Chrenkoff

An al-Qaeda linked-group has launched what it calls a media jihad, or holy war, to "terrorise" United States-led forces in Iraq and their families by bombarding them with e-mails and by posting gruesome photos online.

The group, calling itself the "Brigade of Media Jihad", called on its militants to "post terrifying pictures on the internet in order to terrorise the enemy", said a statement on an Islamist website whose authenticity could not be verified.

"Our objective is to undermine the morale of our enemies, dash their hopes and dreams and reveal the truth of what is happening in Iraq. The media war is an integral part of the war on the ground," said the statement.

And, if you're as heavily invested as Ms Dowd in the notion that those 'killed in Iraq' are 'children', then Mrs Sheehan's status as grieving matriarch is a bonanza. I agree with Mrs Ryan: they're not children in Iraq; they're thinking adults who 'made a decision to join the Armed Forces and defend our country'. Whenever I'm on a radio show these days, someone calls in and demands to know whether my children are in Iraq. Well, not right now. They range in age from five to nine, and though that's plenty old enough to sign up for the jihad and toddle into an Israeli pizza parlour wearing a suicide-bomb, in most advanced societies' armed forces they prefer to use grown-ups.

That seems to be difficult for the Left to grasp. Ever since America's all-adult, all-volunteer army went into Iraq, the anti-war crowd have made a sustained effort to characterise them as 'children'. If a 13-year-old wants to have an abortion, that's her decision and her parents shouldn't get a look-in. If a 21-year-old wants to drop to the Oval Office shagpile and chow down on Bill Clinton, she's a grown woman and free to do what she wants. But, if a 22- or 25- or 37-year old is serving his country overseas, he's a wee 'child' who isn't really old enough to know what he's doing.

I get many emails from soldiers in Iraq, and they sound a lot more grown-up than most Ivy League professors and certainly than Maureen Dowd, who writes as if she's auditioning for a minor supporting role in Sex and the City. The infantilisation of the military promoted by the Left is deeply insulting to America's warriors but it suits the anti-war crowd's purposes. It enables them to drone ceaselessly that 'of course' they 'support our troops', because they want to stop these poor confused moppets from being exploited by the Bush war machine.

They key for the antiwar movement is to use Sheehan as a symbol but not to make the movement about her. Last night was an effort to broaden beyond Sheehan to other parents. That's why MoveOn told people to bring pictures of children even if they aren't in the military, and organizers handed out stickers saying 'mom' and 'uncle' and so forth, even if the 'son' or 'nephew' wasn't in Iraq.

Even after my repeated attempts to keep the focus of my protest on the war, the Drudge Report and others continue to try to make the issue about me. But I am not the issue. The issue is a disastrous war that's killing our sons and daughters and making our country less secure.

No wonder the lib rags cant report on the falling unemployment rate, the booming economy, the Air Embezzlement scandal... there is a rapidly unhinging woman in Texas living in a ditch.

Now THAT is news.

Even money says Sheehan will be sitting in the Michael Moore seat next to Jimmy Carter at the '08 Democratic convention.

The hard left in America needs to realize a bald, cruel fact: Anyone who sees no moral distinction between Israel and the mullahs of Iran, or sees the U.S. attempt to set up a constitutional republic in Iraq as equivalent to the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, suffers from incurable moral cretinism. The more the fervent anti-war base embraces these ideas, the more they ensure that no one will trust the left with national security. Ever.

But in the wreckage of Pat and Cindy Sheehan's marriage there is surely a lesson for the Democratic party. As Cindy says, they're both Democrats, but she's 'more liberal' and 'more radicalised'. There are a lot of less liberal and less radicalised Dems out there: they're soft-left-ish on healthcare and the environment and education and so forth; many have doubts about the war, but they love their country, they have family in the military, and they don't believe in dishonouring American soldiers to make a political point. The problem for the Democratic party is that the Cindys are now the loudest voice: Michael Moore, Howard Dean, moveon.org, and Air America, the flailing liberal radio network distracting attention from its own financial scandals by flying down its afternoon host Randi Rhodes to do her show live from Camp Casey. The last time I heard Miss Rhodes she was urging soldiers called up for Iraq to refuse to go i.e., to desert and entertaining theories that 9/11 was Bush's Reichstag fire.

On unwatched Sunday talk shows you can still stumble across the occasional sane responsible Dem. But, in the absence of any serious intellectual attempt to confront their long-term decline, all the energy on the Left is with the fringe. The Democratic party is a coalition of Pat Sheehans and Cindy Sheehans, and the noisier the Cindys get the more estranged the Pats are likely to feel. Sorry about that, but, if Mrs Sheehan can insist her son's corpse be the determining factor in American policy on Iraq, I don't see why her marriage can't be a metaphor for the state of the Democratic party.

How about this radical idea: only people who have contributed to economy in productive ways (creating jobs, growing businesses, making inventions, etc.) have the right to credibly speak up on economic matters. As for the others, people who "made love, not jobs" - let's call them (to borrow from the stock-market jargon) the "bear-bulls".

Move America Forward will be conducting the "You Don't Speak for Me, Cindy" caravan beginning next week. It will feature military family members who have loved ones serving in the war against terrorism in Iraq or Afghanistan. The delegation will be led by Deborah Johns of Marine Moms. (Her son has served in Operation Iraqi Freedom).

LAUER: Don't get me wrong, I think you're probably telling the truth, but there might be a lot of people at home wondering how that might be possible with the conditions you're facing and with the insurgent attacks you're facing... What would you say to people who doubt that morale could be that high?

CAPTAIN SHERMAN POWELL: Well sir, I'd tell you, if I got my news from the newspapers I'd be pretty depressed as well.

Marla Uhles lost her son, Marine Lance Cpl. Drew Uhles on Sept. 15 in Iraq.

Therefore, she understands the pain Cindy Sheehan of California is feeling at the loss of her son in Iraq.

However, Marla Uhles said she has a difficult time supporting Sheehan...

Marla Uhles said Sheehan has gone "overboard" and it has become more about the publicity.

"I don't know, I think she's more out for herself right now than for her son," she said.

Lisa Short said some days are better than others since learning in early November that her son, Lance Cpl. Aaron Pickering, had been killed while fighting in Fallujah. She still holds onto the last letter Aaron sent her and reads it almost daily. She reread it again Monday.

"He said, 'Mom, our presence here is necessary,'" Short said.

That's why she said it's difficult for her to believe in Sheehan's cause. This is an all-volunteer military, she said, you sign up knowing you might put yourself in harm's way.

"That's the whole point of joining the military," she said. "I don't support what she's doing. I just can't."

She said perhaps it is Sheehan's grief that has propelled her to take her cause this far. She understands that feeling of losing a son at such a young age. Aaron was 20 when he died.

"Sometimes you feel desperate enough to do anything," she said. "I don't understand the point of it - it's disrespectful to our kids."

"Matthew was very proud of being a Marine and proud of his unit and what they were doing," Toni Matula said.

When the Matulas saw the Crawford protest on TV, something did more than just bother them.

"All this stuff going in Crawford, we've just been watching it and shaking our heads until two days ago, we saw the crosses with the names on there," Matt Matula said.

On one white cross read the name Matthew Matula: their 20-year-old son who was killed in Iraq last year.

"He's not a victim, he's a hero, and I think that everybody that's serving our country is heroes," Matt Matula said.

"He knew joining the Marines, his chances are, that was the purpose. His main number one job was to defend our country. He was very aware of that before he signed up," Toni Matula said.

So Matt Matula went to Crawford to stand up for his son, a Marine who proudly stood by the war he died in.

"I went there and had Matthew's name taken off of there. It's fine for people to grieve their own way. It aggravates me to see them using other people's names to further their cause," Matt Matula said.

"For people to use his name against it is not what he died for. He died so that they can do that though," Toni Matula said.

The mother of a Lompoc soldier killed in Iraq is demanding that her son's name be removed from what she considers anti-war memorials on the beach here and outside President Bush's Texas ranch.

Air Force Capt. Derek Argel's remains were buried with four of his comrades at Arlington National Cemetery last week. His mother, Debbie Argel Bastian, says the other memorials are an insult to his memory.

"I'm livid about it," Bastian said of the weekly beach display on Santa Barbara's West Beach and the smaller memorial in Texas, where the mother of another dead soldier has made headlines with a weeklong protest.

"Derek would not want to be remembered that way."

Ms. Goudreau's query prompted an unusual discussion last month in New York at a regular meeting of editors whose newspapers are members of The Associated Press. Some editors expressed concern that a kind of bunker mentality was preventing reporters in Iraq from getting out and explaining the bigger picture beyond the daily death tolls.

"The bottom-line question was, people wanted to know if we're making progress in Iraq," Ms. Goudreau said, and the A.P. articles were not helping to answer that question.

