Basra

From Haider Ajina - news of Basra, Sadr, the Association of Muslim Scholars, and personal tragedy:

Greetings,

The following is my translation of a headline and article, which appeared in Iraq's ‘Almuatin’ of November 28th.

“Iraq’s Basra has not been affected by occurrences in Sadar City, Sunnis live with their Shiites brethren in peace”.

“Sheik Khalid Almulah, Imam and speaker at Alaabanchi (Sunni) Mosque in Basra, said that what happened in Sadar city lately did not affect Basra. He urged the rebuilding of the Al-Askariah shrines in Samara. He added, ‘we live here in the coddle of our Shiite brethren, and there are no large reactions to what happened in Baghdad. Shiites & Sunnis must quickly rebuild the Askariah shrine in Samara. This will rebut the strife the terrorists are using to divide and create sectarian fighting. Alqaida wants its attack on Al-Askariah shrine to build conflict between Iraqis. Thus it is our responsibility, Sunni & Shiite, to put out this fire by rebuilding the Shrines to protect our unity’. He then commented about Muqtada Alsadar’s request of Sheik Hareth Althari (Head of the Sunni ‘Muslim Schollars’) to declare it a sin to kill Shiites and to announce that the ‘Muslim Scholar’s’ have no affiliation with Alqaida and denounce Alqaida. He added, ‘to all those who are attacking the political and religious process in Iraq. You must first examine yourselves. Are you with Iraq, are you with peace, are you defending Iraq and are you against the spilling of blood? Or are you with the terrorist or the ‘Takfirien’ (religious extremists)? ’We must issue decrees against terrorism and I hope the ‘Muslim Scholars’ will respond to Sadar’s request”.

Haider's comments,

Basra has, for some time now, been focusing on its growth and infrastructure improvement. Because it is relatively peaceful and stable. Not only in Basrah do Sunnis & Shiites live peacefully together but in most if not all the southern provinces. Of course, Sunnis are a minority in the south and that could be pat of the reason. I remember translating a piece after the bombing of the ‘Al-Askariah Shrine in Samara, when Shiites stood guard at Sunni Mosques so the Mosques did not get attacked in retaliation. This is very similar to the Iraq I grew up in, in the 60’s and 70’s. The Baathists (most if not all of whom are Sunni in Iraq) have ruled Iraq with violence during Saddam. They are trying to destabilize Iraq by attacking Shiites. Sadar city attack, Al-Askariah shrine attack, evicting Shiites from Sunni neighborhoods, planting car bombs in Baghdad and surrounding areas, planting bombs in Nejaf and other areas with much civilian traffic etc… These constant attacks and retaliation to these attacks and the inability of the security forces to protect all its citizens has brought about the growth of the militias. Iran & Syria are supporting these militias to keep Iraq destabilized. Iraq is far from being hopeless. Over 70% of the provinces live in relative peace and are busy with building and infrastructure improvement, commerce booming and healthcare improving. They are living with a provincial government they elected and rule of law, which protects them.

A Sunni Imam in Basra is calling on Shiite leader (Muqtada Alasdar in this case) to look at himself as well as the head of the Muslim Scholars (Harith Altahri) to also look at himself, and ask the question, are they for Iraq or are they for terrorism and ‘Islamic extremism’? This is a bold and courageous question, which many Iraqis in leadership and security forces need to ask them selves.

Over the last 3 weeks, I have lost an Uncle and two Cousins in two separate violent incidences in Baghdad. A home-style invasion killed my Uncle and my cousin who live near the airport ( they were asked to leave the neighborhood because they are Shiites even though my Uncles wife is Sunni) and two weeks before that a cousin was kidnapped and killed near Felujah. Their deaths and the deaths of other Iraqis and Americans will not be in vain, when we stabilize central Iraq and defeat the terrorist fueling the revenge killings in central Iraq.

Regards
Haider Ajina
Mckinleyville CA

Condolences to Haider and his family.

Spinning

Here comes that new direction:

The bipartisan Iraq Study Group reached a consensus on Wednesday on a final report that will call for a gradual pullback of the 15 American combat brigades now in Iraq but stop short of setting a firm timetable for their withdrawal, according to people familiar with the panel’s deliberations.

The report, unanimously approved by the 10-member panel, led by James A. Baker III and Lee H. Hamilton, is to be delivered to President Bush next week. It is a compromise between distinct paths that the group has debated since March, avoiding a specific timetable, which has been opposed by Mr. Bush, but making it clear that the American troop commitment should not be open-ended. The recommendations of the group, formed at the request of members of Congress, are nonbinding.

That sounds like a 360-degree about face to me.

Meanwhile:

The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday unanimously renewed the mandate of the U.S.-led multinational force in Iraq through the end of 2007, granting a request from the Baghdad government.

Guess we won't be seeing this soon:

Using money, weapons or its oil power, Saudi Arabia will intervene to prevent Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias from massacring Iraqi Sunni Muslims once the United States begins pulling out of Iraq, a security adviser to the Saudi government said on Wednesday.

"To be sure, Saudi engagement in Iraq carries great risks -- it could spark a regional war. So be it: The consequences of inaction are far worse," Obaid said.

Seeking Clarity in Chaos

Flopping Aces continues to follow the stories on recent violence in Iraq.

But lost amidst the growing uproar over who Jamil Gholaiem Hussein is (which in any case offers little insight to the accuracy of his claims) are the more pertinent points reported from over the weekend.

This one should be easy to verify:

From morning until afternoon, at least four mosques were attacked in Hurriya, a mixed neighborhood in the capital. Two were destroyed, and at least 5 Sunnis were killed and 10 wounded, an Interior Ministry official said. A hard-line Sunni Arab group, the Muslim Scholars Association, said 18 people had been killed when one of the mosques burned down.

Here's CENTCOMs response. Eighteen people burned to death seems more significant than six, but note the source of the claim - the Muslim Scholars Association - the same folks who ultimately claimed 184 Sunni Mosque attacks in the wake of the Shrine bombing months ago.

To accept these stories as fact, you must accept that the Sunnis are unarmed and/or not willing to put up any fight when Shiites enter their neighborhoods to burn their mosques down with people inside them. That goes against most of what I hear about Iraq today (everyone has an AK 47 and each neighborhood has a militia), and the Muslim world in general (mosques are sacred locations) but I suppose it's possible that's not completely accurate.

Video of the destroyed mosques would certainly bolster the media claims. Since even in Iraq people carry cell phones with video capability, and since most terrorist groups video their acts, video of the attacks should be widely available on line any time now, but even video taken tomorrow of the aftermath would be compelling evidence.

This should be easy to verify too:

A Times correspondent in Ramadi said at least 15 homes were pulverized by aerial bombardment and families could be seen digging through the ruins with shovels and bare hands.

CENTCOM says it didn't happen. So to counter them, show footage of the 15 recently pulverized homes.

The death tolls may always fall into the unverifiable category, and the bona fides of an Iraqi Police Captain will be difficult to prove, but there are some more obvious elements of all these stories that could be supported - if not absolutely proven - with simple video.

Too dangerous? Hell, in these cases the US military might be willing to provide security for the media to go out and get the footage. Couldn't hurt to ask, then both sides of the dispute could see the reality together.

Or we can just pretend the important thing is the identity of Jamil Gholaiem Hussein.

