-----Original Message-----
From: Alamaine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: CTRL <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Fri, 28 Mar 2008 7:37 am
Subject: [ctrl] Iraqi police in Basra shed their uniforms, kept their rifles
and switched sides - Times Online
March 28, 2008
Iraqi police in Basra shed their uniforms, kept their rifles and switched
sides
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article3635838.ece
James Hider in Baghdad
Abu Iman barely flinched when the Iraqi Government ordered his unit of
special police to move against al-Mahdi Army fighters in Basra.
His response, while swift, was not what British and US military trainers
who have spent the past five years schooling the Iraqi security forces
would have hoped for. He and 15 of his comrades took off their uniforms,
kept their government-issued rifles and went over to the other side
without a second thought.
Such turncoats are the thread that could unravel the British Army’s policy
in southern Iraq. The military hoped that local forces would be able to
combat extremists and allow the Army to withdraw gradually from the
battle-scarred and untamed oil city that has fallen under the sway of
Islamic fundamentalists, oil smugglers and petty tribal warlords. But if
the British taught the police to shoot straight, they failed to instil a
sense of unwavering loyalty to the State.
“We know the outcome of the fighting in advance because we already
defeated the British in the streets of Basra and forced them to withdraw
to their base,” Abu Iman told The Times.
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“If we go back a bit, everyone remembers the fight with the US in Najaf
and the damage and defeat we inflicted on them. Do you think the Iraqi
Army is better than those armies? We are right and the Government is
wrong. [Nouri al] Maliki [the Iraqi Prime Minister] is driving his
Government into the ground.”
The reason for his apparent switch of sides was simple: the 36-year-old
was already a member of the al-Mahdi Army which, like other militias, has
massively infiltrated the British-trained police force in the southern oil
city. He claimed that hundreds of others from the 16,000-strong force have
also defected to the rebels’ ranks.Abu Iman joined the new Iraqi police
force after the invasion, joining the Mugawil, a special police unit
infamous for brutality, kidnapping and sectarian murders.
“We already heard two weeks ago that we were going to attack the Mahdi
Army, so we were ready,” he said. “I decided to take off my uniform and
join my brothers and friends in the Mahdi Army. All these years, we were
like a scream in the face of the dictator and the occupation.” He said: “I
joined the police because I believed we have to protect Basra and save it
with our own hands. You can see we were the first fighters to take on
Sadd-am and his regime, the best example being the Shabaniya uprising.”
Abu Iman said that the fighting raging in Basra yesterday was intense
because the al-Mahdi Army was operating on its own turf. He was confident
that the Shia militia would prevail because its cause was just.
“The Iraqi Army is already defeated from within. They come to Basra with
fear in their hearts, knowing they have to fight their brothers, the sons
of Iraq, because of an order from Bush and his friends in the Iraq
Government. For this reason, all of the battles are going in the Mahdi
Army’s favour.”
Major-General Abdelaziz Moham-med Jassim, the director of operations at
the Ministry of Defence, played down reports of defections in the Basra
police force. “The problem of one policeman doesn’t make up for the whole
of the force,” he said.
In recent months Major-General Abdul Jalil Khalaf, Basra’s police chief,
has tried to shake up the force and drive out militia infiltrators, who
have wrought havoc in the past, often turning police stations into torture
cells in which factions settled vendettas and power struggles with murder
and abuse. But he only narrowly escaped an assassination attempt yesterday
when a suicide car bomb attack in Basra killed three of his policemen. A
local tribal leader said the police directorate building was later gutted
by fire.
--
Alamaine, IVe
Grand Forks, ND, US of A
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"All are lunatics, but he who can analyze his delusion is called a
philosopher." - Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)
"Being ignorant is not such a shame as being unwilling to learn." -
Poor Richard's Almanack, 1758 (Benjamin Franklin)
~~~~~~~
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