Friday, November 17, 2006
VP speaks out on militia infiltration in security forces
Politics, Security
Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi said on November 14 that Iraq's security services have been infiltrated by militiamen and criminal elements, Al-Sharqiyah television reported the same day. Al-Hashimi is a Sunni who heads the Iraqi Islamic Party. Al-Hashimi noted that the dismissal of nearly 5,000 members of the security services run by the Interior Ministry was a clear indication of this. He said Iraq's current problem is not how to draw up security plans, but how to implement them. He added that intelligence services from numerous countries and with conflicting agendas are operating in Iraq. "Different intelligence services from world countries are currently operating in this miserable Iraqi scene and those countries have different agendas that are in tandem with their national security interests. Those agendas are at odds, which explains this conflict of wills in the Iraqi scene," he said. Furthermore, al-Hashimi said the current sectarian divisions plaguing Iraq are a product of the U.S.-led occupation coupled with the shortsighted policies of former Coalition Provisional Authority head Paul Bremer.
