Chrenkoff

"Something struck me as odd this fall as I watched a U.S. satellite news broadcast here in my Baghdad office. Something just didn't seem right. There was the usual tug-of-war between presidential candidates, a story about the Boston Red Sox and a blurb about another explosion in Iraq. The latter story showed the expected images of smoke and debris and people frantically running for cover - images that have become the accepted norm in the minds of many Americans thanks, or should I say no thanks, to the media.

"There were no smiling soldiers, no mention of rebuilding efforts, no heartwarming stories about honor and sacrifice. I could swear I've seen that 'stuff' here.

"I've become somewhat callused to this kind of seesaw reporting because every day I work with the news agencies that manufacture it. However, many service members shake their heads in frustration each time they see their daily rebuilding efforts ignored by the media in favor of the more 'sensational' car bomb and rocket attack stories. Not to say that tragedies don't happen - Iraq is a war zone - but there is so much more happening that gets overlooked if not ignored."

"Leaders of Iraq's Sunni Arab minority and other skeptics say it is so dangerous in large parts of the country that it will be all but impossible to hold nationwide elections Jan. 30. Even President Bush recently conceded just 14 of Iraq's 18 provinces are ready for elections.

"But on the busy second and third floors of a building inside this city's heavily fortified Green Zone, dozens of United Nations officials, Iraqi poll workers and monitoring groups - some strolling in and out wearing flak jackets and blue helmets - are hard at work to ensure the elections go on as scheduled."

"Just months ago, Fattahlah Ghazi al-Esmaili was penning articles in support of Iraq's Shi'ite uprising as editor for Ishriqat, a newspaper for rebel cleric Sheik Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi's Army militia.

"Now the 38-year-old has abandoned his Arab head scarf for a neat beige suit and is out pumping the flesh in his run for parliament at the head of a 180-candidate list representing the impoverished Shi'ites of Sadr City.

" 'Before, we were men of the Mahdi's Army. Now we are men of politics,' says the journalist, who goes by the pen name Fattah al-Sheikh. 'Yesterday, we were out on the streets. Today, we are here campaigning, and hopefully tomorrow, we'll be in the presidential palace'."

"Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiar Zibari said Tuesday the interim government is going to try to bring opposition groups into the nation's upcoming elections. Zibari told reporters in Cairo a reconciliation conference in Baghdad would be aimed at convincing opposition groups to take part in the Jan. 30 elections to select a legislative council that will draft Iraq's new constitution."

"The Iraqi Election Commission plans to set up polling stations in the violent Anbar province and other problem areas in Iraq, despite insurgent attacks aimed at disrupting elections... The commission said it will establish special procedures to include voters who could not register because of the insurgency.

" 'We have asked the government, the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Defense ... to prepare many forces to guarantee security in all election centers in Iraq,' said Fareed Ayar, spokesman for the commission."

"Day after day, Carlos Valenzuela faces the same question: Can legitimate elections take place amid the chaos and bedlam that is contemporary Iraq? 'I say, "Of course,"' says the soft-spoken Colombian who is the chief U.N. electoral officer in Iraq. 'Look,' he continues from his tiny office in this fearful capital's fortified Green Zone, 'in my own country we have elections that are not perfect, that have been marred by violence and terrible intimidation. But still people go to the polls. And still the results are accepted as legitimate'."

"It's been announced that 40 brigades from the Iraqi armed forces are going to be deployed to protect the elections centers through out the country in cooperation with the [Multi National Force].

"During my last tour in the north I saw a lot of electoral education activities as well as campaigns run by individual candidates, individual parties or alliances; seminars, conferences and posters are all over the place...

"In Kirkuk which is considered a sensitive point for many parties because of the mosaic formation of the population (Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen and Christians)... everyone is trying to prove that he's the best and the more representative...

"In the south, the tribes decided to contribute to the IP and the army efforts in protecting the electoral centers within their regions and this was agreed on after a meeting for the higher commission with the tribes' heads in Hilla and Nasiriyah...

