Iraq Holds 11 Senior Baghdad Security Officers After Bombings

[Heidi]

Source: Bloomberg

Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Iraq detained 11 senior security officers after blasts in Baghdad killed about 100 people yesterday in the worst day of violence in the country this year.

The officers were arrested and are being questioned over security failings that led to the bombings, state-owned al- Iraqiya television reported, citing Major General Qassim Atta, spokesman for the Iraqi Army’s Baghdad operations.

Most of the officers being held were in charge of two of the areas that saw the deadliest assaults, Bab al-Muaadam and al-Salhiyeh, according to the report.

The mid-morning blasts yesterday, six years to the day after the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad was attacked, ripped through civilian and diplomatic areas near government buildings including the Foreign Ministry.


Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aiCkfknt.2Hg

[Soylent Brice]

1. interesting...

[Wizard777]

2. Right step in the right direction. Infiltrators need to be ferreted out and dealt with.

[atreides1]

3. Indict them before they're charged.

How do we even know if these men are infiltrators?

For all we know the political powers that be could be using this as an excuse to remove some unwanted personnel!

Or they could just be scapegoats?

[Wizard777]

4. Many people in Iraq have loyalties to everything BUT the new Government.

To them the new government is just a vehicle to facilitate their private agendas. So you have to examine loyalties at all levels. Are their actions or inactions providing for the common defense and general welfare or does it provide for a discriminant defense of a particular welfare?

[spag68]

5. Iraq

Can someone remind me why we are there.

[saigon68]

7. "BRING EM ON" shouted the AWOL CHIMPANZEE

We're there for the "THRILL OF VICTORY"

[steven johnson]

6. Someone was too optimistic.

The UN said almost 100 people were killed in the bombings, while news agencies put the toll at up to 101.

In our system, they guys at the bottom get scapegoated.

Major General Qassim al-Moussawi, the chief Iraqi military spokesman in Baghdad, said 11 police and army commanders responsible for security, traffic and intelligence services in the areas attacked had been detained on suspicion of negligence.
Iraq army apologises for security failings that led to bomb blasts

This isn't the first time the Iraqi's have been criticized for being too optimistic.

Indeed, after years of seizing on every positive development and complaining that the good news wasn't being adequately conveyed, American military officials now warn against excessive optimism. "It's never as bad as it was, and it's not as good as it's being reported now," said Army Maj. Gen. Michael Barbero, chief of strategic operations for U.S. forces in Iraq.
Topic: Iraqis Wasting An Opportunity, U.S. Officers Say

Excessive optimism is one of the most significant biases that psychologists have identified. Psychological research has shown that a large majority of people believe themselves to be smarter, more attractive, and more talented than average, and they commonly overestimate their future success. People are also prone to an “illusion of control”: They consistently exaggerate the amount of control they have over outcomes that are important to them—even when the outcomes are in fact random or determined by other forces. It is not difficult to see that this error may have led American policymakers astray as they laid the groundwork for the ongoing war in Iraq.Some (Interior) Situational Sources War – Part II