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TAKING OVER: An intelligence officer under Saddam Hussein, Col. Theya al-Tamimi now commands an Iraqi Army unit in Iraq's Diyala valley. >>>>>
An Iraqi Army unit ready to control its turf
On the edge of the Sunni triangle, Iraqis took the lead on security, and violence dropped.
MUQDADIYAH, IRAQ – In the fertile "bread basket" of central Iraq's Diyala valley, roadside-bomb attacks have nearly stopped.
This ethnically complex patchwork of towns, villages, fields, and orchards, which US commanders call a "little Iraq," has seen its share of insurgent activity since 2003. But nowadays, the local Sunni Arabs appear inclined to climb aboard the US-backed political process, rather than trying to derail it through violence.
The relative peace in the breadbasket is the result of a carefully managed transition from US to Iraqi security responsibility, US and Iraqi commanders say.
While roadside-bomb attacks in July were down more than 30 percent compared to the same month last year, the drop has been especially drastic in August. The local Iraqi Army unit, the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Brigade, officially took the lead in a roughly 1,158 square-mile battle space, containing nearly 300,000 residents, on July 31.
"We're responsible for actual security, and it is going well," says the unit's commander, Col. Theya Ismail al-Tamimi, a former intelligence officer under Saddam Hussein who has gained the Americans' respect by keeping constant pressure on the insurgents. "Attacks are a fraction of what they were," says Colonel Theya, as he is known to both his own troops and the Americans.
US troops recently closed down one of their forward operating bases near here, "since the area was so calm," Lt. Col. Roger Cloutier, a US battalion commander, says.
The breadbasket borders the notorious "Sunni triangle," the mainly Sunni Arab swath of north-central Iraq where the insurgency started in 2003, and where it has proven most enduring ever since.
Yet Diyala province could be among the first areas handed over to full Iraqi security control. Planned reductions of US-led coalition forces, which numbered 161,500 in July, might begin as early as next year - depending on political conditions, as well as the readiness of Iraqi military units, US commanders say.
About 79,900 Iraqi Army soldiers and national guardsmen have been counted as being "operational" in August, according to the Brookings Institution's Iraq Index. The stated US goal is to train another 18,639 troops.
"In the Sunni triangle, Diyala is well ahead of the others," according to Col. Steven Salazar, US brigade commander for northeastern Iraq.
Iraqi troops still rely heavily on US support, from planning raids, to stand-by air support in case things turn bad, to detainee processing. But the Iraqi 2/2 Battalion is ready for its training wheels to come off, most US liaison officers say.
Theya agrees: "Right now we have the ability to do this on our own."
The Iraqi way 
The 2/2 is hardly like an American battalion. Its troops conduct patrols in unarmored pickup trucks, and the chain of command is still too top-heavy, in the American view.
However, an Iraqi formation can fight the insurgents in an efficient manner, Theya says. "We have a dialogue with people. If I find an explosive device, we'll close the road, and also close all the shops along it," he says. "So if people work with us, they help themselves."
Similar tactics by US troops tend to feed local hostility. Iraqi soldiers are inherently less provocative, Theya says, citing cultural affinities among all Arab Iraqis, whether Sunni or Shiite.
His US counterpart, Colonel Cloutier, also talks about the need to "put an Iraqi face" on operations, from patrolling roads to pamphleteering about the constitutional referendum. "When people here see the Iraqi Army, they see their countrymen, their brothers," Cloutier says. "When they see Bradleys and Humvees rolling through, they see Americans."
This is not to say the Iraqis don't want better equipment, too. Theya's battalion recently acquired four Soviet-made MTLB armored personnel carriers from the US. These rebuilt relics from the 1980s Iran-Iraq war carry great symbolic value for civilians, while also allowing the Iraqi Army greater reach on the roads between towns, Cloutier says.
Other tanks and personnel carriers are going into service with the new army's first mechanized brigade, which made its first public appearance during elections in January. The mechanized brigade will be far more visible at referendum polling stations in October, US officers say.
But Iraqi troops are also being given the technological edge over their opponents in smaller ways. Theya's troops are currently training with night-vision goggles - outdated early 1980s models being sufficient to outmatch insurgent gunmen. In recent months, the whole battalion has also received bulletproof helmets and body armor, although many soldiers still need to be persuaded to wear them.
Hurdles remain
Training and fighting capacity remain several steps behind the army's organizational charts, even if larger formations are gradually taking shape. "Before, we were training as platoons and squads," Theya says. "Now we're training at the company level. We use more machine guns, more firepower."
