By Michael Georgy
Reuters UK, 10 March 2005
BAGHDAD - All an insurgent needs to join the Iraqi police force and plot the assassination of officers struggling to bring order is a little cash.
"They just pay some money, get a uniform and a pistol and a salary then kill who they want," a police official who asked to remain anonymous told Reuters.
"Some who are suspected leave after a month and others just stay in the police force getting information on police officers' movements and sharing it with other insurgents."
Hundreds of Iraqi policemen and soldiers have been killed in bombings and ambushes since a U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.
Some of those attacks were planned by guerrillas who managed to infiltrate Iraqi forces expected to take over the battle against guerrillas when U.S. troops leave.
Some gain access to police operations.
Others pose as policemen at fake checkpoints where they stop their victims then shoot them, execution-style.
In a typical assassination, insurgents in police uniforms stopped the chief of a central Baghdad police station at a fake checkpoint on Thursday, asked his name and shot him along with two other policemen.
An insurgent filmed the killing of the officer, Lieutenant Colonel Ahmed Obeis.
Reuters Television footage showed his weeping brother picking up a shoe from a pool of blood in the back of the pick up truck after the attack.
"God what have you done?" he yelled.
"God what have you done?"
NO CONTROLS
The police official, a member of the force for 15 years, said widespread corruption and lax screening of job applicants had enabled insurgents to carry out numerous inside jobs.
The police force had become so murky that it was difficult to determine who was wearing police uniforms, he said.
"During Saddam's time the intelligence people would track down and prosecute any policeman who was just a few days late returning from a holiday. Now there are few controls," he said.
"Policemen sell the insurgents information on officers for five thousand dollars. Six days ago a policeman sold two officers who were shot and he is still among us. They know his name is Haidar but no one knows what he looks like."
Both foreign Muslim militants and Saddam loyalists are blamed for attacks.
"We recently caught three Syrians posing as policemen at a checkpoint. They had maps," said the police official.
On Wednesday morning, a huge suicide truck bomb in central Baghdad killed two Iraqis and wounded 40 people including 30 Americans. Witnesses said the bombers wore police uniforms.
Some Iraqi officials have argued that members of Saddam's Baath party intelligence network should be brought back to help improve security.
But the police official said settling of scores after decades of dictatorship was hurting those efforts after Jan. 30 elections brought some of Saddam's enemies to power.
"Now you have followers of these new parties killing former intelligence and security officials. Everyone knows this is happening but nothing is being done about it," he said.
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Citation: Michael Georgy. "For a little cash, Iraq insurgents can join police," Reuters UK, 10 March 2005.
Original URL: http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-03-10T112950Z_01_HOL041382_RTRUKOC_0_IRAQ-POLICE-POSE.xml
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