Al-Qaeda infiltrating Sahwa fighters in Iraq – Time

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The U.S. Time Magazine unveiled in its edition on Thursday information which indicate that al-Qaeda is infiltrating the Sahwa fighters in Iraq. Sheik Hamid al-Hayess is not optimistic. A burly man with a thick black mustache and closely knitted brows, he is one of the founding members of the Anbar Awakening (Sahwa). The grouping of Sunni tribal sheiks in the once al-Qaeda-infested western province turned against the insurgents and sided with the U.S. military, providing the model for what became a nationwide campaign known as the Sahwa. But that model is in trouble, the magazine said. “The Sahwa has been infiltrated by al-Qaeda,” the sheikh says somberly. “A civil war is coming.” “If it happens, this time the lines in the sand will more likely be between Sunnis. Iraq’s minority Sunnis have become increasingly split between those like Sheik Hamid, who are now allied with the Shiite-led government, and Sunnis who are against it. Some co-religionists remain so anti-government that they either have returned to the insurgency or sympathize with those who have,” the Time said. In recent months, al-Qaeda in Iraq and its affiliates have been regrouping, recalibrating their targets and tactics; they have recruited disenfranchised members of the U.S.-allied Sahwa movement, planting them as sleeper agents among the mainly Sunni neighborhood patrolmen, who number about 94,000 nationwide, according to a highly placed source close to the insurgency. “Many of the Sahwa have returned after seeking forgiveness, but they are still Sahwa,” the source tells TIME. “They wear the government’s uniform, but they plant explosives and sticky bombs. The Sahwa is the biggest recruiting pool for al-Qaeda.” The source claims that some 40 percent of the Sahwa are insurgent spies. A senior source in the Interior Ministry who requested anonymity does not deny the infiltration but puts the figure at closer to 20 percent. The Interior Ministry source says intelligence agencies are reviewing the Sahwa files. Abdel-Karim Samarraie, the deputy leader of the parliament’s defense and security committee and a senior member of the Tawafuk, the largest Sunni bloc, says al-Qaeda moles represent a small minority of Sahwa but should be weeded out. “The Interior Ministry fired 62,000 of its employees because there were legal accusations against them,” he says. “The same thing can be applied to the Sahwa.” The U.S. military did not respond to repeated requests for comment. “This new security threat comes as the U.S. military prepares to withdraw its forces from Iraq’s cities by June, ahead of a complete withdrawal by the end of 2011. But in many ways, U.S. troop numbers and locations are secondary factors,” the U.S. magazine said. “This is an Iraqi problem, one that stems from festering political rivalries and suspicions among the country’s competing centers of power,” it added. There are conflicting reports as to how many Sahwa have been absorbed into the Iraqi security forces. Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul-Karim Khalaf says 13,000 have been trained and placed in local police units. Major General Mike Ferriter, deputy operations commander of the U.S.-led forces, says the police have taken in 5,000 and the army 500. Even so, the figure is clearly not the promised 20 percent. A recent hiring freeze in the security forces – prompted by budget woes due to the massive drop in oil prices, which account for about 90 percent of government revenues – has further reduced the likelihood that the 20 percent benchmark will be achieved anytime soon. “The coalition and the Iraqi government told the people that the reason for their poverty was the insurgents. But when the people became Sahwa, their poverty was not alleviated,” an insurgent source told the Time. “They realized that their poverty was due to the Americans and the government. That’s what’s happening in western Baghdad,” he added.