. There are quick,
staccato information bulletins, mini-dramas of
national reconciliation, even cinematic epics made
with the help of the US occupying forces.

You can see several examples of Iraqi political TV
advertising here. As Middle East Online noted:

    Television viewers across the Arab world are being
treated to a rare phenomenon ahead of Sunday's
landmark vote in Iraq--politicians and their parties
taking to the airwaves to woo voters to the ballot
box.

    In a region of strictly controlled politics, where
there is often only one election candidate or the
result is a foregone conclusion, Iraq's political
parties have registered a first by venturing into the
world of the television ad campaign, with music and
slogans and bold promises. 

On the ground, the campaign itself took many forms.
Iraqi blogger Omar reported:

    Posters and signs for the political parties and
individual candidates are covering almost every single
wall on the streets of Baghdad, leaving no place for
the terrorists to write their hatred messages (which
are by the way full of stupid typos! from which you
can tell what kind of ignorants those criminals are)
and the elections posters have become so numerous that
the terrorists would need to spend a decade rearing
them off to find a spot for their ugly slogans.

The city of Baqubah held a Peace Day:

    Local government leaders, sheiks, clerics, former
Baathists, and other Diyala Province residents
gathered here Jan. 18 to attend Peace Day--an event
aimed at quelling violence in the province and
encouraging participation the upcoming elections. The
event, hosted by Diyala Governor Dr. Abdullah Hassan
Rashid al-Jburi drew a crowd of about 150. . . .

    In hopes of separating them from hardened
terrorists, local insurgents were encouraged to attend
and were offered an opportunity to apply for amnesty
for all crimes except murder. About 50 took advantage
of the opportunity and signed pledges of non-violence.

    [Brig. Gen. Tahseen Tawfiq Jassen] Al Haialy read
a Fatwa--a religious order--during the meeting signed
by the Religious Leaders of Diyala--a group of Sunni
religious leaders--which reversed their position on
upcoming elections, okaying Sunni participation in
upcoming Diyala elections. 

In divided Kirkuk, both Kurdish and Arab religious
leaders were campaigning strong to motivate their
people to come out and vote. Anyone who does not go is
a "traitor, ex-Ba'athist and the enemy of the Kurds,"
was the rallying cry of Mullah Sirwan Ahmad, a Kurd.
"Whoever doesn't go to vote will be cursed by God on
Judgment Day," agreed Mullah Teib Abdullah, an Arab.

The enthusiasm wasn't restricted to Muslim religious
figures. According to Monsignor Louis Sako, Chaldean
bishop of Kirkuk: "At Mass, in the homily, we tell
people to go and vote. . . . Voting is a national and
religious duty that contributes to the birth of a new
Iraq, for everyone: an Iraq which is able to develop
in vitality. . . . [The elections are] something
immense and new. . . . [For the first time Iraqi will]
freely choose their leaders."

There were even important endorsements from overseas,
including one from a top Islamic scholar, Sheikh
Mohammad Tantawi, head of the Cairo-based al-Azhar
institution. He called on all Iraqis to participate in
the election in order to form a legitimate government.

Foreign assistance has for months been making a
difference in preparations for the poll. The U.S.
Agency for International Development has been
particularly active with training and support for the
election infrastructure. Throughout December and
January (link in PDF):

    The Board of Directors of the Iraqi Election
Information Network (EIN) participated in a three-day
training seminar to help them prepare to observe the
upcoming Iraqi elections. EIN is the Iraqi NGO
responsible for supervising the information and
financial flows between the 5,000-8,000 members of the
nation-wide Coalition of Non-Partisan Election
Monitors (CINEM).

You can also read about the efforts of the National
Democratic Institute for International Affairs:

    The midwives of democracy toil behind the towering
gray blast walls that encase every Western enterprise
in the new Iraq. This one, in an anonymous cluster of
buildings, houses the country's first school for
political candidates.

    There is a miniature television studio, where
novice office-seekers learn the fine art of the sound
bite and the value of "earned media." There are
conference rooms, where instructors from countries
that have already left war behind conduct seminars on
"Six Steps to Planning and Winning a Campaign." (Step
3: Targeting the Voters).

    A graphic artist stands by with advice on getting
a party's poster noticed on the cluttered streets of
Baghdad. A former congressional staffer stands by to
emphasize the vital difference between an army of
volunteers and an armed militia. 

As the report notes, "in the 13 months it has operated
in the country, the institute has tutored political
aspirants from all of Iraq's major parties, trained
about 10,000 domestic election observers and nurtured
thousands of ordinary citizens seeking to build the
institutions that form the backbone of free
societies."

American-financed Alhurra (meaning "the free one"),
meanwhile, has been trying to compete with established
Arab satellite TV channels:

    From a state-of-the-art studio in northern
Virginia, the Alhurra network broadcasts 24 hours a
day to 70m satellite television viewers in 22
countries across the Middle East. Its special Iraqi
channel, featuring regular programmes on the election
process and the potential benefits of voting, is also
available to terrestrial viewers.

Alhurra is often dismissed as just an American
mouthpiece, yet "viewer statistics show the channel is
being watched by a third of Al-Jazeera's audience in
Iraq. An earlier survey found that at least 20% of
satellite viewers in Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco
and Saudi Arabia were watching Alhurra regularly."

In other news, an effort to modernize public
administration:

    Italy and Iraq have signed an agreement to
strengthen e-government cooperation as part of a
project aimed at creating an intranet linking some 30
ministries and state institutions. . . .

    The Italian government confirmed its commitment to
the completion of the ongoing government intranet
project, which is due to become operational in the
next few weeks with the creation of an IT link between
the first 13 government ministries. . . .

    The broadband system uses advanced laser
technology and has been chosen for its operational
efficiency and security, Stanca said in a statement.
The intranet will have a supplementary satellite
back-up system.

As part of the process of dealing with the legacy of
Saddam's dictatorship, a special center will be
established in Baghdad to assist families of the
missing to find out the fate of their loved ones. By
way of background you can read this story on the
challenges of the task ahead; as the report succinctly
summarizes the situation, there are an "estimated 1
[million] missing since 1979; 288 mass graves
discovered; only 20 forensic pathologists in Iraq;
700-800 bodies per month require identification in
Baghdad alone."