Free Books...

...for soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

al Qaeda's "Working Paper for a Media Invasion of America"

(Note: reposted from 2006-10-11 05:09:14)

(Note: This is part three of a series examining recent and little-known developments within al Qaeda, focusing on "public relations" efforts within the group. Previous entries, detailing al-Qaeda's efforts to win back the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people and the response they received, can be read here and here. In this installment, we turn our attention to al Qaeda's outreach to the American people...)

You probably haven't heard much about the efforts of the Global Islamic Media Front - al Qaeda's "public relations" team. The group is well known to those who monitor terrorist web sites, but rarely reported on by the mainstream media. (Although the group's recent release of a video game in which the player's goal is to kill President Bush did get some coverage in the Washington Post.)

But another recent effort from the group won't likely be reported anywhere in the western media - at least not directly. Titled "Working Paper for a Media Invasion of America", the recently translated document was originally posted on a known jihaddist web site, but has received scant public attention from it's target audience. No full translations of the treatise are currently available, but a brief description of some of the content can be seen here.

Najd al-Rawi, the document's author, begins by noting that although they've been successful in many ways, the jihaddists haven't fully exploited the opportunities presented by the US media. Inspired by a video from bin Laden addressing the American people with subtitles in English, the author notes that "It seemed the Shayk wanted to send a clear message to his brother mujahadeen to pay more attention to this part of the mission." He points out that videos from the "Shayks of jihad" are in great demand in the western media.

Such videos are readily available - but for the most part translation to English is left to the media outlets that elect to broadcast them. The plan suggests a remedy for this oversight, and the paper calls for talented professionals to join the jihad - specifically, translators, and people with journalistic or literary talent who can provide a "ringing and powerful style that will have impact on the American people." Other desirable recruits are computer graphics experts, "with experience in Photoshop, 3d Studio Max, and other programs", and finally "Sharia experts" who can review the projects for materials prohibited by Islamic law, "such as pictures of women".

Suggested projects include English translations of the declarations of the Shayks of Jihad "to throw fear into the American people's hearts". Cited examples include "Sharia Rules regarding the use of WMDs" by Shayk Nasir al-Fahd, (probably a reference to a document with an English translation already available here) or "documentation of Mujahadeen acts against the U.S., such as 'Documentation of the Destruction that Befell America' by Shayk Abd-al-Aziz al-Jarbu", (a non-al Qaeda sponsored translation may be underway here) along with "other pieces the brothers deem worthy."

As an example of the sort of video material the group should provide, the author suggests "Video of attacks on US foot patrols with the caption 'Operation against the sons of the US people whom Bush cast into the fire of war against the Muslims'."

And in that we see both the political savvy and naiveté of the Global Islamic Media Front. They recognize the advantage - and relative ease - of turning as many Americans against their President as they can (dividing the enemy into opposing camps to be eliminated in turn being a primary goal of effective propaganda) but fail to grasp the idea that this requires no effort on their part whatsoever. Still - you can't blame them for being willing to accelerate the process, or contribute to the cause.

Lastly, the paper points out what the author considers the best locations for providing this material, and suggests dissemination via the world wide web, following efforts to ensure the origin can't be traced.

Targets listed:

- US discussion forums
- US chat rooms
- Well known newspapers and magazines
- American TV channels with web sites
- Famous US authors with email addresses such as Friedman, Chomsky, Fukuyama, Huntington, and others
- Famous US web sites like MEMRI, or those of the Zionist lobby (AIPAC), or research institutes like Rand

(Note that the translation of the document I've seen does not indicate that the original author implied that any particular individual or media outlet is more sympathetic to the al Qaeda cause than any other.)

*****

In Iraq, many Anbar residents have reached a point of sufficient outrage at the al Qaeda terrorists to take up arms against the foe. Lacking the motivation of continued bloodshed on American soil, few Americans are so inclined, and that's fine, so far. But like it or not, Mr and Mrs Average American are involved in a propaganda war, the only battle of the war on terror currently being fought on U.S. soil - and those who choose not to be victims of that battle may wonder what the appropriate response should be. Perhaps just this - bear in mind the stated goal: "to throw fear into the American people's hearts", divide and conquer, weaken resolve, and defeat America. Be aware of the plan to reach that goal, and recognize it for what it is when next you see it in action, as you undoubtedly will. (And while you're at it, spread the word - this won't be on the evening news.)

There's nothing shocking or earth shattering here - except perhaps an actual exoneration for mainstream media outlets that may have previously been accused of conspiring with the enemy. Many close observers and participants in the war on terror have accused the media of touting terrorist propaganda for years. But the Global Islamic Media Front, in calling for an actual organized effort to that end, has demonstrated that any such apparent cooperation prior to this publication has been purely coincidental.

Next: We've seen how the residents of Anbar responded to al-Qarda's outreach efforts, now watch as the American media responds to enemy attempts to involve them in propaganda schemes...

(Note: originally posted 2006-10-11 05:09:14)

al Qaeda's "Working Paper for a Media Invasion of America" - the Media Responds

(Another from the archives. Original post: 2006-10-20 01:43:38)

I really didn't expect to see the American media even acknowledge the existence of al Qaeda's "Working Paper for a Media Invasion of America", much less to see them openly embrace it. They've done both. (Live and learn.) It started a couple days ago with Tom Friedman's "Tet" column, and continued yesterday with CNN's first release of a made-to-order video from our enemy in Iraq.

Over at Blackfive, a quote from CNN:

CNN has obtained graphic video from the Islamic Army of Iraq, one of the most active insurgent organizations in Iraq, showing its sniper teams targeting U.S. troops. The Islamist Army says it wants talks with the United States and some Islamist Internet postings call for a P.R. campaign aimed at influencing the American public.

But click over to CNN and you won't find that quote on the web site any more.

But James Taranto captured it too, and in fact he screen captured it - "for posterity". A wise choice, given that CNN's acknowledgement that they are aware that they are airing an enemy propaganda piece has since disappeared.

But this one is still there:

From a distance, possibly hundreds of yards away, a sniper watches for his opportunity to strike as a fellow insurgent operates a camera to capture the video for propaganda purposes.

And the quote about the terrorist "P.R. campaign aimed at influencing the American public" is actually heard in the audio narration of the video report itself.

Taranto's comments on the CNN story focus on the growing media theme that President Bush agrees that current events in Iraq are similar to Tet. He also mentions the Tom Friedman column that started that Tet discussion in the first place. (One we also discussed here previously.) But since the CNN story isn't about Tet, Taranto misses the disturbing thread that actually does tie both those stories even more directly together.

To catch it, we'll go back to Friedman, who says:

A friend at the Pentagon just sent me a post by the “Global Islamic Media Front” carried by the jihadist Web site Ana al-Muslim on Aug. 11. It begins: “The people of jihad need to carry out a media war that is parallel to the military war and exert all possible efforts to wage it successfully. This is because we can observe the effect that the media have on nations to make them either support or reject an issue.”

...the Web site suggests that jihadists flood e-mail and video of their operations to “chat rooms,” “television channels,” and to “famous U.S. authors who have public e-mail addresses ... such as Friedman, Chomsky, Fukuyama, Huntington and others.”

