Iraqi Leaders May Recruit Ex-Saddam Agents

[leftchick]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=540&ncid=716&e=5&u=/ap/20050422/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_intelligence_service

WASHINGTON - Iraqi leaders trying to rebuild the country's government are struggling over whether to enlist some of Iraq's most experienced intelligence operatives.

The problem is that the officers' training comes from working at the fear-inspiring agencies once run by Saddam Hussein's ruling party.


<snip>

American intelligence veterans say the U.S. supported the move, seen as an effort to bring trained people into the government and give them jobs.


Current and former U.S. officials, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said the CIA has been intimately involved in helping establish the organization by assisting with basic building blocks such as how to assemble intelligence information in databases and keep the material secure. The agency declined to comment for this story.

[Igel]

1. It's the same problem nearly every revolution, imposed from without or

within, faces.

Lenin had to accept government workers from under the tsarist/Kerensky governments. Of course, he started purging them after their usefulness was done, regardless of loyalty, and Stalin had most killed unless they proved their usefulness.

The Germans had to use government leftovers from Hitler's regime. El'tsyn had to deal with having most of the government having a Soviet past. Havel didn't have an easy time, and most workers stayed on their jobs.

Not sure about Mao, but coming from a decade of occupation, war with the Japanese, war over your territory, and then civil war, I don't imagine there was much government infrastructure left.

You can't chuck the entire government and institutional memory and replace them. Ideologically attractive, maybe even necessary for a while ... but pragmatically idiotic. I'm not sure I much care about the ideological orientation of the sewer workers, unless they intend to explode the sewer's contents into my bathroom.

[DinahMoeHum]

2. "Mommy, are we winning this war. . .?"

LMAO !!!

Gawd, what a total clusterfuck by Bush!!

BTW, do you know why cannibals don't eat Republicans?
Because once you've eaten the asshole, there's nothing left.


:evilfrown: