Sunday, October 21, 2007
The Police are our friends
Unless you are in Iraq, then their friendship becomes a crap shoot.
From the courtyard of his concrete-barricaded garrison in southwestern Baghdad that evening, Lt. Col. Patrick Frank heard the distinctive sound of rocket fire. He hurried inside his command office to flat-screen panels displaying aerial imagery to pinpoint the launch site.Gives a whole new meaning, and not a good one, to the phrase "watch your back".
Within minutes, his cellphone began ringing. Several Iraqi informants told him the attack had originated near the decrepit school in al-Amil, recalled Frank, the battalion commander in the neighborhood. His sources agreed on another thing, too, he said: "There were several Iraqi police vehicles spotted leaving the scene."
In the days since the Oct. 10 rocket barrage, U.S. soldiers have arrested eight police officers suspected of collaborating with Shiite militiamen to target the U.S. base. Assaults by mortars and rockets on military installations across the country are relatively common -- though the missiles frequently land in unpopulated areas. But if the police are found guilty, the Camp Victory assault would represent one of the more glaring examples of Iraqi security forces turning on their American partners to devastating effect.
"It's no secret the Iraqi police have some systemic problems with corruption," said Maj. Bill Kinsey, operations officer for the 1st Infantry Division's 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment. "They've got dirty cops. I would say 'just like anywhere else,' but there's more of them and the stakes are higher."
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