There is also good news as more of Iraq's historical
heritage continues to be recovered:

    Three 4,000-year-old marble and alabaster seals
looted from the Iraq National Museum and seized by
U.S. Customs from an American scholar were returned on
Tuesday to Iraq's U.N. ambassador. "At a time when
most news broadcast about Iraq is depressing and
negative, it is with great pleasure to mark this
important, positive achievement," Ambassador Samir
Sumaidaie told a news conference at New York's
Immigration and Customs Enforcement office.

And German archaeologists might have discovered the
ruins of one of the most famous of ancient cities, the
Sumerian Uruk, which is said to contain the grave of
the legendary hero and king Gilgamesh.

• Economy. The Iraqi dinar, which has remained steady
at 1,460 to the U.S. dollar for quite some tome, just
a few days ago experienced an unexpected appreciation,
to 1,300.

A lot of assistance is needed to rebuild, reform and
modernize Iraqi economy. USAID (links in PDF) is now
cooperating with the Iraqi government on the reform of
commercial law, as part of its Iraq Economic
Governance II project (link in PDF). USAID is also,
through its Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance
program, working to support development of private
sector in Iraq:

    VEGA awarded its first grant, for $5,000, to a
kindergarten in Arbil. Scores of other grant
applications are now in process, including more than
forty from members of prominent Iraqi chambers of
commerce, including grants that will support an
education effort designed to help chamber of commerce
members secure new construction contracts.

Twenty thousand new businesses registered with the
government in 2004 and will be receiving USAID
assistance.

In communication news, the wireless network in Iraq
keeps expanding:

    Building a cellular network in a war zone can have
its difficulties, but there's been enough success for
one of the three carriers operating in Iraq that the
company plans to expand even further this year.

    AsiaCell's employees and cell sites have been
attacked during construction of the networks, but the
attacks subside once the base stations are up because
even the insurgents want to have wireless access,
according to Phil Moyse, chief technology officer. . .
.

    Using equipment from Siemens and Huawei, AsiaCell
has built out a GSM network that now has 442,000
subscribers, 99 percent of them prepaid. AsiaCell is
the only one of the three Iraq networks with GPRS. By
meeting subscriber and other terms of the 2-year
licenses, AsiaCell now can expand into other parts of
Iraq. Moyse says the company plans on building out
cell sites in Baghdad in central Iraq and Basrah in
the south. He says as the carrier goes into these new
areas it will be essential to use local workers to cut
down on the security risk. 

Iraq's oil production is reaching 2.4 million barrels
a day. Oil Minister Thamer al-Ghadban said, in a major
understatement, that this total should rise if
"destruction attacks"--which in 2004 numbered 200--are
halted.

To rebuild the industry and increase the production,
the Iraqi government has allocated $3 billion from the
2005 budget:

    Foreign firms could play a major part in the
projects, especially on the supply and engineering
side, even if security failed to improve, they said.
The projects, which have mostly lacked funding until
now, include expanding gas and oil production,
overhauling refineries and the pipeline network,
building new refineries, developing oil fields and
exploration.

Says al-Ghadhban: "This is landmark funding that will
help us repair damage to the Iraqi oil sector." It
seems that many positive developments are just around
the corner:

    The Iraqi government that emerges from Sunday's
election may open its oil business to foreign
investment, and international petroleum companies are
jockeying to curry favor with the war-torn country.

    Firms from the United States and Europe--including
Royal Dutch/Shell Group and the Bay Area's own
ChevronTexaco--are literally working for free on
certain engineering and training projects to get their
feet in the door.

    The companies are forging these arrangements with
Iraq's oil ministry to help train Iraqi engineers and
study ways to tap more of the country's vast oil
reserves, estimated to be either the second- or
third-largest in the world.

    Meanwhile, Iraqi officials are drafting a law that
would encourage international companies to invest in
the country's tattered oil industry, run by the state
since 1972. The current finance minister, a candidate
in the election, announced the legislation late last
month, although he offered few details. 

In the meantime:

    The Ministry of Oil in Iraq has awarded a contract
for the execution of an integrated reservoir study for
the Kirkuk field to Exploration Consultants Limited
(ECL). Shell Exploration Company B.V. . . . has
offered to the Ministry of Oil support for the
implementation of this study. Consequently, Shell and
the Ministry of Oil have today signed a Letter of
Understanding (LoU) to that effect. Shell's technical
assistance will bring its extensive experience with
production from mature fields, and field developments
and operations in the Middle East. The study will be
conducted outside Iraq, and is expected to take about
one year.

To satisfy more-immediate needs, an agreement has been
signed under which 20 Turkish companies will provide
for half of Iraq's fuel requirements this year.

• Reconstruction. In the latest snapshot of the
reconstruction effort:

    Security- and law enforcement-related projects are
use up more than $5 billion of the $18.4 billion.
Projects to restore electricity are slated to receive
$4.3 billion. Electricity underpins nearly every other
industry, including water treatment, irrigation and
sewage, oil, and healthcare.

    The security construction projects would include
133 border posts--none of which has been
completed---38 military bases, 11 of which are
finished; 86 police facilities, 17 of which are set
up, and 71 firehouses, only one of which has been
established.

    In the electricity center, nine of the 11 planned
generation plants are now working; eight of the 15
planned transmission stations are built, and 11 of 44
distribution centers are completed.

    The public works sector is about halfway to its
goal, with 74 or 140 planned sites constructed. They
include 12 of 24 water treatment stations, 12 of 24
sewage systems, 12 of 17 irrigation areas and 18 of 36
potable water systems.

    There are 183 news schools built out of 569
planned; four of 89 primary healthcare clinics; seven
of 24 hospitals, and 26 of 43 public buildings.
Another 2,700 existing schools have been
rehabilitated, according to [Iraq Project and
Contracting Office] data. 

The report adds that "USAID is administering about $5
billion of the $18.4 billion. Through contracts, it is
conducting about 8,000 projects throughout the country
in all 18 governates. The projects include 34
electrical generation and network improvements, 136
water and sewage systems, 32 transportation programs,
and 2,405 rehabilitated schools, clinics and fire
stations."

