Basra police obeying militias' orders-(enemy within)

IHT ^ | OCTOBER 9, 2005 | By Richard A. Oppel Jr.

[Flavius]

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.

[Flavius]

[BlackVeil]

From the article:

In recent months, lethal attacks on British forces and others - including an Iraqi employee of The New York Times, Fakher Haider, and of a New York journalist, Steven Vincent - have shattered a convenient myth: that the Shiites in Basra would keep the city relatively peaceful, overseen by the soft touch of British forces.

The rise of the militias also represents another obstacle to the goal of replacing U.S.-led forces with Iraqis. None of the regular Basra police stations are close to being ready to operate on their own, said Sergeant Major Andy Johnson, a British soldier who helps train the police. "Progress is slow and you are fighting against decades of corruption," he said.

Even if the police and military units across Iraq achieve self-sufficiency, there is the added concern that they will disintegrate along sectarian lines when U.S. and British forces withdraw. "It's too early to tell" whether they will favor their own ethnic groups, a senior U.S. official said in a recent interview.

"You don't necessarily instill a national identity in a military in two years," the official said.

[jimtorr]

Is this what the famed "soft touch" of the British forces has allowed?

They have kept the peace in Basra, more or less, but at what price?

[Republic of Texas]

I thought the Iraqi's were undisciplined? This proves that they CAN take orders, we just need to adjust their perspective a little bit.

[balch3]

The IHT is owned by the New York Slimes. Anything printed there can be dismissed as a lie.

[McGavin999]

The Brits are learning that the "softly, softly" approach does not work in Iraq. These guys are fanatics. It's going to take the Iraqi army to put this thing down and it's going to be awhile before they are ready for that.