And here's the real connection between the two stories: both Friedman at the Times and the folks at CNN acknowledge their complete awareness that they are fully participating in an enemy propaganda ploy. Freidman says he has a copy, and the CNN video includes clips of what it implies are the original Arabic web postings of the "media jihad" call.

That particular story - al Qaeda's "Working Paper for a Media Invasion of America" - first broke right here in downtown Mudville, so it's entirely possible we brought it to their attention in the first place - though it's also possible CNN had it earlier, and didn't see fit to report it. Whatever the case - it's stunning to see them acknowledge it and go right on ahead with what they are doing.

As Taranto says:

By airing this video, CNN is participating in what it acknowledges is "a P.R. campaign aimed at influencing the American public" in ways favorable to America's enemies. And the network does not even seem to realize what a shocking admission this is.

No indeed - nor does Friedman, who says "It would be depressing to see the jihadists influence our politics with a Tet-like media/war frenzy. But..." and then immediately attempts to launch what can only be called a Tet-like media frenzy.

To get the full "shock value" of this, you must read the same things they've acknowledged reading - that "working paper":

Najd al-Rawi, the document's author, begins by noting that although they've been successful in many ways, the jihaddists haven't fully exploited the opportunities presented by the US media. Inspired by a video from bin Laden addressing the American people with subtitles in English, the author notes that "It seemed the Shayk wanted to send a clear message to his brother mujahadeen to pay more attention to this part of the mission." He points out that videos from the "Shayks of jihad" are in great demand in the western media.

al-Rawi declares the purpose of this campaign is to "throw fear into the American people's hearts", then...

As an example of the sort of video material the group should provide, the author suggests "Video of attacks on US foot patrols with the caption 'Operation against the sons of the US people whom Bush cast into the fire of war against the Muslims'."
<...>
Lastly, the paper points out what the author considers the best locations for providing this material, and suggests dissemination via the world wide web, following efforts to ensure the origin can't be traced.

Of course, two of those suggested locations are TV Networks, and Tom Friedman.

Make no mistake about it, CNN is not dismissing the propaganda plot, nor are they presenting their information as an example of the sort of thing we should be aware of and respond to accordingly. In fact, they offer no description of the working paper beyond an acknowledgement of it's existence, perhaps because CNN's own description of the video and how they received it is all too familiar to anyone who has read the document described above. CNN admits they "passed written questions" through "intermediaries" to the terrorist group, and in response received the footage of sniper attacks on American foot patrols, including a "professionally produced" video interview with the insurgent leader in which he answered CNN's questions and denounced "Bush's war fought with taxpayer's money and the blood of Americans". The CNN narrator went the extra mile in reviewing the high-quality production, and lauded the "attention to US domestic politics and public mood" found in this "direct message to the American people."

In my comments on the original working paper story, I added my thoughts on how to respond to this sort of threat:

But like it or not, Mr and Mrs Average American are involved in a propaganda war, the only battle of the war on terror currently being fought on U.S. soil - and those who choose not to be victims of that battle may wonder what the appropriate response should be. Perhaps just this - bear in mind the stated goal: "to throw fear into the American people's hearts", divide and conquer, weaken resolve, and defeat America. Be aware of the plan to reach that goal, and recognize it for what it is when next you see it in action, as you undoubtedly will. (And while you're at it, spread the word - this won't be on the evening news.)

And that newly bolded text is where I admit a failing - never in my wildest imagination did I anticipate the evening news - or one of the named desired participants - mentioning the enemy's propaganda plan while gleefully participating in it.

I'm afraid to ask if they can sink lower.

Previous:

al Qaeda's "Working Paper for a Media Invasion of America"

Al Qaeda "A-list" Journalist Responds

Other links found above:

CNN - Plays Into the Hands of the Enemy (Knowingly) - Blackfive

Tet's Real Lesson - James Taranto, Opinion Journal's Best of the Web Today

Elsewhere:

Glenn Reynolds

CNN Airs Islamic Death Porn - Charles Johnson, LGF

CNN airs video of jihadi sniper shooting American soldier - Allah, Hot Air, who also creen captured that CNN page before it disappeared. (But the video actually contains sniper attacks on 10 American soldiers.)

(Original post: 2006-10-20 01:43:38)

The Fifth Columns

(Another one from the archives, original post 2005-08-28 19:15:27)

We've noted this quote before, but it's worth repeating:

Former Saddam army "strongman" Colonel Watban Jassam calls for jihad:

Tips On How To Beat US From Insurgents' Consultant

To gauge US public opinion, he has become an avid watcher of satellite news channels, and never misses the White House press briefings
<...>
To win the war against the US military and Badr, Colonel Jassam advises the Omariyun to follow two short-term goals - to cement mujahideen control over the Ramadi area, and to stage operations that will increase pressure on US opinion to withdraw troops.
<...>
To achieve their second goal, turning Americans against the war, the mujahideen need to shape their operations "to support anti- war sentiment in the west", he says.

*****

But that's where Osama went wrong, you see. He thought Americans were too weak to support a long war. He was wrong! And Jassam's plan won't work either - not as long as Americans keep up that ol' fightin' spirit! That "never say die!" attitude that made this country so great...

*****

Meanwhile, The Philadelphia Inquirer today has two stories discussing the failure of the American military and comparing Iraq to Vietnam.

While The New York Times has a story comparing Iraq to Vietnam.

The Washington Post has a story comparing Iraq to Vietnam.

The Los Angeles Times today features a story comparing Iraq to Vietnam...

(Original post: 2005-08-28 19:15:27)

Porn Squad Commandos

Previous entries in this series here and here.)

Najaf, Iraq - April, 2003:

In the giddy spirit of the day, nothing could quite top the wish list bellowed out by one man in the throng of people greeting American troops from the 101st Airborne Division who marched into town today.

What, the man was asked, did he hope to see now that the Baath Party had been driven from power in his town? What would the Americans bring?

"Democracy," the man said, his voice rising to lift each word to greater prominence. "Whiskey. And sexy!"

Around him, the crowd roared its approval.

*****

Warning: Graphic descriptions of sex and violence follow.

*****

In Baghdad, Saddam Hussein was preparring his own welcoming committee:

Colonel Raaed Faik was riding with fellow Republican Guard officers on a civilian bus thirty-two kilometers northeast of Baghdad that morning, trying to obey an order to rush to Baghdad to join in the defense of the city. They were to help keep Highway 8 open for a counterattack. Faik was a senior signal officer in the Republican Guard, but he was dressed now in civilian clothes. The chief of staff had radioed an order for this division to fight without uniforms in hopes of mounting an effective guerilla war against the American forces on the streets of Baghdad. But some officers had not received the order, and they were still in their uniforms. They bickered with the plainclothes officers over how to dress for the battle.

Faik was disgusted. He took pride in being a member of an elite unit, but now they were like women trying to decide what outfits to wear. They were fools led by imbeciles.

While it may have seemed foolish, it was part of a larger plan to welcome the bringers of Democracy to the capital city of Iraq.

*****

Meanwhile, in America, three soldiers were out of their uniforms, too, and enjoying a brief vacation prior to joining the battle...