"Most of the parties are focusing now on the universities in an attempt to win the students votes and they're holding lectures and events in the universities to advertise for their platforms and lists. In the city of Najaf, the Hawza suspended the activities of its school and asked the students to stop working on their researches and head to the provinces to encourage the people to vote."

"Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi simply smiled during the live television show when a man called to praise terrorist mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The Iraqi leader then moved on, offering to find information about a woman's detained son and see why a student didn't get into the graduate program of his choice.

"The surprisingly frank hour-long call-in program, 'The Iraqi Podium,' is a rarity for the region, giving Iraqis the chance to pepper Allawi with questions, from the mundane to the serious. Judging by the show's popularity, Iraqis are taking advantage.

"The show's host, Abdul-Karim Hammad, said he proposed the show to Allawi, who agreed. It may be a campaign ploy as Allawi tries to burnish his image ahead of Jan. 30 elections, but from the nature of the questions, it appears the calls aren't screened.

" 'I told him the one condition, which is that you have to accept anything the people say even if they insult you,' Hammad said. 'He said it was fine, as long as he wasn't criticized personally, but they can say anything they want about his work.'

"The program is broadcast every Sunday on the U.S.-funded Al-Iraqiya television station. Although it is linked to the United States, it's a major change for Iraqis after Saddam Hussein's 23-year reign ended in April 2003. Then, tightly controlled state-run media only praised Saddam, and many Iraqis would not dare criticize the president, even in their homes.

"Other members of the government, including the interior minister and defense minister, have occasionally appeared in similar shows on Al-Iraqiya, but not with Allawi's frequency. Such programs have been aired in Lebanon but the practice is otherwise rare in the Middle East, where leaders are more accustomed to working behind closed doors, without much criticism from their people."

"- 'Iraq Decides,' a weekly show on the latest election news, along with interviews explaining the election process. There is a steady parade of political and religious leaders on this show. 'You see clerics on our channel, telling people to go and vote,' Mr. Harb says. (That's something you never see on the nightly news here.)

"- 'Vote,' a weekly program that shows Iraqis where and how to vote, and what they can expect on Election Day.

"- 'Iraq Today,' daily election news that leads the first 30 minutes of each day's newscasts, which will be lengthened as the election nears.

"- 'Half of Iraq,' a series aimed at encouraging women to participate in the political process."

"When Iraqis head to the polls, they will face a daunting ballot listing more than 230 candidate slates vying for portions of the 275-seat national assembly that will draft the nation's constitution.

"Information is critical, and the primary sources of it are expected to be mosques, word of mouth and television.

"Here, the power of television far outstrips that of radio - plentiful, but hyperlocal - and newspapers, which have proliferated after the fall of Saddam Hussein but still have a circulation of just 300,000 in a nation of 25 million.

"Iraq has more than 20 licensed local TV stations. A recent survey showed that as much as 65 percent of the population has once-banned satellite dishes through which they pipe in popular international channels such as Al-Jazeera, Al-Arabiya and a new favorite, Al-Sharqiya."

"- Potential Iraqi leaders continue to apply for the institute's seminars. More than 90% of those who sign up actually attend, even though participation in the program could mark them for death as collaborators.

"- When the institute suggests to Iraqis that Americans could help with such things as ethnic outreach for drafting the constitution or an interfaith dialogue, Iraqis often say they already are performing such tasks.

"- Students applying for Fulbrights no longer confine themselves to subjects that were safe under Saddam, such as medicine and science. 'Among the youth, both Kurds and Arabs, there is enthusiasm for politics,' notes Phebe Marr, an Iraq scholar and a senior fellow at the institute.

"- Relations among Kurds, Sunnis, and Shia are as bad as they have been in decades, Marr concedes. Yet residents in Kirkuk, which the Kurds lust after, are determined to avoid sectarian violence. They want a peaceful resolution concerning control of the city. And both the Kurds and Shia have resisted retaliating against the numerous horrific provocations from the Sunnis. Many international observers thought such a level of good faith and determination to avoid civil war was impossible.

