In Insurgent Search, Marines Sift the Facts

The brothers insisted they were beekeepers. The Marines suspected they were insurgents.

As part of a preelection crackdown, Marines on Thursday were scrubbing neighborhoods where polling places are planned. Streets were barricaded, a curfew imposed and Iraqi commandos deployed at roadblocks.

Homes were searched, which was why Fox Company of the 2nd Battalion, 5th Regiment, 1st Marine Division went to the two-story house shared by the Hamad brothers, their wives, children and several female relatives.

After initially denying they possessed any weapons, the brothers conceded that they owned an AK-47 assault rifle and some ammunition. In this largely lawless city, each family is allowed to own one AK-47 and 30 rounds of ammunition.

But the search uncovered several hundred rounds. Also found were spools of wire, cellular phone equipment, binoculars and a fist-size lump of a dark yellow substance, thought to be a sulfate derivative with explosive properties.

Ivad Hamad, 41, had an explanation for each item. The extra rounds were from rifles that the brothers had sold, leaving them with a surplus of ammunition that cannot be legally sold.

The wire and cellular phones were just junk, he said, and, indeed, the upstairs was littered with the kind of stuff that clutters many American garages.

But what of the dark yellow substance?

Speaking through a Marine interpreter, Hamad said the material was used to prevent disease in beehives and that he had a book upstairs that would prove it. The Marines, seeing no beehives in the walled garden in front of the home, reluctantly agreed to search the bedroom.

Books and CDs, including one by the Backstreet Boys, were pulled from a drawer. There was the bee book that Hamad had cited. The women in the family began crying. “Why? Why?” implored one.

The Marines were unconvinced. Such sulfate material had been found in weapons caches.

“Do you know that with this stuff we found in your house, you could make an explosive device that could kill Americans,” demanded Gunnery Sgt. Patrick Tracy.

“No, no, bees, bees,” Hamad said.

The brothers were handcuffed, blindfolded and loaded into a truck to be taken to a command post for further questioning. They faced possible arrest and could be sent to Abu Ghraib prison.

The bee book, sulfate material, AK-47 and ammunition and were confiscated as evidence.

The brothers were ordered to sit quietly for hours, then periodically questioned. Their answers were evasive. They initially denied serving in Saddam Hussein’s army, then said they had. They denied knowing a suspected insurgent, then admitted that, yes, they had heard his name.

“You can figure on them to lie about everything,” said a Marine who has questioned many Iraqis. “The key is to get them to relax and realize that lying won’t work.”

Searches elsewhere have yielded grenades, plastic explosives and bomb-making material, all obvious indications of insurgent activity. But this search wasn’t as clear-cut, so the decision to take the brothers from their home was a judgment call.

After months of attacks with roadside bombs, sniper fire and suicide cars, the Marines have a reservoir of suspicion.

The brothers, wearing blindfolds with the words “Excessive Ammo, IED-Making Materials,” a reference to improvised explosive devices, were taken away as the women cried. “I’d rather annoy them than take chances with my Marines,” Tracy said.