Iraqi police face charges of past (Mukhabarat back in the saddle)

[Barrett808]

Iraqi police face charges of past
BY MATTHEW MCALLESTER
STAFF CORRESPONDENT

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The Intelligence Service has its own secret prison. Criminals wear uniforms and collect police salaries. Senior security officials hand out jobs to family members. Investigators charged with being watchdogs over the police say they have little or no power. They report to the interior minister rather than to justice itself. The police arrest the innocent, beat them, and imprison them without charge; and in at least one case, police shot dead an innocent bystander.

This is not Saddam Hussein's corrupt police state. This is the new Iraq run by interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, the man the international community is hoping will shepherd Iraqi democracy into being early next year. There are so many corrupt, violent and useless police officers in the new Iraqi police force that, according to a senior American adviser to the Iraqi police, the U.S. government is about to pay off 30,000 police officers at a cost of $60 million to the American taxpayer.

"An innocent man was killed in cold blood," said Luay al-Kharalosi, whose brother Ali, 25, was shot dead on the street by the Iraqi police earlier this month, an incident for which the police admit responsibility. "These are the same methods as Saddam Hussein, but Saddam Hussein killed people in secret. Allawi kills in public."

Less than a month after the interim Iraqi government took power, Iraqi and American officials are struggling to prevent Iraq's new security forces from adopting many of the characteristics of Hussein's feared secret police, say American and Iraqi officials and some civilians who have suffered at their hands. As Allawi faces the dual challenges of a crime wave and an ongoing insurgency -- and answering a clamoring desire among most Iraqis for security and stability -- officials fear that human rights and honesty in the security forces are being suffocated at birth by a culture of authoritarianism and corruption. It is in part a hangover from the Hussein years and part a response to Iraq's current instability.

"What is right for Iraq? To a certain degree we have tried to instill our values in the country," said Dan Waddington, a senior American adviser to the Iraqi police. "If the people of Iraq believe that type of force is justified to get control of the problems of the country, are we the ones to say no, do it by our standards?"

(more)

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-wopoli0725,0,1348931.story?coll=ny-world-big-pix

[Rose Siding]

1. The "senior American advisor" doesn't seem to hear the deep irony

...in his words.

He makes a good argument for not having invaded them. So sure, let Iraqis decide how much corruption and oppression occurs in Iraq, but drop the "freedom" and "democracy" pitch.

[struggle4progress]

2. Do we hate the very idea of their freedom?

Death squads didn't work in Vietnam, but the CIA is betting they'll be great in Iraq
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=539683

CIA recruiting Saddam’s secret police
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=133617

WP: U.S. Recruiting Hussein's Spies
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=80582

[Barrett808]

3. "We didn't strip them naked, photograph them or f*ck them like you did"

US military police raid Iraqi detention centre to stop abuse of prisoners
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=655722

---

US military police raid Iraqi detention centre to stop abuse of prisoners
Confusion over armed soldiers' intervention
Peter Beaumont in Baghdad
Wednesday June 30, 2004
The Guardian

American military police yesterday raided a building belonging to the Iraqi ministry of the interior where prisoners were allegedly being physically abused by Iraqi interrogators.

The raid appeared to be a violation of the country's new sovereignty, leading to angry scenes inside the ministry between Iraqi policemen and US soldiers.

...

A bodyguard for the head of criminal intelligence, Hussein Kamal, admitted that the beatings had taken place.

Nashwan Ali - who said his nickname was Big Man - said: "A US MP asked me this morning what police division I was in. I said I was in criminal intelligence.

"The American asked me why we had beaten the prisoners. I said we beat the prisoners because they are all bad people. But I told him we didn't strip them naked, photograph them or fuck them like you did."

(more)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1250526,00.html

[daleo]

4. You invaded their country and put in a puppet government, Mr. Waddington.

"What is right for Iraq? To a certain degree we have tried to instill our values in the country," said Dan Waddington, a senior American adviser to the Iraqi police. "If the people of Iraq believe that type of force is justified to get control of the problems of the country, are we the ones to say no, do it by our standards?"

It is a little late to claim that you don't want to interfere in their domestic affairs. This is all to prime the American people for the reality that Bush had no intention of installing a democracy in Iraq - just a change of strongmen, to one who is more compliant (for now).