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Chicago Tribune - United State
30 December 2005

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U.S. plans to rein in Iraqi po

Sectarian tensions rise in aftermath of abuse scandals

By Louise Roug, Tribune Newspapers: Los Angeles Times. Times staff writers Paul Richter in Washington and Borzou Daragahi and Asmaa Waguih in Baghdad contributed to this report
Published December 30, 2005

BAGHDAD -- U.S. officials announced plans Thursday to rein in Iraqi special police forces, increasing the number of troops assigned to work with them and requiring permission for Iraqi raids in Baghdad after a series of abuse scandals that have inflamed sectarian tensions.

The decision to impose more day-to-day oversight suggests a recognition within the U.S. military that the heavy-handed tactics of some Iraqi units, which are to increasingly take on the role of fighting insurgents, have aggravated sectarian tensions that help fuel the insurgency.

More than 2 1/2 years after the invasion and 1 1/2 years after the formal end of the occupation, it also illustrates that Americans still carry the final word on security matters.

Iraq's Sunni Arabs, who dominated Iraq under Saddam Hussein, have complained of being targeted by the security forces, which now are controlled by Shiites. The bodies of hundreds of Sunni men have been fished out of the Tigris River and found in abandoned lots and garbage dumps. Many were tied, blindfolded and shot execution style. Relatives often say their family members were taken away by Iraqi security forces or by people dressed as such.

The announcement also comes after several abuse scandals involving Interior Ministry forces. Last month, U.S. troops raided a secret prison where ministry forces were holding dozens of emaciated and tortured inmates, many of them Sunnis.

Sunni anger at the new order in Iraq has fueled the insurgency.

Currently, seven of the nine Iraqi special police brigades in Baghdad each have 40 to 45 Americans attached to them. Under the new plan, hundreds of additional troops will "partner" with the brigades.

The plan is to be implemented in the capital first but might be a model for the rest of the country, said a senior U.S. military official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Speaking to reporters earlier this month, Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, who is in charge of training Iraqi troops, said the penetration of the police by militias was "a serious problem . . . we don't tolerate the presence of militias when we encounter it."

Dempsey said the Iraqi government is ambivalent about the existence of militias, which complicates the problem. Although the Iraqi constitution forbids militias to act as a national army, it permits regions to have "home guards" or "regional guards."

Since a raid in mid-November in which mistreated prisoners were found at a Baghdad prison, U.S. officials say American and Iraqi investigators have discovered overcrowding and indications of mistreatment of detainees at two other Baghdad facilities and at another one in the northwestern city of Tal Afar.

Earlier this week, the U.S. military announced it will delay the hand-over of U.S.-run prisons.

U.S. commanders also have begun intelligence-sharing meetings twice weekly with Iraqi security officials, the U.S. official said. The meetings allow Americans to monitor who the police arrest during raids and where the detainees are taken. The senior official also said that in Baghdad, Iraqi special police forces now have to get permission from the U.S. military before conducting raids.

"We learned our lessons on the military side, and now we want to apply [those lessons] to police side," said Lt. Col. Fred Wellman, spokesman for multinational command overseeing training of the Iraqi army. He said the plan was not developed as a response to accounts of prisoner torture or extrajudicial killings, but as part of the larger strategy for handing over control to Iraqi security forces.

Nevertheless, the U.S. moves will upset some Iraqi Interior Ministry officials, the senior U.S. military official acknowledged. It amounts to a reimposition of U.S. authority over security forces that have for months operated independently.

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Chicago Tribune - United State30 December 2005

U.S. plans to rein in Iraqi po

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Chicago Tribune - United State
30 December 2005