Chrenkoff

"There have been more than 20 incidents of fires or vandalism at Muslim buildings - and a handful of retaliatory attacks on Christian churches - since the Nov. 2 killing of filmmaker Theo van Gogh by a suspected Muslim radical."

"[A]l-Zarqawi urged insurgents in Falluja to resist U.S.-led attacks on the rebel city, saying victory was certain. 'We have no doubt that the signs of God's victory will appear on the horizon'."

"At the end, they came in their tens of thousands to give Yasser Arafat the burial he surely wanted; a revolutionary's send-off to a chorus of gunfire, bloodcurdling chants and the wailing of ambulance sirens."

"The prime minister is sometimes, perhaps unfairly, characterized in Britain as your poodle. I was wondering if that's the way you may see your relationship? And perhaps, more seriously, do you feel for the..."

"In a democracy, where 50 percent plus 1 takes home all the political marbles, there are bound to be people who strongly dislike political outcomes. In a nation as large as the United States, that means millions and millions of people won't like the outcome.

"There is a way around the disunity problem and it's a solution the nation's Founders devised. It's called federalism - devolving political decision-making as close to voters as possible, to the states and local municipalities. It's an old idea, but one that might be rejuvenated in the wake of this election...

"During the 20th century, political liberals have generally opposed federalism and devolution, preferring Washington and the federal judiciary to impose liberal policies on the entire country, from abortion rights to environmental policy to gun control laws. That's fine for them when liberals are in power. But what about when conservatives become firmly entrenched?"

"I think history will judge him very harshly for not having seized the opportunity in the year 2000 to embrace the offer that was very courageously made by the then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, which involved the Israelis agreeing to about 90 per cent of what the Palestinians had wanted... I think if Arafat had grabbed hold of that opportunity in the dying days of the Clinton administration then the path of things in the Middle East may have been smoother."

"[W]ith Arafat finally gone after towering over the Palestinian cause for four decades, the Palestinians will have two simple choices: radicalisation or normalisation. Should they choose the former, the extremists will assume complete control over the Palestinian destiny launching their people onto the armageddon path of a one-state solution - Arab Palestine from Jordan to the sea. Should the Palestinians choose the latter, it will be their best opportunity to resolve the Middle Eastern crisis and finally move towards normalcy. The final settlement might look similar to Ehud Barak's proposal in 2000; a Palestinian state taking virtually most if not all of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, coexisting peacefully with Israel wound back to its pre-1967 borders. Sovereignty and peace might finally give the Palestinian people a chance to resurrect themselves, and being among the best educated and the most hardworking people of the Middle East, a chance to channel their energies, creativity and passion into making up for the decades of lost time and finally building a normal, decent future for their next generations."

"Even the most liberal society is illiberal when it is a question of survival. The Dutch see those who dream of Europe under a revived caliphate as a threat to their way of life. The prospect of Islamist imams imposing sharia law on Dutch cities amounts, they feel, to a new Nazi occupation."

"American forces battled south through Fallujah's narrow lanes and alleys Wednesday to take control of 70 percent of the insurgent stronghold, and rebel fighters were bottled up in a strip of land flanking the main east-west highway that splits the city, the military said.

"Major Francis Piccoli, of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (search), characterized fighting overnight as 'light to moderate' and said U.S. casualties were 'extremely light'...

"The military said at least 71 militants had been killed as of the beginning of the third day of the intense urban combat. The number was expected to rise sharply once U.S. forces account for insurgents killed in airstrikes."

"[Khalid] confirmed the fears of US military chiefs by saying the insurgent leaders had already left the city to avoid capture. Khalid claimed they decided two days before the offensive to flee, leaving only half of their men behind to fight.

" 'From a military point of view, if a city is surrounded and bombarded the result of the battle is pre-ordained,' he said.

Khalid said insurgent leaders had debated how many men to leave in the city. 'They discussed percentages like 20 per cent inside the city and 80 per cent outside - to save as many fighters as possible for future operations,' he said. 'In the end they settled on a 50-50 split. We told the fighters that those who want to stay alive and fight should leave, and those who want to become martyrs in this battle should stay'."

"In the five years following the air campaign which ended the persecution of Kosovo's Albanians, only one thing has changed in the province: now, it's the Albanians who persecute the Serbs. Serbian schools and hospitals are frequent targets of attacks. In five years, and under the watchful eye of international peacekeeping forces, over 120 Orthodox places of worship and monasteries were burned down...

"Torn from under the Serbian rule, Kosovo is now formally administered by a several thousand-strong contingent of United Nations officials and 20 thousand soldiers of the international peacekeeping force. To cater to their needs, in the capital Pristina, over 200 brothels have sprung up right under the noses of international police and UN administrators. Women from all over the Balkans, as well as Romania, Ukraine, and Moldavia are marshaled into the brothels.

"Non-Government Organisations are accusing soldiers from France, United Kingdom, the United States, Russia and Pakistan of powering the illegal sex trade and even profiting from it. So far, not one person has been charged over the whole enterprise, as peacekeeping forces remain outside the jurisdiction of Kosovar courts.

