Panel Will Urge Broad Overhaul of Iraqi Police

[RamboLiberal]

Source: NY Times

An independent commission established by Congress to assess Iraq’s security forces will recommend remaking the 26,000-member national police force to purge it of corrupt officers and Shiite militants suspected of complicity in sectarian killings, administration and military officials said Thursday.

The commission, headed by Gen. James L. Jones, the former top United States commander in Europe, concludes that the rampant sectarianism that has existed since the formation of the police force requires that its current units “be scrapped” and reshaped into a smaller, more elite organization, according to one senior official familiar with the findings. The recommendation is that “we should start over,” the official said.

The report, which will be presented to Congress next week, is among a number of new Iraq assessments — including a national intelligence estimate and a Government Accountability Office report — that await lawmakers when they return from summer recess. But the Jones commission’s assessment is likely to receive particular attention as the work of a highly regarded team that was alone in focusing directly on the worthiness of Iraq’s army and police force.

Its harsh indictment of a key institution in Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s government is likely to be seized on by Democrats in Congress and other critics of the Bush administration’s Iraq strategy as further evidence that a fundamental shift in American policy is required.

However, a new attempt to disband an Iraqi force would also be risky, given the armed backlash that followed the American decision to dissolve the Iraqi Army soon after the invasion of 2003.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/31/washington/31policy.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

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How many F'in Mulligans does this misadministration get?????

[countmyvote4real]

1. That's hysterical and I'm not laughing. De-fund if serious. n/t

[onewholaughsatfools]

2. sure 4 years of training and 400 billion later

it only makes sense to start over, lets stay there another 10 years we should get it right by then, if not let's start over again......In reality, let's just get our troops out of this mess...NOW!!!!!

[rodeodance]

3. and WHY has it taken 4 years to write what we knew already?

[rodeodance]

4. I did not know this---but this Report was commissioned by the DEMS:-)

The Jones commission, which has 14 members, including former or retired military officers, Defense Department officials and law enforcement officers, was created this year by Congress to study the Iraqi security forces and report its findings this fall. Members of the commission made three trips to Iraq and met with senior American commanders and Iraqi officials. National police units were designated earlier this year to play a major role securing neighborhoods after United States and Iraqi Army units cleared the areas of insurgents. But the police have proven to be a tenuous element of that strategy. Rampant sectarianism as well as supply and equipment problems have led to frequent complaints by the American military that the national police have been ineffective or openly allied with Shiite militants in many neighborhoods.

[GeorgeGist]

5. So little freedom, so much wasted.

[bemildred]

6. What? Again? nt