Posted on 02/08/2008 7:45:18 PM PST by fight_truth_decay
BAGHDAD – A Sons of Iraq group discovered a weapons cache near Sabah Nissan, a village east of Baghdad, and turned it over to Soldiers of 1st Battalion, 10th Field Artillery, Feb. 5.
The Soldiers secured the site, awaiting the arrival of an explosive ordnance disposal team from the 789th EOD Company, from Fort Benning, Ga., to dispose of the munitions.
The cache consisted of two rocket-propelled grenades, one 130 mm artillery round, one 120 mm tank round, one 60 mm mortar round and one 57 mm mortar round.
“The Sons of Iraq continue to prove their worth when they provide us these tips on weapons caches,” said Capt. Charles Cannon, from Moultrie, Ga., commander of Battery A. “They hear and learn things that some local Iraqis may be hesitant to approach Coalition Forces about. The Sons of Iraq allow them an outlet and this information eventually trickles down to us, at which time we can properly dispose of the ammunition and ordnance.”
Soldiers from 1-10 FA have seized 11 caches as a result of Sons of Iraq tips since last November.
The 1-10 FA is assigned to 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division out of Fort Benning, Ga. The 3rd HBCT deployed to Iraq in March 2007.
The CLCs—Concerned Local Citizens—are no more. Just a week ago, people couldn’t keep the acronym, which refers to the U.S. military’s effort to turn groups of former insurgents into paid allies, off their lips.
Everything revolved around the CLCs: using them to build on the improved security in much of Iraq; getting them to cooperate with the Iraqi police; getting their members on the police force; making sure they aren’t bringing heavy weapons to their checkpoint sites; synchronizing their goals to those of the Iraqi government, etc.
But now, no one is mentioning the CLCs. With the amazing speed of an acronym-happy military, the new, Iraqi-approved term is “Sons of Iraq.” SOI for short. Seems that “Concerned Local Citizen” (reported to be primarily Sunni citizens) didn’t translate into Arabic so well, and the Iraqis didn’t like it. So now, when reporters refer to armed groups of civilians manning checkpoints and doing the work that the Iraqi police and Army either will not or cannot do, know that they are the “Sons of Iraq.”
U.S.News & World Report's Senion Editor, Anna Mulrine writes:
"they are not official government security forces—they often wear the sorts of orange vests that you might see during an intramural sports club practice. The problem with those monikers, though, is that they tend to obscure the fact that these groups are also armed militia on the U.S. payroll. An estimated 80,000 of them are paid $10 a day (or $300 a month) by the U.S. military—a good wage in Iraq these days.
While journalists are trying to settle on just what to call these groups, the U.S. military has offered up a new contender: Yesterday in a briefing, Col. Wayne Grigsby, the commander of the 3rd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division, referred to the "Sons of Iraq" in a video briefing from Baghdad. It was a new term for many Pentagon reporters. "So can I infer that you will no longer be calling the local Iraqis who assist U.S. forces 'concerned local citizens'?" asked one journalist.
"That's correct," Grigsby answered, explaining that in his area of operation, they are now called the Sons of Iraq. "This term, Sons of Iraq, I think, came from the government of Iraq. And it just shows—from my perspective, it just shows that these individuals who are providing security, that are standing up for their country, are exactly what the government of Iraq wants for their country."
Was Anna Mulrine from the News Desk of U.S. News & World Report trying to interject a different profile for the Sons of Iraq by using the words: "thos monikers" , a term often used in FBI publications in association to a gang. Then Ann goes on to report she finds it a problem that "these monikers" obsure the fact they are "armed and on the U.S. payroll"?
And whats more she and her fellow journalists seem confused when trying to understand a distinction between Iraqi individuals providing ongoing security to our forces as a group (and just might deserve distinction) and those that are like most, concerned local citizens providing a tip, happenchance it become known to them.
The trials and tribulations of being a war time senior editor in D.C.
More good news... thanks for posting this.
Sabah Nissan, formerly known as Sabah Datsun. That’s the problem with these monikers, keeping them straight.
Ping.
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