The Pentagon's Project and Contracting Office, which
so far has been handling the $18.4 billion
reconstruction program, is now passing the
responsibility to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers"

    Charles Hess, the director of the agency, the
Project and Contracting Office, said . . . that the
change was a natural evolution. . . . The gradual
shift of responsibility to the Army corps, with its
history of managing construction project in conflict
zones, had long been envisioned.

In addition to it main purpose, reconstruction work is
having positive security spinoffs:

    Sadr City is a case in point, said Ambassador Bill
Taylor, director of the Iraq Reconstruction Management
Office. Sadr City was a hotbed of support for
militias, and the 1st Armored Division and the 1st
Cavalry Division fought battles against Muqtada al
Sadr's militia in the street of the area.

    But following the military action, U.S. Army and
U.S. government agencies moved in with reconstruction
money. They funded projects that hooked up houses to
the electrical grid. They funded projects that got
clean water to the homes of Iraqis who never had it
before. They hooked up sewers so raw sewage didn't run
down the middle of the street. "I took a drive through
Sadr City last month," Taylor said. "It was a rough
area, but now when one drives through . . . one sees
kids in the street waving, and giving thumbs up."

    Women have benefited from a center built for them
near the town hall. And local Iraqis are working on
these projects. "Take a look at the security situation
in Sadr City over the past months, and it has been
much better," Taylor said. "People who don't have
sewage in their streets, and when they turn on the
switches their lights go on, they are more inclined to
go about the business of living rather than picking up
a weapon."

    There are currently 1,578 new reconstruction
projects under way, an increase of almost 400 since
December. Says [Chris] Milligan, the USAID director in
Iraq.

    "In many of our programs, (the Iraqis are)
required to contribute up to 20 percent of the value
of the program in either sweat-equity labor or the
land," Milligan said. "It gives them a stake in
something. Before, under Saddam Hussein's regime, they
didn't have a stake in anything. They had no interest.
That's probably why we had the looting. Now they do
have that stake, and there is an interest in
protecting the projects as they come on line."

USAID (link in PDF) has been actively involved with
the coalition forces in this endeavor:

    USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives
(USAID/OTI) works closely with the U.S. Army First
Cavalry Division (1st CAV) to support stabilization
activities in Baghdad. USAID/OTI projects mitigate
conflict in key Baghdad neighborhoods by generating
short-term employment opportunities for underemployed
Iraqi citizens.

    In turn, these projects build hope in communities
by improving the delivery of essential services such
as garbage pick-up and surface sewage removal. In
addition, USAID/OTI grants have supported the
rehabilitation of schools, primary health care clinics
and local markets.

    In collaboration with the 1st CAV, OTI has
approved more than 690 grants, valued at nearly $80
million. Grants focus on labor-intensive projects
intended to engage as many local residents as possible
in activities that improve the quality of life in
these districts. Since May 2004, OTI grants have
created employment opportunities for an average of
24,000 local residents per month. Projects have been
conducted throughout the city, with most grants
reaching poor and conflict-prone districts such as
Thawra (Sadr City). 

The Iraqi government has set aside $100 million for
reconstruction work in Kirkuk. The money will go
toward the sewage and water systems, roads and health
infrastructure. Elsewhere:

    More than $10 million is being invested in
reconstructing and paving almost 200 kilometers [125
miles] of rural village roads in four northern Iraq
provinces. The State Corporation for Roads and
Bridges, a directorate of the Ministry of Housing and
Construction, identified village roads in Diyala,
Ninewa, Tameem and Salah ad Din for pavement
improvements, in cooperation with local governors. . .
.

    In October of last year, construction work was
begun on 103 kilometers with the remaining 97
scheduled to start in coming months. All work is being
done by local contractors who are responsible for site
surveys, design and site preparation, construction,
testing and quality control for all phases of work.

As Project and Contracting Office program manager
Andrew Bailey says, "The benefit to the Iraqis is
improved, safe road access so that they can travel and
move goods and serves to and from the marketplace."

As part of the Security and Justice Sector of the
Project and Contracting Office, three courthouses in
the province of Dahuk are receiving a $300,000
renovation:

    On December 28 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
and Dahok government officials opened and reviewed 30
bid proposals received following a December 26 bid
advertisement. The work was awarded to three local
contractors. . . .

    Contracts to build four new schools in Dahok were
awarded the same day as the courthouse renovations.
Currently there are more than 30 projects being
conducted in the province.

On a smaller scale:

    Japan will provide $220,000 in grant aid to the
southern Iraqi province of Muthana, where Japanese
ground troops are stationed for reconstruction
assistance, for a project to dig wells to improve
local water supply. . . . Four wells will be dug in a
desert area of Busayyah, about 200 kilometers [125
miles] south of the provincial capital of Samawah.

In electricity news (link in PDF):

    A new V64 power generation unit at a Kirkuk power
facility has come online. The Kirkuk facility is a
large substation located north of Baghdad at the site
of a major hub for the 132-kV and 400-kV grids. This
area is near an existing natural gas pipeline, which
was tapped to provide fuel gas to the new gas turbines
which are being installed at the Kirkuk site. Gas
turbines can be installed with a minimal amount of
external infrastructure and are capable of burning a
variety of fuels, including heavy oils. USAID's work
at the site will bring two new generators online,
adding 325 MW of electrical generation capacity to the
electrical grid. The recently completed V64 unit has
added 65 MW to the national grid. The V94 generator,
which will add 260 MW, is expected to be complete in
the third quarter of 2005.

But it's not just generators and power lines (link in
PDF):

    Iraq's power generating capability has suffered
from the lack of an effective operation and
maintenance (O&M) program over many years. Power
plants require specific scheduled maintenance, without
which, power generating capacity is compromised. This
is the current situation at most power generating
facilities in Iraq. O&M training for power plant
personnel has been limited in the past and non
productive.

    USAID's Power Plant Maintenance program was
designed to provide for training, facility
assessments, coaching, mentoring, maintenance and
plant outage support, and furnish test equipment,
special tools, permanent plant equipment, materials,
and parts. The goal of O&M training is to establish a
tradition of best operational practices and modern
management techniques at Iraq's power plants. Power
plant O&M training covers all aspects of power plant
activities, including operations, administration,
planning, maintenance, and warehousing. Upon
completion of this program in May, the overall
operating standards, safety standards, and the
reliability of the plant output will be increased.
Training is being provided for 250 staff from the
Ministry of Electricity and is conducted outside of
Iraq. 

