THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION RAISES THE COSTS OF THE WAR
War cost $171 billion in 2007, Bush asks for $193 billion in 2008. According to the Congressional Budget Office in a report released Wednesday, "Funding for U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and other activities in the war on terrorism expanded significantly in 2007." War funding, which averaged about $93 billion a year from 2003 through 2005, rose to $120 billion in 2006 and $171 billion in 2007 and President George W. Bush has asked for $193 billion in 2008, the report noted. [Reuters, 1/23/08]
THE ANBAR STRATEGY IS COMING UNDER THREAT
At least 100 Sunni militiamen allied with the U.S. against Sunni extremists have been killed this past month. Known as Awakening Council members or Concerned Local Citizens, most of those killed have been around Baghdad and the provincial capital of Baquba, urban areas with mixed Sunni and Shi'a populations. At least six of the victims were senior Awakening leaders. These American-backed Sunni militias have fought Sunni extremists to a standstill in some of Iraq's bloodiest battlegrounds, but are now being targeted with a wave of assassinations and bomb attacks, threatening a fragile linchpin of the military's strategy to pacify the nation. Killings of guardsmen are mounting even as Awakening members are becoming increasingly frustrated with the Iraqi government, which has yet to fulfill its promise to integrate 20 percent of the volunteers into the Ministries of Interior and Defense and give non-security jobs to the rest -- a process that American officials say could take until the end of the year. [NY Times, 1/24/08]
Extremist's intel manual is captured, raising fears that awakening movement is heavily infiltrated. Found with a detainee, it was disguised as a child's geography notebook, a sticker of Sylvester and Tweety Bird affixed to the cover. "What are our most important secrets?" read one passage on resisting interrogations. "The members of the organization. The location of their homes. Hide phone numbers, names, addresses and countries they are from. "How is information compromised? By failing to do your job well. Confiding in stupid people. Bribery. People who talk too much. Confessions under torture. Electronic listening devices. Infiltration by spies." An Iraqi intelligence official said, "Our battle in Iraq has become an intelligence battle." The official added, "Half of the Awakening movement is infiltrated by Al Qaeda." He went on to say that the most dangerous threat, was posed by the Mahdi and Badr militias who, he claimed, were working with Iran to undermine the Awakening movement. He warned that if Awakening groups were provoked into retaliatory attacks against government-linked Shi'a militias, the results could be catastrophic. [NY Times, 1/24/08]
VIOLENCE HAS BEEN UNUSUALLY HIGH OVER THE PAST FEW DAYS
Explosion at apartment complex kills 34 and wounds more than 224 in northern Iraq. The next day, a suicide bomber dressed as a cop kills the local police chief touring the site. The first blast tore through a vacant apartment building in a mostly Sunni neighborhood in Mosul just minutes after the Iraqi army arrived to investigate tips about a weapons cache. All of the casualties were from adjacent apartment buildings. The huge blast went off just after the troops arrived, and none were reported killed, raising speculation that insurgents were trying to set a trap. The next day, a suicide bomber dressed in uniform killed the Mosul police chief and 2 other officers, while wounding 3 more and a U.S. soldier as they toured the blast site. [AP, 1/24/08]
RADICAL CLERIC DOES NOT WANT TO SPEAK TO U.S.
Rebuking U.S. offers to talk, Muqtada al-Sadr threatens to turn loose his Mahdi Militia after a six-month ceasefire. The cease-fire was announced in August and al- Sadr will not renew it unless the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki purges "criminal gangs" operating within security forces and targeting his followers. Al-Sadr claims rival Shi'a militiamen -- known to have infiltrated security forces -- are taking part in an ongoing crackdown against al-Sadr followers. Al-Sadr also faces internal pressures as breakaway militia factions, believed aide by Iran, have defied the cease-fire and turned against al-Sadr loyalists. [AP, 1/23/08]