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"The Sheik Down," by Berkeley graduate and (kidnapped) freelance journalist Shane Bauer, is a well-written, probing and humorous look at the United States military's "make-a-sheik" program, whereby America hands out hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds to Sunni sheiks for ostensible reconstruction projects.

The project was a major part of the Sahwa, or "Awakening," when Sunni tribes in the violent Anbar province decided to ally with American troops against Al-Qaeda (also Sunni) and other insurgents, Bauer reports.

Much of the money flows through the Commander's Emergency Response Program, which allows battalion-level U.S. officers to dole out projects worth up to $500,000 without seeking approval. That allows previously unheard of local leaders, like Bauer's subject, Eifan Saddun al-Isawi, to reap up to 80 percent profits and keep influence over communities through graft.

This is a good read. Let's hope Bauer and his friends, captured by Iran while hiking near the border with Iraqi Kurdistan, make it out safely and soon.

Nouri al-Maliki is spending a few days in Kurdistan; his trip included a visit to Halabja, the Kurdish town Saddam Hussein gassed in 1988. The effort towards Kurdish reconciliation is good -- albeit long overdue -- though Maliki needs to do more than talk. He's deeply unpopular with many Kurds; even president Masoud Barzani has accused him of "tyrannical" behavior.

Maliki also promised to punish the Saddam aides who carried out the Halabja attack. A number of Saddam's former confidantes have been sentenced to hang for their role in the Anfal campaign, but Iraq's Sunni vice president, Tareq al-Hashemi, refuses to ratify the sentences. Al-Hashemi claims the men were just carrying out orders.

I'll admit, when I first read the news of three Americans arrested along the Iran-Iraq border, I was a little skeptical: American tourists? In Iraq?

But upon further reflection it isn't that unbelievable. I planned a trip to Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq when I was traveling in eastern Turkey in late 2007; the border crossing at Zakho is an easy trip from Diyarbakir. I was dissuaded at the last minute by a series of ghastly truck bombings that killed 500 people in northern Iraq. So I'm not terribly surprised that a few Americans trekked their way across northern Iraq.

As for the arrests, Iran certainly had the right to arrest the hikers; the U.S. would surely do the same with three Iranian tourists on the wrong side of the U.S.-Mexico border. The question is how they'll be treated, and whether Iran decides to prosecute them and turn this into a provocation (a la North Korea's detention of two U.S. journalists).

A third party in Iraqi Kurdistan is giving the powers-that-be a run for their money in recent elections, according to early tallies.

An Islamist leader and his two sons were arrested today in Pakistan, part of a larger anti-Taliban push by the government.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates -- and a host of other Obama Administration heavy hitters -- will begin arriving in Israel on Monday.

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The New York Times reports that the Kurds in Iraq have approved a constitution (two weeks ago) that lays claim to the disputed and oil-rich Al-Ta'mim province (home to Kirkuk). This basically stomps right through quiet negotiations that had apparently started recently between Kurdish and Iraqi lawmakers, organized by the United Nations and United States.