Boss Hog
TRIBE Member
Iraqis call for return of secret police
`We will use their own dogs to hound them'
Many of Saddam's ex-spies blamed for atrocities
MITCH POTTER
MIDDLE EAST BUREAU
BAGHDAD—A security organization whose very mention turns many Iraqis catatonic with fear is quietly creeping back into the consciousness as the way to bring Saddam Hussein to his knees and put the country back on its feet.
At least four Iraqi political factions are now advocating the reformation of the Mukhabarat, the dreaded spymasters responsible for some of the most grotesque acts of human cruelty this side of Nazi Germany.
Such is the despair and frustration with the intelligence gap in postwar Iraq, where U.S.-led coalition efforts are widely seen as haplessly failing to foreclose on the futures of resistance leaders loyal to Saddam and foreign extremists in their midst.
"We will use their own dogs to hound them," Nabil Musawi, deputy director of the Iraqi National Congress, one of the backers of the drastic initiative, said yesterday in an interview with the Star.
"And why not? The Allies used Nazis to hunt down other Nazis after World War II ... I'm willing to deal with the devil in the short term if it can help my people."
The Iraqi National Accord, Kurdish Democratic Party and the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq are also believed to be supporting the plan, which calls for the weeding out of the worst offenders among former Mukhabarat officers.
"It's very sensitive," Musawi said. "For many Iraqis, the thought of restoring the Mukhabarat will create fears of another brutal regime. And they have every right to those fears.
"But we would reconstitute it in such a way that we legislate, monitor, observe and impose legal barriers to prevent such a recurrence."
The Iraqi National Congress estimates as many as 27,000 officers worked at the Mukhabarat prior to the war. The vast majority, Musawi and others said, had no hand in atrocities.
"We're not talking about an amnesty," Musawi said. "At least 4,000 of them are killers, whether they were the decision makers or the ones who actually pulled the trigger. They will face justice. They won't be back.
"But 23,000 others were highly trained analysts. They know our country. They know the hiding places. This is something they can do as a step toward being forgiven."
Ali Abdel Amir, editor-in-chief of the Iraqi National Accord-published Baghdad Daily newspaper, said his party is advancing the issue as the co-ordinator of the Special Security Committee in the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council.
"The main concept is to differentiate between the ones who were and were not involved in crimes against the Iraqi people," he said.
A spokesperson for the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority said last night he was unaware of the plan.
But both Musawi and Amir said coalition security officials are involved in the discussions.
"It depends on which Americans we talk to. Some are keen, some are not," Musawi said.
"At the moment, the security file is very gray. Nobody knows who is doing what — even the Americans I talk to don't know what's going on."
Musawi said the intelligence gap in tracking the postwar insurgents has been severely hampered by U.S. insistence on filtering all actionable information through Washington.
"Today's priceless information is useless tomorrow. By the time it goes from Baghdad to Washington and back, the opportunity gets lost."
The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), by contrast, is lukewarm to the idea. Speaking yesterday from one of the party offices in Baghdad — ironically, a Saddam-era guest house once controlled by Mukhabarat officials — party spokesperson Ahmed Barbari argued for burying the dreaded organization forever.
"The Mukhabarat, their job was to kill. You won't have an easy time finding good ones among them," he said.
While neither the PUK, nor the rival Kurdish KDP movement can claim stellar human rights records among their own security apparatuses, Barbari favoured the creation of a new broad-based security service drawn from the gamut of Iraqi factions.
But in a separate interview yesterday, PUK Deputy General Secretary Nosirwan Mustafa said some former Mukhabarat officials are likely candidates to join a new Iraqi security service.
The scars to the Iraqi psyche remain so fresh that even the mention of the word Mukhabarat makes many shudder. Yesterday a man involved in a Baghdad field office training young Iraqis in the theory of unbiased journalism — a novel concept in these parts — agreed to discuss the matter only on condition of anonymity.
"I am not a free man. I am still afraid of retribution from the Mukhabarat," he said.
"We all hate them, yet we want stability and we know they could deliver it. Despite the fame of the CIA and the FBI, they don't have the background of Iraqis. Only locals can understand each other.
"If they can find a way to reform it, taking out the criminals, it might work. But how do you do it? I consider every (former) agent a dishonest man."
The National Congress' Musawi acknowledged the fear. It is an emotion he shares.
Five members of his own family were murdered by Saddam's regime. "To think I am actually promoting this idea surprises even me," Musawi said. "I lost my father and two sisters in mass graves. We haven't found them yet.
"The word Mukhabarat raises all kinds of feelings in me. But we have to be realistic. We are here, we are now, and we have to do something."
http://www.torontostar.com/NASApp/c...943&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154
Maybe they can reinstall the Taliban to track down Al-Queda while they're at it.