In water and sewage projects (link in PDF):

    USAID's projects to rehabilitate water and
wastewater plants in Salah al Din Governorate are
approximately 60 percent complete. Once finished, the
wastewater treatment plant will serve a rural town of
60,000 residents and the water plant will produce
approximately 3.8 million gallons per day of potable
drinking water.

In the capital, "construction work is moving forward
on a sewage trunk line in large, poor districts of
eastern Baghdad. The trunk line will extend service to
some areas that were not served by sewage lines
before, and in other areas will replace an old system
that was prone to leaks and blockages."

Meanwhile in Basra, the work to restore 14 water
treatment facilities is finished (link in PDF):

    Over the course of the project, there were many
components refurbished: 15 clarifiers, 80 compact
units, 71 high lift pumps, seven low lift pumps, nine
backwash pumps, 50 pressure filters, 34 gravity
filters, 19 generators, and five storage tanks.
Additionally, the entire 21.50 km pipeline has been
excavated, built, tested, and backfilled for the Khor
Az Zubayr to Safwan water line.

The project to restore the wastewater collection
system in Basra has also been completed.

In an effort to strengthen Iraqi higher education,
USAID's Higher Education and Development program
continues to link up American and Iraqi universities
in cooperative ventures that enable the former to
assist the latter (link in PDF):

    A . . . HEAD partnership led by the State
University of New York at Stony Brook continues to
support research libraries at two major Iraqi
universities. More than 1,500 archaeology books were
previously catalogued and prepared for shipment to the
two Iraqi universities.

The International Human Rights Law Institute at
DePaul's College of Law is also collaborating with
three universities throughout the country to improve
the standard of clinical legal education (link in
PDF).

In health, work has began on the construction of Basra
Children's Hospital (link in PDF):

    USAID is financing the construction of the new
hospital and private sector contributors, coordinated
by Project Hope, will provide equipment for the
hospital and provide needed training to Iraqi staff.
Initially, the hospital design provides for a building
of about 15,400 square meters and will accommodate 50
in-patient beds, although this may be expanded to 200
beds in the future. To accommodate the hospital's role
as a training site for other Iraqi health
professionals, the building's design provides for
classrooms, conference rooms, offices, and student
dormitories.

Thirty-six Iraqi doctors are undergoing additional
training in Bahrain and Spain, with more courses
scheduled to take place in Austria and Finland. Four
students from Kurdistan have completed a three-month
Basic Air Traffic Control training program (link in
PDF) with the assistance of USAID's Local Governance
Program.

In agriculture, USAID will be assisting in
rehabilitation of 14 veterinary clinics across the
country (link in PDF).

Meanwhile, a major trade and reconstruction event is
planned:

    Gateway to Iraq--Exhibition, Business and
Investors Summit, an event supporting reconstruction
and economic development in Iraq, intends to create
awareness of Iraq's vast investment and trade
potential. The exhibition will include seminars for
Iraq business and job opportunities. Gateway to Iraq
will take place in Dubai from June 13 to 16, 2005. The
event is being supported by Ports, Customs & Free Zone
Corporation, Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry,
Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing,
and Dubai Naturalization and Residency Department...

    [Says] Iraqi Minister of Interior Faleh Hassan Al
Naqib: "Gateway to Iraq will help consolidate the
solid bilateral relationship between the world and
Iraq in particular UAE relationship with Iraq, and
also create greater awareness of the trade and
investment opportunities in Iraq under its free and
independent future. We are extremely happy to see that
key government departments are playing a major role in
this project." 

• Humanitarian aid. USAID continues to provide
humanitarian assistance to those most in need.
Particular attention is given to Diyala governorate
(link in PDF), where livelihood assets packages and
kerosene is being distributed to internally displaced
persons.

The Vatican, too, is getting on the act:

    The Congregation for Eastern Churches is
organizing a seminar on rebuilding post-war Iraq, to
be held either in Rome or in Amman, Jordan, in
October. The meeting will be co-sponsored by Caritas
International, the Catholic relief agency, and Cor
Unum, the charitable arm of the Holy See.

In addition, a lot of the humanitarian effort is a
result of private--often individual--initiative. For
example, read this story of how a North Carolina
teenager is helping Iraqi children:

    An eighth-grader whose father is serving with the
National Guard in Iraq decided to use the separation
for some good after learning of Iraqi children without
proper shoes or clothing. "That didn't fly very well
in my book," said 14-year-old Niki Streussnig. "I
never did like seeing someone suffer for something
that someone else could fix."

    So, Streussnig started up the Little Feet Society
to send shoes overseas. She began by asking her
friends for shoes. Word of the shoe collection soon
spread in Grier Middle School. "Before you know it,
we've got more shoes than it takes to count,"
Streussnig said. "It did get bigger than I expected."

    So far Streussnig has shipped more than five boxes
filled with shoes. The first shipment went out just
before Thanksgiving. She plans to send out the next
around the first of February. 

Also helping are children from Muscatine, Iowa:

    Today, a package bursting with soccer balls and
best wishes from Muscatine is headed for Iraq. The
package is addressed to a group of out-of-state
soldiers serving with the U.S. Army in Iraq, who may
be a little surprised when they see what's inside. It
was prepared by Alison Anson's sixth-grade class at
West Middle School, a class that's learned more about
the Arab culture from Muscatine resident Osama
Shihadeh. The students are using that new knowledge in
their ongoing correspondence with the troops and the
Iraqi children the soldiers have befriended.

Meanwhile, five Iraqi children who received
life-saving heart surgery not available in Iraq, are
ready to return home from Bangalore, India.

Last but not least, let's remember it's now often
Iraqis offering their fellow Iraqis a helping hand:

    A group of retired female teachers in the southern
Iraqi city of Basra are helping the illiterate to read
and write free of charge. Despite insecurity they are
giving mobile lessons at students' houses. The
decision to launch this initiative was made after a
child visited one of the retired teachers and asked
her to teach him how to write. After that, the teacher
spoke to others who had worked in the same field and
came up with the idea. Now some 10 retired teachers
are reaching out to those who need their help.