"- Groups are coalescing on the basis of interests, not ethnic background. Women's groups often look to link forces with other women's groups, for example, and whether a group is Kurdish, Sunni, or Shia doesn't even come up, Coyne says. Issues of ethnicity tend to arise over specific matters, Serwer notes. Sunnis oppose complete removal of Baathists from government because the largely Sunni Baathists have the experience to run the country. But the Shia want the Baathists out because they ran roughshod over the Shia when the Baathists were in power."

"Sixty-three hundred miles from his beloved oaks and squirrels on the University of Richmond campus, biologist Peter Smallwood tries to find new careers for displaced Iraqi scientists.

"The 43-year-old UR associate professor has given up a comfortable job in academia for a year to work in Baghdad, helping idle Iraqi scientists, engineers and technicians turn their talents from developing chemical, biological and radiological weapons for Saddam Hussein to more peaceful purposes.

"Smallwood directs the Interim Iraqi Center for Science and Industry, an inter-governmental organization funded by the U.S. State Department."

"- Plans for 35 participants to attend an upcoming training session for environmental health specialists in Amman, Jordan have been established. Applications are currently being reviewed, and women are strongly encouraged to apply.

"- The first shipment of environmental books to Iraq has been completed. Nearly 300 medical and scientific environmental books will be distributed to each of three universities.

"- Laboratory rehabilitation work has been completed at three Iraqi universities. The facilities are now ready to be furnished and equipped."

"More than 80 million school textbooks were printed last year, according to Education Minister Sami Mudhafar. Mudhafar said the books, covering more than 600 titles, were handed out to nearly six million Iraqi students.

"The minister said the content of at least 16 titles was drastically changed to meet the needs of the new era. Texts praising former leader Saddam Hussein, exhibiting sectarian or ethnic supremacy or claiming Kuwait was still part of Iraq were all removed, he said.

"The educational sector, like many other things in Iraq, was an exclusive territory of Saddam Hussein's Baath party. Only party members were allowed to teach and those who refused to join the Baath party ranks were sacked.

"Mudhafar said more than 30,000 teachers the former regime had fired were reinstated in their positions. The minister said demand for both teachers and school buildings was still high in Iraq. 'More than 25,000 qualified graduates have been appointed,' he said."

"Faisal Faisal's Olympic dream appears to be just that -- a goal far out of reach, almost entirely unrealistic.

"In 2006, he wants to become the first Iraqi athlete to compete in the Winter Olympics, but he can hardly describe the sport, skeleton, in which he hopes to qualify. It's fast and fun and it happens on ice, Faisal said. And in part thanks to the U.S. Olympic Committee, he's been hurtling down an icy track in Lake Placid, N.Y., for two weeks. He's successfully completed, he said proudly, 21 skeleton runs.

"Faisal is, in short, remarkably un-Olympian.

"But skeleton specialists who've watched him over the last two weeks have reached a surprising conclusion about the beginner. Faisal might well debut as Iraq's first winter Olympian at the 2006 Games in Turin, Italy, some said, because a determination this intense is difficult to doubt."

"One is an Army captain with a master's degree in archaeology. Another is a South African game warden. The third is a young Iraqi veterinarian barely out of school.

"In 2003, soon after coalition forces took control of Iraq, the three faced a seemingly impossible task: restoring the Baghdad Zoo, which had been looted of most everything not nailed down, including the animals.

"Two years later, thanks to their improvisational skills and advice from zoo leaders in the United States and elsewhere, the three have rebuilt what was once the largest zoo in the Middle East."

"Despite the continuing war and political uncertainty, Iraq's long-suffering financial industry has begun creaking to life. The revival is being led by some private Iraqi banks that have begun using new economic rules, harnessing the surge of reconstruction money and, in some cases, forging foreign partnerships.

"Though the environment here is such that businessmen in suits tote revolvers and hire bodyguards just to check their bank balances, 'The prospects for banking are good, when they fix the problem of security,' said Abdul Muhsin Shansal, chairman of the Iraqi Bureau of Financial and Economic Consultations, a business consultancy in Baghdad. 'We need a complete rebuilding of infrastructure,' he said. 'We need everything from bridges to roads to dams. That's billions of dollars. We'll need banks for all of this.'

