From today's Post comes news that Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, the Iraqi leader of SIIC, says that he doesn't believe Iran is helping rebels in Iraq:

Also Sunday, Iraq's most influential Shiite politician, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, said the United States needed to back up its claims that Iran is fomenting violence inside Iraq, which Iran has denied. The U.S. military has accused an Iranian-backed Shiite cell in Friday's market bombing.

"These are only accusations raised by the multinational forces, and I think these accusations need more proof," Hakim, leader of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, told reporters.

Hakim, of course, is Iran's closest ally in Iraq, and he just returned from getting treatment for lung cancer in Tehran. SIIC has long blamed Al Qaeda for everything bad that happens in Iraq, so it isn't surprising that he'd want to protect his patron and shift the blame onto AQI for the recent bombing. It's true that the United States hasn't provided much proof of Iranian involvement in the latest attack. But it seems that Hakim is addressing more than just that one bombing, putting him at odds with many (even in the Maliki government) who blame Iran for some of Iraq's troubles.

There is more from AP. Hakim added that Iran has long acted as a friend of Iraq, forgetting that in the 1970s the Shah of Iran armed Kurdish rebels against Baghdad with CIA support, and that in the 1980s Ayatollah Khomeini sought to topple Iraq's government and replace it with a Shiite theocracy headed by, well, Hakim. Said Hakim: "They have a long history of standing by the Iraqi people and that is their official stance that is presented to the press without any hesitation."

On Tuesday, the Kurdistan Regional Government's official in charge of oil exploration and contracts will appear at the National Press Club. He's on a U.S. tour that includes stops in DC and Houston. The KRG's news release notes: "To date, more than 20 foreign oil companies have sought investments in Iraqi Kurdistan."

It's not going down well with the government in Baghdad:

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraq's oil ministry has declared all crude contracts signed by the Kurdish regional authorities with foreign companies null and void, a government official said on Saturday.

"The ministry has nullified all contracts signed by the Kurdistan Regional Government," the official told AFP, asking not to be named. "They will not be recognized."

The government in Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish region has signed 15 exploration and exportation contracts with 20 international companies since it passed its own oil law in August, infuriating the Baghdad government.

Oil Minister Hussein Shahristani has in recent weeks angrily denounced the Kurdish authorities for signing the contracts before the national parliament approves a new oil and gas law, declaring them "illegal".

The Defense Department is blaming Iranian-backed militiamen for an upsurge in attacks out of Sadr City in northeast Baghdad. It's important to note, though, that lately the military has specifically not tried to blame Muqtada al-Sadr for the violence, instead blaming rogue elements of Sadr's Mahdi Army. From the Post:

The Pentagon reported that attacks by Shiite extremists using weapons linked to Iran have risen to their highest levels in months in and around Baghdad's Shiite enclave of Sadr City, despite a 75 percent decline since May in overall violence in the area.

"I remain very concerned in our sector about these special groups," Col. Don Farris, the top U.S. commander for northeastern Baghdad, told reporters by videoconference. "They're very lethal. They're organized. They're sophisticated. And I have not seen that their operations have declined or diminished in any way, shape or form here in the last several months."

In October, Farris said, his 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 82nd Airborne Division experienced the highest number of attacks using the armor-piercing explosively formed projectiles linked to Iran since arriving in February. The spike -- nine attacks, compared with the previous high of seven -- comes despite suggestions by U.S. officials that Iran has curbed its support of fighters in Iraq.

"These are the Iranian-made weapons that are being employed by these special groups, these Shia extremists that are receiving funding, support and training from Iran," Farris said, adding that the special groups "operate from within the heart of Sadr City."

From an appearance by Chuck Hagel at CFR:

"This is one of the most arrogant, incompetent administrations I've ever seen personally or ever read about. ... This administration in my opinion has been as unprepared as any administration I'm aware of, not only the ones that I have been somehow connected to and that's been every administration -- either I've been in Washington or worked within an administration or Congress or some way dealing with them since the first Nixon administration. I would rate this one the lowest in capacity, in capability, in policy, in consensus -- almost every area, I would give it the lowest grade. ...

"And you know, I think of this administration, what they could have done after 9/11, what was within their grasp. Every poll in the world showed 90% of the world for us. Iran had some of the first spontaneous demonstrations on the streets of Tehran supporting America. They squandered a tremendous amount of opportunity."

And Biden, on impeaching Bush over an attack on Iran:

"The president has no authority to unilaterally attack Iran, and if he does, as Foreign Relations Committee chairman, I will move to impeach."

From a U.S. briefing to reporters yesterday, some numbers emerged on the mostly Sunni militia forces, concerned citizens groups, neighborhood watch groups, and so on, including the Awakening Council.

There are a total of 77,542 members of the forces. Of those, 60,000 are paid fighters, who have been fingerprinted by the United States and their DNA samples recorded.

There are 192 separate forces. "This is a not a militia. It's more than 190 distinct groups of individuals," said R. Adm. Greg Smith. Ten new groups have been added in the past week.

The United States plans to add 10,000 more to the force soon, and has capped the total at 100,000. Each is paid $300 per month. If it reaches 100,000, that means $30 million per month. The U.S. spends something like $12 billion a month in Iraq, so it's a drop in the bucket.

Here's a quote from Sami al-Askari, a Shia politician close to PM Maliki: "When the United States leaves, what we'll have are two armies, one who's loyal to the government and one not loyal."

According to AP, 46,000 of the paid forces are Sunni. The rest, 14,000, are Shia.

There's a story from Howaijiya in northern Iraq, from the Chicago Trib, about the biggest such mobilization yet:

Nearly 6,000 tribal Sunni Arabs from the city of Howaiyja joined a security pact with American forces on Wednesday in what U.S. officers described as a critical step in plugging the remaining escape routes for gunmen flushed from former strongholds, reported the Chicago Tribune newspaper.

"The new alliance - called the single largest volunteer mobilization since the war began - covers the "last gateway" for groups such as al-Qaeda in Iraq seeking new havens in northern Iraq, U.S. military officials said," the paper said. ...

""The ceremony to pledge the 6,000 new fighters was presided over by a dozen sheiks -- each draped in black robes trimmed with gold braiding -- who signed the contract on behalf of tribesmen at a small U.S. outpost in north-central Iraq," the U.S. newspaper highlighted.

"For about $275 a month -- nearly the salary for the typical Iraqi policeman -- the tribesmen will man about 200 security checkpoints beginning Dec. 7, supplementing hundreds of Iraqi forces already in the area."