Iraqi Police, U.S. Troops Forge Ties
23 Dec. Washington Times - Police, U.S. Troops Forge Ties.
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... Capt. Nate Conkey, of a company in the 101st Airborne Division, notes the suspect's name in his journal and lauds Chief Saleh's efforts. Earlier in the chief's office, the captain went through a laundry list of questions, noting whom the chief had captured as terror suspects and the state of security in his working-class community of 20,000...
The Daquq visit by Capt. Conkey and his men is a part of his weekly rounds to police stations and municipal offices, in which he discusses security with police and civil leaders.
Chief Saleh and Capt. Conkey's cooperation is the kind of relationship U.S. forces are trying to forge with civil authorities here, whereby select U.S. troops also gather intelligence at the local level, working with Iraqi authorities to find terror suspects before they strike...
U.S. Troops to Mentor Iraqi Police
30 Dec. Washington Post - U.S. Troops to Mentor Iraqi Police.
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A new U.S. program will pair American military units with Iraqi commando teams and other Interior Ministry special police units accused of abuses ranging from illegal detention to committing torture and operating death squads, U.S. military officials said Thursday.
One senior U.S. military official said the mentoring program was aimed specifically at former militia forces within the Interior Ministry, which is dominated by the current governing Shiite religious parties and those parties' factional fighters...
The U.S. military also will likely expand the work of so-called transition teams within the Interior Ministry police force and step up American military and civilian contractor involvement with local police across Iraq, said Lt. Col. Frederick Wellman, spokesman for the U.S. unit spearheading efforts to train Iraqi soldiers.
The partnership programs for Iraq's police units are modeled on an existing program that has Iraqi and U.S. military units patrolling and fighting together, Wellman said. When a "unit is specifically tasked to operate side by side, we've seen the unit absolutely just blossoms," Wellman said. "The technique worked very well on the military side, so we thought, let's try it on the police."...
More, From the NYT and LAT
30 Dec. New York Times - G.I.'s to Increase U.S. Supervision of Iraqi Police.
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American commanders are planning to increase significantly the number of soldiers advising Iraqi police commando units, in part to curtail abuse that the units are suspected of inflicting on Sunni Arabs, a senior commander in Iraq said Thursday.
Under the plan, which the officer said he expected would be formally approved in a few weeks, the number of advisers working with the Iraqi units would be greatly expanded. The advisers themselves would be under the command of American officers.
American advisers now accompany commando units as part of the vast effort to train and equip security forces to take over the fight against the insurgency and to maintain order.
But the number of advisers is relatively small: currently, groups of about 40 American soldiers each are attached to seven of the nine special Iraqi police brigades.
Under the new plan, which would be put in force in and around Baghdad, all the Iraqi units would get American advisers, and the advisers' total number would be increased by several hundred, said the commander, who spoke to reporters in Baghdad only on condition of anonymity...
30 Dec. Los Angeles Times - U.S. to Restrict Iraqi Police.
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After a series of prison abuse scandals that have inflamed sectarian tensions, U.S. officials announced plans Thursday to rein in Iraqi special police forces, increasing the number of American troops assigned to work with them and requiring consultations before the Iraqis mount raids in Baghdad...
Iraq's Sunni Muslim Arabs, who dominated Iraq under former President Saddam Hussein, have complained of being targeted by the security forces now controlled by Shiite Muslims. The bodies of hundreds of Sunni men have been fished out of the Tigris River or found in abandoned lots and garbage dumps. Many had been tied, blindfolded and shot execution-style. Relatives often say their family members were taken away by Iraqi security forces or people dressed as such...
Embedding Concept With Iraqi Army to Extend to Police Units
4 Jan. American Forces Press Service - Embedding Concept With Iraqi Army to Extend to Police Units. (Full post in accordance with DoD guidance).
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Embedding Concept With Iraqi Army to Extend to Police Units
By Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Jan. 4, 2006 – The concept of embedding coalition advisers in Iraqi army units has proven so successful that it will soon be implemented in the Iraqi police units as well, President Bush said following a meeting at the Pentagon today.
Flanked by Vice President Dick Cheney and speaking to reporters following a meeting with his national defense team and three top commanders in Iraq, the president praised progress being made in boosting Iraq's security forces in both numbers and capability. He cited the key role these forces played in maintaining security during the Dec. 15 elections.
That effort will continue to be a primary area of focus in 2006, with particular emphasis on police training, Bush said.
"An important part of our strategy is not only to have a competent Iraqi army, but police forces that are capable of earning the confidence of the Iraqi citizens," he said. "To restore security, Iraq has got to have capable police forces."
Bush called recent reports of abuses within Iraq police units "troubling" and said military and Iraqi leaders are evaluating how to adjust the training offered to prevent potential recurrences.