"Currently, those banks include two government-owned behemoths, with about 160 branches each nationwide, and 19 private-sector banks - some with shares listed on the Baghdad stock exchange - ranging in size from a single branch to 19. All but one of the banks run according to Western, rather than the more restrictive Islamic, banking principles.

"Many analysts said the industry is in a sorry condition, a legacy of Saddam Hussein's stranglehold on business and a dozen years of United Nations sanctions that prevented many technological advances from reaching the country."

"1,550 construction projects are under way throughout the country -- compared to just 200 projects under way in June [2004]...

"These reconstruction projects include large, long-term capital projects that address water and sewage treatment facilities, power plants and the oil- distribution infrastructure. They also include smaller community projects that are more visible to the Iraqi people and have an immediate impact on their lives, he said. The focus of these projects is schools, clinics, hospitals, rail stations and police stations, many being rebuilt with funds from Commander's Emergency Response Program funds...

"He estimated that some 130,000 Iraqis are working on the wide range of projects under way throughout the country. The true number is actually larger, he said, when factoring in the behind-the-scenes workers who manufacture the products used on the construction sites."

"In a shift largely made necessary by the continuing violence in Iraq, U.S. officials in charge of reconstruction projects say they are now hiring Iraqi firms to do many of the jobs once performed by Western contractors. It may have been the anti-Western insurgency in Iraq, which made U.S. officials here realize the capabilities and talent the Iraqis themselves could apply to the country's reconstruction efforts.

"The program director for the U.S. government's Projects and Contracting Office in Baghdad, Robert Slockbower, says the violence, which has severely delayed rebuilding the country in the past year, has helped accelerate the recruitment of Iraqi firms to keep reconstruction efforts on track."

" 'We hope to finish the work before the spring and summer when people's demand for water is highest,' says Lieutenant Colonel Brian Dosa of the 1st Cavalry Division at the plant in Al-Zafaraniya. He speaks with pride about the half a million dollars that will be invested in works at the plant to increase the water quality and quantity, which currently serves about 300,000 people in the area.

"About 150,000 dollars has been spent on repairing the pumps at the plant which dates back to 1969. No major work or maintenance had been done since then, according to the plant's manager Mohammed Hashim who stands nearby."

"The Iraqi-British Business Council will honour individuals and organisations who have made an outstanding contribution to the reconstruction of Iraq at a ceremony in June. The Iraq Reconstruction Awards Ceremony will take place at the Iraq Procurement Summit 2005, to be held in Amman, Jordan from June 28 to 30.

"The ceremony will be organized to honour the hard work and integrity of those people who have strived above and beyond the call of duty in all sectors of the Iraqi economy.

"The awards will be split into a number of categories, these will include: humanitarian aid; public works; trade; transport & communications; oil, gas and petrochemicals; agriculture; health and welfare; education; housing, construction and infrastructure; water and irrigation; science and technology; electricity; finance and planning; security and justice; municipalities and regional development."

"Japan... will disburse about 10 billion yen (US$97 million...) in aid to help war-ravaged Iraq fund public services and buy ambulances and police vehicles.

"With that spending, Tokyo will exhaust all but US$100 million... of a total of US$1.5 billion... in aid pledged for Iraq's reconstruction... Tokyo's aid will enable Iraq's Health Ministry to buy 700 ambulances worth 5.83 billion yen (US$56.60 million...). Iraq's Home Affairs Ministry plans to spend 2.62 billion yen (US $25.45 million...) on 150 police buses and 500 police motorcycles...

"For southern Iraq's Muthana province, where about 550 Japanese non-combat troops are based for a humanitarian mission, Tokyo set aside 866 million yen (US$8.41 million...) for medical equipment at 32 health clinics and 658 million yen (US $6.39 million...) for garbage-collecting vehicles."

