NYT: In Shake-Up, Iraq Removes Leaders of Special Police

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/18/world/middleeast/18iraq.html?hp&ex=1161144000&en=dc6ae7909eee576a&ei=5094&partner=homepage

The Iraqi government removed the country’s two most senior police commanders from their posts on Tuesday, in the first broad move against the top leadership of Iraq’s unruly special police forces.

The two generals had commanded Iraq’s special police commandos and its public order brigade, both widely criticized as being heavily infiltrated by Shiite militias. Their removal comes at a crucial time for Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, who has fallen under intense American pressure to purge Iraq’s security forces of the militias and death squads that operate within their ranks.

Iraqi politicians, both Shiite and Sunni, have shown signs in recent weeks of growing anxiety that eroding public and Congressional support for the war in the United States might prompt a major shift in American policy, particularly if the November midterm elections bring gains for the Democrats.

Senior American officials, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on a visit to Baghdad earlier this month, have given stark warnings to the Maliki government of growing American impatience, especially at the government’s failure to stop the scourge of death squads operating with the knowledge or support of the Interior Ministry, which oversees the police.

For Mr. Maliki, these concerns have taken on a keen personal edge, exposed on Monday when the White House revealed that Mr. Maliki asked President Bush in a telephone call whether there was any truth to rumors that the Americans had plans to replace him “if certain things don’t happen within two months,” in the words of Mr. Bush’s press secretary, Tony Snow.