U.S. Plan for Iraqi Force Surprises Senator(Reed)

[maddezmom]

Army Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus, the new top U.S. commander in Iraq, told Congress that he might supplement efforts to secure Baghdad using the Iraqi Facilities Protection Service, a 150,000-man force that guards Iraqi government agencies. But that service is widely considered unreliable, and elements were described in July by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as "more dangerous than the militias," according to Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.).

"The prime minister said he wanted to get rid of the FPS as fast as possible," Reed said this week, recalling his meeting with Maliki in Baghdad last summer. There are "bad elements" in FPS units that "are carrying out murders and kidnappings . . . attacking the infrastructure that they are supposedly protecting," Reed said in his trip report about what Maliki had told him. "Because of the FPS," Reed wrote, Maliki said that "some governmental ministries' guards are more dangerous than the militias."

~snip~

Maliki was not the only official who spoke to Reed in July regarding concerns about the FPS. Army Lt. Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, commander of the Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq, described the FPS members, along with about 8,700 personal security guards provided to Iraqi political figures, as among "the proliferation of armed groups . . . a serious challenge to stability." Dempsey said the Iraqi Defense Ministry paid the salaries of the personal security details "but has no control over them." Each of the 275 members of Iraq's Council of Representatives, as its national assembly is called, is entitled to 20 guards, many of whom are chosen from within their families.

Dempsey was particularly critical of the FPS, saying: "They have a reputation for gross misconduct." He specified as "particularly notorious" the FPS units associated with the ministries of transportation and health, both under the control of associates of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. The FPS units employed by those ministries are "a source of funding and jobs for the Mahdi Army," Sadr's militia, according to the Iraq Study Group report.

more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/26/AR2007012601494.html

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

1. And they want to mix our troops in w/ these groups??

This is madness. I read a good comment this morning on the CBS site~

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/27/national/main2404540.shtml

<<It is common knowledge that these Iraqi units are infiltrated by all types of Insurgents, Terrorist, and Execution Death Squads members of Both Religions. Those people who support this Surge of Troops in Iraq are forcing American Soldiers to sleep with the enemy in small units exposing them to undue kidnap threat. Americans soldiers who are captured by these enemies are without mercy, tortured and mutilated beyond recognition by their captors.
Still our political leadership are planning to send these Brave Men and Women in to this environment. If American proceeds with this deployment and breaks down small American Units to live and work with these Iraqi Death Squad Units our troops will be kidnapped and handed over to such beheadings, torture and captivity as has never been seen before on Cable, Internet, and National Television. If you support this surge in troops and the tactics it brings you are responsible for every one of these deaths>>

[teryang]

2. General's ignorance suprises Senator Reed

That should be the headline. Hillary's plan for "certification" sounds pretty stupid. Give us a certificate and we'll give you money.