"It was uncomfortable questioning The A.P., knowing that Iraq is such a dangerous place," she said. "But there's a perception that we're not telling the whole story."

Mr. Silverman said in an interview that he was aware of that perception. "Other editors said they get calls from readers who are hearing stories from returning troops of the good things they have accomplished while there, and readers find that at odds with the generally gloomy portrayal in the papers of what's going on in Iraq," he said.

Mr. Silverman said the editors were asking for help in making sense of the situation. "I was glad to have that discussion with the editors because they have to deal with the perception that the media is emphasizing the negative," he said.

"We're there to report the good and the bad and we try to give due weight to everything going on," he said. "It is unfortunate that the explosions and shootings and fatalities and injuries on some days seem to dominate the news."

Suki Dardarian, deputy managing editor of The Seattle Times and vice president of the board of the Associated Press Managing Editors, said that the discussion was "a pretty healthy one."

"One of the things the editors felt was that as much context as you can bring, the better," Ms. Dardarian said. "They wanted them to get beyond the breaking news to 'What does this mean?' "

She also said that as Mr. Silverman and Kathleen Carroll, The A.P.'s executive editor, responded to the concerns, the editors realized that some questions were impossible to answer. For example, she said, the editors understood that it was much easier to add up the number of dead than to determine how many hospitals received power on a particular day or how many schools were built.

My son's friend Todd Jones just returned from a tour of duty in Iraq. At a celebratory gathering at his parents' home, we chatted a while, and I asked him what he thought were the biggest problems facing the military. Without hesitating, he shot back: "The terrorists and the media."

In a rare moment of balance on CBS, Army Capt. Christopher Vick echoed that sentiment: "I think it's hard for Americans to get up every day and turn on the news and see the horrible things that are going on here, because there's no focus on the good things that go on. What they see is another car bomb went off." This kind of coverage is exactly what the terrorists are seeking to achieve, believes Vick.

Mark Yost, who served in the Navy during the Reagan years, caused a stir in media circles for stating the obvious in an editorial in the St. Paul Pioneer Press: "to judge by the dispatches, all the Iraqis do is stand outside markets and government buildings waiting to be blown up."

On CNN's "Reliable Sources," host Howard Kurtz asked Frank Sesno, a former Washington bureau chief for CNN, about the Yost column. Sesno acknowledged you get more depth from print coverage, but suggested "even then, the bias is towards that which is going wrong, that which is blowing up and that which is not working." He said Americans ask: "Is anything getting rebuilt? Are they really democrats over there? How engaged are the Sunnis? Could I see an interview with any of these founding fathers and founding mothers of this new emerging country? Can you find that? You'll have a hard time doing it."

Sunni preachers have called on Iraq's Sunni Arabs to take part in upcoming elections, signalling a possible new trend towards joining a Shi'ite dominated political process that Sunni insurgents have rejected...

"It is a duty for all those here to take part in the upcoming elections so that we are not politically marginalised," imam Abdul-Sattar al-Jumaili told a crowd of some 600 people in Falluja, a former insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad.

"I call upon you to register your names in Falluja and other cities. You should not feel awkward about voting since you will be helping to remove the occupiers and embarrass those who benefited from the last election," he told a packed mosque.

Many prominent Sunnis have said the January boycott was a mistake since it limited their ability to influence the future shape of the country, now run by a Shi'ite-led government...

A message similar to that in Falluja was delivered at the "mother of all battles" mosque in Baghdad.

"We have to be engaged with our brothers in this country by a calm dialogue," imam Mahmoud al-Sumaida'i told a congregation at Friday prayers in the large shrine.

"Therefore let us all participate in this dialogue in order to rebuild Iraq."

Nearly a quarter of a million Iraqis of all ethnic and religious groups have taken part in meetings to help draft their country's new constitution, despite security challenges and problematic day-to-day living conditions, a preliminary United Nations report issued today said.

"This is nothing short of extraordinary when difficult living, transportation and communication facilities are exacerbated by an equally demanding security situation," it said of the schedule of meetings during the run-up to the 15 August deadline to complete the draft.

Tallying the participation so far at more than 220,000 people, the report said: "The United Nations salutes the bravery of Iraqis who have often risked their lives in order to contribute to the constitutional process"...

The highlights included radio and television debates. a conference of 1,500 Imams and a forum of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which had distributed questionnaires on federalism, Shari'a law and women's rights. In these venues members of the CDC and the Transitional National Assembly listened to people's views, the report said.

"Women's groups have been particularly active, with literally dozens of conferences demonstrating that, although they have a great variety of views, Iraqi women have a common aspiration to increase their level of participation in politics," it said.

In the last several weeks, addressing "important gaps in the activity," the CDC also met with some 20,000 participants in the north-eastern Anbar, Ninevah and Saleh al-Din governorates, where there had been "a hunger for information," it said.

The Reuters Foundation has launched what it claims is Iraq's first "independent and commercially viable" news agency.

Last year the Foundation, a charity funded by Reuters, established an online "news exchange" called www.aswataliraq.info (Voices of Iraq) as a way for Iraq freelances to share stories.

With funding from the United Nations Development Programme and the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation this has now been developed into a news agency run and staffed by Iraqi journalists with reporters in each of the country's 18 regional government areas.

So far Reuters Foundation has provided training for over 50 Iraqi journalists contributing to Voices of Iraq.

Reuters editor-in-chief Geert Linnebank said: "The development of a robust, independent and reliable media industry in Iraq is of fundamental importance to the world's understanding of this nation and its people.

"This new agency, the first of its kind in Iraq's history, will have a profound effect on how this country's story is told. Staffed and run by local journalists reporting on their own people and governments, I am sure it will become an indispensable source which will provide a much fuller picture than we have today of the key issues and events really driving this country's development."

The IPC, opened last year by Ambassador Paul Bremer, then head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, gave Iraq’s media a major boost. The state-of-the-art facility was unlike anything else available to the media in the entire region. But it became just another good news story that received little attention from Western media outlets.

At the IPC, Iraqi journalists were trained in common media practices, taught how to set up and use e-mail accounts and instructed in using the Internet to conduct research. With access to newsmakers, high-speed Internet and satellite news channels, the IPC quickly became the everyday workplace of many Iraqi journalists, as well as journalists from around the world...

In the year since the Coalition Provision Authority ceased existence, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has run the IPC. Now the Iraqis are taking charge. It’s critical they keep it working at full efficiency, since a free press will be a major contributor to democracy in Iraq.

Luckily, the Americans are leaving major upgrades to the facility, upgrades that will provide journalists with the tools they need in the months and years ahead. Already the most advanced in the region, the IPC has recently received new equipment that will keep the facility on the cutting edge. In addition to new desks and chairs, 20 new desktop computers are on hand. These new computers provide more than 30 workstations for journalists in Iraq.

Additional new equipment includes 30 English-learning programs with headsets, an LCD projector, a scanner, a color copier, dozens of memory sticks, hundreds of blank CDs and floppy discs, CD writers and dozens of computer programs. This new equipment joins the satellite dishes, TVs, laser printers, copier, computers, refrigerators and other high-tech gadgets already being used by journalists.

An additional 30 laptop computers will be given to some of the pioneering Iraqi journalists who have been using the facility since the day it opened. These new laptops will bring the journalists up to speed with their counterparts in the Western world and give them the mobility to cover stories wherever the news takes them.

Three years ago, Majda Jabouri earned a small living as a housekeeper, the only job she could find after being imprisoned because of her family’s opposition to the regime of then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Today, she hosts a popular daily call-in show on Radio Almahaba, Iraq’s only station dedicated to women’s issues, called “Cup of Tea.” Most episodes are devoted to relationships, parenting, and other topics that would be familiar to any “Oprah” viewer. The show is also a product of its environment: a recent episode dealt with women’s feelings of jealousy and powerlessness when their husbands take second wives.

The station was founded by Deborah Bowers, an American humanitarian worker whose interest in Iraq was sparked by her experiences helping Iraqi war refugees adjust to life in upstate New York in the early 1990s. In 1995, Ms. Bowers and one of the refugees she had befriended, Steve Sharrif, created Opportunities for Kids International Inc., a relief agency devoted to Iraqi children. It has since sent medical supplies and thousands of pairs of children’s shoes to the country.

Ms. Bowers, 50 years old, says that the idea for the station began with her Iraqi staffers, who saw Mr. Hussein’s ouster by U.S.-led forces as an opportunity to dramatically improve the legal and political standing of Iraqi women. Although Mr. Hussein’s government had been nominally secular, women had numerous restrictions on their daily lives, including an inability to leave the country without being accompanied by a spouse or male relative.

Ms. Bowers developed a grant proposal for the station and presented it to the United Nations Development Fund for Women, which supports private initiatives around the world devoted to gender equality and women’s rights. The U.N. agency ultimately gave her $500,000, which allowed the nascent station to purchase broadcasting and recording equipment and rent office space near the heavily fortified Palestine Hotel here. Employees chose the name Almahaba, and it began broadcasting to Baghdad and the surrounding area in March.