"Ninawa Governorate: More than 3,400 families have received winter items. Distributions began December 23 and will be completed by mid-January.

"Salah Ad Din Governorate: 1,000 families have received winter packages. The distribution began on December 7 and distributions will continue through January benefiting more than 3,300 families.

"Diyala Governorate: More than 18,000 IDPs and returnees received emergency supplies including 840 barrels used for the delivery and storage of kerosene. A total of 1,500 barrels valued at USD $30,000 have been procured for the region.

"At' Tamim Governorate: distributions began on November 28 for more than 6,000 families. Some 2,000 families have received the winter packages to date. All distributions are expected to be completed by mid-January.

"OFDA has supported the distribution of 100 Livelihood Assets Packages (LAPs) to IDP families in Diyala Governorate. In total, more than 100 families received the packages valued at $31,000. A second distribution by OFDA's implementing partner distributed 20 additional LAPs valued at $6,200 to remote villages in Diyala Governorate. The content of supply kits provided to IDPs varies according to their needs, but may include items such as blankets, towels, cooking equipment, a radio, containers for water, a kerosene heater, soap and detergent, or a small stove...

"OFDA projects in northern Iraq increased access to potable water for an estimated 1,975 internally displaced persons (IDPs) and vulnerable persons in Arbil Governorate, and 1,785 IDPs and vulnerable persons in Ninawa Governorate.

"OFDA has completed seven shallow wells and installed water pumps in schools in one region of Diyala Governorate, benefiting approximately 700 students. In another village in the governorate, a deep water well has been completed and a water tank was installed. Construction of the pump house is still in progress. Following completion of the water system, 350 residents will have access to clean water."

"Set up a year ago, a Save the Children-run youth centre... is looking to expand its activities. Established in a mixed Turkmen-Kurdish quarter on the city's eastern edge, the cultural centre started working out of an old Baathist youth club in September last year. Catering to young people over the age of 14, it has a library, a sports hall and Internet room. At any one time, staff say, between 70 and 200 people are attending courses it offers in computing, art and music...

"Heartened by the success of the centre, manager Suhad Abdullatif has a couple of new projects she wants to implement. So far, the sporting facilities on offer have been weighted towards men. It's an imbalance that female users of the centre have commented on and one she hopes to remedy early next year with a gym for women... From 12 December, the centre began hosting the first book fair Kirkuk has seen since liberation. Due to run for two months, the fair is based on one which took place in Sulaymaniyah, a Kurdish city an hour and a half to the east."

"Alex Garza, an Army Reserve captain and emergency room doctor from Missouri, saw firsthand how hopelessly outdated Iraq's medical libraries were. Back in the United States, David Gifford, a retired Army colonel and physician, learned of the problem from a physician friend stationed in Iraq.

"Unbeknownst to each other, the two men thought of a plan: to modernize Iraq's health care system by getting up-to-date medical textbooks and journals into the hands of Iraqi professors and students. Garza and Gifford eventually joined forces, and soon medical schools, publishing houses and people around the globe donated boxloads of medical literature to the war-scarred country. More than 100,000 items have been collected so far.

" 'This is really a big change,' said Thamer Al Hilfi, a tuberculosis specialist and professor at the University of Tikrit College of Medicine. 'Everyone here - doctors and students - feel like they are born again.'

"Before the two Americans stepped in, most of Iraq's medical books were at least two decades old and several editions out of date. The more recent ones were photocopies of medical textbooks housed at the Ministry of Health in Baghdad. Topics such as AIDS and the latest surgical techniques were wholly absent from the editions Iraqis medical students were using, Garza said."

"Thanks to the generosity of Monsignor Donovan High School students, teachers and the business community, 900 children who will attend two newly rebuilt schools in Baghdad will have pencils to write with and paper to write on. They also will have arts and crafts supplies, sporting equipment, backpacks, lunch boxes and educational games and toys...

