Sunni militias' success seen as threat to Shi'ites

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The U.S. campaign to turn Sunni Muslims against Islamic extremists is growing so quickly that Iraq's Shi'ite Muslim leaders fear that it's out of control and threatens to create a potent armed force that will turn against the government one day.

The United States, which credits much of the drop in violence to the campaign, is enrolling hundreds of people daily in what it calls concerned local citizens groups. More than 5,000 have been sworn in since mid-November, for a total of 77,542 as of last week. There are 192 groups.

U.S. officials said they were screening new members -- who generally are paid $300 a month to patrol their neighborhoods -- and were subjecting them to tough security measures. More than 60,000 have had fingerprints and DNA taken and had retinal scans, U.S. officials said, steps that would allow them to be identified later, should they turn against the government. The officials said they plan to cap membership in the groups at 100,000.
But that hasn't calmed mounting concerns among aides to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who charge that some of the groups include terrorists who attack Shi'ite residents in their neighborhoods. Some of the concerned citizens are occupying houses that terrified Shi'ite families abandoned, they said.

It also hasn't quieted criticism that the program is trading long-term Iraqi stability for short-term security gains.

"There is a danger here that we are going to have armed all three sides: the Kurds in the north, the Shi'ite and now the Sunni militias," said Bruce Riedel, a former CIA analyst who is now at the Brookings Institution, a center-left policy organization in Washington, D.C.

Sunni politicians said the creation of the groups was justified because it made up for the U.S. decision to disband Saddam Hussein's Sunni-led army shortly after Baghdad fell in 2003. They also said the groups balance the infiltration of Iraq's security forces by Shi'ite militias during the rapid U.S.-sponsored expansion of those forces in 2004 and 2005.

"Those who fear are the ones who have militias blatantly operating from within the official institutions and law enforcement agencies and outside them," said Omar Abdul Sattar, a member of the Iraqi Accordance Front, the largest Sunni group in parliament.

Dr. Safa Hussein, al-Maliki's deputy national security adviser and the head of a committee tasked with reconciling Iraq's rival factions, said the government was concerned about what would take place once the United States no longer was supervising the concerned citizens groups closely.

"We have tens of thousands of people who are carrying weapons on a contract basis, and when their contracts are finished, where will they go?" he asked. "The Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Defense can't absorb them all, and the problem is they are growing very rapidly and the Iraqi government doesn't have any control over that."

"When the U.S. leaves, what we'll have are two armies," said Sami al Askari, a Shi'ite lawmaker who speaks to al-Maliki daily. "One who's loyal to the government and one not loyal."

Groups said to quell violence

U.S. officials have hailed the decision to create the concerned citizens groups as the reason that violence has dropped throughout much of Iraq. Military commanders credit the groups with dramatic drops in violence, from Anbar province to areas south of Baghdad, formerly known as the Triangle of Death.

But the campaign also has been criticized for sanctioning armed groups that include people who were attacking American troops only months ago, a fact that Riedel said should give U.S. officials pause.

"All of these factions and all of these militias are our friends only as long as it suits their interests," he said. "At any time, they can change their affiliation. Once they come to the conclusion that the Americans are leaving, then they'll start to want to see how do they want to position themselves, post-American presence in Iraq, as heroes of resistance."

Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, the top U.S. spokesman in Iraq, said American officials had discussed the concerns with al-Maliki and that the reconciliation committee headed by Deputy National Security Adviser Hussein was intended to find ways to absorb the new groups into the security forces or other service-related jobs.

"This is not a militia; it's more than 190 distinct groups of individuals," Smith said. "It's not like the creation of a 70,000 militia in any form."

U.S. officials hope that about a third of the men will be incorporated into local police forces. Currently 49,301 men are under contract with the U.S. military at $300 a month, for a total of almost $15 million a month. Of those, 21,390 are requesting to join the Iraqi Security Forces.

But Hussein said the Iraqi government couldn't process such large numbers and also vet the recruits for loyalty.

"The problem is growing faster than our capacity," he said.

The new groups are proliferating so quickly that some American officials are taken aback. Maj. Mark Brady, who deals with tribal engagement and reconciliation in Baghdad, lauded the program but described it as "building a plane while flying in it."
FREEP

Nothing gets past these guys, they're quick..