In March 2003, she went with Graner and another soldier to Virginia Beach. During the trip, Graner took pictures of himself having anal sex with England. He also photographed her placing her nipple in the ear of the other soldier, who was passed out in a hotel room. Soon, it became their new game: Whenever Graner asked her to, England would strike a pose.
<...>
After the Virginia Beach expedition, England and Graner rented a car and drove to eastern Kentucky, where her parents and grandfather were turkey hunting in Daniel Boone National Forest. Sitting between Graner and her parents at a picnic table, England asked Graner to share some scenic pictures from their trip to Virginia Beach. Graner handed an envelope to England's father, who opened it and scanned the images, then handed them to Terrie. They showed nudity and sexual scenes. Apparently, Graner had given them the wrong vacation shots. "I was really bent out of shape," Terrie says.

She probably was. And perhaps Graner really did hand over those pictures "by mistake". Regardless, England and Graner would soon bring their brand of "sexy" to Iraq.

*****

In addition to his own troops in civilian clothes, Saddam had some "out of town help" waiting for Americans in Baghdad:

Just south of the spaghetti junction, beyond the row of greenhouses on the west side of the highway, Yusef Taha and his brother Ziad were huddled in the rear downstairs room of their two-story stucco home in the shade of the nursery awnings. The Taha brothers owned one of the greenhouses, which had been shredded by coax from the Rogue Bradleys two days earlier. They had stayed in the war zone to protect their house - not from the Americans but from the Syrian mercenaries who had arrived several days earlier to seize control of the entire greenhouse complex. The brothers knew that if they fled, the Syrians would have set up sniper's nests on their roof, drawing tank rounds that would have flattened their modest little home. So now they were hunkered down inside with twelve family members - aunts and uncles, in-laws and children - praying that the Americans would pass by quickly and leave their house intact.

Yusef was a heavyset forty-two-rear-old, with a thick mustache and the beginnings of a beard. Ziad was twenty-six, thin and handsome and had a trimmed mustache. The brothers had pleaded with the Syrians, begging them to find some other place to fight the Americans. But the Syrians said the greenhouses and nurseries occupied a strategic stretch of territory along the Hillah Highway - Highway 8 - controlling access to the airport and to the government palace complex downtown. They set up RPG teams inside the greenhouses, joined by Republican Guard troops in their dark green uniforms with distinctive maroon insignias. It seemed to the Taha brothers that the Syrians were in charge. They were certainly more fanatic and energized than the Republican Guards. They spoke often of jihad, of dying while killing American infidels. Some of them strapped packs of explosives to their chests and spoke of ramming suicide cars into the tanks and Bradleys. Some of them brandished swords, like Saladin, the Arab conqueror. The brothers did not particularly welcome the American invasion - and certainly not the devastating firepower brought to bear on their nursery business - but they resented the Syrians, who were invaders in their own right.

*****

Lynndie England had joined the Army National Guard at age 17. Two years later she married Jamie Fike, with whom she had worked at a grocery store and a chicken-processing plant near her home town of Ft Ashby, West Virginia. Life was set.

But employed by the Guard as an administrative specialist, that life would change one drill weekend when she met another soldier who had just joined the unit.

She met him while processing his paperwork for the 372nd Military Police Company after he arrived in Cresaptown, MD, in November 2002. He was 15 years older. He used to follow her out to the smoking area. Graner didn't smoke, though; he just wanted to see her. "He was funny, the jokester," she says. "Was he too old for me? I didn't think about it at the time. He acted like he was 3 years old." He was loud, raunchy, and bad to the bone. "An outlaw," she calls him.
<...>
"Graner was the total opposite of Jamie [Fike, England's husband]," says Jessie. "Lynndie told me, 'He's real open. He likes to do stuff. Wild things.'" England didn't know about his past. According to court documents, Graner beat his former wife, Staci Morris, and dragged her by the hair across a room. A former civilian prison guard, he'd also been accused in a federal lawsuit of assaulting an inmate at Pennsylvania's State Correctional Institution-Greene in 1998 and putting a razor blade in the inmate's mashed potatoes.

Charles Graner had been a prison guard for several years. According to his ex-wife,

"The whup ass [beatings] ran like a river," Ms Morris quoted Graner as saying about the frequent beatings of prisoners. "He had complete contempt for prisoners; as far as he was concerned they had no rights," she said, summing up his attitude as a prison officer in Pennsylvania.

He wasn't always a soldier. In fact, he had joined the Marine Corps Reserve shortly after graduating high school in 1986. He married the former Staci Michelle Dean on June 15, 1990 - on their marriage license application, Graner listed his full-time occupation as construction worker. But not long after, he would be activated to deploy in support of Operation Desert Storm, where he would serve as a guard at a prison camp:

KDKA-TV reporter Ross Guidotti served with Graner in a military police company when both were members of the Marine Corps Reserve. For about six weeks in early 1991, both were guards at a prison camp for Iraqis captured during the Gulf War.
<...>
He said he was shocked to hear that Graner has been accused of mistreating prisoners, in part because of the training they and other guards received years ago. "It was drilled into our minds well before we left the continental U.S. what we were allowed to do, and not allowed to do, relative to the treatment of prisoners."

His first child was born while he was in Iraq.

They moved to Uniontown and had two children, Brittni Stacia, born Jan. 21, 1991, and Dean Charles Graner, born two years later on Feb. 9, 1993.
<...>
By 1997, the marriage was foundering. In May, Staci filed for an emergency custody ruling, alleging that Graner had taken the children and wouldn't give them back. She filed for divorce on June 4, 1997, contending in court papers that Graner had thrown her and her children out of their home.
<...>
At this point, he was working at the State Correctional Institution Greene in Greene County, according to court papers.

In June, Staci filed for the first of the three protection-from-abuse orders, alleging that in May he'd threatened to kill her, made harassing telephone calls and told her mother that "she could keep his guns because he did not need them for what he was going to do to her.''

Common Pleas Judge Ralph Warman issued an order on June 16, 1997, barring Graner from having any contact with Staci for six months except for exchanging their children for visitation. Those exchanges were to take place at the Uniontown police station.

Staci was back before Warman on Feb. 2, 1998, contending that Graner had stalked and verbally abused her, hidden her keys and thrown her against a wall and into furniture. She also testified that Graner offered to move out of their former home so that she could return with the children, then installed a secret video camera and showed her tapes of herself.

That may be the first evidence of Graners fascination with photography.

One night, Staci Morris awoke to find then husband Charles Graner holding a large knife to her throat and openly pondering whether to kill her. In subsequent days, he pretended nothing had happened.

"He's like my Hannibal Lecter, he really is. He's the monster in my life,"
<...>
"He is a sexual deviant," she said. "He was very sexually strange, into very strange things."

As their relationship was faltering, Graner twice set up covert video surveillance of Morris's bedroom - and then told her about it. On other occasions Graner recounted to guests invented tales about their sexual exploits, Morris said.

His civilian career as a prison guard ended at about the same time as his marriage

The night before she went back to court, she said he crouched and hid in her laundry room until she walked by, then jumped out to scare her.

Warman issued another protection-from-abuse and no-contact order, this time for a year, and ordered Charles to return the tapes.

The Graners' divorce was final in 2000. She sought yet another protection-from-abuse order in March 2001, filing a five-page handwritten statement detailing an encounter in which she said Graner told her she was still his wife and tried to get her to go to bed with him.

She said he dragged her around the house by the hair, banged her head off the floor and tried to throw her down the stairs in front of their weeping, frightened children.

