Yesterday, it was digging trenches around Baghdad, today (via the NYT: Iraq Stumbling in Bid to Purge Its Rogue Police) it’s the dysfunctional security apparatus:
The new interior minister, Jawad al-Bolani, who oversees the police, lacks the political support to purge many of the worst offenders, including senior managers who tolerated or encouraged the infiltration of Shiite militias into the police under the previous government, according to interviews with more than a dozen officials who work with the ministry and the police.
[…]
The ministry recently discovered that more than 1,200 policemen and other employees had been convicted years ago of murder, rape and other violent crimes, said a Western diplomat who has close contact with the ministry. Some were even on death row. Few have been fired.
Despite the importance American commanders place on hiring more Sunni Arabs for the overwhelmingly Shiite police force, the ministry still has no way to screen recruits by sect or for militia allegiance. Such loyalties are the root cause of the ministry’s problems.
A senior American commander said that of the 27 paramilitary police battalions, “we think 5 or 6 battalions probably have leaders that have led that part of the organization in a way that is either criminal or sectarian or both.”
While the article notes a few minor improvements under the new Minister, the overall picture is rather bleak. The entire article is worth a read.
It’s truly astounding that this story failed to mention Steven Vincent — one of the first journalists to write about this issue. Vincent was murdered on Aug. 5, 2024, just two days after publishing an Op-Ed in The New York Times about the issue of rogue Iraqi police in Basra, Iraq. It’s likely that Vincnet was killed by rogue police — yet The Times, for some reason, does not want to acknolwedge any of this. Certainly Edward Wong, who wrote the article posted here, knows of Vincnet. He wrote the NYT article about Vincent’s murder. Who does Vincent fail to figure in the world according to The New York Times?
Comment by David Paulin — Sunday, September 17, 2024 @ 10:26 am
All that work for Plame and now it’s time for jail……..
Comment by Pesaz — Sunday, September 17, 2024 @ 11:20 am