"And as if that wasn't enough, Kosovo has now become a prime exporter in the flesh trade. Britain's Scotland Yard estimates that Albanian organised crime controls some 75 per cent of brothels in the United Kingdom.

"Kosovar economy is booming, but only in its illegal sphere... The whole business is in the hands of anti-Serbian guerrillas of the Kosovo Liberation Army, who have formed one of the biggest crime syndicates in Europe. Thanks to contacts with Afghan mudjahedin who in the 1990s were financing the war with Serbia, the Albanians have now monopolised the smuggling of Afghan heroin into Europe.

"Unemployment in Kosovo hovers around 60 percent. Gangs of young idle Albanians often start anti-Serb riots. With increasing frequency they also attack multinational forces, accusing them of dragging feet over the transfer of power to province's residents. The UN is still promoting the concept of Kosovo as a multi-ethnic state, a solution that neither the Serbs nor the Albanians want."

"[F]or many people, especially in the Middle East, the war in Iraq is not about Iraqis or democracy at all; it's about watching America stumble... There is no withdrawal option in Iraq today that would truly benefit the Iraqis... [S]ome might want to consider that applauding American setbacks is tantamount to wishing Iraq the very worst."

"Only one faction in American politics has found itself able to make excuses for the kind of religious fanaticism that immediately menaces us in the here and now. And that faction, I am sorry and furious to say, is the left. From the first day of the immolation of the World Trade Center, right down to the present moment, a gallery of pseudointellectuals has been willing to represent the worst face of Islam as the voice of the oppressed. How can these people bear to reread their own propaganda? Suicide murderers in Palestine—disowned and denounced by the new leader of the PLO—described as the victims of 'despair.' The forces of al-Qaida and the Taliban represented as misguided spokespeople for antiglobalization. The blood-maddened thugs in Iraq, who would rather bring down the roof on a suffering people than allow them to vote, pictured prettily as 'insurgents' or even, by Michael Moore, as the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers. If this is liberal secularism, I'll take a modest, God-fearing, deer-hunting Baptist from Kentucky every time, as long as he didn't want to impose his principles on me (which our Constitution forbids him to do)...

"George Bush may subjectively be a Christian, but he—and the U.S. armed forces—have objectively done more for secularism than the whole of the American agnostic community combined and doubled. The demolition of the Taliban, the huge damage inflicted on the al-Qaida network, and the confrontation with theocratic saboteurs in Iraq represent huge advances for the non-fundamentalist forces in many countries. The 'antiwar' faction even recognizes this achievement, if only indirectly, by complaining about the way in which it has infuriated the Islamic religious extremists around the world. But does it accept the apparent corollary—that we should have been pursuing a policy to which the fanatics had no objection?"

"Interestingly, while Bush slightly improved his standing among frequent churchgoers, by about a point in 2004, his support grew by 3 to 4 points among those attending seldom or never. Yep, it was the atheist vote that really put Bush over the top in 2004."

"A John F. Kennedy School of Government researcher has cast doubt on the widely held belief that terrorism stems from poverty, finding instead that terrorist violence is related to a nation's level of political freedom.

"Associate Professor of Public Policy Alberto Abadie examined data on terrorism and variables such as wealth, political freedom, geography, and ethnic fractionalization for nations that have been targets of terrorist attacks...

"Before analyzing the data, Abadie believed it was a reasonable assumption that terrorism has its roots in poverty, especially since studies have linked civil war to economic factors. However, once the data was corrected for the influence of other factors studied, Abadie said he found no significant relationship between a nation's wealth and the level of terrorism it experiences...

"Instead, Abadie detected a peculiar relationship between the levels of political freedom a nation affords and the severity of terrorism. Though terrorism declined among nations with high levels of political freedom, it was the intermediate nations that seemed most vulnerable.

"Like those with much political freedom, nations at the other extreme - with tightly controlled autocratic governments - also experienced low levels of terrorism."

"Seceding, after all, means departing from the people you don't like and promising to leave them alone so long as you are left alone. And liberals don't want to leave their enemies alone; instead, as their track record shows, they want to take over the government in order to force their enemies to endure perpetual sensitivity training for being such racist, sexist, homophobic, 'closed-minded' boors, i.e., for disagreeing with them."

"[The three alternatives considered by the Democrats - secession, disenfranchisement of the unenlightened and assassination of the president] suggest that the Democrats are thinking their way back to their roots as the party of John Calhoun and the Confederacy, if not of the Klu Klux Klan and John Wilkes Booth."

"As most have heard, the current estimates of Jewish support for Bush in the election were 25%, up from 19% in 2000. This may be a serious underestimate. The following is only preliminary (more stats are being broken down) but it comes from ... of all places... BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA - perhaps the most Jewish incorporated city in the state and also the home of many of Hollywood's supposedly left/liberal personalities (as well as numerous Iranian Jews who would tilt to Bush). Bush's support in Beverly Hills was up 22 percentage points (more than double) from 2000. Caveat: these stats are still unofficial but they are obviously very significant."

