9000 MEN IN ANBAR JOIN IRAQI SECURITY FORCES

DAILY STAR (LEBANON)/AFP: 9,000 'Awakening' men ready to join police, army - US general

BAGHDAD: Some 9,000 members of anti-Al-Qaeda "Awakening" fronts in Iraq have been screened and lined up for training as regular police or soldiers, the US military said on Sunday.

The number represents more than half the 16,000 or so Awakening members, many of whom are former Sunni Arab insurgents. They have applied to join the regular Iraqi security forces after having been recruited by the US military to fight Al-Qaeda in their own backyard.

Military spokesman Rear Admiral Gregory Smith told a news conference in Baghdad that the rest were still waiting to undergo screening and for openings in police colleges and military academies.

"Around 9,000 members of the Awakening have been entered into a process in which they are in a queue to begin their training programs," Smith said.

In western Anbar Province, where tribal leaders in September 2006 launched the first Awakening group, effectively putting Al-Qaeda to flight, another "10,000 to 20,000 ... have already gone through a training program and are serving as police officers or members of the army," he added.

US troops have for the past year been working closely with former insurgents they call "CLCs" or Concerned Local Citizens, who are paid $300 a month to patrol neighborhoods and man checkpoints.

Their numbers have swelled to some 80,000 members of a total of 130 CLC groups countrywide, according to latest figures from the US military. Of these, 80 percent are Sunni and 20 percent Shiite. In some neighborhoods the groups are mixed.

• WE'RE WINNING.
• AND NO THANKS TO THE DEMS - LIKE OBAMA AND HILLARY WHO POOH-POOHED THE SURGE, AND THEN - WHEN IT BECAME OBVIOUS IT WORKED - HAD THE FREAKIN' AUDACITY TO TAKE CREDIT.

OBAMA AND HILLARY AREN'T FIT FOR THE SENATE, LET ALONE TO BE POTUS.