PsychoticDan
04-10-2006, 19:29
...when Iraqi forces ARE the death squads. You'll notice the probe into teh police was lead by Americans - begging the question, "would there be a probe if it weren't for the Americans?"
The place is falling apart and it looks just pathetic. Like we're just stading there like a deer in teh headlights haveing lost all control of the situation. We either need to send 400,000 troops there, re-occupy it neighborhood by neighborhood and lock the place down, rebuild all of the infrastructure - electrical, transportation, all the schools, etc... or just get out. What we're doing now is pathetic.
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi authorities have taken a brigade of up to 700 policemen out of service and put members under investigation for “possible complicity” with death squads following a mass kidnapping earlier this week, the U.S. military said Wednesday.
Meanwhile, a series of bombs went off in rapid succession in a shopping district in a mainly Christian neighborhood of Baghdad, killing 16 people and wounding 87, police said. The dead were among 26 people killed in attacks across Iraq.
The U.S. military also announced the death of two soldiers — the latest in what has been one of the bloodiest stretches of days for American troops this year. Officials in Baghdad said that 18 American troops have been killed over the past four days, including eight U.S. soldiers who died in gunbattles and bomb blasts Monday in Baghdad — the most killed in a single day in the capital since July 2005.
The Iraqi police officers were decommissioned following a kidnapping Sunday when gunmen stormed a frozen food plant in the Amil district, abducted 24 workers and shot two others. The bodies of seven of the workers were found hours later but the fate of the others remains unknown.
‘Clear evidence of complicity’
During a briefing with reporters, Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said there is “clear evidence of complicity with deaths squads” operating in northwest Baghdad. Evidence indicates members of the police’s 8th Brigade were permitting deaths squads to move freely or the police did not respond rapidly enough to reports of deaths squad attacks.
Technically, the police squad is being pulled off the streets for “retraining,” and they will be interrogated, criminal background checks will be conducted in the course of the investigation, NBC News reported.
The action appeared aimed at signaling a new seriousness in tackling police collusion with militias at a time when the government is under increased pressure to put an end to the Shiite-Sunni violence that has killed thousands this year and threatened to tear Iraq apart.
Sunni leaders blamed Shiite militias for the kidnapping and suggested security forces had turned a blind eye to the attack.
“There was some possible complicity in allowing death squad elements to move freely when they should have been impeding them,” Caldwell told a Baghdad news conference. “The forces in the unit have not put their full allegiance to the government of Iraq and gave their allegiance to others,” he said.
Unit commander detained
He said problems with the unit had emerged during a broad brigade-by-brigade assessment of police in Baghdad led by the U.S. military.
The suspended brigade has about 650-700 police, said Interior Ministry spokesman Lt. Col. Karim Mohammedawi.
The Iraqi Interior Ministry said Tuesday that the commander of the unit, a lieutenant colonel, had been detained for investigation and the major general who commands the battalion that includes the brigade had been suspended temporarily and ordered transferred.
Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, the chief ministry spokesman, said a random selection of troops in the suspended unit were being investigated for ties to militias.
Sunni leaders have frequently charged that Shiite militiamen have infiltrated the Shiite-led police forces and have accused police of helping or allowing their attacks.
On Monday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced a new security plan aimed at putting an end to sectarian violence and uniting the feuding Shiite and Sunni parties in his government.
There's more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15124922/
The place is falling apart and it looks just pathetic. Like we're just stading there like a deer in teh headlights haveing lost all control of the situation. We either need to send 400,000 troops there, re-occupy it neighborhood by neighborhood and lock the place down, rebuild all of the infrastructure - electrical, transportation, all the schools, etc... or just get out. What we're doing now is pathetic.
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi authorities have taken a brigade of up to 700 policemen out of service and put members under investigation for “possible complicity” with death squads following a mass kidnapping earlier this week, the U.S. military said Wednesday.
Meanwhile, a series of bombs went off in rapid succession in a shopping district in a mainly Christian neighborhood of Baghdad, killing 16 people and wounding 87, police said. The dead were among 26 people killed in attacks across Iraq.
The U.S. military also announced the death of two soldiers — the latest in what has been one of the bloodiest stretches of days for American troops this year. Officials in Baghdad said that 18 American troops have been killed over the past four days, including eight U.S. soldiers who died in gunbattles and bomb blasts Monday in Baghdad — the most killed in a single day in the capital since July 2005.
The Iraqi police officers were decommissioned following a kidnapping Sunday when gunmen stormed a frozen food plant in the Amil district, abducted 24 workers and shot two others. The bodies of seven of the workers were found hours later but the fate of the others remains unknown.
‘Clear evidence of complicity’
During a briefing with reporters, Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said there is “clear evidence of complicity with deaths squads” operating in northwest Baghdad. Evidence indicates members of the police’s 8th Brigade were permitting deaths squads to move freely or the police did not respond rapidly enough to reports of deaths squad attacks.
Technically, the police squad is being pulled off the streets for “retraining,” and they will be interrogated, criminal background checks will be conducted in the course of the investigation, NBC News reported.
The action appeared aimed at signaling a new seriousness in tackling police collusion with militias at a time when the government is under increased pressure to put an end to the Shiite-Sunni violence that has killed thousands this year and threatened to tear Iraq apart.
Sunni leaders blamed Shiite militias for the kidnapping and suggested security forces had turned a blind eye to the attack.
“There was some possible complicity in allowing death squad elements to move freely when they should have been impeding them,” Caldwell told a Baghdad news conference. “The forces in the unit have not put their full allegiance to the government of Iraq and gave their allegiance to others,” he said.
Unit commander detained
He said problems with the unit had emerged during a broad brigade-by-brigade assessment of police in Baghdad led by the U.S. military.
The suspended brigade has about 650-700 police, said Interior Ministry spokesman Lt. Col. Karim Mohammedawi.
The Iraqi Interior Ministry said Tuesday that the commander of the unit, a lieutenant colonel, had been detained for investigation and the major general who commands the battalion that includes the brigade had been suspended temporarily and ordered transferred.
Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, the chief ministry spokesman, said a random selection of troops in the suspended unit were being investigated for ties to militias.
Sunni leaders have frequently charged that Shiite militiamen have infiltrated the Shiite-led police forces and have accused police of helping or allowing their attacks.
On Monday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced a new security plan aimed at putting an end to sectarian violence and uniting the feuding Shiite and Sunni parties in his government.
There's more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15124922/