We last left off, with a very dismayed platoon and myself wondering how such a rag tag group of thugs were going to be trained properly.
Because off of the difficulty we faced in whipping these criminals into place, we first had to know them and understand their motivations we learned both in our first few visits to their main safe house. We learned that their leader was not from the Baqubah area, but rather resided in Baghdad and had come to Baqubah to “help”. Help with what you ask? That’s what we wanted to know, Operation Arrowhead Ripper had already come through and did a good job of purging the area. The CLN had been a vital asset during that operation, but these were not the same CLN that had operated with US Forces, no they were new comers, vultures, drawn to the pickings that were left after the operation. A city on lock down, with a bunch of innocent people, and a few bad ones. The few bad people were what left the appearance that, while Arrowhead Ripper had indeed made Baqubah a safe area again, Baqubah was still not secure. Hence, the CLN came to save the day; again we saw straight through this veil thrown in front of us. We quickly learned from the populace that the CLN were running wildly around while we were not in sector, threatening families for their valuables, beat people who attempted to speak against them, and some were even working with the remnants of Al-Qaeda in Iraq left in the area. A complete and total disaster to start with.
We knew who these guys were now, we knew their motivations. They wanted power, they did not belong to Baqubah, and they held no loyalty to anyone but themselves. We began our work, of weeding out the out-of-towners and the bad guys. We wanted only a force of locals, who wished to defend their homes and their families, and the task was not an easy one. Things began to get worse before they got better.
We had given the CLN a set of rules, they were not allowed to patrol, that is not their job, they must wear their uniform, a reflective yellow belt, when carrying a weapon outside of the safe house, they must stay within a set distance from the safe house. Simple rules, and in return we would help the CLN become recognized by the Iraqi Army, and get them badges so that they could protect their neighborhoods. The rules were simple, but the CLN proved to be like young children, testing the boundaries we set for them. We tell them no patrols, so they go on patrol to see what the consequences are, we tell them to stay in uniform they don’t wear the uniform, we tell them to stay within a set distance they wander just outside. We continued to beat our heads against the wall as time after time they tested the limits. Even after arresting them a few times, it seemed like they didn’t care. Then we hit pay dirt.
A local citizen, stopped us on one of our patrols, he informed us that the house we were passing belong to an AQI Intelligence Cell Leader, and that the man stayed with his son (who was an AQI Propaganda Cell Leader) in another neighborhood. We searched the house, and found all the evidence we needed to bag the old man, and we knew where he was. We raided the son’s house and arrested the father and the son, finding at the sons house propaganda, a printer, multiple electronic storage devices with templates on them, it was pure gold. That wasn’t what surprised us though, when searching the drawers we came across photos of the two men, with a few of our very own CLN, the photos were even recent as the CLN were wearing their reflective belts. We knew now why we were having problems with them, and what we needed to do to change it.