[lbo-talk] Secret Police Force to Be Set Up in Iraq

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>[lbo-talk] Courageous Ba'ath Insurgents Strike Another Blow 
>ForFreedom and Democracy!
>Shane Mage shmage at pipeline.com
>Sat Feb 14 16:58:23 PST 2004
>
>Mike Larkin and Luke Weiger wrote:
>>>Wow, it takes real guts to mow down a bunch of desperately poor 
>>>Iraqi police and then turn hardened criminals loose on the 
>>>population! Hopefully, we'll withdraw soon so the great work of 
>>>liberation can continue.
>>
>>Allah akbar!
>
>According to the first NYT report posted on its web site, the attack 
>by a large (80 strong), heavily armed, and perfectly disciplined 
>force was the work of the Badr brigades, a fanatically antiBaathist 
>Shiite militia.  This was not repeated in the second version, which 
>included the US military's allegation of Baathist responsibility. 
>However, at least for now, that version still includes the 
>information that the attackers shouted "God is Great," carried the 
>black flags of the Shiite militias, and included *Persian* speakers 
>(a few of whom were captured).  According to France-TV's "Le 
>Journal," about 200 prisoners were liberated.  But our great 
>moralists somehow "know" (presumably anticipating the official US 
>line) that all the prisoners were "hardened criminals" and that the 
>attackers were really Baathists disguised as Shiites.
>
>Shane Mage

Another irony is that there are a lot of Baathists in the Iraqi 
police that Mike & Luke love so much:

*****    . . .[W]ith only about 40,000 officers, many of whom are 
corrupt holdovers from the Saddam Hussein era, the force is badly 
understaffed for a nation of 25 million people.

"I need new police," said Gen. Ahmed Ibrahim, national commander of 
the force. "Not police from the Baath Party," he added, referring to 
the party of Mr. Hussein's government. "Many police right now are 
from the Baath Party." . . .

(Alex Berenson, "For Iraq Police, a Bigger Task but More Risk," 
November 9, 2003, 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/09/international/middleeast/09POLI.html>) 
*****

Also, there are former agents of the Baath regime now working for the 
CPA, who will join "a powerful secret police" that Washington intends 
to create before the end of the occupation:

*****   Secret police force to be set up in Iraq
By Julian Coman
Washington
January 5, 2004

Nine months after the end of Saddam Hussein's regime and his feared 
intelligence force, Iraq is to get a secret police force again - 
courtesy of Washington.

The Bush Administration will fund the agency in its latest bid to 
root out the Baathist loyalists behind the insurgency in parts of 
Iraq. The force will cost up to $US3 billion ($A4 billion) over the 
next three years.

Its ranks will comprise Iraqi exile groups, Kurdish and Shiite forces 
- and former agents who are now working for the Americans. CIA 
officers in Baghdad will play a leading role in directing their 
operations. . . .

The US hopes to organise the various groups into one force with the 
local knowledge, motivation and authority to hunt down resistance 
fighters. According to Washington, the new agency could number 
10,000. Initially, salaries will be paid by the CIA, which has 275 
officers in Iraq. The force is intended to have a crucial role in 
post-Saddam Iraq.

"The presence of a powerful secret police ... will mean that the new 
Iraqi political regime will not stray outside the parameters that the 
US wants to set," said John Pike, an expert on classified military 
budgets at the Global Security organisation. "To begin with, the new 
Iraqi government will reign but not rule."

- Telegraph

<http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/01/04/1073151210964.html>   *****
-- 
Yoshie

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