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Politics : American Presidential Politics and foreign affairs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sandintoes who wrote (981)	4/21/2005 12:11:46 PM
From: Peter Dierks	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71588

Anonymous tips boost intelligence Hot line is invaluable in security forces' effort to conduct successful raids, crush insurgency. By Elliot Blair Smith CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq -- U.S. and Iraqi security forces say they are gaining ground on insurgents and criminals because more Iraqis are phoning tips to a hot line set up in October. The hot line, known as the Joint Operating Center, has fielded about 1,100 calls in six months, dramatically improving street-level intelligence, says Army Sgt. Major Jerry Craig, a military policeman who oversees the call center. Most of the tips have come from anonymous tipsters. "Not only have the calls increased, the calls that give us actionable intelligence have increased, and our success rate has improved," Craig says. The center, which is inside the U.S. Army's heavily guarded Camp Liberty near Baghdad International Airport, forwards callers' tips to U.S. and Iraqi security forces for investigation. Since October, 82 percent of callers have offered information on insurgent actions directed against Iraqi security forces, Craig says. Seven percent have reported crimes. Eleven percent haven't been useful. The hot line phone number is plastered on Baghdad billboards and printed on thousands of key chains and business cards handed out by security forces in the capital. Earlier this month, the call center fielded 53 tips in a week. Thirty-one callers gave information about attacks -- or planned assaults -- on security forces. Four tips dealt with murders, three with carjackings, two with bombs. The center provided computer printouts of several recent tips to the hot line -- with some details blacked out for security reasons. The information included: • The location of 32 bodies, phoned in by a woman who identified herself as the mother of a man murdered by insurgents. • The identity of a Baghdad coffee shop owner who was brokering ransom demands for insurgent kidnappers. The caller said the kidnappers had snatched 15 victims and murdered seven. • The address of an insurgent who was staying in a house fortified by rocket launchers. • Details on a reputed terrorist cell linked to the murders of Iraqi police and national guardsmen. Despite improved intelligence, most Baghdad police continue to work at offices in the city without basic tools such as cellphones, computers and training. Still, Gen. Hussein Kamal, the intelligence chief at the Interior Ministry, is upbeat. Iraqi residents "are starting to realize the weakness and falsehood of the insurgency when they see a lot of the insurgents falling to our hands," he says. Kamal says tips from residents led to large-scale raids March 22 on insurgent camps at Salah al-Din province, west of Baghdad and at Salman Pak, south of Baghdad, the next day. He calls the raids potential turning points in the drive against insurgents. "Time is in our favor," he says. "We are improving our security, police and military. I assure you, the conflict will end in our favor." detnews.com