Just Letting You Know What Is Going On

Yesterday was an interesting day. We had two pretty major events in the district: The district security meeting and a detainee release ceremony. Both events took place at the the National Police Brigade Headquarters. The first one was a meeting with all of the Sons of Iraq leaders. The Sons of Iraq (SoI) grew out of local "concerned citizen's groups" and are basically a work/security program for military aged youth and their local leaders. This does two things: It provides a large group of folks that can watch an area and report things that are happening and keeps the young ones employed and off the streets. At the beginning of October, the US Military gave control of the SoIs to the Iraqi government and the Iraqi government has put either the National Police or Iraqi Army in charge of the SoIs. In our area, the National Police Brigade is in charge of them. Like most everything, this is a new thing and like most everything, there will be challenges associated with absorbing the organization. The first challenge will be how to get them paid (not as easy as it sounds) and then all of the administrative and logistical things that go along with standing up a local security force.

The second event was a detainee release ceremony. As the US transitions most everything to the government of Iraq, we are clearing out our detention facilities. Most of the hardened criminals are being turned over to the government of Iraq, other folks that didn't really commit a crime are being released. Each time a detainee is released, his local sheik has to come and pick him up at the police headquarters and basically vouch for them and promise to keep them out of trouble. All of the detainees are told that they will receive special attention and observation from the NP and SoI. Should be interesting to see if any of them get into any other trouble.

For the record: Our first month in theater is over. 11 more to go.

Fantasy Football update: Team Fritz took a major hit when Tony Romo's pinky got broke. Not only did I lose a solid and proven producer, but the rest of my Dallas offense players (TO, Marion Barber, Jason Witten and Nick Folk) are suffering in production too. Top that off with a couple of bonehead trades (Randy Moss for TO - - Who is producing now? not TO. and LT for Brian Westbrook who went out the next game and twisted his ankle and broke a rib) and Team Fritz is fading fast. I am banking on a Dallas revival when Tony Romo comes back, we'll see. Team Wade is getting closer.