Only 47% of 1,042 Americans questioned believed invading Iraq was the right thing to do, the lowest support recorded in the polls since the war began.
article
Funny thing about "polls".

They rarely say where these 1,042 people out of 300 million live.

If another poll of a different 1,042 people were given...well..they results wouldn't duplicate that 47%.

those opinion polls are worthless,meaningless and such a waste of time.... if you want my opinion

A colonel in the Iraqi National Guard has been arrested
on charges of aiding insurgents by passing on tip-offs about planned raids
on resistance safe houses.

'The Army of Muhammad was Founded by Saddam Hussein After the Fall of
the Regime'

Interrogator: "What is your name?"

Muayed Al-Nasseri: "Colonel Muayed Yassin 'Aziz 'Abd Al-Razaq
Al-Nasseri, commander of the Army of Muhammad, one of the resistance factions in

Iraq. The Army of Muhammad was founded by Saddam Hussein after the fall
of the regime, on April 9, 2003. At first, Yasser Al-Shab'awi was put
in charge, until his capture in July 2003. Then Sa'd Hammad Hisham was
in charge until December 2003. Then I was put in charge from January
2004 until now. The Army of Muhammad has some 800 armed fighters."

Interrogator: "What operations did you carry out? How many operations
did you carry out?"

Muayed Al-Nasseri: "We carried out many armed operations against the
coalition forces in all the districts. The operations included bombarding
their military posts, their camps, and their bases, fighting these
forces, and planting explosive devices against their patrols and convoys."

Interrogator: "What was the nature of your organization?"

Muayed Al-Nasseri: "The organization was a military armed one, which
operated according to a method of non-centralized command."

Interrogator: "How is the Army of Muhammad related to the Ba'th party?"

Muayed Al-Nasseri: "The Army of Muhammad is militarily independent.
After Saddam Hussein's capture in December 2003, for a period [of] four
months, the Army of Muhammad had no connections with the party, but after
April 2003, there was a meeting with the party and we are currently
coordinating with them.

"In addition, Saddam Hussein distributed a communique via the party,
back then, instructing all his supporters or whoever wants to fight the
Jihad for the sake of Allah, to join the Army of Muhammad because it is
the army of the leadership."


'Today, the Leader of the Ba'th Party in Iraq is Izzat Ibrahim'

Interrogator: "Who are the leaders of the Ba'th Party in Iraq?"

Muayed Al-Nasseri: "Today, the leader of the party is 'Izzat Ibrahim.
He is the leader of the party in Iraq. Next in line is Fadhl
Al-Mashhadani, who is responsible for the local organizations within Iraq. Then,

there is Muhammad Yunis Al-Ahamd, who is responsible for the
organization outside Iraq. He is currently in Syria."


'Aid Came from the Neighboring Countries - We Got Aid Primarily from
Iran'

Interrogator: "Did you get support from the countries of the region?"

Muayed Al-Nasseri: "Yes, sir... Many factions of the resistance are
receiving aid from the neighboring countries. We in the Army of Muhammad -
the fighting has been going on for almost two years now, and there must
be aid, and this aid came from the neighboring countries. We got aid
primarily from Iran. The truth is that Iran has played a significant role
in supporting the Army of Muhammad and many factions of the resistance.
I have some units, especially in southern Iraq, which receive Iranian
aid in the form of arms and equipment."

Interrogator: "You're referring to units of the Army of Muhammad?"

Muayed Al-Nasseri: "Yes. They received money and weapons."


'[Fighters] Met Personally with Iranian Leader Khamenei... They Even
Got Car Bombs'

Muayed Al-Nasseri: "As for other factions of the resistance, I have
reliable information regarding the National Islamic resistance, which is
one of the factions of resistance, led by Colonel 'Asi Al Hadithi. He
sent a delegation to Iran from among the people of the faction, including
General Halaf and General Khdayyer. They were sent to Iran in April or
May and met with Iranian intelligence and with a number of Iranian
leaders and even with Khamenei."

Interrogator: "You mean they personally met with Khamenei?"

