From: "Mark" 

Looks like we continue to lose the media war, thanks mostly to the division
right here me thinks (remember all the screaming when we were placing
accurate articles in the Iraqi press -- can't do that now can we? Dumb).

Anyway, these guys have proven reliable from the getgo:

http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/2007/04/wall.html
First and foremost, I don't know why "The Wall" is becoming such
an issue now. Work to construct similar walls started weeks ago in the
Amiriya and Ghazaliyah districts. The "news" went utterly
unnoticed then.

But that's not what matters. What does matter is effectiveness versus
side-effects. Neither should be neglected.

Yesterday leaflets were distributed in the streets of Adhamiya (or Azamiya,
English doesn't have the exact sound anyway). The leaflets - printed and
distributed by persons unknown - called on residents to protest the
building of the wall. Knowing that the only organized entity capable of
such quick response to events in Adhamiya are either the insurgents or
al-Qaeda strongly indicates that they were behind the planned protest. More
important still is that it indicates they see the wall as a threat to their
movement and ability to carry out their actions.

From a tactical point of view these walls can be very useful in reducing
the levels of violence in targeted areas. Militants will have to stay in
their home areas to avoid passing through the controlled gates. This
reduces their ability to transport weapons and munitions for storage or
operations in other districts. Failing that they will have to relocate to a
district where it would be easier for them to operate. In either case the
capacity of the militants to sustain their current level of operations
would be impaired....

"Rich Gauszka"  wrote in
message news:462e7fd1$1{at}w3.nls.net...
> looks like no wall is politically acceptable for Maliki
>
>
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/24/world/middleeast/24iraq.html?bl&ex=11775600
00&en=2c500a00cf10dcf9&ei=5087%0A
> And it has proved to be an unlikely boon for Prime Minister Nuri Kamal
> al-Maliki, making the Shiite politician - at least for now - into a
> champion for Sunnis because he publicly opposed the wall's construction.
>
>
> "Adam" <""4thwormcastfromthemolehill\"{at}the
field.near the bridge"> wrote
> in message news:462e7762$1{at}w3.nls.net...
>> Which is more politically acceptable, walls or death squads roaming at
>> will?
>>
>> You decide...
>>
>> Adam
>>
>> Rich Gauszka wrote:
>>> http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21604280-2703,00.html
>>>
>>> IN a fresh clash with his American allies, the Iraqi Prime Minister has
>>> ordered the US military to halt the construction of concrete walls being
>>> built around some of the most violent neighbourhoods in Baghdad.
>>>
>>> Nouri al-Maliki, the Shia leader, stepped in as Sunni communities
>>> complained
>>> that their neighbourhoods were being turned into ghettoes that could
>>> choke
>>> off life in their areas.
>>>
>>> "I oppose the building of the wall, and its construction
will stop," he
>>> said
>>> during a visit to Egypt yesterday. "There are other
methods to protect
>>> neighbourhoods."
>>>
>>> The US military had started to build concrete walls around five Baghdad
>>> neighbourhoods, most of them Sunni, in an attempt to stop car bombers
>>> leaving them and death squads infiltrating them.
>>>
>>> Mr al-Maliki, who has often been at odds with his US backers over
>>> security
>>> policy in the capital, said that "this wall reminds us of
other walls",
>>> in
>>> an apparent reference to the Israeli wall running through the
>>> Palestinian
>>> West Bank.
>>>
>>> Sunnis living in the newly sealed-off enclaves had complained that the
>>> walls
>>> would cause severe traffic congestion and entrench the sectarian rift
>>> already dividing many Sunni from Shia areas.
>>>
>>>
>>> "Ad" 
wrote in message
>>> news:462c5c33$1{at}w3.nls.net...
>>>> http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=20462
>>>>
>>>> I did say a while back that they should build city walls
around trouble
>>>> spots so as to "protect & control"....I was
thinking about whole
>>>> towns/cities e.g. Ramadi....but here is an internal wall....
>>>>
>>>> "Residents of Sunni Baghdad district on Saturday
accused US forces
>>>> walling
>>>> them in behind a five-kilometre (three-mile) security barrier of
>>>> hardening
>>>> the city's already bitter sectarian divisions.
>>>>
>>>> On April 10, US paratroopers began hauling six-tonne (14,000-pound)
>>>> sections of concrete wall into place around the Sunni district of
>>>> Adhamiyah, one of the minority community's last enclaves
in Shiite east
>>>> Baghdad.
>>>>
>>>> The wall is designed to prevent Shiite death squads from launching
>>>> attacks
>>>> to drive out the Sunnis, and to prevent Sunni insurgents
from using the
>>>> pocket as a base for raids and bombing runs into Shiite areas.
>>>>
>>>> Eleven days after the project began, the highway dividing Adhamiyah
>>>> from
>>>> its Shiite neighbours is lined with tall concrete barriers. A US
>>>> military
>>>> statement issued on Tuesday said troops would work nightly
until it is
>>>> completed.
>>>>
>>>> "The idea is to curb some of the self-sustaining violence by
>>>> controlling
>>>> who has access to the neighbourhoods," said Captain
Marc Sanborn, a
>>>> military engineer from the 82nd Airborne Division,
according to the US
>>>> statement.
>>>>
>>>> The area is to become what the US military called a
"gated community"
>>>> protected by barriers and checkpoints manned by Iraqi troops."
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Adam
>>>
>>>
>
>

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