"63% of Iraqis say that the withdrawal of American and allied forces will not be in the best interest of Iraq, it will undermine the work towards security and control of the country. 27% say that it would be in the best interest of Iraq. 9% had no opinion.

"58% say that terrorists do the kidnappings and assassination of police and soldiers. 9% say that patriots fighting for Iraq carry them out. 32% say ignorant Iraqis who have been brain washed & misled carry them out.

"89% said that the terrorism, kidnapping, beheadings and assassination of police and security forces do not help the freeing of Iraq and the building of a stable country. 6% said that it would help free Iraq and build stability. 4% had no opinion."

"Ahmed Al Safi, a senior aide of Ayatollah Sistani announced... that 'Those who don't participate in the elections will end up in hell' and he added in his speech 'We must bear the responsibility and we must all participate in the elections because it's a patriotic duty and not doing so is like treason.' He also denied the news that spread about Sistani preparing or supporting a particular list of candidates."

"Ayatollah Sistani has... asked his representatives to form committees - comprising members of all faiths - to provide information and guidance to Iraqis in the run-up to the 2005 elections, which he regards as vitally important to the future of Iraq.

"Sheik Adel al-Ramahi, Sistani's representative in east Baghdad and a committee supervisor, has called for the last day of January - voting day - to be declared a public holiday to reduce the chances of people abstaining for work reasons."

"Newspapers in Iraq have been offering up a barrage of daily reports and opinion pieces over the past month on a variety of election-related subjects. Politicians and religious leaders 'in the know' have commented on election developments, as the official Electoral Commission has detailed information on the mechanisms established to become a candidate and on voting. Articles have appeared on voter-education seminars that are being offered by political parties and organizations; the likelihood of whether or not expatriates will be allowed to vote from abroad, whether Sunnis will participate in the elections, as well as the political maneuverings as the parties work to forge alliances and place their candidates on election lists that will meet the stringent requirements established by the commission.

"But perhaps the most salient barometer of the 'mood' in Iraq can be found on the editorial pages of Iraq's dailies. Commentaries overwhelmingly support the elections and offer intelligent and well-constructed viewpoints on a variety of election-related topics. Writers regularly demand that the Electoral Commission provide more information on the election process, and call on the Iraqi people to cast their ballots on election day.

"Writers publishing in a variety of newspapers supporting divergent political positions appear to agree on one fact: elections should not be derailed by terrorism and instability. Most contributors have stressed the necessity of holding nationwide polling. But some writers support the idea that partial elections in stable areas would be better than no elections. 'Attaining half or three-quarters of legitimacy, so to speak, is better than no legitimacy at all in order to respond to the doubters and silence the loud voices that keep accusing the government of treason and illegitimacy. They act as if the whole Arab world enjoys legitimacy and as if Iraq is the only exception in the region that has no legitimacy in the middle of [an] ocean of Arab legitimacy,' Latif al-Subayhawi wrote in the 18 October edition of 'Al-Dustur'."

"- Documentaries. A new Iraqi NGO called Civic Pillar is acquiring, through friends in Holland, documentaries showing (with subtitles in Arabic) other nations' experience with new democracies. For example, 'Milosevic: Bringing Down a Dictator' (made here in 2002 by Steve York with PBS station WETA).

"- Public service announcements. They are soliciting Iraqi celebrities (athletes, artists, authors, actors, poets) to do TV spots explaining what democracy means to them, or urging people to think beyond tribe or sect to the future of a new Iraq. A prime mover here is the new government's Minister of Women's Affairs, Narmin Othman. Though her annual budget is very small, she has contacts in the broadcasting community and wants SoA's help to create spots encouraging women to participate in the elections.

"Relatedly a new initiative called the Iraqi Women's Educational Institute has begun the Women's Leadership Program, which will train 150 Iraqi women around the country in democracy-building skills. Spirit of America hopes to give each woman $1,000 to kick-start their projects at home.

"Via the Internet, the bloggers want to hook up 50 to 100 pro-democracy student groups around the country. Do such groups really exist? The bloggers insist they do. (And who knew before Tiananmen Square or Romania's Timisoara?) They also want to create a central Web site to share documents. Once identified, Spirit of America would like to acquire copiers and paper for all of them.

"Other projects include citizen roundtables and town-hall meetings, which will be taped and distributed to broadcast outlets around the country. They hope to get Iraqis used to the until-now alien idea of free speech and open debate. There are even plans for an Iraqi Federalist Papers. The idea here is to ask a group of Iraqi intellectuals to write on constitutionalism and the rule of law. They would publish a booklet, solicit responses, hold point-counterpoint debates and tape them for broadcast."

"Preparations for the crucial January election are 'on track' and the absence of international observers due to the country's tenuous security should not detract from the vote's credibility, the top U.N. electoral expert here said...

" 'International observation is important only in that it's symbolic,' Carlos Valenzuela told The Associated Press... 'I don't think that the process will be less credible without observers, absolutely not. They are not the essence. They are not essential. They are not important. If they can come, fine, of course'."

