Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki vowed Saturday to punish security members who were involved in Wednesday’s deadly truck bombings.
“We have taken significant measures in dealing with deficiencies and shortcomings (of the security forces) and we will severely punish those involved in these crimes,” Maliki said in a televised speech without disclosing what the measures were.
Read More: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-08/23/content_11928503.htm
The Iraqi government has informed the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad that it will not issue a new operating license to Blackwater Worldwide, the embassy’s primary security company, which has come under scrutiny for allegedly using excessive force while protecting American diplomats, Iraqi and U.S. officials said Wednesday.
Iraq’s Interior Ministry conveyed its decision to U.S. officials in Baghdad on Friday, in one of the boldest moves the government has made since the Jan. 1 implementation of a security agreement with the United States that sharply curbed American power in Iraq.
Blackwater employees who have not been accused of improper conduct will be allowed to continue working as private security contractors in Iraq if they switch employers, Iraqi officials said Wednesday.
Read More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/28/AR2009012803319_pf.html
Three Basra residents discuss their hopes and worries about security, as British forces hand over the province to Iraqis.
When our brother got kidnapped in November, we went to the police with the phone number of the people who had demanded a ransom.
For the entire month that our brother was held, we didn’t get a single call or visit from the police to ask about it.
That’s the biggest problem – the Iraqi security forces don’t believe in what they do.
I think the army attracts a better sort of person, but many of the Iraqi police are just there for the money. They are loyal to their party and the militias, not to public security.
If a policeman challenges a criminal, the criminal’s clan will come after him. There’s no law to protect him, so he’s scared of doing his job properly.
Read More:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/7138577.stm
By Ernesto Londoño and Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, February 15, 2007
BAGHDAD, Feb. 14 — At least once a week inside his stationery shop, Ali al-Yousef stacks up old notebooks in the back room and fires his pistol at them.
“Target practice,” Yousef said. “We don’t like guns, but we have to have them. I think every house should have a gun.”
As the contours of the Baghdad security plan start to solidify, Yousef, 55, like millions of other Iraqis, is trying to assess whether measures such as the newly announced ban on civilians carrying weapons are more likely to keep him safe than the 9mm pistol he carries on the seat between his legs, safety off, for the drive home.
The U.S. military announced Wednesday the formal start of the security plan, dubbed Operation Law and Order, saying in a statement that troops cleared several areas of the capital in “intelligence-focused searches.”
Read More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/14/AR2007021400450_pf.html
