Department of “I’ll have one from column A and one from Column B.”

New Leaders Of Sunnis Make Gains In Influence

U.S.-Backed Fighters Find Empowering Role

MADERIYAH, Iraq -- Saad Mahami wanted more firepower. He didn't trust the Iraqi government to give him support, so inside Patrol Base Whiskey, at the edge of this village south of Baghdad, he told U.S. commanders that his 71 Sunni fighters needed additional weapons to fight the insurgent group [Saudis of] al-Qaeda in Iraq.

As he listened to Mahami's demand, Capt. David Underwood reminded his superiors that Mahami's men -- all members of a U.S.-backed Sunni paramilitary movement called Sahwa, or "Awakening" -- were already buying arms with U.S. reward money for finding enemy ammunition dumps. "And as we confiscate weapons, we hand them to Saad Mahami," Underwood told Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the top commander in the region, during their meeting with the Iraqi.

The United States is empowering a new group of Sunni leaders, including onetime members of former president Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, intelligence services and army, who are challenging established Sunni politicians for their community's leadership. The phenomenon marks a sharp turnaround in U.S. policy and the fortunes of Iraq's Sunni minority.

The country was awash in guns when Saddam ruled the land (a time many Iraqis now refer to as “the good times” I believe. Doesn’t it sound like the NRA is in charge of things in Iraq? Three guns for every man? It’s like one of those first person shooter games you can theoretically carry four or five different weapons at the same time and switch from one to the other as needed.

Sunni Security Unit Leader, Colleagues Killed in Attack Encouraged by Bin Laden

BAGHDAD, Jan. 7 -- A suicide bomber killed the leader of a U.S.-backed neighborhood security force in Baghdad's Adhamiyah district Monday, his aides said, the latest in a string of attacks against such forces.

The blast, along with a second explosion, killed Col. Riyadh al-Sammarai and at least 10 others, witnesses said.

The campaign against the so-called Awakening groups began after Osama bin Laden called on Muslims late last month to attack such "dangerous conspiracies."

"They are sending a message to the Awakening fighters that we must leave the movement," said Riyadh Hadi, field commander of the Adhamiyah Awakening, as he stood among the corpses of his colleagues. "But this will only increase our will to fight against them more and more."

Oh, but –wait!

Safa Hussein, Iraq's deputy national security adviser, said al-Qaeda in Iraq is trying to both attack the Awakening and penetrate its ranks. "Al-Qaeda's policy is in two directions," he said.[emph added-

One is immediately reminded of Caesar/ Qaisar Saadi al-Jubory , the Iraqi soldier who killed two GIs and wounded three others after allegedly watching the GIs manhandle/mistreat/beat up an Iraqi female during a house search in the al-Haramat area, western Mosul, on December 26th.

Naturally, the immediate (automatic) reaction from MNF-I was “the guy’s an al Qaeda mole.” Somehow it seems staff pukes are incapable of understanding what happens out in the boondocks. Maybe it’s the fact that high speed, low-drag ring knockers are impervious to the shit, and always seem to get the best assignments.

As it turns out, there’s quite a bit more to the story than what the Bu$hCo drones at MNF-I admitted, but you have to read an non-bought-out press to learn what happened. See the excellent report from our friend Siun at FDL for the grits.

Special stringer support from new Daddy Dubhaltach of Gorilla's Guides.

For dessert, instead if leechee nuts, I was trying to find a report from MNF-I about the mythical [Saudi} al Qaeda being on the run, but they’re hard to find,