"A number of Kurds spoke to CBN News about their thoughts on the war and America's part in it. One man said, 'We thank George Bush and the Americans for freeing us and freeing Iraq. We ask them to please, help us rebuild our country.' Another reflected, 'To me, the Americans are the friends of the Kurds and friends of the oppressed all over the world.'

"A third said, 'It's not just my life that is much better now, it's the lives of all Iraqis. The Kurdish government is a much better government without Saddam, and it is a good example for other Arab countries to follow.' Still another added, 'The insurgents are scared of the Americans. It will be much better for everyone if the troops stay. If the U.S. forces withdraw from Iraq, the situation will get much worse, and there will be more bloodshed'."

"Truck drivers here say they are not worried about ambushes; shopkeepers report that security is not an issue; and local residents shrug off questions about violence and kidnappings. 'We have not closed our shutters at night in seven years,' Abdul Wahid Hassan said inside his shop filled with brand-new refrigerators, televisions and air conditioners.

"While cities like Baghdad and Falluja are riven by insurgency, this dusty, sprawling city is part of the other Iraq, a region that stays out of headlines and where life resembles something closer to normalcy... One northern governor talks about promoting tourism, a seemingly outlandish idea in a country gripped by violence but a measure of the security that Kurds feel they have achieved.

" 'People find it very difficult to believe that there is a safe area in Iraq,' said Barzan Dezayee, the minister of municipalities in the regional Kurdish government, who is leading a campaign to raise funds for water and sewage projects. 'We need to convince people that not all of Iraq is Falluja, that Kurdistan is safe,' Dezayee said...

"Today [Kurdistan] provides a glimmer of hope for the rest of Iraq: parents and their children linger at restaurants and shops long after darkness sets in, foreign aid workers walk unarmed through the streets, and the police and most soldiers wear soft hats."

"Teacher salaries were raised from $5 a month to a starting salary of $60 and an average of $300 a month.

"A new Minister of Education was appointed who quickly assembled a new senior staff. Some 12,000 teachers and administrators who had been members of the now-banned Ba'ath Party were fired.

"USAID has rehabilitated more than 2,500 schools and trained 33,000 high school teachers in effective and modern classroom management.

"UNICEF and USAID distributed school supplies to more than 5 million students and reprinted textbooks, after removing much of the propaganda from the previous regime.

"The U.S. Congress has allocated $70 million to rehabilitate 1,000 additional schools, and the World Bank has allocated another $60 million. These funds set the stage for school reconstruction for the next three years.

"The U.S. and other donor nations have pledged an additional $150 million for textbook revision, teacher training, and other non-construction projects. Teachers, for example, need to be trained in a variety of teaching strategies to ensure all students learn.

"The Ministry of Education has revised curriculum in the areas of civic education, history, and religion and has appointed a new national curriculum commission to revise curriculum in all subject areas."

"Qtel has announced that it will shortly provide internet services to universities and educational institutions in Iraq using the VSAT technology.

"VSAT, which stands for Very Small Aperture Terminal relies on advanced digital satellite telecommunications equipment for data, voice, and video applications. It is one of the most effective technologies used today to meet a diverse set of communications needs providing quickly deployable remote area connectivity.

" 'The International Fund for Higher Education in Iraq' Committee had recently signed a contract with Qtel through Qatar Foundation for providing remote connectivity to 37 locations in Iraq. Qtel's VSAT network will connect universities and other educational institutions within Iraq and be hubbed through the VSAT HUB in Doha, Qatar."

"When he left Iraq in 1980, Hamid A. Al-Mondhiry vowed he would not go back while 'Saddam and his thugs' were in power. Twenty-four years later, he returned to help his colleagues rebuild the Iraqi medical system.

"A specialist in hematology and internal medicine with Penn State College of Medicine, Al-Mondhiry began working with the Iraqi medical community six months before the war started, at the request of the U.S. Department of State. When Iraqi physicians arranged a medical conference, in collaboration with American military physicians, Al-Mondhiry was 'happy and eager to go.'

"With the sounds of gunfire and bombs exploding nearby, Al-Mondhiry and Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center colleague C. James Holliman presented papers at the Iraqi Medical Specialty Forum, held in Baghdad. Al-Mondhiry discussed blood diseases and internal medicine topics at the forum, while Holliman, a specialist in emergency medicine, lectured on chest trauma, international emergency medicine and the future of emergency medical services. Gunfights near the conference site and terrorist threats failed to deter 30 invited American physicians and more than 300 Iraqi physicians from participating in the conference."

"Many Iraqis readily admit that humor is not considered an Iraqi characteristic. Egyptians have a reputation as the jokesters of the Arab world. Iraq is better known as a nation of avid readers. But the unbridled freedoms that followed the fall of Saddam Hussein and the misery of a constant cycle of bombings, kidnappings and murders have kindled a national sense of humor.

