Thursday, September 06, 2007
U.S. generals want to disband Iraqi Police Force
Security
(Al Jazeera) - Iraq's police force is infiltrated by sectarian militias and should be disbanded and reorganised, a panel of retired US generals led by former Nato commander James Jones has told congress. And while military special forces are "highly capable and extremely effective", and some army units are becoming better at counter-insurgency, overall, the security forces "will be unable to fulfil their essential security responsibilities independently over the next 12-18 months", the report says.
The leaked report is one of several independent studies that congress commissioned in May. John Warner, the second-most senior Republican on the senate armed services committee, who last month called on the US president to pull out some troops by this Christmas, said he wanted an assessment on the capability of Iraq's military and police forces because their success is considered by George Bush's administration as necessary for US troops to leave.
General Jones, who was also formerly Marine Corps commandant, is scheduled to testify before congress on Thursday. His report says militia infiltration in the police force, overseen by a "dysfunctional and sectarian" interior ministry, renders it unable to provide security to civilians. "Its ability to be effective is crippled by significant challenges, including public distrust, sectarianism [both real and perceived], and a lack of clarity about its identity - specifically whether it is a military or a police force," the report says. "Sectarianism in its units undermines its ability to provide security; the [police] force is not viable in its current form."
It is a sentiment echoed by a senior member of congress who on Wednesday demanded the US stop providing funds and weapons to Iraqi forces. "It's just a bad policy to train and equip Iraqi forces and policy makers should resist equipping forces in a failed state and must resist adding further fuel to the fire that is raging in Iraq," Maxine Waters, a Democrat, said.
"We also acknowledge there have been real sectarian problems within the national police force," Geoff Morel, a Pentagon spokesman, said. "The Iraqi government is committed to fixing this problem. Has it happened at pace the US wants? No, we want it to happen sooner than it has. But I don't believe the projects should be abandoned because progress has not happened at the pace we want. We must wait until Iraq can police itself without US help," he said.
The Jones report does acknowledge that the security situation has improved dramatically in al-Anbar province and sees "signs of encouraging tactical successes in the Baghdad capital region". It says those "circumstances of the moment" may provide an opportunity for beginning to transition US forces to a "strategic overwatch posture" in early 2008, re-tasking them to concentrate on border defence and infrastructure defence.
The leak of the report comes a day after another congressionally mandated report was formally published - after it too was leaked – giving Bush's troop "surge" strategy failing marks. General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq, is set to give his assessment of the Iraq situation to congress next week.
The leaked report is one of several independent studies that congress commissioned in May. John Warner, the second-most senior Republican on the senate armed services committee, who last month called on the US president to pull out some troops by this Christmas, said he wanted an assessment on the capability of Iraq's military and police forces because their success is considered by George Bush's administration as necessary for US troops to leave.
General Jones, who was also formerly Marine Corps commandant, is scheduled to testify before congress on Thursday. His report says militia infiltration in the police force, overseen by a "dysfunctional and sectarian" interior ministry, renders it unable to provide security to civilians. "Its ability to be effective is crippled by significant challenges, including public distrust, sectarianism [both real and perceived], and a lack of clarity about its identity - specifically whether it is a military or a police force," the report says. "Sectarianism in its units undermines its ability to provide security; the [police] force is not viable in its current form."
It is a sentiment echoed by a senior member of congress who on Wednesday demanded the US stop providing funds and weapons to Iraqi forces. "It's just a bad policy to train and equip Iraqi forces and policy makers should resist equipping forces in a failed state and must resist adding further fuel to the fire that is raging in Iraq," Maxine Waters, a Democrat, said.
"We also acknowledge there have been real sectarian problems within the national police force," Geoff Morel, a Pentagon spokesman, said. "The Iraqi government is committed to fixing this problem. Has it happened at pace the US wants? No, we want it to happen sooner than it has. But I don't believe the projects should be abandoned because progress has not happened at the pace we want. We must wait until Iraq can police itself without US help," he said.
The Jones report does acknowledge that the security situation has improved dramatically in al-Anbar province and sees "signs of encouraging tactical successes in the Baghdad capital region". It says those "circumstances of the moment" may provide an opportunity for beginning to transition US forces to a "strategic overwatch posture" in early 2008, re-tasking them to concentrate on border defence and infrastructure defence.
The leak of the report comes a day after another congressionally mandated report was formally published - after it too was leaked – giving Bush's troop "surge" strategy failing marks. General David Petraeus, the US commander in Iraq, is set to give his assessment of the Iraq situation to congress next week.
Labels: Iraqi Police Force, James Jones, John Warner, militias, The Jones report
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Diyala police dept. run by SIIC
Security, Politics
(IPS) - Militia from the Shia organisation Badr have taken over the police force in Diyala province north of Baghdad, residents say. The government led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is believed to have backed such infiltration, and this has reportedly led to clashes with U.S. military leaders. The Daily Telegraph in London has reported that Maliki and General David Petraeus, U.S. commander of the multi-national force in Iraq, have clashed over moves by the U.S. general to arm some Sunni groups.
Sectarian tensions between Sunni and Shia Muslims has grown amidst Iraqi government policies seen as supportive of Shias. Maliki is from the Dawa Party backed by Shia Iran. In Baquba, 50km northeast of the capital, and capital of Diyala, residents say the Shia Badr Organisation, the armed wing of the politically dominant Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC), has been dominant in the province since the early months of the occupation. The Badr Organisation managed to fill leadership positions in city and province, while Sunni Iraqis remained largely unrepresented.
