"A BUNCH OF THUGS"

Remember 3 years ago when PR Petraeus wrote that there were signs of "tangible progress" in the Iraqi security forces?

Well, where's the progress????

From NPR's All Things Considered, September 27, 2007 Thursday:

MELISSA BLOCK, host:
And I'm Melissa Block.
U.S. and Iraqi special forces have arrested at least 59 officers and enlisted men from the Iraqi army. They're accused of killings, bombings and kidnappings. The men were working out of Iraq's military academy in eastern Baghdad.

As NPR's Anne Garrels reports, it's just the latest case linking elements of the Iraqi security forces to sectarian militias and criminal gangs. She sent this report from the Iraqi capital.

ANNE GARRELS: Imagine a bunch of thugs terrorizing West Point. That's more or less what this amounts to. U.S. officials say Iraqi soldiers allegedly murdered the Iraqi military academy's commandant and then kidnapped his successor. They also allegedly recruited military personnel to conduct attacks across the capital.

This is a blow to the Iraqi army. But what heartens U.S. officials is that the Iraqi Ministry of Defense took the lead in this investigation. Every U.S. unit has had problems with Iraqi forces they work with - from simple corruption to sectarian killings. The police, not the army, remain by far the worst offenders. They have been infiltrated by Shiite militias with ties to politicians.

GARRELS: U.S. soldiers on patrol don't trust anyone, least of all, the police with whom many are paired.

GARRELS: ...Take Saydiya. It's a predominantly Sunni area, which up to now has been policed by the infamous Wolf Police Brigade. Many of whose Shiite members have been detained by the Americans because they were behind sectarian killings. They were literally the cat among the pigeons.
Colonel Ricky Gibbs, whose brigade patrols the area, has not been able to get rid of the entire Wolf Brigade, try as he might.

Colonel RICKY GIBBS (U.S. Army): I'm not happy with them.

GARRELS: Gibbs has finally managed to get one of Wolf's battalions moved out of his sector replacing it with a more reliable army battalion. But, he says, Wolf continues to do bad things. Gibbs says members of the Wolf Brigade recently helped Shiite militias try to evict 25 Sunni families.