New leader raising military’s hopes for Hit

New leader raising military’s hopes for Hit
By Jimmy Norris, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Tuesday, October 21, 2008

HIT, Iraq- In recent months, while many of the cities in western Anbar province have enjoyed a relative boom of new growth, Hit has continued to decay.

Much of the reason for this, according to military and Iraqi officials, was the behavior of Hit’s mayor, Hikmat Jubair al-Gaoud, whose jet-setting lifestyle was won at the expense of Hit’s people.

Hikmat was known for tapping oil lines for personal profit and ties to an auto theft ring, said 1st Lt. Lawton King, spokesman for Regimental Combat Team 5. Hikmat also allegedly sold chlorine, fuel and water the coalition had donated for a water treatment plant, and allegedly had ties to Baathist and nationalist insurgent cells.

"It is also known that he launders money abroad and boasts of his involvement with eastern European prostitutes," King said.

King said coalition forces were unable to do anything about Hikmat without appearing to undermine the Iraqi government. Throughout Iraq, as U.S. troops work more closely with local government officials to capitalize on security gains, cases like that of Hikmat offer tough choices.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=58275