In Basra, an enemy lurks in the ranks (militias infiltrate police)

[Barrett808]

In Basra, an enemy lurks in the ranks
By Richard A. Oppel Jr. The New York Times

BASRA, Iraq The most powerful and feared institution here in southern Iraq's largest city is a shadowy force of 200 to 300 police officers known collectively as the Jameat, who dominate the local police and who are said to murder and torture at will. They answer to the leaders of Basra's sectarian militias.

The militia infiltration in Basra's police force and government goes far beyond the Jameat. But it may be the most ominous example of the degree to which militias dominate Basra.

The extent of Jameat's power became clear in September when British troops in armored vehicles tried to rescue two special operations soldiers who had been abducted and taken to its headquarters in a police building in Basra.

According to three British soldiers there that day, 1,000 to 2,000 people rapidly gathered near the station, which the British troops had partly demolished in an effort to free the captives. The soldiers were ultimately rescued from a house nearby, where they were being held by Shiite militiamen.

The British soldiers said many in the mob had been armed with homemade gasoline bombs and grenades, and that the attack appeared to be a disciplined and coordinated response to the sacking of the Jameat headquarters. Iraqi men standing on cars ordered the mob to attack, they said, while rioters clambered on top of armored vehicles and doused soldiers inside with gasoline.

"This was not a spontaneous public action," said Major Andy Hadfield, a British company commander. "It was closely organized and closely coordinated by a series of agitators."

(more)

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/10/09/news/basra.php

[Rowdyboy]

1. Its hard to see why this isn't already being called a civil war.....

The entire country is experiencing meltdown and 150,000 American trooops are in the way.

[jsamuel]

2. Yeah, and Brittish SAS pose as terrorists...

[tatertop]

3. Life inside the scorpion's nest

Those who tortured under Saddam's regime are
no doubt very aggressive, violent, and bold men.
They didn't just disappear.
Some are deployed by the US against their own people.
Some have no doubt... found other work.

Every attempt should have been made to prosecute these fuckers
after the invasion. As far as I recall, no effort was made at all.
They will come back to haunt us.

[Crunchy Frog]

4. Actually, I believe these sectarian militias in Basra

are exclusively Shiite, and therefore would have had no involvement whatsoever in Saddam's regime. In fact, many of them were likely persecuted by Saddam. There would have been absolutely no basis on which to arrest and prosecute any of these guys. I actually doubt that Saddam's torturers are much of a factor in any of the current violence. They are a product of the dynamic that emerged after our invasion.

[tatertop]

5. Yes, I knew that. I was just pondering.

All those torturers are still out there.
When I see something like this, I think of them.
Where are they? what are they up to?

[Crunchy Frog]

6. I'm kind of worried about the new torturers who are emerging

in our own army. They will be coming back to this country after having committed atrocities in Iraq. I wonder how they will readjust, and whether some of them might continue on with there proclivities here.

Ultimately, they are a much greater potential threat to me than Hussein's old torturers.

[tatertop]

Yes, for sure

no good can come of that

[Barrett808]

7. There are reports that we've incorporated "former" Mukhabarat...

...into the new government. It has also been reported that we've turned over Diyala province to a "Col. Theya," a former Saddam intelligence agent (read: Mukhabarat).

I make this point all the time: the US-installed regime is scarcely less brutal than the Saddam regime. BBC reported a few weeks ago that the current form of state terror is torture, including the new technique of drilling holes in elbows and knees, followed by extrajudicial execution.

Bush could not even succeed in the modest goal of replacing Saddam's brutality with something substantially less brutal. This is a really remarkable failure, requiring almost unimaginable incompetence and corruption on the part of the Bush mob.

[Crunchy Frog]

8. Yeah, I had heard that we were rehiring some of these guys.

I hadn't heard about the drilling of holes into people's elbows and knees. Of course, the apologists will just say that that's still way better than being put in a wood chipper, so that makes it all okay. Maybe Rush Limbaugh will say that it's just another type of "frat prank".

Unbelievable what they're willing to excuse as long as it's being done by the "right" people.

[Barrett808]

9. Here's the elbow / knee drilling report from BBC

...From a video given to the BBC by the Association of Muslim Scholars (a Sunni Muslim organisation), it seems another particularly brutal form of torture can also be added - drilling into the knees, elbows and shoulders of victims.

The video shows the body of a Sunni Muslim preacher being washed for burial.

His supporters say he had been picked up by police commandos for allegedly being linked to the insurgency.

The camera focuses on marks all over his body including what appear to be drill holes.

(more)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4718999.stm

[keopeli]

10. For Iraqi police, "insurgents" now mean "Iraqi Sunni Muslims"

This is one of the most predictable outcomes of our illegal invasion of Iraq. The new police force is predominantly Shiite and factions within the force (at least) are torturing Sunni Muslims.

Here is your evidence:

Dhai Adnan Saleh is both extremely lucky and extremely brave.

He is one of very few survivors of a mass killing by police commandos and he has dared to speak publicly about what happened.

He and at least nine other relatives - all Sunni Muslims - were detained earlier this month, apparently because they were suspected of being insurgents following a shoot-out in their area.

"The police started to beat us, tied our hands and blindfolded us," he said.

BBC News

[Nictuku]

11. Wait! You don't have the Full Story!

These British Soldiers that were found are the same ones that were DRESSED AS MUSLIMS, WITH EXPLOSIVES, AND A REMOTE DETONATOR, they shot at the Iraqi police, and after a car chase they were caputred.

There was an Iraqi Times reporter who was found dead the next day, his wife said the 'police' took him and told her he was being taking for questioning. His corpse was found the next day.

There is more to this Basra story than is being reported.

Here are tons of articles to back this up (I've yet to see it on MSM - I call it CCM now (Corporate Controlled Media))

http://tinyurl.com/7kwap

[suegeo]

12. Outsourcing to private companies

I read in the Asia Times a few weeks ago that the Bush Junta allowed private contractors to assess Iraqis for their fitness to be in the police force.

The old generals who run these private companies get $$$ based on every chump they sign up. So, um, their "assessment" of whether a chump will turn insurgent or not is rather shoddy. If they turn some chump away, the old general doesn't get $$$.

That's why it's been so simple to infilitrate the police forces. They get training, they get a gun, then they turn. The old generals at the private companies get rich.

Quite the scam.

[daleo]

13. They were arrested, not abducted.

This is pure spin.