[lbo-talk] Telegraph: Cheney's plan is to create a SAVAK for Iraq

Michael Pollak mpollak at panix.com
Sun Jan 4 00:53:59 PST 2004


["The presence of a powerful secret police, loyal to the Americans, will mean that the new Iraqi political regime will not stray outside the parameters that the US wants to set," said Mr Pike. "To begin with, the new Iraqi government will reign but not rule."]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/01/04/wirq04.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/01/04/ixnewstop.html

January 4, 2004

Telegraph (UK)

CIA plans new secret police to fight Iraq terrorism

By Julian Coman in Washington

Nine months after the demise of Saddam Hussein's regime and his feared

mukhabarat (intelligence) operatives, Iraq is to get a secret police

force again - courtesy of Washington.

The Bush administration is to fund the new agency in the latest

initiative to root out Ba'athist regime loyalists behind the

continuing insurgency in parts of Iraq.

The force will cost up to $3 billion (£1.8 billion) over the next

three years in money allocated from the same part of the federal

budget that finances the Central Intelligence Agency.

Its ranks are to be drawn from Iraqi exile groups, Kurdish and Shi'ite

forces - in addition to former mukhabarat agents who are now working

for the Americans. CIA officers in Baghdad are expected to play a

leading role in directing their operations.

A former United States intelligence officer familiar with the plan

said: "If successfully set up, the group would work in tandem with

American forces but would have its own structure and relative

independence. It could be expected to be fairly ruthless in dealing

with the remnants of Saddam."

The secret police will be the latest security force created by the US

and its Iraqi political allies in an attempt to quell the insurgency.

Although officially banned by the ruling Coalition Provisional

Authority (CPA), militia groups are already patrolling cities and

towns in many areas of Iraq against the backdrop of an increasing

number of extra-judicial killings of prominent former Ba'athists.

The Pentagon and CIA hope to organise the various and sometimes

competing groups into a single force with the local knowledge, the

motivation and the authority to hunt down pro-Saddam resistance

fighters. According to officials in Washington, the new agency could

eventually number 10,000. Initially at least, salaries will be paid by

the CIA, which has 275 officers on the ground in Iraq.

Former CIA officials compare the operation to the Phoenix programme in

Vietnam, which was launched in 1967. That programme sought to destroy

the civilian infrastructure supporting the Vietcong through

assassinations and abductions secretly authorised by Washington.

Vincent Cannistraro, a former chief of CIA counter-terrorism, said:

"They're clearly cooking up joint teams to do Phoenix-like things,

like they did in Vietnam." He said that small units of US special

forces would work with their Iraqi counterparts, including former

senior Iraqi intelligence agents, on covert operations.

The force is intended to take on a crucial role for Washington in

post-Saddam Iraq. The Pentagon and CIA have told the White House that

the organisation will allow America to maintain control over the

direction of the country as sovereignty is handed over to the Iraqi

people during the course of this year.

John Pike, an expert on classified military budgets at the

Washington-based Global Security organisation, told The Telegraph:

"The money for this has been buried in the 'other procurements'

section of the Air Force budget. The CIA is funded out of that

category.

"The creation of a well-functioning local secret police, that in

effect is a branch of the CIA, is part of the general handover

strategy. If you are in control of the secret police in a country then

you don't really have to worry too much about who the local council

appoints to collect the garbage."

In the short term, CIA officials expect that the very existence of a

strongly pro-American security force will terrify civilians who are

currently supporting the insurgency into refusing assistance and aid

to Ba'athist rebels. Despite the capture of Saddam last month, attacks

on US personnel and Iraqis co-operating with them have continued into

the New Year.

The scheme is believed to have been heavily backed by Vice-President

Dick Cheney, a key advocate of the war to oust Saddam. After deciding

in November to accelerate the handover of political power to a

sovereign Iraqi authority, Mr Cheney and other senior Bush

administration officials are anxious that Iraq should not fall under

radical Islamist control or degenerate into civil war.

"The presence of a powerful secret police, loyal to the Americans,

will mean that the new Iraqi political regime will not stray outside

the parameters that the US wants to set," said Mr Pike. "To begin

with, the new Iraqi government will reign but not rule."

© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2004.



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