[lbo-talk] WP: Bremer okays the formation of Iraqi paramilitary units

Michael Pollak mpollak at panix.com
Wed Nov 5 17:19:01 PST 2003


[This has a horribly familiar smell to it]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A858-2003Nov4.html

U.S. Shifts On Creation Of Security Unit in Iraq

Bremer Sets Conditions For Paramilitary Force

By Rajiv Chandrasekaran

Washington Post Foreign Service

Wednesday, November 5, 2003; Page A01

BAGHDAD, Nov. 4 -- The U.S. administrator of Iraq has decided to

conditionally support the creation of an Iraqi-led paramilitary force

composed of former employees of the country's security services and

members of political party militias, according to U.S. and Iraqi

officials.

Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council wants the force, which would

pursue resistance fighters who have eluded American troops, to include

a domestic intelligence-gathering unit and to have broad powers to

conduct raids and interrogate suspects. Such characteristics would

make the proposed force different from those created under other

security initiatives undertaken by the Americans, who until now had

expressed opposition to the idea.

The council leaders contend that Iraq's municipal police departments

are too weak -- and American soldiers too lacking in local knowledge

-- to combat the supporters of former president Saddam Hussein,

Islamic militants and foreign guerrillas who are attacking American

forces and Iraqis cooperating with the U.S.-led occupation. "We need a

security force that is run by Iraqis, that is more heavily armed than

the police and is able to act quickly," said a senior official of the

Iraqi National Congress, whose leader, Ahmed Chalabi, has participated

in discussions about the new unit.

Although the U.S. administrator, L. Paul Bremer, had initially opposed

the creation of a paramilitary force under the control of the

country's interim interior minister, he has softened his position as

attacks, particularly on Iraqi targets, have increased. Bremer no

longer has "any objection in principle" to the force, but wants to

ensure several conditions are met in vetting, training and supervising

the participants, a senior U.S. official here said.

The Governing Council implored the U.S. government Tuesday for more

authority to deal with security issues, saying in a letter to

President Bush that Iraqis "are more able than others to handle this

matter."

"We appeal to you, Mr. President, to transfer more authority to

Iraqis, so they can run their own affairs and combat the forces of

evil that are trying to destabilize Iraq," Jalal Talabani, the current

holder of the council's rotating presidency, wrote in a letter of

condolence to Bush in response to the deaths of 15 American soldiers

in a missile strike on a transport helicopter.

As the council made its plea to Bush, Iraq was wracked by another day

of violence. Three explosions, caused by mortars or rockets, occurred

inside the supposedly secure headquarters zone of the occupation

authority in Baghdad, wounding four people, military officials said.

One soldier from the Army's 1st Armored Division was killed by a

roadside bomb in the capital. And in the northern city of Mosul, an

Iraqi judge was shot and killed outside his home.

The escalating violence prompted Spain, which is contributing 1,300

troops to the U.S.-led military force, to withdraw most of its

diplomatic staff from Iraq. Britain, the second-biggest contributor to

the force, said one of its marines was killed by hostile fire on

Friday, the first fatality in more than a month among the 10,500

British military personnel in Iraq.

The unit that the Governing Council wants to create would be the most

powerful domestic security force in Iraq, fueling concern among some

U.S. officials that it could be used for undemocratic purposes, such

as stifling political dissent, as such forces do in other Arab

nations.

Council leaders said they wanted the force to be drawn primarily from

former members of the military and police, as well as members of the

security and intelligence wings of five political organizations: the

Iraqi National Accord, the Iraqi National Congress, the Shiite Muslim

Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and two large

Kurdish parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic

Union of Kurdistan.

"We have very well-established intelligence networks," the Iraqi

National Congress official said. "If we can act on that information

right away with a strike force, instead of waiting for the Americans

to receive our reports and act on it, we can catch a lot more people

than the Americans are now."

Occupation authority officials have expressed concern that such a

force would give the five political groups unrivaled power in the

country's internal security apparatus. But U.S. and British officials

involved in security matters here say they believe the risks are

outweighed by the potential gain of having Iraqis assume a more active

role in hunting down resistance fighters. Until now, Iraqi police

officers, most of whom lack adequate training and equipment, have been

reluctant to take up that task.

"It would be good to have a group of Iraqis who are well-trained and

well-armed and well-disciplined participating in the fight," one

occupation authority official said. "Every bit helps."

Bremer would approve, the senior official said, if the members were

carefully screened by the Interior Ministry and by the occupation

authority, and received police training, not military instruction. In

addition, the official said, Bremer would require that

command-and-control issues with U.S. forces be resolved and that the

force could not grow beyond more than a few thousand members.

Political party security organs and other militias could not join the

force en masse, but members could join as individuals, the official

said. "We're not going to have a process whereby militias are

institutionalized here," the senior official said. If that happens, he

said, "we will not have a unified Iraq at the end of the day."

Setting up this force, the official said, "will have to done very

carefully."

Although Bush administration officials want to increase Iraqi

involvement in pursuing resistance fighters, the entities created so

far by the occupation authority -- a police force, a force to guard

buildings, border police, a civil defense corps and an army -- are all

subservient to Bremer. The civil defense units, which are recruited

and trained by American soldiers, take their orders from U.S.

commanders. While the police have more autonomy, they usually do not

involve themselves in hunting down resistance fighters.

The creation of an Iraqi-run paramilitary unit would be a significant

step toward giving Iraqis more power to tackle the escalating

guerrilla activity and rampant crime that have shaken the faith of

many Iraqis in the U.S.-led effort to reconstruct their country and

form a democratic government.

"We need to be equal partners with the Americans in promoting

security," said Adel Abdel-Mehdi, a senior leader with the Supreme

Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, whose militia, the Badr

Brigades, has been patrolling cities in southern Iraq. "They want us

to take responsibility. They need to give us the authority."

In his letter to Bush, Talabani wrote that "Iraqis are more able than

others to handle this matter because they are well aware of the course

of events in Iraq, more knowledgeable about the situation, the

complexities of Iraqi society and the nature of Saddam Hussein's

terrorist regime."

© 2003 The Washington Post Company



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