Word: rice
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...Rice insisted on visiting Mosul after receiving a report that it may have turned the corner, thanks to a combination of aggressive action by two American brigades posted in the city, a massive build-up of trained Iraqi policemen, who now number 15,000 for a city of around 1.4 million, and Sunni leaders who have been denouncing the insurgency and embracing the political process...
...Mosul was a surprise detour on Rice's long-scheduled swing through the Middle East, and it involved trips on a C-17 cargo plane and a Blackhawk helicopter. She went to take a firsthand look at the work of the first of 16 U.S. Provincial Reconstruction Teams to be deployed in Iraq, a program that she has been instrumental in developing. Each team will comprise about 50 State Department officials and the same number of military civil affairs personnel. Their mission will be to funnel money and expertise to grassroots Iraqi political leaders, business people and non-governmental organizations...
...Rice holds out great hope for the plan, which she calls "reconstruction with a small r." She adds, "It's state and local government that is closest to people and that is most responsible for the services and the institutions that are closest to people's lives," she said...
...Rice was clearly exhilarated by her first trip to Mosul. She had visited Baghdad twice before, and flew there again after her Mosul stop. But she told reporters aboard her plane she much preferred talking to local pols and hands-on activists from small communities. "It's like the difference between visiting Birmingham and Washington," she said. The Birmingham native didn't leave much doubt about which city she preferred...
...capital, Rice met with five prominent Sunnis of different political leanings: Deputy President Ghazi al-Yawar, whose base is among tribal leaders; Deputy Prime Minister Abd Mutlaq al-Juburi, a former Baathist general under Saddam; Ala Makki, a leader in the Muslim Brotherhood-linked Iraqi Islamic party, the largest Sunni political group; Dr. Hatem al-Mukhlis, a secular New York-based doctor and ally of former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi; and Sheikh Adnan al-Janabi, a secularist tribal leader and expert on petroleum...