12 Jan. Christian Science Monitor - Efforts Intensify to Train Iraqi Police.

... 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...