"Courtney Good, a 17-year-old junior at the Toms River school, launched the project called 'The Innocent Child' with her honors Christian service class. Good's father, R. Scott Good, is employed by Washington Group International Inc., and currently is working in Iraq with the company to help rebuild the country's infrastructure... 'After talking to my dad in Iraq, I wanted to do a service project that would help the innocent children in that country,' said Good."

"When Mary Green started collecting Beanie Babies to send to children in Iraq, the Holland woman set a goal of sending 2,000 of the stuffed toys overseas.

"Then the goal grew to 5,000. Then 10,000. Now, more than 17,000 Beanie Babies later, donations still are streaming in. And the mission of Operation Beanie Babies has expanded beyond Iraq.

" 'It's just awesome what people are doing,' Green said. 'It's overwhelming.' Green, whose nephew is a U.S. Army staff sergeant stationed in Iraq, began collecting the Beanie Babies this fall, and started sending the toys to Army Capt. Stacy Trethewey Nelsen, a Holland native also stationed in Iraq.

"Nelsen, who is working as a social worker in Iraq, began distributing the Beanie Babies to soldiers to give to Iraqi children while on patrol. She said the gestures are meaningful to the children who have received them."

"Here in Irbil Province, part of what is commonly called Kurdistan, the people came to know the Americans as friends.

"First with Alpha Company and then with Charlie Company, the 133rd labored hard here to build health clinics and schools and community centers. The soldiers repaired old roads and created new ones, cut ribbons while local television cameras rolled and brought candy and school supplies to legions of smiling children.

"They dined with local leaders, haggled with savvy contractors and, on virtually every project, made sure that the finished product co-mingled American and Iraqi sweat and ingenuity."

"Delta Detachment, 106th Finance Battalion, continues to work hand in hand with local Iraqi banks in an effort to stabilize and improve local confidence in an ailing Iraqi banking system. Through meetings with the Kirkuk Provincial bank managers, the finance detachment, along with civil affairs elements, has made significant strides with the banking system...

"Both finance and civil affairs quickly noted that the people of Kirkuk and its surrounding regions must be able to walk into a bank whose physical appearance portrays confidence, competence and security. Most recently, Delta Detachment, in conjunction with civil affairs elements and the 2-25th Brigade Combat Team, has organized renovation projects of two major state run banks located in Kirkuk.

"First, Delta Detachment has coordinated to have major infrastructure improvements made to the Kirkuk Real Estate Bank. Of all the banks in Kirkuk, this bank was damaged the most during the war as the majority of the bank was burned and looted. The new renovations will concentrate on electrical, plumbing and customer-service-oriented construction. This includes cashier windows for the bank tellers and meeting areas for the bank supervisors. This bank already services 1,100 homeowner mortgages...

"Additionally, the finance detachment has coordinated for similar renovations for the Rasheed Branch Headquarters in Kirkuk. This bank, the Rasheed-Al Wahed Huxarian Bank, services approximately 190,000 banking individuals, government accounts and private businesses. Much needed infrastructure improvements will further assist in gaining popular confidence in the use of pension accounts, savings deposit accounts, loans and other services."

"No nation on the planet boasts better university campus security programs and departments than the United States. In the fledgling, democratic country of Iraq part of the overall security and police training operation is the creation of campus security forces at Iraqi universities. This is just one of the untold stories of US nation-building efforts in the war on terrorism.

"Soldiers from the 416th Civil Affairs Battalion's higher education team are working to improve security around Mosul's schools. The team handed out thousands and thousands of dollars worth of security equipment such as body armor, megaphones, flashlights, reflective vests and metal detectors to the security guards from Mosul University. The 416th, an Army reserve unit based in Norristown, Penn., arrived in northern Iraq in February and is working with the Iraqi people to improve living conditions in the local area."

"If the Army had an adopt-a-child program, Logan would be the poster child. For more than a year, the 13-year-old boy, who contends he's 13 and a half, has lived and worked with Coalition forces at a forward operating base in Mosul. The boy speaks four languages and his official title at the FOB [Forward Operating Base] is translator and supervisor, but he is a Soldier at heart.