The conflict in Iraq has proved to be a challenging prospect for the international business community. Despite the passing of two years since the end of major hostilities, the security situation remains precarious for many parts of the country. However, business opportunities are still massive for those willing to take a chance, says a study by a UK expert.

Iraq's potential to become the largest market in the Middle East is well known, but there is a case for arguing that in recent months the incentive for potential investors has not been matched by innovation in methods of accessing the Iraqi market, says Patrick Forbes, head of external relations at the Arab-British Chamber of Commerce, in his report "Assessment of the Business Climate in Iraq".

The latest trade figures show that UK exports to Iraq increasing 100 per cent in the first quarter of 2005 over the first quarter of 2004. However, this total is a mere £47.3 million [$85.2 million], which amounts to a drop in the ocean when compared with the volume of British exports to the UAE for the same period: £1.025 billion [$1.8 billion], he says.

Despite the risks facing any businessman interested in working in Iraq, there can be no doubting the opportunities that exist to make healthy profits, across the board of sectors. With proven reserves of over 115 billion barrels - third in the world after Saudi Arabia and Iran - and yet only 1.9 million bbl/d being extracted in March 2005, the scope for activity in this field is well documented. With the Ministry for Oil announcing its intention to issue new tenders in the last quarter for contracts to develop 11 southern oilfields the oil sector will be a growth area for the Iraqi economy.

With the electricity, water purification, and power generation sectors still needing considerable efforts to recover to pre-war levels, there will be room for anyone seeking to play a role in repairing essential services. In addition, the construction, finance, education, IT and telecommunications, and insurance sectors are undergoing efforts at regeneration, said the report.

- In a critical milestone for Iraqi debt renegotiation, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) accepted Iraq’s Monetary Survey. This survey is the culmination of two months of work with Central Bank of Iraq Research and Statistics staff and will be used to support negotiations relating to the IMF Standby Facility for Iraq...

- USAID representatives completed a two-part course for tax officials from northern Iraq on providing training on the new Corporate Income Tax Return...

- Sixteen Ministry of Planning and Development staff completed an Advanced Capital Budgeting Workshop...

- To harmonize banking standards throughout Iraq, USAID is working with bank officials to develop guidelines for credit policies and procedures for commercial banks on lending activities and credit files.

A proposal has been drafted by Iraq’s Ministry of Housing & Construction that would provide investors land in Iraq on a long term lease basis or at rates well below market level.

During this week’s Iraq Development Program summit in Amman, Iraqi Deputy Minister of Housing & Construction Thaner Al-Feely and Program Director John Glassey confirmed that three million housing units are needed in Iraq and that only 10,000 units are currently available.

Feely was recently appointed chairman of investment in order to attract foreign direct investment into the country. Currently 70 per cent of property cost in Iraq is the cost of land. The return rate profit margin is expected to be at around 25 per cent, none of which will be taxed.

All foreign direct investment will be insured through the American Export-Import Bank.

The Iraqi Ministry of Housing & Construction is keen to set up a property system like that of the United Kingdom, which is based on a highly competitive building society market.

In order to fulfil this objective, Mr Glassey will produce a white paper for the ministry to propose a high level meeting between the ministry, the international investment community, international property development investors, Iraqi builders and contractors, banks and building societies.

Despite the upsurge in violence and mounting insecurity, a state enterprise in the restive Diyala province is doing roaring business.

The northeast province, of which Baquba is the capital, is a major insurgent stronghold in the country. Car and roadside bomb attacks occur almost on a daily basis.

But the escalating violence does not seem to have thwarted the ambitions of managers and workers at the Diyala Company for Electrical Industries to boost production.

The company has recently signed a 19 billion-dinar contract (approx. $140 million) to supply the ministries of oil, industry and communications with electrical transformers and meters as well as fiber optic cables.

“Within (current) efforts to reconstruct Iraq, the company has signed a 19.4 billion-dinar contract with the sectors of electricity, oil and communications,” a company statement faxed to the newspaper said.

The Diyala company is one of 45 such production enterprises in Iraq whose revenue with proper investment rehabilitation is projected to hit more than $300 million in 2006.

He is one of the wealthiest men in Kurdistan, if not the whole of Iraq, and he has a mission: to open the country to business.

Faruk Mustafa Rasool, the chairman of mobile phone company Asiacell, the fastest growing of Iraq's three main operators, comes across as a modest man with a modest head office in Sulaimaniya. There is nothing modest about his ambitions, however.

Besides the phone company, into which he and partners such as Kuwaiti telecoms group Wataniya have ploughed $300 million since 1999, he has deals for two cement factories, a steel plant and a 28-storey five-star hotel in this booming city.

He is also thinking about cultural projects, apartment complexes, satellite broadcasting, wireless technology and computer training centres -- the sorts of things that no one associates with the violence tearing Iraq apart.

However, if it can happen anywhere in Iraq right now, it can happen in Sulaimaniya, a city of about 700,000 inhabitants set in the mountains of the autonomous, northern Kurdish region, an attractive spot rapidly becoming a thriving business hub.

"Investment goes hand-in-hand with security and political stability, and here in Sulaimaniya we have both," Rasool told Reuters in an interview at his Asiacell headquarters, a low-rise blue-glass building in a small shopping centre.

"Sulaimaniya is going to become one of the most developed cities in the Middle East within a few years -- it will be Iraq's link to the outside world," he says with quiet confidence, a thick gold watch glinting on his wrist.

Each morning before dawn, hundreds of Arabs from southern Iraq gather near a mosque in this northern Kurdish city hoping to find work on one of scores of construction sites dotting the landscape.

What began 18 months ago as a trickle of poor, unemployed young men moving north to find work and escape violence in predominantly Arab areas has now turned into a rapid stream.

And it's no longer just the poor and jobless fleeing.

Professionals -- including doctors, engineers and teachers -- are following them, desperate to escape the chaos tearing cities such as Baghdad, Basra, Baquba and Hilla apart.

"I came here for safety, and for my family," says Dr Ali Alwan, 40, an eye specialist who moved from the southern city of Basra to Sulaimaniya in late 2003 and has since encouraged dozens of former colleagues to follow him.

"Here it is a wonderful life. The children are in school, my wife is happy and there is good work," he says. "I don't think I will ever return to Basra."

Around 25 eye specialists alone have since taken the same route out of Basra, he says. At the Razgari out-patient clinic in Sulaimaniya, eight of the 13 doctors are Arabs who arrived in the past two years, according to director Khalil Ibrahim Mohammed.

Young trainees, desperately needed in places like Baghdad and Basra where hospitals are understaffed and overworked, are also getting out. At Sulaimaniya's teaching hospital, 20 of this year's interns -- the majority -- are from Basra.

"Here things are normal, we are a normal hospital," says Karzan Sirwan, a Kurdish surgeon at the hospital. "I can understand why they come, and we need them too."

There are sometimes language barriers -- most Arabs don't speak Kurdish -- but since all Iraq's doctors are trained in English, they can communicate with one another, and translators are on hand to help doctors talk to Kurdish patients.

It's a similar situation at Sulaimaniya's university, where 40 Arab professors have joined the staff in the past two years, university officials say.

The Internet's key oversight agency has quietly authorized Iraq's new government to manage its own domain name, allowing for the restoration of Internet addresses ending in ".iq."

The suffix had been in limbo after the 2002 federal indictment of the Texas-based company that was running it on charges of funneling money to a member of the Islamic extremist group Hamas.

InfoCom Corp., which sold computers and Web services in the Middle East and got the ".iq" assignment in 1997, was convicted in April along with its chief executive and two brothers.

The board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which oversees top-level domains, unanimously approved transferring the ".iq" name to Iraq's telecommunications regulator on July 28.

Ali Al Dahwi, director of Al Atheer Telecommunications in Iraq, confirmed that his company would get closer to one and a half million [subscribers] for cellular phones in Iraq, at an investment of 430 million dollars.

He said that the company entered the competition in the Iraqi market two years ago, and through a short duration, in a race with time, it managed to go beyond the sum that it designated a an investment ($60 million), to serve about 300 thousand [subscribers] in southern regions. Its cellular phone services have expanded to other regions, such as Al Anbar and Diala, in addition to covering the border regions, as well.

Iraq has made headway in talks with 17 international firms to construct refineries designed to offset a shortage of oil products for local use, a source at the oil ministry said.

The refineries, to be constructed in Baghdad, Mosul and Basra, will have capacities ranging between 250,000-300,000 barrels per day, said the source, who asked for anonymity. He added that the ministry has plans to build mobile refineries with 10,000 b/d capacity to be increased later to 30,000 b/d in Arbil, Sulaimania, Amara, Haditha, Nassiriya and Diwaniya.