Six months ago, Theya dismissed the newly formed Fourth Division command as "only symbolic," whereas he now calls it a "necessary step in developing Iraq's military." The division, he suggests, is roughly where his own battalion was about a year ago.
Theya recently shuffled his company commanders and section heads, hoping to counter favoritism within the battalion's internal groupings. "He saw that some guys weren't pulling watch duty or manning checkpoints," a US officer said.
A major hurdle remains on the logistical side. Theya says his unit has not been directly touched by corruption in the Ministry of Defense, which has allegedly deprived the Iraqi Army of hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of weapons and equipment.
Yet the battalion depends on the Americans to provide it with sufficient ammunition and especially fuel, often on an ad hoc basis. According to US trainers, Iraqi officers are often reluctant to make requests, reflecting the old Iraqi army's traditional top-down mind-set.
The flow of materials is better than in the old army, Iraqi officers say. "Before, you would just listen to orders. You couldn't even get a notebook and pen, let alone ammunition," says Theya's brother, Capt. Saddam al-Tamimi, who also works at battalion headquarters. "Now, there's an obvious difference. Our soldiers' morale is better, because of the freedom to talk between officers and soldiers," he adds.
The 2/2 is recruited locally, and separate companies tend to reflect local tribal affiliations. Theya says this doesn't bode well for putting together a national army. The old army's recruitment system, based on mixing together soldiers from all over Iraq, was more effective as a way to downplay sectarian or ethnic tensions, he says.
Still, the 2/2 has started to look professional. The colonel, who used to meet visitors in a tracksuit and leather jacket, now wears pressed battle-dress uniforms. His troops conduct house-to-house movements with ease, even if the Americans still take a heavy hand in planning. "We have achieved irreversible momentum," Cloutier says. "This area will not go back to the way it was."
But Iraqi military progress is far from evident in other parts of the country. While the 2/2 evolved out of one of Iraq's earliest postinvasion army formations, its success can be replicated everywhere with time, the US commander says. "I can't speak outside my sandbox. But to different degrees, you have the same things happening all over Iraq."
Christian Science Monitor ~ Neil MacDonald ** An Iraqi Army unit ready to control its turf
Posted by uhyw
at 1:43 AM EDT
Updated: Tuesday, August 30, 2005 2:09 AM EDT
surprised
By 
This order to destroy the records occurred prior to 9-11-01. Weldon intimated that it happened during the Clinton Administration.
The witness, who Weldon did not name, says that he was ordered to destroy records and was threatened with jail if he failed to comply. Weldon said that he has the names of the people involved, including the person who gave the order, and HE WILL NAME THEM in his speech.
Congressman Weldon also said that his staff has met with Senator Arlen Specter's (R - Pennsylvania) staff regarding the upcoming Judiciary Committee hearings. Weldon wants to be sure that everybody is on the same page. Weldon also said that he will do whatever he has to do to make sure that ALL the facts come out and that the process "is not manipulated".
Curt Weldon is like a pit bull on a steak. He expressed disgust with the "incompetence" of the 9-11 Commission and said that the victims of the 9-11 terror attacks deserve answers. Weldon is determined to see that they get them.
Weldon did express confidence in Tim Roehmer and John Lehman and speculated that perhaps the poor job done by the Commission was the result of an incompetent staff. Weldon sounded amazed and disappointed that so much important information was either glossed over or swept under the rug by the Commission.
Weldon will give his September 8th speech either to the National Press Club or to a "9-11 families" group which has asked him to speak. He apparently hasn't nailed down the exact venue yet.
(For those unfamiliar with Dom Giordano, he is a very good conservative local talk show host here in the Philadelphia area, an area which includes Curt Weldon's district. Weldon comes on Dom's show often and, like this evening, sometimes breaks news.)
silly
Sharpton Driver Arrested for Speeding
WAXAHACHIE, Texas - A car carrying the Rev. Al Sharpton led sheriff's deputies on a nine- mile chase at speeds up to 110 mph before state troopers stopped the vehicle and arrested the driver, authorities said.
The civil rights activist called the sheriff's report "ludicrous" and accused the Ellis County officers of "embellishing the story."
"That nine-mile chase is news to me," Sharpton told The Associated Press. "All I know is that the police pulled us over because they wanted to talk to the driver about speeding."
Chief Deputy Charles Sullins said driver Jarrett B. Maupin, 43, was rushing Sharpton to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport after Sharpton visited anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan on Sunday at her camp outside President Bush's ranch in Crawford.
Because the 2005 Lincoln was rented to Maupin, of Phoenix, sheriff's deputies impounded the car. Maupin posted a $1,000 bond on charges of evading arrest with a vehicle and reckless driving, authorities said.