Warman issued another one-year protection-from-abuse and no-contact order on March 22, 2001. By then, Graner was listed in court papers as working for TOPS Temporaries at Sony in New Stanton.

But when one door closes, another opens, as they say. Graner joined the Army National Guard in 2002, and met Lynndie England. Shortly thereafter, she brought him home to meet her folks (no word on the whereabouts of Lynndie's husband at this time).

England brought Graner home with her to Fort Ashby in early 2003. With a foul mouth and pierced nipples (they saw those later), he didn't make a good impression. That day, recalls Terrie, he stood in their living room and slowly looked around.

"Charles, you're more than welcome to sit down," she told him.

He remained standing.

"He couldn't wait to get out of there," says Terrie. "I don't know if he thought we were nothing or what. I said, 'You're nothing but trying to get into my daughter's pants.' He said, 'No, ma'am, my intentions are honorable.' He was blowing smoke up her ass. I said, 'Here's the door and don't let it hit you on the way out,'" she recalls.

"We were just like, 'There is something wrong with this guy,'" says Jessie.

They grabbed their cameras, and off they went to the beach.

Worth says that in addition to photos of inmate abuse, investigators found photos of England topless on a beach. Also, one photo showed a soldier sleeping as a male soldier (he thinks Grainer) held his penis near the sleeping soldier's head. In another photo, England leans topless over the same soldier, with her breasts near the sleeping soldier's head.
<...>
First witness via telephone is Spc. Stephen Stephen Strother (name uncertain)...

Strother visited Virginia Beach with Grainer and England. They stayed in a hotel together. England went swimming topless. Grainer was nude. Photos taken after he passed out as described yesterday. Grainer exposing penis, England topless...

*****

In Baghdad, US Soldiers confronted Iraqi army units in civilian clothes, foreign fighters who'd come for the jihad, and another group:

At Abu Ghraib, the most notorious prison, 150 inmates were crammed into cells designed for 24. The torture chamber was next to the hanging chamber, whose clanging iron trap doors were a vivid reminder of the fate awaiting those who refused to pledge loyalty to the regime.

In the fall of 2002, Hussein unexpectedly released thousands of rapists, murderers and other criminals for reasons still not totally clear.

Here's one reason:

The enemy kept coming. Soldiers and civilian gunmen were arriving now in every available mode of transportation-hatchbacks, orange-and-white taxis, police cars, ambulances, pickups, big Chevys, motorcycles with sidecars. Major Nussio, the battalion executive officer, opened fire on a huge garbage truck with a soldier at the wheel. He was thinking to himself as the soldier keeled over and the truck crash-landed: A garbage truck? These people are so stupid - stupid but determined.

They were not giving up. It seemed suicidal - men with nothing more than AK-47s or wildly inaccurate RPGs were charging tanks and Bradleys. It was like they wanted to die, or worse, they just didn't care. That disturbed some of the tankers. They weren't trained to fight people who didn't give a damn. Nor were they quite prepared to fight people who didn't have a plan - didn't have a clue. As each RPG team or pack of dismounts attacked with utter disregard for what the other Iraqis or Syrians were doing, the tankers kept thinking: It's all a big trap. They really do have a plan. They're just luring us in with those haphazard, disjointed tactics. Sometime soon, they're going to get organized and attack with some serious tactics.

At one point, a little white Volkswagen Passat suddenly appeared on the highway. It came off one of the access ramps. Before anyone could react, the Passat turned sharply and smacked into one of the Bradleys. Everyone thought it was a suicide car, but nothing exploded. The driver opened the door and stepped out, his hands raised over his head. He was a portly middle-aged man with a trim black mustache and wavy silver hair. He wore an Iraqi military uniform with a colonel's gold rank on his epaulets. There was a pistol on his hip.

The Bradley commander radioed Captain Hilmes. "Sir we got an Iraqi general here," he said, misreading the colonel's rank. "He just crashed his car into our Bradley. What do you want us to do with him?"

"Capture his ass," Hilmes ordered.

Several infantrymen climbed out of the Bradley's hull and snatched the colonel and dragged him inside. Later under interrogation by U.S. military interpreters, the Iraqi said he was the military quartermaster for all of Baghdad. He was a brown shoes guy, a desk officer. He had been driving to work, minding his own business - and suddenly he was involved in a fender-bender with an American Bradley Fighting Vehicle. He told his interrogators that he had no idea American forces were in Baghdad. From what he had been hearing on government-controlled radio, American forces had been stopped cold below the Euphrates River, well south of the capital. He certainly never expected to see tanks in Baghdad. Every officer he knew was convinced the Americans were afraid to bring tanks into a city.

It was baffling. Senior Iraqi officers in the capital seemed content to believe their own lies, that the war was going well and the Americans were bogged down south of the city. Even many ordinary civilians seemed unaware that there was a war going on. Despite the columns of black smoke from burning vehicles and the thunderous pounding of the tanks and the Bradleys, civilians in family sedans were coasting down the southbound lanes of Highway 8 and along the access roads, like it was just another Saturday morning in the suburbs. For all they knew from listening to government radio, the war was confined to the southern desert, where American forces were being routed. It was only the Fedayeen and Syrians, and unknown numbers of Special Republican Guards, who seemed to understand that American forces were invading the capital. And if these soldiers and fighters and militiamen were disorganized and poorly trained, they did not lack for determination or gall - and there seemed to be an endless supply of weapons and ammunition, and of gunmen eager to fight and die.

Chaos and carnage, as described in the book Thunder Run: The Armored Strike to Capture Baghdad, and encouraged by none other than Mohammad Saeed Al-Sahhaf - dubbed "Baghdad Bob" he had become a source of comic relief to many. Few will forget his insistence that there were no Americans near Baghdad, a claim delivered straight-faced as US battle tanks rumbled in the background.

But he was an integral part of the plan for the defense of Baghdad - a long, bloody siege, fought by soldiers in civilian clothes on streets crowded with actual civilians. With no hope of military victory, the leadership in Iraq wanted to create a global outrage, fueled by media reports of civilian casualties (actual and otherwise) and other atrocities, to the point where the US would ultimately withdraw humiliated. Far from being humorous, the claims of Mohammad Saeed Al-Sahhaf - made willingly or witlessly - had a deadly serious purpose: maximize the number of real civilians on the streets along with those soldiers posing as the same. The goal? Photographs of mounds of civilian corpses splashed across front pages and news broadcasts worldwide.

But they hadn't expected tanks in Baghdad.

Suddenly they were rolling into a traffic circle - Qahtain Square in the Yarmouk section of Baghdad. Gruneisen radioed the captain: "Did you go through a traffic circle?"

"Negative,"

Iraqi military trucks were parked along the square. Soldiers were milling around. It was a staging area for attacks on the column. The tank rumbled into the square. The Iraqi soldiers stared up at the big tan machine, shocked to see an M1A1 Abrams barreling down on them. The tank crew stared, too. They had never expected to confront the enemy in such a personal way - literally face-to-face. There was a brief, suspended moment.

"Oh shit," Gruneisen said.

The Iraqi soldiers didn't open fire. They ran - they scattered everywhere. It struck Hernandez as preposterous. There were five Americans surrounded by dozens of Iraqis in the heart of the Iraqi capital, and the Iraqis were fleeing. He had a mental image of cockroaches scattering when you turn on the kitchen light.

