NYT: Americans Said to Meet Rebels, Exploiting Rift (Iraq)

[sabra]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/07/international/middleeast/07insurgents.html?hp&ex=1136610000&en=0349e2b7c783e836&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Americans Said to Meet Rebels, Exploiting Rift

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 6 - American officials are talking with local Iraqi insurgent leaders to exploit a rift that has opened between homegrown insurgents and radical groups like Al Qaeda, and to draw the local leaders into the political process, according to a Western diplomat, an Iraqi political leader and an Iraqi insurgent leader.

Clashes between Iraqi groups and Al Qaeda have broken out in several cities across the Sunni Triangle, including Taji, Yusefiya, Qaim and Ramadi, and they appear to have intensified in recent months, according to interviews with insurgents and with American and Iraqi officials.

In an interview on Friday, a Western diplomat who supports the talks said that the Americans had opened face-to-face discussions with insurgents in the field, and that they were communicating with senior insurgent leaders through intermediaries.

...

Tarik al-Hashimy, the leader of the Iraqi Islamic Party, who said he was in periodic contact with insurgent leaders and had asked them to hold their fire during the elections, said he did not think the talks had made much progress. One of the main sticking points, he said, was the demand by the insurgents for a timetable for withdrawal of American forces, which President Bush has repeatedly refused.

[wtmusic]

1. It comes down to us leaving...again

How the hell do they expect us to steal their oil? They have to be reasonable about this...

[Warren Stupidity]

2. OK, this is what, the 4th time, or the 6th? I've lost count.

This periodic bullshit crops up every 3-4 months as the military's Psyops division tries once again to win the war by creating a 'rift' between those damn furrin fighters and alciada terrsts and the noble local surgeons. Once they isolate the 7 furrin fighters and alciada terrsts from the 20,000 local surgeons, it should be easy to defeat each group seperately.

They can face to face with the locals as much as they want. Until they get their troops out of sunni towns and stop killing the locals there will not be any peace with the sunnis.

Here is a clue: we can go home, they are home. Get the difference?

[pinniped]

3. Don't expect to meet with al-Zarqawi.

He's busy in an alternate universe planning the next worldwide terra war.

[HuffleClaw]

4. but bush said they'd NEVER 'negotiate with TERRORISTS' ! ! !

never! oh, let me guess, these are the GOOD insurgents?

[ckramer]

9. Well if you can't kill them or eliminate them, they are not

'terrorists' any more. They are partners now.

[indie_voter]

5. AKA negotiating with terrorists? Flip Flop. n/t

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. Americans Said to Meet Rebels, Exploiting Rift

January 7, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Jan. 6 - American officials are talking with local Iraqi insurgent leaders to exploit a rift that has opened between homegrown insurgents and radical groups like Al Qaeda, and to draw the local leaders into the political process, according to a Western diplomat, an Iraqi political leader and an Iraqi insurgent leader.

Clashes between Iraqi groups and Al Qaeda have broken out in several cities across the Sunni Triangle, including Taji, Yusefiya, Qaim and Ramadi, and they appear to have intensified in recent months, according to interviews with insurgents and with American and Iraqi officials.

In an interview on Friday, a Western diplomat who supports the talks said that the Americans had opened face-to-face discussions with insurgents in the field, and that they were communicating with senior insurgent leaders through intermediaries.

The diplomat said the goal was to take advantage of rifts in the insurgency, particularly between local groups, whose main goal is to expel American forces, and the more radical groups, like Al Qaeda, which have alienated many Iraqis by the mass killing of Iraqi civilians.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/07/international/middleeast/07insurgents.html?hp&ex=1136696400&en=2c6c50fa57b61e17&ei=5094&partner=homepage


So much for never negotiating with 'terrorists'.

[skooooo]

7. Why doesn't al Queda just turn the guns on themselves...

...and save everyone a lot of trouble.

[IndianaGreen]

8. A bullshit story from a bullshit newspaper, the NY Times

The vast majority of the insurgents in Iraq are Iraqis, not "foreign fighters." Al-Qaeda is merely providing logistical and tactical support to Iraqis opposed to the occupation and to the Shia theocracy. Al-Qaeda is merely exploiting conditions that are already there!

The Baghdad byline by the NY Times reporters is a lie! American reporters are confined to the Green Zone, seldom venturing out to chase a story, their role reduced as that of mere note takers of military press briefings and government leaks. Their "article" is nothing more that US propaganda intended to convey to the sheep back home that progress is being made, and to counter the rising violence and body counts. This is nothing more than faith-based reporting!

Do you call these gems good journalism, a "western diplomat" who was probably the US Ambassador to Iraq, the neocon Zalmay Khalilzad?:

according to a Western diplomat

<anip>

Few details of the talks were available.

<snip>

The diplomat did not specify which groups the Americans were speaking to.

<snip>

While there was no way to verify that he was an insurgent...