"Much of it is satirical and can be seen in street graffiti that makes fun of everyone, starting with the 140,000 American soldiers in Iraq. Other targets include insurgents, common criminals and political parties. 'The black humor you see on television is the only way for us to vent frustration,' said Qasim al-Sabti, one of Iraq's leading painters. 'We cry one minute and laugh the next when we watch [the latest TV hit] "Alley of the Junkies,"' he said...

"[W]hat Iraqis see in 'Alley of the Junkies' is a far cry from anything seen or watched during Saddam's reign of terror, when Iraqis could end up in jail - or worse - for indiscreet jokes about the president and his family. Now, Iraqis post images on Web sites ridiculing Saddam. One shows him bearded and squatting on the ground, singing about how unfair life can be. Another one shows him lying on his back in a hole - he was captured in December in an underground hole near his hometown of Tikrit - with rats and trash around him. 'You are the only loyal Baathists left for me,' he tells the rodents."

"The Field Museum is embarking on a two-year project that could help bridge cultural and scientific barriers exacerbated by the Iraq war. With the support of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the museum recently began to study, catalog and reconcile the scattered but priceless collections of materials from the famous 5,000-year-old archaeological site of Kish, 50 miles south of Baghdad. Kish is one of the world's oldest cities and site of the earliest evidence of wheeled transport.

"The museum plans to create a digital catalog of the more than 100,000 Kish artifacts held in Chicago, London and Baghdad. The catalog will be made available in English and Arabic on the Internet and in print. Also, a more complete database of all the objects will be created and made available on the Internet. 'This project will make possible, for the first time, a true reckoning of the site's historical and archaeological significance,' said William Pestle, Field Museum Collection Manager and one of the principal investigators on this project. 'It will also serve as a model for intellectual repatriation of exported archaeological collections'."

"Yasser Abdel Hussein tugs his cap and unwinds with the smooth sidearm delivery that's made him the ace of the pitching staff. He looks like a prospect. At home plate, however, Mohammed Khaled seems like he's still on chilly terms with his bat as he crouches, resplendent in a red (yes, red) New York Yankees hat, FUBU muscle shirt and tight bicycle shorts.

" 'It's a game of speed and concentration,' Khaled says after widely missing most of Abdel Hussein's pitches. He connected just twice, and then only by abandoning all technique and swinging one-handed. The 20 young men gathered on a patchy grass field behind Baghdad University's College of Sports Education may not look like much now. But organizers of Iraq's fledgling national baseball team have high hopes."

"One year later, a new currency is circulating throughout Iraq and the Iraqi currency exchange is hailed as a success. The exchange rate is steady, price stability has been restored, and economic growth this year is 50 percent, one of the highest rates in the world. The new Iraqi dinar is a sturdy and secure currency, imprinted with traditional Iraqi symbols -- altogether a great improvement over the flimsy bills with Saddam's face.

"Demand for the new currency has been so strong that the Iraqi government has earned an amazing $5 billion in seignorage [the capital gain generated by the creation of reserve money] during the past year just supplying it... And Iraqis are using the newly-minted dinars to purchase goods -- fresh bananas from the Americas, chickens from around the world, new and used cars -- at stable competitive prices in markets in Basra, Baghdad, Irbil and Mosul."

"The Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance (BIBF) is to offer more training programmes for Iraqi bankers... Three groups of Iraqi bankers have already completed three programmes at the institute, in Juffair, according to BIBF acting director Hussain Ismail. The BIBF is now expanding its training role beyond the region, he told the GDN.

"Among the groups from Iraq who completed BIBF training were 21 senior bankers from the Central Bank of Iraq. They attended a two-week programme on banking supervision at the BIBF, which was run in co-operation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Federal Reserve System. The workshop was conducted by experts from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the IMF."

"The Iraqi government plans to phase out slowly subsidies on basic products, such as oil and electricity, which comprise 50 per cent of public spending, equal to $15 billion, the planning minister said yesterday. Unveiling a three-year economic plan, compiled by in co-operation with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, Madhi Al Hafez pledged 'a progressive programme to suppress subsidies...(which) constitute a significant burden on public finances'."

"Direct and indirect oil subsidies cost Iraq $8bn - $2.4bn of which are spent on imports to satisfy the local market, according to ministry figures. The price of a barrel of oil sold to local refineries is 300 dinars ($0.2) and some 550,000 barrels are sent to the refineries daily to satisfy domestic need. At petrol stations, fuel is sold at between 0.01 and $0.025-per-litre - underscoring the huge expense shouldered by the government.

"Oil in the financial year 2005 is expected to comprise 93pc of the country's revenue, at some $18.1bn. Iraq itself is predicted to generate revenues of $19.4bn which, coupled with external aid, will bring total revenues to $23.7bn... The 2005 budget is based on a price of oil of $26-per-barrel - a hugely conservative estimate, considering the price of oil, which ended the week at a record $55.50 a barrel."

"Instead of waiting for security to improve in blood-stained Baghdad, leading contractor Kais al-Khalidi headed north to Iraq's Kurdish region to invest. The results, the Iraqi engineer says, have surpassed expectations.