He said existing refineries at Baiji and Dora in Baghdad and one in Basra were unable to meet the increasing demand for derivatives.

The Iraqi oil ministry has called local and global companies to participate in a special tender for establishing a new refinery in Qoya region, near Quinsajaq district, between Erbil and Al Selaimania cities (north of Iraq), at a capacity of 70 thousands barrels a day. The total cost would be 400 million dollars; including tanks, infrastructure, and engineering works.

The second refinery would be in Jarf Al Sakhr region (south of Baghdad); at a capacity of 140 thousand barrels a day, and a cost of 800 million - 1 billion dollars. November 8, 2005, has been set as a deadline for submitting the documents of the tender on behalf of the competent countries.

Iraq plans to build a multimillion-dollar international airport near the southern city of Najaf, a holy center for Shiite Muslims, that would be financed largely by a low-interest loan from Iran, according to Iraq's transportation minister...

The facility, which Maliki said would cost an estimated $20 million to $25 million, would largely serve religious pilgrims traveling to and from Iran. Maliki said it would also link the region to other countries and improve access to a range of tourist attractions. Najaf, which is 90 miles south of Baghdad, and nearby Karbala are home to several of the shrines deemed holiest to Shiites.

Iraq's electricity supply has risen above pre-war levels to 5,350 megawatts (MW) despite sabotage, boosted by hydroelectric power and more imports from Iran, Syria and Turkey, the minister in charge said on Thursday.

"Now electricity has reached a record after we broke 5,350 megawatts a few days ago for the first time since the war," Electricity Minister Mohsen Shalash told Reuters.

Iraq's emergency moves had eased electricity shortage during summer when temperatures can rise above 50 degrees centigrade (122 Fahrenheit), Shalash said in an interview in Amman during a stopover on his way to Iraq.

The rise in power supply of over 1,000 megawatts has come from an extra 500 megawatts generated by hydroelectric power after Turkey increased water flows from the Euphrates River to Iraqi dams while imports from Iran, Turkey and Syria added at least 350 megawatts in July.

A decade before the U.S. led invasion in 2003 capacity had fluctuated between 3,000 to 4,400 megawatts at its peak.

Iraq's power grid, battered by attacks by insurgents and long neglect is still producing only half the electricity needed despite international efforts to rebuild it.

The forecast rise to 6,000 megawatts in August would come mainly from a doubling of imports from Iran to 200 megawatts and a similar jump in Turkey's exports to around 300 megawatts.

Iraq's medium term plan was to implement $20 billion worth of electricity projects by 2010 to raise capacity to 18,000 megawatts solely through donor funding, Shalash said.

Iraq was in advanced talks with Japan on how to utilise the bulk of $3.5 billion of soft loans in electricity projects.

Iran was ready to give as much as $2-3 billion for power plants that its own firms can construct, Shalash added.

A recent visit to Germany had also won promises to access for the first time as much as $1 billion in soft loans by one of the major Western opponents of the U.S. led war, said Shalash.

The funds will finance several key projects such as degasification of flared liquefied natural gas for electricity.

Rehabilitation of major power plants of Mussayab, Nassiriya, Baiji and Baghdad's Dura would be completed by year end.

An extra 500 megawatts will come on stream later this year from a 10 unit gas turbine plant constructed near the city of Mussayab which was originally due for completion in June 2004.

Seven new raw water pumps have arrived at the Sharq-Dijlah water treatment plant for installation and the refurbishment of the Administration Building has been completed. USAID accepted responsibility to complete the expansion of the plant, which was begun under the Oil for Food Program. To further reduce anticipated water shortages in Baghdad, USAID is restoring the existing water treatment plant to its original capacity and providing the design for a second expansion at this site. Combined, the initial expansion and the plant restoration are expected to increase the supply of treated water by approximately 90 MGD. 2006...

The Iraqi subcontractor implementing the Baghdad Water Mains Rehabilitation project has laid 16.1 km of asphalt paving and 87.7 km of main line pipe to date which surpasses the original contract amount of 74 km. The current goal is to install 98km of mainline pipe. A total of 7,498 additional homes have been connected to the water mains.

Basra’s water authority is constructing 12 small purification units that will eventually produce 25 cubic meters of clean water every hour.

The authority’s head, Abdulsattar Akef, said the new units fall short of meeting this southern city’s thirst for clean water.

Providing Basra, the country’s second largest city with clean water, is a real headache for the provincial authorities administering the city...

Akef said conditions with regard to clean water were better in rural areas than in the city proper.

“In the countryside and villages clean water is relatively available in almost all the villages in the province (of Basra).

“We have rehabilitated 30 water purification units with a total capacity of 250 million cubic gallons a day. We have a better situation in rural areas than last year,” he said.

But Basra itself, Akef, added will have to wait for a few more years to have full access to clean water.

He said Japan has agreed to finance a giant purification plant for Basra that will produce 300 million gallons of water a day but will take three years to complete.

Nearly half a million Iraqi children will benefit from upgraded sanitation facilities at schools across the country this year as a result of United Nations (UN) initiatives aimed at raising a new generation of educated Iraqis to help their country rebuild from war...

UN-backed efforts to improve conditions at 800 schools will foster safer conditions for some 460,000 boys and girls this year. The UN has been helping Iraq’s Ministry of Education by providing over 1,300 directors with computer literacy and communications skills. Hundreds of computers were provided to schools which also received 36,000 sports and recreational materials.

Over 130 schools have been rehabilitated with UN assistance in the lower southern region, while in the north, the UN is working to renovate primary schools in rural communities where refugees are expected to return.

The UN is also procuring one million school bags for new first graders and five million school kits for all students up to the sixth grade.

Rebuilding Iraq’s schools benefits not only the students but also the thousands of workers who gain employment through the projects which have contributed to generating over 3,400 jobs per day.

USAID’s program to improve basic education in Iraq has awarded 41 grants to Iraqi contractors to date totaling $2,885,924, including five school rehabilitation grants, four grants for education training center rehabilitations, and 32 grants for replacing mud schools. As of July, the grants had supported the rehabilitation of education training centers in Baghdad, Arbil, Diyala and Hilla and the replacement of 32 mud schools.

The model schools program team has finalized a list of 80 model schools in cooperation with the Ministry of Education (MOE). The model schools program seeks to establish four model schools in each MOE directorate to demonstrate improved systems and teaching methods. The team has also begun procuring student desks, laboratory equipment, and computers.

In early July, a group of 25 physicians from the Iraqi Ministry of Health graduated from a six-day Training of Trainers’ workshop (TOT). Participants were representatives of various departments of the Ministry of Health and Primary Health Care Centers from across the country...

USAID’s Training Model Primary Providers (TMPP) program aims to support the Ministry of Health in training primary health care providers and other staff for 150 model primary health care centers currently under construction around the country. The training program will upgrade the technical knowledge, clinical and management skills and performance of center directors, physicians, nurses, medical assistants and other staff assigned to model centers...

This training program will provide approximately 1,400 physicians, 1,000 nurses, 2,100 medical assistants, and 150 center directors with improved knowledge and enhanced clinical and management skills, and an additional 5,000 center staff with strengthened team work and problem-solving skills. Improving staff skills will lead to enhanced services at model primary health care centers, with potential benefits for approximately 32,500 people per primary health care center, for a total of 4,875,000 beneficiaries at 150 primary health care sites around the country.

- The third stage of rehabilitation of the National Blood Transfusion Centre in Baghdad is 60% complete;

- Of the 23 Primary Health Care Centre Rehabilitation Projects (each project consisting of up to 14 PHC centres) being undertaken, 4 are currently under the bidding process and 19 are in the stage of implementation.[Al-anba, Babel, Karbala (45%), Najaf (2%), Waste (90%), Baquba, Maysan, Erbil, Duhok, Basra, Nasrya, Muthana (55%), Karkuk group 1 ( 26%), Karkuk group 2 (34%), Basrah (52%), Salahdine (100%), Basrah (39%, Muthana (7%), Mousl (38%)].

- Of the 19 Training Halls being rehabilitated, 2 are under the bidding process and 17 are in the stage of implementation [Karbala(95%), Maysan(51%), Salahadine(75%), Nasirya(30%), Dewanya(20%),Duhok(98%), Baquba(50%), Anbar(30%), Erbil(32%), Muthana(20%), Babel(41%), Kirkuk(36%), Basrah(46%), Najaf(20%),Waste(60%), Mousl(100%), Suleimanyah(100%)].

- The Stage 1 rehabilitation of the National Drug Quality Control Laboratory is 92% complete.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced that it will donate 21,250 metric tons of corn and 8,750 tons of soybean meal to the U.S. Grains Council, a private organization, for use in Iraq.

