US Training of Death Squads in Iraq? - War Is A Crime .org

men were killed execution-style by Interior Ministry police or Shi'ite militias. In each case, Jabrordered an investigation, and in each case the investigation had yet to report any findings.Thanks in part to the Interior Minister's "nonfeasance," said Burke, the former Interior Ministryadviser, Jabr was at least indirectly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of military-age Sunnimen whose bodies have turned up at the sewage plant in southeast Baghdad since late December.Men in police uniforms and vehicles routinely travel through the city in daylight hours withbodies in the back of trucks for disposal at the sewage plant, he said. Prisoners often disappear,Burke said, because they're picked up at night and no one has an accurate account of who isarrested and where they are taken. "The Special Police Commandos," he said, using their oldname, "are most definitely out of control."So black is the reputation of the National Police, that after the Feb. 22 bombing of the Askariyashrine in Samarra, many Sunnis said the perpetrators were Interior Ministry troops who werelooking for a pretext to start a civil war. Their fears were further fueled in the bloody two daysafter the attack, when Iraq became a sectarian slaughterhouse. Instead of protecting citizens fromeach other, National Police units stood by as Shi'ite rioters — and rival militiamen from Moqtadaal-Sadr's Mahdi Army — stormed Sunni mosques and swarmed over Sunni neighborhoods,according to numerous reports, including some confirmed by U.S. Gen. George Casey,commander of American forces in Iraq.The American efforts to try and help stem the deadly sectarianism will likely do little good —and in some respects may well exacerbate the problem. Instead of increasing the number ofcivilian advisors to Iraq's local police forces, a spokeswoman for the Multinational SecurityTransition Command-Iraq (MNSTC-I) said more U.S. military police and military personnel willbe assigned to train them. The Special Police Transition Teams (SPTTs) are the model that willbe followed. "The SPTTs have been very successful in their efforts," the spokeswoman said. Nochange is planned for the oversight program on the National Police.Gompert notes, "I remember saying, 'If there is going to be a civil war, it's going to be foughtbetween Sunni insurgents and Shi'ite militias." And as long as Jabr is running the InteriorMinistry and its police forces, there is little doubt which of the two in such a conflict will havethe law — and American training — on its side.136