However, not everyone ran:

Gruneisen ordered Peterson to speed through the circle. There wasn't enough time to back up and turn around. He wanted to just plow through the circle, past the trucks and soldiers, and head back the way they had come. The soldiers scattered out of the way. Gruneisen couldn't tell whether anyone was firing at them. As they rolled into the circle, Hernandez saw yellow pickup truck speeding toward them with two men in the front seat. There wasn't time for a warning shot - no time to determine whether these were wayward civilians or militiamen trying to ram them. Hernandez got off a burst from the M-240. He saw a spray of blood stain the windshield and watched the passenger go down. The driver hit the brakes and the pickup spun and went into a skid.

In other news of the day from Baghdad:

Freed journalists tell of eight-day Iraqi prison ordeal

Tortures and beatings heard by four released from notorious jail after pleas for help to Vatican and Arafat

Peter Beaumont in Amman
Thursday April 3, 2003
The Guardian

A group of western journalists held in a notorious Baghdad prison on suspicion of spying described yesterday how other prisoners were tortured and beaten in the corridors outside their cells.

Matthew McAllester, a Briton employed by the US newspaper Newsday, described the terror of his eight days in Abu Ghraib prison just outside Baghdad, one of the biggest prison complexes in the Arab world.

"There were beatings and torture going on outside our cells, in the corridor," McAllester said immediately after his release. He described hearing the screams of other prisoners being tortured and saw some with eyes and faces bloodied and swollen.

"Other inmates hobbled around, apparently because the soles of their feet had been burned or otherwise injured. We thought we were going to be killed at any moment," McAllester said.

McAllester, 33, and Moises Saman, 29, a photographer for Newsday, were picked up by Iraqi secret service agents nine days ago, with Molly Bingham, 34, a freelance US photographer, and Johan Rydeng Spanner, a Danish freelance photographer. McAllester and Saman were handcuffed and taken downstairs from their hotel room in the service elevator, and transported to Abu Ghraib prison just outside Baghdad.

"We could hear screams, especially during the night," McAllester said yesterday. "The Iraqi prisoners were occupying the cells opposite us. We would hear them being taken to and from a session.
<...>
The release of the journalists, and a peace activist who had been held with them, came after frantic efforts by Newsday editors and prominent international figures and journalist advocacy groups.

Newsday editors had contacted everyone from the Vatican to Iraq's ambassador to the UN and diplomats in the region and, through an intermediary, the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, whose intervention is understood to have been crucial in securing the release.

McAllester added a note of caution: "We are free because we had the support of such a great network of people. There are Iraqis still in that prison who do not have that support."

But not for long. For in the chaos following the fall of the regime, the walls literally came down:

Looters had a field day. They stole all the doors, the windows and in some locations, they took the bricks out of the walls and the tile off the floor. They even pulled out the wiring.

Which seemed to be the end for Abu Ghraib.

In fact,

Prior to the beginning of hostilities, planners estimated 30-100 thousand enemy prisoners of war would need to be secured, segregated, detained, and interrogated. The 800th MP Brigade was given the mission to establish as many as twelve detention centers, to be run by subordinate battalion units. As of May 2003, BG Hill reported that only an estimated 600 detainees were being held -- a combination of enemy prisoners and criminals. As a result, additional military police units previously identified for deployment were demobilized in CONUS. The original plan also envisioned that only the prisoners remaining from the initial major combat operations would require detention facilities, and they would eventually be released or turned over to the Iraqi authorities once justice departments and criminal detention facilities were re-established,

Unfortunately, there were few prisoners because many of those soldiers had fled to fight another day - alongside the foreign fighters who were already in place, and ready for the jihad.

But not every unit was demobilized...

In June 2003, a group of about 20 soldiers, including England, Graner, Specialist Sabrina Harman, Staff Sergeant Ivan L. Frederick II, and Specialist Joseph M. Darby, were deployed for duty in Iraq. The first stop: the Hilla camp, 58 miles south of Baghdad, where the army was training new Iraqi police officers. The American forces took up residence in an abandoned date-processing factory, a big, open space, like an airplane hangar, but screaming hot and full of bird shit.

Not long into their stay, two of the soldiers appeared at the base one day with animal carcasses. They'd found a dead goat and a dead cat somewhere and started slicing them up. Someone took a photo of a soldier pretending to have sex with the goat's head. "Then they cut off the cat's head and shoved it on the top of a soda bottle," England says.

For several weeks, the decaying animal heads provided entertainment for the soldiers. "Someone put sunglasses on them, and put the rifle next to the heads and took a picture. Some soldiers put a cigarette in the cat's mouth," she says. The soldiers stashed the severed heads in their rooms.

"It was funny," England says. "So funny."

But soon they would be forced to leave leave their pets behind. Orders to a new location were on the way.

More to follow.

Ground Support

If you've wandered over from Hugh's place, welcome! (And thanks, Hugh!) There's a permanent list of some great support organizations over in our right hand column.

CAS to the ASC

This is a big story, but the significance of it will likely be lost on Western media, where you might see it depicted as Americans taking sides in Iraq's Civil War. (That would certainly be the POV for some "stringers".)

More Deja Vu All over again

CENTCOM:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RELEASE No. 20061125-09
Nov. 25, 2006

One Mosque Burned in Hurriya
Multi-National Corps – Iraq PAO

BAGHDAD — Contrary to recent media reporting that four mosques were burned in Hurriya, an Iraqi Army patrol investigating the area found only one mosque had been burned in the neighborhood.

Soldiers from the 6th Iraqi Army Division conducted a patrol in Hurriya Friday afternoon in response to media reports that four mosques were being burned as retaliation for the VBIED attacks in Sadr City on Thursday.

The Soldiers set up a checkpoint near the Al Muhaimen mosque at approximately 2 p.m. and found the mosque intact with no evidence of any fire at the location.

While investigating the Al Meshaheda mosque, the patrol received small arms fire from unknown insurgents. The patrol returned fire, and the insurgents broke contact and fled the area. A subsequent check of the mosque found the mosque intact with no evidence of a fire.

At approximately 3:50 p.m., a local civilian reported to the patrol that armed insurgents had set the Al-Nidaa mosque on fire by throwing a gas container into the mosque. The patrol pursued the insurgents but lost contact with them.

The Soldiers called the fire department and set up a cordon around the mosque. Local fire trucks responded to the scene and extinguished the fire at approximately 4:00 p.m. The mosque sustained smoke and fire damage in the entry way but was not destroyed.

An alleged attack on a fourth mosque remains unconfirmed. The patrol was also unable to confirm media reports that six Sunni civilians were allegedly dragged out of Friday prayers and burned to death. Neither Baghdad police nor Coalition forces have reports of any such incident.

Much more at Flopping Aces, who is communicating with CENTCOM on some aspects of the story, and has yet another appearance by the Association of Muslim Scholars.

Note that Iraqi soldiers went into harm's way to investigate bogus media reports. and were attacked for their efforts. Make what you will of that. but I hope the media will extend the courtesy of devoting the same headlines to their debunking of the story as they did to the 'stringer' version.

'Military denies mosque attacks' is probably the best we can hope for.