Muayed Al-Nasseri: "According to my information, they met with him
personally, and they were given one million dollars and two cars full of
weapons. They still have a very close relationship with Iran. They
receive money, cars, weapons, and many things. According to my information,
they even got car bombs."


'Cooperation with Syria Began in October 2003... Later, Saddam Hussein
Himself Authorized Me to Go to Syria'

Muayed Al-Nasseri "In addition, as I've told you, Syria... Cooperation
with Syria began in October 2003, when a Syrian intelligence officer
contacted me. S'ad Hamad Hisham and later Saddam Hussein himself
authorized me to go to Syria. So I was sent to Syria. I crossed the border
illegally. Then I went to Damascus and met with an intelligence officer,
Lieutenant-Colonel 'Abu Naji' through a mediator called 'Abu Saud.' I
raised the issues that preoccupied Saddam Hussein and the leadership.
There were four issues: First, the issue of the media; second, political
support in international forums; [third], aid in the form of weapons, and
[fourth], material aid, whether it is considered a debt or is taken
from the frozen Iraqi funds in Syria."


'The Syrian Government is Fully Aware of this, and the Syrian
Intelligence Cooperates Fully'

Muayed Al-Nasseri: "Through the Ba'th party - the Arab Socialist Ba'th
Party operates in Syria with complete freedom. It maintains its
relations and organizes the Ba'th members outside Iraq. The Syrian government
is fully aware of this, and the Syrian intelligence cooperates fully,
as well as the Ba'th Party, in Syria.

"As for the Ba'th Party, after we contacted them, they organized a
meeting for me with a man named Fawzi Al-Rawi, who is a member of the
national leadership and an important figure in Syria. The Syrian government
authorized him to meet with me. We met twice. In the first meeting, I
explained to him what the Army of Muhammad is, what kind of operations
we carry out, and many other things. In the second meeting he told me
that Syrian government officials were very pleased with our first
meeting. He informed me that the Army of Muhammad would receive material aid
in the form of goods, given to us for free or for a very low price, for
us to sell in Iraq, in order to support the Army of Muhammad. This was
done this way due to Syria's current circumstances, international
pressure, and accusations of supporting the terrorism and resistance in
Iraq."

Interrogator: "During your investigation we found a picture of a Syrian
man. What is this picture?"

Muayed Al-Nasseri: "This is the picture of an Islamic preacher called
'Abu Al-Qa'qa',' whose [real] name is Mahmoud Al-Agassi. He lives in
Aleppo, Syria. I have met with him twice. He supported me and gave me
$3,000. He also sent a sum of money with me for someone in the resistance
here in Iraq.

"Also, I forgot to mention that Fawzi Al-Rawi told me he had close
connections with many factions of the resistance. He mentioned his Hareth
Al-Dhari [leader of Iraqi Sunni Clerics Association], Mahdi
Al-Sumayda'i, and other factions."

Endnote:
(1) Al-Fayhaa TV (Iraq/UAE), January 14, 2005.

Sunni Clerics Urge Followers to Join Iraq Army and Police
By ROBERT F. WORTH

Published: April 2, 2005


AGHDAD, Iraq, April 1 - A group of Sunni Arab clerics, including some hard-line figures who fiercely oppose the American presence here, issued a statement on Friday urging their fellow Sunni Arabs to join the Iraqi Army and police.

The edict, signed by 64 imams and religious scholars, was a striking turnaround for the clerics, who have often lashed out in sermons at the fledgling army and police force and branded them collaborators.

Prominently missing from the signers was Harith al-Dari, the leader of the Association of Muslim Scholars and one of the most influential Sunni Arab clerics in Iraq, who is said to have close ties to the insurgency.

Still, the directive, which carried the signature of Ahmed Hassan al-Taha, an imam at an important Baghdad mosque who has been a strong critic of the occupation, seemed to represent a significant step.

Many if not most insurgent attacks in recent months have been aimed at the police and army, which are largely composed of Shiites. The cleric who announced the edict, Sheik Ahmed Abdul Ghafour al-Samarrai, said he hoped and believed that the new directive would undercut those attacks.

