Iraq Suspends Commanders Over Mass Kidnap

[ECH1969]

Interior Minister Jawad Al Bolani ordered the suspension yesterday of two police commanders in the wake of a brazen high-profile kidnapping operation in the Iraqi capital.

“The minister of interior ordered the suspension of the commander of the 8th Brigade of the National Police and another battalion commander and he initiated an investigation into the security violations in Amil neighbourhood,” Major General Rashid Fulayah said on state television. Hundreds of residents of the south-west Baghdad neighbourhood, mostly Sunni, demonstrated yesterday against the police, accusing them of turning a blind eye to the kidnappers, who snatched 26 people from a food processing plant on Sunday.

Many of those taken subsequently turned up dead in Abu Chir neighbourhood to the south. There have long been complaints over Iraqi security forces, particularly the police forces controlled by the interior ministry, of turning a blind eye to Shi’ite armed gangs involved in kidnapping and assassinations.

US military commanders operating in south-west Baghdad have also expressed their suspicions about the National Police in these mixed Sunni-Shi’ite neighbourhoods with strong a strong militia presence. One of the demonstrators’ demands was for US soldiers to replace the National Police in the neighbourhood. US and Iraqi authorities have said a shake-up of the National Police, which was hurriedly thrown together over a year ago and filled with militia-sympathisers, is imminent.

http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Gulf%2C+Middle+East+%26+Africa&month=October2006&file=World_News200610044912.xml

[AlCzervik]

1. how long will it be before the Iraqi security forces and army decide to

turn all their guns on our troops? this is what happens when you go into a war you have and then have the nerve to have no plan.

[rodeodance]

2. never. they like their guns

[AlCzervik]

3. not turn them in, turn them on our troops.

[IChing]

14. This is really more about death squads that our "trained Iraqi police"

set up.

[Moderator]

4. k

[ECH1969]

5. Iraqi police unit linked to militias

Iraqi authorities have taken a police brigade out of service and returned them to training because of "complicity" with death squads in the wake of a mass kidnapping in Baghdad this week, a U.S. military spokesman said Wednesday.

The kidnapping took place on Sunday, when gunmen stormed into a frozen meats factory in the Amil district and snatched 24 workers, shooting two others. The bodies of seven of the workers were found later but the fate of the others remains unknown.

The suspended brigade has about 650-700 policemen, Interior Ministry spokesman Lt. Col. Karim Mohammedawi said. The Iraqi Interior Ministry said Tuesday that the commander of the unit, a lieutenant colonel, had been detained and was being investigated, and that the major general who commands the battalion that includes the suspended brigade has 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.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4235227.html

[acmavm]

6. Returned 'em to training? Wow, that'll show 'em to go around

killing people.

[filer]

7. Nothing so wrong that a little extra training can't fix.

Yeah, right.

[mom cat]

8. Mission Accomplished!

[Supersedeas]

9. nothing to see here...Freedom is on the March

[IChing]

10. Iraqi police accused of complicity in death squad activities

Washington - An Iraqi police force has been ordered to stand down and undergo fresh training because of complicity in the operation of death squads, a US general said Wednesday.

Major General William Caldwell, spokesman for international forces in Iraq, told reporters in Baghdad that the brigade serving in the Baghdad area will receive new training because some members have allegedly been involved in 'criminal wrongdoings.'

'There is clear evidence that there was some complicity in allowing death squad elements to move freely when, in fact, they were supposed to have been impeding their movement,' Caldwell said.>>>>snip

© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/article_1208235.php/Iraqi_police_accused_of_complicity_in_death_squad_activities

[azurnoir]

11. Hasn't that been know for

going on 2 years now? Oh, have they finely got proof?

[IChing]

13. Imported the idea from Negropointe

We knew this but if you notice this is only being reported from the German Press and the link I gave.



Our Man from Central America: info here

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=John_Negroponte

[MadMaddie]

12. An entire Brigade.....this is going so well!!

:sarcasm:

This is a direct result of Bremmers fucked up decision to dismantle the police and the Army.......he is directly responsible for this...and now he is working elsewhere.....our soldiers cannot depend on the Iraqi's.....they will never stand up.....

[RedEarth]

15. Baghdad bombings hit new high, police suspended

Bomb attacks in Baghdad have hit an all-time high, the U.S. military said on Wednesday, as one of the capital's frontline police units was pulled off the streets on suspicion of involvement with sectarian death squads.

Thousands of police face criminal vetting and lie detectors as part of a "retraining" process designed to weed out militia killers who have used the cover of their uniforms to kidnap, torture and commit mass murder, U.S. officials have said.

The overnight orders to move the 8th National Police Brigade into barracks and arrest one of its commanders came a day after Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki unveiled a sketchy deal with Sunni leaders and fellow Shi'ites to try to stem violence. But there was still no sign of further talks to provide substance.

Fourteen people were killed and 75 wounded when a car bomb struck a government motorcade in Baghdad. Police said the industry minister, a Kurd, was in the motorcade but aides said no senior officials were in the convoy.

U.S. military spokesman Major General William Caldwell said the number of car bombs in Baghdad, both detonated and defused, hit their highest level of the year last week and that bombs reported in general were "also at an all-time high."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061004/ts_nm/iraq_dc_62&printer=1;_ylt=ApsIIgkFl7WK2KA27h.WnFJg.3QA;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-

[Supersedeas]

16. Nothing to see here....Anna Nicole paternity test...anyone???