"Agriculture is vital to the Iraqi economy and this donation will help to revitalize their agriculture sector as an engine of economic growth," said Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns. "We are very pleased that USDA's food for progress program will help to improve the quality of life available to the Iraqi people."

The U.S. Grains Council will sell the corn and soybean meal and use the proceeds to help revitalize the Iraqi poultry industry. The Council's program will provide a revolving loan fund for poultry producers, training in credit fund management, and trade capacity building for the Iraqi Poultry Producers Association.

USAID’s [Agricultural Reconstruction and Development for Iraq] program funded the construction of water storage basins in five Iraqi villages to improve irrigation. Each of the five 96 m3 basins will collect runoff from mountain springs for use during the summer season...

Six USAID-supported agriculture outreach teams, that will include a veterinarian and an agronomist/animal production specialist, will visit 240 villages to conduct workshops on diseases that are transmitted from animals to people.

USAID’s Agriculture Reconstruction and Development for Iraq (ARDI) program is training 28 mechanics under a grant to improve access to agricultural machinery maintenance services in rural areas...

To create an infrastructure for a nationwide price information system among produce traders and farmers, USAID’s ARDI program provides a daily report of fruit and vegetable prices from wholesale markets in 10 Iraqi governorates...

The Directorate of Water Resources in Al Muthanna’ Governorate is working with USAID to rehabilitate a canal system that will irrigate 6,000 donums (1,200 hectares) of land farmed by 120 families.

Good news from Iraq is hard to come by these days, what with the suicide bombings, the car bombs, the tension between Shi’a and Sunni factions and the almost daily kidnappings. Yet amidst all the doom and gloom there are some positive reports on the unlikely subject of Iraq’s environment. The vast marshlands of southern Iraq, almost drained out of existence by Saddam, are recovering far more quickly than anyone had even dared to hope...

At last there is good news: Speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association of the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Dr. Curtis Richardson, co-author of a report on the current status of the marshes, announced that with the destruction of barriers built by Saddam’s henchmen to direct water away from the marshes, 20 percent of the area has now been reflooded with the promise that even more can be restored. And although some areas are heavily salinated, the water quality is better than expected. The result has been the return of “about 60 percent of the wildlife to the marshes” though the report does not make clear whether this is the number of species or absolute numbers. The newly elected Iraqi government has already set up a commission to oversee the recovery of the area and $30 million has been donated from abroad to help in the rehabilitation.

Although our foreign team left the southern Shimaya district due to security concerns in April 2004, work has continued through locals who have taken responsibility for the projects. By March 2005 we had finished renovating three more schools. We continue to maintain a relationship with the local communities and partnered with UNICEF for the rehabilitation of these schools.

Operation Mercy’s foreign team re-located to northern Iraq in the spring of 2005, where we have completed a needs assessment and are pursuing the areas of schools rehabilitation, working with people with disabilities and skills training for the high level of unemployed youth. We plan to work closely with other NGO’s and the local communities.

In June ‘05 we distributed approximately 50 wheelchairs in local centres in Northern Iraq. Many of the children who received the chairs had been waiting for many years to get a wheelchair. Our children’s physiotherapist will be continuing with a needs assessment in the area of Community Based Rehabilitation. We are also looking into the training of children and teachers regarding the integration of physically disabled children into public schools.

The areas of health education and sanitation are a priority for our staff and we will focus our schools rehabilitation efforts on these areas. Our plans will result in improved hygiene standards for approximately 8000 children in 2005 by renovating the sanitation facilities.

Operation Mercy’s aim in offering skills training is to equip the many young people with the basic skills needed to find good employment. We intend to offer training in basic computer skills and English language.

First lady Laura Bush on Friday applauded teenagers for reaching out to the children of Iraq and to their own communities.

"You're turning youthful idealism into practical ideas," she told nearly a thousand teens and adult organizers from around the country at the fourth National Youth Summit.

Summit participants donated 70 large boxes of art supplies for Iraqi schools, a project Bush described as "a heartfelt act of solidarity with the young people of Iraq."

The State Department sponsored six Iraqi summit participants, including Iraqi minister of youth and sport, Talib Zaini, and two Iraqi young people.

U.S. soldiers in Iraq are doing more than conducting military operations: They're also handing out much needed school supplies to Iraq's children. And for the past year, some of those supplies have been provided by a small nongovernmental organization founded together by an American actor and a bestselling author.

"Operation Iraq Children" (OIC) was begun in March 2004 by actor Gary Sinise and author Laura Hillenbrand. Sinise played "Lieutenant Dan" in the film Forrest Gump and is known for his role as a detective in the hit television series CSI: NY. Hillenbrand wrote Seabiscuit: An American Legend, a book about a champion racehorse that was made into a feature film.

Sinise says he began the project after visiting an Iraqi school where he "saw a tremendous need" for basic school supplies and then "became aware that this was the norm for most of the schools in Iraq."

Sinise originally shipped 25 boxes of school supplies in January 2004. Since OIC was founded it has sent 40 additional shipments to Iraq -- most recently on July 29. To date more than 200,000 school kits have been shipped, according to the OIC site.

A typical kit contains scissors, a ruler, regular and colored pencils, a sharpener, an eraser, notebook paper, a composition book, some folders and a zippered pencil bag. OIC estimates the kit's value at $15, which would make for an estimated donation value of approximately $3 million.

Sinise's efforts drew the attention of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who visited the actor in Los Angeles August 4 on the set of CSI: NY. According to the American Forces Press Service, Rumsfeld told CSI: NY cast members about "all the wonderful things [Sinise] has done for the men and women in uniform across the country" and thanked the actor for his personal support for U.S. troops. Rumsfeld and Sinise both said they hoped OIC can be expanded into Afghanistan.

What started out as a simple family project for an Arizona teenager has blossomed - make that snowballed - into a huge operation that's about to send the 50,000th Beanie Baby doll to troops in Iraq to distribute to local children.

Fourteen-year-old Alison Goulder is still at it, continuing a project to collect the stuffed critters for U.S. troops.

The soon-to-be-ninth-grader got the idea when she read in a magazine about Operation Grateful, an effort by law firm Greenberg Traurig to send care packages to troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and Germany. The magazine quoted Joe Reeder, former undersecretary of the Army and now a partner with the law firm, as saying Beanie Babies were the top item on the troops' wish list.

Goulder, who started collecting Beanie Babies when she was 7 years old, took the article as a call to action. She and her sister Jenna and brother Greg began scouring through their closets. They came up with 80 Beanie Babies.

But that was soon to become the just tip of the iceberg. Alison's family members, friends and schoolmates started collecting the Beanie Babies, too.

Alison's original goal was to collect 1,000 of the critters. But by last December, she'd already gathered 28,000, earning her a visit to the Pentagon to be thanked personally by then-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff.

She also visited Greenberg Traurig's Washington law office, where she found one room so jam-packed with Beanie Babies she'd collected that "you could hardly walk into it," she told the American Forces Press Service.

Greenberg Traurig continues to ship all the Beanie Babies Alison collects to Iraq as part of their Operation Grateful campaign.

And to Alison's amazement, the Beanie Babies continue to arrive regularly at her Scottsdale home. They come from "all over," she said, fueled by articles in local newspapers and local TV stories about her effort. CNN ran a story about her efforts, and troops in Iraq learned about it on the Pentagon Channel.

Now she's considering taking the effort national, possibly creating a Web site to further publicize her efforts. "We're definitely expanding the project," she said, noting that she has "thousands" on hand, ready for shipment. Once they're distributed, this shipment will bring to 50,000 the number of Beanie Babies being enjoyed by young Iraqi children.

Sheik Horn floats around the room in white robe and headdress, exchanging pleasantries with dozens of village leaders... Officially, he's Army Staff Sgt. Dale L. Horn, but to residents of the 37 villages and towns that he patrols he's known as the American sheik...

Late last year a full-blown battle between insurgents and U.S. and Iraqi forces had erupted, and U.S. commanders assigned a unit to stop rocket and mortar attacks that regularly hit their base. Horn, who had been trained to operate radars for a field artillery unit, was now thrust into a job that largely hinged on coaxing locals into divulging information about insurgents.

Horn, 25, a native of Fort Walton Beach, Fla., acknowledges he had little interest in the region before coming here. But a local sheik friendly to U.S. forces, Dr. Mohammed Ismail Ahmed, explained the inner workings of rural Iraqi society on one of Horn's first Humvee patrols.

Horn says he was intrigued, and started making a point of stopping by all the villages, all but one dominated by Sunni Arabs, to talk to people about their life and security problems.

Moreover, he pressed for development projects in the area: he now boasts that he helped funnel $136,000 worth of aid into the area. Part of that paid for delivery of clean water to 30 villages during the broiling summer months.

"They saw that we were interested in them, instead of just taking care of the bases," Horn said.