Update: Corrected original to properly identify soldiers involved. (Thanks John!)

Salvation vs Scholars

Glenn Reynolds

I don't know if we can pick winners, but we may be able to pick a couple of losers, which may be good enough. (Seeing that the right people lose is important, after all). The Sunnis seem to have picked themselves as losers, and to be doing their best to ensure that they'll be driven out of the country in response to their campaign of terror.

UPDATE: I don't think that what's happening to the Sunnis is a good thing; I just think they've brought it on themselves by foolishly stirring up a civil war that they can't win. They haven't been as canny as I'd hoped. What's going on now is a political, not a military problem -- we'd rather it were a military problem because we're better at military matters than politics -- and it will require an Iraqi political solution. The Sunnis, however, seem to me to have ensured that it will be a solution that they don't like.

Now I know that Glenn knows it's nowhere near as simple as Sunni vs Shiite in Iraq, but it might be beneficial to examine one specific - and important - example distinction.

Getting away from the headlines, here are the key events to watch unfold.

First, a backgrounder from last year, following the Samarra Shrine bombing. To really know the key players you're going to have to read the whole thing, but here's a jump to the end:

THE movement of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, alleged to have played a role in the anti-Sunni violence over the last few days, publicly made peace with political and religious Sunni leaders overnight.

Four sheikhs from the Sadr movement made a "pact of honour" with the conservative Sunni Muslim Scholars Association, and called for an end to attacks on places of worship, the shedding of blood and condemning any act leading to sedition.

Sadr is an obvious concern, but if you read the link carefully you know I'm talking about the Muslim Scholars group. They are the ones who declared hundreds of Sunni mosques destroyed and thousands of Sunni dead starting about 30 seconds after the Samarra shrine bombing. They've got a history of similar suspiciously timely press releases. In fact. they've got a long history of opposition to virtually everything (elections, for instance) in Iraq - except al Qaeda. Follow the links in the previous link and you'll get the idea.

Now here's today's news on these guys:

Sunni Leader Urges Arab Nations Not To Back Iraq's Shiite-Led Government

A prominent Sunni religious leader is calling on the international community to end its support for Iraq's Shiite-led government.

Otherwise, he says, Iraq's escalating sectarian violence will spread throughout the Middle East.

The sheik, who heads the Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq, lives in Jordan.

He's wanted in Iraq on charges of inciting terrorism. The Iraqi Interior Ministry issued an arrest warrant for him earlier this month, but he says he doesn't take the warrant seriously.

His comments Saturday in Cairo, Egypt, come amid a surge in violence between Sunnis and Shiites that has left hundreds dead in Iraq this week.

Sunnis charge that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki isn't serious about disbanding Shiite militias accused of sectarian killings.

Sounds like back to square one, right? Not quite.

"He's wanted in Iraq on charges of inciting terrorism. The Iraqi Interior Ministry issued an arrest warrant for him earlier this month, but he says he doesn't take the warrant seriously." That's part of the story.

Here's the original media coverage of the arrest warrant from last week:

Iraq's Shiite-led government issued an arrest warrant Thursday for the country's leading Sunni Arab cleric, accusing him of colluding with insurgents, a potentially explosive charge that could exacerbate tensions between the country's warring sectarian groups and further divide a fragile national government.

The move against Harith Dhari, head of the Muslim Scholars Assn., came two days after an audacious daytime kidnapping in Baghdad ruptured the government of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, setting Sunni politicians against Shiites.

Note the western media still offers "cover" to the AMS - " the country's leading Sunni Arab cleric" - more on that shortly. First, here's the follow-up

Doubt grows over al-Dhari arrest warrant
Official close to PM disavows plans to seize top Sunni cleric
.."We will work so that the arrest warrant is not acted upon," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the internal Shiite conflict.

That's a sticky political issue the Iraqi government will have to deal with - but one that may become easier with time, as we'll soon see. Whatever the reality, note that Iraq's "leading Sunni Arab cleric" is condemning his nation from the relative safety of Jordan - where he fled some time ago.

But here's where the story gets interesting. A day later::

Sunni sheiks from Iraq's volatile Anbar province have denounced a powerful Sunni cleric as "a thug" for supporting the al-Qaida terrorist group.

The Anbar Salvation Council, a group of sheiks formed to resist foreign militants in Iraq, also denied accusations by cleric Harith al-Dhari that it was cozying up to the Iraqi government in exchange for money, the New York Times reported Sunday.

"We, on behalf of the Anbar tribes council, say to Harith al-Dhari: If there is a thug, it is you; if there is a killer and a kidnapper, it is you," the Times quoted Sheik Abdul Sattar Buzaigh al-Rishawi as saying.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani added Dhari was stirring up sectarian strife and trying to enlist the aid of Sunni-led countries to foment violence in Iraq.

So, the Sunni Anbar Salvation Council (background here) busy battling al Qaeda in Anbar, condemns "Iraq's leading Sunni cleric" who has supported al Qaeda from day one, and fled to Jordan some time ago and fears returning to Iraq. Given that Sunnis and Shiites have both declared him persona non grata, that's probably what the wise "scholar" (similar word defined here) would do.

Readers can decide for themselves why the American media thinks this loser is "Iraq's most influential Sunni". I suspect that like most tidbits of useless information they get from their "stringers" there's a plausible - if unfortunate - explanation.

Bottom line? It ain't easy, but it ain't over, either.

Update: Coalition forces deliver close air support to the Anbar Salvation Council. This is big.

Pulverized? I think so...

Lex on Patterico's story. (Read 'em both)

Deja Vu

A look back at press coverage of the aftermath of the Samarra Shrine bombing.

Violence? No doubt. Exaggerated? Probably, but false reports and rumors do as much to fan the flames of "sectarian violence" as do actual attacks, especially when those reports are carried without qualification by a supposedly legitimate media source. Is that going on now? Who knows. A direct attack on Sadr's home turf will (perhaps ironically) likely spawn more violence than the attack on a revered shrine. But as the LA Times has more recently demonstrated, unlikely claims will be reported as facts without question.

A New Video...

...from James Hooker - always a treat.

Early Christmas Shopping?

Someone on your list could probably use a copy.

Click here to purchase via Amazon.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's to a bountiful and peaceful season for us all.
At your service - now and always!
Greyhawk

(original post 2003-11-27 06:07:01)

Happy Thanksgiving

UPDATE: Russ was gracious enough to whip this up for me and he explains here what inspired him. Also, get well soon Russ.

(Originally posted by Mrs Greyhawk, Thanksgiving, 2004)

2004-11-25 01:33:14

Hopefully This Buck Won't Stop...

A Farewell to Arms and Baghdad - from one of the best damn MilBloggers to ever knock sand from his boots.

Anbar Rising (Update)

We reported on the formation and early activities of the Anbar Salvation Council several weeks ago. This group's rise drew extensive coverage in the Iraqi and Arabic media, but was largely ignored in the western press.

Since then? Well, nothing. But this week in the London Times, Martin Fletcher reports from Ramadi:

Fighting back: the city determined not to become al-Qaeda's capital.

While the world’s attention has been focused on Baghdad’s slide into sectarian warfare, something remarkable has been happening in Ramadi, a city of 400,000 inhabitants that al-Qaeda and its Iraqi allies have controlled since mid-2004 and would like to make the capital of their cherished Islamic caliphate.