• Coalition troops. In addition to providing security
throughout the country, troops are helping with
reconstruction and otherwise assisting Iraqi people to
get back on their feet.

Navy Seabees are one unit that has chalked up many
reconstruction successes:

    Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 7 has spent 11
months over two deployments helping rebuild the cities
of Ad Diwaniyah in 2003, and now, An Najaf about an
hour west. . . .

    Last year in Ad Diwaniyah, NMCB 7 performed some
of its greatest achievements in a long, storied
history. In just over 60 days, the battalion renovated
23 schools, three banks, two fire stations, two power
company facilities, two post offices, two bridges, a
children's orphanage, an agriculture department
building, a railway station and a courthouse. . . .

    In October, a detachment from NMCB 7 was sent to
An Najaf to support the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit
reconstruction and CMO efforts. During August, Marines
from the 11th MEU(SOC) fought door-to-door for nearly
three weeks to bring peace a the city that was
overwhelmed with Medhi Militia.

    After achieving a peace settlement, the 11th
MEU(SOC) worked to rebuild the battle-damaged areas
and provide additional reconstruction. The Seabees
were the ideal instrument for that in a hard-fought
permissive environment. The city is now considered the
model for reconstruction efforts and was the first
province in Iraq to return control to the local
government at the end of November. 

Seabees have also been busy on another project:

    On the desolate northern frontier of this city of
600,000, along a lonely strip of blacktop the U.S.
troops call "California," a group of industrious Navy
Seabees have helped local nomads stake a tiny claim on
the future of Iraq.

    The 25 U.S. sailors, most from Mississippi but a
few from San Diego, have helped local men construct a
six-classroom school for 250 very poor Iraqi children
outside the city of Najaf, Iraq, about 100 miles
southwest of Baghdad,

    It will be the first school for this community of
about 500 nomadic Bedouin tribesmen who said they
settled in the desert near Najaf to escape the
shifting dangers of the war. 

More vital assistance for Iraq's No. 1 hot spot is
also on the way, thanks to American soldiers:

    The Iraqi Ministry of Water and the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers have combined forces to bring
sanitary drinking water to the people of Fallujah.
Currently assessments are being performed at four
water purification treatment plants and three water
towers. The Corps of Engineers is working with the
Fallujah Reconstruction Cell, as well as an Iraq
Ministry representative to execute $10.3 million
dollars worth of water projects. These projects are
targeted at rehabilitating and updating the system
that provides drinking water for up to 400,000
residents in the city of Fallujah.

You can also read this report about how the troops are
trying to improve the electricity situation in Najaf.

Sometimes the efforts are on a small scale, yet they
make a huge difference to those concerned. For
example, soldiers from the First Infantry Division
have completely rebuilt the sewage system used by
Iraqi employees of Bayji power station, which is also
currently undergoing renovation:

    The community was very happy and one plant
employee expressed his gratitude, not just for himself
but also that his children could now safely play in
their backyard. Seeing the kids back outside was the
best seal of approval that the public works team could
have asked for.

And in the town of Wynot, soldiers form Force Danger
were conducting a survey and providing assistance to
small business operators.

On the health front, Iraqis as well as Americans
benefit from access to emergency medical attention:

    New mobile military surgical units provide faster
treatment for injured U.S. Marines and Iraqis, says a
study in the January issue of the Archives of Surgery.
The study examined the effectiveness of six Forward
Resuscitative Surgery System (FRSS) teams that treated
30 Marines and 60 Iraqis between March 21 and April
22, 2003.

Sometimes, it is needy individuals who receive medical
assistance thanks to the private initiative of
soldiers:

    Hassoun, 45, had not been able to walk unassisted
since being surgically affixed with a heavy brace
after breaking his leg last summer. The brace was
supposed to come off after a few months, but Hassoun
couldn't find a doctor willing to remove it. His leg
shriveled as months kept passing and the brace
remained on. Things were beginning to seem hopeless.
But then he met the paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne
Division.

    "He just seemed like he needed help and wasn't
getting it, so we decided to do something," said Sgt.
1st Class Fredrick Garnett, a platoon sergeant with
Company A, 3rd Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry
Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, who was one of the
first paratroopers to meet the man.

    Thanks to the persistence and effort of Garnett
and his fellow paratroopers from the 82nd, Hassoun
underwent a surgical procedure Jan. 16 to have his
brace removed and is now on the road to recovery. 

Then there's this story:

    Perking up from her position on a rug in her
family's modest Najaf home Friday, 25-year-old Iklas
Hakak let out a tiny gasp, a shy smile appearing on
her pretty pale face as the Marines walked inside.

    The Americans had kept their promise to bring her
a new wheelchair from the nearby city of Karbala. The
gift, however welcome, was as much a responsibility as
it was generosity. 

Iklas was maimed during fighting in Najaf, when an
American shell shattered her legs:

    With her left leg now amputated well above the
knee and her right leg ending in a stump just beyond
her ankle, the promising young geography graduate
could be condemned to a life of isolation in a culture
that is hard on women and harder on the handicapped.

    But however bitter Hakak could be toward the
Americans who changed her life forever, she showed
nothing but gratitude and love for the small group of
Marines who visit her often and whom she now says are
like family.

    "I like you very much," she said in hushed but
well-spoken English to Marine Col. Tony Haslam, who
personally brought the wheelchair to her on Friday.
She gripped his large hand with her slim, soft fingers
as she peered up at him with penetrating dark eyes.
"Please," she said softly, "don't forget me." 

Read the whole moving story. U.S. troops are also
continuing to compensate directly the victims of
recent fighting:

    Before dawn Monday, 23-year-old Najaf resident
Tahir al Sumbaly dressed in his best sport coat and
slacks and took his 45-year-old mother Haifa downtown
to seek justice.

    As the sun rose behind a rusty haze, they lined up
in a trash-filled muddy lot near the Najaf governor's
building along with several hundred other Iraqis and
waited for the U.S. Marines.

    Monday would be a pay day of sorts: the last day
the Camp Pendleton-based 11th Marine Expeditionary
Unit was going to pay cash to compensate Iraqis for
deaths, injuries or property damage that resulted from
weeks of brutal fighting that ravaged this city of
600,000 last summer. 