Mohammed, Horn's mentor and known for his dry sense of humor, eventually suggested during a meeting of village leaders that Horn be named a sheik. The sheiks approved by voice vote, Horn said.

Some sheiks later gave him five sheep and a postage stamp of land, fulfilling some of the requirements for sheikdom. Others encouraged him to start looking for a second wife, which Horn's spouse back in Florida immediately vetoed.

But what may have originally started as a joke among crusty village elders has sprouted into something serious enough for 100 to 200 village leaders to meet with Horn each month to discuss security issues.

And Horn doesn't take his responsibilities lightly. He lately has been prodding the Iraqi Education Ministry to pay local teachers, and he closely follows a water pipeline project that he hopes will ensure the steady flow of clean water to his villages.

"Ninety percent of the people in my area are shepherds or simple townspeople," said Horn. "They simply want to find a decent job to make enough money to provide food and a stable place for their people to live."

To Horn's commanders, his success justifies his unorthodox approach: no rockets have hit their base in the last half year.

Last fall, insurgents overran police stations and Iraqi army bases in this northern rural region, scaring off nearly all 2,000 Iraqi troops and keeping people locked inside their homes at night.

Last month only two attacks took place in this Rhode Island-sized area mostly populated by Sunni Arabs and Kurds, according to U.S. commanders in the area.

The difference, they say, stems from a new approach of relying on sheiks and mukhtars - the tribal and local leaders who wield enormous influence among some 75,000 people in hundreds of villages and small towns south of the city of Mosul.

"Sheiks are the real power here," said Lt. Col. Bradley Becker, commander of the 2nd Battalion, 8th Field Artillery Regiment. "Mayors just aren't as good as sheiks on security matters."

Becker says he now meets with 50 to 100 sheiks a week, and holds monthly confabs with them in a base auditorium that usually shows movies for relaxing soldiers. Sheiks and mukhtars, most in white robes, some walking gingerly with canes, flow into the room and listen to U.S. and Iraqi officials talking about security as well as local issues such as electricity supply.

About six people showed up for the first meeting early this year - but the latest, on Tuesday, drew about 300. Much of it took a townhall tone, hearing complaints about gasoline shortages and inquiries about arrested fellow tribesmen.

"After November, what happened was bad, but they came to us," said Sheik Nief Saleh said of the Americans. "I try to help as I can."

In return for the sheiks' help, Becker says he has spent close to $1 million on reconstruction jobs employing hundreds of tribesmen.

A potential $161 million will soon be added to the Reconstruction Program coffers here.

The Commander’s Emergency Relief Program, or CERP, is an allocation of money which allows commanders on the ground and Iraqi community leaders to work together toward immediate quality of life enhancements for Iraqis.

The Gulf Region Division and its three districts in Mosul, Baghdad, and Tallil work with their Iraqi counterparts to prioritize needs.

Maneuver commanders in communities look for small infrastructure projects aimed at completing the ‘last mile’ for delivery of electricity, water or other basic needs to homes and businesses.

CERP funds have also been made available to the Iraqi Provincial Reconstruction and Development committees. In one governate in the Gulf Region's North District, three water treatment plants in one area were recommended for rehabilitation at a cost of approximately $175,000.

Another 78 CERP projects in the north district, funded for $4.9M, will add three classrooms each to 27 schools and six classrooms apiece to 51 schools. All of those projects are expected to be completed in September.

In the Gulf Region Central District, an $89,000 outpatient clinic is being built with funding from this program. Also in the central district, seven CERP projects for a cost of $1.4 million are scheduled to replace low- and medium-voltage lines throughout Sadr City.

To provide fiscal reconstruction support in Iraq, the Army presented its first reimbursement payment July 25.

Maj. Gen. Daniel Long, director of the Iraq project and contracting office, presented Jasim M. Jaa’far, Iraqi minister of construction and housing, with a check for $1,548,795 under an Army program to provide fiscal support for the reconstruction of select Iraq infrastructure

The agreement allows the Iraqi minister of construction and housing to hire contractors and manage the projects themselves. No U.S. contractors are on site.

This agreement realized a 34 percent savings over traditional U.S. contracts. The money will be used to build key bridges and roadways. Programs such as this are central to the reconstruction effort, and provide the first step in building a foundation for the transfer of control of completed facilities to Iraqi management.

With a major neighborhood electrical refurbishment project getting underway in the city of Najaf, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region South District has earmarked most of the money for distribution projects, which means a voltage level from 33 kilovolts down to the levels used by houses and small shops.

"The plants aren’t operating at full capacity for one reason or another. The plants are old and haven’t been well maintained over the years for example. This power shortage causes the three hours on/ three hours off of electricity that Iraq experiences now because there is only half the power needed."

People appreciate distribution projects because that’s when "you bring wires into the home," said Greg Fillers, Gulf Region South Electrical Sector project manager. "It’s kind of like an overall electric blanket. That blanket covers power generation, transmission lines, distribution networks and controls." He added that all four components contribute equally to the system.

Fillers explained that similar distribution projects are being planned and accomplished in most of Iraq’s larger cities, for example Basrah. There, the power generation plant at Khor Az Zubahr has a dual switchyard. While the generator there doesn’t create high voltages, the voltage is converted up for transmission to 400,000 volts or 400 KiloVolts (KV), which is one standard in Iraq. The other transmission standard is 132 KV, and the level of voltage is decreased in steps as it gets closer to individual homes. The higher the voltage, the better it transmits over distances.

Estimates put the shortage of potable water in the area surrounding Najaf and Kufa at about 40 percent, with existing plants being old or deteriorated because of neglect or lack of maintenance. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Gulf Region South District (GRS) has quality assurance responsibilities on 14 water treatment units and three water pipeline projects that will increase that drinkable water flow within the Najaf area.

The water projects, worth approximately $12 million, involve the installation of 14 compact water treatment units and piping, according to Darrell Flinn. These compact units require highly skilled labor to maintain them, and training the staff is part of the overall package. “These require a technical labor force that has been taught to use this equipment,” Flinn said.

Seven of the 14 small units are finished and the rest are in various stages of completion. The three pipeline projects are 90 percent completed, or better. “It is really critical to bring water to these neighborhoods.”

Nineteen Iraqi military physicians, nurses, medics and medical equipment technicians from the Iraqi Armed Forces went to Germany for five weeks of field hospital, mass casualty and biomedical equipment maintenance training that taught them how to use a variety of donated medical equipment.

During the second week in July, Coalition Forces worked with Iraqi health officials in Owja, of the Salah Ad Din province, to open a hospital for the general public. Troops helped hire doctors and nurses, obtain beds, and fix the air conditioning system. Now the hospital provides basic healthcare, including gynecology, x-rays and general practice. The hospital served Saddam Hussein's family and friends but has been closed for several years.

More than 20 healthcare facilities have been renovated, with many others in the process of being renovated. The $653,000 Al Husseiniya Primary Healthcare Center under construction in the Al Resafa District of Baghdad Province will include teaching and delivery facilities, as well as a labor center. The facilities are scheduled to be completed by the end of the year and will relieve the overburdened outpatient care currently being provided by existing hospitals. The final objective of implementing this health care system is to reduce overall infant mortality rate by at least 20 percent.

Approximately 18,000 Iraqi children will study in refurbished schools when their new school year starts in slightly more than six weeks, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Iraqi and U.S. government agencies announced August 6 that renovations of 43 schools in the northern and southern governorates are funded for repairs, with contracts awarded for the work.

Since June of last year, 656 of 800 schools in reconstruction have completed.

As part of the Iraq Relief Reconstruction Fund, over $1.3 million was set aside to continue a nationwide school repair program.

Repairs include rehabilitating sanitary facilities, and electrical and mechanical systems, as well as structural repairs to schools in Karbala , Dahuk, Najaf, Basrah and Qadisiyah.

Cpl. Jeffrey H. Meighen, civil affairs non-commissioned officer, 5th Civil Affairs Group, 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, goes out into the local communities and makes a difference in Iraqi children's lives during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

"I love being around kids, these kids are good kids," said Meighen. "They smile and seem comfortable with us."

Meighen sometimes participates in sporting events with the local children. He also hands out toys and hygiene products while working to help rebuild their towns.

The Southern Senior High School graduate conducts civil affairs missions to help people in the surrounding cities. As a part of CAG he helps restore critical infrastructure such as water, health services, schools and other projects that help improve the Iraqi living conditions.

"If those vital things are not up and running we push them to get them up and running through government funding," Meighen said.

The native of Harwood, Md., and his team go out two to three times a week to interact with the Iraqi-nationals. They recently set up a soccer game for the kids of a local village where Marines put nets on empty goals and handed out jerseys, shorts, socks and even shoes.

"Basically I think the foundation for any society is the kids. If we show them now that we are not all bad, that we are not here to take away their freedom, but to liberate them, the kids will grow up knowing that and 20 years from now they will be the ones running the country," he said.

