TIPS ARE UP SHARPLY -- AGAIN

The number of security tips about insurgents that Iraqi civilians provide has jumped sharply.

--Robert Kagan, "The 'Surge' Is Succeeding," in today's Washington Post

And as Iraqis see their own countrymen defending them against the terrorists and Saddamists, they're beginning to step forward with needed intelligence. General Casey reports that the number of tips from Iraqis has grown from 400 in the month of March of 2005 to over 4,700 last month....

--Bush speech, 1/10/06

In the week since national elections, police officers and Iraqi National Guardsmen said they have received more tips from the public, resulting in more arrests and greater effectiveness in their efforts to weaken the violent insurgency rocking the country.

--Washington Post, 2/7/05

U.S. and Iraqi officials insist they are getting more tips from Iraqis about insurgent activity since the Americans transferred sovereignty to an interim government last June.

--AP, 1/21/05

The U.S. military is reaping more high-quality intelligence tips from Iraqi prisoners than ever since it stopped using several coercive interrogation techniques after the Iraqi prisoner-abuse scandal in May, the American general in charge of Iraqi prisons said Monday.

--USA Today, 9/6/04

Saddam arrest leads to more tips, U.S. says

BAGHDAD -- The capture of Saddam Hussein has prompted many more Iraqis to come forward with intelligence about the armed insurgency...

--The Olympian, Olympia, Washington, 1/5/04; article now available under a different headline here

Our greatest advantage has been the one the media ignore: Few Iraqis wanted the Ba'athists back. As they began to feel more confident of American resolve, they offered ever more tips about hide-outs and arms caches....

--Ralph Peters in the New York Post, 12/15/03

Intelligence has begun flowing in at a faster rate, according to Maj. Gen. Raymond Odierno, commander of the 4th Infantry Division in Iraq.

More and more tips are coming in every day, said General Odierno in a videoconference with Washington-based reporters.

"It is probably 10- or 20-fold more than when we first started here ... the number of people we have coming in to provide us human information," he said.

--Christian Science Monitor, 10/29/03

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(Yes, this is an update of two earlier posts.)