FOB LOYALTY — Sons of Iraq (SoI) and Iraqi security force (ISF) leaders met at 1st National Police Division headquarters in eastern Baghdad Sept. 20, to discuss transitioning the SoI to government of Iraq (GoI) control.

The SoI is an organization of volunteers, formerly known as concerned local citizens, who provide security in their neighborhoods to protect people from criminals, militants and other anti-Iraqi forces. Subsequently, Coalition forces paid SoI members for their hard work and dedication in securing their neighborhoods. And now, the GoI has incorporated SoI into the ISF and government service.

Iraqi Maj. Gen. Abdulkreem Abdulrahman Al-Izi, commander of Rusafa Area Command and 1st NP Div., said, Oct. 1, 2008, will be the first time SoI will be paid through the Iraqi government. He explained that ISF officials wanted to meet with SoI leaders to discuss the details of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s order to integrate the SoI, which the GoI passed recently. Before the meeting, many questions and rumors remained concerning the placement of and payment to SoI members.

“We want to show that we are working with the SoI to coordinate our work with them,” commented Abdulrahman.

Iraqi Maj. Gen. Qasim Jasim Nazzal, 9th Iraqi Army Division commander, and Dr. Tahswen Al-Shakhalyw, Baghdad security plan leader, attended the meeting in a show of support for the GoI accepting SoI into their ranks.

According to an agenda read at the meeting, organizers’ goals included addressing answered questions, squashing rumors and assuring SoI leaders the government does not want to deceive them.

“Gen. Kreem [Abdulrahman], as an Iraq commander, was laying out expectations to all the SoI leadership, as the government of Iraq assumes control of the SOI programs,” said Lt. Col. Richard Gledhill, a Gulf Breeze, Fla. native and ISF brigade coordinator assigned to 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division. “It went very well, because he’s clearly articulating what the prime minister has put out in the order he was referencing today. And he’s trying to address the concerns that the individual [SoI] leaders may have.”

One SoI leader asked for clarity concerning rumors about the GoI hiring and immediately firing SoI from the positions the Iraqi government are giving them as a reward for their service to Iraq. He said he heard only 20 percent would be hired to work with the ISF and everyone else in the SoI would be unemployed.

Abdulrahman explained that the prime minister’s order outlines that 20 percent of the SoI will work with the ISF and 80 percent will be employed with the civilian Iraqi government as a reward for their efforts, as long as they have not committed crimes against innocent Iraqis.