Originally published Friday, February 1, 2008 at 12:00 AM
Female official in control of Iraq's security forces
The fate of Iraq's security forces, and their ability to bring peace to the country, may rest in the hands of a 69-year-old female Iraqi...
USA Today
Developments in Iraq
U.S. death toll: The monthly U.S. death toll in Iraq increased to 38 in January, as of Thursday, ending a four-month drop in casualties. The death toll for December was 23. A U.S. soldier was killed Thursday by a roadside bomb in Baghdad, bringing to at least 3,942 the number of U.S. military members who have died in the Iraq war, according to an Associated Press count.Civilian death toll: The number of Iraqi civilians and security forces killed so far in January fell to at least 599, an Associated Press tally showed, the lowest monthly death toll since December 2005, and continuing a downward trend since the fall.
British attacked: Insurgents on Thursday pummeled Britain's base in the southern city of Basra with 20 rockets and British gunners answered with artillery. Civilians were killed and wounded in the crossfire in Iraq's second-largest city less than two months after a scaled-down British force handed over control to Iraqi police and military.
Baghdad bombing: In Baghdad, a bomb-rigged car blew apart at a bus stop, killing at least five people in a Shiite enclave that had not seen major violence in months.
Iran ambassador barred: Adnan al-Dulaimi, one of Iraq's most influential Sunni politicians, had planned to meet with Iran's ambassador in Baghdad but Iraqi soldiers prevented Ambassador Hassan Kazemi Qomi from reaching the talks, officials said.
Source: Seattle Times news services
BAGHDAD — The fate of Iraq's security forces, and their ability to bring peace to the country, may rest in the hands of a 69-year-old female Iraqi rocket scientist.
Bassima al-Jaidri spent most of her career struggling within Iraq's male-dominated society and is now one of the country's most powerful officials, in charge of a committee that determines, among other things, who can join the police and army.
She has also been a target of unusually harsh criticism by some senior U.S. military officials. They accuse al-Jaidri, a Shiite, of abusing her power to keep Sunnis out of the security forces, making her a major obstacle to reconciliation between the two religious sects.
Al-Jaidri shrugs off the accusations and counters that Iraqis, not Americans, control Iraq's destiny.
"I have had a long struggle with men," she replies with a smile. "I can handle the American officers."
The confrontation illustrates the challenges facing the United States as it pressures Iraq's Shiite-dominated government to bring Sunnis into positions of power and take control of its own security before planned U.S. troop reductions in the months ahead.
In an interview, al-Jaidri spoke without emotion about how her aunt and uncle were trampled to death in 2005 when a Shiite religious procession in Baghdad got word of an imminent attack by a Sunni suicide bomber. The resulting stampede killed more than 1,000 Shiite worshippers.
Under Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated government, al-Jaidri says, she was denied the career she had earned with her three graduate degrees in statistics, missile targeting and radar systems.
She took a job as a civilian in Saddam's officer corps but was never allowed to work on the missiles whose trajectories she had mastered. The patriarchal military assumed her unequal to the task because she was a woman and deemed her untrustworthy because she was a Shiite.
"The officers fought me every step of the way," recalls al-Jaidri, who never married. "I had the most advanced degrees and knew more than all of them, but they didn't even give me a desk to sit at."
Last year, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki tapped al-Jaidri to head Iraq's Implementation and Follow-up Committee for National Reconciliation, which is spearheading efforts to mend sectarian ties.
Since then, some U.S. generals say, al-Jaidri is doing to Sunnis what they once did to her by systematically excluding them from the Iraqi security forces.
"She is one of our significant impediments to reconciliation," says Brig. Gen. David Phillips, who is in charge of the U.S. effort to train Iraqi police. He says al-Jaidri "should be one of the banned leaders in Iraq" because of her refusal to allow Sunnis to enter the army.
Phillips described a recent incident in which a Shiite Iraqi army general, Adnan Thabit, submitted a list of recruits that was 45 percent Sunni. Al-Jaidri stripped the list of all the Sunni names, Phillips said. Thabit was later stripped of his command.
Three months ago, Brig. Gen. Jim Huggins, who oversees the Iraqi police for the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division south of Baghdad, sent 3,000 names of potential police recruits to al-Jaidri's office for approval.
Huggins says he heard nothing from al-Jaidri's office until December, when 400 names were approved. They were all Shiites, even though the list had been heavily weighted with Sunnis.
"That's a blatant example that someone is still looking at this thing with a sectarian eye," Huggins says.
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
Iraq uncovers major bomb plot in Baghdad
Judge rules Navy SEALs' trial to be held in Iraq
Iraq to ban 15 parties from next elections

nwautos
Turismo upgrade "Gran Turismo 5: XL Edition" for PlayStation 3 has features such as new car-tuning settings, new NASCAR vehicles, better replay video...
Post a comment
- Lakewood cop accused of embezzling $150K meant for slain officers' families
- 3 big health insurers stockpile $2.4 billion as rates keep rising
- Agency set to investigate handling of 911 call about Josh Powell
- Quick decisions: How Washington hired its new football staff
- Historic day for gay marriage as another fight looms
- Justin Wilcox's versatile defensive style is the right fit for Huskies | Jerry Brewer
- Social worker recounts minutes before Powell fire
- It's Terrence Time: Enigmatic Ross leads Huskies
- $25B settlement reached over foreclosure abuses
- Club promoter convicted in brutal 2010 murder of Des Moines prostitute
- Gay-marriage bill passes House, awaits Gregoire's signature
469 - Historic day for gay marriage as another fight looming
359 - Wanted in Seattle classrooms: more teachers of color
286 - 3 big health insurers stockpile $2.4 billion as rates keep rising
242 - Source: NY, California to sign mortgage settlement
231 - Oregon live game thread
155 - Pac-12 picks ... including the UW game
140 - Council members get briefing on arena proposal, minus details
136 - AP Source: Obama to change birth control rule
124 - Worker: Josh Powell told son he had 'surprise'
100
- State Medicaid program to stop paying for unneeded ER visits
- 3 big health insurers stockpile $2.4 billion as rates keep rising
- Wanted in Seattle classrooms: more teachers of color
- One man's audacious pursuit of sailing history
- Darren Berg gets 18-year sentence for Ponzi scheme
- $25B settlement reached over foreclosure abuses
- Economy, blogs give survivalists new reason to look to Northwest
- State's share of mortgage settlement: $648 million
- Bellevue College adds a third bachelor's degree program
- 'Gauguin and Polynesia': dazzling mix-and-match | Art review










