Insurgents aim to take part in political process

Iraqi nationalists have been working to be distinguished from Al-Qaida.
Chicago Tribune
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- As Iraq moves toward crucial legislative elections Thursday, homegrown Iraqi insurgent groups are reaching out to the United States in the hope of launching a dialogue that would draw them into the political process and end their 2 1/2-year rebellion, according to U.S. officials and Iraqis close to the insurgency.
Spurred by fears of the growing influence of Iran and encouraged by signals from Washington that the United States will start drawing down troops next year, insurgents who see themselves as fighting for an Iraqi nationalist cause are looking for ways to distance themselves from the religious radicals and the hard-core Baathists who have dominated the insurgency in the public eye, with a view to establishing a foothold in Iraq's political landscape, the Iraqis say.
Exploratory dialogue
At the same time, U.S. officials also have indicated that they are willing to open a dialogue with people representing insurgent groups, as long as they have not been directly involved in violence.
"We're not going to talk to people with blood on their hands," said Gen. George Casey, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, in a recent interview. "We talk to others who talk to them."
A number of exploratory meetings have taken place between U.S. officials and people who claim to represent insurgent interests, Iraqis and Americans say, though there have been few tangible results. "They haven't got very far," said Casey. "There's too much mistrust."
But the signals from both sides point to a building momentum toward negotiations that could help ease the violence as U.S. forces prepare to start reducing troops next year.
Insurgents also have been reaching out to the Iraqi government. Since President Jalal Talabani told the National Reconciliation Conference in Cairo late last month that he was prepared to "listen" to "any armed group" that wanted to talk, his office has been contacted by a number of people who claim to be leaders of the insurgency offering to negotiate, his officials say.
Insurgent divisions
Dividing the insurgency is central to America's exit strategy for Iraq. In his recent speeches outlining his strategy for winning the war, President Bush has drawn a distinction between what he calls the "terrorists" led by Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and the "Saddamists" on the one hand, and what he termed the Sunni "rejectionists" on the other. The "rejectionists," he said, could be persuaded to abandon armed struggle in favor of the political process.
Insurgent groups who identify themselves as fighting for a nationalist Iraqi cause are keen to draw a similar distinction, said Talal Gaaod, an Iraqi businessman and tribal leader based in Jordan who is in the forefront of one effort to unite insurgent groups against the al-Zarqawi loyalists.
"There is a difference between terrorists and the national Iraqi resistance," he said. "Zarqawi's group does nothing but suicide attacks and killing Iraqis. That's not resistance."
Thursday's election will provide a test of the divide. U.S. and Iraqi officials are hoping that Sunnis who boycotted last January's election will turn out to vote in large numbers, including Sunnis who support the Iraqi insurgency, in defiance of a statement issued Monday by Al-Qaida in Iraq declaring that it is forbidden under Islamic law to participate in the "crusader project."
Remaining barriers
Many obstacles remain to be overcome before any meaningful dialogue can take place, however. Establishing the credentials of people who claim to represent the insurgency is one problem confronting the U.S. military, officials say, and U.S. officials also refuse to discuss the identities of those they are talking to.
Another stumbling block is the refusal of the American military to give guarantees that it won't arrest or detain insurgent leaders who step forward to speak for the insurgency, say Iraqis involved in the effort to reach out to the Americans.