The car carrying Sharpton and two other passengers was clocked doing 110 mph in a 65 mph zone on the interstate south of Dallas, Sullins said.
He said the driver ignored deputies' attempts to stop it and weaved in and out of traffic before state troopers were able to get in front of the car.
Sharpton caught a lift from a passing driver and made his scheduled flight to New York.
irritated
'Arizona Daily Star' Drops Ann Coulter's 'Shrill' Column
NEW YORK - The Arizona Daily Star in Tucson has had enough of conservative commentator Ann Coulter.
In a 
Taking her place in the Star will be the Creators Syndicate column by fellow conservative Tony Snow, host of "The Tony Snow Show" on Fox News Radio and "Weekend Live With Tony Snow" on the Fox News Channel. He has also worked for several newspapers.
Stoeffler's piece also mentioned other changes in the Star's opinion pages, including smaller photos and cartoons to make room for longer columns and more letters.
Stoeffler has been at the paper just nine weeks. He said the paper had received about 300 e-mails on a recent re-design, and many were negative. So the Star is shifting back to "more words" and a less fancy design.
For one thing, the cartoons by David Fitzsimmons will now run smaller, freeing up room for another columnist.
"Running a newspaper is something like building a three-legged stool," Stoeffler explained. "We need to understand and satisfy a broad audience. Through a combination of market research and regular contact, we come to know what readers want."
Dems to Question Roberts on Torture Memo
WASHINGTON - Democrats plan to question Supreme Court nominee John Roberts about a disavowed Justice Department memo that critics say led to torture in foreign prisons, top Senate Judiciary Democrat Patrick Leahy of Vermont said Monday.
Leahy said he gave Roberts a copy of the so-called "Bybee memo" during a meeting Monday in the Senate's Russell office building. It was the second meeting between the two men since July, when President Bush nominated Roberts to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.
Then-Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee argued in a Jan. 22, 2002, memo that the president has the power to issue orders that violate the Geneva Conventions as well as international and U.S. laws prohibiting torture.
"It will be raised, partly on the question of to what area _ if any _ can a president be considered above the law," Leahy told reporters.
The meeting came as the National Archives released more documents from Roberts' time as a government lawyer in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations. In one document, Roberts suggested that a conservative supporter of President Reagan "go soak his head" after he criticized the White House for avoiding a friend's fight with immigration officials.
In other documents, Roberts pushed the Reagan administration to get its conservative policies enacted so future presidents could not readily overturn them. And he showed displeasure with the federal judiciary, saying the Justice Department needs to get legal solutions "less dependent on the fiat of unelected jurists."
Bybee, who is now a federal judge on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, wrote the now disavowed memo soon after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
Critics in Congress and many legal experts say the original document set up a legal framework that led to abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, in Afghanistan and at the U.S. prison camp for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The White House says the United States has always operated under the spirit of the Geneva Conventions that prohibit violence, torture and humiliating treatment of prisoners of war.
Leahy said he wanted Roberts to have the memo so he would be prepared for questions at his confirmation hearings, which start Sept. 6. "I don't think a Supreme Court hearing is a game of gotcha," he said. "I'd really like to know what he thinks."
Leahy said he would continue to push the White House to release all of Roberts' documents and memos from his time as deputy solicitor general under the first President Bush and as an assistant to the White House counsel and the attorney general under President Reagan.
Reagan-era documents showed that Roberts, then working as an assistant to White House counsel Fred Fielding in 1984, had corresponded with Bob Jones III, the former president of Bob Jones University in Greenville, S.C., about the case of Peter Ng, a fundamentalist minister.
Jones, then president of the Christian fundamentalist university, had complained to the White House that the Immigration and Naturalization Service was harassing Ng.
The White House refused to get involved in the case. In a Jan. 4, memo, Roberts said it had received another plea from Jones.
"Mr. Jones suggests in his letter that you would have reacted differently to an alleged civil rights violation, and in a thinly veiled threat, asserts that the alleged insensitivity of the administration to fundamentalist Christians will not go unnoticed by that sizable voting block," Roberts said in a memo to Fielding.
Roberts wrote that "the audacity of Jones' reply is truly remarkable," given the "political cost" the Reagan administration paid for unsuccessfully trying to help the university regain its tax-exempt status after it was revoked by the IRS because the school discriminated on the basis of race.
"A restrained reply to his petulant paranoia is attached for your review, telling Jones, in essence, to go soak his head," Roberts wrote.
On Tuesday, the liberal group Alliance for Justice plans to announce its opposition to Roberts, joining other advocacy groups in taking a position on Roberts' nomination before the confirmation hearings begin.
