Iraq to Rehire 20,000 Hussein-Era Army Officers

[maddezmom]

Source: NYT

By MARC SANTORA
Published: February 25, 2010
BAGHDAD — The Iraqi government said Thursday that it would reinstate 20,000 army officers who served under Saddam Hussein, a surprising move given that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has focused his campaign in the coming parliamentary elections around denouncing the former Baath government.


¬snip¬
With just over one week before Iraq holds its first national elections since 2005, the announcement, made on state-run television, was greeted with skepticism by Mr. Maliki’s rivals.

“This is purely a means of trying to gain more votes,” said Mayson al-Damalogi, a spokesman for Iraqiya, a coalition of Sunni and secular candidates headed by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

¬snip¬

Mr. Askari said that officers from Mr. Hussein’s government would be hired back immediately, making them eligible to participate in early voting scheduled for March 4. However, government officials with knowledge of the plan could not be reached for comment.

The reinstatement was especially confusing, critics said, because it came on the heels of a government decision to bar hundreds of candidates from the elections, supposedly for supporting the former government.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/26/world/middleeast/26iraq.html

---

Iraq anti-Baath panel moves to purge security force

The panel names 580 security officers alleged to have ties to the former ruling party. The move, after hundreds of election candidates were barred on similar charges, is likely to raise tensions.

Reporting from Baghdad - The Iraqi commission charged with removing former members of the outlawed Baath Party from office announced Thursday a sweeping purge of Iraq's security forces, in a move likely to heighten political tensions before national elections next month.

Ali Lami, executive director of the Accountability and Justice Commission, said he had sent the names of 580 members of the security forces to the Ministries of Defense, Interior and National Intelligence. He said the individuals should be removed from their posts because of alleged ties to Saddam Hussein's Baath Party.

Some on the list are senior officers credited with helping restore security to Iraq over the last few years, including the highly respected Gen. Aboud Qanbar, who oversaw Baghdad during the U.S. troop buildup in 2007-08. Qanbar now is second in command of the army.

"Whether he is a success or not, he is still a Baathist," Lami said, adding that any minister that refused to carry out the commission's instructions would face court action.

more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-iraq-sunnis26-2010feb26,0,7455122.story

[tcaudilllg]

1. Good move.

Now things will (finally) turn around over there. Those officers were officers for a reason, and that reason was not that they were cruel. There are fewer leaders than followers, and fewer worldly-aware leaders still. Baghdad is making good use of its limited resources, at last.

[bigworld]

2. This should have been done years ago

Anybody with any kind of education or talent was a member of the Baath party (it was pretty much required if you wanted to have a decent life for yourself) and by eliminating them from serving in any official capacity, they allowed extremists and incompetents to run the country. Which is why Iraq's been such a mess since Saddam's overthrow.

[robcon]

3. This is reasonable.

Keeping military officers out was never a good idea, IMO. And keeping out political supporters of the dictatorship is the correct choice.

[CLANG]

4. About fucking time! Only about 6-7 years late...

[Arctic Dave]

5. Disbanding the Iraqi military sevens years ago was bad for obvious reasons.

This sounds like a good way to have a good old fashion military coup against the Shiite leadership.

[applegrove]

6. They never should have fired the average soldier in Hussein's army. That move started

a bigger war and killed thousands.