"Andraust, an American group in which Khalidi is a shareholder, has agreed with Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani to invest $350 million in villas and resorts and a Nestle dairy products factory. 'We expect construction to start by the end of the year and see the first villas rented out in 18 months. Andraust is both contractor and investor,' Khalidi, whose interests range from oil to medical equipment, told Reuters...

" 'The north could be a model for Iraq. Its success in attracting business will put pressure on the rest of the country to improve security and encourage investment,' he said, adding that a tire factory was also under discussion. Bureaucracy in the north, stable since last year's Iraq war, is less than in Baghdad."

"Iraq's oil production is expected to reach 3.5-4m bpd (million barrels per day) by 2009-10. Sources from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) told Times Business that oil production has already recovered to its pre-war level in 2004 and is expected to reach 3.5mbpd by 2009. With adequate investment and the use of modern technologies, crude oil production could reach over 5mbpd in the long run.

"Iraq has three large refineries - Baiji (constructed in 1982), Basra (constructed in 1972, and doubled in capacity in 1979), and Daura (constructed in 1955) - and several small refineries.

"All refineries suffered severe damage during the Gulf War of 1991, and all are very inefficient. Substantial investment will be required to upgrade existing refineries and expand total capacity before Iraq can meet again the domestic demand for oil refined products.

"In the next few years, Iraq is expected to have to continue to import oil-refined products worth over $2 billion annually.

"Iraq has one of the largest estimated petroleum reserves in the world. Based on old geological surveys, reserves are estimated at some 100-130 billion barrels (about 11 per cent of the world total), second only to Saudi Arabia.

"However, there is widespread belief in the industry that reserves could be even higher. Iraq's oil is good quality and relatively inexpensive to produce; many fields are large, onshore, and have fairly simple geological structures, IMF said."

"An off-the-shelf power station has arrived in Baghdad, its massive components on flat-bed trucks which drove slowly along the desert highway from Jordan... The new plant will augment, and perhaps completely replace, a battered old Baghdad power station which hardly ever runs at more than 40% capacity... And most Baghdadis will be very happy about it. In time for the high demand next summer for electricity to power ceiling fans and air-conditioners, this plant should be generating constant power 24 hours a day - for a quarter of a million homes...

"In the Baghdad suburb of Zafaraniya, engineers with the US First Cavalry division have managed and financed a fundamental project. A network of new sewage pipes is nearly complete - mains drainage for the first time for around twenty thousand people who previously had only septic tanks. Many can't afford to have the septic tanks emptied regularly, so they fill and overflow into the street. This project is very popular, and it provides jobs for dozens of young men who were previously unemployed. Local people told me that support for the Moqtada Sadr militia dropped off when these jobs became available...

"In Jumhuriya, a very poor district of the southern city Basra, there are pools of sewage lying in the street around the stalls of the main local market. The flies are so bad it's hard to open your mouth to speak. But there's hope here too. The G5 military/civil liaison section of the British army has selected contractors to install pumps to take the foul water away. G5 have also provided new enclosures for market stalls away from the filthy street, and they're helping build a new covered fish market. And in Basra - unlike Baghdad - the military do announce their successes, the army publishes a free weekly newspaper called 'The Minaret', which details progress with projects like the sewage clearance in Jumhuriya. The paper also explains why it all takes so long - and they believe this helps defuse the impatient anger that fuels some of the resistance to the occupation."

"These projects are included in 3 domains, first stage of building abilities program costing $3.6million, projects of supplying school books costing $40 million in addition to 7 projects costing $317 million represented by project of developing structures of rural areas and $20 million to rehabilitate schools buildings.

"The second stage of building abilities program, $7 million to rehabilitate sewerage and water nets in Baghdad city, $60 million for a project of sewerage nets in Al-Sader city, a project of developing sewerage and waters nets in governorates costing $90 million and another project includes rehabilitation of medical sector with $25 million and 5 projects for developing private sector costing $55 million."

"[T]he Marines opened [the meeting] with a 'Thank You' to the local contractor who recently saved the U.S. close to $10,000. This amount sounds like pennies when put next to the billions allocated to the rebuilding effort of Iraq, but during a time of strife in many parts of the country, this small gesture is a significant step forward for both Iraqis and Americans.

"The contractor saved the U.S. money by redesigning a water pump system that will bring clean water to an Iraqi village near Camp Taqaddum, a Marine base close to Fallujah and Ramadi. The new system will operate from a cheaper generator of lesser power output than what the contractor initially determined, said Maj. Luke W. Kratky, the information officer for 3/24.

"The initial cost of the project was $39,000, however, refinements saved money that can now be used for other projects, explained Kratky, a Bridgeton, Mo native. The contractor could have pocketed the money and never mentioned it, said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Dwight Torres, information officer for 2nd Battalion, 10th Marine Regiment, who headed the meeting. It shows that he is willing to help, and that the Marines can trust him to do good things while they are here, said the 35-year-old Santa Isabel, Puerto Rico, native."

"[I]t is a region set apart from the rest of Iraq, even the electricity grid is separate. The region is dependent on hydroelectric power, which means when the rivers start to run lower electricity production is reduced.

