Jerry Burke pointed out that the police couldn't vet ordinary police recruits from the very start of the occupation due to lack of information, time, and resources. This might explain why Zarqawi referred to a Badr presence in the police before Jabr. It does not necessarily apply to (or excuse our failure to vet and monitor) the special police units. Badr might have also just donned uniforms that were either stolen or similar in appearance to those of the police. Maybe they were intentionally allowed in as early as 2003. Jerry Burke tells us more in part 2 of an interview with Musings on Iraq.
Joel Wing: "In a British Ch.4/CNN story from back in 2006, you said that at one time you wanted to set up an investigation by the regular police into death squads run by police-commando units that were made up of Badr Brigade members. What happened with that plan?"
Jerry Burke: "By mid-2005, patterns were beginning to emerge in unclassified, open sources including Coalition information released to the general media. This included kidnappings and killings conducted by Iraqi men dressed in camouflage uniforms similar to those worn by the Special Police, and driving blue and white vehicles similar to those used by the Special Police. Other open information included the locations of where tortured bodies were dumped in quantity ranging up to 10 or 12 bodies at a time. Some of these locations were relatively public, and not far from Coalition and other Iraqi security facilities.
"These kidnappings and killings were extra judicial and constituted serious human-rights violations, in American legal parlance, under the 'color of law.'
"By 2005, several of us, Coalition and Iraqi, had found a sympathetic colleague who worked in the north wing of the Republican Palace where Coalition military advisors worked. We discussed a plan to use a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) and a Coalition QRF (quick-reaction force) to apprehend the perpetrators.
"Our colleague advised us that when the plan was presented to an American Flag (General) Officer, it was rejected with a comment that this was an Iraqi problem, and they had to find an Iraqi solution to the problem."
The Reuters article had a similar account.
After Brigadier General Horst discovered the Jadiriyah Bunker, in which there were 166 Sunnis and 3 Shia cramped into rooms with excrement on the floor, many having been severely beaten, Horst said, "The coalition's guidance on this was, 'Allow the Iraqis to investigate and handle this situation.'" The bunker had been off the books, but Horst said he had been aware of its existence prior to entering it.
From his interview and other sources it appears that the US had managed to keep torture and killing in the police secret by having American Special Police Training and Transition teams embed with most Iraqi units, while leaving other "undeclared" units, like the one at the Jadiriyah Bunker, alone.
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