Nov. memo at the core of "new" Iraq policy

The classified document was sent to Bush's Cabinet a month ahead of the Iraq Study Group's report.

Washington - President Bush's new Iraq policy was said to be the product of weeks of meetings, discussions and analysis by the president and his national security advisers. Yet core elements of the plan were contained in a classified memo that National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley sent to members of Bush's Cabinet on Nov. 8 - a month before the bipartisan Iraq Study Group issued its report.

Most news accounts about the Hadley memo, which was published by The New York Times in late November, focused on his critique of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. But the 1,800-word document was composed mostly of recommendations for Bush on how to bolster al-Maliki and improve the security environment.

One key recommendation: filling "the current four-brigade gap in Baghdad with coalition forces if reliable Iraqi forces are not identified."
The president announced Wed nesday that he would send five additional brigades to Baghdad.

In rebutting criticism that the administration ignored most of the Iraq Study Group's recommendations, a senior administration official pointed Wednesday to the fact that the White House accepted its suggestion to embed additional U.S. forces with Iraqi troops. Now, they will go all the way down to the company level.

But the Hadley memo explicitly urged such a step. "If we expect him to adopt a nonsectarian security agenda," Hadley wrote of al-Maliki, "we must ensure he has reasonably nonsectarian security institutions to execute it - such as through a more robust embedding program."

Much of the memo focused on how to help al-Maliki "form a new political base among moderate politicians," allowing him to free his government from the sway of radical Shiite elements. The United States "would likely need to use our own political capital to press moderates to align themselves with Maliki's new political bloc," Hadley wrote.

Under the new plan, the Iraqi government is supposed to allow a "moderate coalition" to emerge as its new political center.

A White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, acknowledged that "many of the ideas in the Hadley memo are in the strategy."