"Because critical services like the hospital and the water treatment plants require constant electricity, it is the individual homes that are hurt the worse by the shortages.

"A solution proposed by the engineers was the installation of 15 generators capable of supplementing the current power sources. The public works team then was then able to facilitate the 1st Infantry Division funding for the purchase of the generators."

"[t]he 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division has worked with the residents of Baqubah to develop an Adopt-A-Highway program to take back the streets.

"Each day, more than 100 workers take to the streets as part of the program. This program has greatly reduced the trash and debris in the streets. Not only are these workers cleaning up the streets, but also they are making the streets safer for coalition forces and innocent Iraqis.

"Since the program started, Adopt-A-Highway workers have identified and reported a total of 47 improvised explosive devices to the Iraqi police. These workers are identifying potential roadside bombs and taking them off the street, preventing the needless loss of lives of innocent Iraqis.

"This program has provides local Iraqis with a source of employment and has instilled the pride of a clean and safe Baqubah."

"A major Date Rejuvenation Project, supported by the U.S. government, is currently underway across the country and the PCO says it is 'proud to be a small part of this very important agricultural renaissance'...

"Iraq was previously famous for its date palms and dates counted amongst the country's major exported products. Under Saddam Hussein's regime the number of date palms decreased from 14 to 4 million."

"The Swiss development agency is pressing ahead with a rehabilitation centre for the disabled in Fallujah, despite ongoing violence in the Iraqi city. Some 4,000 people in the area are thought to have disabilities as a result of the wars in Iraq.

"The centre will be part of a network of rehabilitation centres, which the Iraqi Handicapped Society - a local non-governmental organisation - plans to set up around country in the next few years... [T]he long-term goal is to set up a rehabilitation centre for the disabled in each of the country's 18 governorates. Building work is due to start soon and will be carried out by local contractors."

" 'I don't know where we're going to put all these,' Pam Mack said today. 'We have a thousand Beanies.' Mack is part of a trio of Ironwood women trying to scare up Beanie Babies to send to Iraq for distribution to Iraqi children by members of the U.S. military... Friends Tricia Doan and Lynda Van Rossum round out the Beanie brigade. They are not only collecting the dolls, but raising money to ship them to Iraq (at a cost of about 60 cents each)."

"Citizens of Bayji made great strides in becoming a more self-sufficient city with the official opening of four different projects between Sept. 21 and 25. The projects included the Al Bayji Bridge, Municipal Housing Asphalt Plant, Joint Coordination Center and Hijaj Medical Clinic.

" 'These projects have helped establish an unstoppable momentum for the city of Bayji,' said Lt. Col. Kyle McClelland, Task Force 1-7 Commander. The Al Bayji Bridge and MHAP, which were both opened on Sept. 21, cost a combined $500,000 to construct and are expected to bring great benefits to the citizens of Bayji."

"A siren pierces the early evening night calling attention to the bright yellow firetruck speeding toward a pillar of smoke in the distance. People here are accustomed to the sounds and sights of the emergency response crews as they hurry to save lives and property, but this crew is different.

"Instead of U.S. servicemembers deployed to Iraq driving the 10-ton firetruck to its destination, the men behind the wheel have a far more compelling interest in their destination, because they are Iraqi guards.

"As part of a program to help rebuild Iraq, the 506th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron's fire department graduated 19 Iraqi students here Oct. 13 after completing a three-day first responder, first aid and firefighting course. In all, more than 284 people have received this training which began in February."

"The children who wandered the streets and slept in the orphanages in Diwanijah, Iraq, had been stripped of everything: their homes, their parents, their belongings and their toys. The least that Lt. Christopher Smith could do, he thought, was find them some toys.

"Smith, a Cerritos resident and Marine infantry platoon commander, has committed himself to bringing smiles to the faces of the children in Diwanijah, a central Iraqi city south of Baghdad , which he is responsible for patrolling.

"During a routine patrol, he came upon run-down day-care centers and impoverished children, some homeless, some living in orphanages. Struck by the living conditions, he spearheaded 'Operation Orphan' last month to bring simple toys and games to children in Iraq."

"In a neighborhood without lights, its pockmarked dirt streets and open sewers faintly visible under the full moon, the Dutch soldiers began a foot patrol on a recent evening. After getting out of their soft-top vehicles, the soldiers entered a street, wearing no helmets and pointing their guns down, chatting with Iraqis clustered in front of their homes.

" 'Hello, Mister!' some boys cried out, and they followed the soldiers to the bend in the road. Driving through the town later, the Dutch called out 'salaam aleikum' to pedestrians. Many Iraqis, adults and children, waved at them.

"Part neighborhood police officers, part social workers, the soldiers managed to practice in Iraq what the Netherlands has come to call the Dutch approach to patrolling. Scarred by national shame over the Dutch peacekeepers who proved powerless to stop Bosnian Serbs from rolling into the UN enclave of Srebrenica in 1995 and killing thousands of Muslims, the Dutch have nonetheless managed to keep a soft touch, honed in Afghanistan and now on display in this small town on the Euphrates."

