Dear Friends, Family and Interested Readers,
We have another Iraqi Police success story, with training by the CF making a difference. There is also a fascinating story about the poultry industry coming back in Iraq, thanks to a strong commitment from our civil affairs specialists. Any farmers out there will especially appreciate this story. There's so much more to the story of success in Iraq, and it's exciting to see it unfold.
Joanna
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Multi-National Corps - Iraq
Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory
APO AE 09342
January 26, 2008
Abu Ajeel's Iraqi Police come back strong
By 2nd Lt. Jody Holeton
728th MP Bn, 18th MP Bde
TIKRIT - The Abu Ajeel Highway Patrol Station IP, with help from Soldiers of the 56th MP Co, 728th MP
Bn, 18th MP Bde, have come back strong during months of training after a devastating VBIED attack in June 2007 destroyed their station and killed numerous policemen.
A Police Transition Team (PTT) from the 56th MP Co. and Abu Ajeel IP have teamed up to conduct intensive training in recent weeks to ensure they can protect local citizens. They focused on room clearing procedures, proper weapons handling and basic law enforcement skills.
"Before the PTT's interaction, the Abu Ajeel IPs refused to do anything inside the village out of fear they would be killed by extremists ... now, they want to be trained and out in their community," said Sgt. Jenifer Lamere, MP team leader, 56th MP Co.
The Abu Ajeel police department continues to be a success story. It is evident that the IP value their positions, displaying commitment through extra training and working with the CF, Lamere said. The Abu Ajeel IP want to patrol their village and show the citizens that they are a trusted and confident organization that can bring peace to neighborhoods throughout their city, Lamere added.
An Abu Ajeel Iraqi Police captain leads officers through a room clearing exercise.
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MND-North Soldiers uncover large caches west of Bayji
BAYJI - In the desert area west of Bayji MND-North Soldiers uncovered 2 large caches after a helicopter spotted multiple white bags being covered by tarps and blankets Jan. 25.
When Soldiers arrived at the location, they discovered 2 different sites where tarps were being used to cover the caches. The first contained approximately 60, 50- kg bags of a substance used in the making of homemade explosives and the other had 9 of the 50-kg bags. The other site also housed various types of plastic explosives, anti-tank mines, an improvised platter charge, a suicide vest packed with TNT and miscellaneous detonation wire and remote detonation devices.
"This is a huge find. There was enough explosive material to fill up half a dump truck," said Maj. David Jones, 1-327th ops officer. "There is no telling how many lives were saved by taking this cache away from the enemy extremists."
After detonating the bags, the result of the hole was much larger than the EOD personnel had calculated. According to the EOD personnel, this may have been a result of more bags being buried underneath the discovered cache.
CF found more than 3,000 kgs of homemade explosives, several mines, and other munitions.
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MND-Center Soldiers work with poultry growers to revitalize chicken industry
By Tim Kilbride
BAGHDAD - With nearly 5 years of war taking a toll on Iraq's domestic poultry industry, overall chicken and egg consumption is down in the country, while 40 percent of the commercial eggs consumed in Baghdad are imported. With recent security improvements, achieved through the cooperation of local residents and a counter-insurgency strategy implemented by CF, an opportunity has been gained to resume production.
In Mahmudiyah, an agricultural community south of the Iraqi capital, and a traditional hub of Baghdad province's poultry industry, some of the most violence of the war effectively halted production of a variety of poultry, broilers and eggs.
As part of a wider economic revitalization and job-creation program taking place across provinces south and east of Baghdad, civil affairs specialists with the U.S. military's MND-Center are now taking steps to make Iraq's poultry growers competitive again within the domestic market.
The military is working hand-in-hand with agricultural experts from a U.S. State Department-led embedded provincial reconstruction team (ePRT) to identify poultry farmers and band them together into a form of regional cooperative. They named the cooperative the Mahmudiyah Poultry Association.
The military branded its own efforts more creatively: "Operation Chicken Run." A large percentage of chicken consumed in Iraq now comes from imports of frozen meat. Making Iraqi-grown chicken and eggs competitive in domestic markets will require economies of scale. Thus the need for pooled resources and a regional poultry association to act as a coordinating body, said Maj. Jessica McCoy, an Army veterinarian based in nearby Yusufiyah and a member of Baghdad's ePRT #4. The team is embedded with the 3rd BCT, 101st Abn Div (Air Assault), from Fort Campbell, Ky. McCoy is joined in the effort by Capt. Paul Hester, an ePRT agri-business specialist who worked closely with farmers' assns. and co-ops in the United States. Hester noted that Iraqi farmers are familiar with the principles behind the co-op, and had similar arrangements in place in the past, but require coaching to move beyond their experience under the former state-controlled system and into a free market. "The Iraqi farmer has the basic knowledge of the association process from his past. Under Saddam, the industries were often integrated, but the control was with the govt," Hester said. "With the formation of the Mahmudiyah Poultry Assn. we are putting the knowledge of the farmers, both in farming practices and working in an integrated system, to work for them, not for the govt," he explained.
Hester and McCoy met and interviewed more than 100 broiler growers to get a baseline feel for capacity and requirements before advancing with their plan to link the farmers. "We are assisting them to increase their abilities and profits by working together, buying from each other, and developing items such as breeding stock, feeds and markets," Hester said.
The system McCoy and Hester envision involves Iraqi farmers supporting other members of the assn. by buying chicks and feed from their partners, selling grown chickens to other partners, and in turn, processing the meat or selling live chickens at market. Under that system, the Coalition's primary role would be to have the association and its members running before handing off mgt. responsibility.
"Already we can see a rejuvenation of this industry here. In the next year this district's industry will employ an estimated 1,300 people, compared with 50 today," McCoy said. "Six months ago, there were 4 active broiler farms in operation in our district. Today there are 7. In 12 months we anticipate there will be more than 50," McCoy observed.
Another unexpected benefit, McCoy noted, is that economic cooperation serves to bridge the sectarian divide that has emerged between Sunni and Shia communities in Iraq. "Already we have 14 tribes represented, and they have all agreed to work together to make this happen," McCoy said.
One Mahmudiyah farmer, Sheik Suleiman, provided a more direct account of the changes he envisions for his community as a result of the undertaking. "This farmers' assn. will bring people together. If any
one of us fails, we all fail. This will force linkages among area farmers, those that run the hatcheries, feed mills and the processing plant with the growers. It will bring people together regardless of their background - Sunni or Shia, Anbari or Zobai. We are farmers" Suleiman said. "I fought al-Qaeda with bullets before you (Americans) were here. Now I fight them with chickens."
McCoy provided another motivation for her and Hester's work with the farmers. "As people realize the close association between security and increased standard of living, they will reject al-Qaeda," she said. "When that happens, the security becomes self-sustaining and we can all come home."
Maj. Jessica McCoy holds up a young chick belonging to an Iraqi poultry farmer.
Thousands of baby chicks, one of the first steps in the renewed poultry and egg industry sit in warming shelves.
Eggs sit on incubator shelves.
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