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R 071327Z DEC 09
FM AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD
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INFO RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 003156 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/I 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/06/2019 
TAGS: PREL PGOV KTER IZ
SUBJECT: PRT SALAH AD DIN: BOMBS AT TIKRIT UNIVERSITY 
SIGNAL TILT AGAINST INSURGENCY? 
 
Classified By: PRT Team Leader David Stewart for reasons: 1.4 (b) and ( 
d). 
 
¶1. (U) This is a Salah Ad Din Provincial Reconstruction Team 
(PRT) message. 
 
¶2. (C) SUMMARY The normally quiet University of Tikrit 
experienced two bomb incidents on November 22 and 23.  In the 
past, this would have sent students and professors scurrying 
away from any American contact.  Yet, just hours after the 
first incident, university deans met at the campus, main 
library with the PDoff, the economic team met with accounting 
professors, and students were visiting the Provincial 
Reconstruction Team (PRT)-sponsored study abroad center. 
Conversations with senior University officials indicated they 
would not be deterred by terrorist threats.  The motivation 
for these scare tactics and the response of the University 
offer one clear message: change is underway at an institution 
once regarded as sympathetic to terrorists and insurgents. 
END SUMMARY 
 
¶3. (U) The University of Tikrit, located just north of Tikrit 
city limits, was off limits to the U.S. for much of the past 
18 months.  According to military analysts, insurgents used 
it as base of operations, launching mortar rounds on to the 
nearby American base and actively recruiting on campus.  The 
university community did not want to engage with Americans. 
Within the last year, however, we have seen the University 
administration change course and embrace active partnership 
with the PRT, Coalition Forces, and American universities. 
Now students and professors alike welcome American soldiers 
to campus for English lessons and informal chats and the 
administration is pursuing partnerships with six American 
universities.  The PRT Team Leader has also begun teaching a 
monthly course at the College of Education.  One sign of 
increasing freedoms on campus occurred during the first 
class, when a female student publicly challenged her Baathist 
professor's proposal.  Only days ago the President of the 
University extended the first invitation to American 
officials to dine at his home, and the following day he 
traveled to Baghdad to meet with the Minister Counselor for 
Public Affairs. 
 
¶4. (C) But on the morning of November 22 a bomb exploded 
along the main avenue of the sprawling campus.  No 
significant damage was reported.  When PRToffs arrived around 
11 AM at the University,s central library (located only a 
few meters away from the site of the bomb), activity appeared 
to be normal and the library was filled with students. 
PRToffs visited the Study Abroad Center and conducted several 
meetings over the course of the next four hours.  No one 
mentioned the incident, nor did they seem alarmed.  To the 
contrary, students approached PRT members in front of their 
peers to inquire about study opportunities in the United 
States--this on a campus where, until recently, even speaking 
to an American was cause for retaliation.  Student Mustafa 
Tawfiq (strictly protect), for example, told PRTOffs that 
after he expressed interest in the Fulbright program earlier 
this year he received a text message telling him to stay away 
from the Americans on campus. 
 
¶5. (C) A flier claiming credit for the attack said it was in 
retaliation for the increasing "corruption" of the students 
at the University, specifically citing the more revealing 
clothing that women have been wearing and "cooperation with 
the occupiers."  (Note: PRToffs traveling to the University 
on a regular basis have observed that student attire, 
particularly for women, has gradually become more relaxed 
over the past year. End Note.)  Military analysts have 
Qover the past year. End Note.)  Military analysts have 
determined that the flier itself was likely written by 
someone without a college education and bears the hallmarks 
of Al Qaeda, suggesting that the attack probably did not 
originate from University students or professors. 
 
¶6. (C) Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) conducted a search of the 
campus and discovered another bomb hidden in a trash can in 
front of the President's office plus a cache of more 
explosive devices in a separate area.  Conversations with 
senior University officials indicated they would not be 
deterred by terrorist threats.  A senior advisor to the 
University President insisted that the PRT continue with 
student-soldier chats and TOEFL classes scheduled for the 
following day, but Coalition Forces (CF) decided to cancel 
them as a precautionary measure.  Other University officials 
with whom the PRT spoke echoed these sentiments, saying that 
their programs with Americans would not be deterred by these 
incidents. 
 
¶7. (C) COMMENT:  Instead of serving as an ominous sign of a 
continuing strong insurgency at the campus, placement of 
 
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these devices may instead be the mark of a marginalized 
extremist movement.  Not so long ago, letters, threats, or 
phone calls sufficed to intimidate students or professors. 
Radical and criminal elements used to operate with 
impunity--but times appear to be changing.  This emerging 
openness to risk engaging with Americans may be forcing these 
actors to resort to more desperate measures.  Despite these 
attacks, however, University of Tikrit students and 
administrators alike appear to have made a conscious decision 
to reconnect with the world from which they have been cut off 
for so long.  PRT and Brigade strongly believe these changing 
attitudes need to be encouraged and supported. END COMMENT. 
HILL