As the report summarizes, "Over the last four months,
the Marines stationed here have paid out more than
$8.5 million on 15,000 claims, ranging from bullet
holes in shop walls to multiple deaths in a single
family." This interesting report illustrates how the
compensation scheme worked for one Iraqi family.

Staff Sgt. Dale Wrigglesworth, from the California
National Guard 579th Engineer Battalion, is trying
together with his fellow guardsmen to help Iraqi
children: "If we can win their hearts and minds,
that's a step at least toward better things for
everybody":

    Because [soldiers] get so many packages of goodies
from their families, he and his unit started taking
extra cookies with them on missions to hand out to the
kids.

    "We called it Operation Tooth Decay," he says. "We
weren't giving them things that would help them.
That's when I asked Nicole to help me put something
together to give these kids items that are needed
instead of wanted."

    And so Nicole Miceli, a Municipal Services Agency
human resources employee, coordinated a drive in the
fall. At its end, she shipped six big boxes containing
215 packets filled with toothbrushes, toothpaste,
shampoo, paper and writing implements, which
Wrigglesworth and his fellow soldiers distributed at a
school in a village called Al-Bujalee. 

And read this story of Army Reserve Capt. Katherine
Knake of Syracuse, Neb., a veterinarian who is caring
for Iraqi animals:

    I'm part of a public health team. There are nine
of us. We spend a lot of time organizing projects,
like a vaccination program for livestock and
resupplying the national artificial insemination
center for cattle, since most of their equipment was
stolen after the war started. . . .

    Part of our job is making sure projects aren't
duplicated, coordinating with other international
agencies and reaching out to locals. That part is
hard. The Iraqi people aren't used to taking care of
themselves; they're used to someone telling them what
to do. . . .

    My favorite place is the Baghdad Zoo. We're there
once a week helping take care the Arabian horses that
belonged to Saddam. Horses in the Middle East are
prized possessions and give their owners a lot of
status. When I look at them it's like I'm looking at
part of history, the way things were before. These
horses were better taken care of than most people.

    They are such beautiful animals. Once there were
100 horses in the herd and now there are just 19. The
rest were stolen after the war started. Or killed by
the bombing. I'm teaching the Iraqis at the zoo basic
horsemanship. A group from the states called "Tack for
Iraq" is supplying saddles and bridles. 

• Security. Maybe not such a "terrorist magnet" after
all? The Associated Press notes that "despite
propaganda and anger, Iraq hasn't attracted droves of
Islamic fighters from Europe":

    The fall of Saddam Hussein in March 2003 and the
U.S. occupation of the country would have seemed an
opportunity of a lifetime for Muslim men around the
world eager to wage their "holy war" against their
arch enemy. Yet the influx of foreign fighters from
Europe appears to have been minimal, at least compared
with the numbers that poured into previous lands of
jihad, or holy war--Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya.

One bomber, attracted from across the border, is
having regrets:

    His head and hands were wrapped in bandages and
his uncovered face looked like bubbled tar. The young
Saudi man told investigators this month that he wants
revenge against the Iraqi terrorist network that sent
him on the deadly mission that he survived. . . .

    He was given a preliminary job of driving a
butane-gas delivery truck that was rigged with bombs.
It wasn't supposed to be a suicide mission. "They
asked me to take the truck near a concrete block
barrier before turning to the right and leaving it
there. There, somebody will pick up the truck from
you," they told him. "But they blew me up in the
truck," he says. . . .

    [He] told the interrogators that he regretted his
mission now. "I want the Iraqi people to live in
peace," he says, and he can no longer support Osama
bin Laden because "he is killing Muslims." As for the
Zarqawi network that sent him on the mission that left
him permanently disfigured and in prison, he says, "I
want revenge for what they have done to me."

Meanwhile, the situation in Najaf, twice last year the
scene of major battles, has improved immensely since
then:

    The Marines reinforcing polling places Thursday
seemed to worry little about attacks on them or on the
polls, driving nonchalantly in Humvees down Najaf's
dusty streets, returning waves and greeting locals
with "a salam ilikem"--which means "peace be with you"
in Arabic. . . .

    Free of Saddam and the Baathists, Najaf is
experiencing a recent boom, with new trade and rapid
reconstruction by the Marines, who have spent more
than $20 million there to reconstruct buildings and
compensate families after the intense and bloody
fighting there in August. . . .

    As the Marines made their rounds from school to
school Thursday, throngs of children enveloped them at
stops and followed them wherever they went. "Mista!
Mista!" they yelled, flashing thumbs-up signs as
Marines passed. "Good! Good!" even the littlest of
them yelled as they ran along the dingy streets in
sandals. Others waved and shouted from behind the
closed windows of passing cars. Everywhere they went,
the Marines received the same warm welcome--a bright
contrast to the violence that greets American troops
in many other parts of Iraq. 

No wonder, as Navy corpsman Doug Debrauwere of the
First Marine Reconnaissance detachment in Najaf says,
"the people here are great." And Cpl. David Meinhold
adds, "it gives you a whole different view of Iraq."
You can also read additional reports from Najaf here
and here.

Even in the dangerous Anbar province--home to
Fallujah--the situation is far from uniformly dire:

    The concept of democracy appears to have taken
root in the dusty town of Karma, a predominantly Sunni
community of 75,000 people about nine miles (15
kilometers) northeast of Falluja. . . .

    Troops from the Regimental Combat Team 7 (RCT-7)
of the 1st Marine Division meet with local leaders,
sheiks and the people of Karma to try to gauge their
sentiment about the upcoming elections. They
distribute flyers that read: "Participate in the
elections to build a strong Iraq" and "Vote! The
future is in your hands." . . .

    [The residents] say they receive their information
about the elections from TV and say no one has
campaigned or even hung campaign posters in their
community. Although most say they don't know who the
candidates are or where to go to vote, they say they
will vote come January 30. 

Slowly but surely, Iraqis themselves are playing
greater role in protecting their own country. As the
commander of coalition forces in northern and central
Iraq, U.S. Maj. Gen. John Batiste says:

    Every day, the Iraqi army, police and department
of border enforcement demonstrate their ability to
carry out their mission, while relying less and less
on their coalition partners. . . . These great
soldiers in the battalions in the four brigades in the
fourth division are undeterred. Their resolve is
incredible. And I know that because I spend a lot of
time with them.

