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| Iraq |
| U.S. Army ramps up training of Iraqi police |
| 2006-01-16 |
| U.S. military commanders are launching an ambitious program to improve Iraq's ability to combat criminals and insurgents, assigning more than 2,000 army military police advisers to work side by side with Iraqi police officers at local stations and provincial and district headquarters in a mission that entails significant new security risks for American forces. The effort, which is just starting in Baghdad and will expand to all 18 provinces by the end of the month, greatly increases the size and scope of the current field training by 500 international civilian police advisers and military police units, U.S. military officials say. About 80,000 police officers across Iraq are now certified as trained and equipped, more than halfway toward the goal of 135,000 by early 2007. But senior commanders, including General George Casey, the top American officer in Iraq, have vowed to make 2006 "the year of the police" in a tacit acknowledgment that this is a sweeping new effort to straighten out the police forces because their corruption, ineptitude and infiltration stand in the way of any plan by the Americans to draw down troops this year. For example, American commanders have complained that armed militia have infiltrated the police department in Basra, Iraq's third-largest city. Their memories are fresh of the Mosul police department's desertion in the face of insurgent attacks there in 2004. The Pentagon has budgeted more than $1 billion this year to train, field and equip Interior Ministry forces, of which the police are by far the largest single component, said Ann Bertucci, a military spokeswoman. Senior American officers say their goal is to train Iraqi police so they can take over law enforcement duties in the coming months from Iraqi army units who are now relieving American troops. "We're trying to develop the police capability to the point where by the end of 2006 we can begin the transfer to civil security," said Major General Joseph Peterson, the top American police trainer in Iraq, in a recent interview at his headquarters in Baghdad. In the past year, the Pentagon has assigned more then 2,500 uniformed military advisers to work and live with Iraqi army units, in the first major step to improve the capability of Iraq's security forces. Now, the Bush administration and the fledgling Iraqi government are carrying out a similar program with the various Iraqi police forces. Recently, American commanders announced they would significantly increase the number of soldiers advising Iraqi police commando units, partly to help curtail abuse that the units are suspected of inflicting on Sunni Arabs. All these efforts have a common goal: to train and equip Iraqi soldiers, border guards and police forces to take over more responsibility for securing their country and allowing the United States to withdraw its 150,000 troops from Iraq. But the new police transition team program, as it is called, is perhaps even more ambitious in scope and goals since it aims to team Americans in way or another with as many as 130,000 local Iraqi police and their supervisors. Peterson and other senior commanders acknowledge the effort faces several steep hurdles. Insurgent suicide-bombers have targeted police stations and police recruiting drives in an attempt to intimidate Iraqis from signing up. Many police are viewed by Iraqis as corrupt. Sectarian militias have infiltrated the police in major cities. The most feared institution in Basra, Iraq's third-largest city, is a shadowy force of more than 200 police officers known collectively as the Jameat, who dominate the local police and who are said to murder and torture at will. The ability of the Iraqi police to tackle an increasingly sophisticated and well armed insurgency has often failed miserably. Nowhere did the police flop quite so dramatically as in Mosul in November 2004, when a 5,000-man force deserted in the face of a militant uprising, sending Iraq's second-largest city into chaos. "The training of the Iraqi police is an enormous task and it - frankly, it hasn't always gone smoothly," President George W. Bush acknowledged in a speech last week to the Veterans of Foreign Wars. "By strengthening local police in these cities, we can help Iraqis provide security in areas cleared of enemy forces and make it harder for these thugs to return." Currently, each Iraqi police recruit receives eight to 10 weeks of training at one of nine police academies in Iraq and Jordan. As part of that classroom training, each recruit receives 32 hours of training in human rights and the rule of law. Graduates are assigned to police stations or headquarters, where units will be paired with American military and civilian advisers to improve their respect for the law and their professionalism. Up to now these mentors have been mainly civilian advisers, many of whom are retired American police officers. The new police transition teams will consist of 12 to 24 members each with military police, civilian police trainers and linguists involved, Bertucci said. Soldiers