Terrorists in Iraq have been unable to derail the political process, a new Defense Department report on Iraqi stability and security states. Still, the report contends, insurgents "remain capable, adaptable, and intent on carrying out attacks."

The report to Congress on measuring stability and security in Iraq says the inability of insurgents to derail political progress is a "noteworthy strategic indicator of progress toward a stable security environment"...

Attacks on military forces and on civilians are focused in four provinces, with the security situation being relatively stable in the rest of the country. In the four provinces, attacks on civilians are up, while attacks on coalition forces are down, [Lt. Gen. Walter Sharp, the Joint Staff's director of strategic plans and policy] said, noting insurgents "are now realizing they've got to attack softer targets."

The general said attacks on Iraqi forces are up slightly, but noted that should be expected because their numbers and involvement have steadily increased.

Attacks on infrastructure, however, are down. From June to November 2004, Iraq averaged 41 insurgent attacks on infrastructure targets per month. Since February, that number has been an average of seven per month. "The Iraqis are working very hard to help protect their infrastructure out there," Sharp said.

A letter allegedly written by a member of Al Qaeda in Iraq to its country head Abu Mosab Al Zarqawi suggests that there was dissent in the ranks of fighters operating out of Mosul, according to excerpts provided in a statement by the US military on Saturday.

In the letter that the US says it discovered July 27 during a raid on a home in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the author "Abu Zayd" complained of poor local leadership in the organization and the mistreatment of foreign fighters.

"This is a clarification of what has become of the situation in Mosul, and it is no secret to you the noticeable decrease in the attacks carried out by the mujahideen from not long ago when Mosul was in the hands of the mujahideen," wrote Abu Zayd.

The most recent wave of bloody attacks in the city occurred in late June.

Among the charges Abu Zayd levels at the leadership, according to the summary provided by the statement, are the incompetence of the Mosul leadership, disobedience of troops and the squandering of funds.

His woes include the "deplorable" conditions suffered by non-Iraqi fighters including bad pay, housing problems and marginalisation within the organisation. The statement did not give Abu Zayd's nationality.

It also said attacks "lack diversity" and that there was a focus on "quantity not quality".

In the soft glow of twilight, vendors fire up their kebab grills, crowds gather along shopping streets festooned with decorative red-and-white lights and cafes bustle with the sounds of laughter and conversation.

It wasn't always this way in Azamiyah, a middle-class Sunni Arab quarter in Baghdad's north.

Saddam Hussein hid out among his fellow Sunni Arabs of Azamiyah as American troops closed in on Baghdad in April 2003. Marines nearly caught him in a fierce battle the day after crowds hauled down his statue in another part of town.

Life in Azamiyah, home to about a half-million people in a 15-square-mile area, began changing in February, when U.S. and Iraqi authorities sealed off the Tigris River bridge linking the Sunni district with the heavily Shiite neighborhood of Kazimiyah.

The move was to prevent Sunni insurgents from using the bridge to slip into the Shiite area and launch attacks during Ashoura, the major Shiite religious festival. The bridge has been closed since.

The closure not only prevented insurgents from using Azamiyah as a springboard for attacks elsewhere in the city, but it kept troublemakers out of the Sunni district, too. Although there are other routes into Azamiyah, the locals keep an eye out for strangers, stopping outsiders and asking what they are doing there.

Iraqi forces have managed to impose relative quiet on many cities in the restive province of Diyala, Governor Raad Rasheed said.

The curfew on the provincial capital of Baaquba, site of frequent roadside and car bomb attacks, will now start from 11 p.m. instead of 9 p.m., he said.

“We strive to scrap all the measures and decisions that restrict the freedom of residents,” he said in an interview.

The governor did not say what other measures he intends to take to bring life to normal in his violence-stricken province.

But he said reducing the curfew in the provincial center and removing it altogether in a few other areas “is an indication of an improvement in the security situation.”

For example in the town of Bahraz, which for long was almost completely under revel control, the curfew has been reduced from 12 midnight to 4 a.m.

There's one clear sign that life in the Sunni Arab-dominated (search) western half of this city is changing for the better — children are again playing soccer at night. The reason: fewer terrorist attacks.

The U.S. military says there were fewer bombings and mortar attacks in July than any month since October.

A 50-percent drop in attacks in western Mosul (search) over the past eight months is a marked improvement from the days when U.S. troops routinely had to call in airstrikes and repel synchronized attacks.

But that doesn't mean violence has been eradicated. Though attacks in July were noticeably down, western Mosul still endured over 50 shootings and roadside bombings, the U.S military said.

Soldiers say they're close to solidifying gains and making further progress — if the flow of foreign fighters can be blocked so that terrorist ranks are not quickly replaced. U.S. commanders say they've nearly uprooted the top terrorist network that steered the city toward chaos last November.

Asked when he last had to treat victims of a car bomb, Iraqi doctor Arif Anwar, an emergency room surgeon at Sulaimaniya's main hospital, dismisses the question with a smile and then starts to laugh.

"Car bomb? Are you joking?" he chuckles, as his white-coated colleagues in the doctors' lounge join the chorus of amusement.

"We don't have anything like that. The biggest problem we have here is car accidents -- too many car accidents," he says, shaking his head in dismay at the poor quality of local driving...

The emergency room at Anwar's hospital, a newly built wing that wouldn't look out of place in Europe, sometimes doesn't handle a single emergency all day. On other days maybe 10 to 15 patients are brought in, the doctors say...

Every evening the streets of Sulaimaniya, a thriving city of around 700,000 people, are thronged.

Young men and women walk or sit together in the parks, while older men gather in cafes to drink tea and play backgammon. Restaurants are packed, music plays and the streets are alive -- in stark contrast to Baghdad and other troubled cities.

The explosion blows open the entrance to a darkened warehouse. A half dozen commandos rush in, swiftly moving from room to room as they search for the hostage-takers. The sharp rattle of gunfire follows.

Then a smiling Iraqi commander emerges, holding up a life-size cardboard cutout of a mock terrorist holding a woman hostage, his head riddled with multiple bullet holes.

Watching the 'live-fire' exercise by an Iraqi military commando squad, Lt. Gen. David Petraeus, the American commander charged with training Iraq's security forces, nodded in approval: ``They're good. These are the guys who are going to get us home.''

The Iraqi Police Service graduated 142 police officers from advanced and specialty courses at the Adnan Training Facility [on August 4]...

Completing the 10-week training course were 1,816 new police recruits. One hundred thirty-seven graduated from the Sulaymaniyah Regional Academy, 643 from the Hillah Regional Academy, and 952, including 16 women, from the Baghdad Police College. Completing the three-week Transitional Integration Program in Baghdad were 84 police officers...

The TIP course is a three-week program developed for serving police officers with little or no prior basic training. TIP will provide these officers with a condensed version of the 10-week course. More than 40,000 police recruits have previously completed the longer course developed for new recruits.

An additional 37,000 police officers have completed the TIP course to date. The new officers will report for duty in the coming weeks and take up their assignments at their respective police stations throughout Iraq.

Coalition maritime forces and maritime forces from Iraq and Kuwait launched an historic operation July 20 focused on maritime security operations (MSO) in the North Persian Gulf, marking the first time the countries' sea services have worked together...

The engagement resulting from Operation River Dragon provided a mechanism to create a broad-based maritime coalition actively engaged in countering threats both at sea and ashore. Almost all coalition partners contribute maritime forces, such as ships, boarding teams, maritime patrol aircraft, intelligence analysts and staff augmentees to support ongoing operations.

The 1st Iraqi Army Mechanized Brigade became fully operational after the 2nd Battalion came on line July 25, according to senior officials with the Coalition Military Assistance Training Team, Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq.

Soldiers with 2nd Battalion, 1st Brigade, 9th Iraqi Army Mechanized Division became operational and under the tactical control of the Multinational Corps-Iraq, officials reported.

The 1st Brigade is headquartered in Taji and consists of approximately 2,000 soldiers. Officials said the unit will be available to respond to national emergencies throughout Iraq and will support the Ministry of Interior forces required.

Enrolment has begun in Iraqi Kudistan for the first Kurdish Peshmerga fighters to join Iraq's national army. The recruitment represents the completion of the first phase to create a special brigade within the fourth division of the Iraqi army. Peshmerga is the term used by Kurds to refer to freedom fighters, and literally means "those who face death".

The agreements reached in the last few months will see some 32,000 former guerrillas join the ranks of Iraq's new armed forces, said Jaafar Mustafa, a member of the Peshmerga leadership, but "so far only one brigade has been set up", whose members come from the Sulaymaniya area.

A July 31 ceremony marked the transfer of authority for one fifth of the Diyala province to the Iraqi army.

Improved security in the Diyala Province has allowed Coalition Forces to successfully transition operational control of Forward Operating Base Scunion to Iraqi control...