"US forces said the arrested Zarqawi aide was a 'relatively minor member' of the network who 'had moved up to take a critical position as a Zarqawi senior leader' because of the attrition of other militants in the airstrikes.

" 'This is the first time there is evidence that intelligence gathering [in Fallujah] is really improving,' says Mustafa Alani, a security and terrorism expert at the Gulf Research Center in Dubai. 'The reason is that human intelligence is much improved. There is some cooperation, so Iraqis are now part of the process'...

" 'The major difference is [insurgents] are not enjoying the same support and sympathy as in April,' says Mr. Alani. 'There is a major shift in people's perception after they see Samarra stable. People are sick and tired [of fighting]'."

"Even Lebanon's Hizbullah, a Shiite Islamist group that Washington says is a terrorist organization, has criticized the extremists. Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbullah's secretary-general, said recently: 'Indiscriminate and arbitrary acts are not resistance. The true resistance should protect its people and not kill them.'

" 'In general the Arab people are with the Iraqi resistance,' says Ahmed Sheikh, editor in chief of Al Jazeera, the Arab satellite channel that has often been criticized by US officials. 'But the feedback we get is that people are very opposed to attacks like the killings of the 49 Iraqis. People know they're trying to feed their families and say it's haram [forbidden]. Attacks on US forces, though, are seen differently'."

"According to Quds, Al-Arabiya, Middle East Broadcasting Company, Lebanese Broadcasting Company and Al-Iraqiyah television were forced from Fallujah by [the insurgents] because they were accused of providing biased coverage to Coalition forces by refusing to air insurgent stock footage of alleged civilian casualties. In discussions with Coalition officials, reporters from both Al Arabiya and MBC acknowledged threats to correspondents and indicated that some correspondents had withdrawn from Fallujah for their own safety and were reporting via phone from outside the city."

"More than a month after a U.S.-led offensive against the militia of Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, the historic core of this holy city remains a sealed-off zone of devastation and rubble. Yet many residents accept the damage as the price of restoring stability. 'We all live with hardships, but the people of Najaf are pleased with the tranquility and stability they are enjoying now,' said Sayed Baqir Qubbanchi, a high-ranking cleric here. 'This is much better than the time of war'...

"Despite misgivings about the devastation, there is much relief in this war-weary town that the young men in black with Kalashnikovs and grenade launchers appear to be gone - at least for now. The Shiite guerrillas were unpopular with large segments of Najaf's generally conservative, business-oriented populace, which relies on a religious tourist trade that evaporated with the fighting.

"Large-scale U.S. reconstruction projects were launched immediately after combat ended in the city of 500,000 about 100 miles south of Baghdad. Throughout Najaf, schools, clinics and other facilities are being refurbished as part of the U.S.-funded rehabilitation plan, which includes extensive repairs to roads, sewers and water infrastructure."

"[Col. Dana J.H.] Pittard, commander of an American infantry brigade in the once insurgency-rife province of Diyala, is outspoken and his tactics don't always follow the textbook. But he believes they have produced a 'recipe for success' at Baghdad's vital northern gateway. It includes everything from driving wedges between rebel factions to forbidding his troops to be rude to Arabs.

"A Harvard-educated military aide to former President Clinton, the colonel from El Paso, Texas, also believes that contrary to what some military analysts think, a conventional U.S. Army unit with the right training, tactics and mind-set can defeat the rebellion.

"While Pittard and others acknowledge the insurgency remains active and could again worsen, he points to evidence of a sharp decrease in attacks in the largely agricultural region of some 1.7 million people.

"Roadside and car bombings, while still a serious threat to his 6,000 soldiers, fell 60 percent from their June peak while direct attacks plummeted by 85 percent, according to the military. As mortar and rocket strikes on Camp Warhorse, headquarters of Pittard's 3rd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, have subsided, body armor no longer has to be worn at all times and outdoor volleyball and basketball courts have come into use."

"The Pentagon is making a key change in its approach to providing trainers for the fledgling Iraqi army in hopes of getting Iraqis to take control of their nation's security sooner. For the first time since the U.S. military began training Iraqi security forces more than a year ago, the Pentagon is giving a lead role to an Army Reserve unit that specializes in soldier schooling, but has never performed that mission abroad.

"Up to now, the Iraqi army has been trained by a hodgepodge of U.S. infantry and other units. The Army says the decision to send the 98th Division - one of seven units in the Army Reserve that specialize in training other soldiers - will stabilize the effort. The 98th will have a 12-month tour. The division is sending about 700 of its 3,600 part-time soldiers to provide a mixture of training, including basic combat skills and the development of a noncommissioned officer corps, its commander, Maj. Gen. Bruce Robinson, said."

"You can glean scores of interesting stories from the web if you search enough, from service-member blogs, public-affairs websites, and some local papers, especially in military towns. Most of the reporting comes from the units in the field, the people close to the scene who live it daily and know the facts. Nevertheless, it seems as though you cannot give away a good news story about our military in Iraq. The mainstream press is not interested. However, I am betting that most Americans are."