from the 49th Military Police Brigade, an Army National Guard unit with headquarters in Fairfield, California, will be assigned initially to police stations in nine major Iraqi cities - Baghdad, Ramadi, Fallujah, Najaf, Babil, Kirkuk, Baqubah, Samarra, Mosul - as well as to dozens of provincial and district headquarters across the country. Slightly more than two-thirds of the brigade's 3,000 soldiers, military police drawn from a mix of active duty, National Guard and Army Reserve units, are expected to participate in the program, said Captain Jonathan Shiroma, a brigade spokesman. The advisers will help the Iraqi police on a range of duties, such as processing crime scenes - which includes finger print dusting - conducting joint patrols with Iraqi beat cops in their neighborhoods, handcuffing suspects and proper arrest technique, Captain Shiroma said. Some independent police training specialists, while applauding the effort to focus more attention on Iraqi beat cops as the front-line security force, express caution that the Pentagon set the proper training priorities. "Simply fanning out these people to cover the country isn't going to achieve substantive results," said Matt Sherman, who stepped down last month after two years as a deputy senior adviser to the Iraqi Interior Ministry. He continued: "The priority must be given to working with the leadership corps at the provincial and city level, and ensure that their actives are coordinated with the elected representatives, other ministries, and local leaders in their respective area." Developing the police has been uneven across the country. In Baghdad, blue-shirted officers in brand-new patrol cars are visible across the city, and have earned generally high marks from American officers. In Sunni-dominated Al Anbar province in western Iraq, Maj. Gen. Stephen Johnson, the top Marine officer in Iraq, said in an interview that more than 1,200 trained police officers are now on duty in Falluja. But General Johnson said there are no police officers in cities and towns west of Fallujah, including Ramadi, although he added there are training programs underway. American officials acknowledged that the new program poses increased risks to American M.P.'s, more of whom will be working more closely with Iraqi police officers. In 2005, 1,497 Iraqi police officers were killed and 3,256 were injured, said Ms. Bertucci, who is General Peterson's spokeswoman. Already this month, more than three dozen police officers have been killed, she said. Perhaps no challenge is as vexing as the influence of militias. Lt. Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the top overall American trainer in Iraq, acknowledged last month that hundreds of militia gunmen had joined police departments around the country, while still retaining loyalties to their militia commanders. Over the past five to six months, Iraq police officials have sought to combat this, reverifying the credentials of police officers on the payrolls in all 18 provinces by creating an automated database that took fingerprints and retinal scans. Ms. Bertucci said the presence of American military police advises in Iraqi police stations would allow American commanders a better means to assess the severity of the problem. While local police report to the provincial governor, General Peterson said ministry officials in Baghdad can exert influence by denying financing for police officers' salaries and equipment. Critics like Mr. Sherman counter that the militias can readily find alternative financing, and that others checks must be established. "Policies and agreements must be reached again with the various militia leaders on identification and integration through a series of initiatives such as pension plans, individual job placement in both the security and non-security ministries and vocational training," Mr. Sherman said. Some American commanders have already pressed ahead, anticipating the new training initiative. In the northwest city of Tal Afar, soldiers from the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment have been rebuilding the police department after reclaiming the city from insurgents there last September. More than 700 police officers are now on the streets, double the number before the battle, and hundreds more are in training, said Lt. Col. Christopher Hickey, commander of the regiment's Sabre Squadron which operates in the city. Colonel Hickey said that six months ago, the militia influence in Tal Afar was very strong and the local police, 90 percent of whom were Shia in a Sunni-majority area, never left their headquarters. Since then, Colonel Hickey said that 200 Sunni police from Mosul were brought in and, with other Sunni recruits, the police force is now a roughly equal mix of Sunnis and Shia. Cavalry troops, military police and civilian advisers are teaching the Iraqis how to run a police station, patrol and conduct investigations. "The ultimate goal is for the police to police," Colonel Hickey said in an e-mail message. "If the police force is not trusted or respected than you can't have effective or legitimate rule of government or law." |
| Posted by: Anonymoose |