Iraqi soldiers of the 2nd Brigade, 5th Iraqi Army Division, hoisted the Iraqi flag over the newly named Forward Operating Base Khamees, named in honor of an Iraqi army major killed in action June 26th.

Come December, Iraqi army officer candidates who show up at the Zakho Military Academy may think they’ve been mistakenly sent to a resort.

The 200 cadets training at the academy now are in cramped quarters, eating in a chow hall built for 80 people and using a dilapidated old gymnasium.

While the training won’t be any less strenuous, the group that starts in December or January will have new and renovated barracks, two renovated dining facilities, a renovated swimming pool, a new gymnasium, a running track and a training area that includes an obstacle course, a rappelling tower, and ranges for rifle, grenade and urban warfare training.

The military academy is one of about 2,800 projects that fall under the Iraq Reconstruction Program. The projects include such facilities as schools, water treatment facilities, power distribution upgrades, border forts and health clinics — projects that will help rebuild the country’s infrastructure.

The $8.2 million project at Zakho also includes potable and waste water treatment facilities to accommodate 5,000 people, said Joshua Adekanbi, project engineer for the academy.

Defense Solutions announced... that it will deliver the first five rebuilt T-72 Main Battle Tanks to the Iraqi Army. Iraqi Staff Major General Mahmood Ayoub Bashar will accept these tanks on behalf of the Iraqi Ministry of Defense during his attendance at program review meetings being held at the HM Currus Combat Vehicle Technique Company (Currus), Gödöllõ, Hungary.

Currus is participating in the refurbishment project under a subcontract to Defense Solutions. These tanks are part of a total of 77 T-72s that are being rebuilt under a contract between Defense Solutions and the Iraqi Ministry of Defense. The T-72 tanks were originally donated to Iraq by the Government of Hungary. Defense Solutions is performing this work under a U.S. State Department license.

Iraqi and multinational security forces from Task Force Freedom detained 32 suspected terrorists, killed one terrorist, injured another three, and seized a weapons cache over the weekend...:

- A joint force of Iraqi Police and U.S. soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, killed one terrorist during a raid in western Mosul today. The raid also resulted in the capture of seven terrorist suspects, who are now in custody, officials said. Coalition forces reportedly sustained no injuries.

- Iraqi Police detained seven terrorist suspects during separate operations in Mosul on today and Aug. 6.

- Iraqi army soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, seized eight terrorist suspects following an attack on their checkpoint in northern Mosul Aug. 6.

- Iraqi army soldiers from the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 1st Division, apprehended two terrorist suspects during a cordon-and-search operation in Rawah on Aug. 6.

- Iraqi Intervention Force troops from the 3rd Battalion, 1st Brigade, 1st Division, detained two terrorist suspects during a raid in Rawah on Aug. 6. The terrorist suspects are in custody, and Iraqi security forces sustained no injuries, officials said.

- Three terrorist suspects were injured in an engagement with U.S. soldiers with the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment in Tal Afar on Aug. 6. The terrorist suspects had attacked Iraqi army soldiers via a drive-by shooting. The terrorist suspects are being treated for their injuries and then will be detained, officials said.

- U.S. soldiers with the 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, captured another two terrorist suspects who had attacked civilians, in Tal Afar on Aug. 6, officials said.

- Soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment apprehended one terrorist suspect during a raid in eastern Mosul on Aug. 6.

- Soldiers from the 2nd Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment, captured three terrorist suspects and a weapons cache over the weekend. The seizures occurred during two separate operations in Rawah. The cache included a number of mortar rounds and a mortar-firing system. The weapons were confiscated for future destruction...

Iraqi and multinational security forces with the 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division (Stryker Brigade Combat Team), detained 34 suspected terrorists and seized a weapons cache during operations in northern Iraq on Aug. 5...

Twenty-five of the terrorist suspects were apprehended during cordon-and-search operations south of Oayyarah. Iraqi army soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 2nd Division, and U.S. troops from the 2nd Battalion, 8th Field Artillery Regiment, spearheaded these operations.

Soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, apprehended another five suspected terrorists on Friday. The 24th seized the terrorist suspects during three separate operations in western Mosul, officials said.

The remaining four terrorist suspects were detained by soldiers from the 2nd Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment, at a checkpoint in Rawah.

Also on Aug. 5, U.S. soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, seized a weapons cache during a search operation in eastern Mosul, officials said. The cache reportedly included several artillery rounds, which were confiscated for future destruction.

Iraqi soldiers and U.S. Marines from Regimental Combat Team 2 destroyed three car bombs while conducting cordon-and-search operations in the western Iraqi city of Haqliniyah today...

The soldiers and Marines also discovered two weapons caches in caves outside of Haqliniyah today... The first cave reportedly was found at 9:00 a.m. It contained a rocket-propelled-grenade launcher, medium machine gun, several assault rifles, and bomb-making material, the Marines said. The second cave contained 155 mm artillery rounds and a propane tank -- items, they noted, that are commonly used for bomb construction.

The Marines detained 24 suspected terrorists for questioning.

Also during Operation Quick Strike today, Iraqi soldiers and U.S. Marines discovered two roadside bombs buried alongside the main road south of Haditha...

A joint U.S-Iraqi raid in Sharmiyah Aug. 5 resulted in the capture of 39 suspected terrorists, including some key local terrorist leaders. Eight of the 39 terrorist suspects were detained at the Mudjaherin al Ansar mosque by a specially trained Iraqi Police unit. The mosque was not damaged in the operation, officials said.

The remaining 31 terrorist suspects were detained during a cordon-and-knock operation by U.S. soldiers from the 150th Engineer Battalion, 155th Brigade Combat Team (BCT), 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward). The 155th BCT is a U.S. Army unit assigned to the 2nd MEF (Forward) for Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The 155th BCT also recently seized and destroyed munitions from two weapons caches identified by Iraqi police, officials said. The Soldiers also detained three suspected terrorists. Among the seized and destroyed munitions: 1,427 artillery rounds, 50 37 mm anti-aircraft rounds, two 107 mm rockets, and two mortar rounds.

Similarly, in Bauqbah Aug. 5, Iraqi security forces neutralized five improvised explosive devices. One of the IEDs was identified by Iraqi army soldiers, who immediately secured the area. An Iraqi explosive ordnance disposal team then destroyed the IED...

Meanwhile, in Baghdad Aug. 5, Iraqi security forces reportedly detained 45 suspected terrorists during Operation Vanguard Thunder. Participating Iraqi army soldiers and police officers were assisted by elements of the 184th U.S. Infantry Regiment. Operation Vanguard Thunder is targeting 150-200 terrorist suspects. No injuries or damages were reported during these operations, officials said.

Iraqi army and Task Force Baghdad soldiers worked together to capture five terror suspects in three separate combat operations carried out in southern, western and northern Baghdad Aug. 4.

- In Mosul, coalition forces detained two individuals for handing out terrorist propaganda. The two individuals revealed the location of their source and, during a resulting raid, Iraqi police killed one terrorist later confirmed to be a Syrian national. In a combined raid, coalition and Iraqi security forces captured three men connected to terror leader Abbass Fadhel Zangana.

- Near Hit, Iraqi Intervention Forces and U.S. Marines captured three terrorists in a truck towing another vehicle modified as a car bomb.

- In Haqlaniyah, coalition forces destroyed a booby-trapped house that contained improvised explosive devices.

- In Baghdad, coalition forces captured a car bomb and four terrorists who were involved in a car-bomb cell. Iraqi forces captured ten members of a terrorist cell in Sadr City.

In other developments, Iraqi army soldiers and coalition forces captured suspected insurgents in a targeted search Aug. 7 in Rawah, Iraq, according to a Multinational Force Iraq report.

Elements of U.S. Army Task Force 2-14 and soldiers from 3rd Battalion, 1st Brigade, 1st Iraqi Intervention Force, detained four suspected insurgents during the operation. The suspects included one Syrian man, one Sudanese man, a former Rawah police officer, and a civilian. The Sudanese man was in possession of an expired passport.

In Fallujah, Iraqi army soldiers found and eliminated improvised explosive devices while conducting search operations Aug. 6, according to a MNFI report.

Soldiers with the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 1st Iraqi Intervention Force, discovered an IED while on a dismounted patrol. The IED consisted of one 130 mm artillery round enclosed in a white burlap bag with a car-alarm receiver, a washing machine timer, and a battery. The area was secured and the IED was disarmed and removed for later disposal.

Elsewhere, Iraqi army soldiers found IEDs in Rawah and Mugdadiyah. In Rawah, soldiers raided a building and found one 120 mm artillery round and two pounds of propellant. Two suspected insurgents were detained.

In Mugdadiyah, a patrol located one 155 mm artillery round and an unknown initiation device. An Iraqi explosive ordnance disposal team removed the IED.