Iraqi Police going against U.S.?

[Lord Winter]

Dismal news from Iraq. At the very least this attack is disturbing because of the level of complexity, but the rumors of the Iraqi police involvement is worse. Looks like Iraq will go up in bigger flames when we leave if this is true.

The most worrying paragraph

"No one was shot," says Sgt. Michael King, describing the Iraqi Police immediately after the attack. "No one twisted an ankle. No one jammed a thumb. Nothing." The investigation report adds that one senior Iraqi Police official even seemed happy after the attack as he talked into a cell phone and walked among the wreckage of the aftermath laughing.

Link

Who Killed the Americans in Karbala?
Thursday, Jun. 14, 2007 By MARK KUKIS/ISKANDARIYAN
Yuri Kozyrev for TIME


January's attack on U.S. forces at the Iraqi government complex in Karbala has become a kind of epic unsolved mystery among troops at Forward Operating Base Iskan, where soldiers from the unit involved are based. There is no shortage of theories among the roughly 30 troops who were there as to whom was responsible for the attack. Many soldiers believe the attackers, who appeared wearing U.S. military uniforms and speaking English, were Iranian operatives from the notorious Quds Force. Some think the assault party that entered the complex in a convoy of SUVs was a rogue cell of the Mahdi Army. Still others suspect the hit team was a kind of all-star insurgent squad, with skilled fighters from the Mahdi Army, Iran and the Badr Brigade, another Shi'ite militia.
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While much has been said about the attackers who stormed the compound from the outside, little has been revealed about the possible involvement of Iraqi Police who were inside at the time. But the final report of the official military investigation into the incident says there is some evidence to suggest that Iraqi Police who'd been working with U.S. forces in Karbala for over a year helped orchestrate the attack.

"There are indicators that information was exchanged between the attackers and the Iraqi Police [IP] prior to this attack," says the report, a copy of which was obtained by TIME. "Senior IP leadership at the station knew the coalition battle drills, and often watched them practice. The attackers knew exactly where to find the officers and which rooms were occupied by the Americans. The back IP gate was left unlocked and unmanned, and the Iraqi vendor and civilian workers absented themselves just prior to the attack."

What's commonly understood about the attack is that a crack team of gunmen sneaked into the Karbala police station, where about 30 U.S. soldiers were normally at work on training programs and other initiatives aimed at building up local security forces. The attackers, who carried U.S.-style weapons, killed one American soldier after getting into the compound and then abducted four others, executing them a short distance away as the attackers fled, evading capture by abandoning their vehicles and shedding their bogus American uniforms and mock weapons.

Findings of the investigation suggest that at least some of the Iraqi Police the Americans were training ultimately turned on them prior to the attack and perhaps cooperated in it. And many of the soldiers who were there definitely feel betrayed by Iraqi Police they had grown to trust to some degree. U.S. troops who fought the attackers Jan. 20 say many of the Iraqi Police on hand did nothing to help them during the fight and seemed indifferent afterward. None of the Iraqi security forces on hand sustained any injuries, according to the report. The attackers fired only on the Americans.

"No one was shot," says Sgt. Michael King, describing the Iraqi Police immediately after the attack. "No one twisted an ankle. No one jammed a thumb. Nothing." The investigation report adds that one senior Iraqi Police official even seemed happy after the attack as he talked into a cell phone and walked among the wreckage of the aftermath laughing.

[Bijo]

Suspicious.

[Husar]

Very.

[Zaknafien]

Uh.. theyve never worked for us in the first place. The vast majority are "dirty" as you might call them, even though theyre not bad people. Theyre just doing what they think is best for their families.

[Papewaio]

Are they civilian police or military police or paramilitary/something else?

Just I wouldn't expect average cops to fight terrorists, I would expect MPs to be fighting and failure to do so (resulting in others deaths) would be a gross failure of duty.

[Slyspy]

Iraqi police rotten? I don't believe it!

Pape I believe the Iraqi police to be paramilitary in nature, which is in itself a bad sign.

[Major Robert Dump]

Ya know, i'm not going to bother with links or evidence because half the time I get the incidents from the radio or a newsmag I later toss, but this is old news. It's been going on since the start of the war:

IEDs going off right next to Iraqi Police or Iraqi Army towers and checkpoints, so close that either someone let them put the bomb there or the post was not manned at all. In some of these cases the IED has actually beet set underneath fresh concrete in a curb so there is no evidence of anything other than normal street. That's right, they pretty much used a construction crew to tear apart the pavement, place a bomb, then reset the concrete.

Furthermore, not all the instance of insurgents wearing police/army uniforms can be traced back to captured/killed army police, which means that either they are manufacturing them or -- more likely -- they are getting them from the hundreds of police/soldiers who desert each month.

And finally, the people-tracking system in Iraq is so poor right now that when police/soldiers are relieved from duty due to negligence (or charged and imprisoned for consorting, which is far less likely -- the charged part, not the consorting part) then the newly unemployed man goes to another part of the country and applies for a job as a cop or soldier with a unit that either cant verify his identity or with fake IDs. So all those soldiers who get fired everytime an IED blows up 50 feet from their checkpoint are standing guard at another checkpoint somewhere else, letting bombs be placed.

Iraq is in a civil war, there are a dozen different groups of badguys all wanting to kill each other and us, and we are not winning despite what FOXNEWS says.