In one initiative, coalition trainers will work with the Iraqi government to increase the training Iraqi police recruits receive in human rights and the rule of law. This training will help ensure "they understand the role of the police in a democratic society," Bush said.
Coalition transition teams will begin embedding within Iraqi special police units in a program similar to one that's proven effective in the Iraqi army, he said.
"Embedding our folks inside Iraqi army units has worked," he said. "One reason why these units are better able to take the lead (in fighting terrorists) is because they've worked side by side with American specialists and experts -some of our best troops.
"And so we're going to embed these type of soldiers with the Iraqi police forces as well," the president said.
These transition teams are expected to be made up of military police and other military specialists, international police liaison officers and international police trainers, Army Lt. Col. Fred Wellman, public affairs officer for Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq, told the American Forces Press Service from Baghdad.
This mix of civilian and military experts, under the leadership of Army Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, commander of Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq, will come under the military control of Multinational Corps Iraq, he said.
Bush described the close association embedded trainers will maintain with the Iraqi police forces they are training. "The coalition teams will go into the field with the police. They'll provide real-time advice and important assistance on patrol and during operations," he said.
"And between operations, they're going to train the Iraqi officers," the president noted. "They're going to help them become increasingly capable and professional so they can serve and protect all the Iraqi people without discrimination."
The new concept goes a step beyond the Police Partnership Program already in effect in Iraq, Wellman said. That program, which pairs coalition mentors with Iraqi security managers at national, provincial and local levels, is designed to help share experience and expertise with the Iraqis to improve law enforcement and security operations, defense officials said.
The plan for embedding experts in Iraqi police units represents "a much more detailed approach" to training these forces and "draws from lessons in the Army that have been successful," he said.
During today's Pentagon meeting, the president met with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Joint Chiefs Chairman Marine Gen. Peter Pace, and three top Army generals supporting the war on terrorism: Gen. John Abizaid, commander of U.S. Central Command; Gen. George W. Casey Jr., commander of Multinational Force Iraq; and Dempsey.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also attended, and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad participated by videoconference.
Efforts Intensify to Train Iraqi Police
12 Jan. Christian Science Monitor - Efforts Intensify to Train Iraqi Police.
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... The police have become a new priority, as the US begins turning over more security control to Iraq. Scrutiny of the police intensified after the discovery of secret jails and the torture of Sunni Arab prisoners.
Shiite control of the police force is also complicating efforts to persuade Iraq's factions to put their divisions behind them and to form a government of national unity following the Dec. 15 parliamentary vote...
Meanwhile the insurgency rages on, singling out police on an almost daily basis. Wednesday, an attack killed two. On Monday, a pair of suicide bombers killed 29 at the Interior Ministry, and last week 70 recruits were killed in Ramadi. All told, some 3,500 Iraqi police have been killed in the past 16 months.
In the face of these attacks, US moves to reign in the Iraqi police are irking Ministry of Interior officials and leading Shiite politicians, who seem eager to step up the fight. They say they are ready to do so without US support...
Iraq Sunnis Seek Police Jobs After Attack
13 Jan. Los Angeles Times - Iraq Sunnis Seek Police Jobs After Attack.
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For almost a week, American and Iraqi troops had prepared for this moment. Working through rainy days and nights, they had laid out wire, put up blast walls and set up sniper positions against another attack.
Now all they could do was wait.
A week after a suicide bomber killed two U.S. troops and scores of Iraqis outside these factory gates, would local Sunni Arabs come back to sign up for police jobs or would they stay away?
A little after 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Qassan Ashar Ali, 24, and his brother Omar made their way past three checkpoints, two bomb-sniffing dogs and an X-ray truck and became the first recruits to enter the glass factory in Ramadi after last week's bombing.
Behind them were at least 225 young Sunni men, many carrying sport bags with clean clothes, toiletries and pictures of loved ones for their trip to the police academy in Baghdad.
"We've been scared for a long time," Ali said. "We've had enough." ...
2,000 More M.P.'s Will Help Train the Iraqi Police
16 Jan. New York Times - 2,000 More M.P.'s Will Help Train the Iraqi Police .
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American commanders are assigning more than 2,000 Army military police advisers to work side by side with Iraq police officers in one of the most extensive efforts yet to team Americans with uniformed Iraqis.
The effort, a mission that entails significant new security risks for United States forces, is just starting in Baghdad. It will begin expanding to local stations and provincial and district headquarters in all 18 provinces by the end of the month. It greatly increases the size and scope of the current field training by 500 international civilian police advisers and some military police units, American military officials say.
About 80,000 local police officers across Iraq are now certified as trained and equipped, more than halfway toward the goal of 135,000 by early 2007.
But senior commanders, including Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top American officer in Iraq, have vowed to make 2006 "the year of the police" in a tacit acknowledgment that corruption, ineptitude and infiltration in the Iraqi police forces stand in the way of any plan by the Americans to draw down troops this year...