A recent report lists a major security achievement of
2004:

    In less than a year, Iraqi military ground forces
have grown from one operational battalion to 21--and
counting. Iraq's navy now sports five 100-foot patrol
craft, 34 smaller vessels and a naval infantry
regiment. The country's air force has three
operational squadrons equipped with nine
reconnaissance aircraft and three U.S. C-130 transport
aircraft. And Iraq's special operations forces include
a counterterrorist force and a commando battalion.

Despite all the danger, Iraqi security forces have no
problem attracting recruits. In mid-January, for
example, 1,100 Iraqis turned up to apply for just 100
new positions in the police force of Babil province,
south of Baghdad. "Marines attribute the surge to
increased interest of prominent area sheiks in
assuming a greater security and stability role within
the province." The success of the recruitment drive
builds on other general security successes in the
province:

    Repeated attempts to destroy the Rashid station
north of Mahmudiyah failed. The most recent came
December 12, when Iraqi police and Iraqi National
Guardsmen repelled a coordinated attack by at least 10
militants using mortars, rocket-propelled grenades,
machine guns and assault rifles. In a subsequent sweep
of the area, 34 suspected insurgents were captured.

    The successful defense of the Rashid station
represented an important psychological victory for the
local ISF, who were not yet strong enough earlier this
year to prevent the insurgents' destruction of police
stations in other south-central cities and towns,
including Iskandariyah, Jurf as Sakhr, Haswah and
Lutafiyah, according to Capt. David Nevers, a
spokesman for the 24th MEU.

    Over the past six months, Marines and the Iraqis
they're supporting have spread out across northern
Babil province and southern Baghdad, establishing
joint patrol bases in previously labeled no-go zones
for U.S. and Iraqi forces. 

Read also this report of the Iraqi-American security
cooperation at the Syrian border:

    A force of about 500 Iraqis patrols this area of
the border. Overseen by U.S. Marines, the Iraqis call
themselves the "Desert Wolves." Many are former
soldiers from Saddam Hussein's regime and most are
recruited from Tikrit (Saddam's hometown), Samarra and
Baghdad. . . .

    Securing these borders is a priority of Task Force
NAHA, based at Camp Korean Village near the town of ar
Rutbah. And at the remote Al Walid border crossing,
just over two dozen Marines work with the Iraqis,
overseeing their inspection of cars and trucks.

    The U.S. military is also supervising a complex of
32 forts being built along the borders with Saudi
Arabia, Jordan and Syria. The Marines move the Iraqis
into them as quickly as possible, because in the past
the forts have been looted and destroyed before they
could be manned. 

The training of the Iraqi security forces continues to
gain pace. "Approximately 900 Iraqi soldiers from the
8th Brigade, 3rd Division graduated from basic
military training at Al Kasik Military Training Base,
Jan. 16. In addition, 13 soldiers at the base
completed a medical training program." Six hundred
seventy soldiers of an Iraqi Intervention Force
brigade graduated from training at Taji Military
Training Base on Jan. 18. The same day, the Iraqi
Training Battalion in Kirkush graduated 878 recruits.

Forty-five students from the Iraqi navy and Iraqi
naval battalion are undergoing a noncommissioned
officer instructor course at Uum Qasr. Also, 23 Iraqi
Army intelligence officers graduated from a military
intelligence training course conducted by the American
personnel at Al Kasik Military Training Base. And the
first eleven Iraqi soldiers have graduated from
signals training.

Coalition troops are now also conducting joint
exercises with Iraqi forces. For example, soldiers of
L Troop 3/278th Regimental Combat Team were training
with the Iraqi army at Forward Operating Base Cobra.
In fact, under a new policy, half of the American
troops stationed in Iraq will be charged with training
Iraqi security forces to enable them to get on their
feet quicker. The policy formalizes "creative new
approaches to training Iraqi forces, developed in the
field by lower-level commanders" over the past few
months:

    They discovered that if Iraqi forces were embedded
with U.S. military forces, they performed better under
fire, and their training was round-the-clock. They
also saw the level of commitment from the U.S.
military to them as they endured enemy mortar and
rocket attacks and assaults on training bases side by
side. U.S. forces were better able to advocate for the
material needs of the Iraqi forces, and to tailor
training to their needs. "Those Iraqi units exposed to
(the method) have held firm through the summer, fall
and winter," [a US military] official said. "A good
idea has simply become policy."

This is one example of how this works in practice:

    Abbas, 39, is commander of the 23rd Battalion, 6th
Brigade, Iraqi Intervention Force. Shelton, 35, is his
senior American adviser. In addition to keeping a
photo of Abbas's 4-year-old son, Mustafa, strapped to
his left arm, Shelton sleeps five feet from Abbas,
eats meals off the same plate and seldom leaves his
side. With limited success, he has grown a mustache to
resemble the facial hair worn by Abbas and his men.
Both men were trained as military divers.

This long report gives you the latest on the training
Iraqi security forces. You can also read about how
Marines at the Forward Operating Base Duke outside
Najaf are contributing to the process:

    Marines here have been rushing to distribute a
long-awaited shipment of gear and weapons over the
weekend for members of the four main Iraqi security
forces stationed in concentric defensive layers around
and inside the polling places.

    The Marines also took a force of 120 specially
trained Iraqis through a live fire drill Saturday,
teaching them how to kill terrorists at close range
with their sub-machine guns. . . .

    The Iraqis were learning more than marksmanship
and aggressive combat tactics. They seemed to be
gaining some of the basic discipline that has been so
lacking among most of the new Iraqi troops. 

The Iraqi security forces also benefit from civilian
expertise:

    A state law enforcement training officer has a new
international assignment. Robert Bodisch is director
of programs and curriculum at the Texas Commission on
Law Enforcement Standards and Education. Today, he's
scheduled to leave for Washington to prepare for a
yearlong assignment teaching members of Iraq's
fledgling police force how to do their jobs.

It's not just the Americans. "The Slovak government
approved a plan Wednesday to extend its mission in
Iraq to training police officers and soldiers." Even
France will be training 1,500 Iraqi military
personnel.