`We will use their own dogs to hound them'
Many of Saddam's ex-spies blamed for atrocities
MITCH POTTER
MIDDLE EAST BUREAU
BAGHDAD—A security organization whose very mention turns many Iraqis catatonic with fear is quietly creeping back into the consciousness as the way to bring Saddam Hussein to his knees and put the country back on its feet.
At least four Iraqi political factions are now advocating the reformation of the Mukhabarat, the dreaded spymasters responsible for some of the most grotesque acts of human cruelty this side of Nazi Germany.
Such is the despair and frustration with the intelligence gap in postwar Iraq, where U.S.-led coalition efforts are widely seen as haplessly failing to foreclose on the futures of resistance leaders loyal to Saddam and foreign extremists in their midst.
"We will use their own dogs to hound them," Nabil Musawi, deputy director of the Iraqi National Congress, one of the backers of the drastic initiative, said yesterday in an interview with the Star.
"And why not? The Allies used Nazis to hunt down other Nazis after World War II ... I'm willing to deal with the devil in the short term if it can help my people."
The Iraqi National Accord, Kurdish Democratic Party and the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq are also believed to be supporting the plan, which calls for the weeding out of the worst offenders among former Mukhabarat officers.
"It's very sensitive," Musawi said. "For many Iraqis, the thought of restoring the Mukhabarat will create fears of another brutal regime. And they have every right to those fears.
"But we would reconstitute it in such a way that we legislate, monitor, observe and impose legal barriers to prevent such a recurrence."
The Iraqi National Congress estimates as many as 27,000 officers worked at the Mukhabarat prior to the war. The vast majority, Musawi and others said, had no hand in atrocities.
"We're not talking about an amnesty," Musawi said. "At least 4,000 of them are killers, whether they were the decision makers or the ones who actually pulled the trigger. They will face justice. They won't be back.
"But 23,000 others were highly trained analysts. They know our country. They know the hiding places. This is something they can do as a step toward being forgiven."
Ali Abdel Amir, editor-in-chief of the Iraqi National Accord-published Baghdad Daily newspaper, said his party is advancing the issue as the co-ordinator of the Special Security Committee in the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council.
"The main concept is to differentiate between the ones who were and were not involved in crimes against the Iraqi people," he said.
A spokesperson for the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority said last night he was unaware of the plan.
But both Musawi and Amir said coalition security officials are involved in the discussions.
"It depends on which Americans we talk to. Some are keen, some are not," Musawi said.
"At the moment, the security file is very gray. Nobody knows who is doing what — even the Americans I talk to don't know what's going on."
Musawi said the intelligence gap in tracking the postwar insurgents has been severely hampered by U.S. insistence on filtering all actionable information through Washington.
"Today's priceless information is useless tomorrow. By the time it goes from Baghdad to Washington and back, the opportunity gets lost."
The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), by contrast, is lukewarm to the idea. Speaking yesterday from one of the party offices in Baghdad — ironically, a Saddam-era guest house once controlled by Mukhabarat officials — party spokesperson Ahmed Barbari argued for burying the dreaded organization forever.
"The Mukhabarat, their job was to kill. You won't have an easy time finding good ones among them," he said.
While neither the PUK, nor the rival Kurdish KDP movement can claim stellar human rights records among their own security apparatuses, Barbari favoured the creation of a new broad-based security service drawn from the gamut of Iraqi factions.
But in a separate interview yesterday, PUK Deputy General Secretary Nosirwan Mustafa said some former Mukhabarat officials are likely candidates to join a new Iraqi security service.
The scars to the Iraqi psyche remain so fresh that even the mention of the word Mukhabarat makes many shudder. Yesterday a man involved in a Baghdad field office training young Iraqis in the theory of unbiased journalism — a novel concept in these parts — agreed to discuss the matter only on condition of anonymity.
"I am not a free man. I am still afraid of retribution from the Mukhabarat," he said.
"We all hate them, yet we want stability and we know they could deliver it. Despite the fame of the CIA and the FBI, they don't have the background of Iraqis. Only locals can understand each other.
"If they can find a way to reform it, taking out the criminals, it might work. But how do you do it? I consider every (former) agent a dishonest man."
The National Congress' Musawi acknowledged the fear. It is an emotion he shares.
Five members of his own family were murdered by Saddam's regime. "To think I am actually promoting this idea surprises even me," Musawi said. "I lost my father and two sisters in mass graves. We haven't found them yet.
"The word Mukhabarat raises all kinds of feelings in me. But we have to be realistic. We are here, we are now, and we have to do something."
http://www.torontostar.com/NASApp/c...943&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154
Maybe they can reinstall the Taliban to track down Al-Queda while they're at it.
