From: Walter Watts (wlwatts@cox.net)
Date: Fri Mar 12 2004 - 18:45:01 MST
One of those killed below was a woman named Fern Holland, 33, a human
rights expert from Oklahoma who worked on women’s issues in the Hillah
region.
Very sad.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Iraqi police suspected of killing 2 U.S. officials
Arrests heighten concerns over infiltration of new forces
The Associated Press
Updated: 6:07 p.m. ET March 12, 2004
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Four Iraqis suspected of killing a pair of American
officials and their translator appear to be active police officers
working with a Saddam Hussein loyalist, a top U.S. military official
said Friday, raising concerns that insurgents are infiltrating Iraqi
security forces being trained by U.S. forces.
The four were caught along with a former officer from the Saddam-era
police forces and a civilian after the slayings Tuesday of the two
U.S.-led coalition staffers and an Iraqi woman south of Baghdad, Maj.
Gen. Mark Kimmitt said.
U.S. troops have been setting up Iraqi police and other security forces,
intending to gradually put them on the frontlines against guerrillas.
Coalition spokesman Dan Senor called the policemen’s role in the attack
“an exception” and defended what he called a “robust” process of vetting
police recruits to try to uncover criminal pasts or links to Saddam’s
regime. “But it is not perfect,” he said. “Individuals slip through the
cracks. We act to identify it and remove them immediately.”
FBI experts were investigating the attack that killed the three, amid
conflicting reports over the shooting outside the town of Hillah. Polish
troops patrolling the region said the police stopped the victims’ car at
a checkpoint and shot them to death.
Kimmitt, however, said the attackers may have been in a second car that
ran the coalition staffers off the road.
Roadside bomb kills 2 U.S. soldiers Meanwhile, the military announced
Friday that two U.S. soldiers were killed and a third wounded when their
Humvee struck a roadside bomb northeast of Habbiniyah in the Sunni
Triangle, heartland of the anti-U.S. insurgency.
The latest deaths bring to 556 the number of U.S. service members who
have died since the United States launched the Iraq war in March. Most
have died since President Bush declared an end to active combat May 1.
The American civilians slain Tuesday with their translator were the
first from the U.S. occupation authority to be killed in Iraq. One was
Fern Holland, 33, a human rights expert from Oklahoma who worked on
women’s issues in the Hillah region. The other was a regional press
officer, Robert J. Zangas, 44, of suburban Pittsburgh.
Kimmitt said four of the six men in custody, caught together in the same
car soon after the attack, had current police identification.
Investigators were examining whether they were authentic but “we believe
they are valid,” he said.
U.S. officials have trained more than 70,000 Iraqi police officers, as
well as some 25,000 members of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, or ICDC,
in a matter of months. New recruits undergo an eight-week training
program, while veteran officers have three weeks of training on new
techniques and democratic principles, Senor said.
Recruits are vetted, but records for criminal activity or past links to
Saddam’s regime are scattered and difficult to track down.
'Not a major problem' On Monday, U.S. troops arrested one current and
two former ICDC soldiers for selling weapons to insurgents and carrying
out bomb attacks on the homes of Iraqis cooperating with American forces
in Tikrit, Saddam’s hometown north of Baghdad.
Lt. Col. Steve Russell, a battalion commander in Tikrit, said
infiltration is “not a major problem.”
“In terms of the ICDC, this is where those that were not properly
scrutinized may sometimes have their loyalties elsewhere. But these
represent a very small number,” he said.
Russell said information provided by ICDC officers led to the arrests,
“proving that they don’t want a negative reputation” for their forces.
As part of the recruiting process in Tikrit, Russell said he has local
tribal leaders vouch for those wanting to join — and those who don’t get
the sheik’s nod are turned down. The three ICDC members caught Monday
were trained outside the area and would not have gone through that
process, he said.
Senor called Tuesday’s attack near Hillah, 35 miles south of Baghdad, a
“targeted act of terrorism.” Kimmitt, however, said it was not yet clear
if the attackers knew their targets were coalition officials.
-- Walter Watts Tulsa Network Solutions, Inc. "Pursue the small utopias... nature, music, friendship, love" --Kupferberg-- --- To unsubscribe from the Virus list go to <http://www.lucifer.com/cgi-bin/virus-l>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Mar 12 2004 - 18:41:52 MST