" 'I love American Soldiers. I want to help them in every way possible, because without them we (Iraqis) would have nothing,' said Logan, who also speaks Turkish, Arabic and Kurdish and is currently learning Spanish. 'When Saddam ruled Iraq, he would kill somebody for speaking English or Kurdish. Things were very bad, but now we are much happier and I can speak all my languages freely.'

"Not a day goes by that Logan doesn't use his four languages. At the FOB, he helps Soldiers with more than 50 workers, who maintain buildings, electricity and plumbing."

" 'We have concrete information that a sharp division is now broiling between' Iraqis waging a nationalist war and foreign Arabs spurred by militant Islam, said Mouwafak al-Rubaie, the Iraqi government's national security adviser. 'They are more divided than ever.'

"Al-Rubaie said one reason was the perception among Iraqis that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant whom bin Laden endorsed as his deputy in Iraq, was of little help during the American onslaught on the Iraqi insurgent hotbed of Falluja in November. 'Al-Zarqawi and his group fled Falluja and let the Iraqis face the attack alone,' al-Rubaie said."

"Leads generated through a hotline to report insurgent activity in Iraq demonstrate that the Iraqi people want to bring an end to the violence against innocent civilians and critical infrastructure, a top officer in the Army's 1st Cavalry Division told reporters in Baghdad today.

"Brig. Gen. Jeffrey W. Hammond, the division's assistant commander for support, said the tips hotline received more than 400 calls during the past few months. These enabled the coalition to take prompt action - from freeing several women who had been kidnapped for ransom to identifying and destroying vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices Hammond said 'were rigged and ready to explode.'

"Billboards throughout Baghdad promote the hotline as a way for the Iraqi people to 'fight the war in secret' without fear of reprisal, Hammond said. Because of a campaign of intimidation aimed at Iraqis helping to move their country forward, 'people were virtually paralyzed to reach out for help,' he noted. Now, thanks to the hotline campaign, 'people today are picking up the phone and calling us. They are sharing information,' the general said.

"Hammond said the hotline and its success have 'hit a nerve with the insurgents' who regularly vandalize billboards promoting the campaign. But Hammond said the 200 billboards around Iraq are replaced as quickly as they're destroyed. 'I'm not going to stop,' he said."

"Iraq's military has rapidly expanded and sent forces throughout the country in an effort to ensure security for the Jan. 30 elections. Iraqi and U.S. officials said that over the last six months the Iraq Army has grown in size and capability. They said that from a nascent force in July 2004, the army now operates nine divisions throughout Iraq, Middle East Newsline reported.

"Over the next few weeks, officials said, a range of new units would be launched in both the army and air force. So far, the Iraq Army and Intervention Force consist of 18 battalions, a major increase from one battalion in July 2004. By late February, nine additional military battalions were scheduled to become operational, officials said. They said several of the battalions would be ready in time for national elections, scheduled for Jan. 30."

"After nearly a year of work, officials recently celebrated the completion of a $4.6 million project which renovated nine fuel bunkers that serve as one of Iraq’s most secure sources of fuel.

"The fuel bunkers built in the early 1980s by Yugoslavians are located on a former Iraqi air base where MiG pilots once trained. The installation is currently being used as Logistical Support Area Anaconda for multinational forces but will eventually be returned to the Iraqi military...

"The bunkers securely store aircraft jet-A fuel, diesel and motor gas... Now that the system is operational a 6,000 gallon truck can pull up curbside and fill up in 12 minutes."

"There are 20 battalions in the Iraqi army today. A total of 27 will join the service by the end of February. The Iraqi National Guard and its 42 battalions also are being integrated into the army. Specialized Iraqi army units also are forming and undergoing training, including a special operations unit, a counter-terrorism unit and a mechanized brigade.

"The Iraqi police force is a prime target for insurgents. Hundreds of Iraqi police have been killed in terrorist attacks. 'If they didn't matter, then they wouldn't be important targets,' Petraeus said. There are now 53,000 Iraqi police trained and equipped, and the police academies will start graduating 4,000 officers each month."