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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (15618)	11/8/2003 5:57:04 PM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793711

Another "Things are going to hell" article from Berenson of the "Times." I have never seen a positive article from him on Iraq. ___________________________ For Iraq Police, a Bigger Task but More Risk By ALEX BERENSON BAGHDAD, Iraq, Nov. 8 — In an empty office in a bombed-out station, the lieutenant colonel in the local police force was explaining the miseries his officers face. Two weeks ago, a car bomb blew up the station, killing at least 13 people. One police officer lost a leg and could lose the other; he does not know how he will pay for his care. "We don't have weapons," said Muhammad Hashem Rahma, the lieutenant colonel at this station here in the Khudra neighborhood in western Baghdad. "We don't have flak jackets. We don't have good cars. And we are face to face with death, because everybody thinks we are supporting the Americans." He said that he himself had received a death threat three days after the bombing. Then a rocket-propelled grenade exploded 200 yards away and Colonel Rahma ran to investigate, ending the interview. The police are the core of the American plan to restore civil society in Iraq, but they are staggering, and not only at this station and the two others hit by devastating bombs on Oct. 27. The Americans, who are promising to increase the number of officers, are leaning on the police and other Iraqi security forces to help them root out the guerrillas plaguing the 150,000 international troops in Iraq. But while the demands on the police have grown, their resources have not kept pace. Accustomed to dealing with common criminals, the police now face terrorists who see them as easy targets. Officers have no bulletproof vests; their pay arrives late; and even though occupying authorities have raised their salaries, officers say they still cannot make ends meet. They chafe under new American rules of evidence, and with only about 40,000 officers, many of whom are corrupt holdovers from the Saddam Hussein era, the force is badly understaffed for a nation of 25 million people. "I need new police," said Gen. Ahmed Ibrahim, national commander of the force. "Not police from the Baath Party," he said, referring to the party of Mr. Hussein's government. "Many police right now are from the Baath Party." But no new officers are currently in training, General Ibrahim said. nytimes.com