On the Net: 
Top House Democrat Charles Rangel (left) suggested Friday that Vice President Dick Cheney (lower right) may not be healthy enough to continue in office.
"He [Cheney] is a sick man, you know," Rangel told the Manhattan news network NY1. "He's got heart disease."
In quotes picked up by the New York Post, Rangel insisted, "Sometimes I don't even think Cheney is awake enough to know what's going on. [Defense Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld is the guy in Washington . . . running the country."
The Harlem Democrat claimed that Cheney's heart disease "is not restricted to that part of his body. He grunts a lot, so you never really know what he's thinking."
Rangel offered no specific evidence to counter a pronouncement from Cheney's doctors last month, who gave the VP a clean bill of health.
don't ask
Israeli rescuers and policemen inspect the site where a suicide bomber attacked Sunday. >>>>>
First suicide bomb since Gaza pullout hospitalizes 40
BEERSHEBA, Israel - About 40 people went to the hospital after a Palestinian blew himself up while trying to board a bus Sunday in the first suicide attack since the evacuation of settlers from the Gaza Strip, puncturing hopes that the historic pullout would break the cycle of violence.
The vast majority of those hospitalized from the attack in this southern Israel town suffered from shock, although two security guards were critically wounded, medical sources said.
A suicide bomber blew himself up outside the central bus station in this southern Israeli city during morning rush hour Sunday, critically wounding two security guards in the first attack since Israel began its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip this month.
More serious carnage appeared to have been averted after security at the city's main terminus prevented the attacker from boarding.
The attack comes almost exactly a year to the day after 15 Israelis were killed in a twin attack on two buses in Beersheba.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest attack but it came just four days after five militants were killed by Israeli troops during an arrest operation in the West Bank town of Tulkarem.
Sunday's attack occurred in a dirt parking lot about 100 yards from the bus station, which was crowded with morning rush-hour travelers. Witnesses said the two security guards halted the bomber, preventing a much larger attack. The guards were critically injured with burns and shrapnel wounds.
The bus driver who alerted security said he had challenged the bomber as he looked suspicious."He was very pale so I warned the guards," Eli Horech told AFP.
Israel's Internal Security minister Gideon Ezra said that the action of the bus driver and two security guards "had averted a major disaster".
According to the Associated Press, taxi driver Itzik Ohana said he was waiting for customers in the lot when he saw the bomber, a man about 20, who had short hair and was dragging a heavy bag and sweating. The man frequently stopped to put the bag down and rest.
Ohana said he told a security guard about the suspicious-looking man and called the police. "While I was talking to the police there was an explosion," he said.
The bombing raised pressure on Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to crack down on militant groups. Israel has said any progress in peacemaking after the Gaza withdrawal will require Abbas to disarm the militants — a step he so far has been unwilling to take.
Abbas denounced the bombing as a "terror attack," and called on Israel to show restraint and continue to respect a shaky, six-month-old cease-fire. "We condemn such attacks. We don't accept them, and we call on everyone to refrain from retaliation," he said.
However, Israel had to expect the consequence of its "crime" in Tulkarem, said Jibril Rajub, Abbas' national security advisor.
"Israel must know that if it continues with this state terrorism it will lead to more violence in the region," Jibril Rajub told AFP.
Ezra said Israel would "not hesitate to respond" to the attack which he said underlined how "the Palestinian Authority must dismantle the terrorist groups."But he also expressed hope that it would not herald a start to a new round of bloodshed."I think and I hope that this attack does not mark the start of a wave of terrorism," Ezra told AFP at the scene of the blast.
In a speech on the eve of the start of the forcible evacuation of settlers from Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon warned of an unprecedented response if attacks continued.
Sharon has argued that his controversial pullout of settlers and troops, the first time that Israel has ever left occupied Palestinian territory, would improve the security of Israelis.Right-wing critics however claimed that it encourages militant groups who have been portraying the pullout as an act of surrender.
Groups such as Islamic Jihad and the larger Hamas movement are meant to be observing a truce agreement.However, while there has been a significant decline in Palestinian attacks since the start of the year, the truce has been less than watertight.
Five Israelis were killed on July 13 when an Islamic Jihad activist blew himself up near a shopping mall in the coastal city of Netanya.
The pullout of settlers from Gaza, which was completed last Monday, passed off largely peacefully with Israeli authorities expressing their satisfaction with the levels of security cooperation from the Palestinian Authority.
While nearly all soldiers were due to be withdrawn from Gaza as part of the so-called disengagement plan, Israel had intended to keep a small contingent on the Rafah border which has been a major conduit of arms smuggling. However Egypt and Israel have been locked in discussions for several months in order that Egyptian soldiers take responsibility for the border in the aftermath of the pullout.
Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz has said he expects all Israeli troops to have left the territory by mid-September after which control of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt is expected to be handed over to the Egyptian authorities.
Sharon's cabinet on Sunday approved an agreement to allow the deployment of some Egyptian 750 armed border guards along the Rafah crossing which has been a major conduit for weapons smuggling.The deployment will be put before the parliamentary plenum on Wednesday in a vote where it is expected to be approved.
Meanwhile the Palestinian cabinet met in the West Bank town of Abu Dis, which lies on the outskirts of Jerusalem, in a symbolic protest at Israel's attempts to cement its grip on the holy city.Last week, Israel announced plans to build a new police headquarters near Maale Adumim, the largest West Bank settlement where it had already sparked U.S. anger with another project to build 3,500 new homes.
Prime minister Ahmed Qorei said that Israel's settlement drive and its construction of a separation barrier in the region were leaving Palestinians living in the east of the city in "ghettos"."All these things do not leave any room for the creation of a viable Palestinian state," Qorei told reporters after the meeting.
Pro-Life Participant Openly Rebuked by Chair at Disabilities Conference
At a recent UN conference held to negotiate a treaty on the rights of the disabled, the concerns of a pro-life NGO leader were openly criticized by the conference chairman, a highly unusual move given the extreme collegiality that typically prevails at such meetings. The exchange took place during an August 8 meeting of the Sixth Session of the Ad Hoc Committee on a Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities.
Patrick Buckley, a representative of the London-based Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, voiced concern over Article 21 in the working draft of the treaty. Article 21 says signatory nations are required to "[p]rovide persons with disabilities with the same range and standard of health and rehabilitation services as provided other citizens, including sexual and reproductive health services." Buckley feared that the inclusion of "sexual and reproductive health services" in a legally binding treaty could be later interpreted by enforcement committees to mean that abortion is a universal right. Defenders of Article 21 say it is only intended to ensure that nations provide those with disabilities the same rights as the rest of its citizens.
Buckley said to the group of governmental negotiators, "It is crucial to remember that this Convention will be legally binding. Unless we are careful, this document could contribute to the codification of abortion and euthanasia into international law. 'Reproductive health', 'reproductive health care', 'reproductive health services' and 'reproductive rights' do not appear in any legally binding UN document. The [preamble to] the Article talks about health and rehabilitation 'rights' and 'services'. This would add a new 'right' that could be interpreted to include abortion in a legally binding document regardless of whatever formulation of 'reproductive health' is used."
In an unusual rebuke Chairman Don MacKay of New Zealand called Buckley's concerns invalid because, he said, it was not the intention of the working group to create any new human rights and this had already been codified in a report on the ad hoc committee's fifth session. UN observers say that it is unusual for a chairman to be so publicly critical of an NGO's concerns and that because of the UN's diplomatic environment chairmen do not usually editorialize on NGO interventions.
The following day the Chairman allowed Buckley to respond to the Chairman's criticism. Buckley presented the legal opinion of D. Brian Scarnecchia, legal counsel for the Society of Catholic Social Scientists, who argued that just because the authors of Article 21 do not intend to create any new rights does not mean that the document will not be used to do so by those charged with interpreting it. He also said that the intent of the working group does not "necessarily reflect the intent of those who would later ratify this Convention." Previous agreements by the working group, he said, were "certainly not binding legal authority on a juridical body charged with interpreting this treaty, such as national tribunals, regional tribunals, and international compliance committees and juridical institutions." After Buckley's second intervention the Chairman rebuked him again.
This exchange demonstrates one of the key sticking points of this hard-law negotiation. UN delegates insist they are not creating any new human rights. Critics fear otherwise.
cool
celebratory
U.S. hits suspected terror base in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. warplanes launched multiple airstrikes Friday against a suspected "terrorist safe house" in the western Anbar province, destroying the building where up to 50 militants were believed to be hiding, the U.S. military said.
Coalition ground forces were alerted by local residents that a number of members of the terror group Al-Qaida in Iraq had gathered in an abandoned building northeast of Husaybah, near the Syrian border about 200 miles west of Baghdad.
The group is led by Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, the second most-wanted terrorist on the U.S. list after al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
"Iraqi citizens reported that approximately 50 terrorists were in the building at the time of the airstrike" which occurred at 4:40 p.m., the statement said.
The "known terrorist safe house" was destroyed by Marine F-18D Hornets using a combination of precision-guided bombs and rockets, it said. There were no immediate reports of the number of casualties inflicted by the attack.