But Sheik Abdul Ghafour also made clear that the order was aimed at regaining some control over Iraq's new security forces, not saving Shiite lives. Sunni Arabs dominated the higher echelons of the military under Saddam Hussein, and many, enraged by the American decision to dissolve Mr. Hussein's army two years ago, joined the insurgency.

"The new army and police force are empty of good people, and we need to supply them," the edict said. "Because the police and army are a safeguard for the whole nation, not a militia for any special party, we have issued this fatwa calling on our people to join the army and police."

The edict contained a condition seemingly aimed at sweetening the pill for resistant Sunni Arabs: that a new police or army recruit must agree "not to help the occupier against his compatriots."

American and Iraqi officials welcomed the edict as a sign that the Sunni Arabs, who largely boycotted the January elections, are taking steps toward rejoining the country's government and politics.

"It is a positive step," said Saad Jawad Qindeel, a member of the Shiite alliance that won the largest bloc of seats in Iraq's new national assembly in January. "We are hoping the clerics will take an even more definite attitude in preventing terrorism."
Although Sheik Dari of the Association of Muslim Scholars did not sign the edict, Sheik Abdul Ghafour delivered it on Friday at the mosque in western Baghdad that houses the association's headquarters.

It was not clear whether Sheik Dari or the association were offering some tacit support by providing the venue for the announcement. The leaders of the association, like some of the scholars who signed the edict, are widely believed to have some influence over the armed resistance. But it is impossible to say how much.

In the past, members of the association have often complained about injustices committed by Iraqi soldiers and police officers and by the American military. On Thursday, Sheik Abdul Ghafour invoked those injustices as the main reason for issuing the edict.

"The bad conduct of some army recruits has led the wise men and loyal Iraqis to recognize that they must build up this country and not leave things in the hands of those who have caused such chaos and destruction," he said.

New details emerged Friday about the jailed Jordanian-American who is said to have been a senior aide to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Al Qaeda's representative in Iraq. The man was born in Kuwait to Jordanian parents but moved with his family to the United States, where he spent about 20 years, mostly in the Midwest, Pentagon officials said. He moved to the Middle East a few years before the Sept. 11 attacks and was seized late last year at his home in Baghdad, along with weapons and bomb-making materials, the officials said.

“The Iraqi Army of the future cannot be an extension of the present army, which has been made into a tool of dictatorship.” — Report by the Department of State’s Future of Iraq Project, May 2002

IT has become conventional wisdom that the decision to disband Saddam Hussein’s army was a mistake, was contrary to American prewar planning and was a decision I made on my own. In fact the policy was carefully considered by top civilian and military members of the American government. And it was the right decision.

By the time Baghdad fell on April 9, 2003, the Iraqi Army had simply dissolved. On April 17 Gen. John Abizaid, the deputy commander of the Army’s Central Command, reported in a video briefing to officials in Washington that “there are no organized Iraqi military units left.” The disappearance of Saddam Hussein’s old army rendered irrelevant any prewar plans to use that army. So the question was whether the Coalition Provisional Authority should try to recall it or to build a new one open to both vetted members of the old army and new recruits. General Abizaid favored the second approach

They recognized that to recall the former army was a practical impossibility because postwar looting had destroyed all the bases.
Moreover, the largely Shiite draftees of the army were not going to respond to a recall plea from their former commanders, who were primarily Sunnis. It was also agreed that recalling the army would be a political disaster because to the vast majority of Iraqis it was a symbol of the old Baathist-led Sunni ascendancy.

Meanwhile, Walter Slocombe’s consultations with Americans officials in Washington and Baghdad showed that they understood that the only viable course was to build a new, professional force open to screened members of the old army. Mr. Slocombe drafted an order to accomplish these objecti

Moreover, we were right to build a new Iraqi Army. Despite all the difficulties encountered, Iraq’s new professional soldiers are the country’s most effective and trusted security force. By contrast, the Baathist-era police force, which we did recall to duty, has proven unreliable and is mistrusted by the very Iraqi people it is supposed to protect.