Nearly a year after the ouster of Saddam Hussein's regime and his Mukhabarat [intelligence] officials, Iraq is expected to have a secret police force again — this time, courtesy of Washington, according to the British Sunday Telegraph.
| If true, either the description is melodramatic or the U.S. is indulging in a very bad idea... |
The Bush administration is expected to fund the new agency in the latest initiative to "root out Baathist regime loyalists behind the continuing insurgency in parts of Iraq". According to the report, the force will cost up to $3 billion over the next three years in money allocated from the same part of the federal budget that finances the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The report added that its ranks are set to be taken from Iraqi exile groups, Kurdish and Shiite forces — in addition to former Mukhabarat agents who are currently working for the Americans. Meanwhile, CIA officers in Baghdad are expected to play a prominent role in directing their operations. A former US intelligence officer familiar with the plan said, "If successfully set up, the group would work in tandem with American forces but would have its own structure and relative independence. It could be expected to be fairly ruthless in dealing with the remnants of Saddam."
| But will it be a police agency or a return to the Mukhabarat? As long as it stays out of the extrajudicial stuff — the time for that has passed in Iraq — it will retain its legitimacy. But I guarantee it'll provide fodder for AI and HWR and similar groups, most of them with anti-U.S. agendas... |
The secret police will be the "latest security force created by the US and its Iraqi political allies in an attempt to quell the insurgency". According to officials in Washington, the new agency could eventually number 10,000. During the initial stage, at least, salaries will be paid by the CIA, which has 275 officers on the ground in Iraq, the report said.
| This is a development that will bear watching... |
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