The arming of Iraqi forces is also progressing:

    The Iraqi Air Force's 70th Squadron took
possession of the first two American-made SAMA CH2000
light air surveillance aircraft, Jan. 17, in Basra.
The Iraqi Air Force will receive two CH2000 airplanes
per month--with final deliveries completing the $5.8
million acquisition in the spring of 2005. An option
to purchase an additional eight aircraft, on a similar
monthly schedule, has yet to be exercised.

In other air force news:

    Multi-National Forces and Iraqi military leaders
gathered at a secure air facility in Iraq to celebrate
the activation of the 23rd Iraqi Air Force Squadron.
The United States presented three C-130E cargo planes
to Iraq in an effort to jumpstart Iraqi airlift
capabilities. The large airplanes were overhauled,
including a new exterior paint job touched off with
Iraqi flags on the tail sections.

Considerable work is also being done throughout the
country to improve the security-related
infrastructure:

    Alpha Company, Task Force 82nd Engineers have been
working since December to complete construction of the
Khan Bani Saad Joint Coordination Center. . . . The
82nd Engineers do the majority of the construction
work with local contractors helping to put up concrete
barriers, earth walls and reinforcing the building.
The JCC is the nerve center for crisis management in
the Khan Bani Saad Nahia. With city council, Iraqi
Police, Iraqi Army, fire department, hospital and MNF
representatives all located in the same place, the JCC
director and deputy directors can solve problems that
arise daily.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region Division,
Southern District, meanwhile, is planning to assist
the Iraqi police to renovate 230 police stations in
southern Iraq. Says Mark Bennett, Corps police station
project manager for Security and Justice Sector:

    The local police are very excited about the
renovations. . . . You see, they live in these
stations when they are on duty, whether it's 24-on,
24-off or 48-on, 48-off. Right now, these places are
truly obsolete. There is absolutely no security
whatsoever, no sewer systems, and the buildings are
either 50 years old or in that kind of condition. When
we go to these places, the local officials are very
hospitable and we are very welcome. They come with
their ideas and wish lists and we obviously have
parameters with what we can spend--but if it is within
the parameters, it's our goal to get them what they
need.

There are stories of growing security cooperation
between the security forces and Iraqi civilians:

    A local Iraqi man helped Marines and Iraqi
National Guardsmen (ING) foil an insurgent attack
south of Baghdad on Jan. 14. The man observed three
militants placing an improvised explosive device (IED)
near a bridge over Highway 8, a key north-south
corridor connecting Baghdad and Najaf. The man went to
the nearest ING checkpoint to report the incident, and
the ING informed Marines passing through the
checkpoint.

Tips from the public were also extensively used in the
hunt for the assassins of the governor of Baghdad.
Another small weapons cache was located near Ka'nan as
a result of a tip; as the report states, "the Iraqi
citizens are now volunteering information more now
than ever, which is severely hindering AIF movement
and operations." A roadside bomb was defused after a
tip from a local near Mosul. In Haswash, south of
Baghdad and at a location southwest of Musayyib,
information from the locals also proved critical in
arrests and recovering weapons.

In the drive to defeat the insurgency, Iraqis are also
benefiting from modern technologies:

    The tip came in fast, terse and discreet. Maj.
Mohammed Salman Abass Ali al-Zobaidi of the Iraqi
National Guard scrolled down to read it: "Black
four-door Excalibur. Behind cinema."

    From cell phone screen to local authorities:
Acting on the recent text message tip to the Iraqi
National Guard commander, police in a nearby town
tracked down a black car behind the theater, and
arrested the driver for suspected links to insurgent
attacks.

    In the volatile Shiite-Sunni towns south of
Baghdad known as the "triangle of death," Iraqi
civilians increasingly are letting their thumbs do the
talking, via Arabic text messages sent from the safety
of their homes, Iraqi security forces and U.S. Marines
say.

    At a time when U.S. and Iraqi security forces are
desperate for information on attacks--preferably in
advance--mobile phone text messages allow civilians to
pass on information from a discreet distance, their
identities shielded from security forces and their
neighbors. 

Arguably, the greatest security success of the past
fortnight has been the capture of Sami Mohammed Ali
Said al-Jaaf, described as Al Zarqawi's most lethal
ally; the terror mastermind's chief bomb maker,
thought to be responsible for at least 32 bomb
attacks, including one against the U.N. headquarters
in August 2003. This was followed by the capture of
three top Zarqawi thugs.

Other recent security successes: the arrest of 50
suspected insurgents, including 17 wanted individuals,
near Kirkuk; the discovery of yet another significant
arms cache at Al Montessim; the rounding up 25
suspects and weapons near Ad Duluiyah; the capture of
more suspects and weapons around Mosul; the detention
of 36 suspects around Kirkuk, 36 suspects throughout
Al Anbar province and 19 near Balad; the detention by
Iraqi police of a senior insurgent operating an
illegal checkpoint in Baghdad; 59 suspects being
rounded up throughout the Anbar province; and 42
suspects detained in the Mosul area. And near Baghdad:

    In eight separate locations near the Iraqi town of
Latifiyah, Task Force Baghdad troops and Iraqi Army
Soldiers uncovered a huge cache of weapons, munitions
and explosives on Jan. 23. . . .

    Thousands of small arms ammunition and hundreds of
artillery, anti-aircraft and mortar rounds were
uncovered west of the north Babil town. Hutton said
the task force continues to uncover more munitions in
the area, about 35 miles south of the Iraqi capital,
putting a dent in any violent plans laid by
insurgents.

Finally, while Ukraine may be withdrawing its troops
from Iraq after the election, its security services
have made a considerable contribution to Iraq's
security by preventing an $800 million deal to buy
weapons and ammunition for terrorists in Iraq.

Aqil Ali Faraj of Lincoln, Neb., rented a van, filled
it with friends and drove 500 miles to Chicago to
vote. "It's a good day--better than my birthday," he
said. "I feel like I've done something for my family,
my country, for the future."

Yesterday was a birthday: the day free Iraq was born.
It's not the end of the struggle against the
revanchists and terrorists, but it's the day when
these murderers lost any pretence that they are
representing Iraq or the Iraqi people. And it's a big
step on the road toward becoming a normal country.

Mr. Chrenkoff is an Australian blogger. He writes at
chrenkoff.blogspot.com.

Copyright © 2005 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights
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