1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division Public Affairs

Story by Spc. Mike MacLeod

CAMP RAMADI, Iraq – Leaders of Iraqi security forces gathered here Sept. 15 to discuss established security agreements and an Iraqi way ahead for Ramadi-area security at a conference hosted by an outgoing Marine unit and the U.S. Army paratroopers who are taking their place.

Attendees at the afternoon-long meeting included local, provincial, highway and national police officials; officials with the National Information and Investigation Agency and Iraqi Special Weapons and Tactics; local Iraqi 8th Brigade army commanders; the provincial internal affairs chief; the mayor; a prominent judge and others, said 1st Lt. Coleman Stecyk, of 2nd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division (Advise and Assist Brigade), the event coordinator.

The forum was a chance for ISF that normally do not communicate with each other to discuss security and law enforcement, with U.S. forces acting as neutral hosts, he said.

ISF leaders also met their new U.S. partners, paratroopers of the 2/504th PIR, commanded by Lt. Col. Trevor Bredencamp, he said.

Exchanges were often lively, such as one between Judge Khalid Taha Ahmed and police officials, as the judge explained how the general pardon law of Feb. 27, 2008, affects detainees released from Camp Bucca, the country's largest detention center.

There will be no amnesty for crimes and insurgent activity committed after that date, the judge said.

Marines of 2nd Battalion, 23rd Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 6, Multi National Force – West, have acted as a quick reaction force for ISF in the Ramadi area for the past five months, said Stecyk.

Their Army replacements are scheduled for a 12-month deployment along with its parent, 1/82 BCT (AAB), which is relieving Marines of RCT-6 and 8 across Al Anbar province, he said.

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