In this set-up, many sectarian killings have been carried out by the Badr Organisation, often under cover of the local police, residents told IPS. The SIIC and the Dawa Party of the Prime Minister are politically affiliated. Maliki is secretary-general of the Dawa Party, and spent time in exile in Iran after leading insurgent groups against former president Saddam Hussein. Maliki came to be Prime Minister after political pressure from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former British foreign secretary Jack Straw forced former Iraqi prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, also from the al-Dawa Party, to resign.
Residents of this violence-plagued city told IPS that it is common for Iraqi police and army forces, most of whom are militiamen with the Badr Organisation, to raid homes of Sunnis during the night, and take away men who are later found dead in the street. As a result, groups have begun to set up blocks to prevent police patrols from entering their districts at night. There have been several clashes in these districts between residents and people wearing police uniforms attempting to enter. "All the attacks on the Iraqi police and army have been a reaction to the sectarian orientation of the police and Iraqi army," Ali Juma'a, a retired Iraqi army officer told IPS. "They (Badr Organisation affiliated Iraqi police) targeted the officers of the previous Iraq army, military pilots who took part in the Iraq-Iran war, members of the Ba'ath party (of Saddam Hussein) and others."
"Police vehicles are often accompanied by civilian cars," a resident said, declining to give his name. "These cars are driven by civilians who are new to the city, we never saw them here in the past." Many residents say they have seen such cars at the police headquarters in Diyala. The IPS correspondent saw one such car near an Iraqi Army checkpoint – the car like others that residents describe, was a 1993-94 Toyota super saloon. In the back seat were two blindfolded civilians with their hands tied behind their backs.
Day after day, trust in the Iraqi government and its security forces diminishes. This is in the face of increasing popular support for the Iraqi resistance. Local support for the resistance, particularly in Sunni areas, has risen as resistance groups began to protect residents from Badr Organisation death squads. The death squads are notorious for using checkpoints to look at identity cards of drivers, who are then disappeared if they are of the 'wrong' sect.
The chief commander of police is from Khirnabat village whose residents are all Shia. The commander was nominated by the SIIC. "Coalition forces received complaints about the checkpoint at Jamhoriya Bridge (in the centre of Baquba, 100 metres from the police headquarters), and later they found a prison in the villages Khirnabat and Huwaider (also a Shia village) and freed all the Sunni prisoners," local resident Hadi Hassan told IPS. IPS spoke with a Sunni man named Ammar al-Samaraee who had been arrested at the checkpoint and sent to Huwaider village. His father is a well-known figure in the community and managed to have Ammar released after paying 15,000 dollars in ransom. Ammar suffered a broken shoulder and bruises up and down his body.
A Sunni man held prisoner inside the central prison for Diyala province spoke with IPS on condition of anonymity. "There were more than 250 prisoners with me in the prison and all of them were Sunni except one man named Hussein, who was Shia, and was charged with killing his nephew." Shia men who were imprisoned would often be freed by a Shia clerk at the prison, he said. "The entire Iraqi police department for Diyala province is run and controlled by the SIIC and not by the government," the former prisoner added. "And 95 percent of the staff are Shia."
Labels: Badr Corps, Baqouba, Dawa party, Diyala, Iraqi Police Force, SIIC
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Purge of Biased Shias from Iraqi Police Force
Security
(AP) - More than a third of Iraq's national police battalion commanders are now Sunni after a purge of Shiites who had a sectarian bias, a U.S. general said Monday. Despite improvements, he predicted it will still be years before Iraqi forces are capable of securing the country by themselves. Speaking to Pentagon reporters from Iraq, Army Brig. Gen. Dana Pittard said he had been saddened to see the destruction in one province where the number of U.S. forces had been reduced too soon.
"We cannot be in a hurry to withdraw our coalition forces," he said, using Diyala province north of Baghdad as an example. Pittard this week ends his tour as day-to-day head of the effort to train Iraqi army soldiers, police, national police, border guards and other security workers. "The growth of the Iraqi security forces over the past couple of years has really been quite dramatic in many ways," he said by video conference. Among improvements: Iraqi officials have recruited Sunnis to the national police command, a group that a year ago was almost entirely Shia. The national police have been known for their ties to Shiite militia.
Pittard said that since October, officials had removed seven of nine brigade commanders — five because of sectarian bias. One of two division commanders is now Sunni, as are four of nine brigade commanders and 9 or 10 of the 27 battalion commanders, he said. But he warned against being "in a hurry" to hand over responsibility for Iraq security to local soldiers and police — a handover U.S. officials have said is key to bringing American forces home.
"We cannot be in a hurry to withdraw our coalition forces," he said, using Diyala province north of Baghdad as an example. Pittard this week ends his tour as day-to-day head of the effort to train Iraqi army soldiers, police, national police, border guards and other security workers. "The growth of the Iraqi security forces over the past couple of years has really been quite dramatic in many ways," he said by video conference. Among improvements: Iraqi officials have recruited Sunnis to the national police command, a group that a year ago was almost entirely Shia. The national police have been known for their ties to Shiite militia.
Pittard said that since October, officials had removed seven of nine brigade commanders — five because of sectarian bias. One of two division commanders is now Sunni, as are four of nine brigade commanders and 9 or 10 of the 27 battalion commanders, he said. But he warned against being "in a hurry" to hand over responsibility for Iraq security to local soldiers and police — a handover U.S. officials have said is key to bringing American forces home.
Labels: Brig. Gen. Dana Pittard, Diyala, Iraqi Police Force
