One-Time Iraqi Insurgents Now Helping U.S.

FoxNews ^ | June 23rd, 2007 | FoxNews/AP

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BAGHDAD — Two months ago, a dozen Sunni insurgents — haggard, hungry and in handcuffs — stepped tentatively into a U.S.-Iraqi combat outpost near Baqouba and asked to speak to the commander: "We're out of ammunition, but we want to help you fight Al Qaeda."

Now hundreds of fighters from the 1920s Revolution Brigades, an erstwhile Sunni insurgent group, work as scouts and gather intelligence for the 10,000-strong American force in the fifth day of its mission to remove Al Qaeda gunmen and bomb makers from the Diyala provincial capital.

Little so well illustrates the Middle Eastern dictum: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

And as it struggles in the raging heat and violence of central Iraq, the U.S. military appears to have bought into the tactic in its struggle to pull what victory it can from the increasingly troubled American mission in Iraq, under congressional pressure for a troop pullout and a presidential election campaign already in the minds of voters.

Each U.S. Army company in Baqouba, an hour's drive northeast of Baghdad, has a scout from the Brigades, others have become a ragtag intelligence network and still others fight, said Capt. Ricardo Ortega, a 34-year-old Puerto Rico native of the 2nd Infantry Division.

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Iraqi Sunni Insurgent Scouts...LOL

[Wil H]

"We're out of ammunition, but we want to help you fight Al Qaeda."

Yeah right, Don't trust the bastards further than you can throw them..

[RAY]

Whatever the positive of this issue, the US Media will spoil it. Why publish that our troops gave them special clothing so as to not confuse them with the enemy, and even identified the football jerseys, etc. Additionally, why did our military publish any of this?

[do the dhue]

"We're out of ammunition, but we want to help you fight Al Qaeda."

OK, tell us where Al Qaeda is and we will drop some bombs on them and you will have helped us.

[AprilfromTexas]

“Despite intelligence checks, there is concern that some of the Brigades men, or people close to them, tipped Al Qaeda to the coming offense. Odierno said 80 percent of Al Qaeda leaders managed to flee the city before American soldiers stormed into Baqouba before sunrise Tuesday.”

I find that 80% disturbing..

[squidly]

This sounds similar to what the Brits did in Malaysia a few decades back, with success. It was also a successful strategy in then Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in the 1970s, although the white Rhodesian government was forced out for different reasons. But getting insurgents to switch sides is a time tested tactic for defeating insurgency.

As for the AQ guys knowing the offensive was coming, well, it was in the papers enough before it happened. It didn't require an informant.

[bnelson44]

It is 80% of the senior leadership in Baqubah. How many could that possibly be? 20 people?

[Pining_4_TX]

As if any of these people can be trusted! This has become the theater of the absurd. We’re not fighting terrorism - we’re in the middle of a civil war.

[SolidWood]

We’re not fighting terrorism - we’re in the middle of a civil war.

Listening too much Hillary?

[Wil H]

I don’t believe that’s true, there are certainly a lot of old scores being settled, but it doesn’t amount to a civil war.

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It’s smart to employ them as scouts. I do know we’re treading extremely carefully with them. If anyone thinks otherwise...dumb thinking...

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It is...

Remember, our military are extremely smart [they'll not be taken in]...I trust their judgments. They really know what they're doing. Some of our smartest are in the military.