A power struggle has erupted: al-Qaeda’s reign of terror is being challenged. Sheikh Sittar and many of his fellow tribal leaders have cast their lot with the once-reviled US military. They are persuading hundreds of their followers to sign up for the previously defunct Iraqi police. American troops are moving into a city that was, until recently, a virtual no-go area. A battle is raging for the allegiance of Ramadi’s battered and terrified citizens and the outcome could have far-reaching consequences.

Read the whole thing. (Hat tip to Bill Roggio, who will soon be reporting from Iraq himself.)

The situation is fragile. The Sunni Shieks are not fighting alongside Americans - they simply recognize the greater threat is al Qaeda.

As one US officer put it, the sheikhs are only “pro-American in the sense that they are fighting the same enemy”.

But there is progress being made:

The US military wooed the sheikhs over what one US officer described as “hundreds of cups of chai and thousands of cigarettes”. They agreed that their chosen instrument should be the police force, which was practically defunct thanks to al-Qaeda death threats against anyone who dared to sign up. In June there were only 35 recruits; in July Sheikh Sittar sent 300 members of his 30,000-strong Resha tribe for training.

Last month a record 409 new recruits were dispatched to the police academy in Jordan, and 1,300 are now signed up, many of them former Baathists. The US and Iraqi armies have armed and protected them against al-Qaeda attacks, and as fear of al-Qaeda has dissipated, so the process has accelerated.

Note that record from last month - one that went unreported during the record violence. These are the people who Abu Hamza al-Muhajir — aka Abu Ayyub al-Masri (the late Abu Musab al Zarqawi's replacement as leader of al Qaeda in Iraq) gave until the end of Ramadan to repent and swear allegiance, or die. Apparently he has his answer:

Inside the heavily fortified Abu Faraj police station, just north of Ramadi, the recruits all said that they had been too frightened to join before. “Right now almost all the tribes are fighting the terrorists — the women, the children and even the dogs are fighting them,” said Major Saidey Saleh, the station commander and former Saddam army officer who bears the scars of four al-Qaeda bullet wounds in his right thigh.

Ramadi is a city ruined by war - and a city still at war, but a growing (albeit fragile) hope for the future remains.

Update: The Airstrike that Wasn't

More: Progress in Al Anbar

And follow the thread of this story here.

Cindy Sheehan in Korea

I should specify South Korea, protesting America.

Yes, she should move north and stay there.

Since we've been discussing both of them, it seems like a good day to bring back this seldom-seen video of a Sheehan supporter hurling John Kerry-type quotes at a Sheehan counter-protester, the mother of a fallen Marine.

Whenever Kerry unleashes one of his attacks on the troops, guys like this put off buying a new t-shirt and send him the 5 bucks instead.

Here's a real Secret

Scott Ott points out (as only he can) something most people are overlooking on the Pentagon "Iraq review" story:

The unnamed Pentagon official in charge of leaking national security secrets to the Washington Post said it’s possible that the U.S. could adopt some combination of the three.

His three options are a bit different than the Washington Post report - but I'm talking about the yet another leaked secret study aspect of this. (Of course, some secrets are more secret than others - nudge nudge wink wink.)

But speaking of three, I'm glad to see Scott's cousin is one of the "three high-profile colonels" leading the review group - that's not a joke.

On another note, here's an interesting tidbit from the WaPo original:

The military's study, commissioned by Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Peter Pace, comes at a time when escalating violence is causing Iraq policy to be reconsidered by both the White House and the congressionally chartered, bipartisan Iraq Study Group.

Interesting how that's become conventional wisdom - but it's also wrong:

Violence in Iraq Drops in Weeks After Ramadan

Nov. 20, 2006
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON – As expected, violence in Iraq has dropped following the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, a coalition spokesman said in Baghdad today.

Army Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said civilian and Iraqi security force casualties were at the lowest levels since the government was formed in May.

So far this month, the civilian casualty count is well below the casualty count in October and below the six-month average. The security force casualties reduced 21 percent over the past four weeks, and are at the lowest level in 25 weeks, he said.

“In Baghdad, there was a 22 percentage drop in casualties related to sectarian violence and executions,” Caldwell said during a televised news conference. “Coalition forces will continue to work closely with the Iraqi government and Iraqi security forces to control the sectarian violence and terrorist attacks.”

Which comes as no surprise to anyone who was paying attention. But that's from a military public press release - not a leaked secret study - so don't expect to see anything "in the paper" about decreasing violence - apparently it's something they'd prefer you not know.

Update: Via comments, a link to an AP headline that screams: U.N.: Iraqi civilian deaths at new high, and some accusations that this runs counter to Maj. Gen. William Caldwell's report. (In fact, some accusations that the general is in effect lying.

But a read of the story's first paragraph is revealing:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The United Nations said Wednesday that 3,709 Iraqi civilians were killed in October, the highest monthly toll since the March 2003 U.S. invasion and another sign of the severity of Iraq's sectarian bloodbath.

In short, the UN is releasing a report about the death toll in October - which is news to no one other than the UN. Though not a direct part of this discussion, read deeper into the report and you'll find the AP acknowledges the numbers are disputed: "The U.N. tally was more than three times higher than the total The Associated Press had tabulated for the month" and "Asked about the U.N. report, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh called it "inaccurate and exaggerated".

Regardless of the exact number, no one is disputing the October death toll was high - it certainly was one of the highest since the invasion for America troops. While it is more correct to say the Ramadan death toll was high - as the Ramadan death toll typically is - it is certainly not news. Scarcely a day went by when we weren't reminded of the fact when it was news.

So how does the AP cover the post-Ramadan drop in violence? By ignoring it and covering a story that the UN has announced what those of us who have been paying attention to Iraq already knew - and putting a misleading headline on top.

Open Post

Sound off, it's free. (Well, actually, it's on me.)

The Last

Via email:

Every time I hear about John Kerry's "famous" question about the last to die for a mistake, I recall the attached, captured VC propaganda leaflet, found by members of my unit on highway QL-1 in Vietnam dating sometime prior to October 1969 (my unit left the Duc Pho area, referenced in the leaflet, by that date).

Besides plagiarizing the propaganda masters, who knows how much "original" Kerry was impressed on to him by the VC and NVA in Paris during his two (or was it three) visits with them in the early 1970's?

John Boyle
19th Engineer Battalion (C)(A)
RVN
11/66 - 2/68

Here's the front of that leaflet John sent along, and here's the reverse, with the referenced phrase.

Here's the post he was responding to.

For those not familiar with the referenced Kerry comment from his 1971 testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I've prepared some "illustrated sound bites" from that event below.

The full transcript can be read here.

Update: Here's the homepage for the Vietnam-era 19th Combat Engineer Battalion. It includes a section memorializing the 100+ members of that organization who fell there.

The last? SP4 Frederick Lee Fields - who died 30 November 1970 trying to save another while conducting convoy operations in preperation for departure from Vietnam:

A deuce-and-a-half with a trailer went through the ford too fast and the trailer created a wake which washed LT Spiegel into the river and quickly downstream. Fields jumped in to help his LT. Spiegel grabbed onto an overhanging branch of a tree and was pulled to safety. Fred Fields was lost downstream.

Rangel Renews Call for Dra